Friday 17 April 2015

The Parent Agency by David Baddiel and Jim Fields (Children's, 9 years +, 9/10E, short 'n' sweet review)

  October 2014, HarperCollins Publishers, 385 pages, Hardback, Review copy

Content: humour, some peril

Barry said, a third time, “I wish I had better parents!” And then suddenly the entire room started to shake…

Barry Bennett hates being called Barry. In fact it’s number 2 on the list of things he blames his parents for, along with 1) ‘being boring’ and 3) ‘always being tired’.

But there is a world, not far from this one, where parents don’t have children. That’s far too random for something so big and important. In this world, children are allowed to choose their parents.

For Barry Bennett, this world seems like a dream come true. Only things turn out to be not quite that simple…

Nayu's thoughts
I think every reader can appreciate that at times it seems like a fun idea to be able to have different parents. That's where Barry initially gets a good deal and ends up in a world where children choose their parents rather than being born into a family. Except the parents are all totally nuts – yes they have some of Barry's criteria (relaxed rules, into sport), but each set of parents causes Barry problems. Barry keeps seeing a mystery couple who are vaguely familiar, but only when the deadline to choose his parents come does Barry figure out what he wants to do. His twin siblings are hilarious in their reassigned role in the alternate world, and I can't help wondering if there'll be a book 2...

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