Changes

|title=The Parent Agency

|sort=Parent Agency, The

|publisher=Harper Collins

|date=October 2014

|website=http://www.davidbaddiel.com

|video=obLERQ-w89k

|summary=Barry's fed up with his mum and dad for lots of reasons, starting with the fact that they called him Barry. And when he gets the chance to choose new parents, he jumps at it. Anything's got to be better than his present life, right?

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Barry likes football (especially if Lionel Messi's playing), James Bond and lists. He doesn't like his two sisters, who tease him mercilessly and get away with all sorts of meanness right under his parents' noses. All his mates have cool names and even cooler parents, and their tenth birthday parties were amazing. His family, on the other hand, just can't manage the simplest thing he asks of them. He knows they're not well off, and he doesn't blame them for that, exactly, but going up to double figures is a big deal and deep in his heart he really does feel they could make a bit more effort. Well, actually, a lot more effort.

Once the basic premise is established, there aren't many surprises in this story, nor is the outcome of his searching really in doubt. Even the children who run the Parent Agency, and who somehow look just like people he thinks he used to know, begin to find him a teensy bit too demanding. The pleasure of this story lies in the comic excesses of the parents he chooses, and their frantic, over-the-top efforts to persuade him to stay with them. He makes his choice of five pairs of candidates based on the fact that they are the exact opposite of his parents' worst shortcomings, and he soon finds himself surrounded by offers of wealth, fame and freedom. Readers will laugh out loud at the ridiculous situations he gets himself into, the eccentricity of the adults, and the abundance of smelliness, stickiness and general gloopiness. After all, if in doubt, throw in a bucket of sick or a cow-pat!

{{amazontextAud|amazon=B00NW4BRU8}}

{{amazonUStext|amazon=0007554508}}

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