The totally crazy parent swap
The totally crazy parent swap (original title: The Parent Agency ) is a children's book from 2015 by David Baddiel . The pictures were drawn by Jim Field . The book was published in German by cbt Verlag in 2016 .
action
Barry Bennet is a nine year old boy who is totally dissatisfied with his life. His parents are boring and don't earn very much; they seem to prefer his twin sisters Ginny and Kay to him and have also called him "Barry" which he thinks is a rather old-fashioned name. As his tenth birthday approaches, he hopes to have a great party, much like his best friends Jake, Teejay and Lukas. But what his father George had in mind, namely playing a DVD with a film projector, is nowhere near what Barry had in mind. When it is also a fake DVD because it was "cheaper", Barry had enough and he yelled at his parents that he hated them and that he wished they weren't his parents. With that he storms into his room. When he said to himself several times in bed: "I wish for better parents", he mysteriously arrives in the town of "Jungdon", where children can choose their parents in the parents' agency. This comes in handy for Barry. He chooses the parents on the basis of a list on which he has noted points that bother him about his real parents.
First he chooses "rich parents" and is assigned to the lord couple Scheffel-Raibach. However, they already have eight children who don't like Barry at all and even want him to go hunting with them to shoot partridges.
Next he takes "famous parents" and ends up with Vlassorina, a celebrity couple who offer him a life of luxury but apparently only need him for advertising purposes.
Then he tries "parents who never get tired" and comes to the Zischs !, with which he has a little more fun, because he loves doing sports. But then their enthusiasm for sports becomes too much even for him.
Now Barry wants "parents who let him do whatever he wants". He finds this in Elliot and Mama Cool, who live in a tent and don't care about the rules. With this attitude to life, however, he drives them both so crazy that this time it is the parents who send him back to the parents' agency.
This time Barry wants "parents who love him best". For this purpose he chooses Malcom and Majorie Munter, the parents of the two secretaries who have taken care of his wishes so far. Now it seems to be coming the way he wants, as he gets all the attention, fast food and video games that his real parents would never have allowed him. In the end, however, he realizes that it is not good if the siblings are ignored by the parents and goes back to the parent agency.
When the head of the parenting agency tells him that he really has to make a decision because his tenth birthday would be in a few hours, all of the parenting candidates run into the office and drag around Barry. This falls to the ground and his eyes go black.
When he comes to he is lying in a bed and his parents and friends are with him. A doctor explains to him that after the argument with his father he slipped on the way to the stairs and landed on his head and was now in a coma for five days . His parents also tell him with tears of joy in their eyes that they can celebrate the party he has wished for here in the hospital. Barry now realizes that his real parents are perfect and now makes peace with them and with his life.
moral
The book shows how Barry learns to value his life better. He both recognizes that rich and famous parents don't necessarily have to be good parents. He also learns that rules are there to make his life easier and to ensure his safety. He also learns that parents love all of their children and try to devote time to each one of them.
Hidden clues
During his coma dream, Barry meets many people around him again, somewhat changed. His friends Teejay and Lukas are employees in the parent agency. Jake is the headmaster and his twin sisters are its secretaries. Also, at every party that a parent of their choosing throws, there is a man who appears to be the doctor treating him in the hospital. At every party he also sees a man and a woman from a distance, but can never recognize them (they keep their heads down on the first appearance), but realizes that they mean well with him. Only towards the end does he understand that they are his real parents and that he secretly longs for them.
James Bond
There are many references to James Bond in this book as Barry is a huge fan of his. The DVD that Barry received as a birthday present from his father is the James Bond parody Casino Royale with David Niven , which makes Barry very angry because he would have liked the original film. In Barry's room there is a poster of Daniel Craig as James Bond. The first two parties hosted by Barry's potential parents are presented in the style of James Bond, but are misrepresented (this is how a stirred, not shaken cocktail is served) as James Bond is not known in this world. When Barry wakes up from the coma, all of his friends and family are disguised as Bond characters: his father George as Q , his mother Susan as Miss Moneypenny , his sisters as the two diamond fever homosexual crooks , his friend Jake as the blonde villain from Skyfall , his friend Luke as the biter and his friend Teejay as Oddjob from Goldfinger . According to Barry's request, his father ends up driving him around in a rented Aston Martin .
innuendo
- The celebrity couple Vlassorina is a reference to Brangelina .
Award
- The Parent Agency received the Laugh Out Loud Award in the 9-13 year olds category in 2016.
expenditure
- German: The totally crazy parent swap , with illustrations by Jim Field; German by Violeta Topalova. cbt Verlag, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-570-16394-8
Individual evidence
- ↑ David Baddiel wins funniest book for middle grade children , theguardian.com, June 21, 2016, accessed November 2, 2017