The main character in this book is a nine year-old boy named Barry who is fed up with his family. He has a list of all the things he dislikes about his parents, these include: that they are poor; boring; always too tired; that they are really strict and that they seem to prefer his twin sisters to him.
So just before his tenth birthday he has a big fight with his parents and runs upstairs. When he is in his bed he keeps saying that he wishes he could have different parents. Suddenly a strange light appears, his posters start talking to him and he enters a door into a parallel world, which he finds really odd.
He gets taken by some kids whose job it is to run a huge building called 'The Parent Agency'. Here he must choose parents from a list that they have on a computer. He spends the next four days with different sets of parents who each tick off one of the requirements on his list. While with these possible parents he has some weird and wonderful experiences. At the end, he has to make a decision as to which ones he wants before it is his tenth birthday, otherwise something really bad will happen to him.
The idea of the book was interesting because he had the chance to live out some of his dreams, and then decide what it was that he really wanted from parents. It also had some really wacky characters and was a mix of famous things from our world with a twist. I'd recommend the book to anyone who loves a funny book.
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