My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish 02 – The Sea-Quel

Mo O'Hara's The Sea-Quel is the second My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish book, a very silly adventure for 7 year olds about a holiday at a spooky lighthouse.

What happens

Tom is off on a weekend away with his dad, his best friend Pradeep and Pradeep's dad. Pradeep's three-year-old sister Sami comes too. So does Tom's big brother Mark, who is an Evil Scientist and furious about the whole thing.

And so does Frankie, Tom's zombie goldfish, hidden in a cooler in the back of the car. Frankie still holds a grudge against Mark for dunking him in toxic gunk, and he's not shy about showing it.

The drive alone is a treat. Pradeep gets carsick in cars, buses, planes and roller coasters, so the trip is one long series of sick bags. (Weirdly, he's never sick on an actual boat.)

When they arrive, there's fog, a creaky lighthouse and a very old keeper who looks exactly like the bad guy in a Scooby-Doo cartoon. There's also a sign warning visitors about an evil eel with a bite that can snap an oar in half. So what does Mark do? He decides to catch it for his next evil plan.

Tom and Pradeep's friendship is the heart of it. They have a secret language of looks that say whole sentences, and Tom translates them for you as he goes. Their "looks" are one of the funniest running jokes in the book.

Sami steals every scene she's in too. Her "Swishy fishy!" is going to get repeated around your house for days.

There's plenty of peril for a young reader. Boats rock, Sami tumbles overboard at one point and Pradeep dives straight in after her. It's all fast and funny, though, and Frankie's glowing green zombie stare is usually the thing that saves the day.

The grossness is pitched just right for this age. Frankie only eats green food, the grosser the better, and Mark calls everyone a moron. If your reader likes their jokes loud and their brothers evil, they'll probably giggle all the way through.

There are two stories in this book, and the lighthouse one comes first.

What to read next

If they haven't met Frankie yet, start with the very first Zombie Goldfish book. That's where Mark gets his chemistry set, brings home a goldfish for a school experiment, and Tom has to act fast.