My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish 04 – Any Fin Is Possible

Mo O'Hara's Any Fin Is Possible is a silly, spooky adventure for 7 year olds about a zombie goldfish loose in a museum at night.

What happens

It's the fourth book in the Zombie Goldfish series. Tom and Pradeep are spending the night at the History Museum with a crowd of other kids, and Frankie the goldfish has come too, hidden in a mug of water. (He's a zombie who can hypnotise anyone who looks into his eyes. So not ideal at a sleepover.)

The guide tells a creepy story about the Curse of the Cat of Kings. It's a mummified cat whose tomb was dug up by builders making a new coffee shop. Then a small bandaged shape skitters past the doors of the Egyptian rooms.

Tom and Pradeep follow it, obviously. Down a rubbish chute they find a secret lair belonging to their big brothers, Mark the Evil Scientist and Sanj the Evil Computer Genius. The brothers have plans for that mummy, and they need Frankie.

What follows is booby traps, riddles in hieroglyphs and a lot of running about in pyjamas. Tom makes a compass out of a paperclip and a magnet. Pradeep reads the hieroglyphs (and misreads one, which leads to a fart joke). Frankie spends most of it in a torch full of water, glowing green whenever trouble's near.

It's super funny. Tom tells the story himself, and his asides are brilliant, like his list of all the times hiding in the loos has saved him. Who hasn't wanted to hide in the loo to dodge a great-aunt with a prickly chin?

The big brothers are properly mean, but in a cartoon way. They call the boys morons and trap Pradeep in the arms of a moving Anubis statue. They're more ridiculous than scary, and Mark's evil kitten Fang is always ready to pounce on Frankie.

It's lovely on friendship too. Pradeep is usually scared of breaking rules, and on this trip he turns out to be surprisingly brave.

If you've got a reader who loves a gross joke and a quick plot, this is perfect. Tom explains who everyone is, so it works fine on its own.

What to read next

If they want to know how Frankie ended up a zombie in the first place, go back to the very first My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish book, where Mark gets a chemistry set and a goldfish gets the green gunk.