Spy Toys: Out of Control!

Mark Powers's Spy Toys: Out of Control is a bonkers spy caper for 9 year olds starring a super-strong teddy, a very cross rag doll and a robot rabbit in a tie.

What happens

The Spy Toys are three runaway toys turned secret agents. Dan is a cuddly bear with a factory fault that makes him a thousand times stronger than he should be. Arabella is a rag doll with a crossed wire and a shocking temper. Flax used to be a police robot.

It opens with the team rescuing a family from the edge of a volcano. The villain is a giant hedgehog who's furious that people leave out bread and milk for hedgehogs (which is fair enough, really). Then the real job arrives. Someone has broken into a toy scientist's house and copied everything on his computer.

Dan and Flax go after the prime suspect, a runaway jigsaw puzzle, round an enormous car boot sale. Arabella gets the job she hates most. She has to go undercover as a sweet little doll for Chloe, a seven-year-old who breaks every toy she owns.

Watching Arabella try to be sugary is the funniest thing in it. She calls Chloe "angel chops" and "little raspberry cupcake" through gritted teeth. Then, to her horror, she realises she actually likes the kid. Chloe is a bit of a maniac, and Arabella can't help admiring that.

The jokes come thick and fast. Their boss, Auntie Roz, is so busy that when she stubs her toe her secretary says "Ow!" for her. A dragon kite tells them the most exciting thing he's seen in four years was a tiny dog. (It was a puppy.)

The stolen secret turns out to be two silly phrases. Say the first one three times and any toy from the factory will do whatever you tell it. So who's got hold of it, and what are they planning for the grand opening of a huge new theme park run entirely by toys?

There's LOTS of biffing and bashing. At one point Dan is hypnotised into grabbing Flax by the throat, and Arabella settles an argument with a guitar. It's all cartoon stuff, played for laughs, and if your reader likes their action daft this is perfect.

What to read next

This isn't the team's first mission. If they haven't met them yet, the first Spy Toys book puts Dan on the rejects pile at the toy factory, which is where he first meets Arabella.