The Bad Guys 16 – The Others?!

Aaron Blabey's sixteenth Bad Guys book is a gloriously weird comic-style adventure for 7 year olds called The Others?!

What happens

The gang have been split up across some very strange places. Agent Fox, Mr Wolf and Shortfuse are creeping through a gloomy forest, looking for a Doorway out. With them is Abe, a jittery little bat in a tie.

The trouble is that Abe can't keep a secret. So with a terrifying lady floating through the trees after them, he shouts "WE'RE OVER HERE!" (Wolf is NOT impressed.)

Meanwhile Emmylou and Mr Piranha are crash-landing through one room after another. Piranha has suddenly got a magic butt that can protect his friends (only one at a time, mind you). How did that happen? He has no idea!

And in a white desert, a bunch of odd creatures think they've found their hero. He's a bull called Buck Thunders, with an eye patch and swagger to spare. One crow isn't convinced. Her jumper says I DON'T TRUST BUCK.

So who are The Others, and why does everyone want to find them? Working that out is half the fun.

Almost the whole book is pictures and speech bubbles. The sound effects are HUGE (KA-BLART!) and the important words come in giant capitals. The story keeps hopping between the three groups, and a confident reader could happily race through it on their own.

There's LOTS of toilet humour, mostly from Piranha. He gets motion sickness, and Emmylou's warning about farting is very short and very blunt. The crow also says what everyone's thinking about a tiny lizard's mullet.

Under all the silliness there's a sweet bit about what really makes someone a hero (and it isn't fame or good looks).

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Wolf peeks inside a little box he really shouldn't have opened, and he drops dead of fright (cartoon-style, with a cross for an eye). It doesn't last, but Fox is in tears for a few pages. The baddies are properly creepy too, and one lady's face is a mask of jagged teeth. Then it all stops on a scary TO BE CONTINUED.

If your reader spooks easily, that might be a bit much. If they love a cliffhanger, they'll be desperate to know what happens next.

What to read next

Sixteen books in, this is the middle of one long story and it drops you straight into the action. So if your reader is new to the gang, start right back at the beginning with the first Bad Guys book.