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Tom Nicoll's Washed Up is a laugh-out-loud adventure for 9 year olds about a boy sent undercover on a reality TV show full of celebrities to stop the end of the world.
Sam just wants a normal life again. He's even had his hair put back the way it used to be. Then he's grabbed off the street, and wakes up blindfolded on a private jet next to Milo, his best mate, and his little sister Lexi.
The Apocalypse Intelligence Agency (the agency that doesn't exist) needs a favour. Nigel Cruul, the nastiest man in the music business, is heading to a brand-new island in the Bermuda Triangle to film a TV show. The agents think he's trying to return the Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse. So Sam, Milo and Lexi are going on the show too.
Their spy training takes ten minutes. It includes a secret code based entirely on coconuts.
This follows Boyband of the Apocalypse, where Sam first ran into the Horsewomen. He fills you in along the way, but readers who've met him before will get even more of the jokes.
The reality TV side is very funny. There's a soap star, a vlogger who calls himself the King of the Internet, a movie tough guy who calls everyone a mug and a celebrity who brings her pug. Oh, and a parachute jump that nobody mentioned until they were over the island.
Sam is easy to root for. He's the least famous person there and the papers have decided he's a liar. But he's brave when it counts, like when Milo (who can't swim) lands in the sea and a shark fin appears.
There's a nice friendship thread running through it too. Milo is a pop star now and Sam feels a bit left behind, which is a feeling lots of kids will recognise.
A newspaper profile says it hopes Sam gets eaten or that his parachute doesn't open, and one contestant lights a cigar in a cave. It's all played for laughs.
If your reader's after more ordinary kids saving the world from something ridiculous, try Disaster Diaries next. Three friends take on an invasion of tiny blue aliens who have just claimed the whole planet.
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