Carnival in a Fix is a children's book by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre, and part of their Not-So-Impossible Tales series.
The book stars Emily, a young girl who lives at Funfair Moon, which is an amusement park on another planetoid. She's lived there ever since she hatched in the Lost Property Office, and loves everything about it. It's got the biggest roller coasters, the spinniest tilt-o-whirls, and the tastiest cotton candy in the galaxy, and her favorite people are Mr. Jinks and Mr. O'Hare, the maintenance crew who keep all the rides running smoothly. She wants to be just like them one day.
However, trouble seems to be brewing on Funfair Moon. A new safety inspector, Mr. Jeremy Moonbottom, and his assistant Miss Weebly, have come for a surprise inspection of the park (even though they already had an inspection last week), and he seems determined to find any flaw he can and use it to get the park shut down. And if that weren't enough, rides and attractions all over the park are starting to malfunction. Emily, together with Mr. Jinks and Mr. O'Hare, need to get to the bottom of all this so they can fix up the rides and save the park.
The book was published on February 14th, 2017.
Carnival in a Fix contains examples of:
- An Alien Named "Bob": The Protagonist is a tailed humanoid alien girl named Emily.
- Company Cross References: In the picture inside the front cover, we see a ship full of pugs, and another one full of monkeys. We also see a little girl who bears a resemblance to Astra. Also, in chapter 6, some Poglites are at the Lost Property Office demanding spoons.
- Cyclops: A number of background characters only have one eye, being aliens and all. One notable example is Mrs. Mimms, who runs the Lost Property Office.
- Extra Eyes: A number of background characters have multiple eyes. It's even put on some animals to emphasize they're not of Earth. One notable example is Professor Floomish Spoob, a three-eyed alien who runs the Learny-Go-Round.
- Expy: One of Darth Vader shows up in chapter 6. His name is Lord Krull. He has the black cape, threatening-looking helmet, and he commands an army of space commandoes that he threatens to sic on the park if they don't find his son.
- Eye on a Stalk: Mr. Jinks' eyes are on top of two stalks sticking out of his head. The same goes for plenty of background characters in the book.
- Flying Car: Being a Science Fiction book, the characters naturally use these. Mr. Jinks and Mr. O'Hare get around Funfair Moon in one, and when Mr. Moonbottom is knocked unconscious by a box labelled "Peeploid's Delicious Fudge (Vanilla)", he's loaded onto a hover truck to be taken to the Lost Property Office to recover.
- Friendly Ghost: See-Through George, along with all the other ghosts who work in the haunted house.
- Haunted House: The park has one that's actually haunted by real ghosts. The problem with it is that the ghosts are too afraid of "Rustlers" to show up for work.
- Horned Humanoid: The Peeploid family have curled horns on their heads.
- Jet Pack: Late in the book, Emily, Mr. Jinks, and Mr. O'Hare borrow some jet packs from Lord Krull's Space Commandos and use them to catch up to Mr. Moonbottom.
- Multiple Head Case: The Haunted House is run by a two-headed alien. Both of his heads are named Stan, so that's what they're collectively called.
- Pointy Ears: Emily has these.
- Rent-a-Zilla: As part of the chaos happening around Funfair Moon, a giant monster made of cotton candy is stomping around the park. Mr. O'Hare puts it to sleep with a tranquilizer dart. It wakes up later in the book, and is brought to fight the giant Rustler amalgamation.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Peladorian Puffballs, which the Rustlers are the juvenile version of. They're basically little balls of fluff with faces.
- Sabotage to Discredit: This was Mr. Moonbottom's plan the whole time. He let loose a bunch of Rustlers (aka, juvenile Peladorian Puffballs) in Funfair Moon to make all the rides go haywire, while posing as a safety inspector to get the park closed down. This way, people would have no choice but to come to his Theme Park, Office World.
- The Worm That Walks: Late in the book, when Mr. O'Hare lets out a roar to try and intimidate the Rustlers, they combine into a copy of him and roar back. When the group runs away, they reform into a Rustler snake to fit through the exit of the room they were all in.
