Everything's Amazing. Sort of.
Tom Gates is a series of children's literature books made for ages 8-12 written by Liz Pichon. The series follows the life of an ordinary British school boy named Tom Gates. The first book, The Brilliant World of Tom Gates was published on April 4th, 2011. There are currently nineteen main books in the series, along with a few special instalments, such as the 2013 World Book Day special Best Book Day Ever (So Far).
The series was adapted for Sky Kids in 2021, featuring music videos and animations inspired by the books and “arts and crafts” with Liz Pichon herself.
Tom Gates provides examples of:
- Big Bad: Buster Jones in "Top of The Class (Nearly)", who is famous in Oakfield School for once getting stuck in a window. He takes a Heel–Face Turn near the end and admits to liking the drawing Tom made of one of his nicknames.
- Big Sister Bully: Delia. Uncle Kevin was apparently also this to Frank, judging by their father's story about pushing him into a patch of nettles.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Granny Mavis's peculiar cooking combinations are a source of equal fascination and dread in the Gates family; for example, putting a banana on a pizza or serving custard with carrots.
- Boy Band: Dude3, a three-piece band who Tom calls "the best band in the world wide world". He is excited about going to a concert of theirs, until Rooster eats his tickets.
- Cool Old Guy / Cool Old Lady: Tom is very fond of both sets of grandparents, in particular his paternal grandparents who he calls "The Fossils."
- Cosmetics Catastrophe: Delia ends up unintentionally dyeing her hair green in "Genius Ideas (mostly)." Tom also suffers from this on occasion, when he tries applying his mother's hair products or gel without reading the bottle in an attempt to improve his appearance.
- Cover Version:
- The Tom Gates Mixtape includes a cover of The Troggs' "Wild Thing" performed by Dude3, and a cover of Queen's "We Will Rock You" performed by DogZombies.
- In-universe examples include DogZombies covering "Wild Thing" and "Smoke On The Water" at their Leafy Greens Old Folks Home concert, the school teachers (as "You3") performing a parody of "Born To Be Wild" at the school talent show and Tom and his parents performing "Let It Go" at a karaoke bar.
- Department of Redundancy Department: In "Ten Tremendous Tales", one of the spy films starring Sacha Tosay and Rod Stable is called The Spy Who Spied.
- Dumb Blonde: Inverted by Amy Porter. Also inverted by Rita, who often acts as the Only Sane Man of the Gates family.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The four main teachers. Mr. Fullerman is melancholic (introverted, strict), Mrs. Worthington is phlegmatic (introverted, friendly, calm), Mrs. Nap is sanguine (extroverted, enjoys singing), and Mr. Keen is choleric (extroverted school principal who gets angry easily).
- Emo Teen: Delia. She dresses in consistently black clothing, wears sunglasses all the time and hardly ever smiles.
- Garage Band: DogZombies, a band founded by Tom with himself on guitar, his best friend Derek on keyboard and Norman on drums.
- Genre Roulette: The stories in Oakfield School's "Five-Star Stories Volume 1", which include:
- A nonsense song written by Florence titled "The Silly Song of Sounds".
- "Fun and Names", a story written by a "mystery student"note about the world's most boring school teacher, Mr. Tedious.
- "A poem about my missing sock", written by Amy.
- "The VERY Annoying Boys and The Super Smart Kid" by Marcus, an Alien Abduction story loosely based on an interaction between him, Tom and Derek.
- A collection of "FUNNY WORDS that Make Me LAUGH" by Julia.
- A fantasy story written by Norman titled "The Dragon and the Cheese".
- Leroy pranks the reader by claiming to show a magic trick to them, only for the reader to turn the page and realise that there is no magic track.
- "Great-Aunt Aggie’s Fake Bird Hat", a lengthy recount of a event in Tom's life in which his parents attend a fancy dress party, and The Fossils surprise Rita with an old hat made by their great-aunt. Everything goes well until the hat is destroyed by a stray cat, resulting in her ending up on the front page of the Oakfield Gazzette. Rita fixes the hat just in time for another party at the Leafy Green Old Folks' Home.
- Gentle Giant: Solid.
- Girls With Mustaches: Mrs. Worthington. Tom's nickname for her is Mrs Worthingtash.
- Instant Web Hit: After Tom's attempts at filming a video for his song "DogZombies Rule" fail, the residents of the Leafy Green Old Folks' Home record their own rendition of the song, which becomes so popular that it revives country singer Teacup Tony's career.
- Jerkass: Marcus Meldrew.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: However as the series goes on Marcus increasingly gets a few moments showing sympathy or kindness.
- Junior High: Oakfield School.
- Kid Sidekick: Derek.
- The Klutz: Norman Watson, Tom's classmate who has a tendency to bump into people and things when he gets excited. Younger schoolmate Joey Dawson in "Genius Ideas (mostly)" manages to put even him to shame.
- Product Displacement: In "Five Star Stories (Hooray!)", Tom eats a box of "Chocteezers" (Maltesers) while watching Swamp Monster 3 (a musical about swamp creatures) at the cinema.
- Punny Name: Tom's dentist is named D. Kay.
- Sequel Hook: At the end of "Family, Friends and Furry Creatures", Tom finally gets to meet his second, endlessly-travelling set of grandparents, "The Wrinklies". They have a prominent role in the following book, "Epic Adventure (Kind Of)".
- Shout-Out: Some of the names Marcus writes on Tom's poster for a new DogZombies drummer include Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Superman.
- The Hero: Tom.
- Town Girls: The three prominent female Gateses: Granny Mavis, Rita, and Delia.
- Two Decades Behind: In A Tiny Bit Lucky, Tom and Derek plaster Delia's bedroom with photos of a popular boy band called "Seven", an obvious riff on Five (a group who were very popular in the early 2000s).
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Marcus' story for Oakfield School's first "Five-Star Stories" book is based on an incident where Tom and Derek pretended to see a UFO and tried to gather as much kids as possible. In his version, a spaceship actually comes and abducts both Tom and Derek.
