The Terrible Thing That Happened To Barnaby Brocket

I wasn't going to post today as I had some pretty nasty work related news which made me really rather cross and upset. However, knowing what I am like, and I'm afraid this is selfish, as soon as I stop writing, I won't want to carry on, so I decided to write about an old-ish favourite. 
I adored The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, despite the fact it was so bleak, it had a innocence which was in its own way charming and which made the ending even more devastating.
So knowing that I picked up The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket with a minor spasm of trepidation, especially as the title tells us that a Terrible Thing is about to happen.
The story is set in Australia, and after a rather nice introduction telling us how Barnaby's *normal* parents met and how after two perfectly *normal* pregnancies his *normal* older siblings are born, it moves on to tell of Mrs Brocket's difficult pregnancy and the abnormally painful birth which resulted in Barnaby being born and him floating straight up to the ceiling of the delivery room. Barnaby, therefore is abnormal and because of this his parents, especially his mother, are embarrassed by him and fearful of what other people will think of them. The book then follows Barnaby's formative years, including his escapades through being sent to school, his parents now controlling his inability to follow the law of gravity by making him wear a weighted backpack which in turn make his ears hurt. At school he meets his first friend, a boy with no hands but who has rather cool hooks instead. Here they help each other get out of a near death experience. One day shortly after, while out walking with his mother, the Terrible Thing happens and Barnaby floats away.
Immediately upon this happening it launches a remarkable set of adventures which are quite magnificent. The first people Barnaby meets after the Terrible Thing are two older ladies who rather handily are flying over in a hot air balloon. Now it's never stated but heavily implied that these ladies are a very happy couple. They live in South America on a farm, and after a few days there, where Barnaby helps to solve a couple of problems he hops on an overnight train from Rio to New York, an oddly believable event in the course of things. As Barnaby travels the world in his quest to get back home, he meets all kinds of people, none of whom would be described as *normal* by his dull and disappointing parents. Oddly, the only unbelievable part of the story comes at the end, when Barnaby floats up into space, its not a bad sub plot, and it really does set up the finale rather well, but it just didn't feel quite right to me, but that's my only minor quibble with this outstanding book.
The book is slightly reminiscent of Matilda, in the sense of a very intelligent child is let down by his parents and the wonderful motto "there is no such thing as normal" rings out loud and true from the pages. It's illustrated by than man again, Oliver Jeffers, who  has hand written some splendid postcards that Barnaby has sent to his family back in Australia. It also contains one of the most magnificently named pet dogs in children's fiction, well that I have read anyway.
I've had it described to me as a sad book. In many ways it is, but at the same time the wonderful adventures and the uplifting nature of the book make it a triumph.