Imagine you could do any prank you wanted...
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| Now published! |
Prankenstein, my first novel for children, is now out there in bookshops and is waiting for readers of 8-11 who like something funny, adventurous and fast-paced, with a mystery at the core. It's the story of Soapy, a boy who loves pranks but daren't play any for fear of his parents. When crazy pranks start happening all around him, Soapy sets out with his friends to investigate.
The three young detectives discover that the culprit is a strange, hairy creature full of mischief - but who is he, where did he come from and why is he doing these outrageous pranks? Soapy finds the answer and uncovers a shocking secret...
Reviews have now started appearing including this fabulous one from Treasury Islands:
You can read the rest of the review here.
The book includes some high quality illustrations by Richard Morgan:
Prankenstein was also chosen by The Sun newspaper as their recommended book for ten year-olds for their new Get Kids Reading campaign.
Here's a blog post about some of the pranks I did myself when younger, on the Federation of Children's Book Club Groups site.
And you can read more about Prankenstein here.
And buy it from Waterstones here.
Or Amazon here.
Beautiful Bath
Last weekend I was in beautiful Bath for the excellent Bath Children's Literature Festival. It's a big week-long book bash and all sorts of people were there from Horrid Henry to Nice Henry Winkler and Tom Gates (well, Liz Pichon, his creator). I really enjoyed performing at my own Seriously Silly Stuff event to a great audience - there were only a few seats left and we all had lots of laughs based around the content of The Silly Book. Well done to those kids brave enough to get on stage and do a knock-knock joke with me.
Bath is really a lovely city and I recommend the Abbey and the parks in addition to the splendid Georgian crescents. The Lit Fest is not to be missed for kids - great programme.
Ryedale Book Festival is coming...
Next weekend, the 11/12 October is Ryedale Book Festival here in sunny North Yorks, based in the historic market town of Malton. It's a great little festival with a lot going on (Michael Morpurgo is there this year) - you can see the full programme here.
I will be doing an event this year as usual too: SERIOUSLY SILLY STUFF (as performed at Bath) - it's at Saville St Chapel, Malton on Sunday 12 Oct 2-3pm. Aimed at ages 7-11, there will be loads of laughs, jokes, funny true stories and poems. Everyone who comes will also get a free joke shop novelty or moustache pencil too! Tickets are just £2 on the door. It's a great chance to get a signed book.
Finally, the winners and runners up of the fabulous P-FACTOR schools' poetry comp will be performing there too. Not to be missed.
