Ten Little Pirates Out Today! Arrrrr!

Ten Little Pirates is published today! ARRRRRRR!

It's an epic tale of sea battles, sharks, hurricanes, giant squids, alluring mermaids, mayhem, destruction and sea-faring thrills and spills. It even has a happy ending... and all this in less than 250 words.

Big thanks to Frances Elks and all at Orchard Books for publishing, and Simon Rickerty for his inspired illustrations. Me and the Ten Little Pirates all say "TAAAAAA!"

Ten Little Pirates

I have a new book out next week! It's called 'Ten Little Pirates' and is published by those nice people at Orchard Books on July 4th. Words by me, pictures by the brilliant Simon Rickerty.

As it's not due out for seven days, I'm only going to show you the back page for now. I'm mean like that.

More next week if you're good and promise not to go plundering the Spanish Main again.

Bunny Slopes

Those nice people at Highlights High Five magazine over in the States asked me to do another cover for them for their February edition. This is it. Kelley the art director thought it really strange that we in Europe call the gentle ski slopes for beginners 'nursery slopes'. I think I find the term 'bunny slopes' a tad odder. Pity about the big white area bottom right. In the layout I was given there was supposed to be a large magnifying glass in the white space which has mysteriously disappeared from the final design. Probably some sort of last minute editorial dilemma to blame. That's usually the way things happen. Anyway, not to worry. It's got me in the mood for my own skiing trip, coming up in a couple of weeks time. And no, I don't need the bunny slopes these days.

Extremely Gruntled

Here they are -- the two new books of mine from Scholastic, Make It! Robot and Make It! Rocket. 

It occurred to me that this might be the only occasion I'll be able to say "I had two books published today." To have one book published is an event. To have two published on the same day is really pretty unusual, even if the books are very closely related.

Sometimes as I grind through a mountain of artwork or sweat over a text or have a cherished project rejected, it's easy to become disgruntled with working in the publishing industry. Then they publish stuff of yours and the world seems a better place.  This week it's safe to say that, just for the time being at any rate, I'm extremely gruntled.

Snip!

I've just finished this illustration to accompany a poem called Snip! for Highlights High Five Magazine in the States. So go on, see if you can spot all ten letter S's. And how many pairs of scissors? Lots of points on offer, and of course normally points mean prizes, but today I'm feeling mean.

Highlights High Five Cover

This is a cover that I recently finished for Highlights High Five magazine in the States. Happy, smiley animals for a bright, sunny morning.