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.

Please can I Play?

This is an image I did recently. It's a sample double-page spread for a favorite book project of mine that hasn't found a publisher yet. Shame really, because the book deals with some of the anxieties that a lot of young children experience when they go nursery school or start school for the first time, and I'm pretty sure a  lot of parents would find it useful to read to their nervous off-spring. It's called 'Please Can I Play?' and features a little penguin called Fran who is lonely and wants to find a friend to play with. But all the other animals are too big, or too busy or too grown-up to bother. At least at first. I'm sure it would make a nice board book. One day, maybe.