Scream Street 7: Invasion of the Normals is published by Walker Books today!
Exactly a year after the first four Scream Street books appeared, SS7 sees Luke, Resus and Cleo up against the most terrible creatures of all – us!
After collecting all six relics and opening a doorway back to the real world, Luke is delighted when his parents decide they want to stay in Scream Street where he is truly happy. However, the doorway remains open and landlord, Sir Otto Sneer, is charging normals to visit “the greatest freak show in the world”. Can the trio find a way to stop the tide of tourists, will they be able to close the doorway – and how will Luke react to what happens to his mum?
PLUS – not only is Scream Street 7 an action-packed adventure – it’s 50% longer than the other books in the series!
As I’m sure you’d expect, I read a lot of children’s books – and it’s about time I paid homage to two of the best series out there: Astrosaurs and Astrosaurs Academy by Steve Cole.
The initial Astrosaurs series takes the simple idea of dinosaurs in space (I’m not really kicking myself that I didn’t think of it first…) and builds an entire universe around it. While some people believe that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor strike on the Earth millions of years ago, the truth is that the creatures had discovered space travel and vacated the planet long before the big pebble hit us. Now, the Dinosaur Space Service works hard to protect the peace-loving herbivore side of the galaxy safe from attack by the far nastier carnivores.
My favourite book in the Astrosaurs series is the first adventure – Riddle of the Raptors – in which Captain Teggs Horatio Stegosaur is finally given his own ship – the DSS Sauropod – and sets off to transport elite athletes to the Dinosaur Games. However, when two head-butting stars are kidnapped then easily rescued, it’s up to Teggs and his crew to find out what the wicked raptors are up to…
While Teggs continues to boldy go about his adventures in deep space, author Steve Cole next takes us back to his roots as a young cadet at the Astrosaurs Academy – with a new group of friends, and new baddies to face! The most enjoyable tale in this series, in my opinion, is Jungle Horror. In this adventure, Colonel Gruff and his staff mysteriously disappear, and a new group of teachers arrive to force feed mis-information about the galaxy to the eager cadets. However, Teggs soon begins to suspect that something is amiss and he sets off with his friends to track down their former tutors and expose a wicked plot to train a generation of useless Astrosaurs!
But that’s not the limit to Steve Cole’s abilities… His hilarious series for the same age group, Cows In Action, follows a herd of time-travelling bovines; he writes for Thunderbirds annuals and Doctor Who books (Jealous? Me?) and his latest hardback – The Hunting book 1: Z. Rex – has possibly one of the best covers I’ve seen in years! I can’t wait to read it…
So, whether you’re into dinosaurs, space, or none of the above and just fancy a good giggle – you won’t go far wrong with Astrosaurs.
13th September is Roald Dahl Day and, to celebrate, here I am discussing my favourite book from the great man…
Do yourself a favour and devour some Dahl today!
*Several eagle-eared viewers may have spotted my, er… deliberate mistake in saying that Danny’s dad vanishes every night when, of course, I meant to say “one night”. In no way was I attempting to rewrite a Roald Dahl classic…*
As you know, several months ago myself and seven other children’s authors were Trapped By Monsters. But, the good news is – we are being treated well, as proven by this moving video from Invisible Fiends author, Barry Hutchison:
So, YOU have absolutely no NEEDTO go out and find HELP for US…
Do your classroom or library walls suffer from blandness and boring areas? Do you yearn for something to look at other than that tattered old picture of Duran Duran? Then panic no more – the Poster Boys are here…
At Write2Excite – www.write2excite.co.uk – you can claim your FREE set of four posters, featuring best-selling children’s authors Andy Briggs, Joe Craig, Tommy Donbavand and GP Taylor!
Anyone who knows me will be able to tell you that I’m a big Doctor Who fan (although obsessive geek might be closer to the truth!) One of the fantastic things about the Who universe (Whoniverse?) is that stories aren’t limited to the TV series. There are radio plays, activity albums, comics, magazines, audio downloads and – of course – Doctor Who books.
I grew up in a time when Doctor Who books were published by Target, were usually straight re-tellings of the TV tales, and were almost all written by Terrance Dicks. So as you might expect, when the television series was relaunched, first with Christopher Ecclestone as the Doctor and later with the utterly brilliant David Tennant, back came the books – but they were very different. These new titles were NEW standalone adventures that supposedly took place in between what we watched on the small screen and, on the whole, were and are excellent reads. But the fans wanted more – and so came The Darksmith Legacy…
The Darksmith Legacy is a ten-part series that pitches the Doctor – now traveling alone – against brand new monsters, and creepy villains, The Darksmiths. Complete with story-specific puzzles the reader can complete as he or she reads, the books are accompanied by a superb website that explores the Darksmith legend, and features an interactive on-line quest for visitors to undertake.
Created by Parliament of Blood author, Justin Richards (who also wrote four of the installments), the series looks set to open up a whole new chapter of Doctor Who multi-part entertainment. Having already read the first two titles – The Dust of Ages and The Graves of Mordane – I can’t wait to get my hands on more!
The utterly brilliant Michael Rosen takes to the airwaves on BBC Radio 4 to explain why pupils not reading complete books with their teacher are missing out on something very important: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8236578.stm
I was recently interviewed by the National Literacy Trust for their newsletter – covering topics such as getting boys gripped by books, authors being vetted prior to class visits and even what I would change about schools if I got the chance! To find out what I think about these important matters and more – simply click here to read the interview.
