Chop-Chop, Mad Cap!

And so, here it is, the fantasmegaglorious cover of my very first novel and actual book in English: Chop-Chop, Mad Cap!
It's all there: the psycho cat, the spuds of doom, the chocolate stains, the mystery, the crazy hair and er... Mad Cap herself!
The art is by Sadie Cramer, the design by Paul Woods and the publishing by Little Island.
While the printers are busy running their press, I'm taking a MOSTLY DESERVED break in lovely Paris, where I am thinking about school and library visits, reading great books, eating intriguing ice-cream and devising ways to achieve world domination. The usual.

Chop-Chop, Mad Cap! will be available from the bestest bookshops (real and virtual) from July 6th. Can't wait!

Those old classics

And so, after a lot of time telling people that I was writing Treasure Island and them telling me that it had already been written, here it is! My first publications in English (as opposed to translated stuff) and in the school market: three rewritings of all-time classics (Treasure Island, Huckleberry Finn and The Hound of the Baskervilles) for French 10-year-olds learning English. Let me tell you complying with the layout imperatives (they’re each 1000-word long) and the curriculum guidelines (on syntax, vocab and the lot) was NOT easy. But we made it! (I worked with a teacher who was in charge of the teacher’s book, with all the exercises and lessons and things) (I got to do the fun bit: the actual stories!).

Not as pink as you might think

October is always the high season of picture-book publishing, at least for me. On top of the other titles mentioned earlier, I can now proudly present 10 Histoires de Fées, featuring two by yours truly, and a reissue-cum-repackaging of Ma Première Grande Histoire de Fée (My First Great Fairy Story).
The compilation of 10 stories will introduce you to Chimera the Sardine-Tin Fairy, and to Chimes, a little detective of a fairy who wants to know why all her colleagues are disappearing.

My First Great Fairy Story (revamped under the title My Little Story Library - Girls) may look and sound fairly pink to you, but do not be fooled! It's actually about all the colours of the rainbow (and more) and includes a talking woolly hat, a worm-chopping ogre and a Hawaiian shirt.

As these stories are all in French, here are a few pictures, for those who can't enjoy the words...

Chimes is a fairy on a mission.
Where have all the fairies gone?

Meet the Sardine-Tin Fairy and Small Fry,
the ogre who conjured her up by accident.
There's definitely something fishy about those two...

Out Now for all your Xmas and Saturday-nights needs...

It's release season for me, with 26 new books out this month in France. Yes, I did say 26. Do the maths yourselves...

1 Alcatraz contres les Ossements du Scribe, a translation of Brandon Sanderson's Alcatraz versus the Scrivener's Bones, book 2 in the demented series. Age 10+

1 52 Histoires pour tous les samedis soirs, 52 bedtime stories for every Saturday night of the year, featuring 6 texts by yours truly, including the infamous bandit Conor O'Connor who suffers from hay fever and the rather limited fairy Turnip-Flower who can only turn people into daisies. Age 3+

24 livres et c'est déjà Noel, 24 books containing a Christmas story each and sold in a box set. One story to read aloud every night before C Day, for 3+. This is the happing ending to a two-and-a-half year long saga where the actual writing of 24 very short stories (ie 24 very quick beginnings, 24 very quick middles and 24 very quick endings) took place over 5 weeks only. One was younger then...

There you go: 1 + 1 + 24 = 26.
Cheating? Me? Never! ;o)

First Encounter

This morning I received a copy of my first publication in English! It's the translation of a picture-book published last year in France, called A la Recherche du Bonheur/In Search of Happiness, and it's illustrated by an award-winning French artist, Eric Puybaret. You may have encountered his rendering of Puff The Magic Dragon.
I'm more than a little nervous at the idea of reading somebody else's translation of my story, so for the moment I'll just look at the cover. It's the same as the French one, but hey! they've added both our names on it! Thanks, Hammond!
This is encouraging. Let's have a peep inside. Of course, all the pictures are the same, and the story seems to be all there, but... where is my hero? where is Manoug? He seems to be gone, replaced by one Alexander. Okay, why not? It's a surprise, though.
Let's see what else has changed.
And this is when I realise I'm the person the least qualified to judge this new incarnation of my book. It's got nothing to do with the translator's job (Andrew Weller). That's fine. But as I read his words, I keep hearing mine and thinking: but where's this rhyming bit? And the rhythm there isn't quite the same, is it? Well of course it isn't! Had I done the translation, I would have played around with the text much more than Andrew did. But it wouldn't have been a translation so much as a rewriting and that wasn't Andrew's mission.
So, really, what I need is for you to read this book and tell me what you think. Here's a (non-exclusive) list of adjectives to choose from: great, superb, splendid, fantabulous, amazing, awsome, unputdownable, unputaside-able, marvelous, magnificent, wow. That's all for the pictures, of course! ;o)
Here are a few more, just to celebrate. Enjoy!