I loved funny books, and I was being offered funny books to illustrate, but I thought if I wanted to illustrate one I’d better write it myself,” she says. “I didn’t actually get to write my own stories until I was in my mid-40s.” Ten years after the first was published, the 19th Tom Gates book, Random Acts of Fun – “Hanging out with a kid who likes to eat sugar from a bowl. (NOT fun.) Watching squirrels steal stuff from the garden. (Who knew that would be SO much FUN?)” – is just out, and Pichon has no plans on calling a halt any time soon.

I am really pleased to introduce guest contributor Anna. She recommends the Tom Gates series of kids’ books that her son “Bee” and previously his older sister have appreciated and enjoyed. PR includes BBC Breakfast, CBBC Newsround, Channel 5 News and a wealth of print media including Liz as expert judge for the Sun on its Christmas card competition. Liz Pichon has recently released a new book, Shoe Wars. The footastic book features lots of shoe puns! It was released in October 2020.This quirky, funny, highly-illustrated, fiction series follows life’s ups and downs of chaotic but loveable Tom, Delia, his old sister, his parents and of course his best friend Derek and his arch enemy, Marcus. Written by award-winning author and illustrator Liz Pichon, Tom is a master of excuses (especially when it comes to homework), creative storyteller and doodler and middle-school comedian extraordinaire.

There has also been a stage production, Tom Gates Live, which has travelled throughout the UK. There are currently no new dates planned.It was an honour to design 2022’s iconic BBC Children in Need T-shirt and I want children to add their own doodles to it too. I know my talented creative readers are going to enjoy ‘The Brilliant World of Tom Gates’ Halloween TV special that I co-wrote, and sing along to the spooky song my music producer husband Mark and I wrote. It’s a super busy time and I’m loving every minute.” Lauren Fortune, fiction publisher at Scholastic UK, said: “Liz Pichon is an incredible talent and we are proud to be growing and expanding the Brilliant World of Tom Gates into new publishing areas so fans and new readers can enjoy even more of her uniquely engaging graphic style, doodling inspiration and humour. Laugh out loud and always relatable, Tom Gates: Happy to Help (Eventually) is set to hook even more children on reading and we can’t wait to see it in children’s hands.” Despite the sales, and the readers around the world – Tom Gates has been translated into 45 languages – that “panic” is always still there. “I just assume it’s always going to end, and so every book, I’m really trying hard to put new things in it. If I was a Tom Gates fan, what would I expect? What else can I put in the book that I think kids would really like?” Tom grows up in each book and the vocabulary develops. Tom Gates author Liz Pichon has added to the collection since my daughter stopped reading them. You can read them as stand-alone books too! The world of Tom Gates book series by Liz Pichon came into my kids’ lives a few years ago. We were introduced to the books as being good for children with reading difficulties. My daughter who is now 12 has left them behind. Tom Gates books age range

She started out with other people’s, but then had a go at writing her own picture books. Square-Eyed Pat, about a telly addict dog, was published in 2003, followed by My Big Brother Boris, in which Little Croc and his brother live in a swamp. “It doesn’t seem quite so jolly now,” Pichon says of the title, but it won her the Smarties prize, and got her properly thinking about the kind of book she would have loved to read herself as a child.The latest Tom Gates book was released in October 2021. Tom Gates Book 19: Random Acts of Fun is available now. Additional books – including a new Tom Gates book for 2022!

At the age of 7, my son was still being given very simple books by his teacher. However, he was able to read the longer Tom Gates books with more confidence. Liz Pichon never thought that being a writer was a viable career path for her. The author and illustrator of Tom Gates – the instantly recognisable stories of the eponymous schoolboy which have sold more than 11m copies and been adapted for television and stage – was excellent at drawing, but didn’t believe that words were her thing.

She said: “The thrill of seeing a book published never stops – even after 20 Tom Gates books! I hope children enjoy reading Tom Gates: Happy to Help (Eventually) as much as I did writing and illustrating it. She creates a story map for each book, noting down small events that will take place during her narrative – Derek gets a dog; homework excuse; squirrel wars – and fleshes them out into funny stories. And they are genuinely funny – I’ve watched my eight-year-old chortling away to herself at them on many an occasion, and even my 11-year-old hasn’t quite outgrown them yet, stealing them away from her little sister when she’s in the mood. It was a fantastic book because all of tom's friend's wanted to help fundraise for the local library .But the other school called great manor beat the... There are also 4 additional Tom Gates themed books by Liz Pichon, including a drawing book to be released in March 2022.