Operation Diamond Starts Today

Operation Diamond is an on-line treasure hunt. Follow the links to a different children's literature site every day for the next ten days to find a blog post about one of the Adventure Island books along with a question to answer. When you have all ten answers you'll have the letters needed to solve the mystery of who stole the Jubilee Diamond! There are some great prizes to be one - including the chance to be a character in the next Adventure Island book!

The competition doesn't end until 23rd July, so don't worry if you don't start the treasure hunt today or you miss some days - you can follow the links back to the blog posts any time until the close of the competition.
You'll find all the information you need, along with the mystery story and the suspects over on the Adventure Island website.

And the first blog post and clue is up today on the Guardian Children's Book Site.
Happy Hunting!

Launch Party Photo Gallery

Lots of photos from the lovely launch party at Heffers, Cambridge on 26th April, 2012

Thank you to Judith Greenwood, Nina Douglas and Jenny Savill for sending me you photos, some of which are included below. There are more to come, but here are a few to start with . . .

Everybody needs a hat

Linton Children's Book Festival

Fingers crossed I'll get to meet one of my heroes 

If you are within a hundred mile radius of Linton* this weekend, drop everything (well, apart from small fluffy pets and valuable china plates) and make your way to the  Linton Children's Book Festival - and I'm not just saying that because I'll be there (although I would love to see you if you'd like to come and hear all about dinosaurs and see some amazing fossils) but because the whole event looks totally spectacular . . .

Adventure Island, the movie

I wish I could tell you that we'd just signed a massive Hollywood movie deal for Adventure Island! No such luck (but maybe one day, who knows!) but here is a tiny film trailer that I made for the Adventure Island launch party . . .  this is not the FULL kaboodle . . . this is just a short version . . .  a sort of trailer for a trailer. I still need to tweak the full version a little to get the sound right (I never knew making even a tiny little filmette could be so time-consuming!) Full version coming soon!!!