I loved the little nods to characters in his other books and the foreshadowing had me giggling away. Soon, she discovers that there are creatures appearing in her room at night - and wonders if they are perhaps responsible for taking the grown-ups. In my review of The Christmasaurus, I asked Tom to give us more girl heroes, and my goodness did he deliver! The characters are likeable and relatable and do well to represent the underlying message in the story that it's good to be different, that different doesn't necessarily mean bad and we should infact embrace this. Of course I could have suspected it, but I was so engrossed in the story that I missed the hints to it.

The vivid descriptions that work so well in The Christmasaurus triumph again, although this time reading about all of the foul stenches and dirty rubbish-loving tendencies of the Creakers in all of their putrid glory made me feel a bit queasy! One day, our heroine Lucy Dungston wakes up to find all the adults in her town have completely disappeared. Consequently, the children embark on a rampage, causing havoc in houses and on the street, throwing toilet paper on trees, and creating a mess everywhere. We would recommend this book to 7-9-year-olds, who like humorous adventure stories with a hint of eeriness.

And thankfully she is also not alone in her quest, she has Norman (and oh yes, annoying Ella) who help her out, or at least try to help out. The Christmasaurus was the biggest debut middle-grade novel of 2016 and was shortlisted for a British Book Award, since then Tom has published several more chart-topping children’s novels including The Creakers, The Christmasaurus and the Winter Witch and the instant number one bestseller The Danger Gang.

I really loved that the book had an underlying message of the importance and usefulness of recycling and being sustainable with our waste. het eerst superleuk vinden om niet op de vingers getikt te worden door een volwassene, niet naar school hoeven te gaan, doen waar ze zin in hebben, maar uiteindelijk toch door hebben dat ze niet zonder hun ouders kunnen. Well, that's exactly what Lucy Dungston and the children of Whiffington face one morning when they find all of their parents and teachers are nowhere to be seen.I do highly recommend you guys listen to the audio book for this, as Tom reads bits and pieces himself, adding warnings before scary chapters and such, which is really fun!