Happy Holidays! (No, not that kind…)

It’s December! So I’m thinking about all the obvious things: ice-cream, beaches, pitching my tent on a hillside in the sunshine…

No? No. To be honest, I’m mainly thinking about mince pies and how to rearrange my living room so there can be a tree in it. But an excited corner of my brain is thinking about THIS, which I can finally show you:

Here’s what it’ll (probably) say on the back:

Dear Reader,
Help! It’s the summer holidays at last – but it’s already gone completely and terribly wrong.

Mum’s got writer’s block. Tinkerbell’s camping holiday with lashings of ginger beer and smugglers is cancelled. But Clover isn’t here, and everyone says I’m very sensible, so I have to fix it all.

We’re going to need:
* somewhere inspiring to stay – like Corfe Castle, where Enid Blyton invented the Famous Five stories (even though our friend Dr Skidelsky says her books are all awful and should be put in a bin)*
* two new friends to join our own Famous Five (Tinkerbell would like them to be boys, please)*
* a mystery to solve*

Love from Pea xx

I am not giving too much away if I tell you they do find a mystery – several, in fact – and that fourth little picture along the bottom is a clue. And I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until 5th June 2014 to meet the phantom-squid-hunting agents from PIE, unravel the strange affair of Salty Jake, and see poor Pea get herself into the biggest bother ever.

But in the meantime, it’s nearly Christmas, so if you’re in a book-present-giving mood…

This list from Playing By The Book features top kidlit pics for all ages from 25 authors and illustrators. Warning: may provoke you to want All The Books.

Brilliant illustrator Sarah McIntyre has come up with 20 more present ideas – arty, booky, comicky and, er, sea-monkey-ey – which, as she says, ‘you might get for children or teenagers but end up keeping for yourself.’ She’s not wrong.

Aaand of course, there’s me!

Pea’s Book of Best Friends  is the first in the Pea series, and just so happens to end with a properly cosy crumpety-feeling family Christmas, complete with a festive performance of Snow White and the Four Dwarfs (the other three having been held up by excitingly seasonal weather).  It’s got 8+ written on the back, and I think it’s probably most perfect for 9s and 10s.

You can find more handy ‘will my friend/child/favourite human like this book by Susie Day?’ help at my Books page.

£4.99 + postage for all three Pea’s Books offer from The Book People

Susie Day books at Hive.co.uk
(all the cheery convenience and money-saving of That Big Internet Shop, but also supports independent bookshops: they deliver to your home or a local bookshop, and a percentage of the proceeds goes to your chosen indie – I love them lots!)