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Pichon’s Tom Gates series to hit 20th book milestone as TV special lined up
Author and illustrator Liz Pichon is gearing up for a packed autumn in which the 20th instalment of her Tom Gates series will be published, a Halloween TV special aired and the official BBC Children in Need T-shirt she designed is launched.
Pichon’s Tom Gates series is published by Scholastic and includes titles such as Tom Gates: Biscuits, Bands and Very Big Plans and Tom Gates: The Brilliant World of Tom Gates. The latest book in the series, Tom Gates: Happy to Help (Eventually) will be published on 13th October 2022.
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.
“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.”
This week, BBC Children in Need and George at Asda announced a collaboration with Pichon to create this year’s official T-shirt, which will raise money for the charity. The unisex T-shirt features Children in Need’s Pudsey character in Pichon’s signature doodle style. As part of the collaboration, Pichon visited Crawley Community Youth Services, a project funded by BBC Children in Need and delivered a doodling workshop.
The publisher says the launch of Tom Gates: Happy to Help (Eventually) will be supported with a “kid-safe” consumer campaign across YouTube, a partnership with Kids in Museums, a digital campaign to reach parents across social media, live public events and signings and a major schools campaign including a launch day event on Scholastic Schools Live.
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.
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.”
On 24th October, Sky will air a Halloween special of "The Brilliant World of Tom Gates" from TG Entertainment. Pichon, who stars in the series and writes the popular songs, also shows fans how to doodle their own special zombie mask.
