Nosy Crow publishes Buster's Christmas with John Lewis

Nosy Crow has created a children’s picture book based on this year's John Lewis Christmas advert to be published today (10th November) to coincide with the release of the retailer’s advert.

Buster’s Christmas will be sold exclusively through John Lewis stores and via the John Lewis website. The book follows a family getting ready for Christmas, with a little girl, Bridget, gleefully bouncing up and down on her bed with excitement on Christmas Eve. The family dog, Buster, gazes out to the garden where he sees foxes and all kinds of other animals bouncing up and down on a trampoline, which is Bridget’s main present. On Christmas morning, Bridget dashes out to try out her trampoline, only to find Buster’s got there first and is showing off all his new-found tricks.

The book was produced on a tight schedule, with the John Lewis marketing team reading the outline of the story to Nosy Crow's m.d. Kate Wilson and head of picture books Louise Bolongaro to enable them to construct the picture book around the advert.

Harry Boughton, buyer at John Lewis, said: “The John Lewis Christmas advert signals for many the start of the Christmas season. We are delighted to be working with Kate and Nosy Crow again, and, as before, we are so impressed with the team’s ability to turn the story of the advert into a beautiful picture book that really captures the spirit of the advert and of Christmas too.”

Wilson said: “It's a real privilege to be involved again in John Lewis's Christmas advert campaign as the creator of the book of the ad. The advert itself is such a well-loved and highly anticipated annual event and it's such a buzz and source of pride to be part of it. Sam Usher has been a joy to work with – as well as his terrific technical skill with pen and watercolour and his ability to work fast, he brought such understanding of the warmth at the heart of the story."

Buster’s Christmas is illustrated by Sam Usher, who was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Award and the Red House Book Award. Usher also illustrated a retelling of the Christmas nativity story for Nosy Crow, Refuge, sales of which benefitted the charity War Child.

Usher said: “It’s been such a fascinating experience working on this project – unlike anything I’ve ever done before. I very much enjoyed working again with the Nosy Crow team, with whom I worked on a very different kind of Christmas book, Refuge, last year. And of course it’s exciting to be involved in – and know a little about! – something that so many people will be talking about.”