ineke.co.uk

Take someone who loves Dinosaurs and Christmas, what else would you expect their debut children’s novel to be about other than a Christmasaurus?!

The author might be familiar to you as a quarter of the band McFly, or for his youtube videos, some of which went a little bit viral, and the husband of author Giovanna – of whose books I’ve read most!

In fact, he initially announced the book through his YouTube channel:

Yes this is a children’s book, yes I’m 28, but my friend got me this for Christmas and it’s entirely magical! I’d hoped to read “A Christmas Carol” this year but by the time I’d finished my last book it was a little late – but I knew I’d have time to fit this in before the return to work!

This is a story about William Trundle, a dinosaur-obsessed wheelchair user, his Dad, who loves Christmas, Brenda, a mean girl at school, and of course, Santa and the Christmasaurus. I have no idea what age “childrens fiction” is aimed at, but at 350 (beautifully illustrated) pages I’m guessing maybe junior school? There’s plenty of humour, a tonne of magic, and a good dose of drama too.

Next Christmas they’re actually doing a stage show/musical of the book, (apparently the Christmasaurus song was written before the book was) so I spent a lot of my reading time wondering how on earth they’re going to do all this on a stage! (That’s me, too logistical for my own good…), but I imagine it’ll be amazing. They’ve also announced that they’ll be making a film of it, so if you like the book, there’s plenty more to come.