There has also been a stage production, Tom Gates Live, which has travelled throughout the UK. There are currently no new dates planned. The latest Tom Gates book was released in October 2021. Tom Gates Book 19: Random Acts of Fun is available now. Additional books – including a new Tom Gates book for 2022!

Each book in the series centres on a week or so of Tom’s life where he goes to school and a close shave adventure happens. Tom lives in a traditional nuclear family – he has one older sister, Delia Gates – who is a teenager and they ‘hate’ each other. Tom has a band, plays guitar and likes drawing. Liz Pichon has recently released a new book, Shoe Wars. The footastic book features lots of shoe puns! It was released in October 2020.

A Tom Gates costume is a super easy dress up for World Book Day at school (great for us lazier mums!) But nothing quite goes to plan. Washing and shrinking Delia’s clothes isn’t a good start. And the hours spent carefully cleaning cars with Derek are ruined overnight when a storm hits Oakfield Town, causing even MORE chaos.

There are also 4 additional Tom Gates themed books by Liz Pichon, including a drawing book to be released in March 2022. World rights were acquired by Lauren Fortune, fiction publisher at Scholastic UK, from Caroline Walsh at David Higham Associates. Our book of the month for children ages 7+ is the brand new Tom Gates book: Happy to Help (Eventually). This is the twentieth book in Liz Pichon’s best-selling series and is sure to be a hit with any existing Tom Gates fans, or any fans of highly illustrated series such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries. She creates a story map for each book, noting down small events that will take place during her narrative – Derek gets a dog; homework excuse; squirrel wars – and fleshes them out into funny stories. And they are genuinely funny – I’ve watched my eight-year-old chortling away to herself at them on many an occasion, and even my 11-year-old hasn’t quite outgrown them yet, stealing them away from her little sister when she’s in the mood.The top-of-the-class, extra special 20th book from multi-million copy selling author and illustrator Liz Pichon. I am really pleased to introduce guest contributor Anna. She recommends the Tom Gates series of kids’ books that her son “Bee” and previously his older sister have appreciated and enjoyed. I loved funny books, and I was being offered funny books to illustrate, but I thought if I wanted to illustrate one I’d better write it myself,” she says. “I didn’t actually get to write my own stories until I was in my mid-40s.”