Liz Pichontrained as a graphic designer and has illustrated several picture books. She based a lot of the stories in the Tom Gates books on funny things that happened to her at school.

Tom grows up in each book and the vocabulary develops. Tom Gates author Liz Pichon has added to the collection since my daughter stopped reading them. You can read them as stand-alone books too!Most of the story revolves around things that happen at school. There are teachers he likes and doesn’t like, and children who he has difficult relationships with as well as his mates. The books are filled with jokes and really dynamic illustrations. My son will laugh out loud. 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. Additionally Tom Gates: The Music Book was released in October 2019. Tom Gates: You Can Draw is due out in March 2022.

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! Liz Pichon never thought that being a writer was a viable career path for her. The author and illustrator of Tom Gates – the instantly recognisable stories of the eponymous schoolboy which have sold more than 11m copies and been adapted for television and stage – was excellent at drawing, but didn’t believe that words were her thing. 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.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.” Ten years after the first was published, the 19th Tom Gates book, Random Acts of Fun – “Hanging out with a kid who likes to eat sugar from a bowl. (NOT fun.) Watching squirrels steal stuff from the garden. (Who knew that would be SO much FUN?)” – is just out, and Pichon has no plans on calling a halt any time soon. In terms of an age recommendation, I think these are great books for ages 8+ and if you want to start at the beginning, the first Tom Gates book is The Brilliant World of Tom Gates, which was first published in 2011. 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.”

There are also 4 additional Tom Gates themed books by Liz Pichon, including a drawing book to be released in March 2022.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. It was a fantastic book because all of tom's friend's wanted to help fundraise for the local library .But the other school called great manor beat the... A Tom Gates costume is a super easy dress up for World Book Day at school (great for us lazier mums!) 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.