Hodder Children's Books

Ripping Gags have signed an agreement to produce two adventure books for children 
The stories and characters are being created by Andy Cutbill. 
 
Publication date of the first book will be 13th March 2003 - Read on - 

"The Beast of Baloddan" by Andy Cutbill
A fast, funny and hair-raising adventure from this exciting new author.

Robert Twistleton, Bert to his friends, is an eleven-year-old boy whose family has run the Baloddan Hotel, a bleak Victorian edifice incongruously built on a windswept, Cornish headland, for over a hundred years. 

Bert is a quiet, unassuming boy who is all set to enjoy the uneventful summer holidays, until the day he discovers his grandmother has been sucked down the toilet and replaced with a slick of slime across the bathroom floor. Something has taken her.

Bert decides to investigate. With his friend Ruby he explores deep beneath the hotel, through underground tunnels, secret passages and hidden rooms. He discovers that people have been disappearing for years, and that matters will come to a head in only a few days' time at the total eclipse of the sun. 

Bert suspects that some of the locals know what's going on, although he isn't sure who. Could it be the shuffling shop keeper? Or the hook-nosed vicar? Or even his own grandfather? 

Pieces of the puzzle are falling into place, but time is running out fast ....

Dare you visit  www.baloddanhotel.com ?

Book price £4.99                                          ISBN 0 340 86570 9

Available at all good bookshops from 13th March 2003 

Text copyright ã 2003 Ripping Gags                  Illustration copyright ã 2003 Alistair Graham

STOP PRESS:  THE NEXT INSTALMENT    
"A Beastly Feast at Baloddan Hall" by Andy Cutbill
Publication date: 16th October 2003

Help!

something nasty is brewing in the school kitchens:

the headmaster's been buried under a mountain of sausage tins ...

the bursar's been found upside-down in a soup vat ...

and now an entire coach-load of tourists has disappeared into thin air.

You'd better get here quick before we all end up on the menu ...

Robert Twistleton 

Text copyright ã 2003 Ripping Gags                  Illustration copyright ã 2003 Alistair Graham

Published by 
Hodder Children's Books, 

338 Euston Road, 
London, NW1 3BH

For more information please contact Sarah Spedding  - 020 7873 6215 
or email: sarah.spedding@hodder.co.uk