Sales of Nanny Piggins books in the Richmond, Virginia area have exploded in the last six months and I’m trying to figure out why, which isn’t easy from thousands of miles away here in Bowral, Australia.  So if you’re a Nanny Piggins fan in Richmond, USA please get in touch and tell me if there is a school teacher or local bookshop that introduced you to the world’s greatest flying pig.  I’m going to be touring the USA in 2017 and if I can figure out this mystery I might just include a visit to Richmond on my next tour.

Spratt, R. A. (author).

Illustrated by Phil Gosier.
Jan. 2016. 272p. Roaring Brook, hardcover, $13.99 (9781626722972). Grades 3-6.
REVIEW. First published December 15, 2015 (Booklist).

 Friday is the youngest, most overlooked Barnes child. But being overlooked has given her the time to develop into a top-notch detective. After handily solving a particularly tricky jewel theft, she’s given a hefty reward, and she’s going to use it the best way she knows how: tuition for fancy boarding school. When she arrives, she discovers her new school is full of mysteries to be solved—all for the right price. To do so, she must avoid cute but devious Ian Wainscott and keep from getting in so much trouble she gets expelled. That, and deal with the bully who convinces their classmates to cruelly ignore Friday. Spratt has created a sharp, plucky main character, whose brainy investigations and candid, sometimes tactless observations will appeal to mystery lovers of any gender. The diminutive detective’s not so great at social conventions, which gives Spratt a great opportunity to playfully skewer stereotypical middle-school plots. Spratt’s matter-of-fact tone and punchy sentences bring Friday to life, and the age-appropriate touch of romance is a sweet addition. With off-the-wall plot turns and small mysteries scattered throughout, this is the perfect choice for mystery fans with a silly sense of humor, and the cliff-hanger ending promises more sleuthing on the horizon. Gosier’s black-and-white spot illustrations add to the charming atmosphere. A sheer delight.— Snow Wildsmith

Also got several thousand bookmarks. Time flies. I can’t believe this book is out in a few weeks.

Wilma and Dozer we’re honoured guests at my author presentation today.

It was super hot down at Woonona today, but all the kids at both schools I visited were awesome and enthusiastic.  It was a great day.  Thanks Shane Hambling from Woonona Eyecare for organising my trip.  I’m sorry I don’t have a photo to share because I was having too much fun talking with the students to remember to take a picture.  But rest assured at least one teacher was hit by one of my rockets.

‘Nanny Piggins and the Pursuit of Justice‘ and ‘Nanny Piggins and the Daring Rescue‘ are now available in America.  Your local bookstore will be able to order them in for you.  Or you can get them through your favourite online bookseller, such as BN.com or amazon.com

They are both totally awesome books (as Nanny Piggins would say, ‘It is nice to be modest, but it is wrong to lie.’)

In ‘Pursuit of Justice‘ Nanny Piggins gets in trouble with the law, encounters the many injustices of the justice system.  She is sentenced to 50,000 hours community service, but in her indomitable style she turns this lemon into a lemon-cake, and the community has never been served quite like it.

In ‘Daring Rescue‘ Nanny Piggins ends up travelling to the birthplace of bungee jumping, where she shows the locals on Pentacost Island that she knows a thing or two about plummeting towards the ground face first.

So rush out and buy them both now.  They are perfect stocking stuffers because at Christmas it’s fun not just to eat lots of cake and chocolate, but to read about eating lots of cake and chocolate too.

I’m signing books from 10 til 12. Come along and say hello!