Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Toucan Brothers

June is a really exciting month for me, as I have two new books coming out. I will blog about both of them, but wanted to start with The Toucan Brothers, out on June 6th and published by Macmillan Children's Books.


Sammy and Paul are brothers and plumbers. They look after the taps, drains and U-bends of Tapton. But when a flashy new cowboy arrives, their customers desert them in droves. But is Flash Rover all he seems? Or is he up to no good? And when Tapton is in trouble, who can they turn to?

Back cover - a selection of pipe-based problems!

A glimpse of the brothers' HQ, Ghostbusters influence in evidence!

Flash Rover appears on the scene: the wretch with a wrench!

This joke sadly got outdated before publication - Flash Rover is a corgi dog, because in the UK you had to be CORGI qualified in order to safely service gas boilers. But I've now been informed that CORGI registration has been replaced by the Gas Safe Register - and thinking of an animal joke about that would have been beyond me! And as I had to explain this "joke" to everyone I've shown the book to so far, I guess it won't be much missed!

Trouble in Tapton - but who're they gonna call?

The Toucan Brothers is a story about doing the right thing, loyalty, honest work, and not being dazzled by flashy new guys! 
And it rhymes!

They've had a wonderful review already, by the very nice father and daughter duo at Read It Daddy!

I will post a fun-with-pipes worksheet on publication day to celebrate!

2 comments:

M. said...

Congratulations, Tor — I love it.
And the setting looks a bit parisien, love that too!

Tor Freeman said...

Thank you Maral! It was indeed based on a square near where I lived in Paris for a while!