A little boy is recounting the tale of The Snark that has been passed down from generation to generation. The story of The Snark is a little bit scary as it is as huge as a house and moves as quick as a mouse. It makes lots of noise and smells terrible. But what is a Snark?

This fun children’s book which has been excellently illustrated in such vivid colours that are full-page is such a wonderful read and made me smile and at times giggle throughout, so I can see it doing the same to kids.

The story is told in a rhyming style that is repetitive. I always found my children were more engaged with rhyming books than with others, I wonder if this is the same for other children too? If so this book will be well enjoyed.

The idea of the book is that a child thinks that there is a monster coming to get him. He can hear it and see it in the shadows, however, there is no monster really. You’ll have to read the book to find out what is causing the child to panic.

Quite a lot of children do have a fear of shadows at night-time as the simplest of items can look a lot larger and different when its shadow has been cast on a wall. One of the first lessons, when I became a parent my father taught me was to go into my son’s bedroom at night, close the door and have a look at what he could see, and move anything that was casting frightening shadows. This book reminded me of my dad’s wise words to me.

As well as a fun, engaging story there is also a fluffy purple monster to find on each page too, which I’m sure children will love doing. Plus, there is an activity at the end where children get to make their own monster.

I loved this book and I hope your children will love it too.

I grew up and lived in a lovely rural village in East Yorkshire before moving to Northamptonshire, where I live with my wife and my three beautiful children.

My desire to write is very much rooted in my love of reading and writing a book is something that had been on ‘lifes list’ for many years!

Wanting very much to pass this love of books onto my children, I started to play with the idea of writing a children’s story. I completed a writing course and after much coffee drinking and many screwed up pieces of A4, Escape from Nettle Farm (in its first incarnation) was complete! It then went through many painful rewrites and edits to get to the stage where I was ready to say, ‘Finished!’

Escape from Nettle Farm was published on 16th November 2016 and is aimed at children aged between 5 and 10.

I wanted to write something that would be fun and exciting for parents to read to children, or for children to read independently – I really believe that the story appeals to all ages and I hope you will agree!

What did you think of The Snark? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!