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Mark Sperring worked as a printer before becoming a bookseller, and later becoming a children's book author. Mark is the author of Dino Mummy, Dino Baby, Dino Daddy, Four Silly Skeletons, I'll Love You Always and The Naughty Naughty Baddies (Bloomsbury), Captain Buckleboots on the Naughty Step (Puffin) and The Sunflower Sword (Andersen). He lives in Bristol.
April 2019 Book of the Month | The Naughty Naughty Baddies are deliciously, outrageously, phenomenally BAD and their antics in this new adventure will thrill young readers. Their attention is caught by a competition poster: prove that alien life exists and receive a toy-tastic reward from the president. Who could resist? Baddie Four comes up with a fiendishly naughty and brilliantly bonkers plan and – for a while at least – they manage to bamboozle the president before being found out. They still have the last laugh though, and children too will be in stitches. The story is great fun and illustrator David Tazzyman reaches new heights of gleefully wild, energetic and scribbly chaos.
The Naughty Naughty Baddies are wickedly wicked, awfully awful and diabolically dreadful, and they have just come up with a mischievous plan to blast off to the moon and to stitch up the President. But will our fiendish fraudsters come undone? Aliens, badmobiles, rockets . . . Mwa-ha-ha! Be part of the intergalactic impishness in this astronomically funny adventure. It's out of this world! With illustrations by the bestselling illustrator of You Can't Take an Elephant on the Bus - over 150,000 copies sold in the UK.
A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month November 2018 | Christmas is coming and there is war in the shops! In every supermarket in the town all the Christmas treats are being smashed up as soon as they get into the shops. Beautifully decorated cakes and biscuits have been sent flying and even Christmas puddings have been heaved off the shelves. Who’s the spoilsport who is ruining Christmas? The trusty Mince Spies are sent in to watch the shelves and they soon discover the surprising culprits! It takes the intervention of Santa Claus himself to make everyone feel better and for Christmas to become fun again! A thoroughly ridiculous and hugely enjoyable Christmas adventure.
The characters may be green and dinosaur-shaped, but this is all about the special fun little children have with their daddies, and the particular love between father and child. A dino-dad, distinctive in his stripy tie and lace-up shoes, plays exuberantly with two little dino-tots, in the park, in the garden and even when he should be working (Dino Warning, reads the message on his computer, 3000 urgent emails)! Sam Lloyd’s illustrations are a hoot and catch all the energy and high spirits of the dino characters, while Mark Sperring’s rhyming text is great fun to read aloud. A must-have for dino-families everywhere! ~ Andrea Reece
This clever, stylish picture book is an excellent and very accessible introduction to different art styles, from the earliest cave paintings through to Cubism and contemporary art. It is also a neat celebration of human diversity, acknowledging that we are all unique, and all works of art. In appealing lines of rhyming text, Mark Sperring presents a series of statements guaranteed to make readers examine the artworks represented in Rose Blake’s illustrations: “We might look rather classic” for example, under a painting of an Ancient Greek sculpture. It’s ingenious, fun to read and revisit, and just the sort of book to prompt a family trip to the local art gallery too. ~ Andrea Reece
Its Christmas time at Merry Farm and the animals are trying to keep calm but just how many quacks are there till Christmas?! They’re all excited to know as they prepare for the big day and wish for snow. Follow the young animals from the tiny chick to the mischievous calves as they moo, neigh, cheep and quack their way to Christmas day. Mark Spearing’s jolly rhyme is joined with bright, bold and colourful illustrations throughout from the talented Ed Eaves. This is a delightful, festive countdown to Christmas in true farmyard style. ~ Shelley Fallows - You can also find Shelley here.
You’ll be hard pressed to find a more dastardly set of villains than the naughty, naughty baddies and the criminal plan they hatch is outrageously wicked and daring! They actually break into the queen’s palace to steal the spots off her little dog Woof-Woof. In a wonderful twist they are caught out by their evil laugh, though they all escape to commit more crimes another day. Children will squeal with delight at the sheer naughtiness of this book (particularly the picture of the king reading the newspaper in the loo), and in David Tazzyman’s brilliant drawings the four baddies fizz with a gleeful, chaotic boldness. Bad behaviour has never been so appealing! ~ Andrea Reece
January 2017 Book of the Month In suitably jolly rhyme Ed Eaves describes just what joining Captain McGrew’s pirate crew entails, from the reasonably easy – climbing the rigging, shouting ‘Land Ahoy!’ – to the downright difficult – digging up treasure, cleaning the hull. Mark Sperring’s lively illustrations show a young would-be crew coping with everything the captain throws at them and with admirable resilience, until a surprise final twist. Sperring’s illustrations are full of colourful detail and nicely at odds with the text, which remains relentlessly upbeat as the crew appear more and more exhausted and cheesed off. It all makes for a fun picture book that puts a new spin on the ever-popular pirate theme. ~ Andrea Reece
The passage of time and the everlasting nature of a parent’s love for a child are intertwined in this charming picture book. Big Mouse answers Little Mouse’s question ‘how long will you love me?’ using the natural world to demonstrate the passage of time as day and night and the seasons come and go. We see the two playing together in the spring sunshine, on a beach in the hot sun, and as the leaves fall from the trees; throughout Big Mouse repeats the assertion that ‘as you grow bigger, my love stays the same,’ assuring the child that ‘loving you forever’ is what mummies and daddies do best; the final image of the two embracing under the starry sky tenderly reproduces the message in a picture. ~ Andrea Reece
Lots of laughs as Fred, Sid, Belle and Bill, the four silly skeletons who love to dance, get themselves in all kinds of predicaments as they cavort about – especially at night. Luckily, their resourceful Auntie June is on hand to help them when they need to be put back together again! ~ Julia Eccleshare
June 2015 Book of the Month Daddy Lion has decided it’s the perfect day for a tea party – a quiet little tea party, just him and his cubs. The cubs want to invite the other animals but Daddy Lion says no: the chimps are always monkeying about; the pot-bellied pigs hog the cream buns; the rhinos never stop charging about. But word gets out about the party, and all the animals turn up anyway. They try to behave, and it’s all very civilised, at least until an audience arrives, and the animals start to express themselves naturally. It’s lovely to see a daddy so dainty with a teapot while the illustrations are full of witty details! ~ Andrea Reece
June 2015 Book of the Month Daddy Lion has decided it’s the perfect day for a tea party – a quiet little tea party, just him and his cubs. The cubs want to invite the other animals but Daddy Lion says no: the chimps are always monkeying about; the pot-bellied pigs hog the cream buns; the rhinos never stop charging about. But word gets out about the party, and all the animals turn up anyway. They try to behave, and it’s all very civilised, at least until an audience arrives, and the animals start to express themselves naturally. It’s lovely to see a daddy so dainty with a teapot while the illustrations are full of witty details! ~ Andrea Reece
With Father’s Day approaching, this could be the perfect gift for the dino-daddy in your life! Mark Sperring’s jolly rhyming text details all the fun the dino-kids have with their daddy, from trips to the park to a bit of rough-and-tumble play-mat wrestling, and describes the familiar moments in children's everyday lives with much warmth and humour. Sam Lloyds’ cheeky dinosaurs are full of character, and children everywhere will recognise themselves in the pictures; dads too will identify with their green alter-ego, and the scenes of chaos depicted will bring a smile to their faces. Great fun for sharing. ~ Andrea Reece
Mabel and Me are an unlikely couple of friends to outsiders but that doesn’t matter because they just are each other’s very bestest, bestest of friends. It is hard to define exactly why but, when they meet first a Famous French Photographer and then a Prima Ballerina, they know that they will stand up for each other through thick and thin!
It's not easy being a big sister - especially when your new baby brother is a roaring dino baby. There are just SO many things to remember ...Be quiet in the morning, when you first get up. Because crashes, bangs and thuds will wake our dino pup. Shhhhhhhh! Don't play rough and tumble with a little thing like this. Instead be soft and gentle. We all LOVE a dino kiss. Mwaah! But, before long, this big sister grows to love teaching her brother all the grown-up things she knows and, very quickly, life in the dino family is as fun (and chaotic!) as ever.
One of our Books of the Year 2013 - January 2013 Picture Book of the Month Bright images offer loads to look at for young readers to think about the shape of all the things around them in the world. Birds have a shape and so does food. But what about love? Speculation about the very special shape and look of love leads to a touching and deeply reassuring conclusion.
This is a brilliantly witty, familiar and well-observed depiction of sibling relationships. Clive is a boy who absolutely loves green. In fact, so much so that he wears no other colour but his sister is always laughing and teasing him that he’s all sorts of green things – like a toad, a pea and even a beastly bug, but of course Clive knows differently but one day he pretends to be a crocodile and eats her sister up! The big, bold illustrations really pack a punch in this cautionary tale about getting your just desserts for teasing.
This is a brilliantly witty, familiar and well-observed depiction of sibling relationships. Clive is a boy who absolutely loves green. In fact, so much so that he wears no other colour but his sister is always laughing and teasing him that he’s all sorts of green things – like a toad, a pea and even a beastly bug, but of course Clive knows differently but one day he pretends to be a crocodile and eats her sister up! The big, bold illustrations really pack a punch in this cautionary tale about getting your just desserts for teasing.
This is a brilliantly witty, familiar and well-observed depiction of sibling relationships. Clive is a boy who absolutely loves green. In fact, so much so that he wears no other colour but his sister is always laughing and teasing him that he’s all sorts of green things – like a toad, a pea and even a beastly bug, but of course Clive knows differently but one day he pretends to be a crocodile and eats her sister up! The big, bold illustrations really pack a punch in this cautionary tale about getting your just desserts for teasing.
On Christmas morning, a magnificent, red-wrapped gift sits underneath the tree. But it isn't for Esme. And it isn't for Bear. So they set out to find the rightful owner. Little do they know that it's the greatest gift in all the world. A heartwarming Christmas tale about the magic of friendship.
Meet Princess Scallywag - a feisty new heroine with more than a few tricks up her royal sleeve! From brand-new picture book pairing Mark Sperring and Claire Powell comes this hilarious, subversive fairy tale for girls and boys alike. What's a queen to do when she wakes up to find a huge bothersome dragon ransacking her kingdom and terrorising the villagers? By a stroke of luck, the bravest knight in the land happens to be skipping by at just the right moment. If he can rid the land of the dragon he can have her daughter's hand in marriage - but who would want to marry pond-bathing, stinky-footed Princess Scallywag?! But maybe there's more to this brave knight than meets the eye... This brilliant picture book will make unconventional princesses everywhere laugh until they snort! A laugh-out-loud funny, subversive princess book for girls and boys age four and up - perfect for fans of Princess Smartypants and The Paper Bag Princess!
April 2019 Book of the Month | The Naughty Naughty Baddies are deliciously, outrageously, phenomenally BAD and their antics in this new adventure will thrill young readers. Their attention is caught by a competition poster: prove that alien life exists and receive a toy-tastic reward from the president. Who could resist? Baddie Four comes up with a fiendishly naughty and brilliantly bonkers plan and – for a while at least – they manage to bamboozle the president before being found out. They still have the last laugh though, and children too will be in stitches. The story is great fun and illustrator David Tazzyman reaches new heights of gleefully wild, energetic and scribbly chaos.
Princess Scallywag and the Queen are back in a brand new rollicking adventure, taking on no-good pirates on the high seas in their hilarious, take-no-prisoners style! Everybody's favourite Queen and not-so-princessy Princess are setting sail on the royal yacht today, but beware... stinky, sweaty, no-good PIRATES are on the horizon... Yo Ho me hearties! Whatever are a Queen, and a Princess, to do? Luckily, they've still got their trademark tricks up the royal sleeves... This brilliant picture book will make unconventional princesses everywhere laugh until they snort! A laugh-out-loud funny, subversive princess book for girls and boys age four and up - perfect for fans of Princess Smartypants and The Paper Bag Princess!
A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month November 2018 | Christmas is coming and there is war in the shops! In every supermarket in the town all the Christmas treats are being smashed up as soon as they get into the shops. Beautifully decorated cakes and biscuits have been sent flying and even Christmas puddings have been heaved off the shelves. Who’s the spoilsport who is ruining Christmas? The trusty Mince Spies are sent in to watch the shelves and they soon discover the surprising culprits! It takes the intervention of Santa Claus himself to make everyone feel better and for Christmas to become fun again! A thoroughly ridiculous and hugely enjoyable Christmas adventure.
Who or what is destroying all the Christmas treats in the supermarkets? Santa sends his Mince Spies on a secret mission to uncover the culprits. With puff-pastry jetpacks, shortcrust walkie-talkies and squirty whipped cream they foil the villains - with a bit of help from Santa. A hilarious rhyming romp of a story with a festive message for all baddies: it's better when you're nice!
Meet Norman the Brave: He's in need of some knaves to help him get ready for royal parades. Can you protect Norman? Can you polish his armour? Darn his socks? Feed his horse? Could this be the job for you? Or is being a knave more difficult than it seems? Fire-breathing dragons, trusty steeds, bandits, brigands and ... a pair of medieval pants - you'll find them all in this fun adventure for brave knights everywhere.
Meet Norman the Brave: He's in need of some knaves to help him get ready for royal parades. Can you protect Norman? Can you polish his armour? Darn his socks? Feed his horse? Could this be the job for you? Or is being a knave more difficult than it seems? Fire-breathing dragons, trusty steeds, bandits, brigands and ... a pair of medieval pants - you'll find them all in this fun adventure for brave knights everywhere.
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