Moone Boy: the Blunder Years

Moone Boy: the Blunder Years Synopsis

Successful film and TV star, Chris O' Dowd, collaborates with friend and screenwriter Nick Vincent Murphy in Moone Boy: The Blunder Years, the first in this hilarious, illustrated series.

Martin Moone is eleven and completely fed up with being the only boy in a family of girls. He's desperate for a decent wingman to help him navigate his idiotic life. So when best mate Padraic suggests Martin get an imaginary friend - or 'IF' for short - he decides to give it a go. His first attempt is Loopy Lou, a hyperactive goofball who loves writing rubbish rap songs.

But Martin soon gets fed up with Lou's loopiness and decides to trade in his IF for someone a little less wacky. Enter Sean 'Caution' Murphy, an imaginary office clerk in a bad suit with a passion for laziness and a head full of dodgy jokes. Sean is full of tips and tricks to guide Martin through the perils of the playground, from dealing with his sisters' pranks to beating the bullying Bonner boys.

But getting rid of Lou is not that easy, and having TWO imaginary friends is a recipe for trouble!

Chris and Nick say, “Throughout the first three series of Moone Boy, it’s often occurred to us that there’s so much more we could do with the world of the imaginary friends, but the hassle of having to film things with our big clumsy cameras made it tricky to delve too much into it in the show.

However, this feels like the perfect world in which to explore novels for a younger audience, with plenty of opportunities for fun doodles and illustrations by Cartoon Saloon. There will be lots of jokes and we hope that parents will want to steal the books from their children to read them too. We’re really excited to be working with Macmillan – Venetia and her team are the perfect match for us, and we can't wait to get started.

We also think it’s really nice of them to allow our families to move into their offices, it seemed like an odd invitation at the time, but we’re all very excited. Unless we misheard what they said about that detail.”