Casper Candlewacks

Archive for the ‘Downloads and Goodies’ Category

In March, at a signing in Octavia’s Bookshop in Cirencester, I met a young chap named Rory who wanted to interview me. Well, he did, and it was great fun. He put it on his blog here for you all to read:

http://rorycaston.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/amazing-day-out-in-cirencester/

Well, I went back to Octavia’s last week and there was Rory again, wanting another interview!  (He also reminded me to post a link to the first interview, so I’ll put it again here:

http://rorycaston.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/amazing-day-out-in-cirencester/

Thanks Rory!

They always say children are the harshest critics, so it’s great to get a bit of good feedback off the little scoundrels. This is a review of ‘Casper Candlewacks in The Claws of Crime’ from a chap called Robert, who actually DRESSED UP AS LAMP FLANNIGAN on his ‘Dress Like A Book Character’ day at school. How cool is that?

My personal thoughts about this book are, it’s funny, adventurous and carries on with the story from the last one which was Casper Candlewacks in Death by Pigeon!

In this new book, a mysterious French cat burglar ( called Le Chat) goes around Corne on the Kobb and steals Sir Glossamer de Glaze’s sword and also baby naps Cuddles Candlewacks – Casper’s only (but nail biting) sister.

Also in this book, Ivan Brett (the author) has introduced two new characters who are……The Blossoms who live in a flower shop which is in the village square in Corne on the Kobb. The Blossoms are nice people and they are not idiots like all the villagers apart from Casper!  At the end of the book I found out that <BLA BLA BLA SPOILERS DON’T GIVE IT AWAY>

This book is the most bizarre and un-natural book I have ever read because Lamp Flannigan, an inventor in Corne on the Kobb, makes inventions like no other such as the bubble buggy – one of his old inventions that crashed into a coriander surprise for a magician. In this book his latest invention is called the lie detector that used the power of dishonesty to boil an egg…!

Thanks, Robert. If anybody else has a short review of my books, don’t hesitate to send them via the comments for this post. I’ll be sure to post them up on the website.

You may remember that I sent a copy of Casper Candlewacks to Wills ‘n’ Kate for their wedding, apologising for stealing their limelight and asking for a knighthood. (If you don’t remember, or if you love clicking links, click HERE).

Well, you’ll be glad to hear that I got a reply! A lovely, typed reply from a woman named Gemma from the office of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and HRH Prince Henry of Wales. I presume it was dictated by Wills or Kate over Gemma’s shoulder after dinner one evening with a glass of sherry. I imagine they spent a while thinking about how to word this heartfelt note of thanks, how best to ignore the fact that I sort of insulted them and their children and made light of their achievements. Anyway, I’ll copy down what I got below:

Dear Mr. Brett,

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (that’s Wills ‘n’ K8 to us laypeople) have asked me to thank you most sincerely for the book, which you so generously sent (too right it was generous. They cost £5.99 in Waterstones (unless you get them as part of the ’3 for 2′ offer, which is a good deal actually)) to mark the occasion of their Wedding. (Now here’s the first sign that they might not have read my letter. In fact the main reason for my writing was to apologise for my stealing their limelight. Never mind, we’ll let that pass.)

Their Royal Highnesses very much appreciated your incredibly kind thought (Alright Gemma, don’t spread it on too thickly. It’s only a book for goodness’ sake. A sceptic might think you use this exact same letter for every gift no matter how expensive and just pasted in the word ‘chandelier’ or ‘flying car’ or, in my case, ‘book’.) and we were so touched that you took the trouble to send a gift. (Well that’s nice. I made their little royal days, didn’t I!)

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (you could probably get away with ‘they’ by this point) regret that they are unable to respond personally to the many letters and gifts which they have received. (I mean, we’re all busy. I’m nose deep in edits for Casper Candlewacks 3 for goodness’ sake. Now I happen to know that yesterday they attended their FIRST public function since the wedding. Crikey, what a busy month, then.) They would, however, have me send you their warmest thanks and very best wishes.

Yours Sincerely,

Gemma Kaza

Now that is lovely. I feel like I’m basically a member of the royal family now. I’ll pack a little bag and head over to St. James’ palace now. We could have a little slumber party, watch Shrek, eat marshmallows and gossip about girls. Can’t wait!

Anyway, you plebs, I’d better go. You can still ASK CASPER which I’d highly recommend you do, because he won’t reply with an over-appreciative form response which seems laughably out of scale given that you only gave him a book.

Yours sincerely,

HRH The Duke and Duchess of The Mouldy Bit on The Carpet Over There, His Holiness (of the sock) Ivan Brett esq.

As if you needed them, here are some more idiots!

Bob Higglebottom (Hanwell Fields Community School)

Who’d want a miniature golf course folded up in their bag? Bob Higglebottom, that’s who. Bob gets bored sometimes, so he dons a caveman outfit, jumps inside his own ManBag and plays a quick round of golf. He also has his name written on his clothes in fur, in case he forgets who he is. Bob also wears a tiny tiny Santa hat on his head, a sign that he likes Christmas, but only a bit.

Rusula Tooting-Corvesch (Papplewick School)

Rusula is an artist. But she’s no ordinary artist, oh no. Bored with the oh-so conventional painting and drawing, she threw herself (quite literally, in some cases) into her work, experimenting with all sorts of ridiculous techniques. She’s strung pillows to her knees, a simple but effective method in painting broad brushes of colour with ones legs (as long as you don’t mind getting your pillows all painty). Perhaps most importantly, she’s developing a disgusting new technique involving that bag of conkers she’s carrying. She eats them, which of course is dangerous because they’re a bit poisonous and not really very tasty. Then she throws them up onto her canvas (I didn’t promise Rusula was nice. It’s your fault for reading this bit if you’re insulted) and sells them to silly men who wouldn’t know a good drawing if it hit them in the face. (Rusula also does that, if you’re interested. She calls it Bruisism.)

Henglosobom Bob (William Patten School)

Everyone has five legs, right? Henglosobom Bob has five legs, and if anyone says that’s not normal he’ll have your eye out with his hat. Now Henglosobom’s got a problem. It’s baking summer, there’s a hosepipe ban and Henglosobom’s gone and broken his cold vein! That’s right, the vein that carries all the cold around your body has broken so he’s all hot and sweaty and generally not nice to be around. No worries though, because he’s enlisted the help of his trusty Icicat! That’s right, an Icicat is the answer to all your mid-summer needs. Keep him in the freezer* and take him with you on a sunny day. Icicat will keep you cool for up to 12 hours**! That’s a money-back guarantee!***

*Please do not keep your Icicat in the freezer.

**Min. 1 second, max. 12 hours.

***It’s not in any way a money-back guarantee. Please don’t buy an Icicat. Just get a normal one. They are fine and fluffy unless you get one of those bald ones, so don’t get them either unless you like bald ones. But honestly, who likes bald ones?

And that’s all I’ve got for now. Hope everyone’s found their idiot! If you can’t see yours, scroll down to have a look at my earlier posts.

Phew, so I’m back from Spill the Ink! (Actually that’s a sort-of-lie. There’s one more event tomorrow in Stoke Newington.) I’ve got loads of great kids’ creations to upload and I’ll get to those over the next couple of days. For all you visiting this site there’s a couple of great links to follow where you can find out more about the book.

Firstly, here’s an interview I did for kids’ newspaper ‘First News’, the questions written by young reader Harry Lynn:

http://www.firstnews.co.uk/discover/first-news-interviews-ivan-brett-author-of-casper-candlewacks-in-death-by-pigeon-i724

Then there’s this feature on my book in National Geographic Kids magazine, featuring a fun video I did a few months ago introducing the book:

http://ngkids.co.uk/inside_scoop/1571/read__casper_candlewacks_in_death_by_pigeon_by_ivan_brett

Please have a look at those. I’ll be back tomorrow with some of the crazy characters my Spill the Ink kids made up. WHAT A FANTASTIC TOUR!

So the big thing coming up for me is the Spill the Ink Tour, a big roadshow organised by HarperCollins where a few children’s authors (4 this year) travel around the country for a week, visiting schools and bookshops to spread the word about our books.
I’m lucky enough to be part of it this year – an incredibly exciting prospect as it’s my first real author tour. I’ll keep you up to date on all the adventures we get up to on this blog, but you can also visit the hub of the action HERE!

If things go to plan, my events at schools will involve the kids making some pretty special creations, which I’ll stick pictures of up on here too. (Believe me, you don’t want to miss that.)

A couple of other things for now…once Spill the Ink (or SPINK, as my editor has taken to calling it) is over, I’ll be getting started on the ‘Ask a Character’ feature. It’ll be your chance to ask anything you like to one of the characters in my book. First up will be Casper himself, so get your thinking caps on and work out what you want to ask him. Anything goes (except for rude questions, obviously, and boring questions or questions about lobsters or in fact any seafood, to be honest. Also don’t ask him about anything with the letter ‘d’ in it, and he doesn’t much like question marks so make it more of a statement). You’ll have your chance to ask Casper your question in a later post, so save them up for now. Write them on your hand in permanent marker, or even on your head. Remember though, if you do write questions on your head you’ll need to write them backwards so you can read them on a mirror. Thank me later.

Secondly, a couple of people have been asking about reviews. If you’ve come to this site having read the book I’d love you to get in touch in the comments section below. Tell me what you thought! (Currently the email address on the left hand side doesn’t work, so don’t try that unless you really like receiving failure notifications. There are also loads of places on the internet that you can leave a public review, like here or here, but definitely not here.

See you at SPINK!

We all love free stuff, right? I certainly do. When I’m in Sainsbury’s and they have those little pots of cheese cubes on cocktail sticks I’ll keep going past with my trolley pretending I forgot something else on the other aisle. Then, once they start recognising me I’ll buy an array of funny hats (at great expense) for a foolproof disguise.

Anyway, free stuff. Right now on the new Tesco Kids’ Book Club website (which is very fresh and flashy, by the way!), you can read a short story involving Casper Candlewacks for the low, low price of ABSOLUTELY FREE. Check it out HERE!

Do rate and comment if you feel inclined, it all helps. While you’re there, read some of the other stories. A handful of great kids’ authors have written exclusive stories for the site, and they’re all brilliant! Have a read of Andy Stanton’s and Anthony McGowan’s at the very least.

If that whets your whistle, there’s also the first chapter of ‘Casper Candlewacks in Death by Pigeon!’ on my Amazon Page, all illustrated and looking lovely, for you to read. Scroll down below the picture of a kindle to the word ‘Extract’, or just click HERE .

Ooh, I’m enjoying posting all these links. It’s such fun.