Rabbit and Bear: Rabbit's Bad Habits: Book 1

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goes from strength to strength with The Pest in the Nest, in which Spring has sprung and Rabbit is out of sorts with everyone, whether they're loud and happy or sad and slow. So my daughter and I started talking about how terrible the book was, and about how it could be better. You couldn’t tell any of the animals apart: they all talked the same, and acted the same, and were nice and friendly to each other, until the book ended, or the reader died of boredom, whichever came first.

This is an ideal series for children progressing from picture books - there are plenty of illustrations to accompany satisfying storylines.something which will get handed on to younger brothers and sisters (because it's a book for boys and girls) and probably onto the next generation. She laughed at the good bits, frowned at the bad bits, and, at one point (while I was reading her the latest version of a funny scene), burst into tears. The sort of story that makes you want to send your children to bed early, so you can read it to them. But of course it took AN INCREDIBLY LONG TIME to get from our rough and scruffy bedtime story to the finished book ( Rabbit’s Bad Habits, which was finally published this year with Jim Field’s amazing pictures).

From novelist and playwright Julian Gough, and the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Jim Field, this is a tale of friendship, wisdom, and how to be REALLY NOISY. Animals wee on the carpet sometimes, and sniff each other’s bottoms ALL the time, and chew the furniture. Rabbit’s Bad Habits is a breath of fresh air in children’s fiction, a laugh-out-loud story of rabbit and wolf and bear, of avalanches and snowmen.Anyway, it was a picture book about a nice, friendly, perfectly boring rabbit and a nice, friendly, perfectly boring bear. One night, I was reading the most boring children’s book in the long history of the world to my daughter, Sophy (who was six at the time). Jim Field: ‘I then developed this character sheet which was really useful to keep the character consistent throughout the book.

It’s not because I’m nice and friendly and perfect: it’s not because she is nice and friendly and perfect (though she is my favourite person on earth): It’s because I got her to do loads of unpaid work on the book, and stole all her ideas. The next book in the bestselling series for newly independent readers with these laugh-out-loud tales of friendship, adventure and a little bit of poo! And, finally – with her help – I think I found a way to combine Winnie the Pooh, and wildlife documentaries. I had to get the story as good as I could get it, before my agent could look for a publisher, and get an award-winning, genius illustrator like Jim to bring it to life.What is the point of having bears and rabbits in your story if they aren’t WILD, and doing the crazy, surprising, and often rather rude things real bears and rabbits do? She enjoyed it enormously, but, of course, it wasn’t perfect (because nothing is perfect, especially the very rough first try at a story). At one point, a third friendly, boring animal arrived, just to give the illustrator something new to draw (she must have been getting bored too).