to me.I’m very lucky. It turns out you can make a living from getting lost in your own imagination and now I do it every day. I also still force my extended family to listen to my stories.Why do you think children are attracted to the idea of aliens

? Lots of people. My family - my mother used to draw for me all the time when I was little and my father read me stories. Later on, when I was at university, he became a highly skilled ( and very useful) dummy book maker as I hated doing it. I’m incapable

, though she was never very friendly towards people, she and Percy got on very well and would happily spend their days grooming each other. I think the two little birds at the start of Birdsong might be my budgies, as they become very friendly in the book

's Knickers, these golden underpants belong to King Colin. Then one night, horror of horror, the royal pants – affectionately referred to by King Col as "my underpants of glory, my underpants of power!” – are stolen by a giant. Who can save the day? Why, it

Picture Book Of The Year *Highly Commended*Zoo Girl by Rebecca Elliott Lion Hudson £5.99, 2+The story of a lonely little girl, without family or friends, who one day gets left behind on a trip to the zoo. There she finds the closeness she craves

of the story altogether. So in the end the whole book is told in just 20 words! I know from experience that attention spans in children are, well, challenging –  I often find myself reading a book to Toby in my own words rather than ploughing through