This is the book I'm working on at the moment. It's a book for 6-8 year olds and will have lots of

black and white illustrations.

                                   CHARLIE ZOUP AND THE ICE MONSTER

                                                            CHAPTER 1

All the monsters in the world are out to get me.

Last week I opened the door of my Aunt Lucy's garden shed, and POW, a giant earthworm frazzled and zapped me. Early this morning a scratchy, scratchy monster crawled through the pipes and into my bedroom cupboard.

The noise woke me up. The cupboard door was rattling! The monster was coming to get me. BANG! BANG! He was thumping the door.

HELP!

‘Mum, where are you? Hurry up!’ I shouted.
I only have one mother and she was ignoring me.

Dad was outside mowing the lawn and Mum was in the bathroom. I pulled my Star Wars duvet right up to my chin. If we're in a bad mood, Mrs. Plummet, our smiley teacher, makes us draw happy faces in our exercise book. You can’t draw happy faces when you’re facing a monster. So I’d have to draw a scary face. One with wobbly lip and hair standing up on end.

‘Mum!’

My best friend, Charlie Zoup, was being really brave? He spread out his arms and pushed against the door. RATTLE! RATTLE! The monster pushed even harder.

‘Where’s your mother?’ Charlie asked crossly. ‘I can't hold on much longer.'

‘Still cleaning her teeth,’ I told him.

GRRRRRR! The monster snarled.

Charlie huffed and puffed so hard the curtains moved. ‘Just how many teeth has your mother got?’ he snapped. ‘Shout her again, only louder. ‘Monsters are dangerous, especially when they eat you.’

‘Muuuuuum. It’s going to gobble me up!’

Mum flew into my bedroom. She wasn’t really flying, just walking very fast. Like magic, the shaking and rattling stopped. Mum hadn’t brushed her hair and she was still wearing her pink dressing gown. She looked around the room. She couldn't see the monster and she couldn't see Charlie Zoup. That's because he's invisible.

‘No monster would dare to gobble you up, Ben Adams.’ Mum pointed her toothbrush at me. ‘Do you know why? Because you’d give any monster a serious bout of indigestion, that‘s why. It’d need a wheelbarrow full of indigestion tablets and a week in bed to recover.’ Mum looked at her watch and frowned. ‘I’m going to be late for work, again. Dad is going into town to buy paint. We’re painting Grandma’s kitchen tomorrow? How many times have I asked you to get out of bed?’

‘Twice?’

Mum held up four fingers. ‘Four times, Ben. Four times.’

‘I can’t get out of bed. Charlie said the monster will pull out my veins one, roll them into a ball and knit them into a sweater.’

‘Rubbish! You and that Charlie Zoup.’ Mum was trying hard to pull off my duvet, but I held on to it very tightly. ‘Where’s the scratching noise coming from?’ she asked.

‘Ssssh! You’ve got to whisper.’ I said. ‘The monster can hear you talking.’

Bravely, I peered over the side of the bed. Mum crouched down and looked under the bed. ‘Was the scratching noise under here?’ she asked.

‘Nope. I’m checking for nipping carpet beetles,’ I told her. ‘Charlie says they nibble all your skin and turn you into a walking skeleton.’

Mum put her hands on her hips. That’s a bad sign. It means she’s getting impatient. So, I pointed to the blue cupboard in the corner of my bedroom. The one Dad built to hide the rattling pipes.

‘It’s in there. Scratch, scratch, scratch.’ I made a claw shape with my fingers. ‘It kept me awake all night,’ I said. ‘I thought it was going to sneak under my bedclothes and attack me.’

Mum closed one eye and stared at my pyjamas. Then she looked at my feet. ‘Is that why you slept with your shoes and socks on?’

‘And my bicycle helmet. Monsters can climb under your bedclothes, up your legs, over your stomach, onto your face, and into your ears. They can crawl inside your head and eat your brain?’

Why was Mum laughing? Being brainless is not a joke. The wind would whistle in through my ears and whoosh around and around inside my skull. I’d have to wear a woolly hat, even in the summer.

Mum walked over to the cupboard. She pulled open the door. She was ready to fight the monster. ‘Mum, be careful,’ I shouted.

All sorts of things tumbled out of my cupboard and onto the floor. Mum put her head in the cupboard... There was no sign of the monster… I bet it had crawled back into the pipes. It was waiting for Mum to leave the room.

Mum studied the mess on the floor. On top of the pile of clothes and books and shoes and sweet papers was a plate. So, that’s where I’d left my plate of sprouts and gravy. I’d been looking for it everywhere.

Picking up the plate, Mum prodded a sprout, and then waved the plate under my nose. The sprouts were wrinkled and the gravy looked like a sea of dried mud. ‘You eat sprouts,’ Mum said. ‘You do not hide them in your bedroom cupboard. We’ve probably got mice.’

‘You know I hate sprouts,’ I told her in my most miserable voice. ‘Charlie Zoup told me he’s going to collect all the sprouts in the world and make one gigantic bonfire. Then he’s going to blow all the sprouts into outer space. Pow! Pow! Pow!

Mum looked at the picture on my bedroom wall. It’s a drawing of Charlie Zoup. Charlie always wears the same clothes, a red and white tee shirt, black trousers and yellow trainers. I’ve drawn Charlie wrestling a ferocious crocodile. Mum was frowning at his picture. The real Charlie Zoup was looking at me, rolling his eyes and shrugging his shoulders.

‘We haven’t got mice,’ I told her. ‘Charlie says it’s an enormous rat. It’s as long as my arm and it’s got steel teeth and a tail that gives you electric shocks.’

‘Charlie Zoup does not exist,’ Mum said.

‘Oh yes I do,’ Charlie said crossly and he did a handstand onto my bed.

‘And neither do monster rats.’ Mum put down the plate and opened my curtains. ‘Ben Adams, you were born with too much imagination. Sometimes I wonder which planet you live on?'

How silly is that? Mum knows Charlie Zoup comes from the planet Verucca and that I live at number 2, Pleasant Avenue with my Mum and my Dad and two spotted fish called Thick and Mick.

I’m glad I don’t live with my Grandma, she lives in a creepy house in the countryside. Charlie Zoup says there are vampires living in the attic. They have long fingernails and snot hanging from their noses. Snot is cool, especially when it’s stretchy. I hate long fingernails. Although they’re handy if you’ve got a fly up your nose.

‘Ben, are you listening to me?’ Mum said. ‘I’ll ask your Dad to check for mice. By the time, I get back from work I want this bedroom cleared up. I want to be able to eat my tea off your bedroom floor.’

Charlie screwed up his face. ‘That is totally disgusting.’

I pulled a face at Mum. ‘Charlie Zoup thinks that’s a very bad idea. You said we were having spaghetti for tea.’

‘Very funny.’ Mum stabbed her finger at Charlie’s picture. ‘Forget about Charlie Zoup. Climb a tree, run around the park. No wonder Mrs. Plummet wrote on your report, “Ben spends most of his time staring into space.”

‘Mrs. Plummet should know better,’ I said. ‘She knows that when I am staring into space I am checking that Charlie Zoup is safe. Someone has to look out for you when you’re flying through space on some dangerous mission.’

‘Mothers,’ Charlie said, ‘I just don’t understand them. On planet Verucca we only hire mothers when we need to wash our underpants.’