Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle is rude, silly, irreverent, and infectiously funny in this, his first book for children.

His first novel, The Commitments, was published to great acclaim in 1987 and was made into a very successful film by Alan Parker. The Snapper was published in 1990 and has also been made into a film, directed by Stephen Frears. The Van was shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize and made into a film, also by Stephen Frears. Paddy Clarke Ha, Ha, Ha, which won the Booker Prize in 1993, was the largest-selling winner in the history of the prize and has been published in nineteen languages. His recent novels are The Woman Who Walked Into Doors (1996) and the New York Times bestseller A Star Called Henry (1999).

Doyle was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1958, where he now lives with his wife and three children.

Click here for transcripts from an interview with Roddy

Brian Ajhar

Brian Ajhar is an illustrator whose work has appeared in such magazines as Time, Newsweek, Forbes, and Rolling Stone. He is also the illustrator of the picture book, Scarlett Angelina Wolverton-Manning.