TITLE: The Brilliant World of Tom Gates

Publisher: Scholastic (paperback)

Tom Gates is the master of excuses for late homework: dog attacks - spilt water - lightning.. Tom's exercise book is full of his doodles, cartoons and thoughts, as well as comments from his long-suffering teacher, Mr Fullerton. After gaining five merits for his CAMPING SUCKS holiday story, Tom's work starts to go downhill - which is a pity, as he's desperate to impress Amy Porter, who sits next to him...

TITLE: Tom Gates Excellent Excuses

Publisher: Scholastic (paperback)

"No school for two whole weeks! (Yeah!) I can forget ALL about lessons (and irritating things like Marcus Meldrew). And concentrate on good stuff like: Inventing new ways to annoy my sister Delia. (So many). Band practice for DOGZOMBIES (with my mate Derek). Watching TV and eating caramel wafers. Eating caramel wafers and watching TV. Excellent. Unfortunately a couple of small problems called the dentist and my big weirdo sister, Delia, seem to be getting in the way of my BRILLIANT plans . . ."