Tom Gates is excited to celebrate his birthday and the upcoming school dance with a smile on his face, but everyone else seems bent on ruining his good mood. Math is kicking his butt. Marcus is annoying him at school. Worst of all, Tom's dad may or may not have offered to deejay the school dance dressed in the crazy outfit his new job gave him.

The top-selling U.K. series for middle-grade readers now crosses the pond! Meet Tom Gates. When his teachers don't have their beady eyes on him, he likes to draw pictures and write about stuff, like last summer's worst camping vacation ever (five merits!), or how much he hates sitting next to nosy Marcus Meldrew, the most annoying boy at school. All Tom really wants is to score tickets to see the best band ever, Dude3, when they come to town, and

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Fiction in the form of a humorous diary in which Tom Gates tells about his desire for a dog, the difficulties of enrichment week at school, his Dad's desire to take the family kiting, and Tom's band the Dogzombies who are practising for the Rock Weekly Band Battle.

From the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, the Best Book for Younger Readers - Red House Children's Book Award, the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 5 - 12 year-olds and the Blue Peter Best Story Book Award 2013, comes the ninth amazing instalment of this brilliant series!

Here's my excellent plan to make Dogzombies the best band in the whole wide world! How hard can it be? Right. Now I'm going to: 1. Write more songs. (not about teachers.) 2. Make a spectacular music video. (easy.) 3. Get some sleep. (tricky when you're being kept awake by loud noises.) 4. Annoy Delia. (nothing to do with Dogzombies but always fun).

Having two sets of grandparents is turning out to be very good for me. The Wrinklies are keen on giving presents and they're planning a family outing which is going to be epic! Even Delia wants to come. (I can always ignore her.)

"Tom has some very BIG plans! Tom and his band, The DogZombies, have some big plans! First they need to catch a glimpse into Delia's secret diary. But that'll mean taking a BIG risk: snooping in her room! Then they're going to write a new smash-hit single. (Which means stocking up on essential snacks.) Plus, Tom's got to doodle as much as possible, especially when Marcus is watching! It's lucky Tom's fuelled by biscuits, or he'd never have the energy...

"When Mum and Dad forget it's half term, what's Tom going to do to keep busy over the break?! A weeks' worth of drawing, doodling, games, stories and activities in this fantastic new illustrated offering from bestselling author of the Tom Gates series, Liz Pichon"--Provided by publisher.

Since Tom forgets everything, it's not surprising that he forgot all about the trip he's supposed to go on with class 5F. It's good that his family helps keep him on track (even, once in a while, his grumpy sister, Delia)! Luckily, there are loads of excellent things to do on the trip, like making rafts, eating snacks, and seeing some very weird creatures. That is, as long as Tom doesn't get stuck in a group with anyone who snores or worse (looking...

Some things are a lot more fun than others, for instance: 1. Leaping in the air and accidentally breaking a bone in my foot. (NOT fun.) 2. Doodling on my plastercast. (FUN.) 3. Hanging out with a kid who likes to eat sugar from a bowl. (NOT fun.) 4. Watching squirrels steal stuff from the garden. (Who knew that would be SO much FUN?)