There’s a great first review for Four Up In Lights in Buzz Words. Here’s a short extract:
Award-winning author of over 70 books, Sophie Masson has clearly had a lot of fun creating these four endearing characters, putting them in all sorts of trouble and helping them find their way out with plenty of chuckles and adventure along the way.
Cheryl Orsini’s fun illustrations bring the characters to life and capture both the tension and celebration of the story as it unfolds.
Perfect for young readers, aged 5–8, Maxie, Flash, Fergie, and Lady once again demonstrate the importance of friendship and the joy of adventure. With a hot-wheeling pace, Four Up in Lights will keep readers engaged and wanting to read the story in one sitting.
Yay! Today is publication day for Four Up In Lights, the third and final book in a little series I created with illustrator Cheryl Orsini, about the adventures of four friends who happen to be vintage vehicles! Published by Christmas Press, Four Up In Lights follows on from Four All At Sea(2021) and Four On the Run(2020) and were huge fun to write.
Here’s hoping the four friends’ final adventure finds many many readers, as the earlier books have done! And cheers to Maxie, Fergie, Lady and Flash, four fabulous characters who drove their way into my imagination quite a while ago–and who have been brought to such fantastic visual life by the wonderful Cheryl Orsini!
Four Up In Lights is available from any bookshop around Australia, as are the earlier two books. And you can find a fun little trailer for Four Up In Lightshere.
Christmas Press have just put up a great little trailer for Four Up In Lights, my chapterbook with Cheryl Orsini, which comes out in September. Have a look!
I’m delighted to reveal the gorgeous cover of Four Up In Lights, the third and final in the fun little chapter-book series I’ve created with the wonderful illustrator Cheryl Orsini. The series, which has been very popular with young readers, is about the funny, fast-paced adventures of four friends who just happen to be vintage vehicles–two cars, a motorbike and a tractor–and I’ve really loved writing it, and loved, too, collaborating with Cheryl, who has made our four friends come to such lively, characterful and endearing life! Four Up In Lights will be released in September by Christmas Press, and is a sequel to Four On The Run(2020) and Four All At Sea (2021).
Isn’t the cover just beautiful! And below the cover you can also see the books as a set–they look pretty good together, don’t they!
I’m very pleased to announce the launch of the crowdfunding campaign for a unique and wonderful book I’m involved in, as part of the writing and production team–Inside Story: the wonderful world of writing, illustrating and publishing children’s books.
Inside Story will be a full colour illustrated book, an invaluable resource and guide for aspiring writers, illustrators, editors and designers, but also of great appeal to anyone interested in the wonderful world of Australian children’s books. Commissioned by the New England Writers’ Centre, with the support of Create NSW, it is being produced and published by UPA Books, the collaborative imprint newly launched by United Publishers of Armidale partners Christmas Press and Little Pink Dog Books, working with a team of local professional writers, illustrators, designers, and editors. Contributions from other creatives and professionals–writers, illustrators, editors, designers, agents, publishers, booksellers and reviewers- from across the country are also included. The book will be published under the UPA Books banner in May 2022.
The crowdfunding campaign is to raise funds for printing, marketing etc. Here’s the direct link to the campaign, which includes a video, lots of good FAQs, and all details of perks etc:
There are great perks available for campaign backers, including, of course, copies of the book. Regular updates on progress of the book will be posted on the campaign page. The crowdfunding campaign will end on Dec 2.
And here below is the fabulous video to introduce the crowdfunding campaign, and the project itself. Hope you might consider joining us!
I’m really delighted to reveal the fantastic cover of Four All at Sea, my forthcoming chapterbook with the fabulous illustrator Cheryl Orsini, to be published by Christmas Press in September. It’s a sequel to our 2020 chapterbook, Four on the Run. Isn’t it the most gorgeous cover! Four all at Sea was such a fun book to write, like Four on the Run–I just love writing about these four friends who just happen to be machines, and their crazy adventures!
To give you a little taste of what the book’s about, here’s a short outline:
After the adventures of Four on the Run, Maxie, Lady, Flash and Fergie are set for a new life as film stars and a luxury cruise overseas. But when they are washed overboard in a storm and land on a desert island, it seems their troubles are only just beginning! Because somebody else is there–someone who is not very friendly—a rusty old tank that thinks there’s still a war on! They need to escape from the island and get back to their ship and very worried Mrs Brown. …but how?
Delighted to announce the virtual launch of Four on the Run today, which is happening on the United Publishers of Armidale website! The book, illustrated by Cheryl Orsini and published by Christmas Press, is being launched by the wonderful author Lesley Gibbes, in the first of four pre-recorded videos which also includes a talk by me about the book, a reading of the first chapter, and a book trailer. Available from this morning and well beyond. Check it all out here. And hope you enjoy!
I am delighted to reveal the gorgeous cover of Four on the Run, my chapterbook for young readers, illustrated throughout by the wonderful Cheryl Orsini. The fabulous cover illustration is by Cheryl of course, and the lively design is by Authors’ Elves. The book is coming out with Christmas Press in September.
I absolutely loved writing this fun little book, about the adventures of a quartet of lovable vintage vehicles who run away from home, and I was thrilled when Cheryl, whose illustrations of friendly, characterful vehicles I’ve loved in others of her books, agreed to illustrate my story.
Here’s the blurb of the book:
Maxie, Fergie, Flash and Lady are good friends who live in Mrs Brown’s farm shed. Life isn’t exciting, but they’re happy. Until the day they learn that Mrs Brown wants to sell them–to the scrap yard! So they decide to run away, and life suddenly becomes very exciting for the four lovable machines in a series of adventures that puts them in more trouble than they ever imagined!
Written by award-winning author Sophie Masson, with lively, appealing pictures by acclaimed illustrator Cheryl Orsini, Four On the Run is a fresh, funny and original chapter book which is great fun both for reading aloud and for young readers to read by themselves.
Feathers of the Firebird 