The modern classic is out now!
Pernickety BOO by award-winning author Sally Gardner and acclaimed artist Chris Mould
5th June 2025 | 9780008602673| £7.99, PB HarperCollins Children’s Books
Brought to life by a careless sorcerer, Pernickety Boo is a well-educated umbrella with unexplored magical powers – and after he is left behind on the London Underground by his forgetful creator, Pernickety must find an owner: someone who will truly love him.
So when Pernickety meets young Sylvie Moonshine and is welcomed into her home, he thinks that all of his prayers have been answered. But there are plenty of other people who are also interested in the magical umbrella, and who threaten to separate Pernickety from his beloved Sylvie, unless he can find a way to stop them.
Beautifully illustrated in black and white by Greenaway-shortlisted artist Chris Mould and written by Carnegie and Costa Award-winning author Sally Gardner, this unforgettable and magical novel has all the hallmarks of a future classic.
Sally Gardner is a multi-award-winning novelist, whose books have sold over 2 million copies in the UK and been translated into more than 25 languages. Sally earned a First-Class Honours degree from Central St. Martin’s Art School and worked for many years as a theatre designer, working on some notable productions. After her twin daughters and her son were born, she started to illustrate children’s books, and then turned to writing. She won the 2005 Nestle Smarties Children’s Book Prize for her first full-length novel I, Coriander (2005), and won both the Costa Children’s Book Prize and the Carnegie Medal for Maggot Moon (2012). Sally is an avid spokesperson for dyslexia. Having been branded ‘unteachable’ by some and sent to various schools, Sally was eventually diagnosed at the age of twelve as being severely dyslexic and is passionately trying to change how dyslexia is perceived by society.
Chris Mould is an award-winning illustrator who went to art school at 16. A sublime draftsman with a penchant for the gothic, he has illustrated the gamut from picture books and young fiction to theatre posters and satirical cartoons for national newspapers. His stunning reimagining of Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal and was a Waterstones selection of best books and shortlisted by Foyles for Book of the Year. He lives in Yorkshire with his wife, has two grown-up daughters, and when he’s not drawing and writing, you’ll find him… actually, he’s never not drawing or writing.
