Lesson Plans For The Tom Gates Series by Liz Pichon

LESSON PLANS FOR THE
series by Liz Pichon
HC: 978-0-7636-7472-4 HC: 978-0-7636-7474-8 HC: 978-0-7636-7473-1

PB: 978-0-7636-8068-8 PB: 978-0-7636-8780-9 PB: 978-0-7636-9098-4
HC: 978-1-5362-0129-1 HC: 978-1-5362-0130-7
Lesson plans copyright © 2014 by Scholastic (UK). Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Liz Pichon.
CONTENTS
Lesson Plans
Lesson 1: A Tiny Bit Fruity …………………………………………………........…....................... page 3
Lesson 2: Monsters and Aliens …………………………………………............................….... page 5
Lesson 3: Dude3 ………………………………………......……………..…............................…......….. page 8
Lesson 4: Snack Time …………………………………...………………..........................…...…....... page 10
Activity Sheets
Activity Sheet 1: The Crazy Fruit Bunch ……………………………….....................…… page 13
Activity Sheet 2: Drawing with Scissors ………………………………....................….… page 14
Activity Sheet 3: Monstrous Calligrams ………………………….…....................……… page 15
Activity Sheet 4: Monstrous Mash-Up …………………………….……..................……… page 16
Activity Sheet 5: Invisible Ink ……………………………………….…….….........................… page 17
Activity Sheet 6: Comic Strip Template ………………………………...................….…… page 18
Activity Sheet 7: Band T-Shirt ………………………………….....................…….............……. page 19
Activity Sheet 8: Revolting Recipes ……………………….…………...................….….…… page 20
Extracts
Extract 1: from Tom Gates: A Tiny Bit Lucky .......................................................... page 21
Extract 2: from Tom Gates Is Absolutely Fantastic (at Some Things) .... page 28
Extract 3: from Tom Gates: Genius Ideas (Mostly) ............................................ page 29
Extract 4: from The Brilliant World of Tom Gates .............................................. page 33
Tom Gates Teachers’ Guide • Candlewick Press • www.candlewick.com • page 2

LESSON 1
A Tiny Bit Fruity
Objectives
• To explore and experiment with a variety of artistic techniques and
materials.
• To learn an artist’s technique and apply it to their own work.
Activities
• Create string prints and cut-paper collages linked to the work of
Matisse.
Resources
• Activity Sheet 1: The Crazy Fruit Bunch
• Activity Sheet 2: Drawing with Scissors
• Extract 1: from Tom Gates: A Tiny Bit Lucky
• Extract 2: from Tom Gates Is Absolutely Fantastic (at Some Things)
• Video: Liz Pichon demonstrates how to doodle a character from the
Crazy Fruit Bunch on the Videos of Liz Pichon playlist at
www.youtube.co.uk/scholasticfilmsuk.

Read Extract 1 from Tom Gates: A Tiny Bit Lucky,* where Tom’s favorite TV
show, The Crazy Fruit Bunch, is mentioned. Invite children to use the fruit
outlines on Activity Sheet 1 to create their own Crazy Fruit Bunch. They
can add funny faces, draw arms and legs, and invent names for the different
characters. Share different examples with the class.
*This book is not yet availabe in the U.S., but you can complete the activity using the extract!
Task 1
Tom uses a length of string to create doodles of a snail and a monster.
Provide each child with a piece of string and give them time to explore using
it to produce different shapes. Explain that they are now going to create
a permanent string doodle by gluing the string to a piece of card stock.
Encourage them to draw the outline in pencil first and then use a brush
to apply glue over the outline, sticking the string down as they go. Let dry
completely.
Task 2
Once the string doodles are dry, they can be used to print repeating patterns.
Apply paint to the doodles using a brush or sponge roller. Experiment with
printing using different colored paints and backgrounds.
Task 3
Use Activity Sheet 2 to introduce children to Matisse’s cutouts, especially
The Snail. Provide strips of colored paper and scissors, then ask the children
to create cutout collages in the style of Matisse. You can have them use the
fruit shapes on Activity Sheet 1 for inspiration, re-creating shapes they can
see in the fruit. Explain that their collages can be any color — Matisse’s snail
is multicolored.
Extension
In Tom Gates Is Absolutely Fantastic (at Some Things), Tom starts a craze
for banana doodles. Have the children read Extract 2, which shows them
how to create banana doodles. Encourage them to re-create their Crazy
Fruit Bunch characters on a banana.

LESSON 2
Monsters and Aliens
Objectives
• Choose appropriate presentational features for a calligram and be able
to explain why these effects have been chosen.
• Choose words carefully for effective description.
• Explore how everyday objects can create chemical changes.
Activities
• Create monster calligrams and descriptions.
• Write messages in invisible ink.
Resources
• Activity Sheet 3: Monstrous Calligrams
• Activity Sheet 4: Monstrous Mash-Up
• Activity Sheet 5: Invisible Ink
• Activity Sheet 6: Comic Strip Template
• Extract 3: from Tom Gates: Genius Ideas (Mostly)
• Video: Liz Pichon demonstrates how to doodle calligrams on the Videos
of Liz Pichon playlist at www.youtube.co.uk/scholasticfilmsuk.

A calligram is a word in which the design of the letters creates an image that
relates to or illustrates the meaning of that word. Write the word calligram on
the board and ask children if it reminds them of any other words. Explain that
calligraphy is the art of beautiful writing, and a calligram shows the meaning
of a word in the way it is written. The Tom Gates books are full of calligrams.
Children can look through copies of the books to find examples, or can look at
those provided on Activity Sheet 3.
Task 1
Invite children to create their own monstrous calligrams using the adjectives
on Activity Sheet 3. Or, brainstorm your own words to use.
Task 2
Tom likes to draw monsters, often inspired by his irritating classmate Marcus
Meldrew. Have children try this monstrous mash-up:
• Sort the children into groups of three and give each group a piece of paper.
• Without showing their work to the others, have one child draw the monster’s
head (or heads!) at the top of the page and then fold over the paper so that
just the neck is showing.
• The next child draws the arms and body, then folds the paper over as before.
The final member of the group draws the legs and feet.
• The paper can then be unfolded to reveal the monster. Have the group come
up with a name for their monster.
• The group can then go back and write a monstrous description for each part
of the monster’s body.
Task 3
Cut out the description cards on Activity Sheet 4. Use these to inspire
children to create their own monster pictures or models to match.

Task 4
Read Extract 3 from Tom Gates: Genius Ideas (Mostly), where Tom
creates his own monster alien code. Invite children to use Tom’s code
to write a secret message for a partner to decipher, or to inspire their
own codes.
Task 5
Tom gets annoyed when Marcus looks at what he is writing or
drawing. Follow the instructions on Activity Sheet 5 and use invisible
ink for writing messages (or secret doodles!). Explain that the
invisible ink works because the lemon juice is acidic. When it is
painted on the paper, it weakens the paper, causing this part of the
paper to turn brown more quickly when exposed to heat.
Extension
Use the comic strip template on Activity Sheet 6 to illustrate
adventures for the monsters created in Tasks 2 and 3.

LESSON 3
Dude3
Objectives
• Work effectively in a group to design and make musical instruments.
• Compose and perform a piece of music to evoke particular responses.
Activities
• Build musical instruments that can be used in performances.
• Compose a musical score.
• Design T-shirts for children’s own bands.
Resources
• Activity Sheet 7: Band T-Shirt
• Extract 4: from The Brilliant World of Tom Gates
• Video: Liz Pichon demonstrates how to doodle the DogZombies band
logo on the Videos of Liz Pichon playlist at
www.youtube.co.uk/scholasticfilmsuk.

Tom’s favorite musical group is Dude3. And he and his best friends are in
a band called DogZombies. Look at Extract 4 from The Brilliant World of
Tom Gates, where Tom is brainstorming names for his band. Ask children to
discuss with a partner what they would call their band if they had one.
Task 1
Ask children to work in groups to look at a range of musical instruments
and then design and make their own from everyday objects. For example:
• Use a pin to make a small hole at the top and bottom of an egg and
carefully blow out the contents into a bowl so that you are left with just
the shell. Carefully enlarge one of the holes and insert some sunflower
seeds or lentils. Insert a straw into the hole and tape it in place to make
a handle. Cover your mini maraca in papier mâché, paint it, and shake it!
• Fill bottles with different amounts of liquid, then blow over the tops.
• Castanets can be made with bottle caps glued onto cardboard that is
folded in half.
• A guitar can be made with elastic bands strung over a box.
Task 2
In Tom Gates: Excellent Excuses (and Other Good Stuff), Tom watches
some scary films with his cousins: Vampire Swamp Monsters from Hell
and Bloodsucker Beetles vs. Giant Aliens. Ask children to imagine what
kinds of sounds these creatures might make. Explore the different sound
effects they can create using their voices, bodies, existing instruments,
or the instruments they made in Task 1. Ask children to compose the
score for one of these films. They should think about how they could
record their score on paper using different symbols: for example, monster
footprints to represent the different sounds.
Task 3
In Tom Gates Is Absolutely Fantastic (at Some Things), Tom wins a
competition in Rock Weekly to design a T-shirt for Dude3. Give children
copies of Activity Sheet 7 and ask them to design a T-shirt for the band
they named at the start.
LESSON 4
Snack Time
Objectives
• Use imperative verbs to write an instructional text.
• Estimate and calculate lengths using standard and non-standard units of
measure.
• Identify fractions of quantities.
Activities
• Create revolting recipes.
• Estimate different lengths using cookies.
• Create a math activity board game.
Resources
• Activity Sheet 8 – Revolting Recipes
• Liz Pichon demonstrates how to doodle different cooking verbs on the
Videos of Liz Pichon playlist at www.youtube.co.uk/scholasticfilmsuk.

Tom has a sweet tooth and always seems to be hungry. Invite children to
brainstorm as many imperative cooking verbs as they can: for example,
simmer, season, stir, boil, and so on.
Task 1
In Tom Gates: A Tiny Bit Lucky, Tom’s class makes pizzas as part of
enrichment week. But during the planning stage they come up with some
very strange toppings, such as raspberry jam and chips. Granny Mavis
is also known for her rather unappetizing recipes, such as Chicken and
Cornflake Surprise. In this activity, children will create their own recipes
for Granny Mavis.
Have the children pair up and give each team a copy of Activity Sheet 8.
Ask them to cut out the food cards, shuffle them, and place them facedown
on a table. Have them take turns flipping over the cards in order to come
up with combinations, then write out a recipe using the imperative verbs
from the lesson starter.
Task 2
Tom’s favorite food is caramel wafers, which are a type of cookie. So use
cookies as the basis for some tasty math. Develop children’s estimation
skills by asking them to predict different lengths using cookies as a unit
of measure. For example, how many cookies long is the table? How many
cookies would you need to put end to end to cross the classroom? Then
measure the length of a cookie in centimeters and calculate the exact
distances using multiplication.
Give groups of children a selection of different cookies and a large piece
of paper. Ask them to use the cookies to create an image — for example,
a face, a train, or a guitar. Then ask them to record what fraction of the
whole image has been made with each type of cookie. Can these fractions
be expressed in a simpler form? Arrange the fractions in order from least
to greatest. You can have students create word problems based on the
fractions or express the fractions as decimals. Whether or not you eat the
cookies afterward is up to you!

Task 3
The inside covers of Tom Gates: Extra Special Treats (Not) feature
Snakes and Ladders board games based on events in the book. Set groups
of children the challenge of designing and making a Tom Gates Snakes
and Wafers board game (substituting wafers for the usual ladders).
Explain that when you go down a snake you have to answer a math
challenge card, and when you go up a wafer you can turn over a doodle
challenge card. The children should devise their own questions for the
challenge cards, drawing on what they have been learning in math.
Extension
Give children the opportunity to play one another’s games and evaluate
one another’s challenge cards.

ACTIVITY SHEET 1
The Crazy Fruit Bunch
Add features to these fruits to create your own characters. Then use the shapes
you see in these fruits to create your own cutout collages.

ACTIVITY SHEET 2
Drawing with Scissors
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was a French artist. He was a great painter, but
toward the end of his life he had to spend a lot of time in bed. For this reason,
he started to create artwork using scissors and brightly colored paper. Most
of his cutouts are free-form shapes, which means that they are irregular
rather than geometric. Matisse spent a lot of time exploring the arrangement
of different shapes and colors on the paper, layering them before he glued
them down to create his finished pieces.
The colored shapes in Matisse’s collage The Snail make a spiral, just like the
shape of a snail’s shell.

NASTY SURPRISES
I just liked playing outside. Climbing
EMERGENCY
nd Se e y ou lateACTIVITY
r. SHEET 3 BIS C U
REATS g et
trees
ITS
and 1. T
TI
making thingsMonstrous
with twigsCalligrams
The Tom
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t ’s a goo d jo b I k e e p a few hidde n for
he Gates
tent wa
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of things.
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som eth ing l ike th is …
k
a big b rea kfa s t in t he m or ning.” But my EX
L W HAT?
her day.s tom ach kept and
“ ike ” I asked.
I cou ldn’t get to sle e p .
(MThe n
mmmmm , Ilet m e
m m . )re me m b ered th e se cret st ash of biscuit s Bis cui ts
m m Now choose one of the words below and try to create your own monstrous
m m calligram.
i n my bag. So I grabbed t he m and ate
t“You
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ll! C r u m b s got eveterrifying
monstrous rywhe re and it wa s
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out table in myalien
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t hough hairy
we h ad a “ fam ily devilish
te nt ” wit h se pa rate
it doesn’t matter what I made. The main thing w
rooms, D elia co u ld hear m e shift ing arou n d a n d
OUT toothy
I was fi dgeti ng . inIt the
was fresh
really air having
annoy ing he r.
scaly
BRILLIANT! So I did it some more. But
“P laying with twigs doesn’t sound like muc

at t h e s a m e ti m e I could also hear

ACTIVITY SHEET 4
Monstrous Mash-Up
Cut out the description cards below and use these to inspire children to
create their own monster pictures or models to match.
✁
THE GREEN SLIME MONSTER drops THE LONG-NECKED ZEBROID is stripy
revolting, shiny glop everywhere he and has a very long neck that can be
goes. He has four fearful heads, each tied in knots. She has three legs with
one with a single bulging eye. hooves.
THE SPRINGY ZOOM MONSTER THE FIZZY-FUZZER is covered with

has two springs instead of legs. He pink and purple fluff. When he opens
bounces everywhere he goes. He also his small mouth, bright green bubbles
has three purple fangs. come out.
THE SCALY SLOOP MONSTER has THE DODECA-SUCKER is a fearful

two heads, each with three long monster with twelve tentacles. Each
antennae. His skin is scaly and one has a powerful sucker on the
rainbow colored. He likes eating end, allowing the monster to climb
bananas. any surface.
THE GIANT SQUIDGE is an THE THREE-TALONED DEMON has

enormous blob that changes shape three feet at the end of each leg,
to fit in any space. He has three each with three long talons. He also
triangular eyes and long eyelashes. has a spiky tail.
THE SHARKY STINGER has a large THE SMELLY SOCK MONSTER can be
dorsal fin like a shark and lots of sniffed out long before she is seen.
spiky teeth. She runs very fast and She has five feet, each covered in
shoots poisonous darts from her tail. a brightly colored, extremely stinky
sock.

ACTIVITY SHEET 5
Invisible Ink
Create your own letters using invisible ink.
You will need:
• lemon juice
• cotton swabs
• hair dryer
What to do:
• Dip a cotton swab in the lemon juice and use it to write an invisible
message in the box below.
• Wait for the lemon juice to dry completely, then swap your sheet
with a classmate.
• Using a hair dryer on a hot setting, heat the paper and wait for the
messages to be revealed.
• What does your friend’s message say?

ACTIVITY SHEET 6
Comic Strip Template
Create your very own comic strip starring your monsters!

ACTIVITY SHEET 7
Band T-Shirt
Design a T-shirt for your band!

ACTIVITY SHEET 8
Revolting Recipes
Design some unusual food combinations for Granny Mavis using the food
cards below.
✁
cabbage lasagna rolls
banana biscuits chips
soup stew spaghetti
cornflakes meringues pie
kebabs chocolate in white wine
sandwiches meatballs eggplant
yogurt casserole cakes
quiche peanut carrot
lettuce porridge vol-au-vents
sausages lentils pasta
omelette fritters custard
EXTRACT 1
from Tom Gates: A Tiny Bit Lucky
d i n g t o my
A cc o r da
d
.….
.
THI
S bbiitt
ooff st
s tri
t rningg . …
. .
i s go i n g to b e . …
..
ak
e.
it
(Re Dad’s
a l ly ? ) f
It piec
do
esn I t
’t l
ook
much
like a KI
TE t
o
m
e?

ing
Str
Dad’s Dad’s just out

just run run to
outhisto shed
his shed to and
to go look look
for an even l o n g e r
piece of string. He’s been gone for a while now.
I thought about turning the TV back on?
But instead, I did THIS…

O K !
LO
d o o d le.
a s t r i ng o n d e r i n g . )
It ’ s in case you were w
il,
(A sna

Here’s another one…
How about I add
some drawing.?
YO!
Brilliant! (If I do say so myself.)

Who knew string could be so useful?
I have
string
(Apart from my Granny Mavis, of course.)
5

T NEXT
he time I’m in a lesson that gets
a bit dull (which happens), I’m going to
bring out my E M E R G E N C Y piece of
and make a few doodles.

That way it’ll look like I’m REALLY busy.
(Me being busy.)
WS hen Dad comes back from the shed he’s

M I L I N G and holding up .…. .
piece of string.
“Here we go, Tom, this is PERFECT.”

I string, thinking
’m looking at the string thinkingit’s exactly
– it’s exactly
the same as the OTHER piece.
bit?
“That’s great, Dad,” I say, trying to
sound enthusiastic (and failing).

NORMALLY I LOVE making things (like
my string doodles). But Dad came and interrupted
me when I was RIGHT in the middle of watching
T HE
C RA ZY
FR UIT B U N CH,
the BEST cartoon show EVER.
He stood in front of the and started

shaking his head in a disapproving kind of way.
“TOM, why are you stuck inside
watching when it’s SUCH a lovely day?”
he wanted to know.
– it was NOT a lovely day. It was damp and cold.
Firstly
Secondly – I was watching because
T HE
C RA ZY
FR UIT B U N CH was on and it’s

dn’t say that. I just kept my EYES
the screen and shrugged.
eSO many things you could be doing

STARING at a screen.
But I didn’t say that. I just kept my EYES
TOM, turn off the fixed on. the screen and shrugged.
There are SO many things you could be doing
w, Dad! That’s not FAIR
instead of ISTARING
. Can’t just at a screen.
finish watching my cartoon?” I asked him.
Come on, TOM
, turn off the .
Tom, when I was your age, I was ALWAYS
nning about in the fresh air. I hardly
tched ,” he told me proudly.
“Aww, Dad! That’s not FAIR . Can’t I just
finish watching my cartoon?” I asked him.
cause hadn’t been invented when
my age, Dad.” H
“ onestly, Tom, when I was your age, I was ALWAYS
outside
(He is quite old,running about
round in the fresh air. I hardly
after all.)
8 EVER watched ,” he told me proudly. 9
“That’s because hadn’t been invented when

you were my age, Dad.”
(He is quite old, after all.)

EXTRACT 2
from Tom Gates Is Absolutely Fantastic (at Some Things)
H ow to do
a BA N A N A doodle
coc kta i l sti ck

Tak e a ban ana and a toothpick
end ).
(mi nd the sha rp ends).
C a refu lly push th e stick into th e ba na na
skin — not too too

s ki n – not deep.deeply .
.
b l ack
Wh n
ere l tur .
you m i t w i l
i c k ly
Yo ake a hol e u
u c u i t e q
an d q
o a doodle like this
it,
t
u ea
Do e yo rker
n't fo r da
b e d
leave
the banana too lo
ng r an y
l
d y
— —–
e d
dark moolu
as the doodle will go then go ).
( yuck

EXTRACT 3
from Tom Gates: Genius Ideas (Mostly)
e c r et ES
S SAG
M E S( S h h h h h )
Top
jump
jump
B ac k i n c l a s s,
MF r. ul lerm a n ha s found
y et a n oth er way of ma k ing
us do EX TR A practice for
jump up
SPORTS DAY. We a ll h ave to
a nd to uc h th e a rrow b efore h e lets us come
i nto c l a s s .
Th en h e expla ins to th e cla ss wh at
we’l l b e doing today .
First of all, you need to write the WHOLE

alphabet out, and underneath each letter,
make up your own symbols. Remember
when we looked at the Egyptian
hieroglyphics?

That’s what I want you all to do.
I th o ught it sounded a b it dull.

Z z z z z z z z y a wn y a wn…. . I. Iwa
was getting
s getting
ready to sta rt a new dood le .…. .
w h en MF r. ul lerma n gave us some exa mples
of a S E C R ET M E SSAG E written in code.
We h ad to work out wh at th e message
s a i d . It wa s
BRILLIANT!
eu p your
c r e t c o d e b e low, then mak
Crack the se t.
r the alphabe
OWN CODE fo K
H I J
E F G
B C D
A
T U V
Q R S
N O P
L M
X Y Z
W
Answer: HARD WORK

N ext, we h ave to invent our OWN COD E .
W h i c h co uld be V ERY useful, especia lly if I
do n’t wa nt c erta in people to k now wh at
I ’m w riti n g abo ut…
. . . .
M
Sniff
Nosy
a rc us i s L OO KING
at w h at I ' m doi ng a nd
SNI FF I NG right by my ea r.
I tel l h i m to s top doing b oth a nd h e say s, “I'm
busy co n c entrati n g on my own code” ( h e’s not).
H i s pen h a s s ta r ted to lea k a nd it's
leaving ink on h is h a nd s, wh ich
he k eeps putting
puting on h is face.
I try a nd tell h im wh at h e's doing.
.
B ut h e ig n o res m e a nd say s W h ateve r
(I d i d try . )

I s pend the rest of the lesson making up my own
co de. W h i c h I a m V ERY plea sed with !

T O M G A T E S
B C D E F G
A
H I J K L M
O P Q R S
N
T U V W X
Y Z

EXTRACT 4
from The Brilliant World of Tom Gates
H ow abo ut A LI E N TWINS? FOOT F IGHTERS ?

I kn ow .…. .DOGZ
DOGZOMBIES.
OM B IE S?
Simp le
M ind s
Marcus
HA! HA!

About the
Author-Illustrator
L. PICHON
L. Pichon says that when she was little,

she loved to draw and, according to her mom,
was very good at making messes. She adds
that both of these things are still true today.
She studied graphic design at Middlesex
Polytechnic and the Camberwell College of
Arts, in London, and has worked in the music industry as a
designer and art director. Her work as a freelance illustrator
has appeared on a variety of products, from beach towels to
fabric, calendars, mugs, games, and greeting cards.
She is the author-illustrator of several picture books, including

My Big Brother, Boris, which won a Smarties Book Prize Silver
Award. The Brilliant World of Tom Gates, her debut book for
middle readers, has been a bestseller in the U.K. and received
several prestigious awards there, including a Roald Dahl Funny
Prize, a Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and a Red House
Children’s Book Award.
L. Pichon lives in Brighton, England, with her husband and

Illustrations © 2014 by L. Pichon
three children.
CANDLEWICK PRESS • www.candlewick.com

A Conversation with
L. PICHON
How do you go about creating the
Tom Gates books, and what tools do you use?
First I get all the ideas I have collected in
various notebooks and on sticky notes and begin
doing random drawings to see if they spark any
storylines. If they do, I use really thin paper,
called layout paper, to do the drawings on, and
ordinary paper with a soft pencil and eraser to
do the writing. I write as if I’m writing in an
exercise book. Every page is handwritten with
the rough story and drawings. It takes a while,
but time flies when it’s going well. For the final
How did the idea for Tom Gates come about?
artwork, I scan each page into the computer
It started off as a picture-book idea, based and sometimes boost up the black-and-white
on a scrapbook that had lots of drawings and lines to make them stronger. I might add more
bits and pieces stuck in it. That’s where Tom’s typefaces to make a point in the book, too. Both
voice first appeared (and Mrs. Worthington too, of the main fonts in the book are made from
with her slightly hairy top lip). But the publishers my own handwriting.
wanted more of a story. So I wrote one about
Tom Gates and put it in a journal with some
doodles on the cover. Publishers liked the format When The Brilliant World of Tom Gates won
and quite liked the story but they didn’t think the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, it was described as
the two went together. So finally I bought three “brilliantly laugh-out-loud funny” by Francesca
school exercise books and imagined that Tom was Simon, author of the Horrid Henry books. Who
writing and drawing in them himself, with Mr. were your favorite authors when you were
Fullerman looming over his shoulder and Marcus growing up, and which funny books would you
Meldrew being annoying. Luckily the publishers recommend?
really liked this idea, so I got to write a whole I was pleased to bits with all the nice comments
story with all the drawings and doodles. about my book! When I was younger, I loved
Spike Milligan’s Silly Verse for Kids and all of
Roald Dahl’s books. My favorite of his was
Tom is quite a smart aleck, but also very sharp
probably The Twits. But I was also a massive
in his observations. Is he based on anyone you
fan of Richard Scarry’s drawings and stories. I
know?
found all the creatures and the details he added
Slightly on me as a child, but also my son. I can to be fascinating and funny.
Illustrations © 2014 by L. Pichon
remember what some of the boys were like in

both my old schools, too. Tom is a combination
of lots of different characters, really. Q&A reproduced with thanks to Scholastic Education

Lesson Plans For The Tom Gates Series by Liz Pichon

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Lesson Plans For The Tom Gates Series by Liz Pichon

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LESSON PLANS FOR THE

series by Liz Pichon

HC: 978-0-7636-7472-4 HC: 978-0-7636-7474-8 HC: 978-0-7636-7473-1

HC: 978-1-5362-0129-1 HC: 978-1-5362-0130-7

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a big b rea kfa s t in t he m or ning.” But my EX

“P laying with twigs doesn’t sound like muc

at t h e s a m e ti m e I could also hear

THE SPRINGY ZOOM MONSTER THE FIZZY-FUZZER is covered with

THE SCALY SLOOP MONSTER has THE DODECA-SUCKER is a fearful

THE GIANT SQUIDGE is an THE THREE-TALONED DEMON has

Tom Gates Teachers’ Guide • Candlewick Press • www.candlewick.com • page 16

You will need:

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Dad’s Dad’s just out

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Brilliant! (If I do say so myself.)

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and make a few doodles.

(Me being busy.)

WS hen Dad comes back from the shed he’s

“Here we go, Tom, this is PERFECT.”

Tom Gates Teachers’ Guide • Candlewick Press • www.candlewick.com • page 25

He stood in front of the and started

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eSO many things you could be doing

8 EVER watched ,” he told me proudly. 9

“That’s because hadn’t been invented when

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coc kta i l sti ck

skin — not too too

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First of all, you need to write the WHOLE

Tom Gates Teachers’ Guide • Candlewick Press • www.candlewick.com • page 29

I th o ught it sounded a b it dull.

Answer: HARD WORK

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Tom Gates Teachers’ Guide • Candlewick Press • www.candlewick.com • page 31

co de. W h i c h I a m V ERY plea sed with !

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H ow abo ut A LI E N TWINS? FOOT F IGHTERS ?

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L. Pichon says that when she was little,

She is the author-illustrator of several picture books, including