Sheepy and the Riddle of the Occurrence

Sheepy and the Riddle of the Occurrence is a new book for children -and their parents and grandparents!- which has been written by Henrietta Williams.

20 years ago Henrietta's eldest son was doodling. And one of the creatures he doodled was a sheep.

Almost immediately Henrietta's fertile imagination created the entire world that Sheepy inhabited.

Nothing happened with Sheepy for a couple of decades until Sheepy was being turned into some images by professional illustrator Richard Berner.

Henrietta was entranced by the illustrations that Richard was creating but she said: "I wanted to try and make Sheepy so much more than an image on a T-shirt! I never intended to write a book!"

She noticed that, as Richard's illustrations progressed, that a whole mysterious world was being created that featured Sheepy and his friends, so, eventually, the idea of a book was born.

And so we are introduced into the magical and mysterious world of Sheepy and his friends.

Meet Sheepy, Mouse, Sox, Bob and Martha. There's a mystery to be unravelled and riddles to be solved as this admittedly unlikely band of heroic figures work to solve the puzzling Riddle of the Occurrence.

There's a whole range of equally interesting creatures who our intrepid gang will meet. Such as Twewdle Twitchers, Wizzles and Tree Stompers. And Mr Shouty. And the Chief. And... Well, to find out more, you'll have to read the book.

Like most good books for children this is multi-levelled.

Yes, it's a fantastic adventure for children to read, but there's so much more to it than that.

Young readers will see and learn about a variety of important concepts and ideas such as friendship, teamwork and loyalty.

The story is Henrietta's début book. It is to be hoped this will be the first of many equally inspired books.

The illustrations by Richard Berner are evocative of the best d.rawings of the late 1960, but with a new contemporary millennial vibe to them.

It is published in hardback by Matador at £12.99 and will make a great book for children to share with the adults in their lives, should they wish to.

It is due for publication on March 28th and will be available through the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which you will find to the right-hand side of this book review, along with thousands of other books, DVDs, etc.

www.worldofsheepy.com.