Author Amanda Boulter and comic creator and illustrator Leo Hartas latest “Little Moose” book, The Great Elf Puzzle Quest, is available now on Amazon. It’s a bonkers 230 page adventure story with 90 puzzles to solve and loads of drawings, all drawn on paper the old fashioned way!
Offering lots of fun for 9+ year olds, and the whole family. You can buy it from AmazonUK here (Affiliate Link) or, outside the UK, here from Amazon.com.
In The Great Elf Puzzle Quest, Moose the human, Wolfie the dog and Dwang the elf go on a quest to find stolen treasure. They puzzle their way past dragons, trolls, elves, wolves and dwarves. But can they find the stolen treasure and get home in time for dinner?
There’s 90 puzzles to solve: mazes, picture puzzles, number puzzles, riddles, codes, anagrams, wordsearches, spot the difference, picture sudoku, dot to dot and many more.
Some puzzles are easy, some tricky, giving kids age 9+ a fun challenge. And because the story is packed with funny illustrations and cheesy jokes, it should keep kids absorbed for hours, say Amanda and Leo.
“Little Moose” is the focus of a series of children’s books initially published under Faerhaven Press , the latest from Tintagel Press, about a Viking boy and his dog Wolfie, including A Dog’s Guide to Dragons, telling the story of their lives growing up in a fantasy-historical world. From cute toddler tales to epic adventures, young readers can grow up with these new story-time friends as the series takes them from Toddler Books and Picture Books to Early Readers and Developing Readers, Chapter Books and, finally, YA Novels.
“There’s a big journey ahead for Little Moose and Wolfie – and a big adventure for Amanda (and Leo) too,” Amanda teases. “It’s going to be fun!”
Leo Hartas should need no introduction to downthetubes readers, in recent times working regularly with author Amanda Boulter on a variety of books, including Let’s Have an Adventure. You’ll probably recognise him as Co-creator of the amazing fantasy strip Mirabilis, long overdue proper collection from a reputable publisher.
Leo has been illustrating children’s books, comics, magazines and games for over 40 years. “My hallmark as an illustrator is drawing characters that readers can connect to in a warm and approachable style,” he says.
Leo has a love of maps and began his career by illustrating most of the maps for the Fighting Fantasy game book series, back in the 1980s and 90s. He also enjoys designing cutaways that reveal the inner workings of buildings, machines and even whole starships; his favourite books of this type being Haunted Castle, The Apartment Book, and King Arthur’s Spaceship. “I love to weave little stories and details that the reader may miss at first,” he says, “but find and enjoy every time they revisit the illustration.
Most of my other interests overlap with my illustration work, and more than anything, he loves “the simple pleasure of just exploring ideas and doodling in my sketchbook”.
Amanda Boulter is following her dream to become a full time writer. After nearly 25 years of teaching English and Creative Writing at the University of Winchester (big wave to all the lovely students and staff from those years), she is saying goodbye to nine o’clock lectures and hello to making up stories in the bath. So she has given up her job, sold her house, packed her two sons off to University and is now going her own way in a little house in the wilds of North Devon, England. She spends her days writing stories, growing vegetables and cycling up and down the Tarka Trail to have working picnics on the beach.
Little Moose and his dog Wolfie are having fun and loving life! This unique book contains over 45 delightful black and white drawings and inspirational sayings that will appeal to everyone from toddlers to Zen masters. It’s a perfect book to share with young children or for older children to read on their own. Adults love it too, because it’s simple joy in life just lifts your heart and makes you smile.
• A Dog’s Guide to Dragons by Amanda Boulter and Leo Hartas is available here on AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
Despite their reputation for being a bit daft, it’s a little known fact that dogs are very knowledgeable about dragons. Join Wolfie and Little Moose for a dog’s guide to these fascinating creatures. A book of sage advice and delightful illustrations to help you discover and befriend the dragons in your own life.
• The Great Elf Puzzle Quest by Amanda Boulter and Leo Hartas is available here on AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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