'I liked playing trains with my dad when I was seven or eight. But I'm eleven now. Where's the excitement . . . Where's my life?!'

Tim's family is the Most Boring Family In The World and he's fed up. He wants fun! Thrills! Adventure! And school's just as boring too. But one day a phantom message about Tim appears and everything changes. Who is the day-glo scribbler - and what's so special about chickens anyway?

Jeremy Strong used to be a primary-school headteacher before he became a full-time writer. He won the Children's Book Award with The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog and is immensely popular with children. He lives in Somerset, near Bath.