SATA

PERSONAL

Born November 14, 1973, in London, England.

Attended Oxford University.

ADDRESS

• Home - North London, England.
• Agent - Eve White, 1A High St., Kintbury, Berkshire RG17 9TJ, England.

CAREER

Writer and blues singer. Worked variously as a film-script reader and cartoonist.

Reading, drawing, music, yachting, endurance cycling, historical cuisine.

Blue Peter Award; Red House Children’s Book Award in younger readers category, 2007, for You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum!; Roald Dahl Funny Prize, 2008, for Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear.

WRITINGS

• FOR CHILDREN
• The Story of Matthew Buzzington, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2009
• Sterling and the Canary, illustrated by Ross Collins, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2011
• (With Neal Layton) Danny McGee Drinks the Sea, Schwartz & Wade Books (New York, NY), 2017
• “MR. GUM” PICTURE-BOOK SERIES
• You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum!, illustrated by David Tazzyman, Egmont Books (London, England), illustrated by Chad Dezern, HarperCollins Children’s Books (New York, NY), 2006
• Mr Gum and the Biscuit Billionaire, illustrated by David Tazzyman, Egmont Books (London, England), published as Mr. Gum and the Gingerbread Billionaire, illustrated by Chad Dezern, HarperCollins Publishers (New York, NY), 2007
• Mr Gum and the Goblins, illustrated by David Tazzyman, Egmont Books (London, England), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2007
• Mr Gum and the Power Crystals, illustrated by David Tazzyman, Egmont Books (London, England), 2008
• Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear, illustrated by David Tazzyman, Egmont Books (London, England), 2008
• Mr Gum in ‘The Hound of Lamonic Bibber’, illustrated by David Tazzyman, Egmont Books (London, England), 2012

An animated television series based on the “Mr Gum” books was produced by Nickelodeon Studios, written by Stanton and Andy Bobrow. The “Mr Gum” series was adapted for audiobook, produced by BBC Audio.

SIDELIGHTS

As British writer Andy Stanton readily admits, he devised his “Mr Gum” character in a moment of desperation. It was Christmas time, and Stanton had no money to buy a gift for his cousins. Instead, he worked all Christmas Eve writing his first story featuring Mr Gum. Within only a few years Stanton had teamed up with illustrator David Tazzyman to produce the first “Mr Gum” picture book, You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum!, and also was producing several other books in the series. He won  the 2008 Roald Dahl Funny Prize in the process. In addition to his “Mr Gum” books, Stanton has also released the chapter books The Story of Matthew Buzzington and Sterling and the Canary, the latter which School Librarian critic Marie Imeson dubbed a “giggle book that will appeal … to a whole range of readers.”

Beginning with You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum!, Stanton’s “Mr Gum” stories include Mr Gum and the Biscuit Billionaire, Mr Gum and the Goblins, Mr Gum and the Power Crystals, Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear, and Mr Gum in ‘The Hound of Lamonic Bibber’. The stories are set in Lamonic Bibber, a small British town that is as strange as the name of its newspaper, the Lamonical Chronicle. Full of whimsy and wordplay, Stanton’s saga follows the titular character, a mean, grumpy old man who hatches evil doings with the help of local butcher Billy Williams the Third. Nine-year-old Polly and canine friend Jake work together to derail all of Mr Gum’s plans, and other characters in the story include resident locals Friday O’Leary, Jonathan Ripples, Martin Launderette, Mrs Lovely, and Polly’s slightly tipsy Old Granny, as well as Alan Taylor, a gingerbread man. In recalling his inspiration for his popular picture-book character, Stanton noted on the Mr Gum website that he tried to imagine “the nastiest, smelliest, stupidest villain I could think of.”

While Tazzyman illustrates the UK editions of the “Mr Gum” books, You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum! also made it to the United States, with illustrations by Chad Dezern. In a Kirkus Reviews appraisal of You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum!, a critic noted that Stanton’s story “makes a serious assault on the silly bone,” while in School Librarian a reviewer dubbed Mr Gum in ‘The Hound of Lamonic Bibber’ “something completely different” that “is well worth investigating” as story-hour fodder.

Danny McGee Drinks the Sea stars the boastful title character and his older sister, Frannie, as they take a trip in their toy car to the seaside. Red-headed Danny tells Frannie, with her red pigtails, that he can drink the sea and asks her to go get him a straw so that he can prove it. Frannie retrieves the straw, and Danny sets about his astonishing task.

First, he proves that he can indeed drink the sea, as all the water in the ocean disappears through his red-and-white-striped straw. Then, however, things get out of hand, and Danny starts swallowing other things. Birds, bees, flies, fleas, a cat, and other small things. That not being enough, he starts swallowing trees, mountains, people—even the author of the story—and eventually, the United States itself. As this story goes on and the ingested items get larger and more unlikely, Danny gets more and more delighted with his efforts. By the end of this fanciful tale, however, a craftier and wiser older sister has figured out how to restore the swallowed objects and get the better of her mischievous little brother.

“Hyperbole, verbal and visual, reigns in this zany world,” observed a Kirkus Reviews writer. The book’s “main audience is more likely to resonate with the glorious pleasure of being bad and the outlandish humor of the pictures,” commented Sarah Ellis in a Horn Book review. 

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

• Horn Book, May-June, 2017, Sarah Ellis, review of Danny McGee Drinks the Sea, p. 83.

• Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2008, review of You’re a Bad Man, Mr. Gum!; March 1, 2017, review of Danny McGee Drinks the Sea.

• Observer (London, England), March 16, 2008, Elthne Farry, “Rising Star: Andy Stanton, Children’s Writer.”

• Owl, April 1, 2008, Fanny Cheng, review of Mr Gum and the Goblins, p. 38.

• School Librarian, spring, 2007, Lucinda Jacob, review of You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum!, p. 35; summer, 2008, Carolyn Boyd, review of Mr Gum and the Power Crystals, p. 105; winter, 2011, Marie Imeson, review of Sterling and the Canary, p. 234; spring, 2012, review of Mr Gum in ‘The Hound of Lamonic Bibber’, p. 40.

• School Library Journal, June, 2008, Stephanie Farnlacher, review of You’re a Bad Man, Mr. Gum!, p. 80.

ONLINE

• Mr Gum Website, http://www.mrgum.co.uk (February 18, 2018).