Coming Up In 2012 #12: Itch by Simon Mayo

Back before Christmas I received an email from the lovely people at Doubleday asking if I would be interested in reading a book that Simon Mayo had written for the 10+ age group. Yes, that Simon Mayo. He of BBC Radio 1 and now Radio 2 fame. The man whose Radio 2 Book Club I listen to every Monday evening on may way home from work. Naturally I said yes please, and I really, really enjoyed it. The book is called Itch, and it is being billed as 'Alex Rider with Geek-Power'. Watch this space for my review, which will appear on The Book Zone a little closer to its March publication date. In the meantime, here is Simon to tell you a little about Itch:

Hi to all readers of this top blog. My name is Simon Mayo and I am the author of Itch which is out on March 1st. This is my first novel and I hope you enjoy it because I absolutely loved writing it. Itch is 14 and lives with his family in Cornwall. He is a bit of an outsider really. He struggles with his family and finds it difficult to make friends. At school everyone else is obsessed with sport and computer games, Itch is just interested in science. He considers himself an element hunter, a collector of the elements in the periodic table. From the boring ones like iron and lead, to the more interesting ones like helium and mercury, and the downright dangerous ones like arsenic and polonium.

In this adventure, Itch and his sister Chloe (11) and his cousin Jack (short for Jacqueline and also 14) get their hands on a very mysterious rock. They quickly discover that it is both fantastically valuable and extraordinarily dangerous - nothing less than nuclear power in a bag. And the bag is in Itch's rucksack! Itch quickly becomes the most hunted boy in the world; police, terrorists, criminals and particularly his evil science teacher Nathaniel Flowerdew all want to find him. Very, very badly. Itch doesn't have long to decide what to with the rocks. But if he doesn't do the right thing, it could cost him his life.

Let the hunt begin!