Captain Buckleboots on the Naughty Step is all about learning to say sorry.

The naughty step is the place where Sam has to go when he has done something he knows he really shouldn't have. There is nothing to do there except think, and normally he has the step all to himself. Then one day someone else sits down bedside him. It's Captain Buckleboots - a pirate who has been very very naughty indeed and needs some help to work out how to say sorry.

After studying illustration at Falmouth College of Arts Tom McLaughlin worked as a full-time political cartoonist before he stumbled into the world of animation when he won a bursary to direct his short animated film, The Girl With The Pink Shoes, as part of the Animated Exeter festival. Since then he has gone on to design and create a number of animated TV concepts with Honeycomb Animation, including the Molly Little Mysteries, which has just been picked up by CBeebies and is due to be aired in 2010. Tom lives in Devon with his wife, two sons and a scruffy cat.

Mark Sperring is a former Waterstone's bookseller and brings all his considerable experience and knowledge to this, his first picture book. Mark lives in Bristol.

Look out for the other books in the series:

Big Bad Bill on the Naughty Step; Father Christmas on the Naughty Step