Buckle up for a brand new laugh-out-loud Little Badman adventure! We are delighted to celebrate the publication of the fourth title in this hugely popular series, written by YouTube sensation, Humza Arshad, and comedy writer, Henry White, and illustrated by our very own, Aleksei Bitskoff. Little Badman and the Game of Nightmares hits bookshelves in March.
Virtual reality takes on a new meaning in this hilarious story featuring Aleksei's charming assortment of characters including a robot dog and an epic double-page battle scene! Humza’s life finally feels . . . normal. Aliens aren’t trying to kill him, zombies aren’t trying to eat him, there are no crazy spy missions on the horizon and certainly no mutant hamsters. So why does he still feel stressed? Enter Aisha Mariam Shah a.k.a the girl Humza is desperate to impress. Aisha's a perfect human being, she's a grade A student, Captain of Year Seven netball team and has passed her Grade 5 in flute! Whereas Humza is bad at schoolwork, bad at homework, bad at listening, never on time, rubbish at sport, always in trouble and he even got salmonella from licking the school tortoise!
So Humza comes up with a BIG PLAN to get Aisha’s attention, he enters the science fair with his friends Wendy and Umer, and it soon looks like they have a real shot at winning. But Alan Gudge, their jealous classmate, has other ideas. He has his eyes on Aisha and the science fair prize too, and he’s determined to halt his nemeses in their tracks. Using his invention, Alan traps the friends in a simulation. The only way to escape? Through a series of nightmare video game challenges. Luckily Humza is an expert gamer . . . or so he thought. Is it GAME OVER? Or, might teamwork hold the answer this time?
Take a further peek inside The Game of Nightmares to enjoy more of Aleksei's amazing illustrations.
Read our previous Little Badman news articles here.
Little Badman and the Game of Nightmares is published by Puffin on the 13th March, grab a copy here, or pop to your local bookshop or library.
Aleksei Bitskoff has become a go-to creative for illustrated fiction projects, bringing humour and accessibility to each book with his visually arresting character designs, spot illustrations and hilarious chapter headers. His brilliantly comedic illustrations truly bring the texts he works on to life. Aleksei draws inspiration from the community around him and his lifelong love of travel. A fanatical doodler he works predominantly digitally but still takes great pleasure in filling sketchbooks with hundreds and hundreds of unimaginably detailed sketches.
Follow Aleksei on Instagram or view his online portfolio here. For more information regarding collaborating with Aleksei or any of our creatives please email info@arenaillustration.com
