Your child has done it. They’ve torn through every Tom Gates book Liz Pichon has written (and there are a lot of them), doodles and all, and now they’re hovering by the bookshelf going “what next.”
If this is your situation and you’re hunting for books like Tom Gates, you’re in the right place.
I’ve hand-picked every book on Little Reads, and these are the ones I’d confidently say would be a great next read for your Tom Gates obsessive.
The obvious shout is Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and if they haven’t read those yet, start there. But most Tom Gates fans have already inhaled Greg Heffley too. So here’s the next batch, all sitting in our funny books corner, ready to go.
What makes a Tom Gates book a Tom Gates book
It’s always worth knowing what you’re actually matching, because “funny” covers a lot of ground.
Tom Gates books are half words, half drawings.
The doodles in the margins are a huge part of the appeal, and a kid who loves them wants more of that scrapbook feel, not masses of text.
The stories feel like the everyday to a 7 or 8 year old too. A band called Dogzombies, a wind-up big sister, a tin of biscuits gone missing. No saving the world. Just school and home and all the annoying and silly bits in between.
So I’ve gone for books that are properly funny first, packed with pictures or written in a daft voice, and small in scale. Nobody here is off fighting a dragon.
Five books like Tom Gates to try next
Planet Omar – Incredible Rescue Mission
Planet Omar – Incredible Rescue Mission
Omar gets back to school after the holidays and his lovely teacher has been swapped for a much grumpier one. He overhears the other teachers whispering about her, puts two and two together, and decides she’s been abducted by aliens.
Naturally, the only sensible response is to rope in his mates and mount a rescue.
It’s the third Planet Omar book and the one with the silliest premise, full of cartoon-style drawings by Nasaya Mafaridik. Zanib Mian‘s whole series is very similar to Tom Gates, so once they start they’ll want the lot.
I Am Not a Loser
I Am Not a Loser
Barry Loser has always reckoned his coolness cancels out his unfortunate surname.
Then Darren Darrenofski turns up at school with his horrible little crocodile face and won’t stop going on about it. Cue Barry plotting his revenge and his comeback, all at once.
Barry tells the whole thing in his own hilarious voice, made-up words and all (everything’s “keel,” everyone’s burping Fronkle). It’s the first Barry Loser book, so there’s a long run of them if it goes down well.
The 91-Storey Treehouse
The 91-Storey Treehouse
Andy and Terry’s treehouse is now ninety-one storeys tall, with a whirlpool, a giant spider web and a submarine shaped like a sandwich. There’s also a mysterious big red button they’ve been told not to press, so you can guess where that’s heading.
This is the most bonkers, most illustrated thing on the list. Some pages are pure comic strip. If your child reads more with their eyes than their patience, this is the one. It’s book seven of the Treehouse series, but they each stand alone, so a stray number is fine.
The Boy Who Got Accidentally Famous
The Boy Who Got Accidentally Famous
Billy Smith is the most ordinary boy alive, right down to his name. Then a TV crew rocks up at school to film a documentary, a remix of his deeply boring class presentation goes viral, and Billy wakes up famous. Red carpets, an album, the works, with his mates Bo and Rinor along for the ride.
David Baddiel writes the kind of funny that’s guaranteed to have your little reader sharing snippets at the dinner table (whether you asked for it or not). There’s a sweeter thread under the silliness too, about what happens to your actual friends when you go viral.
My Evil Twin Is a Supervillain
My Evil Twin Is a Supervillain
Luke’s identical twin Stellar shows up from another dimension with superpowers, rocket-powered shoes and irritatingly perfect superhero hair. Nobody crosses time and space for a friendly catch-up, so Luke is certain Stellar is up to something, and that it’s his job to stop him.
This one’s a small step up in length for a confident Tom Gates reader who’s ready for a bit more story. It’s part of David Solomons‘s My Brother is a Superhero world, daft and fast and very quotable.
A few more to keep them going
If they want the diary-and-doodles format specifically, Dork Diaries by Rachel Renée Russell is the natural next series, more friendship drama than band practice but the same scrapbook layout they already love.
And for an older or more confident reader who wants a longer funny series to disappear into, the Middle School books by James Patterson do the illustrated-diary thing across a whole shelf of titles.
And if Tom Gates was their gateway into funny books, our what to read after Roald Dahl piece pulls from the same shelf.
Where Little Reads comes in
Every book above is one I’ve picked by hand, and they’re all sitting in the Little Reads app right now alongside the rest of the funny shelf.
One thing that Little Reads is not is an app with phonics and reading levels built in.
It’s a home for the bookworm kids. It’s for the book-obsessed and built for children who already love reading.
If your little one is still finding their feet with it, you’ll get more out of something more learning-to-read specific.
We’re a library, not a teaching tool. But if you’ve got a Tom Gates devotee who just needs a constant supply of the next funny thing, that’s exactly who we made this for.