Hello, my name is Pamela Butchert and I'm delighted that my book Never Tickle Attigar has been shortlisted for the Scottish Children's Book Awards 2016. The words are by me and the beautiful illustrations are by Mark Butivon. This story is about a little girl called Izzy who likes to fidget and that gets her into a lot of trouble one day when she visits the zoo. Izzy was forever shuffling and jiggling, squirming and twitching, wriggling and fiddling. She just couldn't help it. It happens at home. Izzy, stop playing with your peas, said Dad. At school. Izzy, stop painting your pigtail, said Miss Potter Hurst. That grandma's Izzy, stop notting my knitting, said Grandma and as for parties, well. Izzy, stop jiggling the jelly, cried everyone. No matter how hard she tried, Izzy just couldn't keep still. It's no good, she sighed. I'm just a juggler and that's that. So when one day, Class 4B went on a trip to the zoo, it came as no surprise to anyone. That Izzy was wriggling, jiggling, shuffling and fiddling as soon as they walked through the school gates. Stop stroking the snakes called Miss Potter Hurst. Don't excite the elephants. Forget about bothering the bears. Don't mess with the monkeys. Izzy, stop tapping the tortoises. Stop poking the peacock and never ever tickle a tiger. At lunchtime Izzy sat shuffling her sandwiches. It's so unfair, she said. I never allowed to do anything. I'm not wrong with fidgeting anyway. Little did Izzy know she was about to find out. Whilst all the other children finished their lunch, Izzy fidgeted her feet, bounced across the bench, shemmed onto the floor, regaled under a bush, skipped past the aviary, and danced along a path all the way to the tiger enclosure. I wonder, thought Izzy, and with that she reached out a feather and she tickled, tickled, tickled the tiger. Raaarr, a roared the tiger. He threw his funny paws in the air, which broke a branch, which startled a snake, who bit a bear, who walloped a walrus, who splashed a sloth, who punched a penguin, who kicked a crock, who snapped at a skunk, who punged a panda, who rammed a rhino, who hit the hippo, who whibbled and wobbled and splashed. The lion roared, the parrot squawked, the snakes hissed and the elephants trumpeted loudly, the misspotter harsh squealed, and the children giggled, and the zookeeper came running. It was pandemonium, and it was all Izzy's fault. But then, stop shouted Izzy at the top of her voice, stop squealing, squawking, splashing, slapping, enough running, roaming, ramming and bumping, no more jiggling, wriggling, shuffling or squirming. And guess what? It worked! The zookeeper stopped running, misspotter her stopped squealing, the children stopped giggling, and all the animals went back to their homes. As for Izzy, you were right all along, misspotter her, she said, I'll never, ever tickle a tiger, again, but what can be the harm of prodding a polar bear, she thought? In the book, Izzy sees lots of exciting animals when she goes to the zoo, but you don't have to go to the zoo to see lots of exciting animals, you can go to your local park, you might not see a tiger, but you'll definitely see some cool birds or a squirrel or maybe even a grumpy face dog. And you can write stories or you can draw pictures on your whiteboard about the animals that you see. And if you're very, very, very, very lucky, you might even see my cuts. Carlos and Bear.