"Skylarks" is a series of fiction books divided by chapters and covering a wide range of genres from adventure, humour and fairy tale to fantasy, mystery and science fiction. Each story will run to approximately 2000 words, broken into 7 or 8 chapters and illustrated in full colour in a range of artwork styles, with one or two images per spread. This series will take young independent readers into real books and give them the confidence to tackle texts with a longer extent. "Skylarks" is the perfect follow-on from "Spirals".

Inspired by a painting called "The Sleeping Gypsy" by Henri Rousseau, this touching children's tale shows an unlikely triumph of human over beast Fatima the wandering gypsy is tired and lies down to sleep. A sand-colored lion roams through the desert. He is hungry and looking for tasty morsels to eat. He stops and sniffs the air, and the scent of a human reaches his nose. He follows the footprints and--on silent paws--creeps around the sleeping gypsy, sniffing hungrily. Fatima has no idea of the danger she is in. Can she outsmart the dangerous lion and escape with her life?