One of the Observer's Best Children’s Books of 2024

A warm and endearing story about the quiet power of being yourself from Zadie Smith, Nick Laird and Magenta Fox.

Maud - a judo-suit wearing guinea pig and proud weirdo - is off into the wild, as is Kit, her owner. Both are slightly nervous about what they'll find in the great outdoors, but with a pinch of bravery - and a few Signature Moves - they'll make new friends and explore new worlds.

Praise for Weirdo:
"A sweet, tightly written tale about the benefits of not fitting in, cheered on by Magenta Fox's gorgeous illustrations" The Times’ Best Children’s Books for Summer 2021
"As cockle-warming as a cuddle from a favourite pet, Weirdo ought to be a smash hit" Observer
"it's delightful" the i

Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, Swing Time and The Fraud; as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia; four collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free, Intimations and Dead and Alive; a collection of short stories, Grand Union; and the play, The Wife of Willesden, adapted from Chaucer. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie Smith was born in north-west London, where she still lives. Nick Laird was born in Northern Ireland in 1975 and was educated at the University of Cambridge and Harvard University. He has published two novels, Utterly Monkey and Glover's Mistake, and three collections of poetry, To a Fault, On Purpose and Go Giants. He has also edited Zoo of the New: Poems to read Now, an anthology of poetry, new and old, alongside Don Paterson. Laird is the recipient of many awards for his fiction and poetry, including the Betty Trask Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and the Somerset Maugham Award. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, he teaches Creative Writing at Columbia University in New York. Twitter: @NickLaird Website: nicklaird.com Magenta Fox was born in south-west London in 1994. She studied English at the University of Exeter and since moving back to London in 2015, has been working as a children's book designer. These days she works freelance - illustrating, writing and designing children's books from her flat in south London.