An orange “space” dinosaur has won a Scottish primary pupil a school visit from his favourite author.

Jamie Stewart met children’s writer Steve Cole after winning a UK competition to create a new character based on his Astrosaurs books. The bestselling series is based on the adventures of a group of dinosaurs living in space, fighting evil across the galaxy.

Jamie’s character, a leaf-eating pterodactyl called Log Cloot, was among 20 winning designs by pupils around the UK who all met Mr Cole to help celebrate the launch of his 20th Astrosaurs book, Earth Attack.

Ten-year-old Jamie and his classmates at South Parks Primary in Glenrothes, Fife, were delighted when the author visited their school last week.

Jamie said: “I decided to enter the competition because I wanted to meet Steve Cole . I really enjoy reading his books, especially the Astrosaurs stories.

“I decided to make a pterodactyl because most pterodactyls are carnivores and I wanted to invent a herbivore pterodactyl.

“I decided to make my character orange because orange is my favourite colour and not many other Astrosaurs in the book are orange.”

Jamie was presented with a certificate by Mr Cole, who also handed out a set of more than 30 signed copies of his books.

“Log Cloot is an amazing name,” said the author, “and the character appealed to me because I don’t have many pterosaurs, particularly veggie ones!”

Teacher Sarah Spring has since introduced her class to another series by Mr Cole, entitled Cows in Action.

“The books are about cows going back in time, so they are super for cross- curricular learning,” she said. “They go back to Victorian times, the Tudors and the Ancient Egyptians.”

Pupils wrote stories, identified interesting adjectives and similes and drew their own characters.

www.stevecolebooks.co.uk.