A Sittingbourne schoolboy who published his first novel with help from his mum has seen it top the list of new releases in the States.

Sarah Appleby is an established author of seven adult-themed romantic novels, which she writes under a pen-name.

But she said her three children - Xavier, 12, Delphine, 10 and Indiana, seven - began to complain that she never wrote stories that they could read.

She explained: “I said ‘okay, give me a storyline you would be interested in and I’ll write one for you’.”

Xavier took up the challenge and presented his mum with an idea about a boy who gets sucked into the world of Minecraft - the computer game that he loves to play.

But Mrs Appleby said: “I soon found out that I didn’t know nearly enough about Minecraft to even begin, so I told Xavier ‘it’s no good, you’ll have to write it yourself’. Which he did.”

All the ideas for the story, written in the first person, were Xavier’s, with mum just offering some tips on writing style.

Xavier is a pupil at Borden Grammar School where his favourite subjects are science, geography, French and Spanish - not English literature.

But Mrs Appleby said: “His writing really developed while he was working on the book. He’s not going to need my help at all on the sequel, which he is already working on.”

‘The Potion - Sucked into Minecraft’ was published on December 2 and to begin with was ranked number one in the new release sales in the United States.

Xavier has written the book under the pen-name of Henry Croft - his character in the story.

He said: “It feels quite nice to have written a book. All my friends are really proud.

“When I look up and see my name on Amazon it’s really cool.”

The Potion is available from Amazon, priced at £6.99 for the paperback version.