One of the writers of the US animated series Beavis and Butt-head is one of the 18 authors in the running for the Waterstones children's book prize.

Geoff Rodkey, who penned jokes for the comedy show, and whose other credits include Daddy Day Care, is nominated in the 5-12-year-old category for his first children’s novel, Deadweather and Sunrise, the BBC reports.

The book’s story focuses on a thirteen-year-old boy Egbert nicknamed “Egg”.

“Not that Egg's life was ever easy, growing up on sweaty, pirate-infested Deadweather Island with no company except an incompetent tutor and a pair of unusually violent siblings who hate his guts,” the synopsis to the book reads.

He runs away and ends up on a pirate ship and that's when his adventures begin.

Rodkey’s main rivals are the author of The Wolf Princess Cathryn Constable and RJ Palacio with Wonder.

According to Waterstones’ James Daunt, quoted by the BBC, the shortlisted books are full of "great beauty, humour, intrigue, imagination and important things to say, but most crucially all are fantastically good reads".

The winner gets a £2,000 ($3,000) prize.

Rodkey penned several episodes of the Beavis and Butt-head show. The story of one of the episodes was based on a myth that a knocked down cow is unable to stand up. In Rodkey’s episode of the show the unwitting teens are trying to bust this myth.

Geoff Rodkey.(Photo from Facebook.com/geoff.rodkey)

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