'The more I played around with them, the more I thought they had legs, as we say in the ad world. And Remi loves them, so I knew they were potentially very engaging for young children,' Lever says.

'Having read a lot of children's story books to Remi, it became obvious to me that there was nothing that addressed the environment from a five-year-old's point of view. I know it's such a big cliche, and I'm definitely no hardcore Greenpeace fanatic, but it's hard to ignore how we are damaging the planet, especially when you have children.'

Initially, he didn't have a clear picture of what his five characters looked like, nor did he look to the market for inspiration. That's not to say, though, that he turned up his nose at other children's authors.

Two of his favourites are Roald Dahl and Eric Carle. 'Eric Carle's work focuses a lot on animals and dreams, with wonderfully colourful, graphic collages,' says Lever, who is also a commercial artist. 'And Dahl has a special kind of darkness that I think all children find intriguing.'

To bring the BogeyBugz to life, Lever and Remi indulged in a lot of giggling and a bit of research into bacteria and viruses. Five blobby-looking creatures, with five fun, viral-inspired names, were what they came up with. And so Fizz, Plasmo, Rippix, Floop and Snort arrived on the scene: Snort the sleepy one, clumsy Floop, Rippix the strong one, brainy Plasmo and Fizz the quick one.

For Lever, they are 21st-century Mr Men with an environmental twist, 'but a lot more intelligent than the Mr Men, apart from Mr Clever, of course'.

The creative duo also conjured enough wacky capers that Lever was persuaded to take out his paints and plop his ideas onto a storyboard to show a publisher friend: David Tait, founder of Hong Kong-based publishing house P3.

'His reaction surprised me,' Lever recalls. 'He was very excited. It was as if his planets had aligned for the first time, probably because he has a degree in microbiology and he too felt there was a gap in the market for environmental stories for kids.'

With the deal done and between jobs, Lever set about putting the BogeyBugz and their madcap adventures onto paper. He and Tait decided on a set of four books for this year, with eight more on hot environmental topics by the end of 2008.

Lever has a clear image of what his books should look like. They will not, he says, be 'normal, cutesy or sugar-coated'. He spent weeks playing with Photoshop to come up with a suitably unique look.

'I think the graphic nature of my ideas also excited David. I'd done some rough tests of the look and feel of the books. The characters are all hand-illustrated in watercolour and oil pastel but they live in a very distorted photographic world,' Lever says.

The results are bold and put-on-your-sunglasses bright. Fonts vary and key words are made larger, and heavier, to add weight to the stories.

Lever's favourite book - and Remi's too - is 4-Legged Clouds, an unusual take on global warming and a resultant forest fire.

'The sun was baking everything in sight with a blinding light. And a strange shimmering heat haze filled the horizon,' it reads.

With no rain clouds in sight the BogeyBugz leap into action, dunking sheep in a river, tying balloons around their tummies and sending them high into the sky. The sheep, as instructed by the environmental crusaders, start dancing in the air and 'the woolly rains came and the flames died away'. The BogeyBugz have saved the day, again!

All the stories focus on solving an environmental problem and there is always a sense of urgency, neatly summarised in the blurb on the back of each book.

The stories are also kept short, to a five-minute read, because Lever knows from experience that anything longer becomes a chore for tired parents.

The other three books in the first set to be published deal with oil slicks, air pollution and acid rain. However, his first story, about cows with prosthetic legs, is on hold until further notice.

To add to the environmental credibility of the project, P3 contacted the global conservation body WWF, who jumped at the chance to be involved. Its famous panda logo appears on the books and a percentage of the proceeds from each sale goes directly to the body. It also provided environmental tips, in the 'facteria' section at the end of each story.

'The big idea is to recruit little helpers for Mother Nature. The facteria are ways a five-year-old can help. We're not asking five-year-olds to picket factory lines or write letters to the government. But they can ask mum and dad to use the right washing-up liquid and not to throw cooking oil down the kitchen sink,' Lever says.

So, has little helper Remi been harassing her father to drive less and turn the lights off at night? 'She certainly understands what's good for animals and trees and what's not good for them. But has her behaviour changed? I think that's a pretty hard one to judge right now.'

He says Remi loves her role in the BogeyBugz project and is happy her face is on the first page of every story.

'Remi is addicted to the BogeyBugz. Right now she's the only child on the planet who knows they exist. Every time she's made aware of an environmental issue on television she'll ask, 'Is this a job for the BogeyBugz?' She's a big part of it. She knows it all started with her nose.'

The BogeyBugz in 4 Environmental Adventures are on sale now (P3, HK$128 for a box set)