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REVIEW: Books for children
How could you not love any book called How To Avoid A Wombat's Bum?
With a title like that, you're on side before you even open it.
And when you do, what treasures there are in store. Goalscoring goalkeepers are listed, as are the nation's best April Fool's pranks, all manner of weird facts about words, some mind-numbing number oddities and the oddest of odd place names.
I could go on. But won't. Suffice to say this is a must-have treasury of totally-useless facts that you'll wish you'll remember but probably won't – which is the best reason to return to this book again and again.
Now in paperback, Mitchell Symons' masterpiece is priced at 4.99 and published by Red Fox. It's aimed at nine-11 year olds, but I can't see any reason why they should have all the fun.
Rather gentler fare comes in an eventful month for the eternally-busy Princess Poppy who this time round is Pop Star Princess in the latest adventure from the prolific Janey Louise Jones (Young Corgi, 3.99), sweet and undemanding fiction for seven to nine-year-olds with a penchant for things princessy.
Also on the shelves is Princess Poppy: Colour and Create: A Colouring Book, beautifully produced and inventively done, at 3.99. Princess Poppy also gives her celebrity endorsement to Princess Poppy On Barley Farm: A Sticker Storybook (3.99), another attractive title with plenty of stickers to find the right places for.
And unless you're Poppy-ed out, there is also Princess Poppy: The Wedding, with the novelty this time a CD (5.99) and more than a slight feeling that it's possible to have too much of a good thing.
Heftier issues come in The Magician by Michael Scott (Doubleday Children's, 12.99).
Dark secrets, the end of the world, gloomy prophesies, general wizardry… there is a slight feeling that we are wandering through very familiar elements, but Scott weaves a few spells all his own in a real page-turner, vivid and gripping, intelligent and thoroughly well-written.
Most of which also applies to Catherine Banner's The Eyes of a King (Corgi Children's, 5.99) in which a parallel world is colourfully created, in which blank pages fill themselves and in which exile and assassination are catalysts – a jolly good yarn, product of a genuinely-powerful imagination but a book which still sufficiently roots itself in real emotions (necessary for those of us who are starting to get a little weary of modern writing's consuming obsession with other worlds). Age guide is 12 and up, as was the Scott.
Back to things very girly, and there is plenty to recommend in Elizabeth Rettig's Jumping to Confusions (Corgi Children's, 5.99), consistently witty, warm-hearted and just plain good fun, touching on plenty of family/personal issues with sensitivity and plenty of understanding. Aimed at 12 and up, it explores, among other things, self-perception and the hell of having an attractive sister when you are (in your eyes) fat and plain.
Also fun and very funny is Pete Johnson's How to Get Famous (Yearling, 4.99), a book which dips into our world which feeds wannabees with all sorts of outrageous hopes. Johnson shows a deft comic touch as Tobey and his friend Georgia audition for starring roles in the local play. Tobey, you see, is determined to be famous… (nine to 11-year-olds).
Sandi Toksvig's The Littlest Viking (Yearling, 4.99) is another quick and pleasing read, the tale of a lost and little Viking who goes astray, is rescued by Katie, Gary and Joshua and ends up living in a garden. Adventures ensue and there are lots of laughs to be savoured. Well-written and never patronising, it's just right for the intended seven-to-nine-years bracket.
New in paperback is the excellent The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (Yearling, 5.99), a gripping race-against-time thriller aimed at nine to 11-year-olds.
The chase kicks off when Ted and Kat's cousin disappears from one of the London Eye pods. With the police baffled, Ted and Kat turn sleuth – and the book fairly rattles along to a finale which lives up to all the expectations Dowd creates along the way. If you missed it in hardback, the paperback is definitely worth shelling out for.
Phil Hewitt
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Weather for Chichester
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South west
