Ages 10-12: Orna Mulcahy on the latest from Jacqueline Wilson and other authors.
One mother I know has a deal with her daughter, aged nine. She will only allow her a Jacqueline Wilson book if she reads three others as well. Otherwise her daughter would read nothing but Jacqueline Wilsons, over and over again, they're that good.
Not a lot happens in a Jacqueline Wilson book - they're mostly about family and friends getting on or falling out, but there's a big comfort factor to them. No matter how weird or crazy the circumstances, it all works out in the end for people who care for one another.
Wilson, who'll be 60 next year and is the most borrowed author in UK libraries, is hugely prolific, so there's invariably a new hardback and a string of paperbacks to choose from. You can even get a Jacqueline Wilson book free with your breakfast cereal at the moment, courtesy of Nestlé.
This Christmas, stockings will bulge with The Diamond Girls (Doubleday, £10.99), the story of four sisters who live with their mum on Mercury Street in a run-down estate. Life is tough, especially when Mum brings home a new baby boy who turns out to be quite a surprise. The only problem with this book, like most other Jacqueline Wilsons, is that it's over far too soon.
In Not The End Of The World (Oxford University Press, £10.99), another celebrated children's author, Geraldine McCaughrean, imagines what it must have been like for the women and children aboard Noah's Ark when it set sail with its animal cargo. Timna, Noah's daughter, tells it as it might well have been, with all the fear and the danger of the journey, the accidents along the way, and all the time the wrath of God to be reckoned with. A compelling, thought-provoking book for children who won't be fobbed off with fables anymore.
A beautiful little book that will appeal to adult buyers is a stylish reprint of Eilís Dillon's The Island of Horses (The New York Review Children's Collection, £10), first published in 1956. It's an invigorating tale of two friends, Danny and Pat, who set out to explore the Island of Horses, off the wild Connemara coast, where men fear to tread because of the ghostly horses' hooves that pound by in the night. It's an old style adventure story in which parents don't figure too much, a sense of freedom rushing through it like the wind from the sea.
Chill Factor, by Vincent McDonnell (O'Brien, €7.95 ), is a book that might appeal to boys who don't normally read more than the teletext on screen, or the sports pages of whatever newspaper is to hand. It's a good, moody thriller about the disappearance of a doctor, Denis Gunne, who the police believe has been supplying drugs. His son, Sean, sets out to find his father and clear his name, and soon he and his friend, Jackie, are up to their necks in danger and intrigue involving the sinister American billionaire, Hawk, who is taking an unhealthy interest in cloning. Terse language and a rapid pace make this an excellent read, and not just for children.
Far away from these devilish doings is Anand, the hero of The Conch Bearer, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (The Chicken House, £12.99), a young Indian boy who is forced to beg on the streets when his father leaves home to work in a foreign land and then stops sending money home to his family. A chance encounter with an ancient beggar sets him on a mysterious journey to a faraway place where he must deliver a magic conch shell to its rightful home. Not surprisingly, danger lurks all along the way and the forces of evil are out to get the treasured conch shell. A prettily packaged hardback that will appeal to dreamy imaginations, from an elegant writer with several adult novels, books of stories and poetry under her belt.
Victorian London is the setting for Jammy Dodgers on the Run, by the intriguingly named Bowering Sivers (Macmillan, £9.99). It's the story of three street urchins, Jem, Ned and Billy, who are inseparable until Billy is stolen away. Signs are he's been taken by The Terror, the wickedest man in London, with eyes as cold as steel, who steals and sells urchins into the chimney sweep trade. When Jem and Ned confront him, they are drawn into a rat-infested underworld where life is extremely cheap. Rich in detail, Jammy Dodgers on the Run is a good historical yarn, though the authentic banter throughout slows the story down a little.
There's nothing pedantic about Anne Fine, another hugely popular children's author, who can be relied on for a good Christmas read. Her latest book, still in hardback, is Frozen Billy (Doubleday, £10.99) set in the "olden days" when men emigrated to Australia to make a living in the hope of one day making enough money so that their family could travel too. Will and Clarrie's father is still saving for their passage. In the meantime, they are living with their mother and their Uncle Len, a gifted ventriloquist whose dummy is Frozen Billy. When their mother ends up in jail in Ireland over a basket of stolen food, the children are on their own with Len, and when his act flags they decide to liven it up a bit with some ideas of their own. Beautiful black and white drawings by Georgina McBain bring the characters closer in this dark little tale that, thankfully, has a bright finale.
Patricia Murphy's The Chingles From the East (Poolbeg, €7.99) walked away with the 2004 Poolbeg Write a Children's Bestseller competition which attracted hundreds of entries. Fantasy fans will enjoy the story of Cassie, Thomas and Nancy, who, spending their summer holidays on Inish Alainn with their Uncle Jarlath (shades of Enid Blyton here), are drawn into a mythical world of strange creatures pitted against the might of Balor of the Evil Eye, not to mention the dastardly Sir Dignum Drax, who's hell bent on taking over the island for his own nefarious purposes.
Finally, for children who like a good scare, there's Tim Bowler's Blood On Snow (Hodder Children's Books, £10.99), in which Will finds himself back in Norman times, at the scene of a deadly battle where his enemy lies waiting for him . . . Can he make it back to the present day and safety of his family? A quick chilling read with superb illustrations by Jason Cockcroft. Perhaps to be given with a torch for under the duvet.
Orna Mulcahy is an Irish Times journalist