7-9-year-olds: Adventure stories - whether close to home or in far- off lands - dominate the most recent batch of books, writes Sylvia Thompson
Readers in the seven-to-nine age group can be confident about reading alone and take great pleasure in being transported to another place entirely by an imaginative story. That said, they still often like being read to - especially when the adult reader enjoys embellishing stories with dramatic pace and clever accents.
Adventure stories - whether close to home or in far-off lands - dominate the most recent batch of books. The best of these has to be Keith Gray's The Runner (Corgi Yearling, £3.99). It's a brilliant story about an 11-year-old boy who decides he has had enough of his parents' arguments and takes the train across England to be with his older brother. On the train he encounters another boy who introduces him to the scary yet adventurous world of children who live on trains and in railway stations. The contrast between the two boys' experiences is sharply portrayed through super dialogue. Gray deservedly won the Smarties Silver Prize for this fast-paced, sensitive tale which ends with a surprising twist.
Ellen and her mysterious friend, Mirror-Belle (so named because she is a self-proclaimed princess who appears out of and disappears into mirrors) have adventures of a different kind in Princess Mirror-Belle and the Magic Shoes by Julia Donaldson (MacMillan £3.99). As a character, Mirror-Belle captures the imagination of seven- to eight- year-old girls but unfortunately the award-winning author fails to deliver in this collection of five stories. Only in Which Witch? does she allow her own imagination to run wild, turning Ellen and Mirror-Belle into crime-stoppers as they unwittingly uncover a pair of burglars' secret stash while having a Halloween adventure.
My Sister's a Nightmare by Gretel Killeen (Red Fox, £3.99) is the sixth book in the My Sister series. Judging by this book, Killeen believes children thrive on stories driven by hyped-up, disgusting plots. In this one, Eppie and Zeke, sister and brother, get stuck in their mother's nightmare (a ghost pirate ship), getting covered in green snot and dropped into blood porridge. Not really the kind of thing that will enlighten any child, in this reviewer's view. And it's not even funny.
Annie Dalton's Lilac Peabody (Harper Collins, £3.99) is a gentle, heart-warming story about a 10-year-old boy, Charlie, whose imaginary friend (Lilac Peabody) returns to help him get his family out of a rut. The problem is that his mum, dad and older sister read all the time, making him feel a failure because he's a poor reader. However, with Lilac's help, he manages to re-energise family life. In the end Charlie's parents realise that having children doesn't mean you have to give up your dreams. In fact, the opposite is the case, you'll inspire them if you pursue your ambitions.
And now to a few books which have, one suspects, been partly inspired by the success of recent children's movies. Nelly the Monster Sitter, by Kes Gray (Hodder Children's Books, £4.99), is a perfect read for children who enjoyed the animated movie, Monsters Inc. Rather than babysit children, Nelly is in demand by all sorts of shapes and sizes of monsters to look after their loved ones. It's a funny read which requires a vivid imagination (and some experience of monsters) to be fully appreciated.
Jane Johnson, publishing director of HarperCollins's fantasy and science fiction list and author of adult novels, turns her talents to writing children's fiction with The Secret Country (Simon and Schuster, £12.99), her first children's novel. In 247 pages (the longest book in this crop), it tells the story of how schoolboy Ben Arnold is taken on an adventure to a magical, secret country by a talking cat. There are adult features to the writing style (lots of descriptive detail about Ben's family life), yet curiously this gives the novel a good pace and allows the reader to enjoy the mix of fantasy and reality in a satisfying way.
In The Kazillion Wish by Nick Place (The Chicken House, £6.99), Ainsley and Harlan Banana must complete a series of fantastical challenges before their wish for an also-mum (you see, their dad is very lonely following the break-up with their mum) can be granted. Far-fetched in the best possible way, Nick Place's first children's novel has lots of crazy characters. It's an energetic, often hilarious tale with a happy ending for all the family.
Finally You Can't Bring That in Here (Red Fox, £3.99) is a perfect book to give as a present. It is a super collection of well-known stories put together by the Federation of Children's Book Groups, a voluntary organisation which for more than 30 years has worked to bring stories to children. . It includes such contemporary classics as Thinderella by Dick King-Smith, Too Many Bears by Allan Ahlberg and of course, You Can't Bring That in Here by Robert Swindells.
Sylvia Thompson is an Irish Times journalist