The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon, Random House, £6.99: It's a cliché to describe a book as unputdownable, but it's fair comment in this case.
Written from the point of view of a 15-year-old autistic boy, this starts out as a murder mystery, but turns into a story of such pared-down truths as to make one feel quite uncomfortable. Christopher, who is a whizz at maths but doesn't deal in nuances or subtleties, lives with his father next door to Mrs Shears. One night he discovers Mrs Shears's poodle, dead, stuck through with a pitchfork. He sets out to find the killer and along the way discovers that his dead mum is not dead at all, but living in London. Christopher reads real-life as a series of mathematical equations, but wins out in the end of this funny, heartbreaking book - solving the mystery, finding his mother, and resolving to become a scientist.
- Orna Mulcahy
Lucas, Kevin Brooks, Chicken House, £6.99
This relatively new children's publisher has exceptional books for kids. Lucas, a fine example, gives a voice to Caitlin, whose father urges her to write about the summer experiences that have, in introducing her to both great beauty and great pain, thrust her into the uncertainties of adulthood. Living on an English island with her borderline-alcoholic but understanding father, Caitlin notices a new person on the island - an ethereal-looking boy, whose closeness to nature and distance from society mystify and attract her. A thuggish, small-minded group among the islanders, however, who feel threatened by and secretly jealous of him, create an explosive situation that ends in tragedy and anguish. As well as highly pertinent to young people, with its examination of bullying and the development of individuality, this book is also beautifully, lyrically written.
- Christine Madden
The Gods and Their Machines Oisín McGann O'Brien, NPG
Somewhere in a parallel universe, the people of Altima have made as big a mess out of their foreign policy as we have here on Earth. In Bartokhrin, the so-called Fringelands (although the country is bigger than Altima), the people are angry and frustrated about the abuse and exploitation they suffer at the hands of the Altimans. We enter the conflict through the story of Chamus Aranson, a young Altiman pilot, and Riadni, an unconventional Bartokhrin girl with fighting spirit. McGann's parable focuses on the misunderstandings and entrenched hatred - caused by fear and suffering - that puts entire peoples behind barricades and creates a thriving, ruthless terrorist culture - and not only on the deprived side of the battle lines. McGann indicates that the real destructive power lies in the fermenting and explosive experience of pain coming from the past. A challenging read for a thoughtful young person.
- Christine Madden
Something in the Air Jan Mark Definitions/Random House £4.99
Anyone with an annoyingly bossy older sister will like Something in the Air, a story that's set in London just after the first World War, but has a message for sisters everywhere. Peggy is a feisty 14-year-old who lives with her sister, Hilda, and just the name is enough to tell you she's a pill. Hilda is 16 and runs a tight ship at home while their widowed mother is out at work. Their brother, Ollie, is let away with murder but Peggy is ticked off for her drooping hemline and bashed-about school hat. It's not all Peggy has to worry about. Her best friend, Dot, is in a state of shock since Peggy told her the facts of life and then there are the noises in her head. ditdit . . . ditditditdit . . . dit . . . just like Morse code. It's time to consult glamorous Aunt Stella, who thinks that Peggy is getting messages from the Other Side.
- Orna Mulcahy
Limbo Lodge, Joan Aiken, Red Fox/ Random House £4.99
Joan Aiken was a popular author with a brisk output - more than 60 novels for children, a score or more for adults, and poems, plays and short stories too. She died earlier this year and now her best-known series for children, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase novels, have been reissued with fresh, jelly-bright covers. Aiken's characters are creatures of fantasy, who get themselves into fantastic situations from which parents are blissfully absent. Limbo Lodge is set on the high seas and tells the story Dido Twite, who is trying to return to England after her adventures on the east coast of America. Orders are sent to the Captain of the Thrush to find and bring home Lord Herodsfoot, a man with a mission to find all kinds of peculiar games to cheer up the ailing English king, James III. This is a racy tale with plenty of disgusting detail, such as poisoned arms that swell like bolsters, and cockroaches big as lobsters that eat human toes.
- Orna Mulcahy
To the Edge of the Ocean Rosemary Hayes Hodder, £5.99
In this second volume of the trilogy, Amos, the now grown-up son of Abbie's brother Jim, who was sent to a penal colony in Australia and presumed drowned, chafes against his sedate and subservient life in London. Convinced his father is still alive, he travels down under and, after an arduous two-year search, finds him - in his new life, with new wife and daughter. In a parallel story set in the present day, Abbie's great-great-great- grandchildren continue to struggle with their troubles, caused by their mother's sadistic, stalking ex-boyfriend. The book and its broader picture are epic in their sweep, but the characters are strangely flat - it all seems as though it has been written with one eye toward the making of a children's television drama series. Enjoyable, light but unchallenging reading.
- Christine Madden