CHILDREN'S BOOKS 7-9: It happens around the age of seven and it mostly happens with little girls: suddenly, they start asking for a pony, and no matter how much you explain that a pony needs lots of space to roam and an awful lot to eat, they keep saying: "Please, please PLEASE can I have a pony."
For a child going through pony passion, My Secret Unicorn, The Magic Spell (Puffin, £3.99) is a marvellous read. It's the story of Lauren Foster, who, when her family moves to the country, finally gets her dream pony, Twilight. He's no ordinary pony, though, as Lauren discovers when she reads a book all about unicorns. Could Twilight really be a magical creature with wings like an angel? Our seven-year-old devoured this book at one sitting and now wants the sequel, My Secret Unicorn, Dreams Come True.
There's lots of magical goings-on, too, in Jenny Nimmo's The Witch's Tears (Collins, £3.99), a gripping tale of an old lady who calls on a family late one evening, then has to stay because a blizzard is brewing. The mother and two children are waiting for dad to come home, but he could be lost in the snow and, meanwhile, mum has sold her lucky crystal necklace to pay the bills. But isn't it true that witches' tears turn to crystal? The old lady weeps by the stove, and her tears clatter to the ground. Definitely a book to finish in one go.
The daddy of children's writers and author of 90 books, Michael Morpurgo, has a new hardback out called Cool! (Collins, £9.99). Don't expect to get to the end of it without a few tears. It's a beautifully written, simple story about a 10-year-old boy in a coma after a car accident that also involved his beloved dog, Lucky. His separated parents get back together, but that's not enough to wake him; his nurse understands telepathy, but that's not enough; even a visit from his favourite Chelsea footballer isn't enough - but then it turns out Lucky isn't dead after all. A very moving book that's not in the least schmaltzy.
Walter Speazlebud (O'Brien, €5.95) is the first book from David Donohue, a Dubliner with a great imagination and a complete grasp of Noitanigami, the art of spelling things backwards. It's a gift he shares with Walter, a whizz at spelling, who falls foul of his teacher, the terrible Mr Strong. It turns out, though, that teacher has a secret, and Walter's grandad helps him uncover it. Donohue has worked as a journalist and film-maker, but this sparkling book should be the first of many.
Sally Gardner, the author of that supremely girlie book, A Book of Princessses (an essential read for five-year-olds) takes a different approach in The Invisible Boy (Dolphin, £3.99), the tale of a mum and dad who win a trip to the moon and go, leaving son Sam to be looked after by terrible neighbours the Hardbottoms. Never fear though: he makes friends with Splodge, an alien who shows Sam how to become invisible and make life a pain for hideous Hilda Hardbottom.
Herbie Brennan's Nuff Said, another tale of Bluebell Wood (Bloomsbury, £4.99), will appeal to slightly older readers with its wacky characters and wry take on the fairy world. Fairy Nuff is having a party and, to prepare for it, he has flown in a Zen gardener from Japan to landscape the castle grounds, bought the Millenium Dome in case it rains, and then borrowed Ayers Rock from Australia. It's a fast-paced read that ends up with Fairy Nuff recovering the Crown Jewels and returning them to the Queen, but it just tries a bit too hard.
First published more than 20 years ago, Ann Cameron's The Julian Stories (Young Corgi, £3.99) is something different. There's a lemon pudding that tastes like a "night on the sea", a catalogue that releases magical cats, and a fig tree that won't grow. The 1970s are still very much alive in the illustrations and language, but it's a gentle, down-to-earth read after all that magic.
Orna Mulcahy is an Irish Times journalist