PAPERBACKS

PICTURE BOOKS

Herbert: 5 Stories by Ivor Cutler, illus Patrick Benson, Walker pounds 4.99. Cutler's crisp, downbeat wit and off-centre viewpoint make him an ideal children's writer. Here, young Herbert metamorphoses into various animals with very funny results.

Courtney by John Burningham, Red Fox pounds 4.99. This, by one of our nicest author-illustrators, is the story of a scruffy old mongrel with unexpected talents. Well up to scratch.

Little Pink Pig by Pat Hutchins, Red Fox pounds 4.50. Bedtime story about bed- time following the repetitive formula that's made Hutchins a brilliant success with the very young.

Mr Bear's Picnic by Debi Gliori, Orchard pounds 3.99. Mr Bear is again a bumbling, put-upon dad in the second in this colourful series.

Over on the Farm by Christopher Gunson, Corgi pounds 3.99. Cute, sunny counting book for toddlers.

Willy the Wizard by Anthony Browne, Red Fox pounds 3.99. Anthropomorphic chimp dreams of football glory and achieves it with a pair of gift boots. Offbeat humour in words and images.

How to Look After Your Hamster / Dog / Cat / Rabbit by Colin and Jacqui Hawkins, Walker pounds 4.50 each. Breaking into non-fiction with this series, the Hawkinses ally good sense to characteristically entertaining pictures.

A Ruined House by Mick Manning, Walker Read and Wonder pounds 4.99. An exploration of a ruin as a wild-life habitat with terrific pictures and thought-provoking text. A good example from a well-conceived non-fiction series.

STORYBOOKS AGE 6-11

Puzzle by Michael Hardcastle, Dolphin pounds 2.99. Sequel to the same author's One Good Horse continues the adventures of Puzzle, the wilful racehorse who, having rescued the fortunes of the stables run by young Holly Hill's dad, now has a reputation to maintain. Unexceptional writing but plenty of horsey excitement against a reasonably authentic background.

Diary of an Alien by Noel Ford, Puffin pounds 3.50. A shape-changing juvenile alien from the far end of the galaxy makes a crash-landing on earth and is exposed to the peculiarities of that primitive life-form known as the Earthling. Crammed with silly jokes and cleverly illustrated by his own cartoons, Ford's text rips agreeably along.

Delilah and the Dishwasher Dog by Jenny Nimmo, Mammoth pounds 3.50. Readers who liked Delilah and the Dogspell will find as much fun in this follow- up, in which Delilah and her fellow cats Tabby-Jack and Jerome, and adopted kitten Tudor, fight a do-or-die battle against the fearsome Bianca Bono, a human witch who, untypically, hates cats. Decent prose and excellent illustrations by Ben Cort.

The Gathering Darkness by Paula Fox, Dolphin pounds 3.99. Teenager Liam Cormac learns that his father has Aids - the result, they say, of a tainted blood transfusion. But Liam knows they're lying and it is the loneliest feeling he has ever had. In taking on the difficult theme of a boy who must come to terms with his father's approaching death, and at the same time with adult sexuality, Fox displays a sure and sensitive touch. For older readers in this age range.

Night Fright by Jean Ure, Puffin pounds 3.50. Anna is always doing thought- experiments: imagine if the house burnt down, imagine getting lost on the Tube. Then, after a trip to Selfridges with her mother, the nine-year- old does get lost. Worse, she's stuck on an empty train with a man offering her sweets. Ure's play on the never-go-with-a-stranger routine is lively and gently subversive.

The Upside-Down Mice and Other Animal Stories compiled by Jane Merer, Collins pounds 2.99. A slim anthology of beastly tales by some of the sharpest children's writers around - Dick King-Smith, Colin Dann, Philippa Pearce, Brian Patten et al. The selling-point is an unpublished Dahl fragment of men and mice, interesting because it was reworked as the sticky ending of The Twits. Profits go to child cancer victims.

Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson, Corgi Yearling pounds 3.99. A pair of 10-year- old girl twins, looking identical but opposite poles in character, tell their story alternately - of a dead mother, Dad's hated girlfriend and the threat of separation. Wilson's comic exploration of the twin-world shows the desire to separate fighting a powerful genetic magnetism. In a clever touch, each narrator is given a different illustrator - Nick Sharratt and Sue Heap.

The Empty Suit of Armour by Kaye Umansky, Dolphin pounds 2.99. A simple, rather charming ghost story in verse about a suit of armour that walks all the way to town to pay, as we discover at the end, a visit to the Hardware Shop. The lines jog readably along and provide several witty rhymes. The strong pictures are by Keren Ludlow.

Philibert the First and Other Stories by Dick King-Smith, Puffin pounds 3.50. The veteran entertainer is in fine form in these six very different tales, suitable for the under-eights. They're about a King who can't laugh, a girl who can't sing, a four-year-old genius, a baby who unexpectedly lives up to her name, a boy who is too fond of sausages and a guinea pig's funeral with a surprise outcome.

For the Life of Laetitia by Merle Hodge, Dolphin pounds 3.99. Set in the Caribbean, this is the story of Lacey Johnson's schooldays. With her mother away working as a hospital cleaner in New York, Lacey must leave her loving grandmother's rural home to attend secondary school in the town, living there with a father she hardly knows. This sympathetic novel would appeal to many older children, but will be of special interest to those with West Indian roots.

The Checkout Princess by Andrew Matthews, Mammoth pounds 3.50. When Chris pops down to Sainsco's for a can of cola, a princess from another dimension is beamed down to the check-out desk. Luckily everyday cleansing products are the magic potions of Princess Tamzine's people so, with a pinch of Eezi-Kleen and a dollop of Blueflush, the pair are soon whirling back through the space-time continuum to Tamzine's homeland. So now how does he get back? Good fun.

The Oxford Treasury of Children's Stories, compiled by Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark, pounds 6.99. These 26 stories are largely in the fairy or folk tale tradition. As well as old favourites (a Brer Rabbit, an Arabian Night, an Oscar Wilde, a Kipling, an Anderson) there are more recent classics by the likes of Margaret Mahy, Ted Hughes, Terry Jones and Florence Parry Heide. Pictures are by a variety of top-notch children's illustrators making for a package of excellent value.