School might be out but reading can still fill the timetable; In this

IN the early 1980s Jan Ormerod created two wordless picture books - Moonlight and Sunshine - in which she depicted the evening and morning routines of a small girl. Although the illustrations of the parents now betray the era in which they were drawn, the robust self- centredness of a young child's life is as current as ever.

In Miss Mouse's Day (Picture Corgi, (pounds) 4.99) Ormerod revisits nursery-aged children, this time concentrating on a partnership between a favourite toy - Miss Mouse - and a small girl. There are a few words, but the plot - a series of episodes, mini- dramas, decisions and resolutions - isn't dependent on them. Beware Of Girls (Puffin, (pounds) 4.99) is more challenging fare. Tony Blundell's nursery-rhyme remix draws on children's knowledge of traditional stories. (There may be a control group out there unaware that wolves dressed in floral dresses spell trouble but it seems unlikely.) This hungry wolf has the misfortune to pick a girl with brains, timing and humour.

She doesn't even need the frantic "It's behind you!" reminders from her dog - she's sussed her would-be killer from the start and is determined to enjoy herself by keeping at least one step ahead. Blundell's narrative ingenuity and tight turn of phrase will endear this book to children up to seven years.

Simon Bartram is also keen on the It's-behind-you! convention. In Man On The Moon (Templar, (pounds) 10.99) he explains to children that there is indeed a man on the moon - the main character goes there on a daily basis to keep it spick and span and to show tourists around. He also calms fears that aliens may be lurking - and who wouldn't trust the word of such a clean-cut fellow? Except that behind him do indeed lurk aliens who can't wait for him to knock off for the day so they can get back to doing what aliens on the moon do. With its retro illustrations and powerful perspectives, it's involving, entertaining, and original.

There have been a number of attempts to launch novels for younger boys who, the researchers tell us, don't read fiction (though apparently they do enjoy sport, irritating their teachers, having a laugh and generally being the despair of grown-ups.) Jenny Oldfield's Totally Tom series starts promisingly with Tell Me The Truth, Tom! (Hodder, (pounds) 3.99). The author, too, has read the research and hasn't unearthed anything likely to change the world, but this short novel is more consistent than some other efforts. With the help of Neal Layton's hilarious black-and-white illustrations, it maintains momentum without exhausting readers with vacuous action. If children of either sex are to keep turning the pages, they need to be sufficiently interested in what's happening to the characters they've met and Oldfield understands that. The font size and style won't exclude older less confident readers. Fluent eight-year-olds will enjoy Tom's antics, as may their 11-year-old mates - male and female.

In Mortal Engines (Scholastic Press (pounds) 12.99) there is no alternative but to become involved with the characters. And to succeed in that against the most improbable of plots and landscapes says a great deal for first-time writer Philip Reeve. London is on the move - literally. We're in a time in which cities roam the world on giant wheels seeking towns and smaller cities to consume, retaining those bits of value and spitting out what's not. The planet which was laid waste some millennia previously thanks to the stupidity of mankind, is now littered with ruins. This is an action- packed thriller, full of verve, violence, courage and fantastic imagery. Alien though the premise may be, there are contemporary parallels that children at the upper end of the intended nine to 14- year-old readership will recognise.

It may be because it draws heavily on personal history that Jenny Koralek's War Games (Egmont (pounds) 4.99) reads rather tentatively. Hugo is rescued from Hitler's impending obliteration of Europe's Jewish communities by two British brothers as part of the extraordinary Kinders- transporte programme which spirited children to the homes of British sponsors. Holly has sailed to England from South Africa, so determined is her father to take part in the impending war. The two children are housed under the same family's roof and become firm friends. The most telling element of this novel is Holly's mother's discomfort at her daughter's obvious closeness to Hugo. It is an innocent relationship but one on which she projects her own doubts and prejudice. Hugo's brisk despatch to an aunt in France on the defeat of Hitler offers a solution but we are left with Holly's bright-eyed confidence in her friendship with someone who had been as near to a brother as she would ever have. Wars don't make heroes of us all - petty prejudices thrive and even flourish when ordinary life is so curtailed and when uncertainty is the only constant. Koralek's restrained narrative challenges readers to engage immediately with her characters but there is a quiet, resonant power to her tale. Stories surrounding the Second World War exert a continuing fascination for young people - confident 11 to 15-year- olds will find much of interest here.

Alan Gibbons's The Edge (Orion, (pounds) 4.99) is a brilliant thriller for 11 to 16-year-olds. Gibbons is not one for James Bond- style pyrotechnics. His stories pack a punch because they are so convincing and passionately related. In this latest novel he never succumbs to crass sensationalism, despite interweaving elements of domestic violence, racism, wasted lives and first romance. Indeed it is as if he takes such potential cliches and wrings them dry of easy answers before putting pen to paper. The plot opens with Danny's escape with his mother from her violent and bullying partner. Thinking they've outsmarted the vicious Chris, they learn to live with, and gradually temper, the prejudice of Chris's grandfather, a prejudice harboured and nurtured since his daughter presented him with her illegitimate mixed-race son 15 years previously. Gibbons's confident use of punchy snapshots focusing on each character's movements and preoccupations makes gripping reading. He is committed to writing books boys will read - and here he gives them something in which to sink their emotional, intellectual and creative teeth. No film or televising could compete with the immediacy of this intense plotting.

And for something completely different - but equally compelling - try The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Corgi, (pounds) 5.99). The story of one summer in the lives of four close friends is linked by a single pair of denim jeans which, despite the girls' varied shapes and sizes, fits each in her own way. The friends decide to share the jeans and to forward them to each other with accounts of how their respective summers have developed. Over-cheesiness is avoided through a deft handling of plot and characterisation, which keeps everything moving and alive. In some writers' hands things might have gone pear-shaped but here is somebody who credits her readers with sense and sensibility. This cries out to be televised - readers will be casting it as they read - but won't forget they read it all first as a book.

Copyright 2002
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