The Trevelyan family are chosen to embark on an adventure in the

The Trevelyan family are chosen to embark on an adventure in the Brazilian rainforest by unknown forces, linked to a mysterious Amazon box. Despite being set in a bizarre alternative reality where the expletive of choice is “flipping” or “bollards!”, and there’s a deceased young Muslim writer called Hanif Qureshi, this is an exciting, timely and complex story SF
2 The Amazon Box, Ron Moody, Robson pounds 14.95. Ashraf joins a vigilante group, while Stephen is sucked into Blackout, a fascist gang. By the time he realises its true nature, he’s too afraid to leave.

SF

2 Smash! by Robert Swindells, Hamish Hamilton pounds 10.99. Ashraf and Abida and Stephen and Colleen are two sets of brother and sister, and best friends, but when two white 13-year-olds mug a seven-year-old Asian girl and leave her unconscious, racial tensions split the boys into two factions. Oooh, summat’s up at Good Graces, the Jacobean mansion on’t edge o’t moor! There’s gorgeous young Simon, unhappy scion of the Tempest-Gallinules, possibly gay; Temp, his mean, irascible father; exiled teenage narrator Madeleine, pining for Hackney until she claps eyes on Simon; and there are the ghosts of the young sempstress (in the cottage) and her evil mistress Agnes (in the bridal chamber) A bit gushy, but a keen sense of atmosphere is maintained. I admired its comic energy and perfectly observed emotions and characterisation..

Unquiet Spirits by K M Peyton, Scholastic pounds 4.99. Only you will know if your child can take it – mine clearly can’t.For the slightly older reader, Susan Gates’s spirited Criss Cross (Scholastic pounds 4.99) consists entirely of chatty, bored notes passed from girl to girl and girl to boy over a series of lessons. There’s nothing obviously literary or complex about this book, but the scribbled drama (who likes who, who’s using who, who might or might not be pregnant) is sharp and alive and each author’s style, purpose and subtext slowly emerges. Despite all the “foul stenches” and “putrid decay” and the queasy inevitability of Stine’s cliffhanger chapter endings, the most threatening aspect of this series seems to be the numbingly formulaic structure and bland, cartoonish characters.Far more sinister is Michael Johnstone’s Scarecrow (Madcap pounds 2.99) which has a (believable, Nineties) boy being sucked down a black hole in the middle of a field, to meet “evil”, cloaked aliens of uncertain shape Much less specific and therefore more frightening. Much more boisterous and in tune with our times is Margaret Mahy’s The Horribly Haunted School (Hamish Hamilton pounds 10.99), an inventive and sumptuously written variation on exactly the same theme, but with more jokes, fewer gymslips and a nicely anarchic narrative.”Just don’t even look at that book, Mummy,” shuddered my eight-year-old protectively when he spied a Goose Bumps on my desk.

Expecting Reservoir Dogs, I was surprised to find that the climax of R L Stine’s How to Kill a Monster (Scholastic pounds 3.99) involves a three-metre tall furry monster merely eating pancakes. It’s a bold, attractively anti-establishment story but, though biggish type and Chris Riddell’s swirling, funky pictures suggest a younger readership, I defy anyone to explain the political analogies and endless puns – such as “bureaurat” and “Conflagrante delicto” – to a child under 12.Dick King-Smith’s The Merman (Viking pounds 10.99) tells of a grave, lonely little girl whose encounter with a wise old Merman changes both her summer holidays and her life. My six-year-old and I loved this gentle, inspiring book, but can someone please impress upon King-Smith that the word “bathe” (meaning a swim in the sea) went out with Enid Blyton?Ghosts are what you read about when you’re not quite ready for boys. The Girl in the Blue Tunic by Jean Ure (Scholastic pounds 4.99) is an elegantly written, if embarrassingly old-fashioned, tale, twining the psyches of a lonely 11- year-old girl at boarding school and the ghost of a long- dead former pupil. A small girl is moved by the plight of the “outsiders”, dying of starvation in the grounds of the castle. Encounters with a series of selfish, hypocritical animals confirm that “the system” is designed to protect and nurture the lucky few.