Literary Review: Children's Round Up

My round up of children's books is in this month's Literary Review, a magazine so packed with jam it's like a bonus-sized jar of Bonne Maman. And don't we all love Bonne Maman. Mmmmm. Hold on a sec. Right, now that I've had my afternoon fix of toast and jam, I'll tell you about the review - I'm doing ten (mostly) creepy books for Christmas.

They are Anne Fine's The Devil Walks, Mary Hooper's Velvet, Chris Priestley's Mr Creecher, Lauren Oliver's Liesel and Po, The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce, A Greyhound of A Girl by Roddy Doyle, Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp by Philip Pullman, and School of Meanies by Daren King.

In this issue you will also find out what the Hawaiian word for sulphur is - "kukae pele", or Pele's excrement (Pele the goddess, that is), and be introduced to Leet, the gaming language in an article by David Profumo; there's also brilliant stuff from Kwasi Kwarteng, Robert Irwin, Adrian Tinniswood, Claire Harman, John Gray, D J Taylor and bags more.

Thomas' Battersea: Readers' Cup Challenge

Today brought a visit to Thomas' Battersea, to attend the Readers' Cup Challenge, a competition which is a sort of cross between University Challenge and a very polite riot. I was given an extremely warm welcome by the staff, and led into their very impressive hall. There were four teams, each representing a house in the school (and all named after famous Thomases - Lawrence, More, Hardy and ... the other one escapes me). The teams had to answer some extremely tricky questions about the three set books, which were: I Am David by Ann Holm, Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce, and.... The Other Book by, er, you know, that chap, er, what's his name? er... Philip something... oh yes, Philip Womack.

The questions were answered with speed and depth. I confess I'd forgotten the answers to a couple of them. What were the names of Wentlake de la Zouche's dogs, I could remember - Blanche and Fairfax; but I hadn't remembered that Edward's toy is called Milo the hippo. I was also able to fulfill one of my dreams, which is to be as much like Bertie Wooster as it is humanly possible to be (hence the picture: obviously I was wearing a very similar get-up): step one, give the prize away at a school speech day. It wasn't technically a speech day, but still. Next I need to buy some purple spats...

So an enormous thank you to the staff and pupils of Thomas' Battersea, and keep on reading.