Kids book club - August

0 - 4 years
Emily Brown and the Elephant Emergency
Cressida Cowell / Neal Layton
(£5.99) 9781408302033

A third outing for the intrepid Emily Brown and her rabbit Stanley, this time in the large, grey company of an elephant called Mathilda. But Mathilda's mummy isn't nearly as fearless as Emily and co, and keeps interrupting their adventures by ringing the hotline. As soon as she stops, there's a genuine emergency.

Cressida Cowell is well established as the author of the How To Train Your Dragon books. Her Emily Brown picture-books for younger readers are just as appealing; all child-like leaps of imagination and distinctive, eye-popping images. This cheeky, sideways lesson in getting one's priorities right might just be the best in the series yet.

4 - 6 years
I Really Want to Eat a Child
Sylviane Donnio / Dorothee de Monfreid
(£5.99) 9780340970492

One sunny morning by the riverside, young Achilles the crocodile decides that his usual diet just won't do. The clue's in the title, really. His parents try to dissuade him, but Achilles is determined to munch on a small person, and won't stop until he's found one. When he does, though, will the encounter pan out as planned? This picture-book (first published in France as, wait for it, 'Je mangerais bien un enfant') is a neat Dahlesque treat, with bold, bright illustrations and a wee bit more, um, bite than its shelf-mates.

6 - 8 years
Harry and Hopper
Margaret Wild / Freya Blackwood
£6.99 9781407111391

Not for the faint-hearted, this. Harry has loved Hopper the dog since they were both tiny. One day, though, Hopper meets a sad, sudden fate. It's not easy for Harry to accept, especially when Hopper turns up at the window that night. But really that's all just part of Hopper saying goodbye. A gentle, dream-like evocation of loss, this is a beautiful picture-book that handles weighty matters with genuine lightness of touch. Thankfully it manages to steer well clear of being worthy, but it's still guaranteed to draw tearful snuffles from readers of every age.

9 - 12 years
Young Sherlock Holmes: Death Cloud
Andrew Lane
£6.99 9780330511988

In the wake of the bestselling Young Bond series, it was only a matter of time before some publisher hit on exploring the early years of literature's foremost sleuth (now back on our TV screens, of course). Credit where it's due, this first entry in a projected new series handles the idea with considerable wit and panache. The author is a self-confessed Holmes buff, and it shows. Aside from a few modern flourishes, it's thoroughly authentic, capturing the essence of the character and his environment, with plenty of sly nods to the Conan Doyle originals. It also stands as a big daft ripping yarn in its own right, full of promise for future volumes. Young readers of contemporary spy series should be in clover.

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