Kids book club – March

0-4 years
Batty
Sarah Dyer
9781847801593
£6.99

Of all the animal attractions at the zoo, Batty the bat lags well behind in the popularity stakes. Even the other animals aren't keen to, um, hang out with him. So Batty decides to tale a jaunt around the enclosures to see if he can make any friends. With any luck the penguins, lions, gorillas and birds will welcome him with open arms. Or paws. Or wings... This is surely the only pre-school picture-book lesson about fitting in which partly takes place upside down - from Batty's point of view, of course. So there's lots of fun to be had in switching the book from one way up to the other throughout. Filled to the brim with bright, colourful illustrations, this is far less gimmicky, and far more heart-warming, than you might expect. Batty's flight isn't entirely straightforward, but rest assured he gets there in the end.

4-6 years
Best Bedtime Stories Ever
Richard Scarry
9780007413560
£6.99

Readers of a certain age will take one look at a Richard Scarry book - populated by an entire society of pigs, wolves and dogs - and be transported back to happy childhood hours spent poring over them. Tiny readers will simply enjoy them afresh. Throughout the Sixties and Seventies, American writer / illustrator Scarry created an enormous range of books about the inhabitants of Busytown - adorable animals in human dress, living human lives. This is a newly published compilation of Busytown tales, complete with favourite characters such as Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Mr Frumble and of course Rudolf von Flugel, the fighter pilot fox. (Scarry was living in Switzerland during in the later years of his career, which might explain why he drew all those pigs running around in lederhosen.) Breezy, endearing and funny, after all these years the appeal of Busytown remains very bright indeed.

6-8 years
The Great Cat Conspiracy
Katie Davies / Hannah Shaw
9781847385970
£5.99

Anna and Tom's latest pet, a belligerent cat, has a nasty habit of hauling things in through the cat-flap at night. When he does so with the neighboring vicar's precious koi carp, though, their Dad goes up the wall. After that, the cat goes missing, and the children set about investigating its fate. Anna and Tom, and their sleuthing pal Suzanne, first appeared in last year's ‘Great Hamster Massacre’, and then the follow-up, ‘The Great Rabbit Rescue’. The series could have been tiresome and formulaic, built as they are around such staple children's fiction elements as families, pets, and labyrinthine junior detective work. But the author - wife of QI stalwart Alan Davies, as it happens - has a real flair for spinning a yarn with winning, distinctive humour, appealing main characters and a nice line in subtle emotion. All in all, this leaves many of its ilk for dust. (There's also a £1 mini-adventure, ‘The Great Pet Shop Panic’, available as part of this year's World Book Day event, so you could sample the world of Anna and Tom for a bargain price first.)

9-12 years
Return to Ribblestrop
Andrew Mulligan
9781847388124
£6.99

With Hogwarts still fresh in the memory, you might have thought that children's fiction would give the swerve to peculiar boarding schools for the time being. But Ribblestrop Towers is an exception - a fully-realised creation, full of riotous happenings and barmy characters. Not for nothing is the school motto 'Life is Dangerous'. The hazardous, ramshackle place is stuffed with secrets - secret tunnels, secret experiments, you name it. It's also awash with weapons, crime, alcohol - and, this time out, circus animals. It might sound heavy-going, but the world of Ribblestrop is very, very funny - albeit edgy - and rollercoaster-strength exciting. From students to teachers, the school is a magnet for the strange, the troubled and the downright unhinged, but together it makes up one surrpisingly affectionate family. The first volume in 2009 was a palpable hit, and this sequel maintains the same manic pace (with occasional dark, dark twists). Mulligan and Ribblestrop have already been given the glowing seal of approval by fellow children's authors Philip Ardagh and Andy Stanton.