Children’s books

FOR THE youngster just coming to terms with numbers, who better to promote counting than the bunch of slimy, hairy uglies in The Monster Counting Book by Kate Daubeny (Caterpillar; €10.66)?

With bouncy rhyme, loud colours and heaps of fun, this sturdy book is sure to set potential little mathematicians on a lively route to pre-school activities.

Terry Deary’s Viking Tales are always sure to captivate six to seven-year-olds with thrilling plots and lovable characters. The Hand of the Viking Warrior (A&C Black; €5.92) begins with an argument between Irpa and her mother, Freydis, who warns her children about the Skraelings, a screeching bunch of people who attack Vikings that settle in North America. When the ghostly Skraelings turn out to be Native American Indians who wish to exchange gifts with the newcomers, all seems well. Until one of them reaches for the silver ring in the nose of the bad-tempered bull. The ensuing mayhem puts both sides in battle mode. Who can appease the angry Indians? A wholesome, funny and exciting read.

Out of the Woods by Lyn Gardner (David Fickling; €7.10) begins under the sea with a tiny musical pipe which is swallowed by a large fish caught in a fishing net by orphan, Kit. The story switches to the three Eden sisters whose mother is dead and father has gone in search of the four-tongued, two-headed honey dragon, leaving his girls alone and penniless in their large, crumbling mansion. They are easy prey for evil Belladonna who wants the girls’ hearts ‘boiled, roasted or fried with a little garlic’ to restore her beauty. Can Kit and the enigmatic silver pipe help them?

Dark and surreal, the blend of extremes in dark places, nightmare situations and the cheeky addition of classic fairytale characters are the ingredients which make this a thoroughly entertaining fantasy romp for competent readers age 10 and upwards.