Children's books

ON Your Farts, Get Set, Go! by Mitchell Symons (Doubleday; €9.50) is the latest in this popular series — a light-hearted look at sport.

Youngsters will chuckle at Ronaldinho’s shorts dropping as he takes a penalty, while the older generation may be surprised by Michael Parkinson’s one-time prowess at county cricket. Age eight and upwards.

Is There Anybody There? by Maggie Pearson (A&C Black; €7.10) When teenager Scott’s friends construct a homemade ouija board using a glass table top, they take on more than they can handle. The spirit communicates using text-speak, but Scott is soon convinced this spirit was a real person who fought in the Great War. Lively and credible teen dialogue complemented by atmospheric illustrations by Nelson Evergreen. Age 12 and upwards.

The Deserter by Peadar O Guilin. (David Fickling; €15.40) Part two of the trilogy, The Bone Series, continues the love story of Stopmouth and Indrani. It connects seamlessly with part one, The Inferior, as Stopmouth dreams of the moment Indrani left his world below to return to The Roof, a futuristic technology-dominated society. He has six days to follow her to this amazing world to get her help to save his human, albeit cannibal tribe from The Diggers, an alien species now over-running The Below. What he expects to be a Utopia turns out to be even more dystopian than the society he has left. The Deserter, set in a world we might recognise from play stations, is not as horrifying as The Inferior, where species feed off each other. While Stopmouth was the chronicler of a new species in his own world, now he is under the microscope. To his horror, he realises that he is a hero, as his exploits have been of soap-opera interest to The Roofs’ inhabitants. Most interesting is the struggle of the characters from different worlds to come to an understanding of each other. The ending opens the way for further imaginative storytelling. Age 15-plus.