Dogblaster; The Queen's Birthday Hat

Two from a long list of short stories 'ideal for younger children who are reading by themselves'. Cheerful, cartoony, colour illustrations on every page and a short, though not always simple, text enhance these unremarkable but adequate stories.

Dogblaster concerns an out-of-control computer game provided by a visitor from outer space. Mum saves the day and Dad is shown not to be 'such a computer whizz after all'. Pedestrian in style, and obviously aiming to appeal to computer-game addicts, this is the weaker of the two stories. The Queen's Birthday Hat concerns Queen Forgetmenot, who has unusual difficulty acquiring a hat for gardening in. Slightly self-consciously amusing, there is some, clever repetition within the text which would be useful to those newly-launched readers.