The Muddled Monsters; The Perfect Pizza; The Posh Party; The Potty Panto; Circle Magic; Crazy Magic; Magic Hotel; Mouse Magic

Taking advantage of the current fashion for magical themes, these are two better-than-average sets of books for those 'just-launched' readers.

Anderson's 'Wizard's Boy' series has the edge, featuring an incompetent but well-meaning wizard whose spells suffer from Chinese whisper syndrome, a teaching tool in itself. The stories are inconsequential but entertaining, being lightly humorous with flashes of complete farce. They are liberally illustrated, with jaunty cartoons well-incorporated into the text and including speech and 'thinks' bubbles; these and a small amount of non-jarring repetition add to the readability.

Smith's 'Mrs Magic' runs a magical hotel where the guests never know what to expect next. The stories are not as well constructed as Anderson's, though many of the same characteristics are to be found, and all were enjoyed by my young testers.