Fog Hounds, Wind Cat, Sea Mice

'Paler than vapour, silent as smoke, they flowed over the cobbles...their eyes...glittered like red pennies.' Beautiful description and typical of the style of A Necklace of Raindrops writer, Joan Aiken. This portrayal of the Fog Hounds encapsulates the gorgeously horrifying phenomenon at the centre of the first of three miniature cameos of vivid fantasy. The second, about the Wind Cat, is more practical, with witchcraft offering more commonplace magic, but the third story, about the Sea Mice, is unnerving in its haunting eeriness. The tragic heroine Hella obeys her dying father's command not to eat plums from her tree, and she suffers accordingly till her twelfth birthday, when the Sea Mice provide a final solution. I won't spoil the stories for you. They are uniquely original and will provide middle junior children with a splendid flight of fantasy. Nick Price's cover is eye-catching. A book of quality this - buy it!