Frying as Usual

A cheerful little book, this, and likely to appeal to first-year pupils. Joan Lingard's straightforward, entertaining writing brings us the story of the Francetti family, Italian fish and chip shop owners. The accident-prone Francetti father is confined to hospital and it falls on the rest of the family to run the shop. They all contribute, from the imaginative Rosita to the dour Toni and the problems are satisfactorily resolved in comforting happy ending. Each member of the family is clearly and simply brought to life and given a place in the story. That's the appeal of Lingard's work - its homely predictability and the careful placing of all the component parts. Not great literature, certainly, but safe to give to the whole range of first-year abilities; a refreshing quality in the face, of the current, often unpleasant, precocity in children's literature.