Harry's Aunt/Harry's Horse ¦ King Henry's Palace/The Tale of Thomas Mead ¦ How Tom Beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen/A Near Thing for Captain Najork

An innovative new format from Young Piper. Two books in one; read the first, then 'flip' over and read the second. It's certainly good value for money and, though it takes away the individual feel of a book, the format has proved popular with children I've shared this first batch with.

Lavelle's two 'Harry' stories are particularly well suited to the format. In each, we meet the spirited hero and his spell-working aunt. This writer always has a keen ear for the pace of dialogue, and keeps a tale going with verve. The mayhem at the pet show-in Harry's Aunt is splendidly-caught by writer and artist. The grown-ups' collusion in Harry's cowboy fantasy in Harry's Horse is endearing.

I've longed to see Thomas Mead in paperback for years. It's the tale I read a lot with children, and their teachers, to get them thinking about why we learn to read . . .

There was a boy called Thomas Mead/who never ever learned to read./'I wish you would!' his teacher sighed./'Why should I?' Thomas Mead replied.

Fives up to elevens love the cartoons, and the way in which poor Tom, jailed as a result of the misadventures which result from his illiteracy, learns to read when his fellow cons show him a purpose! He's on War and Peace by the end: Hutchins at her very best. The flipped pairing here is a couple of King Henry stories - witty, cumulative tales, popular with fives to sevens. The fact that Thomas Mead is popular with readers up to twelve, and King Henry with younger children, may make for a mismatch in the pairing - but this one is still a must for classroom and bookshop.

Least satisfying in the format is the Hoban and Blake pair. Good as it is to have the two now-classic Pythonesque picture stories in paperback, they are sadly cramped in the edition here. Hoban's tale is to do with excess; Blake's pictures need expansiveness - they are not served well here.