Barnabas Walks

This title requires a very high level of reading experience, not because it's full of long words, but because its language is complex and sophisticated. Written in the present tense, it tells of a school guinea pig who is left behind by 'the scholars' at holiday time and of the perils he encounters as a result. I didn't find it easy to read; it's very idiosyncratic, with an odd, stilted style which needs an ability to read between the lines to understand the action. I liked it, but wish Walker hadn't made it look like their easy reading books. Both text and illustrations deserve to be independent of a format which gives quite the wrong impression of the kind of book it is.