Here's Sam ¦ The Magician who Kept a Pub, and other stories

Dorothy Edwards' stories read well aloud and she knows how to spin a tale for the five to nine-year-olds; but Here's Sam is a rather mishandled attempt to bring her very personal 'Naughty Little Sister' style up to date. Sam lives on an estate with his Mum, Dad and bossy sister and the adventures will ring true with many readers though the stereotypes are pretty thick on the ground. How's this for a multi-cultural readership?

'There are lots of boys and girls at Sam's school. Some are like Sam, but there are black children too, and quite a lot of brown ones. The black children have easy names, but some of the brown children's names are hard to say. Sam can't understand what the brown ones are talking about. That is because they are still learning English. Sam's Gran says they will soon pick it up. She said they many sound funny, but that is because they come from over the sea where people don't speak English all the time like we do.' The choice is yours.

Miss Edwards is more at home with the modern fairy tales of the second book: fantastic situations in very real contexts. My favourites are The Witch who lived on the Motorway and the title story. The magician's daughter in the latter is a contemporary heroine, who's told that when she marries she can sit all day brushing her moonbeam hair and replies that she'll be far too busy dictating letters to her secretary! Well worth a try with six to nines.