Best Friends

I'm fond of anthologies of stories and verse. The element of surprise and the variety of experience offered by a good collection is often the way into longer books for younger fluent readers and also, let's face it, can be a godsend for those odd minutes when a story or a poem is needed by the teacher or parent to fill in time or calm and settle the children. This is a good collection, better perhaps in its choice of prose than poetry. It offers a 'Julian' story, one about 'Littenose' and 'How he Elephant Became' by Ted Hughes among an unusual and thoughtful selection for reading aloud or alone. Other authors include Alison Uttley and Margaret Mahy, and altogether they provide a very good taster of a wide range of literature.