Flour Babies

A superb book: Anne Fine makes wonderful stories out of the unlikeliest of material, blending comedy with a fine streak of poignant human understanding. All the pupils do a science project, but these pupils are the lowest of the low and take on sacks of flour as babies to which they act as surrogate fathers. It begins with a misunderstanding as Simon Martin is sure he overhears the promise of being able to explode the flour sacks at the end but, for Simon, the flour sack becomes a real baby to which he talks earnestly, trying to solve the question of his own father leaving him as an infant. The interrogation is both moving and very funny and the finale well! After Madame Doubtfire let's hope they film this.