A Ruby, a Rug and a Prince Called Doug

A rambling romp of a book, in which a dim but nice prince is packed off to a bedlamesque school and on his way there falls foul of a sprawling cast of prats and picaroons, all in pursuit of his festering old rug, a magic carpet in disguise. There is much juggling of genres as distorted fairy-story motifs collide with imagery and language from comic-strip culture and the soaps. The result is anarchically uneven but enjoyable. Incidentally, Robert Browning once used the word 'twats' in a poem, thinking that it referred to a nun's headgear. It doesn't. I don't know what Kaye Umansky thinks it means but I was very surprised indeed to find it on page 2 of a children's book, and so will your young readers be.