"How to Survive the Hols"

That's the headline for The Times' roundup of new kids' books, with a subtitle as follows:

"From an adventure with a gargoyle to Anthony Horowitz's latest, Amanda Craig selects children's books for Easter"

Scroll down a bit and you get to the cream ...

"Younger readers continue to get short-changed by fiction, and apart from Joshua Doder’s new Grk adventure coming out next month there is little new that’s good for 7+. An exception is Joan Lennon’s The Ely Plot (Andersen Press, £4.99, offer £4.74), first in a series called the Wickit Chronicles, about an orphan in a Fenland monastery who makes friends with Perfect, a gargoyle. Together, Pip and Perfect foil an assassination attempt on the young king before using both marshes and gargoyle powers to escape. Consistently lively and charming, it’s one to look out for."

And then there's Kathryn Ross' roundup for The Scotsman, which includes this finely-crafted paragraph:

"Joan Lennon's second novel, Ely Plot (Andersen Press, £4.99) is a fast-paced, medieval thriller set in the Norfolk Fens. Pip has been brought up by the monks in Wickit monastery. His life is happy if uneventful until he meets Perfect, a tiny walking, talking stone gargoyle who takes up residence in the hood of his tunic. When Pip and Perfect overhear a plot by two noblemen to kill the young King Arnald they find themselves on the run with a rather ungrateful 14-year-old king in tow. This is a pacy, witty read, the first book in The Wickit Chronicles."

I have to admit I don't actually read newspapers a lot, but this sort of thing could really get me to change my habits!

And that's all for now from the Happy Narcissist.