Tanya Batt and Trevor Pye: The Terrible Q

By MARGIE THOMSON

This is a simple idea executed with great charm and panache. Sam loves shopping with her mother, but is terrified of the terrible Q. After all, shopkeepers cannot get rid of these huge, hairy, long monsters which swallow people and which don't move on motorways even when the police are there.

There are lots of references in this enjoyable tale that children will enjoy writing on slips of paper in the bank, feeling racks of shirts and skirts against their faces, all the colour and variety of supermarkets and very endearing illustrations. It's a good reminder that children and adults can almost literally occupy quite different worlds.

Scholastic

$24.95