Whoever thought the Automobile Association was a subversive organisation? Yet here it is, in black and white. "Warning!" says the back cover. "Don't let your teachers catch you with this book."

Nothing new, of course, about inducing children to do the right thing by telling them that it's a bit naughty. But who cares, so long as it works?

"There are no grammar exercises and no vocabulary tests," say the publishers of these guides. "Just the words and phrases you want to know."

We grown-ups have a name for such things, of course. We call them phrasebooks. But where grown-up phrasebooks have chapters called "Arriving", "Ordering dinner" and "At the bureau de change", these versions, aimed at nine- to 12-year-olds, have "Hanging out", "Looking good" and "Wanna play?"

There are sections on beach talk ("Is this your bucket?"), spending pocket money ("This is rubbish") and electronic games - how many adult phrasebooks contain the words "Am I dead?"?