True Believer, by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Faber, £9.99 (£4.99 paperback)
Age: 12-16 yrs

The author revisits LaVaughn, a key player in her acclaimed novel, Make Lemonade. Like that book, this reads as if a photographer accompanied LaVaughn's every move and thought. Growing up with her driven mother, she has expectations of her future, expectations that may be unusual in her neighbourhood. Her mother dreams big dreams for her, consequently making big sacrifices that she chooses not to conceal. And although LaVaughn tries to fulfil her mother's ambitions, she can't avoid the usual teenage preoccupations - love, friendship and families. It's tough, but so is she. This is wonderful, accessible, honest writing.

Mega and Micro (one of a series of four Weird and Wonderful Guides) by Barbara Taylor
(OUP), Price £5.99
Age: 7-11 yrs

Biggest, smallest, highest, heaviest, largest, rarest - stunning photographic evidence of the extremes of the natural world abound, accompanied by attention-grabbing bites of narrative information. This series of books is a splendid source of conversation-stoppers - did you know, for example, that the tongue of a blue whale weighs more than 35 people? Or that a great white shark can swallow a dolphin whole? The spreads are also dotted with True or False sections highlighting other amazing facts. Such books are irresistible; they stimulate conversation, imagination, curiosity and, maybe, the odd nightmare.