The Floofs Brave the Wild
Penelope O’Neill
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

The Floofs return in three new stories wherein they venture into the wild. Challenges await.

In the first, Floof and the Avalanche, Dill persuades Teazle to step out of his comfort zone by leaving his volcano abode for a skiing holiday in the mountains. En route they meet Bean and Wizard who join them. and then on arrival at the cabin where they’ll be staying, they see a light on. Inside is Clementine sitting on a sofa drinking hot chocolate. (There’s a lot of hot chocolate in this story.) Some of the friends do go skiing, even having a race, when they encounter a monster and an avalanche starts. All ends happily though.

It’s ice-skates rather than skis that the Floofs try out in A Different Kind of Floof. Almost inevitably though, one of their number, Leaf, bumps down hard on the ice, falling through

and becoming frozen solid. Fortunately, Dill has something useful with her that she uses to melt the ice and release her friend. Leaf then spends some of the day in the Giant Forest comparing himself with the other Floofs and again all ends happily.

Floof and the Giant begins with Dill longing for a new adventure somewhere she’s never been before. Maybe a wave of Wizard’s wand will help them find a secret location. Secret it might be, but then a duck warns them of a giant … a hungry giant it turns out …

Just right for readers gaining confidence, especially those who like their stories presented comic style and sprinkled with humour and magic.

The Terrible Trio: The (Not-So) Superheroes
Swapna Haddow and Minky Stapleton
Scholastic

The terrible trio comprises Margarine the Penguin, Zeb the Zebra and Barry the Lemur. We meet them as they stand in line eagerly waiting to reach the front as it’s the day when a superpower will be bestowed on each and every animal. The line is a very, very long one and is moving very slowly so there’s plenty of time for them to ponder upon the power they’ll be given. Zeb wonders about speed, strength or the ability to see the future. When the buffalo bum in front of them eventually moves off, he’s let’s say, disappointed to hear from the Ministry Superpower Manager that he’s “all out of powers”. However they manage to persuade the power giver-outer squirrel that they must take priority over his favourite tv show and finally Penguin receives ‘the power to make mac, n’cheese’, Barry receives the power of nice handwriting, but what about Zeb. To him, his superpower feels pointless.

Barry and Marge soon come up with a plan – gain employment at the new cafe in town with the former writing menus and the latter making the mac’n’cheese meals.

Having thrown a tantrum, Zeb goes along too and all three start that very day; Zeb though is still determined to prove he’s a superhero. Will he have to go it alone or will his best mates help?

The laugh-out-loud silliness from Swapna Haddow combined with Minky Stapleton’s wacky portrayal of the cast of characters is great fun and has at its heart a vital message about being there for friends when things go wrong.