CHILDREN’S

THE EXPLORER by Katherine Rundell (Bloomsbury £12.99) WHEN a light aircraft crashes in the Amazonian jungle, four children are the only survivors. But this is no Lord Of The Flies. Instead, the children band together in their desperate attempt to escape, battling the harsh conditions until they find a map that could show the way out.

It leads, however, to a mysterious and initially hostile explorer who has lived alone for almost 20 years. As the relationship between them all grows and they learn to live with, rather than fight, the jungle, rundell conjures up a world of natural beauty — pre-internet — where survival depends on cooperation.

Her vivid locations are almost characters in themselves. She also pays homage to Eva Ibbotson’s classic Journey To The river Sea. Terrific. Age 8-12 THE GUGGENHEIM MYSTERY by Robin Stevens (Puffin £9.99) Award-winning author Siobhan Dowd died before she could write a sequel to her bestselling The London Eye Mystery, but one can only hope she would feel proud of robin Stevens’s spirited continuation of her characters’ adventures.

When 12-year-old Ted Spark, who has Asperger’s, flies to New york with his mum and older sister Kat to visit their aunt, a curator at the Guggenheim Museum, they find themselves at the centre of an art theft.

With their aunt the main suspect, Ted, Kat and their cousin Salim have to race against time to prove her innocence — and Ted’s unique view of the world turns out to be the perfect way to solve a very perplexing mystery… Age 8-12

THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON by Kelly Barnhill (Piccadilly Press £6.99)

Every year, the elders of the Protectorate demand that the youngest baby of the City of Sorrows is left as a sacrifice to the evil witch in the forest.

It’s really a useful political weapon of fear to subdue the inhabitants. But unknown to the elders, there is a witch, Xan, who rescues the abandoned babies and gives them to grateful families in another part of the country, nourishing them with starlight on their journey.

One year, however, she accidentally feeds the baby with moonlight and endows her with magical powers. Xan must raise the child, Luna, as her own — until Luna’s 13th birthday approaches, when her supernatural strengths emerge.

This beautifully written, darkly funny coming-of-age story will enchant and entertain. And there’s a teeny, tiny dragon, too… Age 10-14