Helen Paiba’s choice of Funny Stories for 8 Year Olds (Macmillan Pounds 3.99) is not just for eight-year-olds, but the age reference is useful. Helen Paiba, well-known for her work as a children’s bookseller, and a winner of the Eleanor Farjeon Award, has made selections of Scary, Animal and Funny Stories for 7 and 8 Year Olds (see picture), and is preparing similar selections for six and nine-year-olds.
The six books already published comprise an excellent armoury for reading aloud by teachers, but they also allow individual readers to try out new authors.
Michael Thorn is deputy head of Hawkes Farm primary school, Hailsham, East Sussex