For Howard, life is turned upside down when he comes home from school in Diana Wynne Jones’s Archer’s Goon (Collins pound;8.99). Cleaning the nails of his enormous hands with a large knife, and taking up most of the space in the kitchen, is the Goon who demands “Archer’s two thousand”. Archer is Howard’s father, but it is words, not money, that Archer owes, and the town council he owes it to is no ordinary council. Miriam Margolyes’s energetic narration matches the story’s zany convolutions.

The themes of the stories in The Puffin Book of Stories for Ten-Year-Olds (Puffin pound;7.99) read by Paul Bradley and Stella Gonet range from space ships to football, but one story stands out: “Maelstrom” by Theresa Breslin. It tells of a young boy’s terrifying introduction to fishing at sea with his uncle when their boat is caught up in a deadly storm: guaranteed to keep the class spellbound until the very last sentence.

Michael Morpurgo’s stories are a mix of the heartbreaking and the uplifting. In Dear Olly (Collins book and tape, unabridged, pound;5.99) Matt spurns a university place and follows his heart to an orphanage in Africa where, as a clown, he makes traumatised children smile again. Forced back home after his leg is blown off by a landmine, he recovers and returns to the orphanage.

Billy the Kid (Collins book and tape, unabridged, pound;5.99) is told by 80-year-old Billy, in his youth a Chelsea football star until the war changes his life. He survives unscathed as a soldier in North Africa and a POW in Italy, but while driving ambulances in Germany he drives over a landmine, and his hopes of playing again are dashed. The emotional impact of the story is heightened by Richard Attenborough’s moving narration.

Becky’s diary entries in Michael Morpurgo’s Out of the Ashes (Collins pound;5.99) chart the ravages on her parents’ farm in Devon of the “silent and invisible wolf”: foot and mouth disease. At the start, foot and mouth is reported far away, but Becky’s family is shattered by its swift transportation to local farms. Will Becky’s beloved hand-reared lamb be the next victim on the pyre? This moving account read convincingly by Sophie Aldred is a reminder of the tragedies caused by the authorities’

mishandling of the crisis.

Wartime evacuation fascinates this age group. In Michelle Magorian’s Back Home (Puffin pound;7.99) 12-year-old Rusty has returned “home” after five years in the US. Her accent, her Americanisms and her bright clothes mark her out as a stranger, and, when her harsh, domineering father returns from the war, life becomes unbearable. Stephanie Cole’s warm voice adds a further dimension to the emotional appeal of the story as gradually Rusty and her mother find mutual love and understanding. The story is packed with exciting incident and insight into the difficulties for everyone involved in adapting to a changed world.

Zelah Clarke’s unabridged narration of Nina Bawden’s Carrie’s War (BBC Cover to Cover pound;10.99) keeps listeners spellbound for more than four hours, and will continue to do so for generations to come. Carrie and her young brother Nick have been evacuated to a little mining town in South Wales to live with Miss Evans and her harsh brother. Nearby is the warm kitchen at Druid’s Bottom where Hepzibah looks after Mr Johnny, and the dying Mrs Gotobed is saving her very best dress for the end. Old curses and family secrets are only part of the unfolding story.

Tim Curry makes a superb job of reading Lemony Snicket’s cult “Series of Unfortunate Events”. Book the First: The Bad Beginning, (Collins unabridged pound;8.99) is the start of the Baudelaire children’s misery as they lose parents and home in a fire. The luckless siblings, Violet, Klaus and Sunny (who is “no bigger than a boot”), endure cruelty in the home of Count Olaf, and then stand to lose their inheritance through the count’s plan to marry Violet. This is racy stuff full of horrid people, wicked plots, brilliant character voices (such as Mr Poe, who cannot stop coughing) - and a happy ending. Book the Second: The Reptile Room is available and Books the Third and Fourth are released on tape next month.

Deathscent (Collins pound;8.99) is the first in Robin Jarvis’s Intrigues of the Reflected Realm trilogy, a startling blend of fantasy, history and science. Gloriana is in her 178th year on the throne of Englandia, her kingdom extending over 93 islands. The scientific fantasy is intriguing: all the animals are mechanical and filled with spores which produce flavoured edible “proudflesh”. To this realm comes the stranger, Brindle, who seems to bring scientific advances, but is bent on massacre. Filled with battles and clever inventions, the story offers a world into which the older listener, helped by Tim Pigott Smith’s impressive repertoire of voices, can disappear.