Age 4+

Cole has a talent for presenting information in the guise of anarchic entertainment, so that her books can be read for the jokes, visual and literal, and for the way they flout the conventions of parental propriety; afterwards, you find that you can recognise threadworms, treat headlice, are prepared for puberty or know how babies are made. This latest book, which pretends to be a warning manual for prospective parents by distinguishing good sprogs from bad, contrasts the biologically accurate insides of a good child with wild fantasies of the internal mayhem of a bad one. It introduces the reader to the digestive, respiratory, muscular and nervous systems, to blood vessels, the skeleton, the brain, the eye and the ear. On the way, it suggests useful pointers about diet and hygiene and why you shouldn't smoke. But it doesn’t seem like a lesson. Illustrated with Cole’s typically energetic caricatures and full of cheekiness, invention and hilarity, not to mention poo, worms and smelly feet, this book is an exhilarating romp in which children can identify their own characteristics, both naughty and nice.

THE SPROG OWNER’S MANUAL (or How Kids Work) by Babette Cole

(Cape £10.99)

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