Changes

Meg Rosoff has a talent for bringing a situation to life and allowing you to watch (unscathed) what happens from the sidelines. There's a moral in the story - you don't need to be helpless, whatever your age. Take responsibility for yourself (and others if necessary) and learn how to cook a decent meal, keep your surroundings tidy and ''organise'' yourself. She shows (or rather Betty does) that it's not difficult and there's even a recipe at the back of the book for a delicious chicken and rice meal. It doesn't say how many people it serves, but I'd guess three or four and you can have it ready in less time than it would take to get a takeaway. Forget whether or not it's ''healthy'' (there's soy sauce in the recipe so it might have more salt than some people would appreciate) it's definitely going to taste better than yet another pizza.

It's a funny story which doesn't patronise children either in the approach it takes or the words it uses. I think every eight year old should understand what a sociopath is. It's not delivered with a heavy hand, either: there's no sense of being told what ''you'' ought to be doing. You're simply gloating over the fact that you're not ''that'' bad. Brilliant stuff.