Changes

You know, the Sunday Telegraph review of [[''Permanent Rose]] '' an earlier book in the Casson Family series said the book was ''the antidote to everything that's bad in children's books'' - and while this is perhaps hyperbole, Hilary McKay is certainly the antidote to everything that's bad in formulaic series of books for children. We have all sorts of endless bubblegum fiction series, particularly, I think, for girls, in which writers always tick the same old boring boxes, seldom trouble to write well, and provide children with little more than the [non] literary equivalent of a soap opera. McKay writes quite light fiction - it's amusing and sharply-observed, but its principal purpose is to entertain, not educate. However, it is never formulaic. Her English is impeccable - right down to never using contractions - and her style is simple but elegant. The jokes aren't banana skin jokes - there are subtle layers of humour running through both situation and dialogue, and her books repay a greater bounty with each reading.