Children's literature, especially for the 10-12 age range, is not all purely escapist: much of it deals with harrowing subjects. The following novels, set in a variety of historical periods, are no exception; but it is the triumph of the human spirit which shines through.
In Elizabeth Lutzeier's Bound for America (Wolfhound Press, £3.99), a sequel to The Coldest Winter, we meet up again with Eamonn, his two younger brothers and his mother as they take ship for Boston. Before he gets there, he has to endure the fever hospital in Grosse Isle and the split-up of what remains of his family by the Church. In Boston, jobs are advertised with the proviso "no Irish need apply" (a timely reminder in today's intolerant times) and conditions in the cotton factories are horrendous. Eamonn, taken in by a family with a social conscience, becomes involved in the nascent trade-union movement, but his burning aim is to trace his two brothers. The tale has been told before, but Lutzeier tells it well.
Martin Booth won great acclaim for his last novel, Music on the Bamboo Radio. In POW (Puffin, £4.99 in UK), we have moved to the first World War. Fourteen-year-old Ted Foley is ship's boy on HMS Nomad. Twenty minutes into the Battle of Jutland, the Nomad is sunk. Ted is rescued, interned in a POW camp in Germany and, eventually, escapes back to England. Booth is good on detail: we learn much about first World War destroyers, the British Navy and life in a POW camp. But it is the tension and humanity in the story which kept this reader turning the page.
Lost in Africa by Nick Warburton, (Walker, £9.99 in UK) is set in the 1960s. Ronnie Banham, a bungling, irascible, headstrong man walks out of the Station with his two children, Natasha and her young brother Colin, following a quarrel with the Commissioner. They survive many dangers - crocodiles, hostile tribesmen, mangrove swamps. But this is more than a simple Boys' Own adventure story: Natasha's ambivalent attitude towards her father is at its core and the book is, in places, deeply moving. By the time of the final disaster, Natasha has come to understand her father better and views their repatriation to England with mixed feelings.
Julia Jarman's Hangman (Collins, £3.99 in UK), is set in contemporary times, albeit with a nod at the second World War. Toby was doing okay until Danny, his embarrassing friend from Primary, joins his new school. Toby doesn't interfere as Danny is picked on - he has his street-cred to defend. On a school trip to France, the persecution escalates with near-tragic consequences. Toby returns to face up to his responsibility and cope with his guilt. Hangman is a story about bullying and about how decent kids get drawn into it, but the characters are well-drawn and the issues not all black and white.
For a bit of humour in all that bleakness, Morris Gleitzman, one of the best contemporary children's writers, has two new books out in paperback this year. Toad Rage (Puffin, £3.99 in UK) is a departure from Gleitzman's usual form: the protagonist is a young animal rather than a young human. Limpy (guess how he got his name!) is an Australian cane toad, a species so huge, lumpy and ugly that it is fair game for every car and truck driver on the roads. Most of his relatives are flattened corpses. He sets out to persuade humans to be nice to toads, travelling as far as Sydney and this year's Olympic Games, with very funny results.
The Gift of the Gab (Puffin, £3.99 in UK), is vintage Gleitzman. Rowena's dad would be an embarrassment to any daughter, but she loves him. The fast-moving plot covers mutism, dangerous chemicals, the carnage of the first World War and a mother killed by a hit-and-run driver: not the obvious stuff of comedy. Yet this is a hilariously funny as well as deeply moving book, with the usual Gleitzman message: people are not perfect, but they try their best.
What all these books have in common is a belief in decency, tolerance and concern for others - a necessary antidote to our sleaze-ridden times.
Margrit Cruickshank is a writer and reviewer