Children's books

The largely unsung heroes of war are four-legged, the sniffer dogs trained to find explosives, so humans can disarm the devices. Inspired by several stories of the skill and bravery of these dogs, notably Australian Labrador Sarbi, Caesar the War Dog is a mix of adventure story and tear-jerker.

Caesar is a chocolate Labrador, chosen by dog handler Corporal Ben Fulton to replace Dodger, which had a stroke and had to be put down.

Unfortunately, Ben's son Josh is still missing Dodger and sees replacing the dog as a disloyal act. However, when Caesar goes missing in Afghanistan while on a mission with Ben, it is Josh who uses the internet to help trace the dog. Could Caesar be in Taliban hands?

That may sound far-fetched but that was what was thought to have happened to Sarbi. With a helpful glossary and fact file, Stephen Dando-Collins has produced a novel that will appeal to readers young and old. The only problem is the book's name, as the story of Caesar, the New Zealand bulldog that was a World War 1 hero, has been told in Caesar the Anzac Dog.

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Philippa Gregory is the latest in a growing list of successful writers of adult fiction to turn to the teen market and with Changeling she demonstrates an ability to move readily into the genre. Accused of heresy for saying a holy relic was a fake, in 1453 Luca Vero is expelled from his monastery in Rome and recruited by a mysterious stranger to travel around Europe and ascertain whether strange occurrences are evil.

On his travels with a servant, Freize, and clerk, Brother Peter, he is sent to a nunnery to see whether claims of the nuns having strange visions and stigmata are true. The lady abbess, Isolde, is Luca's age, 17, which seems unusual but she has chosen the nunnery rather than marry a man forced on her by her brother. Accused of witchcraft, Isolde and her maid escape and join the three young men. Changeling is the first of a very promising series that paints a fascinating picture of 15th-century life with its religious practices and superstitions.

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It is perhaps a bit unfortunate New Zealand writer Sherryl Jordan's Ransomwood has been released at the same time as Philippa Gregory's Changeling. The period (the Middle Ages) and the themes (religious fakery and a young woman fleeing an unwanted marriage) are common to both books. In Ransomwood, Gwenifer and Harry, the village halfwit, accompany an old woman on a pilgrimage to heal her sight.

The book is enjoyable but lacks the strength of Gregory's writing and plotting.

 

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Fantasy is coupled with adventure in Deadweather and Sunrise, the first of Geoff Rodkey's Chronicles of Egg aimed at readers in the 8 to 12 age group.

Egbert, known to all as Egg, lives with his father and two siblings on the pirate-infested island of Deadweather.

When his family disappears on a balloon trip during a visit to the neighbouring island of Sunrise, Egg ends up staying on the island with the wealthy Pembroke family and their feisty daughter, Millicent. But all is not as it seems and Egg finds himself on the run with Millicent and a very odd cabin boy, known as Guts. The book rattles along, leaving plenty to look forward to in the next volume.

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Ashala leads The Tribe, a group of young runaways who live in the Firstwood rather than bow to the citizenship rules of Gull City. The Tribe is mainly people with special abilities - firestarters, flyers and memory manipulators - and society fears their skills and dubs them illegals. When she is captured by the chief administrator of the city, Neville Rose, Ashala is forced on to a machine that pulls secrets from her mind.

Watching her is Justin Connor, once the girl's friend but now an enforcer at the interrogation centre. Cleverly plotted, this first novel unfolds through Ashala's present and memories of her past, and is a better-than-average example of sci-fi for teen readers.

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• Gillian Vine is a Dunedin writer.