Good housekeeping for kids

Reviewed: Kids Can Clean, The Hunchback Assignments, The Santa Trap, The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics

Reviewed: Kids Can Clean, The Hunchback Assignments, The Santa Trap, The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics

Kids Can Clean, Shannon and Erin Lush ABC Books 94pp, $14.99
SHANNON Lush is an original, a restorer of precious glassware and antiques who knows everything about homemaking. She has acquired a national following through books such as Spotless and her radio work. Now she and her 10-year-old, Erin, have collaborated to produce a book about cleaning aimed at children. Chapter headings include How to Find Your Bedroom Floor Again and How to Use Your Drawers for Clothes. It is an inspired idea. There is some of the practical chemistry involved in cleaning and some lovely tips: what to do about the squashed banana at the bottom of the schoolbag, also, 10 good reasons to suck up to parents. Can't go wrong, really.

The Hunchback Assignments, By Arthur Slade HarperCollins 276pp, $19.99
THIS one is a matter of taste. The plot is interesting and the evil-scientist-creates-genetically-altering-tincture premise is all right, but the details are downright icky. Modo is a very young freak travelling with Gypsies in Europe when the mysterious Mr Socrates buys and carries him off to England to be educated in the art of 19th-century spying. His benefactor begins using him for missions aimed at saving the world from Dr Cornelius Hyde and his ghastly monied patrons, who are turning young men and children into automata. Modo is helped along by beautiful fellow agent and teenager Octavia Milkweed. This is the first in the series, with any luck the next one will be less gruesome.

The Santa Trap, By Jonathan Emmett Pan Macmillan, 31pp, $26.99
'TIS the season to see who has risen to the challenge of producing a good yuletide story. Jonathan Emmett and illustrator Poly Bernatene have exceeded the brief. As the sticker on the back cover says: "Warning: Contains no peace and goodwill", at least on the part of the spoiled rich kid Bradley, who has a serious beef with the bearded gentleman about the contents of previous years' stockings. Confident of his ability to influence events, the little blighter comes up with an apparently fool-proof plan to halt the annual present delivery and snaffle all the gifts for himself. But, as we know, Santa is made of the sterner stuff and the denouement is amusing as well as satisfying.

The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, Edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly Abrams Comicarts, 352pp, $75
DENNIS the Menace, Donald Duck and Captain Marvel are all in this wonderful celebration of the golden years of comic books selected and edited by the renowned Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly. For those who can splurge, it is worth it to see toons featuring Clifford (1950), Little Lulu (1956) and Gerald McBoing Boing (1952). As the US National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Jon Scieszka, says in his introduction, "You have just entered the bank, the mint, the Ali Baba cave full of gold, silver, ruby, emerald, and diamond toons." He advises adults to have their fun, then "pass the treasures to the audience these comics were meant for - kids".