Allan Ahlbergs Happy Families Album

Four well-loved stories from the long-running popular series in one handsome volume. Meet Mr Biff the Boxer, illustrated by Janet Ahlberg, Mrs Vole the Vet with pictures by Emma Chichester Clark, the delightful Miss Dirt the Dustman's Daughter illustrated by Tony Ross and Master Bun the Bakers' Boy with illustrations by Fritz Wegner. Irresistible stories by one of our most respected and popular children's authors, Allan Ahlberg.

The last two decades have witnessed a considerable reaction to the progressive utopianism of the 1960s. In education debates all over the English-speaking world, the talk is now of competition, back to basics, league tables, the demands of the market. This reaction has gone too far. Children need to be helped not only to achieve basic literacy but to read "critically," to discriminate, to evaluate, to enjoy great literature. It is not enough to help children to achieve literacy if this simply means they read only sufficiently well to be seduced by advertisers and tabloid newspapers. The essays in this book are by people engaged in the "promotion" of English, be they primary teachers or university lecturers, novelists or poets, publishers or social commentators, politicians or professors.

Happy 30th birthday, Please Mrs Butler! This witty collection of school poems by Allan Ahlberg, re-jacketed for its 30th anniversary and for a whole new generation of school children to fall in love with, is full of typical classroom events that will be recognized and enjoyed by everyone. From never-ending projects, reading tests, quarreling, making-up, excuses and 'Please, Sir, it isn't fair.' Fritz Wegner's line drawings beautifully complement the hilarious and poignant verses. Please Mrs Butler was voted the most important twentieth-century children's poetry book in a Books for Keeps poll.

Mr Biff and Mr Bop are boxers and deadly rivals too. Mr Bop is fit and lean and Mr Biff . . . Well, Mr Biff likes a cream cake or two. Will he ever be able to toughen up in time for the annual charity match. Gulp!