Earlier this month in the UK, the new Children’s Laureate was announced. Since 1999 the two-year post has been occupied by some of the greats of children’s fiction, including Quentin Blake, Jacqueline Wilson and Julia Donaldson. Now, it’s the turn of Cressida Cowell, whose foremost contribution to the genre is her How To Train Your Dragon books.
Cowell’s Viking hero Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third has a tame dragon for a best friend — but far humbler creatures are found in Nick East’s Agent Weasel and the Fiendish Fox Gang
(Hodder, RRP£6.99). Our protagonist is gentleman super-spy Agent Weasel, who works for Woodland Intelligence, or WI6. Weasel’s boss H dispatches him to investigate a rash of crimes that have blighted the forest, including itching powder being scattered around the entrances to rabbit warrens and badgers having their bottoms shaved. The trail leads to supervillain Vixen Von Fluff, who plans to disrupt the Autumn Big Bash, the animals’ annual fair, in revenge for being banned from the pumpkin-growing competition.