Among the latest crop of children's books, The Spellgrinder's Apprentice (Bloomsbury, £6.99) is a thrilling magical story from N.M. Browne about an orphaned boy who is apprenticed to grind spell stones, and is chased horribly when he runs away.

Then there's Set in Stone by Linda Newbury (Random House, £6.99). This story takes place at the end of the 19th century and is about the secrets uncovered by Samuel Godwin, young tutor to the Farrows at their majestic house, Fourwinds. His tutees are two sisters as different as chalk and cheese: one nervous and flighty, the other controlled and sad. With their governess, Samuel begins to discover the horrifying truth behind the two sisters' states of mind.

This is a haunting story, with a tightly knit and gripping plot. Incidentally, the idea of Fourwinds came to the author when she was leading a creative writing exercise at Wheatley Park School.

Those youngsters who enjoyed Peter Abrahams' Down the Rabbit Hole will be pleased to hear that there is a second instalment in The Echo Falls Trilogy. Behind the Curtain (Walker, £5.99) is another mystery set in Echo Falls, with schoolgirl detective Ingrid realising that everyone at school is keeping secrets and something seems to be up with her dad, too.

Inspired by her hero Sherlock Holmes, Ingrid begins fishing around to get to the bottom of the matter - and then something dreadful happens to Ingrid herself.

For youngters those already longing for the summer, I should mention the Glory Gardens Cricket Club series, in case any cricket-mad boys have not heard of it. It's now quite an extensive series, written by Bob Cattell, and the first four - Glory in the Cup, Bound for Glory, The Big Test and World Cup Fever - have been republished (all Red Fox, £5.99). They are brilliant books for cricket fans, including not only a story, of course, but also diagrams, scoresheets and top tips on the game.

Oxford illustrator and author Helen Cooper received many plaudits for her book Pumpkin Soup, pictured, which won Britain's main children's book illustrators award, the Kate Greenaway Medal, in 1998, writes Maggie Hartford. It tells the story of three friends - Cat, Squirrel and Duck - who make pumpkin soup together every day. They always do it the same way - until one day, Duck decides that he has a better idea.

Younger children now have their own sturdy version of the tale - a board book (Doubleday, £4.99).

For older fans there is the third instalment in the series, Delicious (£10.99), which follows A Pipkin of Pepper (£4.99). Delightful stories for children who love helping in the kitchen.

A children's book event tales place at Blackwell's bookshop tomorrow. Alice in Wonderland is performed at the Broad Street shop by Oxford Storypods, a group of actors who are passionate about audiobooks and have produced an unabridged version of Alice in Wonderland on a single CD. They will be performing a number of chapters from Alice - in costume - from 2pm to 4pm.