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I’ve just finished reading a great children’s book, Nathan Fox Dangerous Times by L. Brittney. The book is about a 14-year-old actor in Elizabethan times who is asked to become a young spy. He is friends with a young Will Shakespeare in the early part of the book and the story includes little nods to his plays with Nathan becoming caught up in the tragic story of Othello. Dangerous Times (published by Macmillan) is the first in a planned series (the second Traitor’s Gold is also available) and has been shortlisted for the 2008 Branford Boase Award. I enjoyed the part where Nathan is trained up best of all and it looks like that will continue in the sequel. Nathan Fox is also the second children’s book I have read in the last few weeks to have been written by a woman who uses her initials (the other being M.G. Harris) Of course J.K Rowling is the most famous example. I read ages ago that Joanne Rowling was told boys wouldn’t read a book if it was written by a female and that was why she was told to use J.K. If true that’s a real shame and I wonder if that still applies after her phenomenal success besides you often only have to look inside the cover to see from the short biography or photo that the author is a woman. Do boys really judge a book from its cover? So how would I feel about being S.M Humphreys rather than Susan Humphreys? I think the Susan version looks friendlier and there’s not much difference in length. What do you think?

Enthralling adventure in an eye-catching cover When his archaeologist father goes missing after an aircrash in Mexico, Josh suspects alien abduction. But after he discovers his father was murdered, Josh is caught up in a race to find the legendary Ix Codex - a lost book of the ancient Maya containing a prophecy about the end of the world… There's no missing The Joshua Files: Invisible City by M.G Harris in the bookshops - it's the fabulous looking book in the bright orange plastic sleeve. But is the inside as exciting? Well I was keen to find out - and was delighted when Scholastic kindly sent me a copy to review. The Invisible City follows 13-year-old Josh Garcia as he tries to come to terms with his father's death before being drawn into an adventure that ultimately takes him to Mexico. M.G (Maria) Harris has created a very convincing young hero - you really get inside his head and his grief is very believable although I had some difficulty accepting that his mum would let him travel overseas with just a couple of friends. The story builds well with twists galore - and the whole Ix Codexpart was very imaginative and edge-of-your-seat stuff. The book has gone down a storm with young readers who will be desperate to get their hands on the next installment - as will I. M.G Harris Mexican-born and Manchester raised Maria also has a fantastic website and blog which writers will love - she talks about how she completely revised her book (she began with a boy archaeologist story), found an agent and how publishers tried to woo her with Mayan chocolate. (There's some lovely Madagascan chocolate available if any propsective Dr Midas & the Pirates editor is reading this!) Maria's agent is Peter Cox of Redhammer who runs the popular writer's colony - litopia - which unpublished authors can use to post their work and seek comments. Visit Maria's blog at www.mgharris.net and her fansite at www.themgharris.com

Author: Maya Gottfried
Illustrator: Robert Rahway Zakanitch
Published: 2005 Dragonfly Books (on JOMB)
ISBN: 0553113836 Chapters.ca Amazon.com

Full page, personality-packed portraits, deceptively adorable sketched studies and frank, enthusiastic poems reveal the charm and distinct characters of sixteen beguiling breeds in this irresistible celebration of spunky, demanding, affectionate, rambunctious, cantankerous, lovable dogs.

Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.