helen cresswell's the nightwatchmen is, as kaye webb warned, a joke through and through, and yet knowing this doesn't in the least make the sense of menace dissipate. i want to read the bagthorpe series which is the first? the mennyms books of sylvia waugh (of which i have read only the first four because the library has as usual been completely idiotic about stocking books in a series) is as su-lin says, wonderfully conceptualised, and i will not say anymore because she was very angry with me for the spoiler i left on her bookblog, and will wait till she has caught up. in the meantime i will make a new list of children's book recommendations.