Fur By Meg Harper
Usborne, £5.99

GIRLS aged 11 and upwards are the likely readership of this unusual children's novel.

Meg Harper is perhaps better known for her My Mum series which started with the acclaimed My Mum and Other Horror Stories.

Here she breaks away to introduce us to Grace, a girl who would rather spend her time swimming in the sea than being on land.

Her classmates find this a bit odd. But stranger things happen when Grace starts to grow a seal-like fur.

Just at a time when she's started seeing her first boyfriend, Grace has a lot of issues to deal with.

As well as working on a level of mystery and myth the novel has real-life themes which will interest girls of that age.