Particularly good is the way the anguish of Sapphire’s dilemma is presented, taking neither a simplistic pro-life nor a simplistic pro-choice position. Sapphire, 14, discovers she is pregnant by Jay, who has just split up with her. Should she have an abortion? Her father says no, her mother says yes, her older sister says she should have the baby and sell it to a wealthy childless couple Sapphire doesn’t know what she wants to do. Her story is intertwined with that of Gilbert Lemon, a twisted fire-starter. For kids, especially boys, of 11 and up.The cover of Julie Bertagna’s The Opposite of Chocolate (Young Picador £9.99) – a close-up colour photo of a heap of smarties with a grinning Jelly Baby on top, reminiscent of the cover of Valley of the Dolls – is arty enough to suggest that this is a book for the older younger reader. Summer is over and Bobby has started at the grammar school – not only is he leaving his old friends behind but he has to endure the harsh discipline of the new school, worry about his father who is mysteriously ill and fear that the world is about to come to an end with the Cuban missile crisis It’s an uplifting, beautifully written story. It’s a slightly unsettling read, but with a satisfyingly sweet ending.

It’s a story about being on the cusp of childhood and adolescence, and should appeal to girls from nine to 12.And so we come to David Almond’s The Fire-Eaters (Hodder £10.99), whose blazing red and orange jacket says it all. Almond has always been a writer with a peculiarly intense vision, and here it’s not so much the story that sticks in your mind as the images, vivid and violent and weighted with symbolism: fire-eating, chains, sea-coal, nuclear missiles, torches, bonfires, a sick fawn. Set in Keely Bay in the north-east in the early 1960s, the story centres on Bobby Burns. Violet makes friends with a new girl at her school, Jasmine, but does Jasmine prefer Violet or Will? The story constantly suggests it’s going to veer into much darker territory than it actually does, with gothic trappings of bats, moonlight, deserted houses, boxes in the attic. Her older brother Will is alternately charming and domineering – but since discovering a secret about his past has become more and more of a bully.

Wilson presents us with a vulnerable, sympathetic character in Violet, a 13-year-old girl with few friends except for the fairy characters created by her favourite author, Caspar Dream. But Garracker, a businessman and owner of the abandoned city, produces three clones from the amputated leg, younger copies of Benbow himself – and sends them all back into the city to search for Garracker’s own lost clones.Put like that it might sound a bit unconvincing, but the narrative drive is such that you happily suspend disbelief by the end of the first chapter. The plot is full of unexpected revelations and the ending is optimistic without being unrealistically happy. Readers of nine and upwards will love it.The cover of Midnight (Doubleday £10.99) clearly identifies the Jacqueline Wilson brand, with a Nick Sharrat illustration of a girl sitting on a pale yellow moon against a dark purple background, surrounded by Rackhamesque flying fairies The girl appeal is immediately obvious. Admiral Benbow is a police dog of the future with the ability to speak human; he patrols the derelict city where only dogs and feral children live, on a staple diet of rat.