Ask Lorna: books to help a bilingual seven-year-old in Italy keep up with his English Robert Muchamore's Cherub spy series (Hodder Children's), which now numbers 12 novels, is likely to win your grandson some respect among older cousins. This series is a hit with young teenagers - so much so that the author's website offers a t-shirt shop as well as a book shop. But the stories about child spies, who gain access to terrorists precisely because they are children, appeal to boys of eight and nine, too. And though they are marked as "not suitable for younger readers," they are pretty harmless - less scary, certainly, than the later Harry Potter books - and they are well written. Similarly, Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider books, the first of which is Stormbreaker (Walker Books), again about a secret agent, are successful with boys a little older than your grandson, and work very well read aloud. The first three of these are available also as graphic novels, by the Japanese artists Kanako and Yuzuru. In terms of humorous stories to rival those by Andy Stanton, I am an admirer of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which tells the story of three siblings orphaned when their parents are killed in a fire. Though the humour is arch and sophisticated, the tales in these 13 books can work well for younger readers (or listeners). Passing quickly through other good funnies, Philip Ardagh's Eddie Dickens trilogy, which kicks off with Awful End (Faber), a silly story about a Victorian boy, a refugee from yellowing ill-health, is very good, as is Roddy Doyle's trilogy about the Mack family, starting with The Giggler Treatment (Scholastic), about tiny creatures who take their revenge on adults who are mean to children by putting dog poo in their paths. Or what about one of the comedian David Walliams's books, such as Gangsta Granny or Mr Stink (HarperCollins)? Lastly, a footnote, which in no way does justice to these two exceptional authors. One forgets that many of Michael Morpurgo's tear-jerking animal stories, such as The Butterfly Lion or Born to Run (HarperCollins), are aimed at the under-nines. You might also find you could read some of his novels for older children such as War Horse or An Elephant in the Garden to your grandson. And Philip Pullman's fairy tales for this age group, such as The Scarecrow and his Servant or I Was a Rat! (Random House), also work well read aloud. Fiction for an advanced nine-year-old girl