In a rave review of the new Alex Rider novel Snakehead, Times Online critic Amanda Craig praised the current batch of children’s adventure novelists, including Charlie Higson. I thought the relevant paragraph was well worth reprinting here:

Horowitz, and the best spy kids authors such as Charlie Higson, Joe Craig and Robert Muchamore are too often dismissed as pulp fiction when in fact they are outstanding at both writing and plotting. Far too many adults think that children should read books as a kind of Weetabix for the brain rather than because they give pleasure. These writers will, however, lead young readers on to Dickens and Dostoevsky. (If your child is reluctant, try the brilliant audiobook recordings from Naxos and Assembled Stories — the latter, a new venture, includes The Thirty-Nine Steps, The Prisoner of Zenda and Moonfleet.) They share the same understanding that the best kind of story is the one we all need when growing up — about being alone in a dangerous world, with nobody but ourselves to rely on.