Hughes' take on the Just-So stories sees God working hard on Creation. It's taking him much longer than seven days; he's designing each plant and creature in clay and then breathing life in to it. He's also experiencing a remarkable number of accidents, mishaps, mistakes and malicious interferences, what with Demons, Space Beings and a Poltergeist behaving maliciously and various critters (Man and Woman, not least) complaining about things.

Learn what Whale was doing in God's vegetable patch, how Sparrow saved the day when the Black Hole came, who became God's body-guard, how hats were invented and which creature cheats at gambling, among other things.

These stories are delightful and the story entitled Goku is unalloyed genius. The only criticism I have is that the characterisation of Woman is something of a depressing stereotype.

Give the kids a Dangermouse DVD to watch and read this yourself... ( )

Ted Hughes's critically acclaimed creation stories for children appear here in one collected volume for the first time. These are mesmerising tales from a master storyteller about the creatures around us - how they came to be the shape that they are, and why they behave as they do. The stories span the age range from 4 to 14 and are ideal for reading out loud and sharing amongst the family.