Lively and cheerful, these three books aimed at young readers are sure to persuade their potential audience that reading is fun, language can be powerful and magical, and life in books is more exciting than the lived version. What more enticing motivations to read can there be for those starting out?

The Lenski Kids and Dracula, originally published in 1992 makes a welcome return in this Aussie Bites edition. The three Lenski siblings ­– Noel, aged ten, Samantha, eight, and Craig, five ­– are deliciously horrible and rude, with their booby traps, bating of adults, and nasty pranks. However, they meet their match in the oh-so-cool Kim Kip, the next-door neighbour/babysitter who is not at all fazed by their plots. With clever twists, Kim organizes a satisfying revenge on behalf of all who have suffered at Lenski hands, and manages to tame their behaviour enough to please the reader, but not so much  that they become uninteresting paragons.