Wendy Quill is a one-off! She and her friend Florence Hubert (they always call each other by their full names) have all sorts of adventures, three of which are told in this zany book. In the first, 'Wendy Quill and the Slightly-squashed Lady', Wendy rides her bike around a sharp corner and knocks an old lady for six. Instead of stopping to see if she is hurt, Wendy rides off as fast as she can go. Feeling guilty after, she tells Florence all about it, and they are both 'full up of wrong' at what she has done. They go to Nurse Hazel at school who thinks it is probably not all that awful, but they need to listen to a talk the local policeman is giving about being safe. When Grandad's girlfriend comes around later there is a happy ending when it turns out she was the 'squashed lady' and that the encounter actually put her wonky hip back in order. Wendy has learned that one must always look where one is biking and that if there is an accident, one must stop and help. The second story about what happens when one tells a lie is equally useful as Wendy learns how to make an enemy a friend, and the third story involves Wendy and Florence reading Wendy's older sister's diary and the consequences of this. Having told the bones of the story, I can't imagine how I am going to describe exactly how it is all put down in the book. Every page is decorated, the text, sometimes huge, sometimes small, sometimes in bold, in different fonts etc., is all over the place and Wendy just loves making up peculiar words: scruffled, bumpetty, dringled. And there are lots of little asides to add to the fun. The illustrations are by the authors twelve year old daughter, and she is a talented lass with a great sense of humour. The two of them together are a perfect match, and there is promise of more stories about Wendy and her friends. The morals are there but are so perfectly hidden that kids will absolutely enjoy being told what is right and what is wrong.