Phillipa Pearce's first book for young adults, Minnow on the Say, is on one level a first-rate mystery story. But it is also an effective evocation of a boy's life in an East Anglican village. Two boys, Adam and David, are convincingly drawn, and their treasure hunt is exciting, frustrating, and rewarding. The pervasive presence of the river adds much to the mood of the book, and the Say is as much a character as a vividly described setting of the narrative.

Pearce followed the fantasy of Tom's Midnight Garden with a more realistic novel, A Dog So Small The central figure of this novel is a lonely boy, Ben, who is obsessed with the desire to have a puppy. His disappointment when he does not receive one on his birthday is enormous. When he eventually does get the much wanted pet, he finds that a...