Mostly, in recent years, the big hits for young, developing readers have tended to heaving with laughs and zany cartoons; books that seduce them with the feeling that this isn't just going to be a long marathon of wordiness.

Among the best of newcomers to this genre, Julius Zebra: Rumble With The Romans (Walker, £8.99) arrives from Gary Northfield, creator of The Beano's Derek The Sheep. This story of a zebra, who is captured by Romans and goes on to become a hero when he sword-fights a gladiator, has a laugh-out-loud cartoon on nearly every page. It's a kind of revenge of the herbivore - and Northfield does seem to have an affinity for grass-eaters. Julius, with his large, explosive eyes, bears more than a passing resemblance to the hilarious and daft Derek The Sheep.

Perfect for fans of The Diary Of The Wimpy Kid or Tom Gates, is The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett and Jory John (Amulet, £8.99). Here is a tale that is almost a guidebook on the art and etiquette of pranking, one that will be relished by anyone who has ever dreamt of performing some sneaky and elaborate trick. Miles, who prides himself in having been the best prankster in his old school, is starting a new school and intent on creating such a reputation for himself again - the only problem is that Yawnee Valley already has its own master of the practical joke.

Big laughs, however, are not always required. There's much to be said for the gentle, heart-warming tale, such as Polly And The Puffin by Jenny Colgan (Little Brown, £5.99), for beginner readers. When Polly hears a crash downstairs she creeps out with her torch and finds a puffling lying on the floor, then ends up looking after him and calling him Neil. A book for anyone who loves birds, it even includes a section at the back of recipes, puffin activities, and puffin jokes, such as, "What do you call a man with a puffin nesting on his head?... Cliff."

Relations with animals are also at the heart of the fabulous Shola And The Lions by award-winning Basque author Bernard Atxaga (Pushkin Books, £7.99). The charm of these stories lies primarily in the endearingly comic character of Shola, a kind of thinking-kid's mutt with big ideas. Here, Shola, after overhearing a friend of her owner, Senor Grogo, talking about lions, decides she might be one and starts acting that way. This involves walking "very, very slowly", making fierce faces and telling herself "I can strike a man dead with the last beat of my heart!"

Danny Wallace, comedian-cum-presenter-cum-author has his first children's book out this month It's a truth currently acknowledged that a comedian in possession of a quirky idea must be in want of a children's publishing deal. In Hamish And The Worldstoppers (Simon and Schuster, £6.99), strange beings called The Terribles keep stopping the world, but not hero Hamish Ellerby, who manages to stay moving when everything around him enters one of these "pauses". But, lest you imagine there are a lot of pauses in this book, I'll warn you that there are few - not even for breath, unless you count wheezes of laughter - in this rollicking narrative.

Hamish And The Worldstoppers is one of many books out there pitching to lure young readers in for the long-run of a new series. Among them is Witch Wars by Sibeal Pounder (Bloomsbury, £5.99), which is too light for my taste, introducing fashion-angst into its competitive world of witchery. For those who like a little daredevilry, there is also Young Houdini: The Magician's Fire by Simon Nicholson (OUP, £6.99), in the tradition of Young Bond and Young Sherlock. Nicholson's book, however, is not an attempted biography, but an adventure-mystery, incorporating stunts and derring-do in a tale that has Houdini and his young friends rescuing a famous magician. Purists may care that it's only loosely based on Houdini's own childhood exploits, but for kids what will matter is its breezy pace and gripping story.

But actually, of the most recent crop, it was the stand-alone stories that I loved best. Sometimes literary competitions really do turn up gems, and the winner of The Times/Chicken House prize,The Sound Of Whales (Chicken House, £6.99), written by Kerr Thomson, a previously unpublished geography teacher at Glasgow's Cathkin High School, is one such. Set on the island of Nin, it interweaves the stories of island-native Fraser, his brother Dunny, who barely speaks a word, an American girl staying reluctantly on the island, a marine biologist, a beached, dead whale, an illegal immigrant washed up on the shore, and a riveting murder story. Highly original without being overtly quirky.

Crog by Amanda Mitchison (Corgi, £6.99) is also partly set in Scotland, though it begins in London, with Wilf, a rich kid who, following the death of his mother, appears to have sunk into a kleptomaniac life, liberating "countless car radios and items of jewellery". After he steals a wooden bowl from a museum, he wakes up to find, in his room, a strange, bedraggled Stig Of The Dump-type character. It's a story that hurtles along: more appears to happen in the first few chapters of this story - a murder, a fire, a terrifying escape down a laundry chute - than many a whole book series.

Ultimately, my favourite book of this season has to be Liccle Bit, the first novel for young adults by Alex Wheatle, author of Brixton Rock. It's not for nothing that he was named the Brixton Bard. This is a book that sings with warmth, in spite of its tough setting - in the midst of a gang war - and contains lines that dance. Liccle Bit is the second shortest guy in his year and has the hots for Venetia King, though he knows that "fit girls don't usually go for short brothers". But his sister's ex, Manjoro, wants him to do a "liccle errand" for him, and then another, and when there's a killing on the estate, he worries that he is embroiled. A gritty delight - a liccle smile on every page.