Morris Gleitzman rarely fails to please with his sly, sideways glance at life and has a talent for taking his tortured and endearing characters to extremes as he moves effortlessly from out and out slapstick to lump-in-the-throat twists that touch to the very core. Gift of the Gab is no exception to the rule, taking as it does the loveable and startlingly forthright Rowena, heroine of Blabber Mouth and Sticky Beak, into the final stage of her coming-of-age trilogy. As Rowena stumbles across the truth about her past, and indeed her future, Gleitzman pulls no punches as he sweeps from the never-quite-dull normality of an extraordinary young girl to the rampaging shenanigans of a typical Gleitzman heroine, culminating in the trip of a lifetime to a small village in France, where Rowena and her long-suffering dad are led towards a life-changing voyage of discovery. Be prepared to laugh out load, and be just as prepared to weep buckets as Gleitzman waves his magic wand in a hilarious, touching and unforgettable book which, quite simply, takes your breath away. (Ages 9 and over) --Susan Harrison