n Mr Rude by Roger Hargreaves (Egmont Books, £1.99)

Following the untimely death of Mr Men creator Roger Hargreaves, his son Adam has taken over the running of the family business and consequently created some brand new characters to add to the collection.

This month sees six new Mr Men in the shape of Messrs Rude, Cool, Good and Little Misses Scary, Bad and Whoops.

These boldly illustrated and amusing books are a firm favourite with children and adults alike and Adam's contributions are faithful to his father's original creations. In memory, the name Roger Hargreaves still appears on the front covers, even though the words and illustrations are Adam's.

Priced at a modest, £1.99 children can enjoy collecting all the Mr and Little Miss books.

Once read and re-read, they can also gaze adoring at the back cover to recognise which characters they already have on their shelves.

Mr Rude arrived for review and instantly drew my attention.... "Mr Rude was a horrible man who didn't have a nice thing to say to any-one and, not surprisingly, no-one liked him."

But after a lifetime of verbally abusing others the cure comes in the shape of unflappable Mr Happy... a suitable lesson is learned, Mr Rude's rude behaviour is modified and he becomes socially acceptable again... but I won't spoil the punchline.

Another favourite to be revisited time and time again.

Jackie Harris