Shelf life

• Wise Owl Publications has just published Mowbajl: Tibda l-Avventura, a delightful adventure story by Andrew Borg with illustrations by Marija Cauchi. The absorbing read follows four children, Fabrizio, Claire, Kareem u Valerie, on a rollercoaster ride from the present, to prehistoric times, and back to the present. Targeted for children and adolescents between the ages of nine and 13, Mowbajl: Tibda l-Avventura encourages intercultural dialogue and acceptance of diversity.

• Rebecca Miller, who is married to the actor Daniel Day-Lewis and is playwright Arthur Miller's eldest daughter, has had her debut novel included on Richard and Judy's summer read list. Miller's first novel, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, is expected to become a bestseller and is also to be made into a film starring Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder and Alan Arkin.

• It-Tielet Qamar is John A. Bonello's first published novel. Inspired by the mystical atmosphere on the Dingli cliffs, the story starts off with the death of a 95-year-old from Dingli, who leaves his only nephew and his two closest friends with a riddle that speaks of an unimaginable secret. As they unravel these secrets, they embark on an unexpected voyage and discover a place they never knew existed; a place where time is at a standstill and where good and evil battle it out.

• Crime writer and author of the Inspector Rebus books, Ian Rankin, will be joining the Scottish Labour party commission responsible for investigating child literacy standards in Scottish schools. Speaking at the launch of the Literacy Commission, Rebus said that "Reading gives choices and chances to young people as well as opening up a new world of books." Hear, hear.

• Poet Dannie Abse's The Presence, a memoir of his 50-year marriage, has been honoured as this year's best work by a Welsh author writing in English. Mr Abse started writing The Presence as a diary to cope with the death of his wife, who was killed in a car accident in 2005.