She may already be prone to crankiness, but Lulu is made especially grumpy in this instalment of the "Grumpy Little Girls" series when her parents won"t let her expand her already neglected band of pets. She could wait and have the ferret she so desperately wants for her birthday present but "it was years and years until Lulu"s birthday and she wanted a ferret now!" However, Lulu isn"t downhearted for long and she hatches an inspired series of schemes with her friends Maisie, Fiz and Ruby to raise the money to pay for a ferret herself. Prolific children"s author Lindsay Camp again demonstrates his acute observation of the tribulations of childhood and captures the immediacy of needs in a child"s world with wit and humour. The series also features The Grumpy Little Girls and the Princess Party, The Grumpy Little Girls and the Wobbly Sleepover and The Grumpy Little Girls and the Naughty Little Boy. (Ages 5-8) --Rachel Ediss