While Ethan talks like a normal child, all those he meets on his inter-universe travels respond in the folksy jargon familiar from the novels of Mark Twain and John Steinbeck, but sadly repetitive once stripped of emotional conviction.Even so, there are some moving scenes. At one point Ethan has to cope with the apparent re-appearance of his dead mother. This is yet another ploy by wicked Coyote to get hold of the all-important magical wooden branch – later transformed into a baseball bat – which is his young adversary’s only effective weapon. Just for a time, optimistic and cheerful Ethan comes to feel “how badly made life was, and how flawed”. Like baseball itself, it too was “filled with loss and error, with bad hops and wild pitches, a game in which even champions lost almost as often as they won.”But moments of truth like these fit uneasily into a narrative otherwise so relaxed that it reads like one of those spun-out home-grown stories told with no real intention of ever going into print.

At 492 pages, the real mystery of this overblown saga is how a respected author could have spent so much time and effort over something quite as self-indulgent. Or is it all the fault of baseball itself, and the way it has mesmerised American authors to the point where one more imaginary scorecard is definitely one strike-out too many?. Because of Winn-Dixie (Walker Books, £4.99) is a feel-good American story about a girl and her dog. Written by Kate DiCamillo, it starts low key as India Opal Buloni moves to a new neighbourhood with her preacher father.

Everything changes when she adopts Winn-Dixie – a mongrel so cheerful he actually seems to smile. Written sparely with plenty of dialogue, this book is suitable for younger teenage readers. So too is War Games (Egmont, £4.99) a factually based account by Jenny Koralek of a Jewish child taken in by a well-intentioned but emotionally cold British family in 1938. That Hugo survives so well is mostly down to his friendship with Holly, the daughter of the house. A note at the end of this story about just one aspect of the refugee experience describes some of the real people on whom it is based. This is about Violet, a twin who can’t bear her other half Lily, who is more outgoing and popular.

When Violet acquires a pen pal, the temptation to fantasise about the sort of girl she’d like to be is irresistible. As an example of pre-adolescent confessional writing, this story is faithfully realistic, right down to those jokes and exclamations often more amusing to utter than to listen to. Wittily illustrated by Karen Donnelly, this is easy teenage reading. For readers looking for something more demanding, Stravaganza: City of Masks (Bloomsbury, £10.99) is an extraordinary novel, set in an imaginary town similar to Venice. Lucien, a contemporary lad fighting a serious illness, finds himself transported back four centuries to this place of opulence and treachery. Making use of his ability to travel in space and time, he learns about a nefarious plot to assassinate the Duchessa – a female Doge who never seems to get any older.