Reading is generally considered such a harmless activity (unless it's something by Katie Price) but unsuspecting American readers were hit by a double whammy this week. First, 204,000 copies of Big postcard printing Rex and Friends, the tale of a friendly dinosaur, described by Amazon as a 'multi-sensory cloth book [which] provides a rewarding first learning experience for your baby', were recalled because a red plastic dot sewn into the book - produced in China-was found to contain 'toxic lead at a level nearly 20 times allowable limits'. And then, 951,000 home improvement bookswere also recalled. Six titles, including Sunset Basic Home Repairs and Sunset Complete Home Wiring, some of which had been on sale since 1975, contained 'errors in the technical diagrams and wiring instructions that could lead consumers to incorrectly install or repair electrical wiring'. So truly unlucky readers can expect to be poisoned and then electrocuted - a rare occasion in the booksworld when 'breathtaking' and 'truly shocking' are not welcome promotional epithets.

What do the following titles have in common? Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, HowTo Cook: Book I by Delia Smith, Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss and JK Rowling's Harry Potter series and The Tales of Beedle the Bard. They are the only books to sell more thanamillion copies in hardback in the UK since 2001. And which is the odd one out? Eats Shoots and Leaves: you have at least to knowwhat a semi-colon is to appreciate it.

Childhood used to be such a blissful time when it came to books: messing about in boats (Swallows and Amazons), talking bunny rabbits (Watership Down) and lashings of ginger beer (The Famous Five). Anyone reading the nine titles on the shortlist of this year's Waterstone's Children's Book Prizewill be in need of a double dose of Valium at least. Flyaway by Lucy Christopher, for example, features a 13-year-old girl who doesn't want to think about the fact her father is dying; The Great Hamster Massacre by Katie Davies (wife of comedian Alan Davies) features the sudden death of a young girl's granny; and Desperate Measures by Laura Summers features twins, one of whom was braindamaged at birth, whose foster parents cannot cope. The announcement of the winner, on February 10, should at least bring a smile to one pain-filled author's face.

Equally depressing, Dreams CanCome True, the biography of Susan Boyle, the temperamental triller of Britain's Got Talent infamy, will be published the day before on both sides of the Atlantic. Why a respectable company such as Penguin felt it necessary to bid for Alice Montgomery's tele-tale isamystery. Overlook, her American publishers, who are printing 100,000 copies, have made a point of stating they paid less than $100,000.