HOT OFF the presses is another action-packed story from the two primary school teachers who teamed up a couple of years ago to write text books and branched into children's fiction. Jim Halligan and John Newman both teach in St Anne's Primary School in Shankill, Dublin. Round the Bend, published by Wolfhound Press, is a follow up to their first work of fiction, Fowl Play.

Their first- and fourth-class pupils are "our great laboratory", says Jim Halligan. Often at the end of the day when the class is getting restless, the two teachers/writers will resort to "spinning a yarn" and start to reel the children into a story of adventure. Then once the stories are written the classes get to hear them first hand as well, he says.

Fowl Play, which was their first children's novel, has sold in Ireland and Britain, topping sales of 18,000 to date. Before this they wrote "the much-loathed schoolbooks" Simply Science, A Way with Words and Try This.

Pupils are urged to "enjoy this book - or else . . .". Young readers are urged to check out the mysterious Miss Edwina or what about the young man who is delighted to be hired as a getaway driver in an audacious robbery. Only problem is that he can't drive, although he will insist on singing 100 Green Bottles Hanging on the Wall. Not forgetting poor Eddie Dussit, who has an unhelpful bank manager, huge phone bills and terrible students like Ron, who attend his school of motoring. It costs £3.99 in paperback.