Susan Elkin reviews the best children's and young-adult fiction to help keep your darlings entertained over the spring holidays

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DVD: Tower Heist (12)

This uneven crime caper is full of plot-holes and clichés, but it's redeemed by a perky script, Alan Alda's convincingly shady banker Arthur Shaw, and a lovely performance from Matthew Broderick as a disgraced financier.

EDDIE MURPHY: His new film was described by one critic as 'a tortured exercise in high-concept spiritualist hokum'

From Beverly Hills Cop to perfect flop: critics rate Eddie Murphy movie at 0%

Even the most dreadful films are usually able find one or two positive reviews that film studios can selectively quote to display on promotional posters.

Brian Grazer to produce the Oscars

The Hollywood filmmaker - who won a Best Picture Academy Award in 2002 for 'A Beautiful Mind' - has been drafted in to oversee the prestigious event after original producer Brett Ratner quit following his use of a gay slur at a screening his new movie.

Win for pub landlady but Premier League may take second leg

A pub landlady appealing against her conviction for using a foreign decoder to show football matches without paying BSkyB has won a landmark European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that threatens to undermine the financial position of the Premier League and other TV rights holders.

Doubles in the movies

As Dominic Cooper plays Uday Hussein and his hired lookalike in a new film, Geoffrey Macnab chronicles cinema's rich history of doppelgänger dramas

Album: Mann, Mann's World (Mercury)

With his singles "Buzzin'" and "The Mack" built around familiar borrowings from Nu Shooz and Mark Morrison, young R&B blade Mann would appear to have his heart stuck firmly in the more recent past.

Nature Studies by Mike McCarthy: Worth being awake at 3am to hear this sound

Of all our imaginings, one of the most resonant is the idea of transformation. We are instantly fascinated by people changing identities, by things becoming different things, by frogs which turn into princes. Perhaps it's because one of our principal holds on reality is our instinctive belief, so hard to dislodge, that form is fixed, not fluid, and so to encounter any fundamental shift in form or nature gives us a jolt. Not that we do come across such shifts much, in the real world – the caterpillar changing into a butterfly is the prime exception – but our myths and legends and stories are chock-fullof them.

First Night: Shrek The Musical, Theatre Royal, London

'Shrek': the show that leaves rivals green with envy

Video: Prince Charles meets Shrek

The Prince of Wales has been to meet the cast of Shrek the musical in London.

Katy Holland: Why the Barbie hotel suite has made me a nervous Shrek

Am I imagining things, or has the world been taken over by kids' fantasy icons?

Gabby Sidibe shows her Precious mettle

The Oscar-nominated star of last year's sleeper hit tells Kaleem Aftab about her new role, opposite comedy hero Eddie Murphy

The workshop that changed the world

The room measures 6m by 5m, and could almost be a hyper-quaint visualisation from an animatronic version of a Dickens novel starring an orphaned fish with Eddie Murphy’s voice. And yet it was in this attic workshop - restored and open to the public from today at London’s Science Museum - that James Watt, inventor of the modern steam engine, presided over the industrial revolution.

Big Mommas: Like A Father, Like Son (PG)

Starring: Martin Lawrence, Jessica Lucas

DVD: Shrek 4: Forever After – The Final Chapter (U)

"I'm just a jolly green giant," moans Shrek at his son's birthday party.

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Day In a Page

Grotty no more: How Lanzarote upgraded its appeal

How Lanzarote upgraded its appeal

Lanzarote has been quietly changing its fly-and-flop holiday image, discovers Andrew Eames.
Traveller's Guide: Montenegro

Traveller's Guide: Montenegro

It's one of Europe's smallest countries, but it packs in spectacular landscapes and glittering beach resorts.
48 Hours In: Verona

48 Hours In: Verona

Summer opera returns to the Roman arena, says Charles Hebbert.
Ten things we’re looking out for at E3 2012

Ten things to look out for at E3 2012

From Wii U to The Last of Us we consider this year's show
Come dine (online) with me

Come dine (online) with me

Move over TV chefs, hello YouTube stars
Next in line – but public just can't warm to idea of Charles in charge

Next in line – but public just can't warm to idea of Charles in charge

'Independent' poll finds less that half want him to take throne as ministers moan of interference
Nothing's sacred: the illegal trade in India's holy cows

Nothing's sacred: the illegal trade in India's holy cows

Andrew Buncombe reports from Kaharpara on a bloody war between rustlers and border guards
Mogul grounded: Desmond gives up his jet deal

Mogul grounded: Desmond gives up his jet deal

Media tycoon's company pays £1m to cancel his order for a £36m private jet after drop in profits
How Ai Weiwei built a pavilion in London – by remote control

How Ai Weiwei built a pavilion in London – by remote control

The artist tells Clifford Coonan how he used Skype to escape confinement in Beijing
Nature, nurture... or neither? The new twist in an age-old argument

Nature, nurture... or neither?

The new twist in an age-old argument
Radio 4 to shed its cosy image with a 'sexy' Ulysses drama

Radio 4 to shed its cosy image with a 'sexy' Ulysses drama

New station controller wants to reflect the current period of 'turmoil and uncertainity'
Alcohol: I drink therefore I am

Alcohol: I drink therefore I am

New guidelines warn Britons to drastically reduce their boozing. But is a life without liquor worth living? Hell no, says John Walsh
The Cable News Nightmare: CNN (and Piers Morgan) in audience crisis

The Cable News Nightmare

CNN (and Piers Morgan) in audience crisis
Like a barbie, but better: The Big Green Egg can griddle, roast, and smoke food - and even make pizza

The Big Green Egg: Like a barbie, but better

It can griddle, roast, and smoke food - and even make pizza...
The 10 Best chopping boards

The 10 Best chopping boards

Whether you want to dice veg, chop meat, or just slice up a salad, there’s a surface here to suit every culinary need.