BOOKS and writing have sustained me all my life. I have escaped into other worlds through the medium of the written word since I could first decypher letters.

It's a world increasingly under threat from everything from television, mobile phones and computer games.

It's hanging on - just - like Sly Stallone at the end of Cliffhanger.

Emily was introduced to the magic of books from a very early age and they are among her favourite possessions, such is the power they exert over her imagination.

They're the first things she grabs in the morning before bursting into our bedroom at 6.05am with the request that we flick through a few pages of The Illustrated Dinosaur Book together as a family.

It's not her only interest, of course. She loves drawing and creating artworks, and also she enjoys tinkering on our laptop, visiting the CBeebies website.

And then she received a Tamagotchi for her birthday.

She was intrigued by it. She nursed it in her hand as if it were a stricken woodland creature, gently caressing it, turning it this way and that.

We sat her down and explained the weight of responsibility that would rest on her shoulders once we pulled the security tab and surged the thing into blinking electronic life like Dr Frankenstein animating his stitched-together body parts with lightning down a conductor rod.

It has gone everywhere with her thus far. We will see how much it means to her a month down the line.

If it's anything like her real-world pets - her tank of 15 fish and the cat - I will soon find myself chasing about the house in search of the little Japanese toy because 'it's time for its feed or it will die'.

Watch this space.