Review of Under my Hat from the Cauldron

Review of Under My Hat, Tales from the Cauldron

edited by Jonathon Strachan

 pub Random House Aug 2012 9780375868306 ...

 

Under My Hat is a great book all about witches. It is made up of eighteen short stories written by different authors.Some of the stories are a little scary, some are intriguing and others are just plain weird. I thought this book was very interesting and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I think this book would be great for 11 year olds or above. If you like the Harry Potter series you will probably like this.

 Review by James Douglas

review of We Can be Heroes By Catherine Bruton

Review of We Can Be Heroes by Catherine Burton

pub July 2011 978-1405261333 ...Bloomsbury

 

We Can Be Heroes is an intriguing book all about Ben. Ben and his cousin, Jed, being looked after by his grandparents in the summer holidays. When they meet a girl called Priti their imaginations wander and they think Priti’s brother is a suicide bomber but everything becomes more sinister when a little girl is kidnapped and cultural differences start a riot. This book also has a strong theme of family relationships and their effect. I think this book is thought provoking but still has some funny parts. I would recommend this book for young teenagers.

 Review by James Douglas

Review of The Million Dollar Gift by Ian Somers

Review of The Million Dollar Gift by Ian Somers 

pub May 2012 by O'Brien Press 978-1-84717-307-2

 

The Million Dollar Gift enchants you into its magical reign of power as soon as you read the first page. Ross (the main character) has a secret that nobody not even his dad knows and he doesn’t really know himself. He is psychokinetic. With the ability to move things with his mind Ross enters the realm of magic by signing up to the Million Dollar Gift competition. Who can he trust and how can he control his remarkable powers? Ian Somers has made his mark with this first book and I look forward to the next Ross Bentley adventure.

Dominic Wakeham,  aged 12

Review of Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt

Skin Deep By Laura Jarratt

 

Pub by Electric Monkey, Feb 2012

 

 

 

Laura Jarrat must have spent absolutely ages writing such a powerful, super-charged book.

Devastated Jenna - the main character- is left with a dead best friend and a horrible scar on her face. Every stare she receives makes her envy everyone else. She is embarrassed and scared in public, but then she meets Ryan and everything changes; Ryan is tall and good looking, although very full of himself.

 

I would recommend this fabulous book to readers of Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman; they are both very realistic books with romance, powerful emotions and mysteries in. The book is plotted extremely well  and usually I get into good books really quickly and I stop reading bad ones in about a month (when I'm about half way through). I read Skin Deep in just 4 days!

 

From Katie P

Review of Mockingbird by Katherine Erskine

'Mockingbird' by Katherine Erskine

 

Pub April 2010  978-0142417751  Penguin

 

 

10 year old Caitlin has terrible trouble Getting It sometimes because she has Asperger's Syndrome, a mild type of autism which vastly limits her social skills (particularly interaction,) and means she struggles with coping with and reading emotion; since the shooting of her brother Devon, this made coping with  it even worse for both her and her dad. Previously, her mum died of cancer, so her dad had only Caitlin to turn to at home and vice versa. However, at school Caitlin had been seeing a counsellor called Mrs Brook, who helped her a lot with many of her problems induced by Asperger's, but when Caitlin asked for how to achieve closure, she cpuldn't say. Mrs Brook said that she'd have to find her own way, because different people find it in different ways- so Caitlin tried to find a way with the help of her newly found friend, Michael, who was only about five. She realised the way would be to finish the chest that lay in the corner of their lounge, covered in a sheet that her dad didn't dare to touch. It was the chest that Devon had started for his Eagle Scout project, but never finished now he wasn' there... so they finished the chest, and found they were able to move on in a way that changed Caitlin. Now she could use colours in her pride and talent of art, when before she had to use black and white because it was clearer to her (one of her specific habits.) And now, she had a friend!

 

This was a book that I really did judge by the cover- I thought it would be a bland storyline loosely connected to 'To Kill A Mockingbird', but luckily my friend had more sense to read the blurb! 

 

 

I always judge a book on how goood it is largely by if it teaches you something important about life when you've finished- and I learnt that in a very effective way.

 

I  was right in that the book was linked with 'To Kill A Mockingbird', but in a stronger way than I expected. Not only had Caitlin been nicknamed Scout after one of the characters in it and her frequent referral in comparisons to her life to the book's, but it was also about civil rights. Maybe not in the same extremity of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', but after what I learnt it was just as important about real life- like a modern version that teaches you a modern moral. It was a brilliant book that I would reccommend to children who don't treat people properly because they're different... and anyone else. It was very insightful and one of the best books I've read.

 

By Abi Pearce

Review of The Cloud Hunters by Alex Shearer

Review of The Cloud Hunters by  Alex Shearer

Pub by  Hot Key Nov 2012 978-1471400193

 

 

Review by James Douglas

The Cloud Hunters is a story all about Christien, a boy who wants to join his best friend Jennie, who is a cloud hunter. Set in the future, where ecological changes have turned everyday things upside down (have you ever imagined sky-swimming?) Christien persuades Jennie to let him go with her to rescue her father.  Along the way they meet many challenges including rescuing a sky-whale .The whole book reinforces the importance of family and friendship. The Cloud Hunters is an unusual story, its interesting but not and really quite exciting.  I think it’s suitable for young teenage readers.

Review of Insignia by S.J.Kincaid

review of Insignia by S.J.Kincaid

9781471400001 Pub August 2012 Hot Key Books

 



Insignia is the first of a trilogy by author S.J.Kincaid. It is set in the future, in the middle of world war three.

Tom Raines is a teenager supporting his fathers wandering lifestyle by gaming but his skill is noticed. When he is taken to the Pentagonal Spire he is thrown into a world where the Multinationals are everywhere and they are prepared to do anything to get more power.

I thought Insignia was a brilliant book and I am eagerly awaiting the next two. It's full of new ideas. intriguing characetrs and fun sub-plots.

Review by James Douglas

Review of Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt

Skin Deep By Laura Jarratt

 

  9781405256728 Pub Feb 2012

 

 

 

Laura Jarrat must have spent absolutely ages writing such a powerful, super-charged book.

Devastated Jenna - the main character- is left with a dead best friend and a horrible scar on her face. Every stare she receives makes her envy everyone else. She is embarrassed and scared in public, but then she meets Ryan and everything changes; Ryan is tall and good looking, although very full of himself.

 

I would recommend this fabulous book to readers of Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman; they are both very realistic books with romance, powerful emotions and mysteries in. The book is plotted extremely well  and usually I get into good books really quickly and I stop reading bad ones in about a month (when I'm about half way through). I read Skin Deep in just 4 days!

 

From Katie P

Review of Shrunk by F R Hitchcock

 Review of Shrunk by F R Hitchcock

Sept 2012  Hot Key Books

 

Shrunk is a hilarious book about Tom, a boy who can shrink anything, even planets. When a special meteorite lands in Tom’s garden he gains the amazing power to shrink things and from then on everything goes wrong and small! He manages to shrink many things small, including people planets and sheep. The only problem is he can’t work out how to make them bigger again. I thought Shrunk was a brilliant book and very very funny, I would recommend it to anyone who wanted a good laugh and a great read.

by  James Douglas

Review of The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder

Review of The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder

pub Dec 2011  9781595143686 Razorbill

 

The fabulous Probability of Miracles is a very descriptive book. It is filled with sadness but is also very entertaining.
It is about a girl called Campbell Cooper who has a horrible disease and the doctors say it cannot be treated. her mother and sister simple won't give up on poor Campbell and they decide to take a trip tp Promise. on the way stopping off at her best friend and her nan's house.
I would recommend this to any teenager looking for a perfect book to take on summer holiday.

By Charlotte Ellis

Review How to Keep a Boy as a Pet By Diane Messidoro

Review How to Keep a Boy as a Pet By Diane Messidoro

Pub  Electric Monkey, Egmont May 2012






How to Keep a Boy as a Pet is an amazingly written book that is so funny in the best witty way.
The book would appeal to the aimed at age group of teenage girls because they feel that they can relate to the story.
It's about a teenage girl called Circe who writes a diary entry everyday about her life. She has two best friends nemaed Tash and Ben. Ben and tash have just got together and are deeply in love. Circe feels pushed out by them but she also has other things on her mind. She wants to become a journalist like her idol Jess Bradley and investigate the minds of boys. Her focus for this is to try and tame her own and the target she has in mind is a hot boy called Jake. She's had a crush on Jake for ages and as the story continues throughout the book we are left to decide whether Circe can 'tame her man.'
I loved how the vocabularry suited the book and how it does not seem to be a planned out story. It is fun and very different.

Review Gods and warriors Michelle Paver

Review of ‘Gods and Warriors’ by Michelle Paver

Pub August 2012 Puffin 9780141339269;

 

                Michelle Paver’s eclectic mix of superstitions and religious beliefs, and the age old fight for survival of the underdog create a sparse world that is somehow still full of hope and rich in culture.

                As Hylas and Pirra came together against a common enemy in the Crows, I found myself rooting for them at every turn, irrelevant of the fact that you remain remarkably uninformed of the motivations of the House of Koronos and the part played by the Goddess in the fate of the young pair until the finale.

                This air of mystery Paver creates simply adds to the distance between the world of the story and the comfort of the sofa upon which it is read, and this allows ‘Gods and Warriors’ to truly capture the reader and impress upon them the importance of conviction and faith necessary to stay truly alive.

 By Becky Steels

Review of Dear Dylan by Siobhan Curham

'Dear Dylan' by Siobhan Curham

 

Pub Egmont Electric Monkey March 2012

 

 

 

Georgie Harris has had a hard time- her dad died in a motorcycle accident, then her mum re-married to 'Tone Deaf', or Tony. Although she loves her little step-sister, Michaela, and she still has her mum, Tony ruins it. He's stringent and openly favouritises Michaela, horrid to Georgie no matter how many cups of tea she makes him, while her mum cowers from his moods. The story starts when Georgie sends an e-mail to Dylan Curtland, a celebrity from her favourite soap who she confesses, in the first e-mail, that she loves him. He replies (if only briefly,) and she excitedly sends back paragraphs and paragraphs, feeling that she has a secret friend and an escape from her mess.

 

Then, after six e-mails of his emphatic consolations, she receives a lengthly explanation of how it wasn't Dylan...

 

It was his mum.

 

I loved reading 'Dear Dylan', because it was the only book that I've read that actually was funny and sad at the same time. It also made you curious about what would happen next, like where it was his mum replying- how else would the 252 pages continue? It turned out that after Georgie's hurt shock subsided, she realised she liked e-mailing Nan (short for Nancy,) and vice versa. They helped each other cope in an unique way and told each other about their problems; some were major that risked Georgie's safety, and some were minor predicaments that kept you interested about how it would turn out... like Jamie becoming her boyfriend, and losing the increasingly malicious Jessica as a friend while Nancy learnt to cope with the death of her husband, Bruce. Tempting, incredible, with intense situations mixed with normal teenage girl problems- a great contrast that makes it a really addictive read.

 

By Abi Pearce, 13

Where She Went by Gayle Foreman

Review    Where She Went  by Gayle Foreman

Pub April 2011   9780525422945  Penguin

 

Imagine everything perfect. Perfect life, perfect girl. Then that perfect girl disappears. Wouldn’t you want to know why? It had been three years since Mia walked out of Adam’s life, cutting off all contact and leaving no explanation. And then they meet again, in New York, both there for different reasons, but fate has decided to give this beautiful love a second chance. Adam finally gets to ask “why?”

I cannot praise this book enough; I absolutely adored it. Fate was really messing around with this pair of lovers. There are good moments, bad moments, confused moments, revelation moments, passion moments and heart-stopping-on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments. At some points, I just wanted to leap into the book and knock some sense into the protagonists for being so mean, stupid, careless and more. You really dislike Mia at first, thinking “how could you?!” but then it is all explained later in quite a showdown and you start going “ah, I get it now!” I would recommend this book to any person who loves mystery and romance or any book that really gets the emotion coming. I loved this book and I bet anyone who reads it will love it too. It was truly heart-warming.

by Georgie Foster

Review of White Dolphin by Gill Lewis

White Dolphin by Gill Lewis.

 

pub May 2012 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-275622-0

 

 

 

By the same author of Sky Hawk (Gill Lewis), White Dolphin draws in the reader instantly; each of the 265 pages are full of excitement.

Kara, the main character finds a dolphin stranded on a beach and tries to save it. Meanwhile, due to her not having any money, she has to sell her boat, Moana. Also, she finds a dolphin-shaped memory stick, but it is password protected. As Kara is in a tricky situation, it only gets worse as her boat is sold...

This book is a terrific read.

 

By Katie Pearce