The Books I Read

The Wimpy Ways

2010-05-23T03:21:00.000-07:00

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney is an interesting book because it's about a person called Gregory who is bullied (sort of) and is very wimpy.
It's a funny book and it is going to be made into a film. It's the first one of a series.
Gregory is a wimp and his father doesn't like it. He has two brothers, the older one Rodrick pushes him around and treats him rather badly. The younger one, Manny, is always being a tattle-tale and being the favourite of the parents.
Greg's a huge quitter and not very good at sports. Greg has his best friend Rowley who he plays with a great deal. Greg likes video games. He also has a major crush on a girl in his class and is trying to make a good impression on her. When Greg is going to Rowley's house he meets this boy named Fregely who is always saying strange things like 'Do you want to see my secret freckle?' who is also super-sensitive to sugar, which makes him go hyper-active.
This story is a funny and exciting story. There's one thing which Greg does really wrong. He takes advantage of his friend.
I give this book four out of five because it was really funny but a bit simple. Good for any age.

My New Book

2010-04-07T06:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! This post is a bit different, because I have been writing a book and I would like your comments on it. It is a comedy drama, inspired by Sherlock Holmes and a bit of Dr Who. I hope you enjoy.

THE DETECTIVE's PLAN A

Chapter 1: Where the Madness All Begins

“A cocktail and my pipe,is what I want, my dear acquaintance who is becoming a good friend,” shouted Gregory the detective in an extraordinary Cockney accent which was very out of character.“Yes, sir!” replied the hardworking servant who failed his A levels and couldn’t get into a university, who needed a job so took this one.

Once Gregory’s pipe had arrived, he started smoking rings of smoke which made me feel sick. I am Gregory’s companion, Rahul and I come from India. I am a detective, like Gregory, however not as skilled as he is at noticing clues. Gregory and I have done many cases together most of them being a success generally because of our teamwork.
Suddenly, a stranger came rushing in to our mansion that we had paid for with the money that was a reward from a rich man. We captured the robber who stole a hundred million pounds-worth of diamonds and pearls. The stranger cried:“Aieeee…something terrible has happened! My friend is dead! Please come!”
“Ahh...We shall come,” Gregory answered, in his American accent with a touch of sarcasm in his voice.
"It was a long journey there but I did not know how long it took for I do not have a watch. The stranger introduced himself as the Duke of Manchester, named Antonio who happened to know of us because of our success in finding the lost diamonds and pearls. He said we could call him Tony. He was a very conversational bloke.
“So, now tell us, what is wrong?” I asked being as polite as one could be.
“My friend has died of cancer, then his heir, who is an orphan aged eleven, put his money in a trust now it has been stolen, oh what shall I do now?”
Just then, Greg slapped Tony then me. “Hey, what was that for?” I asked, I was furious to know why he had slapped me. He muttered his answer in a low tone with an Australian accent and an unimpressed demeanour: “Put a sock in it! I felt like it.”
That man is a truly brilliant detective, however, he’s absolutely nuts.
“Greg, hate to be mean mate, but however good you are at detective work, you have the maze,” I answered in an angry tone. “The maze, old country way of saying madness intresting, eh, well you could put it that way,” replied Greg dreamily, his eyes going cross-eyed.
Once we arrived Greg licked his finger, put it in the air and said, “Someone has died here.”
The duke said: “Correct as always.” We then entered a wooden shack which looked like it could drop at any second. We followed Greg into the shack and stayed quite still, with horror in our eyes. A dead man was sitting in a recliner with his hands cuffed to the armrests. Greg went over to the fire, which was illuminating the room and the smoke going out of a hole that was in the roof. The room was blazing so much I was almost burnt and the corpse stunk of things that really shouldn’t be talked about. Greg looked into the fire and cried: “Look! Ashes of an embroidered bag which has the initials M.A.D. Mason Adam Daggers if I am not mistaken.”
“Correct again,” replied the Duke like he had heard enough of Greg’s cleverness. Treacle dripped down all the walls which meant no leaning on the walls for all of us which was annoying. On the ceiling two big perpendicular lines were drawn in white chalk and which was just visible because of the ceiling being a more creamy white then the chalk.
“Charcoal not chalk, this ain`t good, RUN!”cried Greg in a weird Cockney/Polish accent. We all obeyed immediately with no complaints which felt weird. In five seconds of being outside the shack collapsed. “Aieeee…!” cried the Duke. It was a death trap!
Suddenly, slap, slap. “Again, really!” I screamed furiously. Then I must’ve passed out because I woke up in hospital. “What happened?” I asked wearily. “You passed out,” replied Greg, who was standing with his wife who had blonde hair, was very slim, had three piercings on the ears and one on the nose and a tattoo of an elephant on her neck. She wore many rings on her fingers and toes, flip-flops on her feet, designer jeans or jeggings (I couldn’t tell), a necklace with a skull on it and a rather open top with a cardigan over it.
Just then, Tony, the duke who was covered in scarlet-coloured goo which stank of urine, entered the room. “Have a shower dude, you stink, yuck man!” cried Greg holding his nose up then letting it go and continuing smooching his tomboyish wife. About half an hour later Tony came in, with new clothes on and he had obviously had a couple of showers and baths because he smelt of soap and shower gel.
“Here’s what happened when you left us,” Antonio told me. “You were slapped by a piece of wood. It fell on you. Then Greg and I followed traces of a mongrel which happened to be right next to you. So, we put together a kind of bed for you which we then laid you on. The bed was made of wood, it must have been very uncomfortable for you, however we knew that we had to follow these paw prints or we would lose the person who did this to you.
“Gregory’s wife, Amy, then arrived on the dot to pick you up and bring you to hospital. So while you were going to hospital Greg and I followed the paw prints into a piñata factory. Then the paw prints turned into footprints. We followed them to the owner’s office. We knocked on the door and went in. The owner was dressed in a cocktail dress! He also had a moustache and a beard. His beard had been combed into three sections. He looked quite queer. He spoke to us in a high-pitched voice, which was even stranger than his appearance. He told us his name which was Oscar Riberro and that he rode his biggest horse piñata to see what had happened. Gregory and I asked what he meant by ‘rode his piñata’ He said he put wheels on it.
“Gregory knew the fellow, from university where they did their degrees in Clown College which was a new college which was built in England but they spoke Dutch there.
Gregory invited this rather queer man to our little group. He said that he might have to go and change his clothes because they were unsuitable for public consumption. After he had changed into a tennis top, kilt and an exact replica of Peter Pan’s hat which was used in the play of Peter Pan plus the highest pair of high heels I had ever seen then he said he could go out on a runway and show off his moves. We looked everywhere but found nothing.”
There was silence after that except the kissing noises made by the love birds in the corner of my eye. Just then, Oscar came and bellowed in a high pitched voice, “My dear friend how nice to meet yo…”
A man had jumped out of nowhere with a machete in his hand and a gun in his other and shouted “Nobody gets hurt if you hand over the girl, if you don’t the man under my arm and the rest of you get killed!” Then Greg’s wife went over to the man was cuffed and taken away.
“No! Come back, take me instead!!” screamed Greg in despair.

Londinium Mini Mysteries

2010-03-10T06:58:00.000-08:00

The Roman Mini-Mysteries: The Legionary from Londinium by Caroline Lawrence is a collection of short stories which are really good. I liked how between every mini-mystery it said where it would come in her series of Roman Mystery books.

I went to see Caroline Lawrence give a talk at the Museum of London during half term which was very interesting. She explained how the books always use clues to help the four friends Flavia, Nubia, Lupus and Jonathan discover the solution to the mystery. For example a wax tablet had melted but somehow they figured out what it had said on it.

She also talked about the characters that were in it, and how they were classic ‘types’ that are in lots of stories such as the main hero, the wild one, the funny one and the sidekick and of course the enemy.

I really like this book because it was very intriguing and it always had me wondering what was going to happen next. All the stories were set in different places. At school we studied Roman London so I knew a bit about it already. Still it was very interesting.

In the book one of the mini-mysteries was that this man received five barley grains. Flavia helps the man find hidden treasure without even leaving her chair. Caroline Lawrence explained how the five barley grains was based on a Sherlock Holmes adventure where Sherlock Holmes unravels a mystery about five orange pips.

I give this book five out of five because I thought it was really good. This book is good for seven plus, because some bits are hard to understand for younger readers because it’s not set in the modern day times. However it is all very well explained. I recommend that you hear one of Caroline Lawrence’s speeches because they help you understand the books and are very interesting for everyone.

Mystery on the Moor

2010-01-30T02:14:00.000-08:00

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle is an exciting mysterious story. It's about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. I saw them in the film that was a different story but it was still good. Then my dad suggested reading this book.
The mystery is about a man whose ancestors are cursed because when the Baskervilles crossed the moor at nighttime it said that people die. After the mysterious death of Charles Baskerville, Henry Baskerville takes over the Baskerville Hall. Watson goes in with Henry while Sherlock Holmes secretly goes with him too, yet Henry and Watson don't know it yet.
Many exciting events happen in Baskerville Hall. Some bits are slightly scary but then you find out that they're not actually that scary. It's clever because you think you know something but it's not actually happened.
Sherlock Holmes was a clever and unpredictable character. My favourite character was Watson, because he seemed to be the main person in the action and we saw everything from his point of view. He's cool because he did all the planning without even knowing he did it.
Stapleton starts out as being a friend to Henry and Watson however he pulls tricks and is very clver. He is an evil genius.
My favourite bit was when Watson went into the hut and he thought it was a convict however he then found Sherlock Holmes had been secretly hiding on the moor to find out for himself.
I would read another Sherlock Holmes book and there are lots of them.
I give this book five out of five. It is good for nine plus because some of the storyline plot was a bit complicated. Tha language was a bit old-fashioned, it was helpful to have my dad read it to me.

A Man Who Has the Gods Against Him

2010-01-16T04:18:00.000-08:00

The Odyssey retold by Robin Lister is a fantastic, amazing, exciting book.

It the sequel to The Illiad which I have not yet read, but am going to read soon. However you could read The Odyssey on its own.

It is about a man who is coming back from the Trojan war. His name is Odysseus. Odysseus has many adventures against the gods. He has got onto the wrong side of the god Poseidon, god of the water, and faces many battles. They include him meeting ghosts and meeting a cyclops. A cyclops is a giant with one eye.

He gets ship-wrecked a couple of times, however he still manages to make new boats.

The book is a retelling of an ancient Greek poem written by someone called Homer. I loved the way Robin Lister rewrote it, because he made everything seem so real. It had a lot of description of the characters so you really got to know them well. Every word was so well chosen.

The Odyssey is a book that it's worth reading a couple of different versions, you could never get bored.

My favourite bit was when all the suitors - the people who had been trying to marry his wife - held a competition where they had to string Odysseus's bow and shoot the arrow. None of the suitors could do it, but he could. It proved that Odysseus, even though he was undercover pretending to be a weak old man, was still the strongest.

I learned about the Trojan War from this book and how the Trojans stole someone's wife called Helen.

I also very much liked the illustrations which were done by Alan Baker. They helped you understand the story.

I give this book five out of five stars and recommend it for seven plus. I read it by myself. Some of it was a little bit difficult but I did understand it.

The Tricks of Milady

2010-01-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas is a thrilling story that is a little bit gruesome however still a brilliant story.
It is a story all about a young man named d'Artagnan who meets Monsieur de Treville, captain of the king's musketeers to try to become one. The book is set in France and was written in 1844 but is set in 1628. D'Artagnan meets three musketeers who he duels with and then becomes friends with. His friends, Porthos, Aramis and Athos join d'Artagnan on his adventures. D'Artagnan, Aramis, Porthos and Athos along with their four servants Mousequton, Planchet, Bazim and Grimaux fight in many battles with the famous criminal Milady or Lady d'Winter.
Lady d'Winter is a cunning mysterious woman who is full of tricks. She sends wine that has been poisoned as one of her tricks. She also kills Madame Bonachere, d'Artagnan's mistress for revenge. D'Artagnan is as sad as sad can be that his lover is dead.
I think personally that Madame Bonachere was cheating on Monsieur Bonachere, her husband and I think it was very wrong of her.
D'Artagnan faces many clashes with Lady d'Winter who also has married someone and then married someone else which makes her a bigamist.
D'Artagnan gets mixed up in the arguments and political debates between the supporters of Cardinal Richelieu and the supporters of the king. This was all very interesting for me because it was interesting to see which side he'd take.
I liked how the names were really cool like Grimaux for example especially when you say them with a French accent. He was my favourite character because of his name. I liked how I learnt things about France for example about the Bastille which is a prison that you have to get branded for, a terrible place to be.
I give this book five out of five stars and recommend it for nine plus. The language was medium difficult and I needed a bit of help from my dad who was reading this book to me.

The War Over Treasure

2009-12-29T04:40:00.000-08:00

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is a great book if you like adventure. It is packed full with adventure, mystery and excitement. I never knew exactly what was coming next.
This story is about a boy called Jim. Jim and his mother (only his mother) owns an inn when Blind Pew and Black Dog come and try to get a treasure map. Jim snatches some papers which he later finds out to be the map, and then sets sail with Doctor Livesey and Squire Trelawney on an adventure and a quest to find the treasure.
Unfortunately for Jim in his crew he includes a one-legged man called Long John Silver. Jim hides in a barrel and hears Long John Silver and his pirates talk about their plan to find the treaure before them. Jim warns his comrades. Then there is a battle to see who can find the trasure first. It is exciting.
The question remains: Will he find the treasure before Long John Silver or will the pirates come away rich?
I learned historical things from this book such as what a parrot would say like 'Pieces of Eight, Pieces of Eight'.
This is a very good book. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It is slightly old-fashioned in the language but my dad told me the words that I didn't understand. He sort of translated it to modern. It's best if someone reads it to you because you can concentrate more on the plot and they can do funny voices.
My star rating is five out of five. I recommend this book for 8 plus.

Ritchie the Roach

2009-12-13T01:48:00.000-08:00

Toonhead by Fiona Dunbar is a book which is really clever because it feels so realistic, because that's what can happen to people.
In the book this boy named Pablo has a not very nice life in a place where the only important thing was art. His mum and dad were artists and they wanted him to be like them too. But he wasn't especially good at art.
One day he meets a person whose very friendly to him and lets him watch television in his house. He never gets to do this in his house because the only important thing is art, so there is no television.
He starts watching cartoons at their house and then starts drawing them. He then finds out that he can predict the future through his cartoons.
One day he predicts the result of a football match and then him and his friend go to the betting shop but they reject him, so a man says 'I'm over 18 shall I go in for you?' and then they say no, and then he gets detention and then he gets kidnapped!
When he's held prisoner he makes friend with a little cockroach named Ritchie the Roach, which is a cartoon he used to watch with his friend. Ritchie helps him to try and escape.
This is a very clever book because I think it's sort of a realistic plot but then there's fantasy as well. Some bits made me laugh and some bits I was dreading what was going to happen next.
I give this book five out of five stars. A really good book for seven plus.

A voice in the head

2009-12-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

Street Heroes by Joe Layburn is a book which is going to be published in May 2010. I got an copy from the publicity person at the publishing company because they are also going to publish my mum's book and they know I have a blog. If other publishers want to send me books I am very happy, and I will give them very honest reviews.
This book is very interesting because it's coming from lots of people's point of view. One thing bad about it is that it's quite confusing because there are so many people involved. The main sides represented are Fatima, who is Muslim and black and Georgie who has a father who has extreme fascist views.
It also shows how everybody's different because Georgie's dad wants him to be the same as him, but which side will he take? Fatima's or his father's?
This story is about one boy who has a dad who's very extreme and one person who's trying to help Muslims and stop racism. Everyone thinks Georgie has the same views as his father, but he doesn't want everyone to think that.
I liked that it was about politics and you don't get many children's books about politics.
Why the title is 'A voice in the head' is because Fatima can communicate by making her voice go into other people's heads which is a way of helping them.
My star rating is five because I really liked it. I think it's good for seven plus and if seven year olds read it or even similar age groups would have to have some help with it.

Too Big Expectations

2009-11-17T12:19:00.000-08:00

I listened to Great Expectations by Charles Dickens on an audiotape on two car journeys. It was great having it there to listen to, because it can get boring in the car if you have nothing to do. It was read by Anton Lesser and he did a very good job with all the different voices.

The story was about a boy who brings pie and food to a convict who has escaped from a prison ship. Pip, the main character, gets a mysterious inheritence and he doesn't know who it's from.

He thinks it's from Miss Havisham, however he is not sure. While he is at Miss Havisham's he meets a mysterious girl named Estella. He falls in love her, however Miss Havisham got heartbroken because of a boy so Miss Havisham wanted to take her revenge on men by breaking Pip's heart. Poor Pip falls for her trap because Estella is very cold-hearted.

I thought it was good but it could have had a bit more storyline, the bits that it did have were very very good. It was a bit complicated but we paused it a little bit to help me understand it. The moral of the story was what comes around goes around.

My favourite bit was when Pip ran to the convict and gave him the food.

I give Great Expectations four stars out of five because I think it could have had a more exciting story.

Statue Art

2009-11-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

Today I am writing about an art exhibition instead of a book because I found it so amazing that I thought I just had to write about it.

I went to see the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art. Before I went I knew nothing about him, but my expectations were still high because I'd heard great things about him. I was paticularly interested to see it because all the art I do in school is drawing and painting but I want people to know that there are more ways of making art, for instance paper mache and statues and sculpture and animation. These are my favourite sorts of art because I prefer making things 3d because it's more fun.

The first thing I saw was huge giant metal balls all lined up to eachother, on eachother which was amazing because it was really exciting. That was in the courtyard before you even got into the exhibition.

Once we got inside we saw a big wax train, which was slowly moving and squeezing through doorways. I thought it was a very clever idea however it really should have gone zooming fast because then there would have been a big splat.

In another room there were rocks and things made out of concrete that my mother thought looked like poo. I disagreed. I thought they looked more like worms.

There were shapes coming out of the wall and on the ground that looked amazing because they were just sticking there, they looked like powder. They should have fallen but they just stood there.

There was one other room that we did not look in for very long but however it had a hole in the middle that was very hard to see which made it like an optical illusion.

In one room there were mirrors which made you go upside down, turning you in to a giant and turned you into little thin stripes, making you very very very tall.

Then we went into a room with a big crowd of people just standing there. In the room there was one large gun. The doorway that it was pointing at was filled with red wax. Suddenly a man came, and pushed in a cylinder of red wax and fired the gun. It was a stinging shot that hit the wall bang on and just stayed there. At first I wondered what happened, and then I saw it. It was amazing.

There was also one sculpture that looked sort of like a twisted trumpet with lips for the place where the music comes out.

My favourite piece was probably the mirrors, because I found that one the most strange, which I liked. My friend Adam went to see the exhibition on the same day as me, but I didn't see him there.

Anish Kapoor has made a very good exhibition, and I like his style.

The Golden Eagle

2009-10-29T03:52:00.000-07:00

Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff is a really really good book full of action, adventure and some cleverness.

This book is set in Roman times. Marcus lives with his uncle Aquila who's not the happiest of people when Marcus comes to live with him. Marcus goes with his uncle to see a gladiator match and saves somebody by saying don't kill him and making the crowd agree with him, then buys him and then they become friends.

The Ninth legion is believed to have walked on and then just disappeared. Marcus and Esca (the rescued gladiator) go on a quest to find the missing eagle of the ninth legion. The eagle was the sign of the Romans. On the quest they think they've won it, then they don't and you're always wanting to know what happens next.

It's one of those books that you'll be trying to read in your sleep because it you're just so interested and excited because you just don't know what's going to happen next.

I learned quite a bit about Roman times, mainly about how many different types of soldiers there were and what games they played.

It was easy to read however some bits of it were quite difficult to understand and so it was good that my dad read it to me.

Star rating is five out of five because I absolutely loved this book. I would recommend it for eight plus but if you're 8 or 7 someone should probably read it to you.

Where am I?

2009-10-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce is a very good book. It is quite exciting and the main plot would never actually happen in real life but all the other things could.

It's about a boy whose brother gets measles and he has to live in a flat with his auntie and uncle. At first he finds it boring but then one night he creeps out to find a garden that in daylight is not there. He meets a girl who he spends lots of time with, named Hattie. She becomes his friend in the garden.

I liked how it always had that slight touch of mystery, and you were wondering what was really happening. I really enjoyed the characters because they had a good personality and it really showed that in the bbook. The two people who are friends, Hattie and Tom just seemed to click. They seemed like they were always meant to be friends.

This is a good book for eight plus but you might want to get your dad to read it to you like mine did. It gets four stars out of five. I give only four because some of the clues give the story away a bit too much, but it is still very intriguing.

Where is my Money?

2009-10-20T12:10:00.001-07:00

Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner is a wonderful adventure about a boy who is very poor and gets his money stolen on the train when he goes to sleep. The adventure is about how he gets his money back.

The main character, named Emil, meets some very reliable friends who help him on the quest to get his money back. Their adventure is so big and exciting because you never know what's going to happen next. You never know if he has won or lost and several times you are convinced he has lost his money.

It was first published in Britain in 1931, so as you can see it's not a new book. The setting is in Germany. The time and the place affect the book by the ways that they do things such as how one of the boys is called The Professor which wouldn't be very likely in England today. I liked the fact that it was set in Germany because it felt different from most books, because most books are set in Britain and it's all about what British people would do, and this is an example that shows you whatr life was like in Germany in the 1920s.

This weekend there was a production of Emil and the Detectives on Radio Four which was good but I imagined the voices different, because they sounded like they were cockneys and I didn't imagine that. I thought they'd use better English. The producation did not change the story which I thought was good and it was as still as exciting as the book. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them

My star rating: five out of five.

This would be good for eight years plus.

Sorry for the delay in posting the review, the next one will come soon. Please leave comments on this and also on the last one - Bloggs's guest blog.

Bloggs's Guest Blog

2009-10-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

My friend Hector Bloggs is doing a guest post today of Lord of the Rings - the Fellowship of the Rings by J R R Tolkein.

Thank you Hector for writing this review, I am sure everyone will enjoy your post.

This book is a very good story about hobbits, sometimes called halflings, and how one of them Frodo Baggins has to take a ring from a big volcano where it was once made by the evil spirit Sauron. This is a very good book with a lot of mythical elements to it. Frodo takes the ring with eight more companions: Sam, Pippin, Merry, Gandalf, Boromir, Aragon (the heir of Isuldur), Gimli and Legolas who is an elf.

It's an exciting adventurous story and well written. It feels as it's the right type of writing. It's very atmospheric and you feel as though you are there.

The movie is as good as the book except they changed a few things and they missed out a few things (Tom Bombadill and the Barrowwhites) which was annoying, because Tom would have been really good. When he puts the ring on his finger he doesn't turn invisible and that would have worked well in a film.

I would definitely recommend people to read this book, ages nine plus. My star rating is five out of five, well actually five and a half.

The great horse

2009-10-11T03:07:00.000-07:00

Warhorse by Michael Morpurgo is a classic example of a war book. It tells the story of a horse who gets sold to a man and is trained by his son then has to learn how to plough in a week, and then gets shipped off to the British army fighting the First World War in France. From then he gets captured by the Germans and lives with the Germans for a while, pulling waggons. Then he gets stuck in barbed wire in No Man's Land and eventually the English army win a toss against the Germans and he comes back to them.

This is a very touching story because it's so sad to learn that a horse just get pushed around like that and gets involved in war.

I have seen the play as well as read the book and there is one major annoying thing, it was that in the play the horse was sold for 39 guineas and there was this whole thing about the mortgage and in the book he was sold for three guineas. There's a big difference. Films and plays should not change books.

This book is good for eight plus because there are some bits that you need to be old enough to understand. My star rating is four out of five because of the major difference between the play and the book, because I think it's very confusing.

I learned that horses have so many jobs in war and that horses are more cared for nowadays. My dad took me to the Imperial War Museum and I saw an exhibition about the trenches. I have no idea how any horse or man survived in the trenches. They were really unpleasant because of the stench and because you got lice and there were rats and frogs. I would highly recommend people to visit the Imperial War Museum. They should also see the play of Warhorse as well as read the book, it was really good.

This message is coded!!

2009-10-10T02:32:00.000-07:00

The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch is very exiting.It has codes,secrets and a few laughs in between.Cassandra and Max-Ernest (the two main characters) are finding clues all the time making it extremely nerve-racking because you always think that something bad is going to happen, when actually something good happened. Another good thing about this book is that something always happens, you're never left just in a boring bit, there's always something happening.

As good friends do Max-Ernest and Cassandra have a little fight. But it all works out in the end. This book is great. It's really clever because it doesn't talk about the people it talks to you, the reader personally. For example it says: 'Now I know I can trust you.' It makes you feel really drawn into the story.

The story is about a missing magician's diary and a deadly secret. I can't say any more because it would be giving it away. I've told you too much already!

My star rating is five out of five. I would recommend it for 7 plus because some bits are scary.

When will they die?

2009-10-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

Are they dead,yes,no yes,no? Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy is exciting and really clever. I loved it.

The story's about a man who dies and then his niece and the man's friend fight using magic. Skullduggery Pleasant is no ordinary man. He is two things - a magician and dead - a skeleton! They search for something that is thought to be not real, but is actually real and evntually they beat the villain. This book is very adventurous, with fighting in it and a bit of crime. It is nerve-wracking because you always think someone's going to die.

It is perfect for the Potter crowd. People who like Harry Potter would like this book. There are a couple of bits that make you think that something tragic has happened when actually there's a way out of it. That is why it's so very clever.

Like the Roman Mysteries, my star rating is five out of five. People of 9 plus should read this book.

Same Old Thing!

2009-10-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

Beast Quest

The series Beast Quest by Adam Blade are easy to get sucked into but they are actually meant for four-seven year olds. The bad thing about his books are that the same thing happens over the series. It is really boring because all Tom does (the main character )with the other main character, Elenna is battle the beast, then win. The only thing that is different is that each book features a different beast.
I wish the beast would win once in a while because you lose interest in the series.
My rating is:2/5. It is a good book for early readers.

Historical Fiction at Its Best

2009-10-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

The Roman Mysteries Series by Caroline Lawrence

This is a series of book that is very clever because it uses all the features that a Roman town would have when they go on adventures. It is very fun to read, sometimes dead serious and sometimes it makes me laugh.

There are at least 12 books in the series, starting with The Thieves of Ostia. They tell the story of four young Roman children trying to be detectives. Lupus, the youngest is mute. Then there's Jonathan, who has bad asthma. Flavia is the bossy one, and then Nubia who comes from Africa.

These books show typical ways of living of the Romans so you learn a lot from reading them. For example I learned that if you did something bad you might be forced to become a gladiator and that loads of Jews were taken as slaves.

My star rating: 5/5