ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell 144 pp. Penguin Group. £8.99. (Ages 13 and up) ISBN 9780141182704 Rating: ? Stars This book is set in a future when animals are much cleverer than now. And because of their cleverness, the pigs started a revolution against the humans. Pigs could speak fluently in English unlike the other animals, and that gave them the power to be leaders. But, the story that follows only happened a few years after that... Their first leader, Old Major, was kind and fair who knew animals should be equal. But when Napoleon became the leader it was very unpleasant. He made a rule that allowed the pigs to have better food and that forced all of the other animals to work crazily hard every day and night. That wasn’t enough, Napoleon wanted more power. He decided to kill his brother, Snowball, so that he would be the only leader. Snowball was admired because he came up with a clever idea to build windmill. Sn...
THE UNDERLAND CHRONICLES by Suzanne Collins
Scholastic. £29.95. (Ages 8 and up)
Rating: 5 Stars
GREGOR THE OVERLANDER
The Underland Chronicles Book 1
256 pp.
ISBN 9781407137032
GREGOR AND THE PROPHECY OF BANE
The Underland Chronicles Book 2
256 pp.
ISBN 9781407137049
GREGOR AND THE CURSE OF THE WARMBLOODS
The Underland Chronicles Book 3
288 pp.
ISBN 9781407137056
GREGOR AND THE MARKS OF SECRET
The Underland Chronicles Book 4
272 pp.
ISBN 9781407137063
GREGOR AND THE CODE OF CLAW
The Underland Chronicles Book 5
336 pp.
ISBN 9781407137070
These amazing books just blew me away, for example, already by the first chapter, I got to thinking about how lucky I was because this book, unlike others, was about a family who had just enough money to live off of. An interesting aspect of the way the story was written was how the writer described humans through the perspective of human-like creatures in the Underland. In the book humans are described as Killers because they kill not only all of the other animals but their own species too. Sadly, it is all too true.
This series starts off about Gregor and his little sister Boots falling through the laundry chute into the Underland. In the first book, Boots is pronounced 'Princess' by the Crawlers (cockroaches). Meanwhile Gregor is told he is the warrior from the prophecy. At the end, he bonds with a bat, Ares. In the second book Gregor has to go on a long journey to kill the Bane, a large white rat. However, when he gets there he finds that the Bane is barely a pup so he refuses to kill it. In the third book, Gregor’s mother , and Ares, catch a disease. Gregor and some other people go to look for a cure for the disease, only to have it destroyed by the Cutters (ants) immediately. At the end of the story, they find that it was made by the humans and that it was there all along. In the fourth book the Nibblers (mice) mysteriously disappear. Gregor and his friends set off to discover why and are shocked by the terrible truth. In the fifth and final book the biggest war of all time occurs in the Underland and Lizzie, Gregor’s other little sister, breaks the code of claw. At the end Luxa, a human, and Ripred, a Gnawer (rat), bond, therefore ensuring peace between all the humans and Gnawers.
My favourite characters in this series were Boots, Ares and Luxa. I liked Boots because she seemed so funny and innocent. She made the scary and sad parts in the book seem happy and funny. Luxa was one of my favourites because I felt I could link to her. She was very brave and was always running off on adventures when she wasn't supposed to. I felt sorry for Ares, because he was such a good guy but he was always treated badly and like an outcast. He was always put into positions where he had to make a hard choice, and got scolded afterwards for not choosing the other option even though he would have been treated the same or worse if he had. Sadly, at the end of the last book he got killed.
I think ages nine and over should read this amazing series. This book definitely deserves five out of five stars.
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