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...
MY SISTER LIVES ON THE MANTELPIECE By Annabel Pitcher 240 pages. Orion. £9.99 (Ages 11+) ISBN 9781444001839 Rating: 4 stars This book informs you that even on the rainiest days of sadness the sun can always come out at the end of it. Jamie and his family live in London. When his sister Rose is killed, the rest of the family move away. Unfortunately the parents start to fight so much that finally the mum goes to live with Nigel, a man who works with her. Due to this the two children only have a drunken dad to look after them. In Jamie's new school basically all the children are mean to him except for Sunya. However that bothers his dad because she's a Muslim and Muslims killed his sister. What happens when Sunya gets fed up with Jamie treating her so badly and stops being his friend? Will Jamie ever be able to fix their friendship again or will he not? My favourite character...
