Excellent Reads

UGLIES TRILOGY by Scott Westerfeld Simon & Schuster Childrens Books. (Ages 11 and up) Rating: 4.5 Stars UGLIES 448 pp. ISBN 9780857079138 PRETTIES 384 pp. ISBN 9780857079145 SPECIALS 400 pp. ISBN 9780857079152   The Uglies book series, intended for young adults, was actually recommended to me by my grandma. Now, although this might make you think, “boring”, and that this series must then be some weird old classic, I assure you it isn’t. Firstly, my grandma tends to pick good and modern books, and secondly she actually found out about this series from one of her high school students.   Something I like about all the books in this series is that the main character, Tally Youngblood, is very, very far from perfect. Most of the time I dislike or hate her, and if we had met we probably wouldn’t have become friends. For me, this means that when Tally does do something good, it feels much more real and impressive, because you understand how hard it is for her. This also...

AMAZON SUMMER Amy Wild: Book 1 By Helen Skelton. 304 pp. Corgi Childrens. £6.99. (Ages 9 and up) ISBN 9780552568395 Rating: 5 Stars       This book starts off with the main character (Amy Wild) being invited to go on a trip to Peru with her Aunt Marg, to help her take photos of all the wildlife and city life. Her aunt is a photographer for magazines. When she arrives there she meets a man called Dudu and his son Juan who are also helping her aunt, and for a few days everything seems to be going well. Their good luck doesn’t last long, though, as after a few days Amy accidentally runs over her aunt with a truck. Terrified that Dudu will kill her, or she’ll be put in jail by the police, she runs away and hides in a boat she finds in the Amazon. The next morning she wakes to find herself deep in the Amazon with Juan purposely driving the boat. Not wanting to turn back, Juan decides to let Amy tag along with him. Sadly, he hasn’t taken her clumsiness into ac...

THE EARTH IS SINGING by Vanessa Curtis 336 pp. THE EARTH IS SINGING by Vanessa Curtis336 @Usborne @UsborneDigital http://bit.ly/1DBhh3J . £6.99. (Ages 14 and up) ISBN 9781409577447 Rating: 4 Stars     I will admit that I was actually rather surprised I liked this book, as it wasn’t my normal choice. Normally I read fantasy or sci-fi, not historical fiction based on real lives. I may have to change my usual agenda, though, as this book was fascinating, and there have also been a few other historical fiction books and biographies which I have enjoyed. Throughout this whole book I really felt like I could connect with the main character, Hanna, There were a few times when my heart clenched in fear for her and I smiled when she was happy.     This book is set in World War 2 in Germany, and is narrated by a 15-year-old Jewish Latvian called Hanna, whose father has been taken by the Russians. It starts off not too bad. Life is hard, but Hanna is sti...

THE BATTLE FOR WONDLA WondLa trilogy book 3 by Tony DiTerlizzi 496 pp. Simon & Schuster $17.99. (Ages 10 and up) ISBN 9781416983149 Rating: 5 Stars     In most adventure books the main character is a boy and the girls are all quite weak, which disturbs me. However, in this book a girl (Eva Nine) is extremely brave, a hero and the main character. Eva Nine was created in a lab, which means that she isn’t a proper person so she’s supposed to be controlled by normal people, although she's still the one who saves Wondla. For these reasons she is my favorite character.     This book started with Eva Nine having gone into hiding with Hailey in the forest. They did this so they weren't captured by Loroc, who had already consumed his own sisters to make himself more powerful, and now hoped to consume his brother Zin also. Eva Nine had an idea for where Zin was hiding and got a trader in goods to take her there. When she got there she asked him for hel...

THE WOMAN IN BLACK by Susan Hill 208 pp. Vintage £7.99. (Ages 15 and up) ISBN 9780099288473 Rating: ? Stars     This book started off on Christmas day with a man called Arthur thinking about his past and then deciding to write a book about the experience he had with a ghost when he was younger. He decides to write a book about his experience for the other members of his family to read. The rest of the book is the book he wrote about his experience with the woman in black. It starts of with him going to an old house to sort out the papers of a lady who died. He decides to go to the lady’s funeral as he is sorting out her things. Surprisingly, he is basically the only person there. At her funeral he sees a lady wearing all black with bluish white skin. Strangely, when he asks who she is no one seems to want to talk about her. Also he begins to hear strange noises at night even though no one except him is inside the house. To find out more, read the book.  ...

TERROR TOWN Elf Boy and Raven Girl Book 4 by Marcus Sedgwick illustrated by Pete Williamson 176 pp. Orion. £6.99. (Ages 8 and up) ISBN 9781444005271 Rating: 4 Stars      This book was set in a fantasy town called Terror Town where creatures like werewolves and zombies existed. The main characters were Elf Girl and Raven Boy whose real names were not revealed. They went to Terror Town to get the Singing Sword so that they could defeat the Goblin King.      I think this book is good for children who can read well but still like shorter books with pictures inside. This book definitely deserves four out of five stars.      Even though this book was for the most part just a funny and scary story, the main characters do grow on you. Eventually you begin to see that even though they act like they dislike each other, they are actually really good friends. A good thing about this book is that even if you haven't read th...

SHE IS NOT INVISIBLE by Marcus Sedgwick 384 pp. Orion £9.99. (Ages 11 and up) ISBN 9781780621098 Rating: ? Stars     How do writers describe the world in the books that you read? Take a look at a book you are reading, or have read recently and find a description of a person, place or thing. I would bet in most cases that the writer notes how things would look if you could be there and see what the writer describes. How often do the books you read have descriptions of the smell, feel, and sound of things? If you can see and have normal vision then imagine if you did not or were even born blind. What would it be like? How would a writer describe the world from the perspective of a person with a visual impairment?     Marcus Sedgwick, author of She is Not Invisible, performs several incredible feats of writing. For example, although he is a sighted person himself, he takes on the perspective of not being able to see and instead describes the world t...

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...

FIVE ON A TREASURE ISLAND The Famous Five book 1 by Enid Blyton 192 pp. Hachette Children's Books. £5.99. (Ages 8 and up) ISBN 9780340931592 Rating: 4 Stars     This was a brilliant kids mystery book. Enid Blyton has always been one of my favourite authors but this truly swept me away. As you read this book you truly begin to admire the children for their bravery and courage. Personally, my favourite character is George (short for Georgina) because she refuses to act like a girl and is even more of a boy than most real boys. I'm also a big tomboy so I feel like I can understand her the best. I also like Julian because he is so cheerful and makes everyone around him happy.     This book is about when Anne, Julian and Dick go to visit their cousin Georgina. Soon they learn that she hates being a girl and won't answer unless you call her George. After awhile they earn her friendship and she agrees to take them to her island with her dog Timoth...

  ASTERIX AND THE PICTS by Jean-Yves Ferri Illustrated by Didier Conrad 48 pp. Orion Children's Books. £10.99. (Ages 10 and up) ISBN 9781444011678 Rating: 4.5 Stars              This story starts with Asterix and Obelix finding a Pict man stuck in ice. Quickly, they call all of the Gauls to help them free the Pict man.  Together they take the Pict man to Getafixi's hut.  Suddenly the Pict man pops out of the ice and starts to walk. The Pict man sees a tiny man with a stone tablet talking to him and also writing things down on his stone tablet.  As the Pict man can't speak he tells them his story in actions and carves the way to his land on one of Obelix's menhirs.  Then the Gauls decide to have Asterix and Obelix take him back to his land: the land of the Picts. While on the boat the Pict man gets his voice back and tells them his name is MacAroon.                If you didn't already know this book wasn't written by the same writer then you woul...

ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell 140 pp. Signet Classics. $8.99. (Ages 13 and up) ISBN 9780451526342 Rating: 5 Stars     This was a very strange but brilliant book. It really made me think about our world, as in how the government always try's to make a new start, create a better place, but making it work is hard. After a while, sometimes, bad people will take over and ruin it, making it just as bad as it started. Are all revolutions like that? This book made me think of the Hunger Games. They are both about revolutions where the new leaders end up being just as selfish as the old ones.     This book was about a farm where the animals were angry with humans for imprisoning them, treating them badly and then killing them when they grew up. Finally they chased out the farmers and put the pigs in charge (as they were the cleverest). Snowball and Napoleon were both leaders and disagreed with each other on everything. Snowball was actually the good ...

THE FATE IN THE BOX By Michelle Lovric. 352 pp. Orion Childrens. £10.99. (Ages 12 and up) ISBN 9781444003390 Rating: 5 Stars The Fate in the Box was different.  I mean, at first it seemed like a fact file about what Venice was like back in 1783.  Except it was kind of like Steampunk because they had machines that haven’t even been invented now, while still keeping everything else the same as it was back then.  However as I got deeper into the story it got so good that I couldn't stop reading it!  The main bad guy was Fogfinger and he did many bad things to the poor people of Venice.  I think the worst thing he did was kill the male Sea Saur, pretend the female Sea Saur had done it,  and invent the lambing (where two children, a boy and girl, were said to be eaten by the female Sea Saur).  The reason I think this is the worst thing he did is because it is awful when everyone thinks I did some bad thing I didn't do and it would probably be even worse if...

THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ; THE MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ; OZMA OF OZ Oz The Complete Collection, Volume One by L. Frank Baum 592 pp. Simon & Schuster Childrens Books. £6.99. (Ages 9 and up) ISBN 9781471117008 Rating: ? Stars     When I got these books I was surprised to find three books instead of one as I had always thought there was only one book about Oz, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. Actually there are fifteen books altogether. My favourite book of the three was “Ozma of Oz” because the plot and characters became more interesting in that book. I think ages nine to fifteen should read this book because it would seem a bit childish for those older than fifteen and a bit hard to understand for those younger than nine. This book definitely deserves five out of five stars.     “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was about a girl called Dorothy who was taken to the Land of Oz by a tornado. At first when she got there the Munchkins that lived in that par...

GREET THE DAWN: THE LAKOTA WAY By S.D. Nelson 48 pp. South Dakota State Historical Society Press. $18.95. (Ages 4 and up) ISBN 9780984504169 Rating: ? Stars     Greet the Dawn is about what the Lakota people do at dawn. They thank Mother Earth for everything that is on the Earth and Father Sky for everything in the sky. Dotted about the book there are songs in the Lakota language and translated in English.     The book is very colourful. I was amazed at the detail in the art and it was funny to see the way he turned ancient artwork into more modern looking artwork. I especially liked the picture of the meadowlark and her nest with the beautiful, colourful background. While reading I noticed that one of the pictures of a tent had a horse design that had a resemblance to my dress.

THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY by Suzanne Collins Scholastic. (Ages 12 and up). £7.99. Rating: 5 Stars THE HUNGER GAMES The Hunger Games Trilogy Book 1 464 pp. ISBN 9781407132082 CATCHING FIRE The Hunger Games Trilogy Book 2 480 pp. ISBN 9781407132099 MOCKINGJAY The Hunger Games Trilogy Book 3 464 pp. ISBN 9781407132105      I got this series as my tenth birthday present. I think this is a very good series and I really like the parts when she is actually in the arena where they have the Hunger Games in both book one and two. Even though it was a brilliant book I could say that Suzanne Collins should take out the boring parts, like when Katniss is in the cave with Peeta, because those parts are not really needed as part of the story. I can understand that to make the book more real you would have to have some grieving and death but I think that the author has gone a bit too far because it is not fun for the reader to be crying for most of each book in the series. ...

LOOK INTO MY EYES Ruby Redfort Book 1 by Lauren Child 432 pp. HarperCollins. £6.99. (Ages 9 and up) ISBN 9780007334070 Rating: 5 Stars      This book is especially interesting because it is all about codes, and Ruby Redfort (the main character) even makes up her own code which I am still trying to figure out! Really, besides this book being brilliant to read it is also really fun to stop reading for a bit, try to solve the code, then go back to reading and find out if you were right. I personally want to become a secret agent or spy when I grow up and wish that I had the chance to practice some of the amazing things Ruby Redfort does.      This book is about a very smart girl called Ruby Redfort who was asked by a secret agency to become their secret code cracker. She had to find out a secret that their old code cracker Lopez found out just before she died. At first Ruby had trouble with the code and didn't attempt to become an action agen...

SERAPHINA by Rachel Hartman 384 pp. Doubleday. £12.99. (Ages 12 and up) ISBN 9780857531575 Rating: 2 Stars      This book was AWFUL. When I say awful I do not mean you will be full of awe after you read it I mean awful as in boring. The reason I say this book is awful is because when you first see it you think it will be a really good book all about a girl fighting fire breathing dragons. Then when you start reading it you find out that the whole point of the book is that Seraphina (the main character) loves the prince. Can you think of anything more boring than that? If you can then I feel sorry for you because you must read a lot of boring books.      This book was about a girl called Seraphina who was half dragon and half girl. I allow that the tiniest bit of it was about her fighting the bad dragons, but most of it, as I said earlier, was about her trying to stop thinking about how much she loved the prince. You are probably wondering ...

ARCTIC ADVENTURE By Willard Price. 272 pp. Red Fox. £7.99. (Ages 9 and up) ISBN 9780099482277 Rating: 5 Stars     I got this book from my school library when I was looking for a book to read. This is the second book I have ever read by this author. I really like this author's books because they make you want to save endangered species from becoming extinct. However, I do not agree that it is good for animals to all be in zoos because then animals don't learn how to live in the wild. I personally think this is a good book to read around this time of the year because I finished it yesterday, and as it just snowed it looks as if your in the Arctic today.     This book is about two brothers, Hal and Roger, who go to Greenland and Alaska to pick up animals that their father sells to zoos. While they were in Greenland they made very good friends with Olrik and a polar bear that they named Nanook. Nanook saved them when they were at the point of d...

THE GRIM GROTTO A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the 11th. By Lemony Snicket. Illustrated by Brett Helquist. 352 pp. Egmont Books Ltd. £6.99. (Ages 9 and up) ISBN 9781405266161 Rating: 5 Stars     Even though this is "Book the Eleventh" you can still read it on its own because it explains the rest of the series in the beginning. That said, this book was very interesting to me because it revealed a lot of secrets. For example I was very surprised to find out that their friend Fiona's stepbrother had joined Count Olaf's troupe. I felt extremely sorry for Fiona that she had to be the one in the middle: the one both sides wanted.     This book is about the Baudelaires and their extremely unfortunate events underwater. I myself think that the most unfortunate and frightening event that they encounter is when Sunny is poisoned by the Medusiod Mycelium. Even though the events that occur after that are still very frightening, I hope I have not fri...

LILY ALONE By Jacqueline Wilson Illustrated by Nick Sharratt. 320 pp. Doubleday Children's Books. £12.99. (Ages 10 and up) ISBN 9780385618649 Rating: 4 Stars     I read this book because my friend recommended it to me. I am honoured to say that her mom knows Jacqueline Wilson. I myself actually sometimes feel like Lily.     This book is about a girl called Lily. One day her mom goes off with their may be future dad on holiday so they are left home alone. Poor Lily has to somehow get the house together before their mom comes back. Sadly with Baxter, Pixie, and Bliss always on the move that is nearly impossible. Just to make it worse they have a secret to hide: their mom has left them home alone.     I think ages nine to twelve should read this book because the language is for older readers but adults and teenagers would probably think the story was a bit childish. This book definitely deserves four stars because it wa...