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...
DEAD END IN NORVELT By Jack Gantos 352 pp. Yearling. £5.99. (Ages 12 and up) ISBN 9780440870043 Rating: ? Stars I read this book because it was winner of the Newbery Medal 2012. Also, it had a good front cover so that made me want to read it. However, I did have a problem with it. That was because there weren't any skeletons eating cookies in boxes, unlike the cover. My other problem was that Jack wasn't actually dying of boredom (like a skeleton) but was starting to have fun in other ways. This book did have a bit of an interesting story towards the end though, I must grant it that. The actual story in this book is about a boy called Jack (just like the writer). First Jack gets in trouble for playing with his dad’s guns. Then he gets in trouble for mowing the corn lawn because even though his dad tells him to do it. His mum does not want him to do that, and then he is grounded for all of his summer. However Mi...
