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 NEVERENDING STORY By Michael Ende 445 pp. Puffin. £7.99. (Ages 9 and up) ISBN 9780140317930 Rating: ? Stars I haven't finished “The Neverending Story” and I never will because it never ends. I got this book for my ninth birthday because I read too quickly and my parents thought this might keep me company for a while. I started to read this book because I had watched the movie. The movie was good, so I expected the book to be just as good (or better, because most of the books I've read have been better than the movies which they make after them just to get more money). This book is about a boy called Bastian who reads a stolen book in the school attic. The book Bastian reads is about a boy called Atreyu who is trying to save Fantastica. He can only do this by finding a human who can give the childlike empress a new name, which will make the Nothing go away and which will make the childlike empress well again. Bastian ends up calling the empress “Moon Child”, which makes...