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 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...
