Greek Myths

Well this review is gonna take me a while because I have to write 300 words before my mum and dad can finish their work so here we go:

The Ancient Greeks is my favourite point in history after the Egyptians. Their mythology is fascinating. It is filled with everything from arrogant kings who challenge the gods to noble heroes who simply ask for the gods blessing on their quest to save the damsel in distress. And there are plenty of damsels who are in distress. Many of these situations are caused by Hera queen of the gods. She deals with most problems by turning into an old woman and planting seeds of doubt in people’s minds.

My favourite story is the story of Melampus, the man who could understand animals big and small. One day he was walking along the road when he found a dead mother snake. Instead of just kicking it of the road like most people would he gave the snake a proper funeral and took care of the babies. When the snakes grew older they licked his ears so clean that he could understand what all creatures were saying. He used this ability to learn the secrets of nature and to help people with their problems. Like when he put out a large hunk of meat and two vultures came down and discussed how to heal a very sick prince who was watching.

 The Greek myths have lots of stories like this except in the others the blessed man usually gets cocky and angers the gods who make him spend the rest of his life as some kind of wild animal. As well as having many good stories the Greek myths also make good reading material for all ages. Little ones will marvel at the great tasks of Hercules while older readers can enjoy the tale of Oedipus.

Great stories for the whole family 89/100        

Jay Writes - 

Luke reviewed D'Aulaire's Book Of Greek Myths.  It's the book I grew up with too. I highly recommend it for readers age 7 and up. Its family trees and memorable illustrations are a great introduction to the myths. As Luke says, these stories are great for everyone.

The Secret Garden

I have mixed feelings about this book. I like the story but dislike many of the characters. I like the book’s means of getting the story across to the reader but I dislike the Yorkshire accents everyone speaks in. 

This book just didn’t really fit in with me I am sure though that in a few years’ times this book will appeal to me. In fact the only thing that will not appeal is that whiney Colin. Oh my god please shut him up. But apart from that this book did OK. I can’t give it a good review for year seven though so I’m afraid all it can have is 63/100.        

After the First Death

This is the second time I’ve written a review for this book because my mum thought I didn’t understand the book. So now that it has been explained to me the parts that did not make sense to me before now adds to the general awfulness of the book. We have three main storytellers or four. It’s kinda hard to explain. 


Anyway the story focuses on three points of view during a terrorist hostage situation. The first is Miro the terrorist. I am supposed to feel pity towards him but after a while all I am thinking is

“Dude, get sniped”

He is just so sick in the head and his decisions and logic make me want to throw the book in the fire.

Then there was Kate, the bus driver. This girl is the only reason I did not throw this book into the fire. She acts like someone would in her situation and her logic is sound and most importantly she is actually well written. I can picture her very well in my mind. She is the only pro of this book.

And then we have Ben. The most pointless, useless annoying character, who is not supposed to be all of these things, I have ever read. He spends half the time he is given moaning about how he is afraid of his dad and the other half moaning about how this one random girl didn’t like him. He deserves that torture he had to endure. Then there was the sniper thing. The whole time I was thinking

“Please snipers just shoot the bad guys and end this book. It says that they go out in the open a lot. Just kill them. Please.”

There was also Ben’s dad who I give the same description as Ben. Just replace the word pointless with moronic.

4/100 for plot holes and Ben.                

The Hobbit

The Hobbit

This was one of the books in this challenge that was much more to my liking. Unfortunately my brand new game Skyrim (EPIC!) had arrived and a lot of my spare time was going into that. But I finished the book all the same and managed to enjoy it as normal. I really enjoy the sci fi and fantasy genre and this book was not a let down to its relations.

The story focuses on a group of fourteen, thirteen dwarves and a hobbit. The hobbit Bilbo Baggins is the hero of the story and discovers many things about himself and Middle Earth on his journey to the lonely mountain to claim the treasure of Smaug the last of the great dragons.

My favourite character in this story is Gollum. When he talks to himself and how he says it, he creeps you out to no end. He and Bilbo have a competition where they take turns to tell riddles and whoever cannot answer the others riddle first, loses.

All the characters in this book are brilliant the story is fantastic and the ending is well written. I hope everyone who reads the book enjoys it as much as I did 99.9/100             

Wild Card 1

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

This was a very hard book to read because everything was described at a very different pace to what I am used to. For example in many action scenes the author is describing the scene as if it is a poem. Another thing that made it hard to understand were the way the characters talked and expressed themselves, I had to reread many pages to even comprehend what was going on.

While I know that this book inspired many other stories such as the Hulk, the fact is, is that I couldn’t find that story in the jumble of words. But in the end I got the story out and thought it was really good. I am going to give it 59/100.        

Jay Writes - 

Luke chose to cash in the first of his wild cards rather than read I Capture The Castle.  I think this was a good choice - I love Dodie Smith's book but I am not an adventure-loving 12 year old boy.

We chose Jekyll and Hyde as a replacement because, as Luke observed above, this is one of the most influential horror stories we know.  From episodes of Scooby Doo to The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and beyond, Luke's seen cartoons and films inspired by Jekyll and Hyde.  Reading the source material is a cool thing to have done.