Luke recommends...

Several people commented to us that they'd really like some suggestions of books to read. Here are Luke's recommendations:

• Stoneheart trilogy by Charlie Fletcher
• Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
• Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy
• Wolf Brother series by Michelle Paver
• The River/Valley/Castle/Circus/Island/Mountain/Ship of Adventure books by Enid Blyton
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
• How to Train your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell
• Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
• Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan
• Time Riders by Alex Scarrow
• H.I.V.E. series by Mark Walden
• C.H.E.R.U.B. series by Robert Muchamore
• Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan
• Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O'Brien
• The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett
• Only You Can Save Mankind and its sequels Johnny and the Bomb & Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett

Some of the books, like How To Train Your Dragon, have been favourites since Year 3 but still make us laugh. Michael Morpurgo's Kaspar, Prince of Cats was good too. Eoin Colfer's books for younger readers like The Legend of... Spud Murphy/Captain Crow's Teeth/The Worst Boy In The World were also very good. Horrid Henry is obviously fun when you are starting out. And Pippi Longstocking is not just for girls, it's fun for everybody.

The Old Man and the Sea

Firstly I'd like to say GAH! This book is the worst book I have read not only in my challenge but in my life.

The story is about a fisherman who caught on his rod a super giant fish that nobody has ever seen before. The fish tugs him a long way (because it's a very strong and giant fish) and the man in his head complains, he wishes that he could get sleep, that the fish would slow down, that a boy he knows in the village was with him. The fisherman is constantly saying "The fish is my honourable brother and so I must kill him."

The man says he must kill his brothers and to be honest anything alive that isn't human is his brother. This, I think, is an excellent example of fratricide and how it can affect your life. At one point in the book he says "We are lucky the stars are not our brothers because then we would have to kill them."

I give it 2 out of 100. Why it is a classic is beyond me.

Jay's note - I'm impressed Luke managed to persevere with this one and wonder what about this style of writing made Michael Morpurgo include it in the list. Here's a sample:

"...his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert."

We've not seen many fish-laden deserts ourselves, but maybe we don't get out enough.
Flippancy aside, it was a very Literary-with-a-capital-L novella and it was all a bit much even for a bibliophile like Luke. Heavens only knows what the average Y7 student would make of it.

After 2 negative reviews Luke's heading to more familiar territory for his next review.

The Silver Sword

I read this book in Year 6 and didn't like it at all.

This book was about a group of kids from Warsaw in the Second World War trying to get reunited with their mother and father. They are two sisters, a brother who goes missing for part of the story, and a kid they happen to meet called Jan, who also met their father and got the Silver Sword from him. They make a huge journey through Germany, where a dog comes in it for a bit, there's a chimpanzee who turns up and smokes cigarettes, and a chicken destined for the pot.

In the end they get lucky and everyone lives happily ever after.

While many people will disagree with me I really disliked this book because I found it far too religious and that the children believed the Power of God would only help them if they had the Silver Sword. I found this idea preposterous, especially as the Silver Sword isn't even an enchanted item, it's just a letter opener.

I give this book 9 out of 100.

Jay's note - wow, Luke really hated that one! I can't blame him, I found it sanctimonious and the most dated of the books so far, although it isn't the oldest. Sorry the review contains a spoiler of sorts, but it's a rubbish book anyway. We'll try harder next time

The Castafiore Emerald

This is the first Tintin book I've ever read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the sense of adventure and mystery and really liked Captain Haddock, who is Tintin's friend. I thought this book was interesting because while it was still a cartoon it managed to tell a great story and had a great sense of humour.

The two funniest characters, I thought, were the Thomson Twins because they kept on making mistakes while saying "It could happen to anybody," and still saying they were right. Their personalities were amusing.

The general story was that Lady Castafiore, a famous opera singer, was coming to stay at the Captain and Tintin's house. Lady Castafiore assumed everything was about her, whenever anybody talked about a problem she'd caused she waved it off as if they should feel honoured just to speak to her; she was not very good at seeing other's points of view. She was very protective of her jewels. The most expensive and valuable of these was the eponymous emerald. She was paranoid, constantly thinking her jewels were stolen when actually she'd just misplaced them. Eventually the emerald is actually stolen. At first everyone but Tintin believes it's the gypsies who've been living in the area who are responsible. But Tintin is determined to prove the gypsies' innocence. He investigates and finds out many things about the people in the house and eventually finds the culprit.

While I did like this book there are certainly things I would change. For example, I'd appreciate a quick back story on each character because it took me a while to understand why someone as young as Tintin had travelled all around the world having adventures and was now living with the Captain in a big posh house with his own butler. Because of this frustration I'm giving it 67 out of 100.

Einstein's Underpants and How They Saved The World

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought it was funny, witty, and I loved the characters.

Here is the plot:

The main character, Alexander, has a his crazy grandfather who warns him that aliens are about to take over the world and kill them all. He says that Alexander must assemble an alliance of superheroes to fight the aliens.

Alex runs trials for superheroes at his school. However all he gets are a boy who can throw cards; a boy who runs at people like a Viking, using his tortoise as a weapon; a boy who can burp or fart on demand creating any smell he likes; a secretary and a girl who has the power to be extremely annoying. They go on to fight the aliens, Alexander armed with the amazing maths powers of Einstein's underpants which he wears on his head.

I think this is an absolutely brilliant book for people aged 9 years and over. It has lots of comedy and is very witty. A well deserved 80 out of 100!

The Phantom Tollbooth

This book is very interestingly written. The plot is about a small boy called Milo comes home from school after another dreary day and finds a toll booth waiting for him, which has been sent to him by someone completely mysterious. He pays the toll and goes into a magical world with two arguing kingdoms: the Kingdom of Words and Letters and the Kingdom of Numbers and Maths.

Milo goes on a quest with two companions - a faithful dog called Tock, who has a clock in his belly, and the reluctant HumBug - to rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason, to restore peace to the Kingdoms. Along the way lots of strange and wonderful things happen to him and Milo eventually succeeds in his quest.

The magical world was full of edible letters and subtraction stew which makes you feel hungrier every time you eat it and also demons of time wasting and interrupting. It was very imaginative and original but I didn't enter into it as much as some of the books I choose for myself.

It got off to a slow start for an adventure book.

I think this book would work best if it were read out loud to younger children - maybe a chapter a night to 6 or 7 year olds - than it does for someone my age. Because of the brilliant ideas in it, I give it 63 out of 100.

Emil and the Detectives

Hello. Luke here. This is my first review out of the 50. I thought I would start with a positive review so I chose this book and I have to say that this book is great.

When I started I have to say I had my doubts but they were soon gone as I was sucked into the world of Emil. Emil is set in Germany and it is about when a man with a bowler hat steals Emil's £7. He then goes on to retrieve his money from the thief with the help of most of the boys in the city. It was fast paced, interesting and went straight to the action. On my scale of 1 to 100 this book claims a well earned 70.

Jay Writes - Emil and the Detectives is by Erich Kastner. Luke read this edition. There's a sequel called Emil and the Three Twins. We'd like to point out that this Emil is a totally different one to the hero of Astrid Lindgren's series, also rather confusingly called Emil and the Clever Pig/Sneaky Rat/Great Escape. Luke liked Mr Kastner's Emil much better.

Where it all started

It started with Michael Gove.

That is not a sentence I thought I'd ever type, I must confess. However, he made a comment which inspired a newspaper article which inspired an email which inspired a conversation which inspired a bet which inspired this blog.

It seems Mr Gove thinks Y7 pupils should aim to read one book a week, 50 a year (maybe he thinks they should get Christmas holidays off? Or perhaps maths is not the Education Minister's strong suit) The Independent asked 5 authors and journalists for 10 books they'd recommend to Y7 students, making a list of 50 for the year.

My partner emailed me the list to show to our rather fabulous Y7 son Luke. He was unimpressed, "Did grown ups write this list? I think they did. Real 11 year olds would put stuff with more action and chases and adventure. Modern children want action." We had a chat about why classics were regarded as classics, that all old books were not necessarily ones that came out when I was a kid, some were even older than me and I still enjoyed them.

Upon hearing of Luke's disdain, his dad laughed and said, "Bet him a quid he can't read them all by Christmas."

I rather liked the idea, but knowing the pecuniary demands of today's 11 year old, bet him a tenner. "Will you provide the books? OK then, prepare to lose your money, Mum," said my supremely confident offspring.

Luke and I are blogging the bet - he'll be writing reviews of the books as he goes along and I'll probably get roped in as chief typist. I'm Jay, by the way. I'm a self employed baker (here's my website and here's the blog about my baking adventures) and mum to Luke, his younger brother and sister.

Welcome to our book journey!