Luke's Reads: Behind the Scenes

I have recently finished a challenge in which I read 50 books that Michael Grove;s comments prompted three authors and two reporters to choose. The article is here. This challenge has broadened my reading knowledge and nearly put me in an early grave. I found some new favourite books (The London Eye mystery!) and wanted to burn others (How to be topp!). 

The challenge was a very hard project and took a lot of time and hard work from me and my mum Jay who has supported me throughout the challenge and provided most of the books. She was actually the one who suggested that I did the challenge. One day while I was playing video games she got me pause (A feat in itself) and said “I bet you a tenner that you can’t read 50 books in one year!” 

I replied“No problem, prepare to lose your money, Mum” And so the challenge began.   I hope you are ready to experience Luke’s Reads (Behind the scenes).

Pros of the challenge

 I discovered many new books to my liking: things like Ender’s game, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and the London Eye mystery. Because of the challenge I was pushed into new unfamiliar territory and didn’t know what to expect while I was there. It was an interesting experience full of books that it turns out are really good. The most surprising reaction was when I read Swallows and Amazons and found it not that bad. Read the review 

Cons of the challenge

While I did discover some new favourite books the challenge was full of books that I wanted to burn like How to be Topp, the Old Man and the Sea and After the First Death. I HATED these books. The other thing that I hated was when I did not reach my intended target by Christmas. I was incredibly angry and upset when this happened and I felt that getting an extension was like cheating. But in the end I swallowed my pride and took the extension.

My list of 20 books for 11-12 year olds

• Silver Tounge by Charlie Fletcher
• Artemis Fowl  by Eoin Colfer
• Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
• Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
• The River of Adventure by Enid Blyton
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
• How to be a Pirate by Cressida Cowell
• Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
• The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan
• Time Riders: Day of the Predator  by Alex Scarrow
• H.I.V.E. by Mark Walden
• C.H.E.R.U.B. :The Recruit by Robert Muchamore
• Heroes of Olympus: the Lost Hero 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 by Terry Pratchett
• Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett
• The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
• Enders Game by Orson Scott Card.
• The Magic Scales by Sam Wilding

In Conclusion…

While the challenge was full of obstacles and required lots of time, work and attention it was also educational, interesting and really helped my reading ability. I feel very privileged to be able to do this challenge in the year. I would like to thank my mum Jay and:

Mark Tranter for The Owl Service and A Christmas Carol.

Sarah who sent us When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

Immi Howson  for Mistress Mashem's Repose and People Might Hear You.

I am very grateful to all of these people that helped me and I hope that they say you’re welcome. So to finish off I hope to make those who read my blog laugh by saying I give this challenge 1000/100.   


Jay Writes - 
Thanks also to our friends and well-wishers who left comments on Luke's blog over the year. They have really encouraged him. I think Luke's done a super job with this challenge and I'm proud of him for persevering. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading most of the books along with him (although I was less keen on having to nag him to write the reviews!)

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.                

how to be topp

I found how to be topp:
stupid, insane, badly spelt, really not funny, boring, ridiculous, brainless, deficient, dense, dim, doltish, dopey, dull, dumb, foolish, half-baked, half-witted, idiotic, ill-advised, imbecilic, inane, indiscreet, insensate, irrelevant, laughable, ludicrous, meaningless, mindless, moronic, nonsensical, obtuse, pointless, puerile, rash, senseless, simpleminded, slow, sluggish, stolid, stupefied, thick, thick-headed, trivial, unintelligent, unthinking and moronic. 

I must thank thesaurus.com for the majority of these words.

I HATE THIS BOOK EVEN MORE THAN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, AUTHOR? WHY DID YOU MAKE ME READ THIS? DO NOT READ THIS BOOK IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE!

 Ok, taking deep breaths. Listen people: this book is terrible! It tries to be funny but it isn’t. Curse It! The little rich brat telling the story cannot spell. The bad spelling is supposed to be a joke but when he does it I just think “?” All Molesworth does is say weird stuff about his posh school for boys and pretends he is a spaceman/cowboy/hero. What kind of a storyline is that? In order to even understand this book I would have to be in the upper class 5 generations ago.  Makes stupid jokes and has a horrible story line. For pure stupidity and suckiness this book is cursed with
0/100.   

Moominsummer Madness

I'm going to start this review with the words Never Read This Book.
It's insane.
It's incomprehensible.
It's silly.
Not the nice, funny-cos-it's-so-weird kind of silly, the Oh-my-god-I-can't-make-sense-of-what-they're-saying kind of silly. Through the jumble of strange words I managed to pick our some sort of storyline in which a flood hits their home and so the family goes to live in a floating theatre. Then the family gets separated and the son and his girlfriend are arrested while the mother and father put on a play. Then they all meet up and go back home.
I think that this book is really to be read out loud to 4 or 5 year olds. One of the most negative points about this book is that when you read something you should not have to go online in order to find out who on earth these strange people are. After reading a few chapters I realised that there weren't going to be any hints about who the characters are so I was forced to go to their website and read their character summaries.
Due to its lack of sanity and incomprehensibility I'm giving it 29 out of 100.

Jay Writes
I love a bit of whimsy, but I'm with Luke on this one. Because this book is part way through a series, and the author gives no quarter to the uninitiated, he and I floundered about having no clue who anyone was, nor their relationship to one another. The book would have been immeasurably improved with a cast of characters - including illustrations - so newcomers to the Moomins would have a fighting chance. Thanks to a Canadian childhood I'd only ever heard of Moomins as illustrations on a friend's coffee mugs Ss I was as clueless as Luke. Ah well, one fewer book to read for the challenge!

Pinocchio

I think this book pressed the point of the story a little too hard. After the first two times it had done it - Pinocchio tried to be good, gets distracted, goes off to do something else - it kind of got repetitive. He does it for the first time in chapter 9, chapter 12 makes two, chapter 16 is third, chapter 18 fourth, chapter 20 fifth. Then a snake randomly dies for no reason. I do mean no reason, it serves no purpose. For one paragraph he is caught by a snake who laughs and dies. Chapter 23 is the sixth, chapter 25 makes seven, chapter 29 makes eight, and for the ninth time in chapter 36.

Do you see my point?

The language was understandable, which is pretty good considering it was written in 1883. But, because of the repetitive thing I am giving it only 22 out of 100

People Might Hear You

This was written by Robin Klein in 1983. It is told from the perspective of Frances. She is about my age, she lives alone with her Aunt Loris.

Aunt Loris then marries Mr Tyrell who is in a very unbelievably strict religion. It believes everyone else is evil, the world will soon end and everyone but them will die. So they don't interact with the outside world. The only time they go out is to meet at The Temple with other followers of their religion. Mr Tyrell has three daughters, none of whom go to school, which in the world of the book is illegal (unlike this world, woohoo!). The plot of the book is Frances's struggle to escape.

It is awful. I could have got the whole story in 6 carefully chosen chapters out of the 16 there were - chapters 1 to 4, 10 and 16. The remaining 10 chapters said this:
"I want to leave the crazy religious people. I want to leave the crazy religious people. I can't, my aunt is one of them. Got to get away from the crazy religious people. I can't, my aunt is one of them. Got to get away from the crazy religious people. What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?..."

Repeat. For 10 whole chapters.

I was looking forward to this book because on the back it claims "there are sinister secrets" and that it's "a powerful suspense story." I think this would have been a good book if it had just contained the chapters I specified but I really didn't like this book.

Since this is so badly written I am giving it a 10 lout of 100.

Black Hearts at Battersea

I'd like to start with a positive comment and say this is a very good sequel to The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Unfortunately it had a predictable plot twist and too many characters so I lost track of them.

The book tried to do too many things at once. We were following Simon and his search for Dr Field; Sophie and her life at the castle; Hanoverian plots; Dido the mischievous, annoying youngest daughter of the landlord Mr Twite; abductions, shipwrecks, babies swapped at birth, several rescues, explosions and hot air balloons.

I think the whole book could have done with better pacing. The start of the book took far too long and the ending had too much happening. I really liked the storyline, I just didn't like how the author bunched too much of the action at the end; like a slack string for half a book then pulled REALLY tight for the last bit.

I give it 17 out of 100.

Jay Writes - I was sorry Luke didn't enjoy this one, I'd loved it at his age and was chuffed to have the chance to re-read it. I agree with Luke about the over-abundance of characters and the mad gallop through adventures in the last few chapters but I didn't mind.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

According to the back of the book, all the events in the story actually happened to the author. In the story the main character is Anna, who starts age 9 and over the course of the book becomes 10 and 11. The book is about Anna's experiences when she is rushed out of her home into Switzerland and then Paris as she and her family try to stay away from the Nazis when Hitler comes to power.

Anna's father writes for the newspaper in Berlin in 1933. The Nazis want Anna's father because before the elections he wrote articles that criticised the Nazis, and because he is Jewish.

The first big change for Anna is that she is quickly taken out of Germany to stay in a small Swiss inn, to escape before Hitler can take away their passports. She catches influenza and nearly dies, and when her birthday comes around she realises how horrible things have become because she doesn't get a party and her presents are really small and rubbish. The family move to Paris. Over time Anna and her brother Max come to enjoy it thoroughly. Their parents struggle for the money to buy clothes and other basic things. Over just two years they go from being a wealthy German family who has everything to being a family of poor refugees doing their best to survive in Paris.

I found the book very formal in writing style. The feelings of Anna are described very well but I don't really think that I'd like to just decide to sit down and read this book. My personal taste is more for books with more inventive story lines rather than real life events, and it didn't exactly have me begging for the next chapter. I'm giving this 27 out of 100 for being well written but I don't plan on re-reading it in the near future.

The Owl Service

Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Ummmmmmmmm.

That pretty much sums up this entire book. When I'd finished this book I was left thoroughly confused, and rather annoyed. I was annoyed because I couldn't pick out the story. All I managed to gather was that there was a girl called Alison, a boy called Roger and a boy called Gwyn, which at first I read as Gwen so I thought was a girl. Alison made paper owls that disappeared and Roger and Gwyn hated each other and both liked Alison.

There was also some plate smashing and a woman who had something to do with flowers. Gwyn's mother was very angry throughout the book because of something to do with the plates (that had owls on them, the Owl Service of the title). Roger got very annoyed because people kept messing up his photos. There was also an old man who was a bit weird and the only one who listened to him was Gwyn.

Even though I didn't understand the story, the author managed some very excellent descriptions of the valley in Wales, and the personalities of some of the characters. I think I would have to be a lot older and understand a bit more Welsh to fully appreciate this book. I'm giving it 21 out of 100.

Red Cherry Red

This was another poem book; it was written by Jackie Kay. Something I definitely noticed about her writing is that she wrote lots of poems about the sea and animals related to the sea. She did include some others but those are the ones that stuck with me most.

My favourite poem was one called The Angler Fish and I found it interesting because the things written in the poem, once you figured out what they meant, included some really unusual facts about angler fish.

One thing I found rather annoying about the poetry collection was that the poet often used Scottish words that I didn't understand like ach, crofit and oot. Because of this, some of the poems left me rather confused. When I listened to the poetry on CD, she did a little introduction to a bunch of the poems to tell us what inspired her to write them. Some of them I didn't really thing were necessary but some were interesting.

I preferred reading the poems to listening to them, mostly because it was faster and I didn't really enjoy doing this poetry collection. I found it a bit tedious, so I'm going to give it 35 out of 100.

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

Beano Annual

This is the third book and I'm surprised it's counted as 'a book' because it is actually just 2 magazines stuck together with a hardback cover.

I don't really get the Beano comics generally. I mean that in the sense that I don't buy them or read them. Some of them are quite funny and inventive but there's just no story, it's just a collection of sketches written by some guys.

They weren't that bad but I wouldn't call them good. I have found other Beano comics funny but I can't say I enjoyed this one. I didn't really like it but at least I read it quickly.

The Beano Annual is something to flick through when you are in a waiting room. I give it 17 out of 100

Jay's note - Luke read the Beano Annual 2011. He borrowed from his brother who had received it for his birthday. Z liked it and found it very funny!