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.

A Christmas Carol

I'd like to thank Mark Tranter for lending me this book and my already-reviewed Owl Service. Thank you for letting me read your copies, I will post them back to you very soon.

As for the book - the original was different to other versions I'd read or seen. Like Treasure Island, it used an older vocabulary. This didn't stop me understand it anything like as much as Treasure Island and after reading a little more I usually managed to figure out what it all meant.

I have to say it was certainly better and easier to understand than I expected. What did surprise me was that there was minor humour in it (although Charles Dickens has nothing on Gonzo the Great, who played him in A Muppet Christmas Carol.)

I've seen A Muppet Christmas Carol, Northern Ballet Theatre's version, a child's version with story CD from Usborne books, and loads of other bits on telly so I knew the story pretty well. The book was a lot shorter than I thought it would be. The characters were exactly what I expected. It's sort of a mix between a ghost story and a fable. The first two ghosts give him leverage but really what changes Scrooge is the last one, seeing himself dead, alone and hated, with people nicking his stuff.

I prefer modern books because they're paced more to my liking. They spend more time advancing the plot and little time describing the surroundings. Sometimes I felt that Dickens spend a little too much time describing rather than actually doing. I think you only need to describe things once whereas he described things in several ways and I didn't really like that aspect of the book.

However, because of the good story and the humour I give it a 76 out of 100.

Treasure Island

An enjoyable book, at least for the first half. After that, with all the Arr-ing and Yo-Ho-Ho-ing I couldn't find out what on earth was going on.

The story as I understood it is this:

The main character, Jim Hawkins, finds a map of the old pirate Captain Flint showing where he buried his treasure. Jim, a Doctor, a cook named Long John Silver, and a crew set off to find the island. Just before they reach their destination, most of the crew mutiny and it is revealed that Long John Silver is the captain of the mutineers.

On the island Jim finds a man called Ben Gunn (who would like more than anything to eat some cheese). Gunn teams up with Jim, the Doctor, the Captain and a few other loyal sailors. Jim goes on a stealth mission and somehow manages to sneak aboard the ship and move it so the pirates can't find it. He is captured by Silver, there is a hunt for the treasure but the good guys beat them to it. Jim and the rest of the good guys find the ship and sail off (taking Ben Gunn with them) leaving the mutineers behind to slowly go mad.

I'm sure it's an excellent story. If only it had more modern language or if it included footnotes to explain the words I didn't understand! I am going to give it a 46 out of 100 for being a good story but difficult language for modern kids to follow.

My own writing

Jay Writes -

Luke has written part of a short story himself this week. Here is part one - I'm coaxing him to write part two , so pop back to read the next instalment

Luke Writes -

I am a gruesome and horrible child. Enjoy. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha...

What happened on Planet 9

John came crashing through the forest panting; he didn't look back for fear he would have to see it again. He tripped over a tree root and fell. He tried to get up but his foot was stuck fast. He pulled out his knife and began sawing at the root. It eventually snapped. Then John made the mistake of looking up, so he could see the large pair of jaws filled with razor sharp teeth right above him.

The problem with being in Planet 9's black forest is that the trees mute your screams.

***

Benjamin Folkine Marden was having a lovely dream about a tropical island when he fell out of the top bunk of a bunk bed.

"Wow, said his bunk mate Sam, "that looked like it hurt... a lot!"

"Well done," groaned Ben. "Did you figure that our all by yourself?"

Ben, Sam and twenty-eight others people had been in this harvesting camp for two years. Planet 9 had a large amount of zinomine, a rare and powerful substance, and the Government decided to send a group of men and women to mine the stuff and slowly destroy the natural environment. But someone, or more accurately some things, were not happy with this arrangement.

Ben looked at his timetable. He didn't know why he bothered; it was always the same:

Wake Up

Eat Breakfast

Work

Work

Work

Work

Work

Eat Lunch

Work

Work

Work

Work

Work

Eat Dinner

Work

Work

Got To Sleep

Repeat

Ben and Sam headed outside to start work.

"Hey Sam, you ever wonder if exciting will ever happen here?" called Ben.

"What, like an alien invasion?" answered Ben. "Are you kidding? If anything exciting ever happens here I beg of you, please include me." Then he saw Ben's face - a face he had never seen but knew what it was. It was the face of pure, indefinable absolute terror. "What?" Sam asked.

"Your wish," said a raspy voice behind him, "has been granted."

Sam turned to see the creature behind him. He felt a jerk in him. The creature looked down. So did he, so he could see in the three clawed hand his very own beating heart.

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.