Good Reads: Hitchin Boys’ School

Chosen by Year 8 (12-13 year old) pupils from Hitchin Boys’ School, Hertfordshire.

Thanks to Thomas Pitchford, Librarian.

War Horse

Michael Morpurgo, Egmont, 978 0 7497 4850 0, £4.99 pbk (also version illustrated by Francois Place, 978 1 4052 1587 9, £7.99 pbk)

War Horse is a moving novel set in German occupied France during the First World War. Joey, a young and curious farm horse, has been sold to the British Army to start his dangerous and gruelling journey. Albert, the farmer’s son, is Joey’s only source of determination as he fights in the trenches pulling his destructive and heavy gun with only mud and dirt as comfort as well as the exhausted soldiers around him. My favourite part of the story was when he was captured by the Germans, then because of a young and courageous soldier he is stolen back to his British lines. War Horse has been one of my favourite and most moving novels to read because of the vast amount of action, description and sadness which are one of the key elements in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone and I am sure they would find it as much a brilliant book as I did.

Tom Hooper

CHERUB: The Fall

Robert Muchamore, Hodder, 978 0 340 91170 9, £5.99 pbk

This book is the seventh addition to the undoubtedly popular CHERUB series. Anybody who hasn’t read any of these will probably cry, ‘What’s CHERUB?’ Well, CHERUB is a fictional organization which takes on orphaned children to become fully trained secret agents. They have one huge advantage which is that a terrorist doesn’t let strangers into their house in case they are undercover police or intelligence agents but will let children and their friends run all over the place. However, the terrorist doesn’t know one of these kids bugged their entire home and copied each and every computer file. In this thrilling and exciting book a MI5 operation goes terribly wrong and unfortunately James Adams, our 15-year-old hero and a well respected CHERUB agent, is in the thick of it. Meanwhile his sister Lauren, another agent, encounters her first solo mission which involves the sex trade, slavery and kidnapping. When James does finally get home he faces doubt, fear and hope for the only one who can keep James at CHERUB. It is the best book I have ever read because you can really believe you are there sharing the highs, the lows and especially the bullets flying past your head!

Chris Hills

The Machine Gunners

Robert Westall, Macmillan, 978 0 330 39785 8, £4.99 pbk

Chas McGill has the second best collection of wartime souvenirs in Garmouth but he wants to be the best! The book is set in Britain in the war and Chas collects pieces from planes or bullets or anything he can find to try to beat Boddser’s collection. Boddser Brown is the school bully who soon gets put in his place by Chas, though Boddser is much larger and stronger. When a German bomber crashes in the woods, he heads straight for it. With the pilot dead inside, Chas takes the shiny, black machine gun off the plane! He hides it for a while before the police come round houses looking for it. He takes it to his friend’s house where they build a secret hideout. The small town of Garmouth is near the city and raids come extremely close, often hitting Garmouth landmarks. Chas and his mates soon learn how to use the machine gun and take an interest in shooting down planes in the night-time air raids. When Nicky’s house gets bombed and Clogger leaves home, they live in the hideout which is found one day by Rudi, a German soldier. I enjoyed this book because it shows what kids did in the war and how they felt. It is well written and I can clearly picture all the characters.

James Miley

Wolf Brother

Michelle Paver, Orion, 978 1 84255 131 8, £6.99 pbk

Wolf Brother is first in a series called ‘Chronicles of Ancient Darkness’. It is about a boy called Torak, set in a world before ours where people lived in harmony with the animals. It starts with Torak’s father getting killed by a demon bear. Torak, now an outcast, has to travel alone far away to the Mountain of the World Spirit – which no one has ever found. He meets his guide, an orphaned wolf cub, which Torak can talk to. They meet the Raven clan and have to find three very special items before finally getting to the mountain. But Torak finds it hard doing what has to be done. Torak is a boy you can relate to, so you feel for him in times of trouble. Wolf Brother is an excellent book that carries you back thousands of years to a world steeped in natural magic and elemental terror, a world in which trusting a friend means risking your life.

Joel Daramola

Holes

Louis Sachar, Bloomsbury, 978 0 7475 4459 3, £6.99 pbk

Stanley is falsely accused of stealing the shoes of Clyde Livingston, a famous baseball player, and has to go to a prison camp where they dig holes. But not everything goes to plan at Camp Green Lake. Stanley Yelnats is the main character of the story. He is an overweight, miserable lad whose life begins to turn around, just like his name. Zero, another character, is an unfortunate boy with no relatives and he can’t read or write. He is the key to the story as he forces a dramatic move by Stanley. One of my favourite moments is when Stanley is accused of stealing sunflower seeds from a cruel member of staff, Mr. Sir, who brings him to the Warden’s Office. It doesn’t quite go the way Mr. Sir hopes it will and we learn how evil the Warden can be. I think Holes is a good book with great subplots happening in the background.
Sam Day