Good Reads: Maidenhill School
Chosen by Year 7 to Year 11 (11-15 year-old) pupils from Maidenhill School, Gloucestershire. Thanks to Vicki Walker, Librarian.
Monstrous Regiment
Terry Pratchett, Corgi, 0 552 14941 1, £6.99 pbk
The inhabitants of Terry Pratchett’s famous Discworld learn that girls are just as good as boys. Oliver Perks sets out to enlist into the army to find his brother. There is only one problem – Oliver Perks is really Polly Perks! She knows what she needs to do to be like a boy – learn to belch in public and walk like an ape. On her quest she is joined by a troll, an Igor and a vampire with a lust for coffee.
The book is filled with twists and turns as you follow the journey of the monstrous regiment. I thought that it was a great book to read as Terry Pratchett’s unique writing skills send the reader to another world filled with comic delights. In this book he includes one of the Discworld’s most famous characters: His Grace, the Duke of Ankh-Morpork, Commander of the Watch (City Police), Sir Samuel ‘The Butcher’ Vimes. I would recommend this book for people 13-60 years old. I loved it and I am sure that others will too.
Kathryn Gribble, Year 11
Picture Perfect
Cameron Dokey, Simon & Schuster, 1 416901 25 6, £5.99 pbk
Picture Perfect is an amazing book. It is one of the ‘Charmed’ series. It is about three witches whose names are Piper, Phoebe and Paige Halliwell and together they are the strongest witches ever. As Phoebe is an advice columnist, she and Paige attend the reopening of the Mural House in San-Francisco, an ancient building from the 1920s. At the party they meet a lady called Lucile Marshall, whose mother, Isabella, had her own studio as she was the owner and an artist. She had a boyfriend called William Lancaster, who wanted to control her (literally). So he got his best friend Donovan Hawthorne to use dark magic on her. However, Lucile and her friend find out about it and decide to fight back by using white magic to banish him to a self-portrait of himself. When the painting is uncovered at the party, before Lucile passes out she says, ‘The evil is released’. I recommend this book to anyone who likes magical fantasy.
Oliver Davis, Year 7
Bloodline
Kevin Brooks, Barrington Stoke, 1 84299 202 3, £4.99 pbk
Bloodline is an excellent book. Its main character is Finbar. He is in his house with his dad, his granddad and his great granddad. They are watching the horse races on the TV when they hear the door shut and then lock. It is a girl with a motorbike helmet on and a rucksack on her back. They hear footsteps getting closer and closer until she comes into the front room and pulls out a gun. They all look at her. She holds them hostage for hours until great granddad says he needs the toilet. Granddad says he will take him. She says, ‘OK, but no funny business,’ and lets them go. She takes off her helmet and starts to talk. Then suddenly granddad appears in the doorway holding an old army pistol – they are both aiming the guns at each other’s heads. Then the cops ring and say, ‘Give up! You are surrounded.’ She tells them she’s got money in her bag and if they get her out she’ll give them a third of the money. Will they agree? To find out what happens, read the book.
Mitch Moore, Year 8
Watership Down
Richard Adams, Puffin, 0 14 030601 3, £5.99 pbk
Sandleford Warren was in a bad way. Fiver felt sure of it, so did his brother Hazel, for Fiver’s sixth sense was never wrong. So Hazel and his brother Fiver set out with a band of rabbits to search for a new home to satisfy their needs.
On their journey they encounter all types of dangers as they travel to the big hills of Watership Down. During the adventure Hazel and Fiver and the rest of the bucks discover the biggest problem yet – they have no does! With the help of their foreign bird friend, Kehaar, they free some farm rabbits to go to the new warren with them.
We enjoyed the descriptive detail in the book and the author’s way with words. Exciting events happen throughout and you can’t wait to see what happens next. We were tempted to skip ahead but you need to read the build-up to get the full picture. This is a long book but that’s good because you really feel as if you are living it. It gives you interesting facts about rabbits, too.
Carys Hellewell and Tom Ind, Year 7
