Shortlisted book reviews
Millions - Frank Cottrell Boyce
Review by Amy, St Ambrose Barlow RC High School
I like the book Millions because it has a really good plot and structure. The plot is good because it involves two children finding a million pounds. I liked this because I would definitely like to find a million pounds, so it made me want to read on to find out what happened.
One of the children, called Damien, would love to donate all of the money to a good cause, whereas his brother is the complete opposite and would like to blow all of his money away on himself and others.
The story twists and turns with unexpected events happening in each chapter and at the ending.
I would recommend this book because it is a good read and is a fairly easy book to read and understand.
I really like this book and I think it would be a deserving winner of the SCBA.
Millions
Review by Patrick, St Ambrose Barlow RC High School
Millions is a marvellous book about two boys called Damian and Anthony whose mother has recently died. Damian is the younger of the two and is obsessed with saints. He builds a hermitage by a railway and is surprised to find a bag containing £229,370, which must be spent within a short number of days as the Euro is about to become the official currency of Great Britain.
The boys have many ideas of what to spend it on. They spend some of it, keeping it secret from their dad. Damian is quite keen to give to charity and when a lady called Dorothy comes into school for a charity called Water Aid, he is only too pleased to casually drop a few thousand pounds into her “talking bin” collection box. She finds out and speaks to Damian’s dad who invites her round to their house. Anthony isn’t pleased as he thinks that nobody could replace his mum, and also that she might want to steal the money. As I do not want to spoil the ending for those who may not have read Millions, I will say no more about the plot.
I thought that Millions was quite a cheerful, delightful book for most older children upwards. It is written in a humourous way from the point of view of the younger child, Damian. I found the fact that it is written in this way interesting. I thought Damian’s interest in saints was good and his imaginary meetings with them comical. I loved the description when Damian lets some pet shop birds free. I could visualise the scene perfectly and found that I had zebra finches swirling round in my head for hours afterwards. I also liked the way they featured at the end.
To conclude, I thought Millions was witty, exciting, cheerful and well written. I think it should feature on everyone’s bookshelf.
The Spook’s Apprentice - Joseph Delaney
Review by Ellen, St Ambrose Barlow RC High School
The Spook’s Apprentice is my favourite book because of the way Joseph Delaney builds the suspense by the words he writes. Basically, the book is about Thomas Ward, the seventh son of a seventh son. All his brothers have been given jobs, but Tom has not. Since he is the seventh son of a seventh son, he has special powers. He can hear things regular people can’t. This means he is brought into the employment of a local spook as an apprentice.
With the spook he learns to conquer ghouls, ghosts and witches, and become a spook himself. He also gets past some difficult obstacles along the way.
This is a thrilling read, suitable to be read after dark! The sequel is The Spook’s Curse, which is in all good book stores. If you don’t believe in ghosts now, you will after you’ve read this.
The spook’s apprentice
Review by Dominic, Year 8, The Swinton High School
In the beginning Joseph sets the scene by telling you that by the time the spook arrives at his destination the light is beginning to fail. The deeper you go into the first chapter the more you begin to understand the seventh son of a seventh son idea. The way Joseph describes the farm and the way Thomas looks with manure rolling down his breeches tells you he gets stuck into the farm perspective of things.
In the end of the first chapter the spook agrees to take him on, which sets you up for the rest of his journey with the spook. The spook makes him dig pits for Boggarts but the biggest test of all is when he faces Madam Malkin and has to destroy her himself. This was one of the very few books that I looked forward to reading. I enjoyed it so much I went and bought the next one, ‘The spook’s curse’.
The spook’s apprentice
Review by Dominic, Year 8, The Swinton High School
In the beginning Joseph sets the scene by telling you that by the time the spook arrives at his destination the light is beginning to fail. The deeper you go into the first chapter the more you begin to understand the seventh son of a seventh son idea. The way Joseph describes the farm and the way Thomas looks with manure rolling down his breeches tells you he gets stuck into the farm perspective of things.
In the end of the first chapter the spook agrees to take him on, which sets you up for the rest of his journey with the spook. The spook makes him dig pits for Boggarts but the biggest test of all is when he faces Madam Malkin and has to destroy her himself. This was one of the very few books that I looked forward to reading. I enjoyed it so much I went and bought the next one, ‘The spook’s curse’.
Review by Amy, St Ambrose Barlow RC High School
The Defender is a book about a teenage boy and his father running away from his father’s past.
Ian Moore was an average 14 year old until he found out about his father’s secret past. Together, boy and father must work together to find a way out of the trouble they find themselves in. But Ian cannot trust his father after all the lies he has told him and he doesn’t understand why they have to run away from two strangers who are following them.
The book is really fast paced and the descriptive language used is really good.
Alan Gibbons is a really good writer and I really like his style of writing when he takes different points of view.
I would recommend this book to teenagers as it is a good read and it has lots of appeal.
The Defender
Review by Tom, Irlam and Cadishead High School
This book is about a boy whose life is turned round when he discovers that his dad is being chased by his old bank-robbing buddies. Aidan has to go on the run with his dad to get away from his father’s evil past.
This is a good book but I didn’t enjoy the fact that on every other chapter it went to the father’s past.
Review by Connor, Year 8, The Swinton High School
I think Scorpia is the best book on the shortlist so far, because it is action-packed. I have only read one Alex Rider book and after reading it I will want to read the rest of them. It was just brilliant! The way the author described parts like,
“the world went from colour to black and white, apart from a few splashes here and there: the bright yellow of a café sign, the blue of a car…and the red of blood.”
There are shocks in the story like his dad working for Scorpia, so he turned on MI6. I’d give the book 9 out of 10, but I would only give the cover 5 out of 10
Scorpia
Review by Jack, St Ambrose Barlow RC High School
Alex Rider is a teen spy who is looking for the truth about his family. He is soon caught up in a big crime corporation called Scorpia where his dad was supposed to have gone to learn how to kill people.
He is sent to kill Miss Jones who works for MI6. However, he joins MI6 to help them destroy Scorpia. He soon finds out that Scorpia is going to kill all the children in London.
There is a big gun fight and a lot of people die.
Scorpia
Review by Jodie, St Ambrose Barlow RC High School
Scorpia is an exciting spy adventure book about a 14 year old MI6 agent called Alex Rider who goes to Venice to find out the truth about his parents’ death. He finds Scorpia, sorts his life out and crushes Mrs. Rothman – literally.
I love Scorpia. It is very well written and has an absolutely spectacular plot and amazing characters. Alex is really cool. I’d love to live a life like a spy but I’m not sure I’d like to get shot by anyone.
This page was last updated on 06 December 2005
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