'The Ghost Box' Catherine Fisher By Sawaira Waqas 7PC

My older brother got a book from school called 'the ghost box'. After he had read the whole book, he told me to read it as he said it was really great. I read the blurb first. This gave me an overview of what happens in the story. then after I had read the first two pages, I kept on reading on until the story finished. it was fantastic and I give it a 10/10!
  
 A girl called Sarah lived with her mum alone. Her mum then married a man called Gareth who already had a son called Matt. Sarah did not get well with Matt. But one day, she had a dream of a box. in the dream, she saw that birds flew out of the box and trees grew in the box. When she woke up, she found a box that looked exactly like the box in her dream. It was a silver box but it was locked. Something rattled inside when Sarah shook the box.
   
The next day, Sarah finds a ghost who was killed by a man. He said that his should was locked in the box. 'get me the key.' said the ghost. So Sarah went to the keys' shop and asked the man if he had a key that fitted the silver box. But the man said, 'I believe this box contains great danger. I would not open it if I were you.' But Sarah did not accept. She went home with the silver box, angrily.
      
She tried to find the key for days and for days, ghost annoyed her. Then one day, she got the key but Sarah found Matt and the man from the key's shop in her room. The man said that the ghost was hiding something. The secret was that if Sarah would have opened the box, her soul would have got trapped in the box. Then the ghost told her. But there was one way. If only Matt and Sarah turned the key together to open the box. The man told them this. Matt accepted and so did Sarah. they turned the key together and the box opened.There was an acorn in there. then the ghost vanished saying, 'thank you Sarah!'. And he vanished.
     
Then the man told Sarah to plant the acorn. And Sarah did.

'Are you there God? It's me, Margaret' - Judy Blume by Abbie McNaboe 8SD

Margaret Simon is 12 years old and has just moved to New Jersey from New York.

This is the story of her everyday life - making friends, joining her friends secret gang, going to parties and trying to find a religion because her parents have given her the freedom to choose what religion she wants to be. But Margaret's finding it hard to choose, only when her teacher gives out a project to the class, does Margaret have an excuse to visit temples and try out religions.

But Margaret realises its harder than it seems. This takes her on a journey to find out who she will end up being.

I liked this book because it was easy to read and funny. I would recommend this book to girls ages 10-13.

'Seekers Return to the Wild: River of Lost Bears' Erin Hunter - By Bobbie Lee Gover 8WE

This is a book by Erin Hunter which follows the journey of four bears - Toklo, a grizzly bear, Lusa, a black bear, and Kallik and Yakone, two polar bears. I wanted to read it because I had read the previous books, which I loved.

 

In this book, they have come off the arctic ice, and their journey is apparently over, with Toklo and Lusa looking for their true home with Kallik and Yakone accompaning them on the way - when Toklo and Lusa find their home, Kallik and Yakone will go back to Hudson Bay. They have to face the dangers of the land - cliffs, fierce rivers, territorial bears and most of all, humans.

 

Set in the present, in the forests, Toklo and Lusa are thriving, but Kallik and Yakone are struggling in the unfamiliar territory. They face the danger of a territorial bear named Hakan, who is bullying his sister, Chenoa. Toklo, feeling sorry for Chenoa, convinces her to join them on their journey, and Lusa and Chenoa become close friends. However, Chenoa is later killed when she falls off a waterfall, and Lusa descends into a dark mood. However, Lusa find Chenoa's 'spirit tree'. A spirit tree, to black bears like Lusa, is where the spirit of a bear goes when it dies. But humans cut it down, and put it in the river with other spirit trees. The bears manage to free them, and they continue on their journey. But then Yakone gets critically injured in a human footholder trap when he gets his paw caught. Coyotes begin to track them all, waiting for Yakone to die. They don't bother to attack, and are not afraid of any of them at all. Lusa organizes a plan - Yakone will act dead, and the rest of them will ambush the coyotes. The plan is sucessful - but then coyotes rejoin, with more then before. The bears have to jump onto a train to escape, and Toklo narrowly avoids being killed by the train, leaving the story to be continued in the next book. It is genuinly a story of mixed emotion; the genre is adventure and a bit of fantasy.

 

My favourite part was the coyote ambush. It was very clearly described, describing the difficulty of the fight and the feel of desparation to save Yakone's life.

 

Overall, the best book I have read in a long time. I would reccomend it - but you'd have to start with the first book of the first series to understand it

'Artichoke Hearts' by Sita Brahmachari- Kirsty Smith 8SD

This book is about a girl called Mira Levenson who lives with her mum, dad and her two younger siblings called Krish and Laila. Mira is very shy and when forced to speak in public, her confident best friend Millie Lockheart usually has to jump in and save her. Mira finds it easier to express herself through her artwork, a passion she shares with her grandmother, Josie.

When a literature club is started at school by the quirky, unique Pat Print, Mira's attentions are drawn towards Jide Jackson, a boy she's never really noticed before but soon realises he is a completely different person away from his friends.

Pat Print asks all of the students to write a 'May Day Diary' which is how the rest of the story is told through Mira's eyes. 

The diary starts on Mira's twelfth birthday. However, half way through their family gathering, a man named Moses knocks at the door to deliver a coffin.

The coffin is for Josie, Mira's grandma. She is sadly dying but because she is an artist, wants to paint her own coffin. So, with the help of Mira, one day when the rest of the family is out, they paint it. The rest of the story is about the challenges Mira has to overcome, such as losing her grandma and changing the way she see's other people.

The reason the book is called 'Artichoke hearts' has something to do with a charm Josie gave to Mira on her birthday. It is an artichoke, made up of hundreds of little silver leaves with a dainty red heart in the middle. Josie explains to Mira that we are like artichokes; some people are tough- like the outer leaves- however, some people are sensitive- like the inner leaves, getting smaller and smaller until they reach the heart. 

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne by Lucy Golding 8MA

 I read this book because it made me feel how lucky we are to have a good life and not to be forced to do things like Bruno and his Jewish friend had to do in their life time .

The main character in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is Bruno because he does more things than anyone else .

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is about Bruno being far far away from his three best friends and staying in a place he doesn't like.

This is a very heartbreaking and heart-warming book. This story is set in Auschwitz . 

My favourite part in this book is when Bruno and the Jewish boy make up and stay friends . But it's very sad when they get gassed by the Nazis and the Bruno gets killed by his father's own men.

I never expected this to happen .

My overall feeling about the book is sad but I was happy that they were friends and they took lots of care for each other.

 

I would recommend this book to kids but mostly adults .

Olivia Flies High - Lyn Gardner by Amber Britton 8SD

This book is about a teenager called Olivia she is the main character in this good book. 

Olivia goes to stage school with her younger sister and her friend. Her nan runs the school, while her dad has gone away for a circus trip. Olivia has fallen out with all her friends.

I started this book in December and I still haven’t read it, I’m a really slow reader. It is suitable for ages 9-13.

This book is really good you should try and read it.

'Cookie' by Jacqueline Wilson - Shania Graham- 7MX

This book is about a teenage girl who lives with her mum called Dilly and her dad called Gerry. The girl is called Beauty Cookson and is always getting bullied at her new school. Her worst enemy is called Skye, she has perfect silky and blonde hair and amazing glittery blue eyes and, she calls Beauty Ugly.

Despite being called names at school, Beauty’s dad was always in a rage and got furious if something wasn't perfect! But Beauty’s mum adores her and finds ways to keep her happy. Together they discover a new hobby (baking cookies) and a much better and original nickname is created… Cookie!

After Beauty’s disastrous birthday party, her dad’s temper seemed to be out of hand. So Beauty and her mother packed their bags and start a new life at Rabbit Cove.

I think this book is really good but emotional! The characters have their own ways but can also be loveable. Even Gerry!

'Dear Dylan' by Siobhan Curham - Isabel King

Do you like heart-warming, powerful novels? If you do, then ‘Dear Dylan’ by Siobhan Curham is the one for you.

‘Dear Dylan’ is about a teenage girl who is going through a difficult time in her life.

This book is very different to normal ones. The entire thing is written in e-mail format and I couldn't help being slightly impressed and jealous that Siobhan Curham could still get all the emotions to come through.

Georgie (the main character) is in love with an actor called Dylan Curtland. She tries to contact him via e-mail, but later discovers that is his mum, Nancy who is answering them.

Although the book is all about a background of abuse and violence within a family, Siobhan Curham has managed to show this through a funny and optimistic way.

I would recommend this book to anyone (between the age of 10 and adult) that is searching for a sad, but funny book that makes you cry one minute and burst out laughing the next!

That was my review of ‘Dear Dylan’ by Siobhan Curham. I hope you pick this book up sometime and enjoy it as much as I did.

'Hetty Feather' by Jacqueline Wilson - Georgina Solly 7BY

Recently I have been reading the amazing Hetty Feather by the award winning author: Jacqueline Wilson. It is unlike any other book I have ever read. This heart-breaking story shows you what life was like in the 19^th century: things you didn't even dream about; things you never thought people would do; but yet, it feels like you were there, watching it all happen before your very eyes due to Jacqueline’s amazing skill with words. It is written in the 1^st person and is told by the main character- Hetty Feather.

In the first section it introduces Hetty Feather when she was just a tiny little baby. She is tragically parted from her birth mother and sent to the Foundling Hospital. She gets cared for there (even though it was totally the opposite of caring in my opinion) and then, when she is only a few weeks old, she gets sent to a foster home along with another foundling, a boy named Gideon Smeed.

She meets lots of new people including her foster parents, brothers and sisters. Her foster parents treat her really well but she especially loves Jem, her 10 year-old foster brother. He loves her like she was his real blood sister and teaches her lots of skills she would need later on in life. He was so patient and played her childish games without a protest and also took her to a circus to watch and meet, who she later on thought, was her birth mother. I would've longed for a brother like that if I did not know what was going to happen next.

Unfortunately, as Hetty grew into a feisty 5 year-old, she got closer and closer to going back to the hospital because she still belonged to the hospital.

When the time came she was heartbroken! How does she cope there? Is she treated well? What is like? Well, you’ll just have to read it to find out!

I would definitely recommend this book to readers aged 9+ although my mum read this book and she thoroughly enjoyed. I would give this amazing tale of love, loss and cruelty 10 out of 10 no question about it! What I did not mention is that it is the first book of a trilogy so if you really enjoyed the book look out for the 2^nd Sapphire Battersea and the 3^rd book Emerald Star that has just come out! I can guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

'Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days' by Jeff Kinney - Rian Warnatilake 7BY

'Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days' is a great and humorous book that will make me laugh almost every day.

 

 It has great values to the book like pictures, funny comments from Greg (the main character) and his best mate Rowley. Greg's older brother Rodrick will do anything to ruin Greg's day and it does not go, quite to plan in this version of diary of the wimpy kid. Greg's chance comes up when he gets a dog but when his parents and two brothers take over the dog Greg's chances get narrowed of it being the best summer ever.....

 

This book will blow your mind. READ IT.