ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell 144 pp. Penguin Group. £8.99. (Ages 13 and up) ISBN 9780141182704 Rating: ? Stars This book is set in a future when animals are much cleverer than now. And because of their cleverness, the pigs started a revolution against the humans. Pigs could speak fluently in English unlike the other animals, and that gave them the power to be leaders. But, the story that follows only happened a few years after that... Their first leader, Old Major, was kind and fair who knew animals should be equal. But when Napoleon became the leader it was very unpleasant. He made a rule that allowed the pigs to have better food and that forced all of the other animals to work crazily hard every day and night. That wasn’t enough, Napoleon wanted more power. He decided to kill his brother, Snowball, so that he would be the only leader. Snowball was admired because he came up with a clever idea to build windmill. Sn...
VIKINGS (BBC FACT FINDER) By Peter Chrisp. 48 pp. BBC Books. Out-of-print. (Ages 8 and up) ISBN 9780563352600 Rating: 4 Stars I read this book to learn about Vikings for school. The Vikings came from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We sometimes call the Vikings "sea raiders". There once was a King called Cnut, who had a long war with England, Then they decided they would have peace. After England's king died Cnut was made King of England. He was a lot like an English king because he was Catholic. I also happened to watch a BBC movie on Vikings. However the movie was wrong because it said the Vikings were the second Europeans to go to North America when they were the first. Buy Vikings (BBC Fact Finder) at amazon.com Buy The Vikings (Factfinders) at amazon.co.uk