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...
GODS AND WARRIORS
By Michelle Paver
304 pp. Puffin. £12.99. (Ages 11 and up)
ISBN
9780141343082
Rating: ? Stars
Because I was going to be a young reporter at Michelle Paver's book talk, I thought it would be a good idea to read this book before going. This is a book written for older children, about nine all the way up to thirteen or fourteen years old. Even though this book was specifically written for children, adults can still read it because it has some quite grown up parts.
This book is about a boy called Hylas whose sister and dog get attacked by black warriors. He and his sister escaped but his dog was killed. Even though his sister escaped he still did not know if she lived or not because he went the opposite direction to her. After the black warriors lost him, he immediately set off in search for his sister. While looking for her, he met a dying Keftian who told him that his answers were at the sea. When he arrived at the sea he found a raft and sailed across the sea. While on the sea he befriended a dolphin named Spirit. With the dolphin's help he found an island and on that island he befriended the high priestess's daughter Pirra. Together the three manage to kill the black warrior's leader turning the old leader's nephew (Hylas's best friend) into a leader.
The book talk itself was brilliant, and explained the book and its Bronze Age characters well. I was fascinated to hear about Michelle Paver's research experiences which taught her that dolphins' stomachs feel like marble, and that Bronze Age Greeks used to make purple dye from millions of sea snails. I was very interested to find out that they either ate animal eyes or turned them into glue. And I found it inspiring that she wrote a story when she was five about a mouse goddess.
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