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...
SHE IS NOT INVISIBLE by Marcus Sedgwick 384 pp. Orion £9.99. (Ages 11 and up) ISBN 9781780621098 Rating: ? Stars How do writers describe the world in the books that you read? Take a look at a book you are reading, or have read recently and find a description of a person, place or thing. I would bet in most cases that the writer notes how things would look if you could be there and see what the writer describes. How often do the books you read have descriptions of the smell, feel, and sound of things? If you can see and have normal vision then imagine if you did not or were even born blind. What would it be like? How would a writer describe the world from the perspective of a person with a visual impairment? Marcus Sedgwick, author of She is Not Invisible, performs several incredible feats of writing. For example, although he is a sighted person himself, he takes on the perspective of not being able to see and instead describes the world t...
