Students from 5e share their readings with you through Book reviews : 

The Dubliners by James Joyce

   “When you think that Dublin had been a capital for thousands of years..it seems strange that no author has given themselves to its’ world.” So said Joyce, and in 1914 The Dubliners, a melancholic collection of short stories set in – where else – 1890’s Dublin were published. Presented to us is a haunting set of tales, set in a world where religious and social mores rule supreme. Every one of them is suffused with a deep, soul-shattering sadness and tension.

  Although they are set over a hundred years ago, the pure emotion encapsulated within these pages allow us to relate to the disturbingly normal characters. No one in this book is a hero. They are simply ordinary people, with vices, loves and dreams like us all. You will hate some and love others, but if ever an author sketched in shades of grey Joyce did; you will find no storybook villains here.

  The most famous of these works is The Dead. The story begins with a tense, uncomfortable Christmas gathering and ends with snow-covered graves. It is annoyingly real; you could be there, sharing in the discomfort of a certain Mr.Conroy. It is not an easy read. My personal favourite A Painful Case, a story of love unrequited and lost, has the most remarkable, poetic ending. The rich vocabulary and tone in all of these mean that you could read them to marvel at the use of language alone.

  This is definitely a book for older and very confident readers; MATURE THEMES, combined with an old-fashioned dialect and a distinct tension make for an Everest of a compilation, but persevere and ye shall be rewarded. For lovers of unflinching realism and true-life tales, who don’t mind surrendering to a book that once read, won’t be forgotten.

by Catherine B., 5e

Students from 3e share their readings with you through book reviews :

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Graceling by Kristin Cashore is a best-selling and award winning fantasy novel. It is set in a fictional world where seven kingdoms are ruled by seven different kings. The genre of this book is action/adventure and fiction with romantic overtones. When exactly the story takes place is not clear but we know that it isn’t set in modern times as there is no mention of technology whatsoever in the story, the kings reside in castles and people travel by horseback.

The main character is Katsa who is the niece of king Randa, the king of the Middluns. She is around eighteen at the start of the story and is secretly the founder of an organisation that saves people from being victimised by the seven kings. Katsa also happens to be one of the rare people in that world that are “graced”. Being “graced” means that you have special abilities in certain domains. For example, you can be a graced swimmer or a graced cook. Most of the graced have mundane abilities, however some have more interesting ones, such as fighting, killing or survival. In this fictional world, the graced belong to the kings and are shunned by everyone else due to fear and suspicion.

Katsa has been orphan from a very young age but the king, her uncle, took her under his wing when he found out about her grace. Soon enough, he starts using her for his dirty work as the court thug because she has been graced in the art of killing.  He uses her as an assassin and doesn't respect her at all, treating her more like his prized hunting dog than a person. As a result, Katsa grows to hate the king and almost everyone at court, not only for the way people treat her but also for the things she is forced to do such as torturing and killing those who cross the king. While she constantly struggles emotionally  and sometimes manages to partially thwart the kings orders, in general she obeys her orders. 

Graceling has all the elements of a great fantasy novel however, the narrative structure and writing often let it down. As a main character, Katsa has surprisingly limited emotional depth. With limited exception, she is either angry, frightened or confused and in general the reader is not always let in on why. For example, during numerous fights where she murders tens of men, something she is supposed to abhor, in the narrative she remains completely calm and at ease. It is also made clear that Katsa is obsessed with not being controlled, “She could never be anyone’s but her own.”, that thought in itself could be understandable if explained, but it is not. She takes it to an extreme when she refuses to be her love interest’s wife, thinking she would be his and he would control her completely. the reader is let puzzled at the rationale for such an extreme decision. In summary, the weak construction of Katsa’s character makes it very hard for the reader to relate or empathise with her.

The author has a tendency to drag on scenes which gets more accentuated as the reader advances. At the start of the book, the reader is pulled through by the introduction of a new world and the concepts that drive the plot. However, as the book advances, the scenes often drag with superfluous description. This combined with the lack of interest in Katsa’s character made page turning more and more difficult.  A good example of this is the treatment of the love interest. For the majority of the novel, Katsa appears to have little interest in Po, who eventually does become her lover. The author does build a sense of  anticipation in the reader. Instead, the plot twist of them coming together comes literally out of the blue and loses effect as a result. Her feelings for him never feel real or justified hence the plot twist feels flat and even slightly irritating.

The idea for this book is incredibly creative, which is no doubt why many people appear to really like it. For me, the only thing that saves this book from being pretty terrible, is a great underlying idea. The great underlying story is hugely let down by a one dimensional protagonist who is difficult to relate to and a slow moving plot that often feels artificial. As the story progresses, many chapters feel pointless and boring and it becomes more of a struggle to not put this book in the bin. In view of these key elements, despite a great idea, I personally would not recommend this book to anyone.

I would give this book 2/5 stars. 

“I couldn't even finish it, that's how bad it was.”

- Allison Linafelter

Angélique, 3e

Students from 5e share their readings with you through book reviews :

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce

The story is set at the end of the 19^th century. Tom Long is a young boy full of life and imagination. His young brother falls sick, diagnosed with measles and Tom is forced to stay with his Aunt Gwen and his uncle Alan because his parents fear he might catch the measles. Tom is reluctant to go, as he was planning on having fun with his brother Peter during the summer. Tom's hope of having fun quickly dies out as he discovers the small flat he has to live in. Not only is the flat small, there is also no garden! Tom is very disappointed and fears that he will spend all the holidays inside, bored with reading girls books that his aunt gives him. However, Tom quickly discovers that every night, as soon as Mrs Bartholomew's clock (the landlady's clock) strikes thirteen, a secret garden appears where Tom spends all of this nights. Tom meets new characters and lives adventures with them. But Tom's imagination is soon put to doubt as he discovers the truth about his secret garden...

My favourite character is Hatty. She is a strange little girl that Tom meets in the secret garden. They become very good friends and meet every night. They both enjoy doing things together such as ice skating during winter for instance. Tom can only see Hatty at night and often wonders during the day what Hatty is doing. I believe that Tom and Hatty secretly love each other.

Hatty is my favourite character because as a girl, I feel I relate to her. Besides, I also like her because she is a magical character who only appears at night, which makes her more fascinating. She is very nice with Tom and wants to know him better.

I enjoyed this book because I was captivated when reading it : I really felt part of the plot and had the feeling I was a character, watching the scene. The descriptions of the secret garden were fascinating and very accurate, which helped me imagine precisely what the garden looked like : “a great lawn where flowerbeds bloomed, a towering fir tree, and thick, beetle-browed yews that humped their shapes down two sides of the lawn”. Besides, the fact that the main characters are approximately my age makes me relate to them. I would recommend this book because it's a very good novel about travelling back in time. It is very nicely written and the magical world described lets imagination soar.

Wilhelmine S., 5^e7

Students from 3e share their readings with you through book reviews :

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

Lyra and Pantalaimon, her daemon, live in a parallel universe from our own. The two places are similar but Lyra's world has subtle differences such as daemons, talking bears, witches, gypsy's and many more.

Daemons are, in this world,very important. They are part of you and takes the shape of an animal that reflects your personality.

After eavesdropping on an important conference held by her uncle, Lord Asriel, Lyra's dream is to go up north and see the northern lights also known as the Aurora Borealis. She also hears them talk about Dust, strange invisible particles that effect adults more than children. She is determined to learn everything about them.

Her wish could become a reality however when children start to disappear, including Lyra's friend Roger, and a very manipulative and pretty woman called Mrs Coulter appears. She will embark Lyra on a dangerous journey that will take her to the northern lights and maybe even beyond.

This is one of the best books I have ever read with an amazing plot  including adventure and mystery with very human like characters.

I really enjoyed it and at no point the story was slow or boring.

My favourite character is the exiled bear king, Iorek Byrnison because he is very fair, strong and wise. An all round awesome character.

Any teenager could read this book because it has a bit of all the genres, with its primary ones being fantasy, adventure and mystery.

I would give this book a 4,5 out of 5 for the amazing plot, interesting characters and an all round great reading.

Liam P., 3^e5

*****

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is a young adult novel published in 1974, which was later adapted into a film in 1988.

The book is written from many different points of view and has many characters, which gets you confused one in a while. The Chocolate War tells the story of Jerry Renault, a freshman at Trinity, an all-boys Catholic high school. As Jerry quickly learns, Trinity is a dangerous place.

Trinity high school has an annual chocolate sale, which consists in giving each student a quota of 25 boxes of chocolates, which they have to sell for one dollar each, but no, this year the quota is 50 boxes each at 2 dollars each. Brother Leon which is in charge of the chocolate sale this year because the school principal is in the hospital, recruits the chocolate sale with the school gang “The Vigils” which is run by Archie Costello. The Vigils give a student in the school (mainly Freshmen) assignment’s which consist in for example unscrewing a classes tables and chairs or things of that type. Jerry Renault, a new freshman at Trinity high school is called in by the Vigils and his assignment is to refuse to sell the chocolates for 10 days. But once Jerry’s assignment is over he continues to refuse the chocolates after the 10^th day, which gets brother Leon very mad and starts to create a massive fight in between the Vigils, the school and Brother Leon because of Jerry’s big rebellion against the “system”.

Jerry has a poster in his locker which says “do I dare disturb the universe?” and I think that this sentence in Jerry’s locker is actually the books theme lets say, because its all about testing boundaries and that is basically what the book is all about. I also think that it’s amazing how they mess & get so violent with Jerry because of some simple “chocolates”.

I found this book really interesting and liked it a lot because it’s the story of teenagers my age and talks about some things we see in our everyday life at school. I really like how the author (Robert Cormier) wrote the book as if he were a middle school student, I think this makes the book much more realistic and entertaining for teenagers to read. I really recommend this book and I give it a 5/5.

“Some reviewers have argued it is one of the best young adult novels of all time”

The New York Times wrote: "The Chocolate War is masterfully structured and rich in theme; the action is well crafted, well timed, suspenseful; complex ideas develop and unfold with clarity."

Children's Book Review Service said: "Robert Cormier has written a brilliant novel."

Bartholome D., 3^e5

Students from collège share their readings with you through book reviews :

I am Malala : the Girl Who Stood Up for an Education
and Was Shot by the Taliban

 

I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb tells the story about a 15 year-old girl called Malala who becomes very outspoken about the rights of girls to have and education. For her to think that makes her a target for the taliban (a religious group that has very different ideas about the roles of women in Pakistan society). On Tuesday October 9 2012 she almost paid the ultimate price she was shot in the head while riding the bus from school, a few expected her to survive. Instead Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I am Malala is a biographie of Malala Yousafzai who is a really courageous girl. I love the fact that she is really involve in social causes even though she is risking her life in the process.

She says in her book that she has learned English by watching Ugly Betty on the television. She is a great role model, reading this book makes us want to do more and help other people. “I told myself, Malala, you have already faced death. This is your second life. Don't be afraid — if you are afraid, you can't move forward.” I found this quote very inspiring as she has faced the worst thing that can happen in your life and she is still not afraid.

I'd say read it !! I was really interested in reading this, I would really recommend reading this book because I found Malala's story very inspiring. I would advise kids not to read this as it may be hard to understand and not very interesting for them but for teenagers and adults this book is perfect I would rate it a 5 out of 5.

by Adelie, 3e5

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon

Christopher is an autistic teenager who hates being confused because all his thoughts can easily mix up. Well, that happens when he finds his neighbour’s dog murdered. Despite his father telling him not to put his nose in others’ problems, 15 year old Christopher will investigate. This search will bring unexpected changes in his life.

In my opinion, the author made Christopher a very rich and interesting character. He is a very clever boy "And I thought about how, for a long time, scientists were puzzled by the fact that the sky is dark at night, even though there are billions of stars in the universe (...) I like this fact.It is something you can work out in your own mind."

For this reason, I got hooked by the story.

This winner of the grand children’s fiction prize books is a perfect choice for children who love mysteries, twisted plots and even intriguing mathematics.

By Adrien, 5e7

Students from 5e share their readings with you through book reviews :

Escape from Shangri-La, by Michael Morpurgo

Genre: War, relationships

When a sudden stranger knocks at Cessie's front door, he announces to her great surprise he's her long lost grandfather. But not long after, the old man has a stroke and struggles to remember his past. With a tin of condensed milk, a boat called the Lucie Alice and a few glimpses of the terrible nights of the II World War, Cessie is doing all she can to help her beloved grand father remind himself of his past and escape from Shangri-La.

A heart-warming and emotional story, very surprising as you think Shangri-La is a paradisiac island somewhere and turns out to be something completely different. I enjoyed the book as it involves World War II on the sea. Beautiful relationship between Cessie and her grandpa, and loved the young girl’s determination to save her grandfather from Shangri-La is remarkable.

By Romane, 5e 10

Source : http://michaelmorpurgo.com/books/escape-from-shangri-la 
Cover design from Escape from Shangri-La by Mickael Morpurgo. Cover design copyright © 2011 Egmont UK Limited. Published by Egmont Limited and used with permission

Inkheart, by Cornelia Funk, translated from German by Anthea Bell

Genre: Fantasy, adventure

Meggie loves books, and her father, Mo, never read aloud to her since her mother disappeared nine years ago. When a man named Dustfinger comes to see Mo, Meggie discovers that her father, mysteriously nicknamed Silvertongue, can, when he reads aloud make characters step out of books. That is what happened the last time he read a book called Inkheart aloud, as three characters appeared, and his wife was gone.

Since then, the characters have been chasing him around, wherever he went…

It is an amazing book, I have read all 3 books (as it is a trilogy) and they leave me breath taken! You feel like you are in the book, with the characters, thanks to all the descriptions. If you like fantasy and adventure books, I highly recommend it for you. 

By Kamilia, 5e

Source : http://www.corneliafunke.com/index.php?page=buecher&lang=en 

A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

Genre: fantasy and travel writing

  

At the age of seven, Ged, nicknamed Sparrohawk, discovers he has magical powers. He is sent to Roke, to study magic. But after a spell that went wrong, he unleashes a creature of darkness, thirsty for blood. He is then hunted by the shadow, from the West Reach to the Lands beyond the Sea.

This book is one of the best fantasy book I’ve ever read. It will grab and surprise you, and you will not be able to stop reading it until you’ve finished it. It finds its place between the classics, like Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings.

By Oscar, 5e 10

Source : http://www.ursulakleguin.com/WizardOfEarthsea.html 

Book Title :   Raven's Gate
Author :        Anthony Horowitz
Genre :          Sci Fi

brilliantly imaginative 

technological spy worlds (Mr Kelly)

Matt has always known he has unusual powers. Raised in foster care, he is sent to Yorkshire on a rehabilitation programme, only to find himself in the midst of sinister goings-on. Matt investigates and uncovers a terrible secret – eight guardians are protecting the world from the Old Ones, beings banished long ago by five children. But devil worshippers want to let the Old Ones back in...