Animal Farm By George Orwell

Do you ever stop for a second and think what domestic animals thought of us, human beings, what hatred they had in their mind for us because we kept them and made them work in farms? This book is a fable all about how the animals of Manor Farm stir up a rebellion against humans and capture the farm. It all started with the old pig called Old Major giving everybody an inspirational speech one night on how miserable their lives are at the farm with humans. The major also made a rebellion song called The Beasts of England. After some weeks the Major died, but the rebellion continued quietly with the pigs leading, until one day they put it into action and kicked out the humans. The animals celebrate their victory and change the farm’s name to Animal Farm, and the farm has a happy and successful year ahead with a good harvest with Snowball, the pig, as leader. When Snowball was leader, he wrote the Seven Commandants, he brought such wonderful tactics into action when the owner Mr Jones attacked the farm again, but an evil plot was hatching in the mind of Napoleon, the evil pig. Napoleon trained these nine fierce dogs to send Snowball off the farm for ever. Then the most evil act occurred -- Napoleon held a meeting in which he said whichever animal had to confess something should confess it now. However, Napoleon set the dogs to go off with the heads of whichever animal did confess.

Napoleon also broke the Seven Commandments, but every time he broke a commandant his followers would add an extra word to the Commandments and nobody would notice. Whenever an animal would get old or get ill Napoleon would kill them, for e.g. the devoted and very hard working Boxer (the horse) got ill and Napoleon sent him off to the knacker’s. At the end there was a very shocking surprise (which I am not going to reveal to you).

Review time: the book is pleasant in the first few chapters then goes evil. You get really angry at the last chapters because they’re way too cruel and it’s not happy -- it’s sad stuff. At the end of the day, this book tells you that whoever is in charge ends up behaving like cruel humans. So this is not a great book for small kids, you have to be above 10 to read it, but it is a book with a lot of twist and turns.

When Daddy Was A Little Boy by Alexander Raskin

Alexander Raskin is a very famous Russian author -- these stories were about him when he was small. In the introduction it says that the author used to narrate these stories to his daughter when she was sick. These stories are very interesting, realistic and funny. This book has a collection of stories from when Alexander Raskin was a little boy to when he was a young pioneer. These stories contain everyday scenes of his childhood -- like when Alexander had been elected as his school newspaper Editor or how he started writing poetry, or how he was late for school, or even chopped a snake into eight pieces, etc, etc, etc. These stories are not fantasy stories or fairy stories -- these stories are about Alexander's day to day life like, when he was very late for school and got scoldings from his teachers. This book was given to my Aunt by my Mother and then this book was passed on to Me. This is a very rare book and you will find it very hard to get this book because my Mother bought this in an exhibition of Russian books in 1994 and I think there will be hardly any copies left of the book. This book is my very favorite book, this book has very interesting stories and very delightful ones too. Once you read this book you can form your own book by writing your or your parents stories.

(This book review is also available on the Guardian Children's Book Website at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2011/may/13/review-daddy-little-boy)

The chronicles of Narnia- The last battle

This is the last book in the magical series of Narnia. The heroes Jill and Eustace are thrown by a great jerk into Narnia, but some terrible things have happened in Narnia. The cleverest, ugliest and the most wrinkled ape in Narnia, Shift and the most foolish of creatures, Puzzle the donkey have turned Narnia upside down. They found an old lion skin and Shift told Puzzle to pose as Aslan, the Narnian god and people from Calormen have also come to take over Narnia seeing the opportunity. Shift has told the Calormenes that their god Tash is the same as Aslan. Now it's up to king Tirian (the current king of Narnia) Jill,Eustace, Jewel (the kings horse), Poggin the dwarf and Farsight the eagle. Narnia will come to an end that you would have never thought of before. Now down to the reviews   this book is a must if you are Narnia lover, its so interesting that its not funny. I'm telling you you Got to read this book.

Malgudi Schooldays by R.K. Narayan

Malgudi Schooldays is a book where a boy named Swami, indeed a funny little boy who has 2 friends Rajam and Mani are up to some fun and jokes every now and then. In the start Swami goes to a Christian school where his teacher insults the Hindu religion. So his father sends the head a letter regarding this. Then in the second chapter Mani and Rajam hate each other. Then he tells his grandmother stories about how Rajam did this did that and so on. But his grandmother was slightly deaf so it didn't matter. Then he got kicked out of school when there was a strike because he broke the window of his headmaster's room plus he took part in the strike. So his parents send him to board high school where problems brew up. Meanwhile Rajam starts the Malgudi Cricket Club - in short MCC. Whereas Swami's school had an extra massdrill session everyday. But first time he bowls he gets the name Tate (a great cricket player of those times). But because of the massdrill Swami cannot go for the practice. Then Rajam gets annoyed of this and talks to the headmaster about it but headmaster wont agree so Swami asks his family doctor but that brings him into more trouble - the family doctor instead of helping him he tells the headmaster that Swami has lost his stamina and gets even more mass drill. Then he gets frustrated and throws out his headmaster's stick and gets kicked out. Now I think I have told you a lot I think I should let you read the book. So now to my comments: a very funny book if you want some amazement reading this is required. But I think the author should not have insulted Hinduism. Still the story is said well and funnily - when you read it you can see and feel every word that is written. A truly great story and is a must for every human being.