Boom! by Mark Haddon

Jimbo is a normal kid with normal parents and a normal family. Everything is going just fine, but when Jimbo's sister (Becky) plays a silly prank on Jimbo, he takes it seriously and goes off with his best friend Charlie, spying on teachers! That's when everything goes topsy turvy. When Jimbo and Charlie stick a walkie-talkie under their teacher’s desk, they hear a weird language, which confuses them. They want to investigate further, so they sneak into their teachers’ houses, where they find a weird metal band. Then, one day, while having breakfast at a fast food diner, Jimbo finds a weird man telling him to stop investigating further. If you're a young teenager, would you listen to such a warning? Probably not. It turns violent when 3 men appear on Jimbo's doorstep after the mysterious disappearance of Charlie. Somehow Jimbo and Becky escape and go to the Isle of Skye (this location was on the tin which contained the weird metal band). Here, they see a blue light from a tiny island, and find a kind of portal, through which Jimbo falls into a brand new planet. The weird people live on this planet 'Plonk' and want to abduct humans to restore their race. On the bright side, Jimbo finds Charlie, and now the weird people want them to talk to Earth's authorities about coming to Plonk--otherwise Earth is going Boom! Now it's up to Jimbo and Charlie to stop the Earth from going Boom! This book is good but Mark Haddon should stick to writing books like 'the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time' which I liked much more. Mark Haddon is better off writing those kinds of books; he should not try these alien and sci-fiction books. The book is not THAT interesting.


** This book can be found on the Guardian Children's Books site at http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2011/dec/09/boom-mark-haddon

Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett

One day as Johnny and his friends are walking through the cemetery, Wobbler (Johnny’s friend) challenges Johnny to knock on the tomb of Thomas Bowler. As Johnny knocks, Thomas Bowler opens the door casually and says “Yes?”. Johnny and Mr. Bowler start chatting casually, but Johnny’s friends think that Johnny is mental because Johnny is talking to a closed door of a tomb. Then Johnny realizes that he can see the dead! Most people would think that Johnny was mad but not his friends, his friends decided that no matter what they were going to stick with Johnny. One day as Johnny got a newspaper for his fellow dead friends at the cemetery,(the dead were his friends by now, dead people like William Stickers, Thomas Bowler etc) but after reading the newspaper the dead were furious because the cemetery they were living (dying) in was getting broken down by a company to build a boring office. So now the dead were depending on Johnny and his friends, who create the Blackbury volunteers who speak up against the council, hoping to save the cemetery. Whereas the dead think that the cemetery cannot be saved so they go wandering of into the living world despite warnings from Mr. Grimm the head ghost, he who warns: “If you don’t come back on Judgement Day then you will roam around the world endlessly”. To escape the Judgement Day the ghosts jump from one country to another through phone lines and the night before judgement day lasts longest for the ghosts. Johnny saves the cemetery but all the ghosts have left and when they return the judgement day is over and as an extreme punishment the ghosts fade away. My main comment is that if you are looking for a book with a point then don’t buy this because after saving the cemetery the ghosts just fade away and the cemetery is saved for nothing. This book is not a must, but a book you would read to pass the time the story’s fine--but not a must. But it is as hilarious as nothing I can describe in words , reading this book I was laughing so hard that the house shook. So the book is just a kind of book you would read while going for a picnic reading this to escape supreme boredom.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid 'Dog Days' By Jeff Kinney

Looooooove Wimpy Kid? Then allow me to introduce to you, the almighty ‘Dog Days'. This new book starts from the part where Greg explains how he is an indoors person but eventually ends up in the Country Club with his buddy Rowley. One day, they bring this new girl Trista to the club and Rowley’s dad got pretty steamed up about that situation, so bottom line is, this is how Greg lost his Country Club privileges. Then, Greg has to go back to the town pool. I’ll give you a brief explanation of the area - it is where men shower in the open (pretty traumatic according to Greg) and where Greg tried to get his love Heather Hills (sister of Holly Hills, read: last straw!). So, moving on, the annoying comic ‘little cutie’ is going to send up its last edition and the headlines are that Rodrick has this scary movie called ‘the muddy hand’ which is pretty spooky. This movie ends up making Greg the ultimate scaredy cat; he does such bizarre things that you can’t even think of because of that muddy hand movie. No wonder Greg is wimpy - he goes to the parlour and gossips with the aunties sitting there! Can you believe it?! Greg’s fun-killer mom starts a new club called ‘reading is fun’ and it is so dead boring for Greg (I wonder why he didn’t sleep halfway through?)! Greg continues on his bizarre, turning and twisting adventure, from waterslide parks to beach visits to the ultimate ride that makes you a man called the cranium shaker... but I can’t reveal it all otherwise what’s the fun? I can tell you my views though….. it is absolutely hilarious bluboriously fascinating and all the other words from outer space - this book is excellent, each part of the book is unique in its own way with an as always perfect art! A must read (exceptions are if you are in outer space or mad). The latter part of the book, which I can't reveal because I don't want people dying of laughter, is hilarious. You cannot call yourself a Wimpy Kid fan without reading this! Must read! Must read! Must read!

Trickster: Native American Tales | A graphic collection

Like comics? I think yes. Like moral stories? I think no. This book is full of both. This book is all about animal stories, morals and how certain animals turned from how they once were to how they are in the present. This book is about the best 21 Native American stories, put together in graphics and comical form. Also, in the book, all the stories are not created in the same style of drawing, as the author changes of course, and the drawer or painter changes as well. The drawing styles vary from comical style to detailed paintings. The story ‘Coyote and the Pebbles’ is drawn and painted with every single stroke of the brush or line of the pencil looking absolutely beautiful whereas the ‘Rabbit’s Choctaw Tail Tale’ looks like it’s been taken from the world’s most hilarious children’s comic. My favourite one is how the ‘Alligator Got His Scaly Brown Skin’. It’s about an alligator who has beautiful yellow skin and goes around showing it off to everybody. The animals in the forest decide to teach the alligator a lesson. When the alligator is sleeping the animals set his surroundings on fire and the alligators skin burns and goes brown. This book is excellent for kids above five because it has a little enhanced vocabulary and it teaches you very good values and morals. This book is an absolute cracker.   

The Diary of Amos Lee By Adeline Foo

If you take a look at the front page of the book you will find a ribbon saying if you liked Diary of a Wimpy Kid, you’ll love Amos Lee and that’s exactly what happened. Amos Lee was forced to write a diary by his mother (as usual) but with a twist; Amos Lee has to write his diary in the loo, but that’s fine with Amos. This book revolves around Amos, Amos’s mother’s strange assignments, the prefect bully, his family, his friends and food. Amos’s mother gets strange assignments like going prawn fishing, going to the frog farm etc, but  mostly all assignments are about food, so Amos has a good deal of food to eat. At school Amos has two best friends - Alvin and Anthony, but Amos, Alvin and Anthony (the three A’s) are constantly bullied by the prefect of the school (who by the way is called Michael), later in the book Michael has a leg fracture and doesn’t have any money for the operation, so Amos collects a $100 and gives it to Michael. Amos also likes to go to different places with his grandpa and grandma ( ah Kong and Po-Po). Amos Lee is quite the 2^nd best diary I have read. If you liked Diary of a Wimpy Kid than you’ll like this book as well. There are differences though: I think this is not so much  a diary, it's just stating the events that happened to you, whereas in Dairy of a Wimpy Kid, there are more details about every fact that happened to the main character during the day. Plus, it's not so funny, it's just that the food bits tempt you a lot. I especially like the food parts in this one 'cause they look tasty and if you can’t understand the food you can look up their meanings in the glossary. I think I am going to review the whole series of Diary of Amos Lee. I'd give the book a 2 star rating if I had to.

Diary of a wimpy kid by Jeff Kinney

I just wanted to inform you guys of one thing that by 'diary' I do not mean a diary, it’s just the title, I really mean a journal. This book is about a boy called Greg Heffley stuck in middle school with a bunch of kids like him who haven’t hit their growth spurt yet mixed in with these gorillas who need to shave twice a day. So getting to the point Greg keeps this journal where he writes his everyday experiences, like for instant he says about his first day of school where he says he just comes to the class and sits on some old desk and the next minute you know the teachers saying “I hope you like where you are sitting because these are going to be your permanent places” and you realize you just sat in the middle of a bunch of morons. Just like that Greg says stories about his best friend Rowley and about the nasty cheese that sits in the middle of the basketball court and gives the cheese touch to whoever touches it, he also tells about his dad, his mom, his brothers and irritating neighbour Fregley . My favourite parts are the ones where he gets chased by a gang of teenagers on Halloween night; he even tells about his wrestling unit in school and school play. But the last part is when your heart starts beating when Rowley betrays Greg and steals his ideas and the worst part is when Rowley eats the nasty old______ (it’s gross, I’ll leave it at that). I think this is one of my favourite books, till Christmas - I didn’t even know such a good book existed (Santa put it under my pillow wrapped in a red ribbon). If you are going for a normal, funny book go for this one.