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.

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)