Life, Love & Literature

Keeper by Mal Peet is a book about a great goal keeper called El Gato who tells us the story of how he came from a poor loggers son to the winner of the world cup and the European cup. It is the first one of the Paul Faustino novels.

In it Gato tells the story of how he was always rubbish at football until he quit at thirteen. When he had quit football he started to go out into the woods to fill his afternoons. One day he meets the mysterious Keeper who starts to teach him football. When Gato is 16 he is really good at being in goal. His father makes him start working at the logging workshop. On Saturdays the logging teams have a football match and Gato is put on the team.

He shows so much skill in the logging team that he is picked up by an official football club called DSJ. After that he is taken by italy where he wins the European Cup. Then he comes into the Final for the world cup and wins. Gato tells Paul to write a book about him and the Keeper.

I really liked this book and what made it even better was that I love playing football and goalie is my favourite position on the field.

I would definetly recomend this for anyone.

A wrinkle in time was written by Madeleine L’engle. It’s about this girl called Meg who has a brother called Charles Wallace and twin brothers. She lives with her mother because her father work for the government and his letters stopped coming. She and Charles and their friend Calvin meet three women called Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which who take them to save their father when they have saved him they have to save Charles Wallace and then they go home and live happily ever afteI really liked this book when I got into it. It was a bit slow starting but before I knew it I had finished the book. I would of put a sad face here but I can’t work out how too.

A wrinkle in time is very good in some places, a bit boring in others and in yet other bits is revoltingly soppy bleeeeeuuuuuuccccchhhhhh. I would definitely reccomend this if you are a girl or boy who likes soppy stuff.

It is mostly set in space but of course it isn’t as good as star wars. Try getting off your computer and sitting down and watching star wars 3 revenge of the sith. You could also watch doctor who series 6 episode 1 the impossible astronaut.

Of course you could read a wrinkle in time I’m not stopping you at all but why not watch star wars instead. or doctor who.

The wreck of the Zanzibar is about this girl called Laura who lives on the island of Scilly. She has always wanted to row in the gig. Her twin brother Billy leaves home to travel the world while Laura stays on Scilly to milk the cows. Laura finds a half dead turtle on the beach and she and her granny May stop the gulls from eating the turtle and send it out to sea.  Then terrible winds hit the island and the cows are killed. The people on Scilly start to starve. Then a wreck happens and when Laura’s father twists his ankle Laura has to row out to rescue the sailors. She finds her brother Billy on the ship and lots of food and stuff. The people of Scilly are happy with food and cows. Billy tells people the ship was called the Zanzibar. Then a turtle washes up. Laura thinks it is her turtle but it is a masthead of the Zanzibar Billy claims the masthead and keeps it calling it Zanzibar.

At the start of the book there wasn’t much going on so I thought it was a bit boring. But as the book got on I really liked it. It was cool. I would definitely recomend this book. I thought it was a good plot and I liked trying to figure out what Zanzibar was towards the start of the book. I liked it when Laura rowed out in the gig and when she and Granny May looked after the turtle.

Goodnight Mister Tom is by Michelle Magorian and is now a major TV adaptation. It is about a boy called Willie who is evacuated from London and is staying with a man called Tom. Then he makes some friends and starts being called Will. Then he goes back to his mother who leaves him to die. Then he goes to a hospital and Tom kidnaps him to stop him from going to a children’s home. Then he goes home. Soon Will’s mum commits suicide and Tom adopts him. Then one of Will’s friends called Zach dies.
 
I like the way the people talk in the book. My favourite bit was when Will was trying to cope with Zach’s death. What I didn’t like was when Will was in hospital. It was a bit scary and Sam thought so too. Sam was afraid of Will’s mum.
 
I reckon the book was brilliant and it was unputdownable. I would definitely recommend it for people from the age of 9 onwards.

 The Throne of Fire is the second book in the Kane chronicles series.  It picks up about 3 months after The Red Pyramid.                                                                                                                    Carter and Sadie are trying to find the book of Ra to summon him and defeat Apothis. Carter finds his girlfriend Zia in a tomb in Egypt and Sadie has the worst birthday ever in London. Meanwhile the House of Life is getting ready to destroy Brooklyn House where all Carter and Sadie’s pupils are hiding. Is Desyjrdin’s advisor Vladamier Menshikov really so friendly. On top of all that some of the gods are trying to stop them awakening Ra. Oh and they only have 5 days to find the three scrolls and awaken Ra. But they can move quicker with some wheels as they travel with Bes the dwarf.

If you liked the Red Pyramid then you’ll love the Throne of Fire.  The book is aimed at children aged 9+.

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

The Red Pyramid is a book by Rick Riordan. It is the first in the Kane chronicles series.

Rick Riordan has also written the Percy Jackson series. The Red Pyramid is aimed for 9-12 year old kids and into the teens.

It is the story of a 12 year old girl called Sadie and a 14 year old boy called Carter. Their lives are pretty normal.

When their mum died when Sadie was 6 and Carter was 8 they were separated and Carter travelled the world with their dad and Sadie was sent to live with their grandparents. They only saw each other twice a year.

One Christmas their lives changed completely. Their dad took them to the British museum and blew up the Rosetta stone.

This was when Carter and Sadie discovered the Egyptian gods were real. Later on they find out that they are hosting Horus and Isis. With their guardian Bast the cat goddess they set of on an adventure to stop Set the chaos god building a red pyramid to destroy North America and to save their dad.

With magicians trying to kill them this is harder than it sounds. When they get to the pyramid they defeat Set but cannot rescue their dad for he is no longer Julius Kane but Osiris.

In the end it turns out that Set was being used by Apothis the enbodiment of chaos. And they open a school for learning the path of the gods.

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

There are not that many books that I can read aloud to the boys and we all equally enjoy but this was one.
Perfect balance of action and adventure for Jack without being too scary for Sam.
One thing I liked is that the book never strays into realms of bad language or ‘adult themes’, which with Jack reading books which are often aimed at kids quite a bit older than him is a constant concern.
No it is not quality literature but it is a thumping good yarn and that is good enough for me.
Oh and it had Egyptian gods what more do you need. In fact it was very well researched and we all learned a lot about Ancient Egypt from it.