Book Reviews

Waterstones Synopsis:

During her lonely childhood in Shanghai, Adeline Yen Mah wrote adventure stories to escape from her terrible step-mother and cruel siblings. The characters she created often became more real to her than her own family. In Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society, Adeline tells the story of Chinese Cinderella, a young girl who, after being thrown out of her home, has no choice but to go out and seek her own destiny. Soon she meets up with a group of children, all orphaned but each from a different background, who live with an old lady called Grandma Wu. Chinese Cinderella, or CC for short, decides her future after consulting an ancient book which helps to show her the way forward. And her choice takes her on a mission to save the lives of others. Based on a true-life incident during World War II. CC and the others bravely rescue a group of American pilots whose plane crashed after a bombing raid on Japan. Although her father is looking for her, CC knows that she can never go back to live with her cruel stepmother, and now there is no turning back.

This book follows CC, a girl whose step-mother makes her life miserable and whose father never seems happy. She frequently finds comfort in visiting Big Aunt, but she has to return to her home to care for a sick elderly lady. CC is lost, and by chance stumbles upon a circus act. One of the performers hands her his business card and the following day she seeks this group out. What she finds is The Secret Dragon Society – masters of kung fu and lending a helping hand. With intense lessons and training, CC is about to enter a whole new world: one where she ends up helping American soldiers hide from the Japanese.

This is a children’s book, but I enjoyed reading it. It didn’t take long to end and the story was engaging. I liked CC and her perseverance, and I liked Grandma Wu. She was wise, but comforting and loving. The family she had formed from the orphans was lovely to read about.

This is a book full of imagination and action. The description of the kung fu is wonderful, and just reading it I was left in awe. It seems to take such talent and Yen Mah caught the essence well. I liked that she explored how kung fu was more than fighting, and looked at the mental aspects of the skill as well.

It seemed that a lot of research went into this book. There are fairly long sections explaining things such as Buddhism, and the how The Society functions and makes decisions.  These were important to the book but I did sometimes feel a bit bored reading them after a while. I thought they were perhaps a bit too long-winded.

Overall, this is not a bad read. Even though it is a children’s book I think adults will enjoy it too. There is adventure and action in this book, as well as family love and friendship. It was not a hard read and I enjoyed it.

3/5

Waterstone’s Synopsis:

The most loved of all the Chronicles, this wonderful tale can be enjoyed again and again. Lucy steps into the Professor’s wardrobe but steps out again into a snowy forest. She’s stumbled upon the magical world of Narnia, land of unicorns, centaurs, fauns! and the wicked White Witch, who terrorises all. Lucy soon realises that Narnia, and in particular Aslan, the great Lion, needs her help if the country’s creatures are ever going to be free again.

This is the second book in the Narnia series, and my personal favourite. This is the first time the children: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy enter Narnia. Awaiting them are many adventures, including running through the countryside with the Beavers, and fighting alongside Aslan.

I loved this book. It is a children’s book but fully enjoyable for an adult. Lewis is a wonderful writer. He pulled me in and made me want to follow the story. It did not matter that I already knew this story, it was fun to read it again. Lewis is descriptive and writes wonderful adventures and amazing characters.

It is hard to pick a favourite character. I think the Beavers probably win. I found it highly amusing that Mrs. Beaver wanted to take things like a portable oven with her as she fled from the White Witch. On the other side, I really didn’t like the White Witch. She was rude, short-tempered and deceptive. I loved that Lewis wrote her so well that I had such strong feelings towards her.

It is clear that this book is based on Christianity and the Resurrection of Christ, but this did not spoil the book for me and I thought that Aslan was a great character.

Even for adults, this is an amazing story. For children, I think they will love it.

5/5

Amazon synopsis:

The Wonderful Adventure of Uncle Wizard is a fun-packed adventure story for children under the age of 10. It features over 40 fantastic illustrations of Uncle Wizard’s adventures, from mixing spells in his wigwam in Happy Apple Lane, to facing the Thunder Troll in the Land of Forever.

Uncle Wizard is the not the greatest wizard in the world. In fact, when it comes to magic it’s fair to say Uncle Wizard has his problems. His spells always go disastrously wrong. He’s turned his television into a penguin, accidentally sucked all the clouds out of the sky with an enchanted vacuum cleaner, and no one has ever quite recovered from his unfortunate ‘turnip’ spell. But, when the most evil wizard to ever live, Grim Wizard, kidnaps all the Great Wizards and captures Wizard HQ, only Uncle Wizard can save the world.

Together with his trusty friend, Bob the Pigeon, Uncle Wizard sets off to the Land of Forever in search of the only spell that can defeat Grim Wizard. There he encounters hoardes of hideously fanged creatures; Water Dragons and the Ghost Giant of Haunted Hill, and a host of magical delights; Moon Camels, the Waddling Rocks of Boom Mountain, and a beautiful witch…

Can Uncle Wizard find the spell to defeat Grim Wizard and save the world? Find out in The Wonderful Adventure of Uncle Wizard.

This is a novel written by Richard Anderson and illustrated by his brother. With over 40 illustrations the book is neatly broken up and being a children’s book this adds to the magic and imagination.

The star of this book is Uncle Wizard – a wizard who is not very good at magic. He reminded me a lot of Rincewind out of the Discworld books. His sidekick is a pie-loving pigeon called Bob. When the Grim Wizard defeats the Great Wizards it is down to Uncle Wizard and Bob to save the day, with the help of the Witch and the Land of Forever.

There are a lot of adventures in this book, which I found a quick and easy read. There is excitement and some amazing characters. Anderson has a wonderful imagination and this is very visible throughout the book. This is a children’s book and that is obvious as you read it, but for those under the age of 7 or 8 I would read it first; I thought there were parts which would scare younger children.

I thought this was well written – descriptive and gripping. The writing is simple and perfect for children. For those of an older age they will love this book. There are some amazing characters in the book, such as the moving rock. There were also some amusing movements, like when Uncle Wizard turned the river into an ice slide and went skating.

I did however find Bob the pigeon irritating. His trademark is his love for pies, but I found that annoying me after a while. That said, this was an alright book and I think children will enjoy it.

7/10

Publisher: Rules Review Publishing Limited

Website: http://www.unclewizard.co.uk/#

RRP: £5.99

This is not a long book, only 160 pages, but it is full of information. The book is presented as a fiction book for children, but every conversation is full of facts. Oliver and Edward have arrived in Brighton on a holiday, and are later joined by their cousin Helen. They go exploring the town and its surroundings and as they embark on their adventure they are full of questions, which conveniently their parents are able to answer. The questions are historical and scientific, and the answers are very detailed.

To be honest, this was not an exciting book. I felt that it was a book for older children but it was so full of facts that I just couldn’t get into the story. I found the children pompous and was mildly annoyed by their parents, who knew everything. It wasn’t realistic, it was just frustrating. However, it will be useful for my dissertation. Aside from that, I didn’t enjoy this book too much.

4/10

Synopsis from Amazon:

Meggie is the daughter of a revered bookbinder called Mo whose peaceful existence is one night shattered by the arrival of Dustfinger–a shadowy man with a mysterious link to Mo’s past. Mo and Meggie are soon on the move, running from something that threatens everything they hold dear. But the past inevitably catches up with them and Mo is forced to reveal to his daughter for the first time his terrible secret. He has the ability, or curse, to breathe life into any story he reads and make the characters come alive. Just such a character, the sinister Capricorn, is after Mo to ensure that he stays alive and is never returned to the pages from which he was sprung. And, of course, he’ll stop at nothing to guarantee success.

This is the first book in the Inkheart trilogy, and enjoyable enough that I will be reading the next in the series. This book was full of adventure and excitement. I love the idea of being able to read characters out of a book, and I enjoyed seeing how the said characters developed in the real world.

This book is classed as young person’s book, but I found it very readable and gripping. Funke writes a great story with twists and turns and some great characters. I loved Meggie’s great aunt best. I would love a book collection as big as hers and she just made me laugh!

I didn’t read this quickly however. I was enjoying the book but it was a slow read. However, that didn’t put me off the story at all. I loved the concept, I loved the quotes from other books at the beginning of each chapter, I loved all the characters – even the ones I didn’t like; this was a good fun read that I think adults should read as well.

8/10

Amazon synopsis:

“To my side, all true Narnians! Would you wait till your new masters have killed you one by one?” A false Aslan is commanding all Narnians to work for the cruel Calormenes and striking terror into every heart. Jill and Eustace find themselves called into Narnia once more, this time to aid King Tirian in the mightiest of all battles This is the seventh adventure in the exciting Chronicles of Narnia.

This is the final book in The Chronicles of Narnia series. All seven books have been full of adventure and excitement, and all of Christian themes. This book fitted well into that. This book is full of deception and battles. This is an exciting book, and both children and adult.

Throughout the whole book there are clear parallels of what is written in Revelation. This didn’t spoil the book for me but it did make the ending more predictable.

There were a few things I didn’t like about this book:

- I didn’t like the ending and how Lewis set it up so no further books could be written

- For once, there were several characters I wasn’t keen on

- I missed Susan – the rest of the children returned to Narnia but she didn’t.

However, this was exciting and fun. I liked the battles and of course Aslan and the return of the children. This is my least favourite book but I did still enjoy it.

7/10

Amazon synopsis:

The Narnia Chronicles, first published in 1950, remain some of the most enduringly popular ever published. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, has been translated into 29 languages! The illustrations in this book have been coloured by the original artist, Pauline Baynes. Now published with the original cover, as designed by Pauline Baynes. “We’ve got to go north,” said Edmund, “and reach the ruins of a giant city.” Prince Rilian, Caspian’s beloved son, has mysteriously disappeared, and Jill and Eustace are brought into Narnia by Aslan, the great Lion, to find him. But an evil enchantress has dire plans for the prince, and for Narnia…This is the sixth adventure in the exciting Chronicles of Narnia.

I enjoyed this book. It is the sixth book in The Chronicles of Narnia series and good fun. We met Eustace in the previous book and he has grown up and is more likable in this adventure. The children are on a mission to find the lost Prince, and as ever C.S. Lewis fills the story with all kinds of excitment and perils, such as the underground world and the giants city.

Even as an adult I enjoyed this book, and the series. They contain everything you could want – a good storyline, likable characters and well written verse. This is a fantasy adventure, and thoroughly worth reading. It is a gripping book, and I wanted to see how Lewis would complete this particular tale.

My favourite character is the Marshwiggle Puddlegum. He made me laugh – especially as he is so negative and yet believed he was the most upbeat of them all!

I would recommend this book to everyone – adults and children alike.

8/10