The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

I bought this book for two reasons, firstly; the cover looked awesome, secondly because I had heard several great reviews about it. But plot first, review second.

It begins with some kids who were raised by scientists after being created using 98% human DNA and 2% bird hence, they are pretty much angels. The leader of the gang of angels is called "Maximum" and helps them to escape from the cruel experiments these scientists do to them. The 6 children (Max, Fang, Iggy, Gasman, Nudge and Angel) are in hiding from these scientists for years until one day they are found and they kidnap the youngest, Angel who is just 6 years old. Half the book is about finding and rescuing Angel and the other, I can't tell you.

I enjoyed the plot of the story, it could be a very good book if it was written better. Firstly, the names were terrible or strange apart from Max who I actually thought was a boy until page 50. Also, it seemed to be very repetitive. If I had a nickel for every time the bad guys came and they got away then I would be seriously rich. I usually don't care how many chapters or how long they are but this 450 page book had nearly or more 150 chapters!

It was sort of ridiculous how the author divided the chapters, most of them continued SECONDS after the last one. I was really excited about this book because I loved the cover and heard cool reviews of it, I decided to break the score down to give you an idea:

Plot- 4/5

Addictivness- 3/5

Written- 2/5

Characters- 2/5

Overall: 2.75 stars out of 5.

(I really don't like to give bad reviews but I try to be honest, apologies to James Patterson fans. The plot was good enough to consider reading the next one in the series but it was badly written.)

The Sea-Wreck Stranger by Anna MacKenzie

This book isn't what I considered my kind of genre, but I decided to give it a go and was relatively pleased. So it begins with a young girl named "Nessie" who lives on a remote island who had experienced a terrible past with the ocean involving disease and death, ever since the people have been scared of the sea. Nessie and her brother Ty are both orphans, her mother and father both victims of this disease. They live with their aunt and uncle who aren't very pleasant people and live on a farm similar to our world's; milking, beef etc. One day Nessie and Ty decide to go for a peaceful walk on the beach and find a stranger washed up on the shore, they know that he is not from the island and acknowledge that he will die if they leave him there or tell anyone so they hide him in a cave. For weeks the children feed him and take care of his injured leg and another child their age finds out and pretty much dobs them in. People find out and the island people are worried about what this stranger will bring.

As I said, not my genre but it is a light and interesting read. Suitable for ages 10 and up, I enjoyed the concept but I wasn't too sure about how it was written. Not a very well-known author and I think it is only published in Australia and New Zealand. 3 stars.

Warriors of Ethandun - NM Brown

Warriors of Ethandun

By N.M. Brown

This is a historical adventure fiction story. It’s set in Anglo-Saxon and Viking times. 21^st century children travel back in time and find themselves in a seriously scary adventure!

This story involves magic, war and a bloodthirsty bear. I really enjoyed it but I thought it was too scary sometimes. The adventure was exciting.

The two 21^st century children were my favourite characters. The author described them really well.

I think this book was a bit too old for me because there was so much fighting and the scary bear (don’t cuddle your teddy bear while you’re reading it!) But it was a good book and children aged 13+ will enjoy it.

By M.J.

aged 10

(Hagelrat here. On reflection it possibly was a little old for MJ but I also read some of the book and whilst clearly judgement impaired when it comes to judging age suitability I also thought it was an entertaining fantasy adventure. A sort of updated Narnia. It's part of a series.)