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.)

Foundling by D.M Cornish

Written by D.M Cornish this book is one of my favorites, nearly beating the best book I've ever read ("Abhorsen"). It is set in the land known as the Half-Continent, this land is shared by humans and monsters. It begins in a orphanage known as "Madam Opera's Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls" or something along the lines of that, the term "Foundling" in this book means, "also wastrel. Stray people, usually children, found without a home or shelter on the streets of cities or even, amazingly, wandering alone exposed to the wild".

Well it begins at this orphanage where a boy with a girl's name (Rossamund) is left at the orphanage as a baby. Rossamund grows up in this place, unexposed to the world outside his city containing monsters and horrible creatures, but for the first time, he must leave. At a certain age, the children are selected to a career by employers, Rossamund is selected to be a "Lamplighter", a job that involves travelling and being vunerable to monsters in the outside world. He ventures to a city called "High Vesting" where is will recieve instructions, if he ever gets there.

I give this book 4.8 stars, it is awesome! I have never seen an author go to so much trouble over their book. That meaning for "Foundling" was taken from the second half of the book which contains a dictionary for the Half-Continent, it is also complete with nearly 200 pages of maps, diagrams and information about the Half-Continent. I look forward to reading the second book in this series.

Artemis Fowl Book 1 by Eoin Colfer

This book is the first in a best-seller series by Eoin Colfer. It features two different settings and two different characters; Artemis and Holly.

Artemis is only twelve years of age but is already an academic prodigy, producing, using and developing ideas and technology to manipulate ways in the business world to restore his family's fortune which had been lost by his father who went missing on a trip to the artic circle.

Artemis' first idea is to uncover an ancient and secret civilisation known commonly as sprites or fairies, his body guard; Butler is doubtful at this initially and comes to realise there is a civilisation that runs bellow Earth hidden from man-kind for centuries.

Meanwhile, in the spirte civilisation, Holly is the only female officer of the sprite's police, the LEPrecons; hence where the name leprecon started. She is having trouble fitting in with all the male officers of the force yet is keen on her assignments. Holly is the forces best pilot, but on a trip to stonehenge to replenish her magic she is kidnapped by Artemis who has a few theorys of taking advantage of Holly to gain gold.

Together, the two come to realise that they are not so different from one another.

A great childrens fantasy book with a modern twist. Eoin Colfer is a genius, I give it 4 out of 5 stars. This is currently in a series of six.

The Ashleys, Lipgloss Jungle - Melissa De La Cruz

Lipgloss Jungle is not the first in the series. I have never read the first book but I still understood the story.

It is about the three Ashleys, Ashley Spencer (known as Ashley), Ashley Alioto (A.A.) and Ashley Li (Lili). They are the queen bees of the school and all wear the same style of clothes, have bags by the same designer and wear the same shade of pink lipgloss.

I gathered that in the previous book, Lauren Page, whose family had recently gained a lot of money, hatched a plan to join the Ashleys and break them up from the inside.

Everyday, the Ashleys (and Lauren successfully continuing her quest) go to Starbucks and have a Soy Latte each (Ashley’s favourite drink) and then they sit on the bench outside their school and “help the fashionably challenged” (make mean comments about the other girls’ clothes).

Trouble stirs when the mysterious S. Society sit on the bench and the war begins. Ashley is horrified and orders the attack. But maybe A.A. and Lili don’t want to be the same anymore?

Each chapter focuses on a different girl and I liked it because I could see what each of them were thinking and if they were planning anything that they haven't told the others. It also gives all four sides of the story so you can decide who was in the right.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it was fun to read and it was exciting finding out what they were going to plot next. I wish I could read the rest of the series. I would recommend it to girls between the ages of nine and fifteen.

By Zobdy
Age 12

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