Sunday, September 20, 2009

Her Mother’s Face by Roddy Doyle

Her Mother’s Face is Roddy Doyle’s latest book, and it’s quite a serious book about a young girl whose mother died. The girl, named Siobháin can remember her mother’s voice, hands, and everything but her face.

The book, which appears from the start to be amazingly serious, and gets funnier as it goes along, is absolutely hilarious, despite what you might think from a first glance. Roddy Doyle read the whole book from start to finish yesterday, and everyone laughed and some people even cried, along with Siobháin Ellen, and other great characters. I recommend that you go and read this book.

10/10

Sunday, June 21, 2009

WOW! 366 by Various authors

WOW! 366 is a great book to celebrate 2008, the year of reading. Great authors and celebs have contributed to the making of this book such as Charlie Higson (Youngbond), Anne Fine (lots) Gordon Brown (prime minister), Roddy Doyle (The giggler Treatment) Michael Morpurgo (Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea) and even Tom from the band McFly.
Every single story in this is exactly 366 words – that’s a hard thing to do, and there are 366 stories in the book.
It takes a very talented author to write a story in exactly 366 words and to get the stories just right in that much space. It’s great as a story to tread to your children, younger brother/sister, or anyone, if you read two or three a night or open one at random. I’m just going to talk about a few of the stories:
Gordon Brown wrote a bit about his childhood
Philip Ardagh told us how to write stories
Anne Fine wrote about a girl who made a magazine about herself
Brian Sibley cleverly wrote about 366, in a guessing competition
Kjartan Poskitt wrote a small story about music and a coincidence
Eleanor Updale wrote about headlice
Guy Bass wrote about a boy called Jack who nobody believes
Tom from McFly wrote two stories about different things… including crop circles

It’s a really good book, but I didn’t love it so much. I guess I got a bit bored of it.
If you read it, though, you can be in for a rollercoaster ride of surprises, happiness, LOLz, sadness, good stories, and not so good ones.
I’m not sure about this one… guess we’ll have to wait and see.
PS: Yes, 366 words is more that the Twitter 1400 characters.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

If there were an award for the book with a biggest, most excited reaction Skulduggery Pleasant would win it. It’s only been published a while, and all of a sudden, everyone is reading it, there are fansites, Derek Landy’s talks are selling out and Steven Spielberg wants to make a film of it.
It’s about a man. Named Skulduggery Pleasant and a girl name Stephanie (or Valkyrie Cain). It’s a strange storyline, but they need to get a Sceptre, which the Elders think is a fairytale, but Serpine has the Sceptre and getting it off of him is… funny, adventurous, cool, fun, exciting. My opinion is that everyone should read this book.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Triskellion 2: The Burning by Will Peterson

Triskellion 2: The Burning is the second in the Triskellion trilogy by Will Peterson, and it unfortunately didn’t really live up to my hopes. I enjoyed the start of it, but it really got boring around the part that they left with Gabriel.
However, Brian read it before me and he persuaded me that the rest was better, so I did finish it, and I have to say that it was good at the end. Overall, I’d only give it 6/10, but I still will be reading the last in the Trilogy, as I loved the first book.

Monday, May 18, 2009

The Story of... Daniel O'Connel by Ultan Macken

  I looked at this book and wondered who on earth Daniel O’Connell was. A friend of mine picked it up and decided it must have been ‘that singer’. He was, in fact, one of Ireland’s heroes who didn’t get any glory for all his hard work. So I sat down to read this book. The cover didn’t really appeal to me, but I still read it. To be honest, it could be a bit boring. I really liked the bits about Daniel as a child, but after that, it just wasn’t my kind of book. I’m not really a big fan of history books for kids, so that’s only my opinion (I’m not a fan of the mega-popular Horrible Histories by Terry Deary.) This might appeal to some people. For one thing, I liked the storytelling , but felt it might have been better if people had actually talked, instead of a brief description of the scene. I know that we aren’t sure of the exact words that people said, but I wouldn’t have minded as long as it was something similar to what the people actually said. Oisín was going to help with the review of this book, but got to page fifty or something around that and then decided not to. He didn’t like this book. I enjoyed it a bit more. I found it interesting finding out where the weird band name Wolfe Tones came from. I would have liked a book on a different person in Irish history, maybe Arthur Griffith or Eamon de Valera, to name two people. Oisín says it ‘drags on a bit’ and I wouldn’t tell everybody to buy this, but perhaps to get it from a library, so as not to spend your money on it, as I can’t guarantee that most people will like this book. Oisín only gave it 2/10, but I enjoyed it a bit more and would give it something around 4/10. Overall, it’s not the one to go for.

NOTE: Image at the top means that there's no picture of the cover available.

Tír na nÓg: A New Adventure by William Henry

Based on the Irish legend that everybody knows from word-of-mouth or even school, Tír na nÓg: A New Story is about what happened after the legend – hundreds of years afterwards, in Tír na nÓg and our time. I felt at the start of the book that the characters were a bit unrealistic. I didn’t enjoy the book as much at the start, but as I read on, I began to get more in to the story. It began to get more realistic and as I got introduced to the scarier elements of the story, I began to get more excited. I kept saying to myself ‘OK, I’ll just read a little bit more… a little bit more… I might keep reading for a little longer…’ I just didn’t want t put down the book! I got a bit confused when I heard the story of the Janus stone. I didn’t like the description or illustrations of Oisín, as they weren’t how I imagined him, but they did really make him seem like a strong, fierce warrior. I felt very sad towards the end when – well, I don’t want to give away the ending. I really felt the same feelings as the characters. I would rate this book 8¾/10 taking away the 1 ¼ for the beginning, which I didn’t enjoy as much.

The Story of... Michael Collins by Iosold Ni Dheirg

In this new book, and indeed, new series, you get to learn all about the short but fantastic life of the Irish hero Michael Collins. From a disagreement to a treaty to a war, Michael was an amazing man who fought for Ireland and risked his life, if not gave it, for Ireland and her people. Through this book, you can learn not only about Collins but also Eamon de Valera, Arthur Griffith and many more men, women and even children. Collins as a brilliant, strong, brave man who helped make Ireland the wonderful country it is today. This is a brilliant, true tale and I’d advise everybody to read it.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The Spook's Mistake by Joseph Delaney

The Spook’s Mistake by Joseph Delaney came out in May, not really anticipated by many people. It’s funny how the best books aren’t hugely awaited lots of the time. Joseph Delaney wrote the first of the Wardstone Chronicles not really knowing that it was going to be a big thing. It wasn’t. It didn’t sell like crazy, or, as far as I know, go to the New York Times bestsellers list. Why? Because there are tons of books out there and some people are just paying too much attention to Harry Potter and Twilight (nobody here or in the world can get you an advance copy of Breaking Dawn, in case you were just about to ask, which I wouldn’t be surprised if you were.) I’m not anti Harry Potter or Twilight, I just think maybe people are making too much of a fuss. Anyway, The Spook’s Mistake is the newest Wardstone Chronicles book and it’s also by far the best. It’s revealed the truth about Alice Deane, the scenes with the Fiend are really exciting and Grimalkin! Oh my God, Grimalkin is amazing. Bill Arkwright is terrifying and thrilling at the same time and I’d give it 8½/10. There are still lots more questions to be answered though. Was the Grimalkin thing just an act? Was she in contact with Tom’s Mam? Will we ever see Alice again? Had the Fiend surrendered? And what about Tom’s Mam’s visit? Well, I can’t tell you. You’ll just have to wait and see.

NOTE: THIS IS THE FULL VERSION OF THE REVIEW THAT I WROTE FOR THE SUNDAY TRIBUNE LAST SUMMER. I THINK THEY LEFT OUT SOME

Skimming, Edited by Robert Dunbar

This book is basically I collection of stories by Irish authors, put together by Robert Dunbar. For that reason, it's hard to write a review of the book, so I'm writing my review based on how well he put them together, and, to an extent, how good the stories are.
First of all, I love the bit by Robert Dunbar. The way that they're put together is absolutely GENIUS. He got a list of some of the most talented authors in the country (Eoin Colfer, Siobhain Parkinson, Stephanie D Jagg) and he got them to write stories for this book. Then he put them together in a certain order and they're absolutely GREAT.

Ways to Live Forever

Is about Sam, a boy with leukaemia. The chances are that he's going to die, and he starts to write a book about what he wants to do before he dies. Spaceship, scientist, kiss a girl, and more. You'll laugh, cry and more at this brilliant book of the adventures of a remarkably clever and determined young boy, not to mention very brave.

Triskellion by Will Peterson

This is the most amazing book I read this year. Absolutely. Brilliant storytelling, awesome plot, fantastic adventure, realistic characters, a bit of supernatural powers, a weird object, friendly and intimidating characters, and a fantastic ending: these are the ingredients Will Peterson put into Triskellion. And if you're looking for other books by Will Peterson, this is his first book for children but he writes for adults under the name of Mark Billingham (Tom Thorne and more). Someday, a TV show with archaeologists that may or may not be named Chris Dalton, Laura Sullivan and Amanda will find this book and treat it like Shakespeare. They've said that The Wardstone Chronicles, Twilight, Alex Rider and more have all been called the next Harry Potter. So has this book. This is the truest one of all of them. 10/10

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling


The best selling book on record, like the other two or three before it. And I can see why. There aren't any questions apart from minor ones (we all want to if Dobby gets married to Myrtle, I know, but it's totally irrelevant. Through an adventure, a mystery, a comedy, a romance and more, the brilliant scene at the end we've all been waiting for comes - a little thing that  includes a battle at Hogwarts. Will Harry live or die? Well, the answer to that question was just amazing. People wanted Harry to live and Harry to die. Go read this book, as they'll be doing in hundreds upon thousands of years. 10/10

Cool by Michael Morpurgo

Cool!
I'm also not done this, but I'm almost half way through. A light read for, say, a hard day at school, and it can be amazingly funny, an ability Michael Morpurgo doesn't show in his other books. It's a sad story and I'd recommend everyone to get it. 10/10