The Explorer by Katherine Rundell

The Explorer is a book filled to the brim with intrepid characters, deadly animals of the Amazon rainforest and a lost city in the neverending wild. Fred is on an airplane directed to Manaus, with him are two brazilian looking kids a boy and a girl,  whose names are Max and Lila, and a anxious looking british girl whose name is Con. Everything is quite normal until the airplane crashes in the Amazon rainforest. The only survivors of the crash are the kids, Fred, Max, Lila and Con. They soon realize that they have to work together to survive in the harsh jungle. During their daring  journey through the amazon they discover a cigar box with a mysterious map inside - that's when the journey really starts. So now the intrepid children follow the map in the cigar box to a lost city during their voyage they encounter a baby sloth who is taken care by the animal loving Lila. The kids soon arrive to the lost city marked by the map after weeks of surviving and hard work. There they cross paths with a intruiging man whom they nickname The Explorer. But the kids are not sure he is entirely willing to help…

I loved this book because of the complexity of the characters and the gripping storyline full of courage and nature. My favourite character in the novel is Fred the intelligent and daring young man, who is very fascinated by the explorers of lost cities and archeologists of old civilaizations. I reccomend this book to fans of M.G. Leonard and all books filled with Kid - Power!

Reviewed by Lahiri Paolella (Aged 11)

Happy reading! 

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF The Explorer by Katherine Rundell 

Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov

Death and the Penguin is a cool and quirky book by Ukranian writer Andrey Kurkov. It tells the story of an unsuccessful writer called Viktor who is living in Kiev during the post Soviet turmoil in the early 1990s.

His only companion in the quiet and isolated life that he leads is a penguin called Misha who he adopted when the zoo in Kiev could no longer feed and look after all the animals. Misha is clearly living in the wrong environment for a penguin and is seemingly depressed, but potters quietly around the apartment and provides company for lonely Viktor.

Viktor's life changes however when he is hired by a newspaper to write obituaries. He is given files of famous people who are still alive and his job is to create a bank of work that will be readily available should these people die. He is initially pleased to have regular work and a regular income but things quickly become more sinister when the subjects of his obituaries start dying. Misha the penguin is also dragged into this murky situation when it is requested that he attends (for a fee) the funerals and wakes of those that have died.

The book isn't laugh out loud funny and is better described as black comedy; a slightly exaggerated and comic take on the difficulties of navigating the post Soviet world where all the rules and social cohesion that had previously existed have been swept away. Mafia gangs have infiltrated society and life is cheap but the serious subject matter is dealt with in a charming way through the eyes of Viktor, Misha the penguin and the various people he forms friendships and relationships with during the story.

I really enjoyed reading 'Death and the Penguin' and will definitely be seeking out 'Penguin Lost', which is the sequel to Viktor and Misha's story.

Reviewed by Alison Walker

Happy reading! 

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The Whiz Mob And The Grenadine Kid by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis

'The Whiz Mob And The Grenadine Kid' is an enchanted tale of friendship pickpocketing and intriguing adventures. I read this book in less than 5 days it kept making me turn the page countless times non stop, hanging to every word the book told you. One reason that I loved this book is how the author really describes the setting in the story, in this case Marseille 1961, the pearl of the mediterranean. I also really enjoyed the storyline, with all its twists and turns, pickpocketing and binging (means to steal or pickpocket in whiz Mob slang).

Briefly the storyline is simple but thorough and very catchy, Charlie Fisher is a rich american 12 year old, who meets a pickpocket band called the Whiz Mob. He slowly gets closer and closer to the gang and starts to take part in their pickpocket robberies and routines. At that point his life takes a completely different turn, and more important things are at stake. My favourite character in this book is Charlie due to his courage, love for writing and intelligence. If you love dramatic adventure (and pickpocketing) I highly recommend this book!

 Reviewed by Lahiri Paolella (Aged 11)

 Happy Reading! 

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF The Whiz Mob and Grenadine Kid! 

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent

My Absolute Darling is the story of Turtle Alveston, a 14 year old girl who lives with her father Martin in a run down and isolated house beside the coast in Northern California. Martin is a widow and Turtle's mother is said to have drowned when she was small, but her grandfather also lives in a caravan on the property and she appears to get on well with him.

At the beginning of the book Turtle has no friends and is very rigidly controlled by her father who is a philosophy reading eco-warrior, and a brutal survivalist. He is obsessed with guns and taught Turtle to shoot at the age of 6. Turtle is independent, struggles at school and knows how to survive. However for the reader it is hard to really get to know Turtle because the life she has led has made her silent and insular. She loves her father, seems to accept that she cannot escape but also longs to be free of him. This leads her to push the boundaries he sets which inevitably lays her open to abusive retaliation.

Things change for Turtle when she rescues two boys called Jacob and Brett who are lost on a hike.  They are a funny double act who accept her as she is and manage to penetrate her reserve. For the first time in her life she has friends and it is a massive understatement to say that this situation does not go down at all well with Martin.

When Gabriel Tallent first started writing the book it was meant to be about ecological disaster but although the main subject matter eventually changed dramatically, the book does still retain some wonderful descriptions about the landscape and nature.  Turtle goes hiking through the countryside, goes crabbing with her grandfather, catches eels with Jacob, and catches and eats Scorpions with a little girl called Cayenne who her father brings home one day. Occasionally the descriptions are hard to follow, for example when Jacob and Turtle get caught in some sort of strange tide and nearly drown, but on the whole I really enjoyed this aspect of the book.

Overall though, My Absolute Darling is not an easy book to read.  In fact, I had to mentally prepare myself every time I picked it up. That isn't to say that I didn't like it, although opinions were mixed amongst our book club members, because once I was reading it I was inevitably sucked in to the story. I loved the descriptions of the Californian landscape, and I was very invested in Turtle's story. However, Martin is often extremely abusive and cruel and it can be challenging to read. It was impossible to tell how the book was going to end but it was clear throughout that the story was hurtling towards a shattering conclusion.

Reviewed by Alison Walker

Happy reading! 

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent!