'Waves' by Sharon Dogar

Waves by Sharon Dogar is a great read. It is about a young boy called Hal whose sister Charley is in a coma. It has been a year after Charley's accident and the family are going back to the beach where it all happened. He starts to hear Charley talking to him and sees these visions all the time. She is telling him it was not an accident and that she needs his help. He starts to investigate and finds out more than he can handle of Charley's last summer.

Waves is great. It has a mix of mystery and loss and I found it quite sad at some points. It is a real page turner and I recommend it to anyone who likes mysteries and a challenge.

Chloe Bryce

'Private Peaceful' by Michael Morpurgo

Private Peaceful is a novel written by Michael Morpurgo. It's about two brothers called Tommo and Charlie Peaceful. The novel is based on their whole life together and what they get up to and all the happy and sad events in their life. This story is based on a bit of romance,courage and sadness and they're all shown throughout the novel.

The time and place of the novel is just before World War 1 and during World War 1.

If you like interesting, sad and happy books then you would love this book.

I thought that this book was great because it describes what it was like in the trenches and how sad it was and it's just that type of book that you just can't put down and you want to just read on and find out what happens. I recommend this book to everyone that loves a good read.

By Scott Hallam

To Kill A Mocking Bird By Harper Lee

'To Kill A Mocking Bird' is about a lawyer who is defending a coloured man who has been charged with the rape of a white girl. This story is told through the eyes of the lawyer's daughter called Scout. She and her brother Jem have some weird adventures that they go through throughout the book and all the pieces of the story pile up into one big climax at the end.

The story is very sad because it shows how racist people were years ago and how white and black people were separated from each other and how black people in America were hated and got little choice.

The type of readers that I think should read this book are people that get into books really quickly and if you don't get into books really quickly then you just need to keep reading because the book gets amazing and everybody would like it.

I thought this book was one of the best books I have ever read and it has a very good story line which kept me interested.

By

Scott Hallam

'Lionboy' by Zizou Corder

If you enjoy adventure and fear then Lionboy by Zizou Corder is right up your street. This is the sort of book you would read if you had a free night, due to the fact it is a real page turner. The author captures your imagination by presenting a fearful yet emotional contrast between Charlie and his parents. It is a very enjoyable and fascinating read throughout each chapter.

In a more future world where cars are banned and pollution is out of control, you meet Charlie and his parents. His parents have invented a new formula for helping asthma and someone wants it. His Mother and Father have been unexpectedly kidnapped by agents of the Empire’s Pharmaceutical division and have been betrayed and lied to in order to get this formula.

Charlie who is curious about this matter goes out to rescue his parents, enlisting the help of six trained lions to find and rescue them. Not only is Charlie traveling with cats, he can actually speak fluent cat. He communicates with a group of alley cats from London who send letters from his Mother and Father to Charlie.

The tale kicks off as Charlie stows away on a flamboyant floating circus called the Circe to Paris and then on the Orient Express where he meets the King of Bulgaria as the Orient Express thunders through to Venice. With Charlie's enemy and villain, Rafi Sadler coming after him will it be to late for Charlie and will his Mother and Father’s new remedy be exposed to the world?

Read more to find out what happens next in this trilogy of books. I would rate this book a 10/10.

Euan MacDougall

'The Dare' by John Boyne

The Dare is a great book by John Boyne. The story is told by twelve year old Danny. It is about Danny and his family. It begins when Danny's mother is involved in a terrible accident. The tragic incident changes Danny's life and it doesn't take him long to realize that his family is falling apart.

I found the book quite sad at times as Danny didn't cope with the situation very well and seemed very lonely.

I think John Boyne is a brilliant author and I really enjoyed this book. I would recommend The Dare if you are looking for a quick and easy book to read.

By Rebecca Carey

'Snakehead' by Anthony Horrowitz

This is a really interesting book and one of my favourites. Alex Rider is recruited by the Australian Secret Service and is used to bring down the Snakehead. Alex only takes the job because his godfather Ash will be with him but is Ash all that he seems to be?

I really enjoyed this book even though it is over 400 pages long.

I recommend it for someone who likes either a long tense book or someone who likes Alex Rider.

James Mole

'Jane Eyre' by Jane Austen

This book is very interesting and a good read. I don't recommend it if you want to read something easy but if you are looking for a challenge it will be hard because the language can be quite hard to understand because it is old fashioned and has very small text.

The storyline is exciting and realistic. The book is set in the Victorian era and is based on a girl called Jane Eyre and it tells about her childhood at the boarding school to her working as a governess at Thornfield.

It has a very good twist at the end and was the opposite of how I thought it would end. It was very enjoyable and I think it’s a very good book.

Lara Howitt

'The Hobbit' by J.R.R. Tolkein

I liked reading 'The Hobbit'. It is a good adventure book about a little hobbit, thirteen dwarves and a wizard. They start on an adventure to a far away mountain to try and find the ancent treasure of a very inportant dwarf but on the way they have some unpleasant encounters.

It was a good book and I would rate it 4/5 stars.

Kathryn McArthur S1

'The Seven Professors of the Far North' by John Fardell

The Seven Professors of the Far North is a book that you can stay up all night to read. It is about a rescue mission to rescue a professor and to find out one of the biggest secrets in the world.

It all starts in Russia then the U.K and many other places. They start in Petrøya, Russia and the man known as the traveler takes Zara, Ben, and Sam on the rescue mission to the Arctic Ocean. The traveller has taken them to find out about their great uncle Alexander’s past and what he was hiding in the arctic hut.

They arrive and meet Professor Ampersand who has a design project to get across the Arctic Ocean in a boat/snowmobile/skis. They get there and the Professor is waiting. But he's not the only one that's waiting. This is the thrilling bit of the story. Bad villagers are waiting for the six professors to tell them the big secret. Then the stealth arrives to pick them up but will it be shot down by another aircraft, and will they leave without the secret and the seven Professors of the Far North?

Nicol Robertson

'Divided City' by Theresa Breslin

This book is about two boys called Graham and Joe. They are both from Glasgow in Scotland and are brought up in the times when Catholics and Protestants hated each other.

Graham and Joe both play for Glasgow football club. Graham is a Protestant and Joe is a Catholic. The boys both want to play for Glasgow in a tournament that plays other cities across Britain.

They form a friendship when Graham witnesses a murder attempt on the way back from football training and then calls a ambulance for Kyoul the boy who got stabbed by the attackers. Graham can only trust Joe and tells him everything. Graham and Joe visit kyoul in hospital and deliver letters to his friend Leanne who knows the truth about Kyoul.

The boys start getting into trouble after they find out about Kyoul and have to stay hidden from the police and have to be careful when they visit Kyoul to deliver messages. The boys have to decide what is more important: their friendship or their religion.

This is a book I would recommend if you enjoy dramatic and exciting story lines!

Alexander McCoist

'Kaspar' by Michael Morpurgo

The story is about a cat called Kaspar who had an owner called the countess. The countess is a singer.

One day the countess went to sing at a theatre but she got run over. Now Kaspar’s owner is the bell boy. Kaspar has lots of adventures like on the Titanic. The story is good for all ages and is funny.

Ellie Munro

'Hurricane Gold' by Charlie Higson

Hurricane Gold by Charlie Higson is a very exciting fiction novel. It is about James Bond in his high school years. This book starts off with James having to live with people he doesn't know, but his first meeting with them does not go well. They get caught up in a devastating storm and then end up getting kidnapped by gangsters. They are taken through the Mexican forest and they learn to hate the gang leader, Mrs Glass.

At the end of it all she goes to an island of paradise specifically built for a place where criminals can escape from the police, but for a price. Murderers, burglars and more all live there.

By now, James has already made friends with the people he hated at the start and since they hate Mrs. Glass so much, they chase her to the island which is known as Lagrimas Negras. James and his friends chase her there but since they can't afford the price to stay, they have to work there. Nobody is allowed to leave the island because they could just go home and tell the police about the island and everyone on it. However there is one way out, and James and his friends have to go out this way (which is very dangerous!). Read the book to find out how!

Christopher Scholes

'Hunger' by Michael Grant

Imagine this: Bang, Poof. All of a sudden, your mum who you could hear singing sooo badly, has just stopped. Your dad, who was making you breakfast is nowhere to be seen. Well, this is exactly what happens in Hunger by Michael Grant. There's no parents, almost no food, no law, animals are mutating and children are developing strange powers but worst of all, something is waiting. Waiting deep within an abandoned mine shaft, waiting to be fed. Sam, the elected mayor the FAYZ (the name given to the huge dome that spans 20 miles across the Perdido beach area in California) has to deal with all these problems. But he's against the clock, there's just 106 hours and 29 minutes until Sam's

brother decides to feed the thing deep under the Earth.

Michael Grant was brilliant at building suspense. The story changes between Sam's view and Cain's view and very often when the story changes between Sam and Cain, you are left with a cliff hanger. I would highly recommend this book to all the people who are bored of vampires and secret agents. 10/10.

by Iain Parker

'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson

If you are looking for a really gripping, exciting and mysterious book with challenging language, then Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is the book for you.

The book is set in London in the 1870s, where Dr Henry Jekyll is a respectable man who is caught up in a battle between his ego and his alter ego. Dr Jekyll's ego takes the shape and form of a nice, kind and gentle man during the day, but at night his alter ego takes the shape and form of Mr Edward Hyde.

You will need to read this spine-chilling story to find out what Mr Hyde gets up to whilst being Dr Jekyll's alter ego.

By Ian Keir