Bruno and Shmuel.

The boy in the striped pyjamas by John Boyne.

This is a very short and easy read, but also a powerful one. It is set in Nazi Germany where Bruno, a young boy, faces many challenges when his family move to live in the country, due to his fathers senior military position working at a concentration camp.

Bruno is oblivious to the horrors going on inside the camp and believes that the camp is just a game. He makes friends with a boy called Shmuel through the fence - the only person he now has as a friend.

This may be a short book but it certainly goes a long way and will leave you thinking even after you finish it. It will give you an idea of what a certain perspective of life was like in Nazi Germany. At least see the movie, which is exceptionally well done (despite the characters English accents). This story has a layered plot and will show you many things.

A life of Adventure.

Foundling, book one of the Monster Blood Tattoo Trilogy by D.M.Cornish.

"Beware the monsters, me boy! Ye've been safe in here all yer life, but out there..."

Rossamünd Bookchild, a foundling from the city of Boschenburg, has lived his entire life at Madam Opera's Estimable Marine Society For Foundling Boys And Girls. He is often bullied for his girlish name and his small size and if it weren't for his dormitory masters Fransitart and Craumpalin, and Verline, a parlour-maid he would be having a horrible time.

Rossamünd dreams of heroism on the vinegar seas, of great battles with slavering sea monsters, of becoming a vinegaroon in the Empire's service. So when he is summoned to begin life as a lamplighter by a leer named Sebastipole he is shocked and disappointed.

A Lamplighters life is a life of adventure he is told, "a life of land-locked boredom" he thinks as he sets out on one of the most dangerous, interesting and certainly exciting journeys of his life.

Foundling contains the beginning of a marvellous world where mechanics are replaced by bio-mechanics and alchemy mystery and monsters abound. Fun and easy to read, I like it.

A World of light.

The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau.

"There it sat, unnoticed, year after year until its time arrived, and the lock clicked quietly open."

The Food shortages are spawning corruption. The coughing sickness is coming in waves, killing many. The generator breaks down often plunging the city into chaos. Worst of all the light bulbs are almost gone.

Darkness is choking the city of light.

Lina sees none of this. She continues her day to day life looking after her little sister Poppy and her slightly senile grandmother and running messages across the city for young and old.
But even she dreams of a taller city, a newer city, a brighter world.

Doon sees it all. He sees the shabby generations old clothing, the food deficit and the general shortness of things. He desperately wants to help Ember and even takes a job in the paperworks to try and help repair the centuries old generator. Sadly he cannot even understand how it works.

Poppy mostly sees things to chew on, but when she finds and chews on some very tough paper (how satisfying) she changes the lives of Lina and Doon and the destiny of Ember itself.

This is an engaging Post-Apocalyptic novel about a city filled with lights but surrounded by darkness. A good read for anyone of high school age or under with a truly imaginative theme.

Concorde.

Wings, the third book of the Nomes by Terry Pratchett.

"you re not suggesting we steal a plane!" " Well it can't be harder than stealing a truck,"


This is the story of Those who went away, Maskilin, Angalo, Gurder and "The Thing".
After their enormous (for Nomes) adventure in truckers Maskilin, Angalo and Gurder leave the quarry.

Gurder is leaving to find "Grandson Richard Arnold, 39" living deity and grandson of his God "Arnold Bros (est 1905)" in the hope that he will refresh his faith and explain the world in terms he can understand.

Angalo is leaving to find "Grandson Richard Arnold, 39" human and grandson of one of the arnold brothers who built the store in 1905, mainly to prove Gurder wrong but also to write his masterpeace "A Scientific Encyclopedia for the Enquiring Young Nome".

Maskilin is leaving because the thing told him to. He is to travel to Florida wherever that is and find a satellite so The Thing can find the ship to take them HOME.

This a good solid book with real people and situations but sadly it is for children, its plot line is a bit to simple for anyone over about 8 years old. However it is a very good bedtime book for the younger ones.

A Bright New Dawn.

Diggers, The second book of The Nomes by Terry Pratchett.

"I said don't press it! Did i say press it? I said don't press it!!"

After the epic journey in Truckers, The Nomes have settled in a quarry and a Bright New Dawn is coming for them all, or is it?

Maskilin has gone on a journey to find Grandson 39 and hasn't come back...

Nisodemus the mad Nome is inciting riots, trying to grab power and throwing doubt...

Dorcas has found a strange monster call Jekub buried in the hill....

The weather is growing cold, puddles are going solid and frozen bits of sky are falling from above.

The Store Nomes are confused and unsure of their new environment.

And the humans are returning...

Can Grimma fight them off?, will Maskilin return alive?

Again this is a good solid story, with nice 3D characters and backgrounds, a very good story for younger readers. I feel a bit sorry for the humans in Diggers, I'm glad I'm not one.

A Journey of sorts.

Truckers, the first book of The Nomes by Terry Pratchett

Most of the things you are hunting are also hunting you...

Maskilin must hunt ferocious beasts, gather enormous amounts of food and perform all the finicky and back breaking maintenance for the 8 very old and cranky people he lives with.
Grimma does the cooking, the cleaning and the reassuring needed in any household/hole in the ground. A journey of sorts.

Maskilin and Grimma are not human, oh sure, they have the right number of legs, arms and heads and the eyes and ears are in approximately the right place, but they look like brick walls on legs. They are so stocky they make Japanese sumo wrestlers look half starved by comparison. As a species the Nomes don't live long, ten years is a long lifetime, but they do live fast, for a Nome one year lasts as long as ten years does to a human.

They are only 4 inches tall...

Truckers tells the story of Maskilin, Grimma and the old people's hardships and their subsequent escape attempt. It also tells the story of The Store.

This is a very nice story, it's plot is good but direct and the characters are believable enough but i'm afraid that it is not a young adult book it is more directed at children.

Bored?

Coraline, the graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman and adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell.

Coraline is an Explorer, she has discovered the hot water tank (in cupboard), she has counted all the windows (21) and all the doors (14) and one more which is bricked up.

Coraline has talked to Mrs Spink and Mrs Forcible about their younger days and she has talked to the old man upstairs about the mice that won't go oompah oompah.

Coriline is bored..........

Coriline goes to look at the bricked door and finds a dark hallway where the bricks should be, she enters....

This book is actually quite scary for a childrens comic but its well drawn with a good plot.

Twilight series.

Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer

Stephanie Meyer wrote the Twilight series, which comprises of 4 books Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.

The series is about the impossible love that forms between the main characters Edward who is a vampire and Isabella who is human and the trials and tribulations that they face to make their love work.

Edward and Bella must face together mad vampires, a vampire cult, werewolfs, shapeshifters and last but not least Edwards own lust for Bella's hot liquid blood. Bella herself must also face the daily traumas faced by all teenage girls in high school, boys, friends and homework.

As a whole the books were good though full of wordy romantic nothings, but to many readers the movie was a disappointment, things happened too quickly and out of sequence, the actors weren't quite right for the parts and the director didn't follow the script closely enough to make the movie good.

Twilight isn't a bad series I certainly liked it, if you liked them you should look out for Midnight Sun (Twilight from Edwards perspective) or her other book The Host.