East Renfrewshire ~ Book Blog

Grogan: Marley A Dog like No Other

Marley: A dog like no other
                                                                    
John Grogan

The book “Marley: A dog like no other” is about a yellow fur ball of a puppy who quickly grows into a large, wild Labrador retriever. Marley always gets into trouble but for the people who love him he is a dog like no other. I found this book very funny but at parts quite sad. I also thought this was a very heart warming story of this loveable and lively dog.

By Laura (St Ninians High School)

Blackman: Knife Edge

Knife Edge
By Malorie Blackman

Knife Edge is the second novel in a series of four written by Malorie Blackman. The book is written in two views at the beginning, Sephy, daughter of the most powerful cross in the country, is an eighteen year old girl who has a baby called Callie Rose. Callie was named after her dead father, Callum, who was a nought and hanged for raping Sephy but actually they were in love. The other view is Jude an angry nought wanting justice between noughts and crosses and determined to murder Sephy and her daughter Callie, his niece, for killing his brother Callum. This book follows the struggles of the two characters and highlights the hard times in their lifes. The book then goes on to the grandmothers and friends view and ends in a cliff hanger where Callie’s life is at stake. I really enjoyed this book and found it very interesting.

By Kathleen (St. Ninians High School)

MacPhail: Nemesis Into the Shadows

Into the Shadows
By Catherine MacPhail

“Nemesis” was a very enjoyable book and it has made me enjoy reading again. The book is about a boy who has no memory and he wakes up in a high flat in the middle of Glasgow. He finds a dying man in the lift and as soon as he steps inside his life changes. As the lift was going the dying man tries to tell him something. His last words are “heartbeat”, “stop” and “four teeth”. As the lift doors open he is met by a girl called Gaby McGurk. She starts screaming as she sees him covered in blood. The boy runs from the flat, only to be followed by a boy called Eddie. He takes him to a boat house. Eddie asked him for his name but he couldn’t remember so he made up the name Ram. The next morning Eddie was gone and Ram was awoken by the smell of burning and he manages to get out and run. He runs to the hills but someone is following him. That person knocked him out stone cold and then trapped him the boot of a car and pushes the car into a reservoir. Ram manages to escape. Meanwhile PC Lewis Ferguson Notices that Gaby recognizes the man in the lift but he can’t get her to say were she had seen him. Ram decides to go and shelter in the near by high school. He is confronted by three thugs who are trying to wreck the school. Ram scares them away though. He then realised that on Monday the school would swarming with people so he decides to hid e in the school loft space. Back at the flats Gaby is speaking to a man who claims to be Ram’s dad. He denies that he is the killer and Gaby believes him. Ram decides to call Gaby and she tells him about his dad. He then follows her and asks her more about his dad. She then puts him up in her auntie Ellen’s flat. That night, Ram hears noises on the landing and sees a dark man standing there with a knife. He then sees PC Lewis Ferguson coming up the stairs. Just as the dark man was about to cut his throat, Ram Jumps out and deflects the blow. They both get away and as Lewis is calling in for back up, Ram starts running again. He passes a nightclub called “Heartbeat”. Ram then sees a poster on the door promoting an underage Valentine disco at Heartbeat on the 14th. It then clicks. The dying man in the lift didn’t say four teeth, he had said fourteenth. But was Ram meant to stop at Heartbeat on the fourteenth? Would he ever find out? And would they ever find the real killer?

I really enjoyed “Nemesis” because at the end of every chapter there was a cliff hanger and even when I thought Ram was now safe he ran into more trouble. The author has also left it open at the end for another book.

By Jack ( St. Ninians High School)

Duncan: I Know What You Did Last Summer

I enjoyed “I know what you did last summer” because it was very interesting and you didn’t know what was goin to happen next.

It was about a group of 4 people Julie, Helen, Barry and Ray who were out on the road driving when they crashed into a young boy on a bike. After they hit him they did not go back to him they drove a few miles away and stopped at a phone box and called the emergency service. A short while after the boy died and they were shocked but made a pact that they wouldn’t go to the police.

A year later they were getting on with their lives, Julie got accepted at a good university and Helen was a channel four girl and was earning buckets of money. Ray and Barry were also doing good….. until they started getting letters through the door from someone who claimed that he or she knew what they did and newspaper clippings of the accident were found on their desks. Someone knew what they had done last summer. Then things got worse…

By Nicola (St Ninians High School)

Forde: Fat Boy Swim

Fatboy swim by Catherine Forde

Fatboy swim was a very enjoyable book about a boy called Jim Kelly who gets bullied very badly by everyone in his school because he is lardy and fat. He has a hard time at the start of the book because every one in the school say things about him and the teachers don’t seem to care very much. The one person who can help him is a priest called Gi Joe who teaches him to swim. He doesn’t know this yet but his dad was a great swimmer and Jim is the same. Jim has one other talent that he doesn’t want anyone to know that is cooking. His cooking skills also help him get a girlfriend who was his first real friend. I really enjoyed fatboy swim because there was always something happening in the novel and at some bits the novel was very exciting. It was a very good book and I would recommend it to anyone.
By Andrew  ( St. Ninians High School)

Zephaniah: Face

”Face“
by Benjamin Zephaniah

”Face“ by Benjamin Zephaniah is an adventure/action. The book is about a teenage boy called Martin Turner and he is the coolest guy in his school. Martin is a leader of a gang and he has the most popular girlfriend. Everything was going great; he was going to parties, hanging out with his friends and going clubbing. However one night after going clubbing Martin was walking down a street with his friend Mark and a car came roaring down. Martin knew the people in it so he and Mark went into the car but they didn’t know it was stolen. As they were racing down the streets they were caught by the police. The police started to chase them but Martin’s friend who was driving really quickly, crashed into another car. Mark broke a rib but Martin was seriously burnt and had to go the hospital. The story carries and it show you how Martin’s life changed on after the crash.
The reason I enjoyed reading this book was it had a very good message. I think Benjamin was trying to show the difference between a fickle friendship and a strong friendship. Martin’s friend always followed him and done stuff with him although after his accident they started to ignore him and they made new friends.
Niall (St. Ninians High School)

Blackman: Double Cross

Double Cross  Malorie Blackman

A book I read recently which I enjoyed was “Double Cross” by Malorie Blackman. Double Cross is the fourth book in the series of “Noughts and Crosses”. I enjoyed this book because it was exciting and there was always something interesting happening.
The main characters in the book are Callie Rose and Tobey. At the end of the third book Callie’s grandmother was killed in a bomb attack at the Isis Hotel and everyone assumes it was a terrorist that did it. Callie is the only one who knows the truth. She made the bomb because she worked for her uncle Jude who was head of the Liberation Militia (A nought terrorist group). She was planning to go to the hotel and set off the bomb but when her grandmother found out she took the bomb instead. The bomb went off and Callie’s grandmother and Uncle Jude were killed.
Double Cross carries on from there and Callie believes her uncle escaped from the Hotel and wasn’t killed. She thinks he will come after her for trying to kill him as the man who was identified was someone called Robert Powers and not Jude McGregor. Later, Callie found out that Robert Powers was an alias he used. Meanwhile, Callie’s boyfriend, Tobey has got involved with Alex McAuley (A drug dealer) and is asked to deliver parcels for him. The parcels contain drugs and when Tobey delivered the wrong one to a customer, McAuley wasn’t happy and tried to shoot him when he was at the park with Callie. Instead of shooting Tobey, McAuley got Callie instead and put her in a coma for a few months. Callie’s mother Sephy blamed Tobey for her daughter getting shot and told him that he couldn’t see her any more. Whilst Callie was in her coma, Tobey said he was going to get whoever was responsible. He spent weeks trying to get information from McAuley and the Dowd’s and when he got what he needed, he made sure that McAuley’s shipments never got delivered to him and tried to put him out of business. When Callie woke up, Tobey was there in the hospital with her but she couldn’t remember what had happened. Tobey eventually got his revenge on McAuley. Callie and him moved on with their lives.
 In conclusion, I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it.
Natalie  ( St. Ninians High School)

Malley: The Declaration

The Declaration

A book I recently read was “The Declaration” written by Gemma Malley. I really enjoyed this book because the author uses great language to describe people’s thoughts and feelings. It also has an interesting storyline and is happy in some places and sad in others.

This book is told in the future and is about a 14 year old girl named Anna who lives in a Surplus hall and is treated terribly. Surpluses are children who are not allowed to be born and live Surplus halls. In this story the Hall is called Grange Hall and the boys and girls are treated very badly, made to work, are fed rarely and are told daily, by their house matron, how useless they are. But for Anna, everything changes one day when a boy named Peter comes to Grange Hall and begins to tell her things about her family and how they want her back. She doesn’t believe him at first because she thinks her parents are criminals and should be in jail but over time she begins to listen to him and learn things about her family that she never knew before.

I would recommend this book because the story line was very gripping and it made me want to keep turning the pages to find out what was going to happen next. I also liked it because when you thought things were going to work out well for Anna, something would come in the way and I made me want to read on.
By Orla  (St. Ninians High School)

Thompson: Creature of the Night

Creature of the Night

Creature of the night by Kate Thompson is a fantasy/thriller. It has twists and turns which you will never suspect. It makes you feel happy, angry and sad. The story is told from a teenage boy called Bobby. His perspective is interesting because he is always getting into trouble and is very self opinionated. In the story Bobby’s mum decides to move to the country-side with half brother. When he’s there strange things start to occur and an unexplained disappearance starts to unravel. I liked this book because each chapter made you want to read on because it left you on cliff-hangers after each chapter.

By Sean  ( St. Ninians High School)

Blackman: Checkmate

Checkmate
By “Malorie Blackman”

I really enjoyed Checkmate by Malorie Blackman. It is the third book in a four book series. I found it very interesting and I couldn’t put it down at some points. It is written in both past and present tense and shows how the past has influenced the present for many people. The story-line follows a young girl called Callie-Rose, the daughter of Sephy, a cross who Callie hates, and Callum, a nought who was hanged before Callie was born. The book starts out in the present, when Callie’s nana Jasmine locks Callie, who has left something important in her nana’s house, and Sephy in a cellar to try and make them sort out their problems…

By Kathleen ( St. Ninians High School)