East Renfrewshire ~ Book Blog

Breslin: The Nostradamus Prophecy

A book which I have recently read and found to be a very interesting and enjoyable book was “The Nostradamus Prophecy” By Theresa Breslin.

The story is about a young girl called Mélisande. She lives in Paris with her father and her older sister Chantelle they live in the court of Catherine de’Medici, Queen Regent of France. Mélisande and her father are both talented musicians, her sister is very good at making dresses. At the start the story is mostly about how Mélisande’s older sister is getting married but on her wedding day she gets killed by her fiancé’s uncle, a man called The Count de Ferignay. He tries to kill Mélisande but does not succeed. Mélisande meets a boy who lives in the castle called Melchior he looks after a leopard called Paladin. He helps her escape where she goes dressed as a servant boy to find the house where Nostradamus lives. When she gets there she is treated like a member if the family and helps in the apothecary shop with a man called Giorgio, who later betrays her in the story. She learns many things from Giorgio and she becomes his assistant. During the story there is parade in the town where Nostradamus lives she has to go and run an errand but when she is going she gets stopped by a man who is a spy for he Duke of Marcy and he tells her to bow down as it is a holy parade she doesn’t and runs into a church where he cannot hurt her the Duke of Marcy tries to, but kills a priest who is trying to protect Mélisande, she runs of and find Giorgio and tells him what happened. She also meets a man called Lord Thierry who she goes to live with after Master Nostradamus dies. He leaves her his last prophecy and tells her that she has to save the King. She cannot go back to Paris as she is still wanted but she marries Lord Thierry but he dies trying to defend his castle and Giorgio helps her escape. They get to Paris and Mélisande finds out that Giorgio is working for Queen Catherine de’Medici. She finds Melchior and he helps her escape but his leopard dies trying to save them from The Count de Ferignay. They escape and she finds her father and King Henri and she must save him from the killing and fighting that is happening in Paris.
Katie McG ( St Ninians High School)

Pullman: Northern lights

A book I recently read and enjoyed was The Northern Lights by Philip Pullman it is the first book in his “Dark Materials Trilogy” it has also been made into a film “The Golden Compass.”

The story is about a young girl called Lyra Belacqua who lived in Jordan Collage in Oxford after she was told her parents were killed in an airship accident. She had lived in Oxford for most of her life and had lots of friends. Then children up and down the country started to disappear then her best friend Roger was kidnapped as well then a woman called Mrs Coulter visited Oxford and asked Lyra if could help her with an expedition to go north. She wanted to and reluctantly the Master agreed to let her go and that night gave her an alethiometer a device like a compass that allowed the user to find out about almost anything they wanted to. This however is just the start of her epic journey north. Along the way she would meet and befriend Gyptians, Armoured Bears, witches and discover the dark secrets of Bolvangar.

Packed with adventure and excitement I would recommend it to almost anyone.

By Colm D (St Ninians High School)

Necropolis

NECROPOLIS
By Anthony Horowitz

Recently, I have read a very enjoyable book called “Necropolis”, which is the fourth book in Anthony Horowitz’s series, The Power of Five.

The book is about a girl called Scarlett Adams, who, at the age of thirteen, is almost killed by a speeding truck, and was saved by a stranger. Two years later, her mother and father have split and she goes on a school trip to Shoreditch while studying the Blitz. On the trip, Scarlett goes through a door in a church and ends up in a completely different place, where monks capture her. She is told by a monk called Father Gregory that she is in Ukraine and that she is in the Monastery of the Cry for Mercy. She is then told that she has lived before as one of Gatekeepers that defeated the devils, known as the Old Ones, ten thousand years ago. She later escapes and manages to go back through the door and back into London, where she has been gone eighteen hours and everyone has gone into a frenzy over her disappearance. Believing herself to have imagined that such a thing happened to her, and realising that no one would believe her, she refuses to tell anyone what happened to her. In Peru, one of other Gatekeepers, Matt Freeman realises who Scarlett really is, one of the old Gatekeepers, Scar, and he and his three companions Richard, Pedro, Jamie and Scott set out to find her. Chaos insures as Scarlett travels to Hong Kong to see her father…and is put in serious danger.

I enjoyed this book as it was very interesting and there was always something exciting happening. Also, it captured a real atmosphere of Hong Kong. It explained its characters in great detail too, but overall, it told a great story.
MARK (St Ninians High School)

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)