Student Review: THE THIEF-TAKER"S APPRENTICE

GUEST REVIEWER: FENELLA

Huge thanks to Fenella for reviewing this intriguing crossover novel...

THE THIEF-TAKER"S APPRENTICE was written by Stephen Deas, and would be classified as a fantasy novel. The book is about a boy called Berren who is a thief. One day Berren tries to steal from a thief-taker, which is a person who is paid to find criminals, aka thieves. The thief-taker sees something in Berren and takes him as his apprentice. The book is mainly about Berren learning to become a thief-taker, as he and his master go on an 'adventure'.

I really enjoyed this book, I thought it was written very well and I really enjoyed how the author moved the story along quite quickly.

I would recommend this book for young adults who enjoy fast paced books with lots of action. I would not recommend it for people who enjoy books that are happy and optimistic.

Available October 2010  RRP$22.99

Student Review: THE KEEPERS: MUSEUM OF THIEVES by Lian Tanner

GUEST REVIEWER: TANAYA

This is Tanaya's first review, and she has picked a winner!!! Thank you Tanaya, for taking the time to pen your thoughts.

I really enjoy adventure books, mystery books, and fantasy books. This book: it had all of those.

THE KEEPERS was a fantastic book. It lured me into the story from the beginning. I didn’t want to stop reading it from the moment I read the first page.

The front cover got me started, it looked liked they were on an adventure or trying to uncover a mystery, and that's what keeps me reading a book. The blurb sounded even more exciting, the bit where it says:

Only a thief can find their way through the strange, shifting rooms of the Museum of Dunt...

made me want to read it even more than I first wanted to.

Goldie (main character) runs away from home and ends up at the museum of Dunt. She meets the owners of the museum and learns their ways.

I felt exactly like what Goldie felt, alone, sad, angry, happy, determined, It was like I was there, going through everything Goldie had to go through.

The ending was perfect, it makes me want to read the next book that's coming out in 2011. It doesn’t drop off like other books, it shows that the ‘baddies’ haven’t given up yet.

If I was to rate this book out of 10, I would give it a 9, 1/2.

This is one of my most favourite books I have ever read.

Student Review: WYRMEWEALD: RETURNER'S WEALTH

GUEST REVIEWER: TEGAN M

The amazingly voracious Tegan M has managed to review another title already. Bravo Tegan! And many thanks to you!

I think the only reason I chose to review this book (WYRMWELD by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell) was because of the cover. It had a dragon on the front, and I love reading stories about dragons. The blurb sounded very good, but the first page…ah, it was okay.

BUT, I have encountered heaps of books like this before, where they have a boring first page, but got more and more exciting the further I read. So I thought I would give this one a go.

90 pages in, and it still wasn’t getting better. It was just too wordy for me. It had a lot of description, so I really had to concentrate. A few more pages, and then, suddenly, it got exciting!

It was a mixture of romance, adventure, wyrmes (dragon-like creatures), and a boy called Micah. It was almost like I was standing next to him, watching as whitewrymes flew above us, and carrionwyrmes were picking at dead wyrmekith only a few feet away.

Yes, all the strange names are slightly confusing, but after a while, it all matches, creating an awesome adventure.

And, yeah, it wasn’t one of my most favorite books ever, but I really enjoyed it, and it was worth those boring 90 pages to get to the good bits. 

Anyone who like dragons (wyrmes in this case) adventure, romance, a little (maybe A LOT) of blood and descriptive writing, this is the book for you!

Student Review: THE EYEBALL COLLECTOR F.E. Higgins

GUEST REVIEWER: 
TEGAN M

I, personally, found this book to be very strange. Very strange, but terribly…FANTASTIC! One of the best, no, GREATEST books I have ever read. And believe me, I have read A LOT of books.

This is the kind of book that will keep you awake at night, tossing and turning in bed, until you eventually sneak out of your room, grab a torch, a bar of chocolate, and sit in bed reading word after word, until you fall asleep. Which will probably mean falling asleep just about the time when you should be getting up!

I think the cover may even have dents in it, where I was gripping it so tightly from fear, shock, excitement and curiosity.

The eyeball collector is a story of riddles, murders, butterflies, blackmail, glass eyes and an intelligent boy named Hector. I f you chance upon seeing this book in a bookstore, there is only one simple step you must take: BUY IT!

I certainly recommend this awesome novel to anyone who can read, although a 9+ would be the best!

Many thanks to Tegan for her awesome review. Hopefully it is the first of many!

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Student Review: DARKWATER by Georgia Blain

GUEST REVIEWER:
CHELSEA H

DARKWATER is a novel about a fifteen year old girl named Winter, who lives in a small Sydney town in the 1970’s with her mother Dee, father Tom and brother Joe. When one of Joe’s friends is found dead, the news spreads wide and fast, and soon enough people start pointing fingers. Most of them point to one of Amanda’s school friends, Lyndon. Winter finds herself not wanting to believe that it was Lyndon who murdered Amanda, and soon enough she finds herself caught up in the investigation, entangled in its messy web of lies, deceit and gossip, just as I was before I’d even finished the first chapter.

When I first picked up the novel, DARKWATER, my impression was that it would be a sombre, gruesome murder mystery. But as I turned pages, I found that it was not as morbid as I first thought. Scattered among the rumours and the theories of “whodunit” are anecdotes about life in the 1970’s – Winter’s mother making a stand against development, learning to skateboard, the daily events and activities of Winter and her friends, and even a subplot about a certain boy Winter has her eye on. These provide some relief from the darker side of the book.

The suspense in this novel makes it truly compelling. I found myself turning page after page, dissecting every clue and theory to make my own guess at who had murdered Amanda Clarke, and before I knew it, time had escaped me. The descriptive passages paint vivid images of a sleepy town in the 1970’s, which adds to the effect that you are pulled into the story.

All in all, a very compelling novel which keeps readers turning pages and forming theories, and then leaving them with an unexpected ending when all of the sub-plots intertwine.

SPECIAL EVENT!

RICHARD NEWSOME - winner of the inaugural Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing - will be in Melbourne! And he is putting some time aside to visit us at The Little Bookroom to meet with some of his readers! Hurrah!

Check out his terrific website here.

Friday July 23, 4:30pm
Please rsvp to book your spot: books@littlebookroom.com.au