HORRIBLE HISTORIES: SAVAGE STONE AGE

THE HORRIBLE HISTORIES: SAVAGE STONE AGE
by Terry Deary
Illustrated by Martin Brown
144 pp. Scholastic. £5.99. (Ages 8 and up)

ISBN
9781407104287

Rating: 5 Stars



    I enjoyed reading this book because it had good illustrations and it was very funny also I learned a lot from reading it. The topic of this book is the Stone Age peoples! And it tells you about their way of life. I liked the illustrations because they look like comic books strips. Also the people in the illustrations act in funny ways.
    This book is written in a special way because most history books just give you the nice facts of history, but this book tells you all the horrible things in history. As a result, this book was scary and happy. So I guess that if you add up scary and happy at the same time that will make the book funny!
    The most interesting fact in the book is that hunters used to keep mammoth brains as souvenirs to show off with the other hunters. I was interested about the Stone Age because that was my topic at school. I want to learn more about this Stone Age topic because I know there are still more things to learn after reading this great book. I give the book 5 out of 5 stars.

THE UNLIKELY ADVENTURES OF MABEL JONES

THE UNLIKELY ADVENTURES OF MABEL JONES
by Will Mabbitt
Illustrated by Ross Collins
304 pp. Puffin. £6.99. (Ages 8 and up)

ISBN
9780141355146

Rating: 5 Stars



    This book is about a girl called Mabel Jones and she gets kidnapped by pirates. Then she becomes a pirate too and Mabel Jones has to help the crew find all the X’s so they can get through the map to the treasure, but along the way there are many ways to die.
    My favorite character is Mabel Jones because she is a tomboy that is very clever and not scared of anything!
    I think this book is special because most pirate books do not have time machines in them but this book does have them.
    I like this book because of what happened when I started reading it. At the time I was reading a boring book and picked up this one instead to try it. This book was so good, it made me never want to stop reading it and I finished it in less than a day even though it is almost 300 pages long!
    I think you should be 6 to 12 years old to read this book. I will give this book 5 out of 5 stars. I hope this author writes more books with the same illustrator.

also on the Guardian Children's Books Site

AMY WILD: AMAZON SUMMER

AMAZON SUMMER
Amy Wild: Book 1
By Helen Skelton.
304 pp. Corgi Childrens. £6.99. (Ages 9 and up)

ISBN
9780552568395

Rating: 5 Stars



      This book starts off with the main character (Amy Wild) being invited to go on a trip to Peru with her Aunt Marg, to help her take photos of all the wildlife and city life. Her aunt is a photographer for magazines. When she arrives there she meets a man called Dudu and his son Juan who are also helping her aunt, and for a few days everything seems to be going well. Their good luck doesn’t last long, though, as after a few days Amy accidentally runs over her aunt with a truck. Terrified that Dudu will kill her, or she’ll be put in jail by the police, she runs away and hides in a boat she finds in the Amazon. The next morning she wakes to find herself deep in the Amazon with Juan purposely driving the boat. Not wanting to turn back, Juan decides to let Amy tag along with him. Sadly, he hasn’t taken her clumsiness into account, and their adventure starts to get crazier and crazier…
      My favourite character has to be Amy as I feel like I can connect with her in many ways. For example, in the book she seems to be a tomboy who would rather be having adventures or playing games and sports rather than just talking and gossiping with her friends. I have to say I agree with her as in school I’ll often get bored of just talking to my friends and go and play football instead. I also feel I can connect with her, as I have actually been to the jungle myself before, so I understand some of the dangers she faced, even though it was probably much safer for me when I went to the jungle.
      The scariest part of this book was probably when Juan’s boat breaks because he and Amy were fighting, and they are left in the middle of the Amazon with no way of transport except their own feet. I found this the scariest part of the book because before it was already scary and they were all alone in the jungle, but at least they had some shelter and some way of transport. When the boat breaks, suddenly everything seems more real and scary than before.
      I think that this book should be read by children eight to fourteen years old who like adventure books, as younger children won’t be able to read it, and older children may find it childish. The majority of this story takes place in the Amazon rainforest in Peru and is set in our time. As it is an exciting adventure story about the rainforest I think this book deserves five out of five stars.
An interview with the author on the Guardian Children's books site