Monthly Archives: November 2015

Armada

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Armada by Ernest Cline

Book of the Week: 22 November 2015

Armada

“I was staring out of the classroom window and daydreaming of adventure when I spotted the flying saucer.”

Until this moment, Zachary Ulysses Lightman has led an uneventful existence living with his mother, going to school, working part-time in a gaming outlet and playing hour-after-hour of online games. The sighting of a UFO heralds the news that Earth is being invaded by Europans set on destroying us all. Luckily, the government and military have set up the Earth Defence Alliance and have been training us all in the art of warfare by getting us to play video games and earmarking the most talented so they can recruit them in time of need. At last Zach and his friends, Diehl and Cruz, feel that their hours of online gaming will turn out to be training in an essential and important skill. If this sounds rather like the plot of ‘Ender’s Game’ by Orson Scott Card or the film ‘The Last Starfighter’ you would be right. Ernest Cline is well-aware of the similarities and mentions them more than once. The whole book is packed with references to books, films, games and pop-culture. The explanation for this is that Zach took on many of his father’s interests when he died, but it can slow down the reading if you need to keep stopping to find out what everything means. Alternatively, you could ignore most of them and concentrate on the action.

The book is not as strong as his previous work, the fantastically entertaining ‘Ready Player One’ – a previous Book of the Week which you can read about here but the film rights have already been bought and there are good action sequences.

Like ‘Ready Player One’, ‘Armada’ is an adult book and suitable for older readers.

Book of the Week extra

Song for Ella Grey

Next, a very different book: ‘A Song for Ella Grey’ by David Almond which won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize a few days ago. It is a retelling of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice set in modern-day Tyneside and told in beautiful and poetic language. Read more about it here

Silence is Goldfish

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Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher

Book of the Week: 15 November 2015

Silence is Goldfish

Tess feels betrayed when she accidentally comes across a blog on her dad’s computer revealing that he is not her biological father, and that when she was born he was unsure whether he could love her.  She is what is known as a ‘donor-conceived person’. Why has no-one in her family told her about this, and who is her actual father? Tess is determined to find out. Perhaps he is a stranger, or even one of her favourite teachers at school. This search is made more complicated by the fact that Tess stops talking and becomes an elective mute. She also falls out with her best friend Isobel and is left to negotiate a clique of ‘mean-girl’ classmates all by herself. Her only confidante is Mr Goldfish, a novelty torch, who she feels ‘listens’ to her mixed-up thoughts and feelings of lost identity.

Annabel Pitcher writes in a lively and deceptively effortless style and has created a collection of identifiable and sympathetic characters. If you have enjoyed family stories such as ‘We Are All Made of Molecules’ by Susin Nielsen or Annabel Pitcher’s other books: ‘My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece’ and ‘Ketchup Clouds’, you will almost certainly enjoy this.

Annabel Pitcher’s website is here.

Fuzzy Mud

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Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar

Book of the Week: 8 November 2015

Fuzzy Mud

Fuzzy mud sounds like something that might be fun, like a kind of Play Doh or slime that you played with as a child. Instead, it is a mutated life-threatening substance as Tamaya, Marshall and Chad, the central characters in this story, discover to their cost.

Louis Sachar has created a group of believable and rounded characters and a plot that mixes the everyday with scientific advances that make us think about the wider world. If you would like to read more about this award-winning author and his books, his website is here.

 

Before I Die

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Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Book of the Week: 1 November 2015

Before I die

 

This week’s book has been chosen by Dominic who is a Student Library Assistant. Here is his enthusiastic review:

“This phenomenal piece of genius captures the reader throughout its duration, leaving you wishing the deeply complex characters were real, rather than a bunch of cleverly arranged letters.

The highly descriptive style of writing tells the story of Tessa Scott, who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia four years before the book is set. Constantly experiencing their daughter’s sudden mood swings, Tessa’s father, obsessed with finding a cure, and her mother, divorced from Tessa’s father, are driven insane by Tessa’s unpredictable disposition. Tessa’s only haven is her next door neighbour, Adam, whose mother is stricken by depression after the death of her husband and needs looking after, and Zoey, Tessa’s best friend, a wild and free girl. But she also has a list.

Whilst Tessa’s priorities are focused on completing her list of things to do, this book makes you realise that you don’t need to complete a list to have lived and also makes you feel privileged to be alive.

A few of my favourite quotes include, “A handful of withered apples turn to rust” and “trying to feel its bruised slate colour through my fingers”, for their contradictory descriptions.

I would recommend that this book is read with a roomful of tissues to hand.

In summary, I cannot express this book’s pure ingenuity in words. It is undoubtedly the best book ever written.

Also, if you wish to watch a film version, one has been made under the name of ‘Now is Good’.”

 

 

Librarian’s note: Suitable for older readers due to mature themes of illness and loss.