Vicky’s Angel - Jacqueline Wilson

Jade is so used to staying, listening and agreeing with her best friend, Vicky. Suddenly, Vicky meets with a car accident right in front of Jade’s eyes. A lady also sees this and immediately rushes out of the house and calls the police and the ambulance, which came to take Vicky away. Even though the nurse in the ambulance tells Jade not to come in the ambulance, Jade insists on travelling with Vicky. When Vicky was being operated her parents rush in. Vicky’s mother starts blaming and accusing Jade of not stopping Vicky. Jade bursts into tears and Vicky’s father comforts her. Soon the nurse comes out of the operating room announces Vicky’s death.

If you think Vicky is dead, then you are mistaken. She is always full of spirit and doesn’t let being dead stop her from enjoying her life (or death!). She arrives in Ghost form…. But, she is visible only to Jade. Instead of feeling  happy to have her friend back in some form, Jade is miserable because Vicky keeps bossing and meddling with her life.

A book that makes you cry and helps you deal with a close one’s death. Can’t say if I enjoyed reading it !

George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt - Stephen and Lucy Hawking

 

"George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt”  -  Sounds adventurous, doesn’t it?  Well, it is SUPER SCARY, SUPER FUN, SUPER DANGEROUS, AND SUPER ADVENTUROUS!!

George and his best friend Anne, have always had so much fun together.  It is now difficult for them to bear the fact that they won’t be able to meet again as Anne was going to New York forever. 

Her dad Eric, is a cosmologist and they , i.e. he and his team, are working on a Mars project and the head quarters is in New York. They had recently built a robot-Homer. All  the previous robot they sent to Mars had melted within a few minutes. But this robot was special. It looked like an upside down top. “Homer would be looking for water on Mars; using a special scoop at the end of his long robotic arm, he would scrabble through the icy surface of Mars to pick up handfuls of mud, which he would then bake in a special oven.” (p.75) is the description given in the book about Homer.

Now Anne and her family have moved to New York but George can’t visit them as his family can’t afford it. But then he realized that he had a secret weapon – Grandma!  She was the bossiest and most persuasive. Even Ghenghis Khan would start trembling. So George sent an email to his Grandma to which he replied within a few seconds. The email said that she would be at his house in an hour. She came exactly as the seconds hand came to twelve, making George think she waits outside a bit earlier. Somehow she persuades his parents and she also gets the plane tickets for George with her. So off he flies and there he starts his adventure, with of course Anne.

Did you know that it rains on one of the moons of Saturn – Titan but not just any rain, acid rain with acid lakes and acid volcanoes? Do you know what Goldilocks zone is? If not, then this is a must read.

Candyfloss - Jacqueline Wilson

Weekdays with mom and weekends with dad!?! Why can't both of them stay together? What's wrong with dad? What's wrong with mom? IT'S NOT FAIR!!

Flora Barnes AKA Floss, is very sad as her parents separated. Her mum is now with a dude called Steve. She had said that her father does not get proper money by making and selling Chip Butties. But Floss didn't think that an appropriate reason.

Flora faces difficulties with all these things in her mind that she couldn't even pay proper attention in the class. All the numbers and letters kept getting mixed up.

Now her mom is planning a surprise trip to Australia... well not for a holiday. Steve had got a promotion and now is a manager of his company. Only not in England, but in Australia. They were planning to go for 6 months and Floss was very excited. She was keen to go, but she couldn't leave her dad behind as she would miss him very much and also because the cafe was not doing good business.

Flora decides to stay. But is she sure? The rest of the story is about the six months spent at her dad's. It's a very nice book not really emotional but with very funny occasional jokes.

The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin - Idries Shah

Have you heard of Mulla Nasrudin before? He is a very great and wise man. This book contains some of the wise lessons he has taught to people in a jocular form. Here is just a sample of one of his teachings:

"How old are you Mulla?"

MN: 40

"But you said the same last time I asked you two years ago!"

MN: Yes, I always stand by what I have said.


:-) I found the book very funny.

PERCY JACKSON by Rick Riordan

There are seven books in this Greek mythology based series. All the books are un-put-downable.

Broadly the series is about Camp Half-Blood training to fight Kronos.

Camp half-blood is where half-bloods, i.e. half gods and half mortals stay. These people are so because one of their parents is God and the other is a normal mortal. These half-bloods cannot stay in normal places with regular mortals as they attract monsters.

Kronos is the father of three Gods Posieden (God of Sea), Zeus (God of Sky) and Hades (God of the underworld). Kronos had eaten Posieden and Hades but then the mother could stop hime from eating Zeus. Kronos now wants to destroy all the Gods and rule Olympus , the place where all gods live. Kronos is immortal and therefore upon being defeated and killed he takes other forms and reappears.

It’s a fabulous way of learning mythology. Mostly children think mythology is boring, but Rick Riordan makes it really exciting. You will learn about the names and characteristics of different gods, some great stories like that of ‘Achilles’, dangers of underworld, the beauty of friendship and so many other things.

HOW TO BE POPULAR - Meg Cabot

An 11 year old girl accidently spills juice on her best friend who also happened to be the most popular girl in the school. A small incident, which should have been forgiven was made to become a major tragedy in her life. She loses all her friends and becomes the most unpopular girl in the school.

After suffering for 5 years, one day she comes across a book which helps her in becoming popular. The book changes her life.

Dressing well, staying clean, staying fit and healthy, being nice to everyone, being honest, ignoring negativity, learning to laugh at oneself are some of tips presented in the book for becoming popular.

Some weird moments, some funny and some awkward silences. The book has them all.

KANE CHRONICLES by By Rick Riordan

The Kane Chronicles is based on Egyptian mythology and introduces us to various characters.

The entire series of The Kane Chronicles (3 books) revolves around the Kane family who have the blood of pharaohs, the magicians, the sun god ‘Ra’, and the serpant ‘Apophis’.  The Kane family lives in the house of Blood and have several adventures to stop Apophis from eating Ra to fulfill its desire of destroying the world.

I have read all the three books.

THE RED PYRAMID
Two teenagers, Carter and Saddie just find out that they belong to an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh. They go to stop the God of evil, 'Set'. An adventurous journey indeed.
  

THRONE OF FIRE

In this book, the brother sister duo, Carter and Saddie Kane go into ‘Duat’ the place where all immortals live. They have to pass all the twelve stages of one part of the Duat in order to get the sun to rise properly. In the fifth stage they find Ra along with all the old and forgotten gods who need care . They take Ra to the House of Life and they fight with Apophis and his army.

SERPANT SHADOW

Carter and Saddie Kane go on a dangerous adventure involving trapping of Apophis’s shadow in its wax figurine after which they would need to chant a spell properly together in unison with perfect pronunciation. They need to do this to save the world.

The books are very interesting. It is actually a text of the voice recording which Saddie and Carter make at the end of the adventures. The book is hilarious particularly when there are commentaries about the characters especially Walt, Zia, and Anubis.

I now know the names of Egyptian gods and goddesses.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Frank Cottrell Boyce

Have you ever heard of flying cars or oxygen tanked cars which go underwater?? If not then don't be surprised when Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is down the road!


This car has a hundred year old engine made in 1902 known as the Zborowski engine. The Tootling family find this engine stuck up in a tree. They  put the engine in their very old camper van and somehow they made it fit in the bottom. It looked like an aeroplane engine and there was something weird about it. Soon they realized that the engine seemed to be controlling itself.


It took them to Paris first. It was only when they reached half way there, that they noticed that the engine would sprout wings in emergencies. So the family landed on top of the Eiffel Tower. All the french news reporters followed them for an hour asking them things and the family just kept shrugging at everyone which made everyone even more interested in the Tootlings.

Next they went....... I don't think I should tell you more, because u should read.


However,  I can tell u just one more thing. As I said, the engine controlled itself and so it takes the family all around the world to find all the lost parts of the car of the Zborowski. 


The journey is an exciting one.