Book Report: THE FARAWAY TREE

This series is called, ‘THE FARAWAY TREE’ written by Enid Blyton. It is a series of three books set in a mystical place called the Enchanted Wood with a  tree that’s called the Faraway Tree. This tree is not just any normal tree, it is home to queer and unique characters. And at the top of the tree, there is a ladder leading to many different worlds. Come, let me introduce you to the residents of this queer tree and to some of the magical lands:

If you were going up this magical tree, watch out for the Angry Pixie! He is a grumpy old pixie who hates anyone peeking into his tree house. He pours water onto passer-byers if they do. Consider yourself warned! Go a little further and you’ll come across the loveliest little pixie called Silky who helps anyone in danger. She stays in a quaint, tidy house in the middle of the tree. Let’s go higher, shall we? You’ll probably come across Dame Washalot. As you might have guessed, Dame Washalot loves to wash! Imagine her with a checkered brown and white dress along with a dark brown apron scrubbing away at her clothes and dishes and draining her soapy water down the tree every single day, drenching those who rest underneath. How terrible must they feel! Then there is funny old Saucepan Man who wears saucepans all over his clothes and is a little bit deaf with all the clanking. He makes the most funny hearing mistakes! And finally  you’ll meet my favourite character, Moon-Face.  Moon- Face is a jumpy little elf with a face like the moon. It’s bright and much bigger than the rest of his body. He lives near the top of the tree in a shady tree house and even has a Slippery-Slide that leads from his house straight to the bottom of the tree! How cool!

Oh, wait! I think some other people are coming up the tree too : its the main characters of the book- Joe, Beth and Frannie - making their way up the tree to see Moonface and Silky. And of course to go on yet another adventure. Let’s join them on their adventure, shall we?

Frannie and Beth look very excited and Joe looks very brave. Today, they are going to The Land of Dame Snap- bad luck! She runs a school for naughty brownies and pixies! She comes up with such terrible punishments such as, no supper before bed or locked up in the very dark cupboard. Who in the world would do that? Next, it’s Beth’s birthday. They’ll certainly be coming with us to the Land of Birthdays! It’s a glorious place full of treats and balloons. I wish I could be there too! Where are we off to today? The Land of Spells, you say? Oh, oh. We better be prepared. The Land of Spells is a land where witches and wizards live.  I do think this is just a bit scary.

I have really enjoyed going on the adventures with the Folk of The Faraway Tree and I hope you will enjoy them too!                    

What I feel about this book:

• I like how the book is old-fashioned, but yet so creative and fantastical. Enid Blyton has done a great job depicting all the mythical characters and fun adventures the kids go on. Well done to her for this!But, I still prefer Roald Dahl’s style of writing.
• Enid Blyton moved away to live with George and Emily Hunt and she stayed at Seckford Hall. Seckford Hall was a spooky and mysterious place, probably giving her lots of inspiration to create new lands of her own and to include it in her stories. She got inspiration for The Faraway Tree series because Norse mythology (mythology of North German people) intrigued her. Norse mythology includes tales about heroes and bravery. It was possible that Enid Blyton lived near the woods and one day, found a tree that was tall and suitable for a story.
• While I was reading the book I observed that Enid Blyton was a little biased towards the boy characters: all the great and brilliant ideas came from them while small and foolish ideas came from the girls! I don’t like it when people are biased towards a gender because I think that all of us are equal- no matter how different we may think we are.

I WOULD RATE THIS SERIES 8 OUT OF 10!

FIND OUT WHAT I MEAN BY READING THE FARAWAY TREE SERIES!

YOU CAN BUY THE MAGIC FARAWAY TREE HERE ON AMAZON FOR $0.01!

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Book Report: A WRINKLE IN TIME

This book is called, 'A WRINKLE IN TIME’, written by Madeleine L’engle. It is about a girl named Meg Murry who is not considered very bright at school but is in fact very clever at Math. Her father and mother are scientists. However, Meg’s father has been away for many years now. Meg has a younger brother who is also considered to be dumb by other people but is actually quite a smart person at home. He is mentally extraordinary as he can read Meg and her mother’s mind. His name is Charles Wallace. One day, Charles Wallace makes friends with a group of three ladies who are magical creatures. Their names are Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which. They have all once given the world light at night. Whatsit is the youngest of the three. The three old ladies take Meg, Charles Wallace and their acquaintance, Calvin O’Keefe, on a perilous journey through space. Miraculously, they get to places very quickly because they wrinkle or in other words, tesseract. A tesseract is the fifth dimension and makes it easier to travel in space as you don’t need to go the long way around. Meg figures this out easily as she is a Maths Wizard and also figures out that this tesseract is somehow connected to the cause for her father going missing. The three old ladies take Meg and her friends to try and save her father. They reach a place called Camazotz where the three old ladies leave Meg, Calvin and Charles on their own with some special blessings. Camazotz is a place where everything is in perfect order and everyone is doing things in unison. Meg, Calvin and Charles figure out that Meg and Charles’ father is here somewhere. In the Central building, a very dangerous person or brain sits who controls everything but is evil. His name is IT. Charles is so over-confident that he is drawn into a person controlled by IT and becomes part of IT. Meg and Calvin use their talents to follow Charles and find Meg’s father. Meg frees him with the use of Mrs. Who’s blessings and Meg, Calvin and father tesseract to another place. In the process of tesseracting, Meg falls a little bit ill and starts to argue with her father’s good intentions. The three get rescued by some beasts who are kind (thankfully) and a beast named Aunt Beast cures Meg. The three old ladies come back and tell Meg that she is the one who has to go and rescue Charles Wallace from the power of IT. She is told that she has something that IT doesn’t. But, Meg doesn’t know what it is. When she reaches Charles, there is a big change in Charles as he is no longer sweet- he is now rude, cold-hearted and selfish. Meg thinks hard and finally, after a lot of thinking, figures out that she has love for Charles while IT doesn’t; IT wants to rule over people in order to gain power and not to help them. Meg loves Charles and Charles breaks the trance he is in. Meg and Charles get tesseracted back to where their father and Calvin are. Meg, Charles, Calvin and father all go home finally and the Murry family reunite. Everything goes well!

What I like about the book:

·    Madeleine L’engle had an interview that appears at the end of the book. When I read through it, I realised that the subjects she was bad in were Maths and Science. She was good at English. So now, I think that she has made Meg quite the opposite of herself because Meg is no good at English and excellent at Maths and Science.

·  This book’s genre is sci-fi. Recently, I have started liking sci-fi more and more. It is a great book and I recommend it to people who love sci-fi or just simply love to write and describe a lot. A Wrinkle In Time had many fabulous descriptions and I really liked watching the movie- I mean reading the book J

·  One word that Madeleine L’engle used quite a lot in the book was tangible. When I was reading this book, I didn’t know what it meant so I searched up the meaning and found out what it meant. It means: able to be seen or noticed when touched- having a physical existence. Here is ‘tangible’ in a sentence: She touched the mirror again to see whether the image would fade but the image was very much tangible and Anna could feel a body shaping in her hands.

·      In this book, there were two lessons that I learnt. The first one was to not be too proud of yourself, as Charles was, but to persevere and set a target to do better everytime. The second one was to not let other people get in the way of what you want to do. This is best portrayed in Meg when she’s thinking about her deep love for Charles but she doubts it after IT takes over Charles and Charles, her own little brother, has been so rude to her.

·  One last thing before I leave you to read the book and answer the questions in my little quiz. Madeleine L’engle had a very vivid imagination. ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ was published in 1963. She must have had a lot of imagination to dream up how to describe space and how far away places & galaxies looked. The book was published in 1963, as I mentioned, and Neil Armstrong only landed on the moon in 1969. She may have had a little bit of inspiration from John F. Kennedy’s speech in 1961 but other than that, she had to literally dream up a galaxy in the sky. Star Wars only came a few years later, possibly with some inspiration from Madeleine L'engle.

·  Finally... Fun time! Read the book and answer the following questions:

1. Who was the chirpy person in the cave?
2. What was the cold thing that made Meg sick called?
3. Meg’s father’s name is...?
4. Where did Meg, Charles, Calvin and father land?
5. Meg and Calvin support and show their love for each other by?
6. Charles has to conquer being over-confident and having a lot of pride when praised. True or False?
7. Meg has a Bunny named Carrots. True or False?

I WOULD RATE THIS BOOK A 8 OUT OF 10 RATING!

FIND OUT WHAT I MEAN BY READING A WRINKLE IN TIME!

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BOOK REPORT: Wiglington and Wenks- The Legacy

This book is called, ‘WIGLINGTON AND WENKS- THE LEGACY’ written by John Bittleston. It is about two water rats called Wiglington and Wenks. They get swept away across the English Channel in a storm and arrive in Paris. The two decide to stay for a little while. It is in Paris that their adventures start. Wiglington makes a few calls to get a tour guide for the Louvre. He is called Nude Castle (another water rat). Nude Castle and his friend, Filorat, tell Wiglington and Wenks that they may be linked to the famous map maker- Carto Wiglington who accompanied Marco Polo on his voyages! So, with this information and a few headstarts from their water rat friends, Wiglington and Wenks start their journey to find these precious maps. Wait, it’s not that easy though. Filorat and Nude Castle warn the couple that a pack of Fruit Bats are also very eager to get their hands on the maps and their leader can be very cunning. Wiglington and Wenks go further down in Paris and don’t notice that Fruba, the leader of the Fruit Bats, is following them. They get kidnapped but fool the witless bats and escape. Filorat provides them the necessary document they need to claim the first map and the couple don’t stop till they get it. Tired but restless, determined to claim the maps, the two very intelligent water rats escape from enemies and get their first map. Though they are happy, they decide to wait for sometime before venturing off on their second journey through time. Nothing could go wrong just for a little while, right? “Oh,” said Wenks, “there is no hurry about that. We’ve got one map. Let’s just have a rest for a while. Plenty of time to go to Venice later. We’ll enjoy Christmas here first, I think.”

What I like about this book:

• I was glad to see that rodents were looked upon as good people like friends. Sometimes, some authors depict rodents or rats as filthy and disgusting but in this book, they didn’t.
• I think Fruba was the main villain but though he was really bad, I still do think he had a good side because he made the story so action-packed and interesting! I can’t wait till I get the second book in the series: The Chase. It continues in Venice and Rome and I’m sure that’s going to be full of suspense too.
• While reading this book, I learnt to not be over confident as Fruba, the leader of the Fruit Bats, was because in the end, it only turns out to be disastrous. This is portrayed in Fruba because he thinks he and his pack will be able to get the map because they have so many abilities. But, his pack aren’t strong enough to fight and Fruba has to do everything independently.
• Finally… Fun time! Read the book and answer these questions:

1. Who is the other guide that helps them in the library?
2. What species is this guide (eg. human, rodent, animals)?
3. Where does Filorat live?
4. How does Wiglington thank Filorat and Nude Castle?

Just one last remark before I leave you to read the book; I got the book signed by John Bittleston as this first story is a gift from him after my mum went to meet him personally.

I WOULD GIVE THIS BOOK AN 8 OUT OF 10 RATING!

FIND OUT WHAT I MEAN BY READING, ‘WIGLINGTON AND WENKS- THE LEGACY’!

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE ON AMAZON FOR $1.98!

Book Report: HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES

This book is called, ‘HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES’, written by Salman Rushdie. It is about a little boy and his father. They are called Rashid (the father) and Haroun (the son). Rashid is a great storyteller. Haroun’s mother, Soraya, runs away with their unimaginative neighbour, Mr. Sengupta. Haroun and Rashid are very dejected. Meanwhile, Rashid’s creativity and story writing ability vanishes when Haroun asks a question that Mr. Sengupta used to ask Soraya, “What’s the point of stories that aren’t even true?”. After his mum left, he starts to believe in the dangerous question too. However, Haroun immediately regrets this when he sees how it affects his father and tries to restore his father’s creativity. That night, Haroun hears a sound in his bathroom and ventures off to the Land of Gup (gossip) assisted by a water genie named Iff and a mechanical bird named Butt. He goes there in search of The Leader, The Walrus, because he has been told by Iff that The Walrus may be able to help restore his father’s loss of imagination. Apart from the lack of confidence his family is showing in him, Rashid feels cut off from his supply of Story Water as the evil Khattam-shud (the end of a book in Hindi) who ruled over the Land Of Chup (silence in Hindi) had been polluting it. In his desire to rule the world, Khattam-shud had polluted the Sea of Stories as he himself had no imagination and couldn’t control it. Haroun, Iff and Butt figure out that Khattam-shud’s shadow is plotting how to destroy the Sea of Stories once and for all. They learn that Khattam-shud can be killed by melting his shadow. So Haroun and his friends fly over to his land and use light to melt his shadow and destroy him. They all rejoice in the Land Of Chup and all is well. Haroun and Rashid are then granted a wish and they wish their city is happy again. It is happy indeed, when they return, as Soraya is back home again. More importantly, Rashid restores his creativity.

What I like about this book:

• A story is like a movie in a reader’s mind. This story was so gripping that I couldn’t stop reading it. I devoured the book and took it to the kitchen, and to other places in the house until such time that I finished the book. I hope you will feel the same when and if you read this amazing book.
• Salman Rushdie uses puns in this book. Each character’s name may seem like a normal name to readers who don’t know the Hindustani language but when actually learnt, it opens up another door in their brains as to what he meant and why. For example, Khattam-shud means ‘The End’ when we read books written in English. Once, you know this, you can relate to the connection between Khattam-shud and the land of Chup (silence)
• The Walrus or The Leader of the Eggheads, brings references to 2 things. One, is the highly popular book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. If comparing The Walrus and The Blue Caterpillar, what is the difference other than in their species? They are both leaders and somebody that the land looks up to for help. And two, there is a song by the Beatles (a very good and popular band) called, ‘I Am The Walrus’ in their Magical Mystery Tour album.
• At the time when Salman Rushdie wrote this book, he was in hiding from a death threat. He had been a target after an incident and this book is all about having the right to talk freely and this message develops in the Land of Gup. Salman Rushdie feels that he has the right to produce whatever thoughts he believes in and is confident about. This is the beauty of free speech. However, there is a time when free speech can get harmful and the beauty of silence shines through. Free speech may hurt other people very deeply. Although, Silence has its own beauty, Salman Rushdie encourages free speech over silence for creativity to prevail.
• I think even though the story finishes, I want to add a little bit of an epilogue to it. Just five lines maybe. Here goes:

Haroun walked down in his new clothes and hugged his father and mother.

“Thank you for my great presents.”

As he opened the purple wrapped present with silver ribbon on it, it burst open itself and Iff the water genie popped out and said, “Happy Birthday my friend Haroun. Have you seen  Butt anywhere? We need to be on our way!”

Haroun knew exactly what this meant: another adventure.

‘But, but, but..,’ ends Butt without moving its beak. ‘A story never ends!’

I WOULD RATE THIS BOOK 10 OUT OF 10!

FIND OUT WHAT I MEAN BY READING HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES!

You can buy it HERE on Amazon for $10.43!

You can buy it HERE on Guardian Bookshop for £22.00!