Christian the Lion by Ruth Knowles

Based on the story of Anthony (Ace) Bourke and John Rendall, adapted by Ruth Knowles

ISBN 978-1-862-30956-2

For Sale:  lion cubs, in Harrods department store!

Imagine the surprise on shoppers’ faces when they see a pair of beautiful little lion cubs for sale in London!

Two friends, Ace and John, can’t bear to leave the male cub behind, stuck in a tiny cage.

So they take him home with them, and they name him Christian.  But it’s not long before the cheeky lion is getting into all sorts of mischief and sticky situations.

Whatever will they do when Christian changes from a cute and cuddly little cub into a powerful and noble beast…?

This was a book my son got out of the library for me to read to him, and I enjoyed the story too.  We have both seen clips of Christian the Lion meeting Ace and John on Youtube and we had heard some of the story.

This book is a child’s version of the book written originally by Ace and John and tells how they came across the lion cub, how they came to own him, where they lived and some of the adventures they got into until they took him back to Africa.  It was a touching tale, with lots of laughs and moments of dread, but in the end, Christian goes on to create his own pride.

A great story to share with children.

Case Files by Larry Verstraete

Published by Scholastic Canada Ltd

ISBN 978-1-4431-0000-7

A killer had been caught, convicted and sentenced, the case closed , all within 114 days.  No one suspected – least of all the boy on death row – that it would take almost 50 years for a tiny piece of scientific evidence to answer the question:  Was it really murder?

 40 amazing stories of how scientists solve crimes, reveal identities, untangle evidence and discover the truth.

This is a fascinating book which focuses on the science that brings the murderer to justice, or solves crime, or even identifies a body.  There are very interesting cases in here, like Tsar Nicholas Romanov and his family, Pharaoh Tutankhamun, a serial arsonist, murder cases and lost shipwrecks.

While I watch CSI, sometimes the program exaggerates the information and everything is processed in a day, whereas in real life, it can take weeks to process DNA, geographical scans and interpret the results.

This was a very interesting read, especially if you want to write a murder mystery.

The Supernaturalist – Eoin Colfer

2004 – Puffin Books ISBN 0-141-31741-8

Satelite City, Northern Hemisphere, Soon:

 Cosmo Hill is a human guinea pig in an orphanage used by corporations to test new products.  Statistics say he has about a year left to live – unless he escapes.  But escapes to what?

To a world of high-tech gang warfare, swat teams of paralegals and a plague of four-fingered parasites who are invisible to everyone except three misfits who call themselves Supernaturalists.

Could Cosmo be one of them?  Are they the family he’s always wanted? And if he does become a Supernaturalist, will his life get any longer – or a whole lot shorter?

 Eoin Colfer can spin a yarn and make you feel like it is real.  He manages to sucker you into a world of fairies (Artemis Fowl) or in this case, a futuristic city full of dangers and hardships.  I love the way he tells the story, gets to the guts of the problem and lays it out for the reader to work it out.

This story revolves around a boy named Cosmo Hill (because he was found on Cosmonaut Hill).  He lives in an orphanage, because he has no parental sponsors and life is tough for no sponsors.  And at 14, chances are getting shorter by the day of ever getting a sponsor.

An accident one day leads to him and his cuffmate escaping, but escaping into what?  They are chased by the warden and fall from the top of a tall building, where they are left for dead.  His cuffmate is dead, but Cosmo is rescued by three motley kids from the life sucking parasites.  When he says he can see the creatures, they reluctantly take him with them back to their lair.

So begins the adventure of Cosmo and the Supernaturalists.  With the most briefest of trainings, Cosmo, complete with lightning rod, heads out with the others to remove the world of the Parasites, but are they helping or hindering.

The way the story is told sucks you in from the first chapter, and leaves you gasping for breath as you read the final chapter, and clearly Mr Colfer has more stories in mind, because he has left the ending open for them.  I hope to get my hands on them soon.

Stonelight – Gaelyn Gordon

Stonelight by Gaelyn Gordon

Published by Reed Methuen Publishers Ltd

ISBN 0 474 00323 X

This is the story of Angela, until recently a glue-sniffing streetkid, and Thomas, the son of a backblock farming family.  These two unlikely heroes find themselves pitched reluctantly in a strange struggle to preserve balance between all things.  With their young twin companions, Jason and Dean, they discover they are gifted with uncanny powers and abilities. 

 Set in the North Island of New Zealand, Stonelight is a supernatural adventure story which gives power and scope to the imagination of all readers.

This story was sadly lacking.  It had a lot of potential, but didn’t really follow through for me, and don’t get me started on the ending!

There was little in the story to suggest that Angela was a glue-sniffing streetkid.  She was just more of a nuisance, wagging school and being smart – streetwise would have been more like it.  And if she had been a glue sniffer, why did she stop?  That wasn’t really answered satisfactorily for me.

Both lead characters were believable, but some of the other characters seemed to lack depth.  I don’t know any parents, now or back when the story was written, who would have let their twin sons disappear off with two teenagers that they barely knew, on a quest that sounds more like they were all sniffing glue.

The story could have been fleshed out more, tension built up better, and ended better (it felt like Ms Gordon didn’t know what to do, so wrapped up the story in a rush!).  There were gaps in the story that I would have liked answers to, but they were vague.  What was the mysterious wind that kept and why was it directed at Thomas and Angela?

Very disappointing for what could have been an excellent Kiwi Supernatural story.

Zero Day – David Baldacci

2011 – Grand Central Publishing USA

ISBN 978-0-230-75490-4

War Hero John Puller is known to be the top investigator in the US Army’s CID.  So when a family with military connections is brutally murdered in a remote area  of West Virginia, Puller is called in to investigate, and soon suspects the case has wider implications.

As the body count rises he teams up with local homicide detective Samantha Cole.  As the web of deceit is revealed, it quickly becomes apparent that there’s much more to this case than they had first thought.  It is an investigation where nothing is as it seems, and nothing can be taken at face value.

 When Puller and Cole discover a dangerous situation in the making, Puller finds he must turn to the one person who can help avert certain catastrophe.  A person he has known all his life.

 In a breathtaking rollercoaster race against time, Cole fears for her community in which she was raised, and Puller knows he has to overcome the enemies of his country to avoid far reaching disaster.

 But, in the end, you can’t kill what you can’t see coming…

David Baldacci has taken a leaf out of James Patterson’s book and written a story with short chapters, and this works well for me.  It makes me read more than I normally would, because they are short and sharp and to the point.  Before you know it you are caught up in the story.

John Puller has suffered through Iraq and Afghanistan, but discovers that his biggest challenge will be on home soil.  What seems like a straightforward murder is anything but, and becomes stranger still when more bodies turn up, which don’t seem connected, but because of the proximity, the connection can’t be avoided.

Add into the mix a strange relationship developing between Puller and Cole and you end up with a classic thriller whodunit, and I have to admit that I wasn’t sure, right to the very last chapter, just what was happening.

The story is tragic and simplistic in its telling, and I love the way that David Baldacci tells a story, just enough to keep you reading to find out what happens.  If you haven’t read any Baldacci, try this one to start with.

The Bombmaker – Stephen Leather

Readers Digest Select 2001

Ten years ago Andrea Hayes was the IRA’s most brilliant bombmaker.  Then, sickened by an incident that went horrifyingly wrong, she gave it all up.  Now she lives a safe suburban life, her true identity hidden from even her husband and daughter Katie.  But when Katie is kidnapped, Andrea realises that her past, chillingly, has come back to haunt her.  The tension mounts page by page in this superb new thriller.

After a slow start, I finally managed to get into this story and it only took me a few days to read it.  It takes place over nine days from when Katie is kidnapped to the final fiery conclusion.

Andy is a bombmaker of the highest skills and is coerced into making a massive fertiliser bomb after her daughter is taken.  She must make the bomb in order to keep her daughter alive.

There is also a side story to this, the Chinese consortium, and it was rather confusing to start with, because the link to the story was unapparent, and it wasn’t until the final scenes that the link was made, which is a shame, because it could have been introduced a lot sooner and would have made more sense to the reader.

Andy and Martin, Andy’s husband, have a close link which is told through this tale, even though Martin was unaware of Andy’s past and he seemed to be rather accepting rather quickly.  I guess if you love someone enough, you would willingly look over the fact that she was a killer.

Apart from some small plot points, I enjoyed the tale, although I wouldn’t have called it a thriller, I didn’t get a thrill or feel any tension with the story, a Suspense would have been a better title.  Well worth a read.

A Canoe in the Mist – Elsie Locke

Jonathan Cape Ltd 1984

ISBN 0-224-02256-3

A Canoe in the Mist is a true story of strange events and real people.  A hundred years ago, Lillian came with her widowed mother to live in a volcanic wonderland of boiling springs, fierce geysers and bubbling mud pools.  

The day they set off for Rotomahana some very strange things happened.  An enormous wave suddenly lifted the quiet waters of Lake Tarawera, which must first be crossed in the tourist boat.  And what was the mysterious canoe they saw, making for the sacred mountain where chiefs were buried and where legend said that the demon Tama-o-hoi had been locked in a rocky cleft with threats to break out some day?

Was the old sage Tuhoto right in predicting disaster?  After a perfect day at the Terraces, and an interlude when Mattie when with Lillian to the Maori school and made new friends, came a night of fear and terrible destruction.

I first this story back when I was about 10 years old, and I loved it.  It was a magical story about Europeans integrating with an entrepreneurial Maori, and working together.  Cultures mixing and helping one another.  Back then, it wasn’t so much about the culture as it was about the story, a frightenly true story about the eruption of Mt Tarawera and the loss of the 8^th Natural wonder of the world, the Pink and White Terraces.

I recently rediscovered this lovely story in the local library, and had to refresh my memory.  Lillian lived at Te Wairoa, in the shadow of Mt Tarawera with her widowed mother.  Lillian attends a local school, set up to educate the local Maori.  Lillian is fortunate enough to meet Maddie, a visitor to the area with her parents.  They are travelling around the world seeing the sights and magic of the primitive lands.  Maddie invited Lillian to go with her on a trip acrossLakeRotomahanato visit the famous terraces and an excited Lillian is allowed to go.  Fortunate for her, as she would be one of the last few people to see the terraces before the eruption which buried them.

Three days later a large earthquake wakes everyone up and they hurry to the one secure place in town, Joe McRae’s hotel.  But even that isn’t secure enough when the volcano erupts and spews ash and mud into the air, followed by “the devils rain” which starts to set fire to many of the buildings in the settlement.

The story follows Lillian and Maddie and the survivors as they make their way to safety.

I loved this story originally because it was real, it happened.  Some of the characters in the book are real people, they lived at Te Wairoa and witnessed the events.  And that is an aspect of the story I still appreciate today.  This story first gave me a look at the beautiful pink and white terraces, something that still fascinates me today.  This book isn’t a young adults book, it is probably set more for the tweens, but is still a good read.

The Taniwha’s Tear – David Hair

HarperCollins Publishers 2010

ISBN 978-1-86950-826-5 (pbk)

Matiu Douglas has promised to help the Storyteller’s daughter, but there are a few problems… The daughter is dead – she’s been petrified in stone for centuries.  And she’s no longer human… she’s a taniwha.

 When Matiu Douglas and his friends defeated Puarata, the Tohunga Makutu, they thought they’d won the war.  Instead they started one.  Now his warlocks are fighting for supremacy in a violent struggle spreading across the magical land of Aotearoa and into our world.  The outcome will be determined by the taniwha Mat has promised to save.

 But Mat is about to discover no one can be trusted when your enemies have already mastered powers he has barely begun to learn.  Can loyalty and friendship prevail over centuries-old evil?

This is the second book in the series that started with The Bone Tiki.  This story see’s Mat’s parents, who were separated, spend some time together with Mat in Gisborne, trying to reconnect with each other.  But Mat met a mysterious lady who asked him to save her daughter.  A taniwha cursed by her own father.

Mat is a typical 16 year old teenager, unsure of himself when it comes to girls, and especially the beautiful, but cold Lena, who apparently shares some of his gifts, but Lena uses them to serve her own purposes.  The angst that Mat suffers over his conflicting feelings for Lena is evident as the story progresses.

The adventure begins when they meet a DJ, who invites them to a 3 day party and they end up in Aotearoa Wairoa, fighting their way towards Lake Waikaremoana and the taniwha Haumapuhia.  What happens is frightening in its confrontations and the unexpected consequences.  I love that this story takes place in the East Coast of the North Island, a place where Maori traditions are still very much alive and well today.

I enjoyed this story as it was a separate story from the Bone Tiki, yet was linked into that story.  More characters were introduced and the mystery surrounding Matiu is becoming clearer.  The fusion of Maori culture and European is deftly and expertly written in this story and I look forward to reading the next enthralling chapter of this saga.

The Notebook – Nicholas Sparks

Published by Bantam Books Ltd – ISBN 0 7338 0018 1

A man with a faded, well-worn notebook open on his lap.  A woman experiencing a morning ritual she doesn’t understand.  Until he begins to read to her.

 The Notebook is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will stay with you forever.

This is the first time that I have read anything of Nicholas Sparks.  The story revolves around Noah, a veteran of World War II who returns to his hometown and purchases his dream home, a rundown old villa that needs some work.

Unexpectedly he receives a visitor from his past, someone he has never been able to forget.  But Allie is now getting married.  So what was the point of her visit.

The story was intense, with suspense mixed in.  Does Allie return to her fiancé or stay with the man that she loved years ago?  The answer is clear at the end, as the old man tells the old woman, suffering from Alzheimer’s, the story of the young couple, bringing her awareness of the world to the fore once more.

I have to admit, I still prefer James Patterson for male romance writers, but Nicholas Sparks is able to capture the raw emotions well.

Horrible Science – Fatal Forces by Nick Arnold and Illustrated by Tony De Saulles

Horrible Science – Fatal Forces by Nick Arnold and Illustrated by Tony De Saulles

Published by Scholastic Group UK in 1997

ISBN 978 0439 94448 9

Horrible Science

Science with the squishy bits left in!

Why do your ears stop you falling off your bike?

How can a little bit of gravity make you lose your head?

What can make your fillings explode?

Get the awful answers in Fatal Forces

 

It is years since I read a science book, and I remember when I got to college thinking – this is completely different from what I read at primary school!  And it was!  Fortunately, Nick Arnold also saw that kids were struggling with todays’s science, so he grossed it up and made it fun.

Physics and Forces were never my thing, but I understand them a lot better now that I have read this delightfully sickening book.  Not only does it explain the different types of forces, but it also has quick biographies on some of the well known, and lesser well known scientists who contributed to the laws of physics.

A very useful book if you have teenagers in the house struggling to understand anything science.