Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

This is the sequel of the amazing book Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief which I reviewed a few posts ago.
It's time for Percy, Annabeth and a Cyclopes called Tyson that went to Percy's school to go back to Camp Half Blood.However the Camp's borders have gone down and monsters are attacking it from all sides. The camp is in uproar.

The Camp got into such a bad state because someone poisoned Thalia's tree. The story about Thalia's tree is that about six years ago three demi-gods with the help of Grover where going to Camp Half Blood. These three demi gods where Annabeth - daughter of Athena- Luke - son of Hermes - and Thalia - daughter of Zeus. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades though had been forbidden to have anymore children with humans. So monsters came to attack the four as they made their way to Camp Half Blood. When the got to Half Blood Hill, they were attacked by such a fierce monster that Thalia gave up her life to save her friends. But before she could die Zeus turned her into a pine tree.

People believe that it was Chiron who poisoned the tree so he has been banished from Camp Half Blood and the activities director who replaced him hates Percy and his friends.

Now that the pine tree has been poisoned the Camp will eventually crumble unless someone finds the Golden Fleece to save the tree and the Camp. The other bad thing is that Grover on his quest to find Pan got kidnapped by a Cyclopes - Polyphemus. Grover pretends that he's a female cyclopes and that he wants to marry Polyphemus. He tells Polyphemus that he will marry him once he has finished the train for his wedding dress he weaves by day and unweaves by night.

Percy, Annabeth and Tyson must save the Camp and Grover before it's to late by saving Grover and the Golden Fleece from the Sea of Monsters aka the Bermuda Triangle. Can they save them and can the prove Chiron's innocence? Read the book to find out!

I really enjoyed reading this book and I give it a 9 out of 10!

Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean

This book is the first ever official sequel of Peter Pan and Wendy. The Lost Boys and Wendy are now all grown up and have left Neverland. But they keep having strange dreams about it. So they decide to go back to Neverland, they catch a fairy called Firefly who tells the worst lies ever.

To make themselves children again, as only children can go to Neverland they all get there children's clothes and dress up in them, this makes them young again. Some problems occur during this process, Slightly doesn't have any children and Tootles only has daughters. So Tootles turns into a girl!

When they reach Neverland everything has changed there are no Lost Boys as Peter turned them all out for becoming adults and he's living in the Wendy House which is now on one of the branches of the tree.

Peter and the Lost Boys who came back decide to go on a quest to find Hook's treasure. A lot of things go wrong on the way -from being attacked by pirates to going to the maze of witches. This is an excellent book and I really enjoyed it. I give it an 8 out of 10.

The Secret of the Sirens by Julia Golding

This is a fantastic book by a great author.
This book is about a girl called Connie who gets sent by her parents to live with her strange aunt in a village called Hescombe. Something is up in the village as sailors are going missing on the sea. Connie's aunt belongs to a society to try and save the people of Hescombe from being killed by going out to sea, or so Connie thinks!

Connie has the amazing ability to talk to all animals and when people in the society pick up on this they get Connie to do a test. It turns out that Connie is a universal so she can talk to all animals and has a special bond with them. But the society isn't what Connie thinks it is, it is actually a Society to help mythological Creatures that live even today. Most people in the society can only communicate with one group of animals however Connie can communicate with them all. Universals are very rare and they are worshiped by the other people in the society.

The sailors dying out at sea are actually hearing sirens - a Greek mythological creature - that sings such beautiful songs that mortals jump out of their boats and into the sea. Can Connie and the Society save the mortals from the sirens or not? Read this fantastic book to find out. I really like this book and give it a 7 out of 10.

Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I absolutely loved this book, it is amazing and is now my official favourite book ever!
This book is about a boy called Percy Jackson who goes to a school called Yancy Academy. So far in only six years Percy has been expelled from six schools. So when Percy and his school go to a museum about Greek and Roman times things start to go wrong once again.

Mrs Dodds the maths teacher at the school asks Percy if she can talk to Percy in private and when she does she suddenly turns into a Greek monster - a Fury. Percy's best friend Grover and Mr Brunner his Latin teacher come into the room. Mr Brunner tosses Percy a pen and when Percy uncaps the pen it turns into a sword! He "kills" "Mrs Dodds" with the sword however when he goes back to the school, no-one has heard about Mrs Dodds and every one - including Grover- think that he's gone mental.

Then on one of the final days of the school year Percy hears Mr Brunner and Grover talking about him. They are saying that they are worried if they can keep him alive! So Percy knows something strange is happening.

The next strange thing that happens is that Percy's mother - Sally- tells Percy that he must go to a summer camp that Percy's father always wanted Percy to go to. On their way to the Camp with Grover they are attacked by a Minotaur - another Greek monster. They fight the monster but before Percy and Grover can kill the monster the Minotaur kills Percy's mother. Percy and Grover between them kill the monster and they get to the Camp.

Then things get even stranger Grover turns out to be a satyr, half goat half human, Mr Brunner is a centaur called Chiron, the head of the Camp, Mr D is the Greek god Dinousuys and Percy is a demi god which means that he is the son of a god and a human.

Then things go from bad to worse, someone has stolen Zeus lightning bolt and if he doesn't get it back there will be a war between the gods. The really bad thing is that Zeus thinks that it was Percy who stole the lightning bolt.

Percy, Grover and their friend from Camp Half Blood Annabeth must prove Percy's innocence, find the lightning bolt to give back to Zeus in a limited amount of days and retrieve Percy's mother from the underworld.

This is a fantastic book about Percy, Grover and Annabeth on a quest. Can they do the three things they must and get past monsters across the way? Read this book to find out. I loved this book so much I gave it a 10 out of 10.

The Silver Blade by Sally Gardener

This is the sequel to the Red Necklace, they are both great books and I loved them. To see my review of the Red Necklace, it is my last review.
This book is also set in the French Revolution , Sido is now safely in England living with her aunt and uncle, however her father is dead. Everybody believes Count Kallovski to be dead, but is he?

Yann is now saving aristocrats who are going to be sent to the guillotine, with the rest of the people at the theatre he used to work at, the Theatre of the Follies, this theatre is owned by Citizen Aulard, a coward. Yann and Didier save people before they can be sent to the guillotine and those people appear as minor characters in the plays at the theatre before being sent to England.

Yann has earned himself the name of the Silver Blade as one night when he was saving people from a prison he put a small Silver Blade over the bed of one of the people working at the prison. So the police in France are looking for the Silver Blade and whenever someone escapes from the guillotine the public say that the Silver Blade saved them.

Sido and Yan are deeply in love with each other and they communicate with each other by letters. Sido's aunt and uncle think that Yann is a spoilt boy who threw away a chance to go to Cambridge university to go to France and become an actor. They have no idea what Yann really does in France.

From the Theatre all being put in prison for suspicion of being the Silver Blade to Count Kallovski coming back from the dead. This is an excellent story and I give it an 8 out of 10.

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardener

The Red Necklace is a fantastic historical novel set in the French Revolution.
It is about a boy called Yann who is able to read people's minds and throw his voice. Yann works with a magician - called Topolian- and a dwarf- called Tetu. The three of them put on a show where the main magic trick is the Pierrot a puppet which can move, talk and read people's minds. The puppet works as Tetu has the magical power to be able to pull the threads of light, so he can make things move, so that's how the puppet walks. Yann is able to throw his voice from backstage and the audience asks the puppet questions, Yann reads their minds and answers as if he's the puppet.

So when one day Topolian is asked to go and perform at a Marquis house every thing goes wrong. At the party the Marquis throws is the famous Count Kallovski who lets people borrow money in exchange for their deepest darkest secrets that they wouldn't tell anyone.

When Topolian lets it slip that he recognises Count Kallovski, so the Count kills him. He does this as one of the tricks is that Topolian can be shot and that he won't die. However, Count Kallovski tampers with the gun and kills Topolian.

Yann and Tetu have to escape from the house, the Marquis daughter Sido, helps them escape as she hates her father. Yann and Tetu safely escape the house and go back to the theatre.

Sido hates her father as he is an arrogant, rich man. He hates his daughter as she reminds him of his wife who died when Sido was very young. The Marquis detests her as she isn't beautiful - just plain- and because she walks with her limp. Sido rarely sees him as he sends her to convent.

Yann and Tetu have to hide from Count Kalloviski as he wants to kill them. Things get so bad that Yann gets sent to live in England with Sido's aunt and uncle who are very close friends to Tetu's friend.

But when Sido and her father fear the worst and they need to escape France, they contact Mr Toll. Mr Toll is actually very bad and he sends them to prison to die for being aristocrats. Can Yann save Sido who he has found that he is in love with? Read the book to find out.

This is an excellent book and I loved it. I give it an 8 out of 10.

Enna Burning by Shannon Hale

This is the sequel to the book that I reviewed a little while ago called The Goose Girl. If you want to see my review about the Goose Girl it's just a few reviews ago.
This book is about one of the main characters in the previous book called Enna. One day Enna's brother comes home and there's something strange about him. When he suddenly sets fire on Enna and her friend Finn -also from the Goose Girl - everything starts to go wrong. It turns out that her brother has managed to get the power to be able to set fire from things by pulling the heat from living things and redirecting it at someone or something.

Suddenly a kingdom called Tira wants to go to war against Bayern. Enna's brother - who is on the Bayern side - gets permission from the Prince to use his powers to win the battle. Bayern wins the battle because of the fire, but unfortunately Enna's brother sacrifices himself to the fire and dies.

Then Enna finds the piece of paper that gave her brother the power, by reading this piece of paper she gets the power herself. She has an urge to burn everything and even ends up burning her best friend and queen of Bayern, Isi - also from The Goose Girl. Fourtanetly Isi has the power to put it out with the wind which she can control.

Enna goes around setting alight the Tira camps until one day when she gets caught. Will Enna betray her country or worse will she betray her friends - Finn and Razo - which she has known for years. Read this amazing book to find out! I loved this book and give it a 8 out of 10.

Small Steps by Louis Sachar

This is the sequel to the amazing book Holes which I loved so much that I gave it 10 out of 10. See my first few posts to see my review of Holes.
Small Steps is about Armpit and X-Ray once they have left Camp Green Lake. Armpit sets himself a few small steps to try and make himself a better person. These steps are;

1. Graduate High School
2. Get a job
3. Save his money
4. Avoid situations that might turn violent
5. Lose the name Armpit.

So Armpit gets a new job digging trenches - surprise, surprise- and is quite happy with everything. He is making a lot of money, doing well at school, avoiding by violent situations, no-body knows about his previous nickname and he even got to dig trenches for the mayor.

But when X-Ray suddenly turns up things start to go wrong. X-Ray has a plan to make a lot of money he asks Armpit if he can borrow some money and that if he does Armpit can double all of his money in just two weeks, first Armpit is reluctant but finally gives in.

So what X-Ray and Armpit do is buy twelve tickets for the amazing pop star Kaira De Leon from the station selling them and they get them very cheap, they then sell the tickets at a very high price in a newspaper advert.

So can X-Ray and Armpit sell the tickets? From meeting the pop star to nearly getting X-Ray put into jail, this is a very funny story about trust and loyalty. I enjoyed it so give a 8 out of 10.

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

I have read this book and the other Alex Rider books many times and I think that they are absolutely amazing!
Stormbreaker is about a boy called Alex Rider who is about fourteen. He doesn't see much of his uncle - who works in a bank - as his uncle is always going away unexpectedly for work. Alex doesn't have any parents as they died when he was young. So Alex lives with his uncle - Ian Rider- when he's around and his uncle's American house keeper Jack Starbright- although Jack has a boys name she's really a girl.

So when the door bell rings at three in the morning Alex knows that something is wrong, it turns out that his uncle died in a car crash. This isn't good enough for Alex so he goes investigating and goes to a car demolishing garage. He quickly finds his uncle's car and discovers that it hadn't been a car crash but had bullets through it.

Then Alex is asked to go to the Royal and General Bank (where his uncle worked) to see the manager there. He discovers that the Royal and General is not a bank at all but MI6 and that his uncle was a spy.

Next Alex gets sent to a training camp where he gets bullied by the men there and he's called Cub as they don't have any names there. After days of training Alex returns to Alan Blunt - the head of MI6- and Mrs Jones - his deputy- and he is told that he must go on a mission to find out exactly what's up with the Stormbreakers. If Alex refuses Jack will be sent back to America and Alex will have to go to a cruel boarding school.

So Alex is sent to Cornwall. This is where Herod Sayle a very rich business man has made his Stormbreakers, a very expensive computer that really helps as education and makes you feel like you are where ever you are learning about. Herod has decided to give a Stormbreaker to every school in the country for free. MI6 think that he's to good to be true and that somethings up. Can Alex find out exactly what's up and save the country? Read the book to find out.

I really enjoyed this book and give it an 8 out of 10.

Crummy Mummy and Me by Anne Fine

Sorry, I know, I know I haven't blogged in ages but now I'm going to give you all of the books that I have read since the last one to the most recent!

Gina nicely lent me Crummy Mummy and Me as well as Goggle Eyes. This was another great Anne Fine book, so thank you very much Gina! (Sorry I haven't been able to get a decent picture of the book from Gina, i can't find the right book on the Internet, so I'll show you another one that I found.)
Crummy Mummy and Me is about a girl called Minna. She has a very strange family and she doesn't like being the only normal one in the whole family. I mean, I sympathise with Minna her mum has royal blue hair and wears strange clothes such as purple fish net tights. And I thought my mum was bad! Her Mum's punk boyfriend - Crusher Maggot- is nearly just as bad with his strange hair styles. Minna has to look after her little sister, as Crusher and her mum just give the baby cherry ade to drink!

From the TV being stolen to being ill in bed and seeing who's the best nurse. This is a great book with mad things happening every two seconds! I really enjoyed this book and give it a 7 out of 10! Thank you Gina!