Children's Books > A Children's Books > C

Advantages: Fantastically developed world that she has created
Disadvantages: Long list of characters can be confusing at times

...to anyone who has read the book that this is far from a childs bed time story. This book ranks alongside the great fantasy novels of all time. The author has carefully built up a deep and complex history behind the story, giving her invented world a rich culture, with developed histories, music and societies. This book has the richness and depth that is normally associated with tolkiens 'The Lord of the Rings' whilst being much more easy going. From ...
...deeds to terrible betrayal and the darker sides of human nature. It provides all of the elements associated with the best of fantasy stories, and yet it still manages to seem fresh and origional. At the begining of the book you are introduced to Meared, a young slave girl with nothing but her crude wooden lyre and distant memories of her family being brutally butchered, living in a crude stokade in an empty and desolate region. She is rescued from ... Read review

Advantages: fascinating, nice and easy, not too long, developed
Disadvantages: excessive use of clauses and commas

A five-hour car journey can be quite a bore without a good book, so I decided I had to buy something to read in time for Easter weekend, and went into the bookshop, fortunately with a voucher left from World Book Day, to browse the latest titles. Now, I can be quite awkward when it comes to books; I'll read almost anything, but I have to be in the right mood. It didn't take me long to find a book that seemed quite appealing. One of my favourite ...
...titles recently which I had yet to read, so I decided to give one of them a go, and opted for 'Hidden Child', by Anne Cassidy. The cover didn't give too much away; an image of a teenage girl half-hiding herself with her sleeve. The blurb simply asked a question or two, not going into too much detail, yet somehow managing to lure me in. After purchasing and reading the first two pages, I was itching to continue, but thought it was best to wait until ... Read review

Advantages: A fantastic second half to the novel
Disadvantages: A slow start to the plot

As a great fan of the first book in the Pellinor series I approached this book with a sense of eager anticipation. If it was anything like the first book then it would be fantasticly entertaining. And yet when I first started reading I couldn't help but feel a sense of bitter disappointment. The story rejoins Maered just after she has been forced to flee Norloch across the sea to the island of Thorold with Cadavan, whilst her brother heads south ...
...again Maereds powers come to the rescue. However by now it all seems far too predictable so you are expecting Maered to come to the rescue. This sense of having seen it all before continues through much of the first half of the book, with little advancement to the general story line for a lengthy section. Don't get me wrong this part of the book still contains lots of activity, it just fails to regain the strong sense of brilliance that was so characteristic ... Read review

Advantages: Another fantastic book in the Pellinor series
Disadvantages: Final book not released until September 08

...have read my reviews for the first two books in this series then you will know that the first book had me totally enchanted, whilst the start of the second book was slightly dissappointing, before it once again rose to the realms of brilliance. This book continues that brilliance. The story in the Crow follows on from the story in the Gift, so reading the Riddle is not necessary before opening the covers of this book. In this story you follow the ...
...Saliman to the great city of Turbansk in the southern deserts. There he begins his training as a Bard, however he finds it difficult to fit in with the local children. The simple problems such as this are soon cast aside however, as the armies of the nameless one are marching towards the city, and they are vast beyond imagining. As the city prepares itself for war, Cai assists the fightback, but will it be enough. Like the other books in this series, ... Read review

Advantages: Warm illustrations and a sweet story
Disadvantages: none

...this introduction? *************************************************** Danny and the Great White Bear tackles separation in a rather sweet manner. Written by Anne Cottringer and illustrated by Jenny Jones, this book is directed at children aged, I would say (they don't) 3 onwards. It retails at £4.99 (softback) from most bookshops but you can get it from £2 for a used copy from amazon.co.uk Mary Cottringer is a Canadian author who studied both ...
...story begins rather romantically with Danny sitting in the garden outside (well, it could hardly be inside!) with his father, looking up at the night sky. Danny is sad because he knows that his father is leaving the following day, but his dad points up to the sky towards a cluster of stars and tells him: "It's called the Great Bear…Before you go to sleep, look up at those stars. Wherever I am, I'll look up at them too and I'll be thinking of you." ... Read review