Twist of Gold - Michael Morpurgo

' Twist of Gold ' is probably the most compelling and best book i have ever read. It is about two children, Annie and Sean O'Brien who have to go and find their father in America as the potato famine is sweeping Ireland, where they live and their mother is sick. They face many obsticles whilst travelling from Cork to California and often the book is quite upsetting. However, the book is really gripping and i found it extremely hard to put down. There are about 220 pages in the book and it costs around £4 but it is excellent value for money and a touching tale. ... more

This has to be one of my old favourites - when I first picked it up from the library shelf (yes, I had the fortune to be a school librarian in year 6 - lucky old me), I wasn't that enthralled by the front cover. The scrappy old copy we had showed a ship in the distance and a boy and a girl dressed in rags on a beach. They obviously employed a drunk from outside the local chippy to draw the front cover, as it seriously is quite rubbish and doesn't really relate at all to the story. Still, not being a person to judge a book by it's cover (boom boom), I turned it over and read. The skeleton of ... more

The story is set during the Irish potato famine. There is a family called the O' Brien s and they are very poor so their farther sets off to America to find a new life meanwhile back in Ireland sean and annie and their mother is trying to survive while their father builds a farm but their mother is about to die so sean and annie set off to find their father in america and they are told to take the familys golden torc which has been in the family for more than a hundred years they are in a ship wreak but do they make it to America read the book to find that out I though the book was good and i ... more