Rufolo Reviews: On the Run by Michael Coleman

Man, if sports programmes were as emotionally involving as this sports book, I'd be really on top of the athletics!

YA author Michael Coleman was nominated for the Carnegie Award when his intense and psychological novel "Weirdo's War" got right inside the mind of a young introverted mathematician and he's done it again, this time with youth offender Luke Reid.

On the Run is about a young thief who gets involved in a robbery with two older gang members, but he botches the job to save a blind girl from getting hit by a car and injures her father in trying to escape. Standing before the magistrates, he learns that she was training with her dad to run in the London Marathon and is sentenced to community service helping the disabled at the sports centre and becoming her guide runner in the race.

A story as personal as this is bound to be strong on character and Luke's journey is one of the best I've ever read. Despite his severe flaws and quite disgusting behaviour, his bad background, acts of bravery and words of kindness really make you feel for him and he becomes such a better person over the course of the story.

As good as Luke is, it's the blind girl who steals the show. Jodi is just such a likeable and admirable character. She's just got so much energy and this selfless determination and it's really nice to see her relationship with Luke develop.

Her father is brilliantly written as well; he's so cruel and unforgiving towards Luke and you really dislike him even though he's completely understandable, but he too changes as the story goes on.

The writing really gets you immersed in the running. I'm not a proper sporty person, but I just felt really into it and fancied giving it a go myself.
There are two main problems with this book. The first is relatively minor for any book and that's a few bits of dialogue. The villains in this book are two gangsters respected on Luke's estate who he looks up to. Some of the stuff they say when trying to manipulate him feels a little forced. I think Coleman or his editor was clearly trying to avoid using any swearwords, but worked their way round them a little clumsily.
Then, although the climax is totally exhilarating there's the ending - it's not "Run Fat Boy Run" unrealistic, but if you read it you might see what I mean.
However, as I've said in previous reviews, a disappointing ending doesn't always ruin an entire book for me. This one is definitely well worth a read.

Rufolo Rants: The Howling Tower - Bear Kingdom#1 by Michael Coleman

Oh Mikey, how did you go from writing Carnegie nominated teenage novels to The Great Escape meets Winnie the Pooh? Actually that’s a bit far, Winnie the Pooh doesn’t deserve to be compared to a book this bad.

So it’s about a boy called Benjamin Wildfire on the run in a world ruled by cave bears who live a bit like how people lived in the middle ages. Yeah, it sounds silly, but I didn’t think it was a terrible idea. This could be pretty intense tale of survival and I had faith in Coleman to make it gritty and serious, without being too vulgar or graphic.

Sadly the story is not so much Bear Grylls as just unbearable boredom; I apologise that was terrible.

No, there’s virtually no forests or wilderness, no thrilling chase or suspense, instead Ben just gets caught almost as soon as he escapes from his bear owner Mrs Haggard – seriously, the names get worse – and ends up in the pound with a bunch of other human children.

Admittedly there is some excitement as they plan their escape, but the book doesn’t have the pacing or writing to make the very dull titular tower interesting at all.

So, the story isn’t great, but what about the characters? Well the main hero is one of the blandest I’ve ever read; there’s just nothing memorable about him apart from his red hair and cool name. This sort of thing really annoys me – never mind whether or not we need more strong female characters, gingers are slowly disappearing! They deserve better representation than this!

The side characters are just as bad. Benjamin basically acts as a guard dog for his bear owner and when he escapes he meets a human girl called Mops who is kept as a pet and is running away out of boredom – something we all feel whenever she starts talking. In fact, this little know-it-all is worse than that, she’s just so vain and irritating and annoying! Mops is about as insufferable as Bonnie Langford in Doctor Who!

Then there’s another side character called Spike with the stupidest voice ever. He’s like the secret lovechild of Catherine Tate and Crocodile Dundee.

As for the actual bears… yeah the names do get worse. They’re called things like Doctor Calcupod and Inspector Dictatum and you’ll probably have guessed that they speak English as well. There’s no language, nothing interesting, they just say English words in the wrong order, that’s it! These bears are so dim-witted and the cheesy childish way they’re written just makes them the least threatening antagonists I’ve ever read.

I know I’m not the target audience, I know it’s a children’s book, but kids deserve better than this. With the bears performing cruel experiments on human children, the story is actually pretty dark, but it’s all just needlessly dumbed down and sugar-coated over when books by the likes of Roald Dahl and J.K Rowling have proved that children’s books can be dark and scary and still be child-friendly, that they can have layers. Apart from a pretty good twist towards the end, The Howling Tower is just an insulting monotonous slog.

So guys, have any of you read the Bear Kingdom series? Did any of you like it? And what would you say is the most insulting children’s book you’ve ever read?

Rufolo Reviews: The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall

Everyone loves the Goonies right? Now imagine it were British and set during World War Two – you’d just about have The Machine Gunners.

All the kids in the northern coastal town of Garmouth collect souvenirs from German air raids, mostly just shrapnel, but when a Luftwaffe pilot is shot down, 14-year-old Chas McGill uses his father’s saw to steal the entire machine gun with over 200 rounds of live ammunition.

 Come on, that’s just awesome! (Well, it is for us British kids, for any American readers that sort of thing’s the norm.)

So Chas and his friend Cem, who’s sort of like an unhygienic socially retarded scarecrow (I’m autistic, so I’m allowed to say that) and a very tough slightly awesome ginger called Audrey end up smuggling the weapon from place to place, outwitting the hapless police forces whilst the school bully starts to suspect and fancies the machine gun for his own collection. Then when Chas and the gang stand up to him to protect a wealthy but lonely classmate, their new friend lets them turn his sizeable back garden into their own gun emplacement to fight the Germans themselves.

Despite being about kids, the book isn’t exactly kid-friendly. There’s some pretty intense action, particularly at the incredible climax and some brutal fight scenes that get bloody serious. I’m nearly seventeen and I found the violence pretty distressing when the perpetrators were so young, but it makes the book realistic and impactful enough to show what war can do to children.

And these child characters are just fantastic. Chas, like Simon in Westall’s other book The Scarecrows, can be quite snobbish and, at times, very cruel, but when he’s so smart, mischievous and conniving, you can’t help but like him and he really redeems himself. He’s brave, he has an enormous sense of justice and is immensely loyal to his friends.

The rest of the gang are just as interesting. They’re not always likeable, but let’s admit it, that’s not always the case with teenagers. It’s not just about them though; there’s time set aside for the adult characters: their teacher, the home guard and the police who are all very entertaining.

Admittedly Audrey starts off as a great tomboy until the boys basically put her in the kitchen, but I don’t think it’s a huge problem. As Westall argued himself, women’s lib didn’t really exist back in the forties and when the story could have been a strictly boys only adventure. With Audrey, any girls reading aren’t excluded becuse she's still strong in her own way.

The only thing I’d say is a big problem is the way the northern accents are written. The dialogue is very realistic as Westall didn’t shy away from using swear words, but with the adults and one boy who’s Scottish, there are quite a few odd spellings for the pronunciations and it can be distracting.

Overall though, it’s damn near perfect, suitably dark and gritty yet a fun and relatable story at the same time. It's a book of high calibre, deserving of its classic status and Carnegie Award and could go down a treat for anyone enjoying Netflix’s Stranger Things at the moment!

So guys, have any of you read The Machine Gunners and if so, what did you think of it? Also, what’s your favourite sort of boys-will-be-boys story complete with a bit of crude language and violence?

Rufolo Reviews: The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School by Kim Newman

One of the most imaginative books of the year, it would seem that Miss Peregrine's has spawned its own Harry Potter meets X-Men subgenre, giving us some of the best action heroines of the generation.

When fourteen year-old Amelia Thomsett is caught sleeping on the ceiling, her unpleasant conformist mother sends her to a special boarding school so her daughter will be cured of her supernatural powers. However, Drearcliff Grange is a school for unusual girls where they're encouraged to use and improve their unique abilities, but students are disappearing and there are dark goings-on behind the scenes.

The book doesn't disappoint with a wide range of intriguing superpowers that make for some exciting action sequences. The whole novel has a great sense of mystery, dark in atmosphere, but fun and quirky at the same time. The story pulls you in with twists and turns along the way, but this book is particularly strong on character. Amy is probably the best female action heroine I've ever read. Whilst so many heroines in YA are loudmouthed teenage tearaways, a trope growing increasingly grating (Rebel of the Sands, I'm looking at you), Amy is just really polite. In situations where many of us would probably swear, she exclaims "buttered crumpets!" instead and even when she has to be mean to people, she's just matter-of-fact about it. She's not just a caricature though; she becomes so much more confident over the course of the book, going on a journey a lot of readers can relate to and little details like her keen interest in moths just make her that bit more human.
Her friends are great too, including a loveable, more boisterous big ginge and a boxing, smoking Indian princess. The bullies are especially cruel and some of the staff and teachers are very charismatic. Admittedly there are a LOT of characters coming and going in one book and at times it is can be hard to keep track of them all. This goes hand-in-hand with the book's other problem: pacing. It gets off to a good start, giving a brief tour of the school before there's a kidnapping, an exciting rescue and a shocking twist. Over a third of the way through, the pace changes quite suddenly, taking its time to be dark, eerie and psychological. It's done well, but it just feels a bit iffy and then there's the problem with the sheer number of minor characters. I just wanted some of them to have more time to themselves. (Mr Newman please take the hint and write a sequel!)

Despite these two problems, this book is one of the best I've read in 2016 with mystery, style and truly memorable heroines. Unusual, weird and wonderful indeed.

M y Summer Reading of 2016

Well after I finished my GCSEs, I had nearly three months of holidays - need I say more? Come on, that's awesome! Sure on a wider scale nothing particularly good has happened this year, the news mainly consisting of ISIS attacks, and celebrity deaths, but for me, this has been one of the best years of my life! Over the Summer, I did indeed bake a couple of times (the first for charity, the second to celebrate my pretty solid GCSE results), I met plenty of babes and as you can see here, read a lot of books

Arranged Worst to Best From Bottom to Top (actually it's a bit random, but have a list anyway.) 

The Worst:

The Sherwood Hero by Alison Prince:

Probably one of the dullest books I've ever read with largely unmemorable characters and a story cleverly structured for a big reveal that just disappoints with a mediocre ending. Wait, this won an award?

Finn's Folly by Ivan Southall:

Without a doubt, the most depressing book I've ever read, but in a good way really - unlike Sherlock Hero, it actually evokes emotions other than boredom. I was just so emotionally invested in some of the characters including a great portrayal of an autistic person, but a cringey insta-love takes away from the book's realism and the ending - or rather the absence of an ending - it's so terrible I can't talk about it!

Enjoyable Stories:

Warriors of the Balance by Samsun Lobe:

I feel a little guilty putting this one quite low on the list because I met the author and he was really nice. The characterisation could have been better, but we get an entertaining team of aliens and a rather likeable human. The space politics was largely lost on me and some of the action wasn't that involving, but the world-building is very good, the fighting is intense in parts and the story is quite fast-paced and energetic - a fun romp.

The Worst Witch Goes to Sea by Jill Murphy:

Because I want to appear sophisticated to the ladies, I read this one mainly in the privacy of my own home. The Worst Witch books have wonderful charm that leads to a pretty consistent quality throughout the series, but for some reason fourth instalments in book series never really do anything for me - it just feels like it's just another Worst Witch book. Apart from exploring the relationship between Mildred and Tabby (in as much depth as you can with a cat) it doesn't bring much new to the table and is largely predictable. Her dimwitted cat is really cute in this though...

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton:

It's clear to see why this recent debut was something of a hit. Its gorgeous cover, interesting style and ethnic diversity all make it something else, but Amani, despite some pretty good character development, basically comes down to the fairly typical loudmouthed teenage tearaway, a character we've seen done before and done better. Some of the writing is pretty good and the villains were quite good, but the in-your-face romance that just comes off as a far too obvious attempt to appeal to teenage girls.

Jeremy Hatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville:

I loved Bruce Coville's My Alien Classmate series when I was ten, but reading one of his books years later (when I'm legally an adult, but not bothered) just feels like meeting an old schoolfriend and finding they're actually quite dull. I reckon Bruce, when planning this, went "okay, boy gets given a dragon egg, it hatches... how do I pad this out for about two hundred pages?" The plot is quite poor and the attempts at romance and slapstick comedy fail pretty miserably. Admittedly, I'm being a bit harsh on this one. The likeable, somewhat interesting protagonist, a surprisingly poignant teacher-student relationship and a pretty cool dragon redeem it. Not to mention, the illustrations in this edition are gorgeous.

Really Good Stories:

Return to the Lost World by Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore:

Nazis, gliders, dinosaurs, oh my! It's basically a teenage Indianna Jones with prehistoric animals and is as tongue-in-chic and silly as it sounds. Luke and Nick make a pretty good team as they race some pretty solid antagonists to Conan Doyle's Lost World with some huge plot twists along the way. There's a great blend of action and comedy that makes enough room to develop the characters.

Horned Helmet by Henry Treece:

At times, as emotionally wrenching as some of Treece's other historical fiction, this one didn't have characters as memorable and the story just seemed a bit too similar to Viking's Dawn and again, the illustrations aren't the best. It's certainly not a bad book, with some great writing, but it struggles to live up to expectation.

The Spud from Outer Space by Susan Gates:

From a decent book that didn't live up to my expectations, to a book that exceeded them by a huge margin. Your first impression of this book is sheer ugliness, but once it gets going, it's brilliantly non-stop. Susan Gates is a really good author and she just keeps throwing all these mad creative ideas at you, anything to stop you falling asleep. Most of the main protagonists are unlikeable or just disposable, but that way there seems to be more chance of them dying than the near-perfect kids in most children's books, so it's still a fun and exciting read.

Unbelievable! by Paul Jennings:

Though not quite as good as Thirteen Unpredictable Tales, Paul Jennings still delivers an anthology with a variety of stories, some of which are weird and wonderful, some of which are funny in a more ordinary way and they all have his signature huge twist. One of these short stories, The Busker, was the first fiction to make me feel strong emotions for a pet in years and that one really stood out.

Sisters of the Sword #1 The Warrior's Way by Maya Snow:

Basically Mulan only Japanese and done as a revenge story. There's exciting action, intense training, some pretty good character development and plenty of insight into the culture and social history of Japan. It's entertaining and educational, just not quite as good as Children's Crusade or The Fire of Ares.

Torchwood #3 Slow Decay by Andrew Lane:

Although Lane isn't great with dialogue, he does get the members of the Torchwood team right in this psychological, enjoyably gory story. There are certainly creative ideas, some decent action and some beautiful description.

The Best

The Dare by John Boyne:

John Boyne is doing what he does best here and as the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas haters from school will probably have guessed, it's a bleak story seen through the eyes of a child. About a family that starts to fall apart after the mother hits a small boy with her car, this short story could have turned out way too much like a soap opera. Thankfully it doesn't - the focus stays in the right places, there's twists and, like Blitz Boys it's proof that you don't need big words for big emotion.

Predator's Gold by Phillip Reeve:

Okay, mainly down to a slightly grating love triangle, it's not as good as the first Mortal Engines book. That said, Tom and Hester are still really good characters (most of the time at least) having overcome some of the problems they had in the first book, yet remaining flawed and human characters. The new ones are good as well, with some genuinely sweet people to some believable and despicable villains. The world-building is just as imaginative, the action is perhaps even better than before and the twists and turns of the story just make it a great roller-coaster of a read.

Super Zeroes by Rhiannon Lassiter

For some reason I doubt it was coincidental that this book was published just a year after The Incredibles came out. That said, it certainly brings something new to the superhero-parody subgenre with the ordinary children of superheroes and supervillains getting together to bring down their egotistical, neglectful parents and take over the world themselves. This imaginative and childlike concept and Tony Ross's Quentin Blake-esque illustrations makes it great fun for kids of any age.

Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell:

Another nominee for the Carnegie Award, far more deserving than The Bunker Diaries, this book is lovely and child-friendly and genuinely heartfelt. Rundell tells the story of a strange tomboyish girl searching for her mother on the streets of Paris, with help from some semi-wild homeless orphans, beautifully. It's no secret that France has some great scenery, but this author really brings it to life, along with the truly memorable characters, with her gorgeous writing. Even if its not as deep as she perhaps thinks it is, it's still a real treat.

Bad Dreams by Anne Fine:

I can really believe Mel is based on Anne Fine's eleven year old self as she's perhaps one of the most relatable main characters in a book I've ever read. I'm not a big fan of fantasy books where the supernatural elements are so subtle they're barely visible, but in this book, it works so well with really interesting psychic powers and an involving mystery that's simply told. Plus, the illustrations are really nice too.

Harper and the Sea of Secrets by Cerrie Burnell:

This was one of about a dozen short books given away to children for free for World Book Day (with the tokens all schools give out.) It's great that a book as short and sweet, as imaginative and non-intimidating as this one is so readily and easily available to children across the country. Just little bits of fun ideas like using an upside-down umbrella as a boat (in reality an ideal way to fall in the sea) are enough to get small children into reading with some lovely descriptive writing and great illustrations with the charm of Lauren Child's.

The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School by Kim Newman:

I'm surprised I managed to finish this one with my roommates on NCS stealing and hiding it all the time. Not that I minded, it made this dark quirky book last even longer. Set in a boarding school for unusual girls, many of whom have supernatural powers, there's no shortage of mystery, scares, imagination and action heroines so memorable and so immensely loveable, they need to be in more books. (Mr Newman, please take the hint and write a sequel!) On top of all that, the nineteen twenties style, costume and great language is the lovely rich and creamy icing on the cake. It's definitely a YA book that needs more attention.

And the best book I read all Summer is...

ratatatatat (that's a drumroll)

Skyline by Patricia Schonstein Pinnock:

This is a real hidden gem, this book also deserves more attention. It's loosely based on the author's own life, about a teenage girl living in central Cape Town during Nelson Mandela's term as president of South Africa. In truth, there's not really much of a plot, it's all just really character heavy. We spend the entire time meeting refugees and people from so many different minorities all with their own stories and it's surprising just how emotional it is. As well as experiencing all these quite raw feelings, the beautiful imagery, created by Pinnock's poetic writing make it feel like a walk through an art gallery more than a story. This one could be quite Marmite, but in this case, I'm definitely a Marmite lover.

Rufolo Reviews: Sisters of the Sword #1 The Warrior's Path by Maya Snow

The best thing about visiting my nan: seeing my little cousins
The second best thing about visiting my nan: Taking them on a tour of all the charity shops in a DYING town and finding cheap books - like this one!
I'd say this is one of the most exciting historical fiction books I've ever read. It's about two princesses called Kimi and Hana whose father, a Samurai lord gets assassinated by a power-hungry, back-stabbing (literally) rival. They're forced to flee from their home and soon arrive at a jito, a school for training young boys to be Samurai, so they change their identities and from then on, it's like Mulan as a revenge story - only Japanese, obviously.
It's a pretty good story; because it's set largely in this school, you really see the characters improving and developing as they train. I quite liked Kimi and Hana, they're at least well-outlined characters, the sister-sister relationship was nice and I think Maya Snow deliberately leaves room for them develop throughout the series. The other characters are really good as well, if not better. Master Goku who runs the jito is one of the best teachers in a book and the villains are quite complex as well, they certainly evoke emotion from the reader.
The action sequences are really intense, it's quite violent for a book that seems aimed for children around twelve, less even. I'm not against that though, as plenty of kids that age are reading the Hunger Games or the Enemy or even playing Grand Theft Auto.

Anyway, back to the review, there's some good insight to Japanese culture and social history, the only real negatives I can think of is the meditating. There were twists and drama and a few somewhat complex characters, but I think there were times when this book just wasn't AS deep as the author thought it was and when I look back and compare it with books like Viking's Dawn and The Fire of Ares, it's still good, but not great historical fiction.
That said, there IS potential for this series to go deep and character heavy. This book is high on excitement and an enjoyable story, entertaining and educational - 7/10.

H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education

I read this one for two reasons: I fancied reading some action-heavy children's books in order to get better at writing them and because I'd bought Rogue without realising it was the fifth instalment in this series and felt kinda silly.

It's about an enormous school hidden in a bit of a knock-off of Thunderbird Island that trains kniving, mischevious, ingenious children to become James Bond-style supervillains. Man, that's a great concept.
I had something of a journey with this book; when I first started reading it, I was shocked, worried I'd be in for the most disappointing book ever. In the first chapter, these "child characters" were awful! They spoke more like androids than actual kids. At first the school and its villainous teachers seemed kinda boring, but be patient with this book because the more you see of the H.I.V.E, the better it gets.
The book lives up to its premise, introducing countless memorable villains with plenty of laughs, a fairly exciting story and some pretty good action. The young child-villains are all quite likeable characters. Otto is a great anti-hero, in my opinion better than Artemis Fowl. He and his friends all have really cool backstories. Admittedly I wish Walden saved some of it for later on in the series, so that I'd get to know the characters well to evoke more of a reaction when I saw where they came from, but Otto's best friend, Wing Fachu has a lot of mystery surrounding him, so I'm looking forward to the next book.
To top it all off, this book has one of the best climaxes I've ever read in a children's book - the action is just so intense and yet still fun and exciting, keeping to the tongue-in-chic tone of the rest of the book. It's better than Stormbreaker any day.