Harper Lee – To Kill A Mockingbird (Book Review)

Opening Line: When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. Book Cover Blurb: “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee‘s […]

Jacqueline Wilson – The Story of Tracy Beaker (Book Review)

Opening Line(s): My name is Tracy Beaker. I am 10 years 2 months old. My birthday is on 8 May. It’s not fair, because that dopey Peter Ingham has his birthday then too, so we just got the one cake between us. Book Cover Blurb: Tracy is ten years old. She lives in a Children’s Home […]

Patrick Süskind – Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Book Review)

Opening Line: In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. Book Cover Blurb: His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if his name has been forgotten today, it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short […]

George Orwell – Animal Farm (Book Review)

Opening Line: Mr Jones, of the manor farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. Book Cover Blurb: Animal Farm is a satirical allegory on the Russian Revolution. It tells the simple and tragic story of what happens when the oppressed farm rebel to attain freedom […]

John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men (Book Review)

Opening Line: A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. Synopsis: Streetwise George and his big child-like friend Lennie are […]