9th August, 2008

1984 by George Orwell

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This book was weird. I didn’t really understand Part 1 of Chapter 1, so I looked up Google and Wikipedia. This website helped me understand the story better.

So, the story’s about Winston Smith who lives in London, Oceania. It’s the year 1984 and there are only 3 countries in the world: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. Oceania is always at war with both countries but will always insist that it has been at war with one country at all times. Meaning, if they’re at war with Eurasia now means that they’ve always been at war with Eurasia. But then, they’ll suddenly be warring with Eastasia and then they’ll say that they’ve always been at war with Eastasia. Anybody who contradicts will of course be punished severely. Then, they’ll be altering newspapers, books, documents so that ‘mistakes’ will be cleared. It’s pretty stupid actually but then that’s how it is in Oceania.

Winston works in the Ministry of Truth. One day during his lunch hour, he goes back home and starts a diary secretly. No one was allowed to keep a diary. No one was allowed to have personal thoughts. And no one had privacy. There were telescreens in the houses of those who belonged in the Inner Party and Outer Party. The telescreens transmits and receives, like an advanced CCTV (closed-circuit television). Meaning those in charge will be monitoring your daily lives.

The Party rules Oceania. Big Brother is the leader and he’s always right. No one knows if Big Brother exists but his posters are everywhere to remind everyone that he’s ‘watching’ them. Big Brother is like the symbol of Oceania. Anyone who has thoughts of going against Big Brother will be caught by the Thought Police and will be tortured and brainwashed so that they’ll really love Big Brother again. To even think of something bad about the Party or of Big Brother is called ‘thoughtcrime’.

Thoughtcrime is a word in the Newspeak language. Newspeak is the official language of Oceania. According to Syme, one of the characters in 1984, ‘Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year’. You’ll encounter new words like ‘doublethink’, ‘crimestop’, ‘doubleplusungood’, and so on in this book. These are words in Newspeak. Oldspeak is what we’re speaking now.

Anyway, a woman from the Fiction Department, Julia, secretly hands Winston a note. He thought she’s a spy and that she’ll report him to the authorities sooner or later. However, this was what’s in the note:

“I love you”

Since then, they’ve begun a secret and illicit affair. It’s not allowed to love another woman so what they’re doing is going against the Party. Like Winston, Julia hates the Party and will do anything to go against them discreetly. They also know that they will be caught. Winston knows that they are as good as dead.

Oceania would be a really scary and tough place to live in. There’s no chance to be an individual. Everything is for the Party. Everyone must love Big Brother and the Party. The three slogans of the Party are:

War Is Peace
Freedom Is Slavery
Ignorance Is Strength

I finally read this book because my lecturer mentioned it in class. I’m glad I read it. You should pick it up soon so you’ll know how terrible it is to live in a country where there’s no freedom to do what you want, to believe in what you feel is right, to be a unique individual, etc.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Laura

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8th March, 2008

The BFG by Roald Dahl

When I first heard of The BFG, I thought it’s short for some scientific term that I did not know. Was I surprised when I found out that it’s short for The Big Friendly Giant! This is also the third Dahl book that I’ve read and it’s entertaining. The only set-back was the extraordinary words that Dahl created and the BFG’s broken English.

However, I found some interesting words that do not exist, for example, squackling, biffsquiggled, flushbunking, and lots more! After all, it is a story book and it’s supposed to be superbly fun!

Anyway, one night, during the witching hour, Sophie, a bespectacled orphan girl, was ‘kidnapped’ by The BFG. She had seen him and the giant thought he had better bring her back to his home so that she couldn’t tell the whole of England and the whole world that she had seen a giant. The BFG then brought her back to his cave/home in Giant Country.

Sophie and The BFG soon strike an unlikely friendship. The BFG is kind and sympathetic and Sophie likes him. The other 9 giants in that country are horrible and they eat humans. Therefore, The BFG has to hide Sophie in his cave where she’ll be safe. And no, The BFG doesn’t gobble up humans.

Besides that, The BFG has excellent hearing. He can hear things that we can’t normally hear. For example, he can hear a flower scream when it’s being plucked. He can hear a terrible sound a tree makes when it’s being chopped. He can hear the beating of your heart even though you are quite a distance away from him.

The screaming flower and chopping tree parts are also told in The Sound Machine, also written by Roald Dahl. Dahl was probably passionate about preserving the environment and making the world a better place. In The BFG, The BFG is proud of being a giant because he says that giants don’t kill their own kind. So are the animals. Only humans go around killing each other, especially in terrible wars.

The BFG likes to collect dreams, too. The dreams are invisible but he can hear them. He catches the dreams with his net in Dream Country where the dreams float around invisibly. He then keeps his dreams in jars and at night, he blows the dreams into children’s bedrooms where they’re sleeping. The dreams that he gives to the sleeping children are always good and happy dreams.

Anyhow, one day, the human-eating giants decide to visit England to feast on English children. Sophie was horrified and insists that she and The BFG go to England to tell the Queen everything about the nasty giants. The BFG was afraid to go at first but after persuasion from Sophie, he agreed to help her capture the giants with the Queen’s help.

I like the ending of the story. Read it and then you’ll see how Dahl ends his story in a clever way.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Melange, T

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5th December, 2007

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Probably this book became even more popular after a movie based on this story came out in cinemas. Unfortunately, I did not watch the whole movie yet and I think that Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka is quite suitable. After all, Mr. Wonka is an eccentric character and I’m sure Depp plays the role to perfection.

Anyway, the hero is Charlie Bucket and his family is extremely poor. His father is the only one in his family who is working but his pay is not enough to buy the proper amount of food for his whole family. Also, Charlie’s grandparents are very old and they stay on their bed all day and night. But, everyday, Charlie will sit on the bed and talk with his grandparents. This cheers them up despite having to live in such poor conditions.

And every day on the way to school, Charlie passes Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. When Charlie’s birthday was coming up, something exciting happened too. After so many years since he’s reopened his chocolate factory, Willy Wonka is inviting 5 children to visit his factory. He’s inserted 5 golden tickets in 5 random chocolate bars and the lucky 5 kids who find those tickets can see what it is like inside the factory.

As luck would have it, Charlie is the fifth person to find the last Golden Ticket. The other four lucky finders are Augustus Gloop – a boy who loves to eat, Veruca Salt – a rich, spoilt brat, Violet Beauregarde – a girl who likes to chew on chewing gum, and Mike Teavee – a boy who always watches television. Aren’t they an interesting mix?

The day of the visit is on Feb 1. Charlie is accompanied by his Grandpa Joe. As they enter the factory, all the visitors are overwhelmed by the beauty and the heavenly chocolatey smell there. Wow, wouldn’t I want to drink a cup of melted chocolate from the chocolate river? How I wish there’s a real Chocolate Room somewhere like the one in Wonka’s factory!

Besides that, the children got to see Willy Wonka’s secret workers, the Oompa-Loompas! These Oompa-Loompas are small people who love singing and eating cacao beans. It’s certainly a magical chocolate factory and new surprises lie in wait for all the visitors. Good and bad surprises.

The book that comes after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Oh, Dahl probably doesn’t like the television very much. The joy and wonders of reading is clearly stressed in one of the Oompa-Loompas’ songs!

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Tatiana, 20223banana, Alice

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24th June, 2007

White Boots by Noel Streatfeild

This is the second time I’m reading something by Noel Streatfeild. The story starts with Harriet Johnson who’s not feeling very well and does not look very well either. She’s nearly ten years old but she doesn’t have the energy and vivacity of normal ten-year-old kids.

The Johnson family consists of George and Olivia Johnson, Harriet’s parents, and Alec, Toby, and Edward are her brothers. Her parents own a shop that sells off vegetables, fruits and other stuff which their uncle, William Johnson sent them. Usually, what he sent them could not be sold off easily as they were bad, rotting or just things that people don’t want. He grew them in his own garden and always eats the good ones so the Johnson family is stuck with selling bad stock.

Now, since Harriet is feeling weak and looking fragile, her doctor, Dr. Phillipson suggested that she take up skating to improve her health and strengthen her legs. Alec will then get a job delivering newspapers so that there’ll be money to rent her skates and boots. Her brothers are really thoughtful.

At the skating rink, Harriet befriends another young girl, Lalla Moore who’s training to be the greatest skater in the world. Lalla’s parents died in a skating accident when she was very young. Her eccentric Aunt Claudia wished for her to be a star skater and made her practise as often as possible. The aunt is also always reminding everyone that Lalla is a special child and that she needs to concentrate fully on her skating and nothing else. Therefore, poor Lalla’s life is quite sad for a young child who shouldn’t have such a heavy burden on her shoulders.

The story is more focused on Lalla’s skating and not much on Harriet’s. When she first entered the skating rink, she could barely skate. But, we will know that she’s improving fast not only in her skating but in her health too. She’s become so good that Lalla’s personal skating trainer, Max, told her to take up some skating tests, which Lalla had taken earlier.

Lalla is quite a selfish little girl with too many grand ideas in her head. When she sees a photograph of Harriet in a newspaper and the article claiming her to have a great future in skating before her, she got upset and threatened poor Harriet. Of course, Lalla thinks that she should be the only good skater and Harriet will always be not as good as her.

White Boots is a nice story for children and adults alike. I thought the cover somewhat dull. Only a pair of legs in white boots doing a ‘left forward outside edge, most likely a crossover’, according to Noel Streatfeild’s nephew, William Streatfeild, who wrote a postscript at the end of the book. If it’s a book meant to attract children, they should make a cover that is more eye-catching.

Buy White Boots (Large Print)

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8th June, 2007

The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett

What an interesting book! And imagine if you had SIX brothers and sisters, seven if you include yourself! Wouldn’t it be fun and rowdy everyday, fighting and playing with your numerous siblings? That’s what life is for the Ruggles family who live at Number 1, One End Street in Otwell.

Josiah or Jo and Rosie Ruggles have seven children where two of the redheaded boys are twins. Jo is a Dustman while Rosie is a Washerwoman. Let me name the childrens’ names from eldest to youngest. Lily Rose, Kate, James and John, Jo, Peg, and William.

Each child has had an adventure. I noticed that Peg is the only without any remarkable and exciting incident happening to her. First off is Lily Rose’s mistake with the green silk petticoat. It actually belongs to one of Rosie’s customers and Lily Rose had a blunder with it.

Next is the brilliant Kate who hopes to win a scholarship. However, her parents are worried because if she wins a scholarship, it means that they’d have to spend on her uniforms, tennis racket, shoebags, etc. Well, Kate got a new school hat and something unfortunate happens. Will she get to wear her new school hat to school?

Incidentally, the twins, James and John were recruited into a gang. Each member in the gang was required to indulge in any kind of thrilling adventure and was expected to relate it to the other members during the weekly meetings. Therefore, both set out to find their own adventures and I can say that they did have some interesting tales to tell the other boys.

Jo is a fan of Mickey Mouse and he loves going to the cinema although his mom doesn’t really approve of children spending time at the cinema. When there’s a new exciting show coming up, Jo’s eager to catch it no matter what it takes!

And baby William was entered in a baby contest! He’s ten months old and still toothless. But, his proud parents still think he has a chance of winning a prize. Well, he seems like an adorable little baby, anyway.

Eve Garnett herself illustrated the beautiful illustrations in this book! She’s an artist AND a writer. One publisher even thought that this book was not suitable for children and turned it down. Rather weird, huh? I think it’d be a wonderful read for both children and adults alike!

Buy The Family from One End Street (Puffin Modern Classics)

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20th April, 2007

Ballet Shoes For Anna by Noel Streatfeild

Ballet Shoes For Anna is a tremendously beautiful story for children as well as adults. It is a story of three children who had the misfortune of losing their family and home in an earthquake in Turkey. The children are Francesco, 10, Gussie, 9, and Anna, 8. They led an almost extraordinary life for their parents, Christopher and Olga, lived in a caravan and they traveled frequently.

Their maternal grandfather, whom they affectionately called Jardek, thinks that Anna would make a great ballet dancer one day. He was an amazing dancing teacher himself so he gave Anna ballet lessons to train her.

Fortunately, after the earthquake, Sir William Hoogle, who wanted to offer help to the victims of the disaster, met the children and looked after them until he found a legal guardian for them. Finally, the children were sent to live with their unsociable uncle, Cecil Docksay, and his timid wife, Mabel. The uncle also refused to send Anna for ballet lessons.

Therefore, Francesco and Gussie diligently tried hard to find money so that Anna could be trained to be a dancer. I think that her brothers are very caring and thoughtful because they kept insisting to everybody that Anna must have ballet lessons. But, Anna can be quite silly, as she does not seem to realize the trouble and worries she’d caused to her brothers while they tried to earn money. She is just adamant to get the best teacher and also one she can learn with.

The cover of the book that I have now is not that attractive. To young readers, in my opinion. It was published by Collins. The colours are dull and it only shows Anna with her pink ballet shoes in the background. If the cover had brighter colours, there’s no doubt I would have taken an instant liking to it even if I haven’t read the book yet. That is why you ought to take care never to ever let the book cover fool you! Read the book first, and then only judge.

It is a simple story but a very meaningful one. You get a pleasant feeling while reading it. When Gussie managed to land himself in a tight spot, you’d be eager to find out if all goes well or not. This book had been sitting in my bookshelf for quite a long time and I regretted not reading it sooner. Well, better late than never!

Buy Ballet Shoes for Anna (Lions)

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22nd February, 2007

Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones

This is the fourth Diana Wynne Jones book that I have read and it is also much better than Hexwood. Maybe because Charmed Life was a lot easier to read, as the language was simple and there were not many complicated names.

Eric and Gwendolen Chant were most unfortunate when their parents died during their family day trip. Then, they were sent to live with their neighbour, Mrs. Sharp. Mrs. Sharp was a certified witch and she was glad to have the children to stay with her. She was also interested in Gwendolen because she was a witch too. Eric, or Cat, as Gwendolen calls him, seems like a normal boy with no magical powers.

Gwendolen was then sent for magic lessons at Mr. Henry Nostrum’s place. He was very proud of her because she’s a very gifted witch and has the potential to rule the world. Well, that was what he told her.

One day, Chrestomanci paid the Chants a visit and invited them to live with him at Chrestomanci Castle. Gwendolen was ecstatic to be going there and it was her who wrote to him in the first place, telling him about her parents’ death. It seemed that Chrestomanci was somehow related to the Chants. Cat was not that excited to go there at all. He would miss Mrs. Sharp terribly.

The young Chants arrive at Chrestomanci Castle to find its surroundings were filled with magic. I like the way Jones described that you could smell magic or feel the magic in the air. I wonder how it’s like to smell magic!

Anyway, Gwendolen expected to be treated like a queen and waited on hand and foot. However, she was thoroughly disappointed when they did not fuss over her like how Mrs. Sharp and Mr. Nostrum did. Furthermore, she was not allowed to have magic lessons with Chrestomanci’s children, Roger and Julia.

I found that things got very interesting when nearing the end of the book. I also believe that this book is the first part of the Chrestomanci series. In other words, this book should be the first book in the Chrestomanci series to be read. The next one to read would be The Lives of Christopher Chant.

Buy Charmed Life

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25th January, 2007

The School at the Chalet by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

The School at the Chalet sounded interesting to me and I thought it would be a fun book to read. Little did I know that the beginning was so hopelessly boring! Therefore, it took me quite a long time to finish this book and unfortunately, I could not read other books yet. I tend to read one book at a time, so in order to read the next one, I have to finish the one I’m currently reading.

Nonetheless, the book got better after reading about ¾ of it. When I finished the book, I wanted to read more of it! I’m keen to read what adventures Joey, Madge, Grizel, Juliet, Simone, and the others will have in the books that follow The School At The Chalet. That would not be a problem because Elinor M. Brent-Dyer wrote over 60 books about the Chalet School.

Madge, Dick, and Joey are the Bettany siblings. They have no parents and struggling to support themselves. Then, Madge decided to start a school in the Austrian Tyrol. I did not know that it would be so frightfully easy to start a school but anyhow, Madge did it. Initially, the school had very few students but it grew as the time went by.

I found this school story somewhat familiar with Enid Blyton’s school stories. It was also amusing that the girls insisted on keeping up with what English schools in England did. Play pranks. The students at the Chalet School consisted of different nationalities. The German students were excited to play pranks because they wanted to feel being in an English school. The only thing they did not have was a midnight feast like how Enid Blyton’s schools had.

Of course there are tragedies, excitements, rows with various kinds of people, making new friends, silly students, etc. It was dull in the beginning because all everyone did was introduce themselves to each other. Things sped up when the girls began to play pranks on one another and there were the consequences.

I also learnt new German words too, for example, mittagessen or lunch.

I am looking forward to reading more Chalet School books.

Buy The School at the Chalet (The Chalet School Series)

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13th January, 2007

Harriet The Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

I really like this book especially the ending, which was very touching. Harriet M. Welsch thinks she is a spy and she acts like one too. It’s quite funny the way she peeps into people’s houses to see what they are doing and what is going on. She is 11 years old and keeps a notebook. It is like a diary to her. She writes notes in her notebook frequently and feels utterly lost without her precious notebook.

She has a nurse and she is affectionately known as Ole Golly. Harriet is very close to her and she will give Harriet useful advice. Usually quotes from poems. Only Ole Golly understands Harriet’s need to always write in her notebook.

Harriet has 2 best friends, Sport and Janie. Sport likes to cook (he has to cook anyway because his father is a writer and he’s in charge of the cooking) while Janie dreams of being a scientist. Her main goal is to create a chemical that will blow up the whole world. Yeah, really eccentric.

One day, Harriet accidentally lost her notebook. Unfortunately, the notebook fell into the hands of her classmates. She wrote some nasty things about them and they sure did not like it. They grouped together and went against Harriet. They refuse to talk or acknowledge her or be her friend. She became even lonelier when Ole Golly resigned from her job as her nurse. The term nurse here is not your hospital nurse. A nurse is something like a nanny or governess.

Then, Harriet’s parents thought she has some psychology problem and sent her to see a shrink. Well, things soon got better after that. This is a thoughtful book and is a great read for everyone.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Grace

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