The World of Literature


English teachers LOVE Books   

Top reads from the Baradene Library - Senior Fiction
reviews by ms. frost

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
This is a lovely book.  Set in an Italian convent in 1570, the book follows the developing relationship between an older nun and a rebellious 16-year-old novice unwillingly committed to the convent.  The story is a bit of a "boddice ripper", but that doesn't diminish the power of the description of early convent life or the richness with which the characters are drawn.  I found the characters enthralling because they are so finely drawn, and the convent and its doings seemed to live on in my mind when I was forced to put the book down.  I highly recommend this book.

	We need to talk about Kevin How would you feel if your son did something really awful? And how would you feel if you had known all along that there was something vile in his nature that would eventually erupt in this devastating way? And you had told people but they only looked at you as if you were the evil one, a mother too disturbed to love her own son? Would it make you feel any better if you could say, I told you so? You could compare this book to Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes, on the same theme.
	Revolutionary Road The story of a young couple who think they are something special. How can they have, then, ended up with lives more like Peyton Place? Desperate to break out of normalcy, they plunge into a chasm of betrayal and lies.

Room
by Emma Donoghue

Mrs McElrae thought this book was a bit "book clubbish" - sentimental and gushy - but I quite enjoyed it.  It's written from the perspective of a five-year-old boy who has lived his whole life locked in a single room with his young mother.  They hatch a cunning plan to escape their kidnapper, and Jack comes face-to-face with the whole world of "outside".  Can you imagine what that would be like?

You might enjoy this book if you've read the "Flowers in the Attic" series and can stand a sad read.  It remainded me a bit of "One foot wrong" by Sophie Laguna, which is even sadder than "Room".  It is also a little bit like "The Boy in Striped Pyjamas" because it is narrated by a young boy who doesn't quite have all the words and concepts he needs to understand the world around him.

The Angel's Game     by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Have you read any 19th century novels, for example by Charles Dickens or Charlotte Bronte?  If you like the slow pace and the mysterious gothic atmosphere of those novels, you might enjoy this book that develops and unravels a "sinister mystery" in Barcelona in the 1920s.  Although the setting is not Victorian, and Barcelona is not much like England for that matter, the style and tone of this novel is quite old-fashioned and some of the description of setting are extremely well-drawn and detailed.  It is a supernatural mystery too, so if you're into vampires and demons, this is a step up from Eclipse etc.  To be honest, while I did enjoy this book it wasn't one I just couldn't put down - it required a fair bit of concentration and I found the pace a little slower than I usually enjoy.

Teen Fiction -
reviews by Ms Frost

Genesis by Bernard Beckett

Set in a future world, the boundaries between human and machine are blurred in the strangely backward-looking "Republic". The style of narration is engaging and the ideas intriguing - if a little bloodthirsty. However, I tend to read the end of a book once I get about 2 chapters into it, and once I worked out the 'twist' in the storyline I lost interest in reading my way to it (You might this it serves me right if I'm so silly to skip to the end, but actually I find it helps me focus on the deeper features of the novel - like language and symbolism - if I'm not just reading to find out how it all ends.) Why don't you have a read of this book and tell me what you think. Would you like to have exams like this?

If you enjoy this book, you might also enjoy " The Adoration of Jenna Fox".


Finding Violet Park by Jenny Valentine

I read this book after reading "Broken Soup", which I enjoyed. This book is good too. It's about a chain of coincidences that turn into a story that helps the young narrator come to terms with a terrible secret in his past. And it's laugh-out-loud funny in parts.

If you enjoy this book, and you think you're ready for a more grown up book - and you're allowed to access the senior fiction shelves - you might like to try either of the two novels by Jonathan Safran Foer - they are also stories about young narrators who start looking into family secrets and find out some shocking and illuminating things.

Witness by Karen Hesse

Have you read "Out of the Dust"? This book, by the same author, is about racism in the American South. It's interesting because it's a "verse novel" - a novel told in the form of poems, each one narrated by different participants in the story. It's an interesting technique that builds up a multilevel picture of a single shocking event seen from different perspectives. The different 'voices' that tell the story show the different responses to events and how people are changed by them. If you read it you should try to appreciate the author's skill in creating these complex characters just by having them tell their own stories.

If you enjoy this book you might also enjoy reading more about the Southern state of USA in Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry, To Kill a Mockingbird, or The Secret Life of Bees. If you liked Out of the Dust and Witness because of their style, you might enjoy the verse novel Jinx by Margaret Wild.

August   by Bernard Beckett
You might be surprised that I read this book given that I didn't particularly enjoy Genesis by the same author, but the librarian made me do it!  The book is based on an interesting idea: a young man and the prostitute he has hired are trapped in his car after an accident.  Conversation ensues, but not the kind you may expect.  Their conversation is a philosophical debate in disguise and concerns the problem of 'free will' and whether such a state can exist if God already knows how everything will turn out.  If you are interested in exploring the relevance of your faith to today's world, this book might interest you.  You'll know from my review above that sometimes I read the end of a book before I get to it - I can assure you that the end of this book doesn't give anything away.)

Being Here by Barry Jonsberg

The best book I've read in the Young Adults section of the library this year!  It is narrated by  Leah, the oldest woman in Australia, who recounts her memories of growning up to Carly, a 16-year-old student from the local high school, who is doing an oral history project.  Moving skilfully between the past and present, the story told is of an isolated young girl growing up in post-WWI Australia, who survives personal trauma with the help of an imaginary - or is he? - friend.  If you think your mum's strict, wait ill you meet Leah's!  I enjoyed this book so much I'm going to the library right now to see if we have others by the same author - I'm returning this one today, so maybe you'd like to get it out for the holidays?


The Whole business with Kiffo and the Pitbull  by Barry Jonsberg

I enjoyed Being Here so I thought I'd try another book by Barry Jonsberg.  This one might be for you if you're not enjoying English too much this year - although I find it hard to imagine that could be the case.  The pitbull of the title is Kiffo's new English teacher, who "slobbered and snarled her way into" his class and turned his world upside down.   The story is interesting, the narrator is complex and engaging, and the whole book is quite hilarious - although the ending is not funny at all.  The front cover calls it a novel about "true friendship with a crime mystery thrown in" - so if that sounds like your cup of tea, I heartily recommend this book.

Triple Ripple  by Brigid Lowry

This novel is probably a good read for you if you are in year 9 or 10.  It is a fairytale with a difference - the story is told through the perspectives of three different narrators.  One narrator is a character in the story, but of the other two one is the author herself (reflecting on the process of writing the novel you are reading) and one is an imaginary reader of the novel.  So that's a bit unusual.  The stories themselves are reasonably predictable and the characters are fairly stereotypical for teen fiction.  However, there are some funny bits and it's a pretty quick read . .  .