Bookwizards

Treacle Town
Treacle Town by Brian Conaghan is a novel set in the deprived town of Coatbridge, Glasgow, Scotland. We are introduced to the protagonist Connor O’Neil, who has been struggling with the loss of his mother and his dearest friend Mark, ‘Biscuit’, McVitie. He is also feeling the urge to escape this rabbit-hole of a town, where he is affected by the poverty and uncertainty of lacking a job. His town of Coatbridge is almost a close twin to Maycomb in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, where a day in the town is depicted as being ‘twenty-four hours long but seemed longer’. This portrays the idea that both characters are searching for change to their local towns and shows how they feel uncomfortable in the presence of things that wreck their communities, in this case, racial prejudice and violence. Overall, this book deserved its reputation as a truly interesting story, largely because of how the developed use of inner monologue which shows us what Conor is thinking and further creates queries about the decisions he might make, like his decision to join the poetry group or not. The frequent and, some might say, over-the-top use of foul language conveys how the characters feel about their living conditions and the failures of the council or government. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the lives of people from less fortunate areas of the country. However, the bad language may not be liked by some readers.

Alex

Glasgow Boys
I really enjoyed this book as it makes you feel. I say this as you feel as if you are the character and the events are happening to you. I really liked that the book shifts between characters as you can see that they kind of mirror each other. For example, when Banjo and Alena got together, the next chapter Finlay and Akash did likewise. I also really enjoyed the sense of time travelling when it went back 3 years to give the reader more information. It is hard to describe in words how good this book was and how much you could relate to someone totally different to yourself. The only thing I didn't like was the cover as I don't think that it portrays the book as well as it could have.

Liam

Play
Personally, I believe that this book tells the truth about how easy it is to take things to far and to ruin your lives. The book follows four boys who are starting year nine at school and are constantly in search of a new 'game'. When Mark gets involved with his brothers shady friend, he thinks that he's found the best game of all. As Mark grows apart from the others, he starts spending his money from selling drugs to everyone. As everyone starts taking more and more drugs from Mark, it all goes wrong for the foursome at a house party when Johnny dies. I think that the cover of the book fits the story as it shows a scene from the book that could be interpreted as Johnny's suicide or as them at the river.

Liam

Play
PLAY: This intriguing book is about the negatives of drugs on people. The book switches perspectives from 4 different friends: -Luc- who we see as a sporty sixth former pushing his body to the limit -Mark- a person who got himself tangled in the drug business -Matthew- a person who got himself addicted to drugs -Johnny- a helpful and vengeful friend who was heading for disaster. These boys had their lives spoiled by drugs and Johnny even died after consuming too much...

Aarnav

King of Nothing
The king of nothing: This intriguing book on the mindset of teenagers nowadays is quite a page turner. This book is based on a character called Anton and he is a well respected figure due to his imprisoned father and his own violence amongst his peers. This leads to him also getting quite a few detentions meaning that he gets his wifi unfortunately blocked by his mum. To regain it he must help out his mum with her job at little campers... He meets a shy person who goes to the same school and these meetings were his hamartia.

Aarnav

The Final Year
I've read this book and It's an amazing book Based upon a boy leaving primary school And moving to his secondary school He has two brothers and a mother, he is called nate and in this book it tells how he moves on to his secondary school

Manasva

The Final Year
The Final Year This story takes place in the North of England during Nate's (the story's main protagonist) second-to-final year of primary school. One of the main themes in this book is resilience because it shows how Nate perceives through his struggles. This book also teaches children, or even adults, about managing friendships and family. This story is told in first person from Nate's point of view and my favourite style of the book was how the author had made anger seem like a monster and how he made emotions feel real. This book is a mix of action and drama. I think I relate to Caleb because he seems like a calm and gentle friend who is kind and caring, and he seems like the best character in the story. The main suspense (I hope this is not a spoiler) is Dylan (Nate's 4-year-old brother) being sent to the hospital because there is something wrong with his heart. But Mr Joshua helped Nate the most. I would recommend this book to a friend because I think this book is a real treasure to have. After all, it teaches many life lessons and it does make you reflect on your actions.

Rithvik

Treacle Town
I thought that Treacle Town was a great book to start the Carnegie journey. Firstly, I loved the cover as I felt that it conveyed the book perfectly in an easy to understand way. The book follows an evocative path of devastating lows and hopeful highs. Personally, I really enjoyed the slam poems as I felt that they reflect society in some ways. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the Irish slang as some of it was hard to make sense of. Overall, I really enjoyed Treacle Town as it was cleverly written and extremely realistic.

Liam