King James Reading Royalty
Glasgow Boys
Glasgow boys by Margaret McDonald is a split perspective book that follow Banjo and Finlay in their respective pursuit of love. Finlay is a struggling nursing student and Banjo is in a new secondary school. I felt like the book being split hindered it rather than helping as in my opinion Banjos story is much more compelling compared to Finlay's this resulted in the Finlay's chapters feeling like a speed bump before getting to Banjo's. this is further evident as Banjo and Finlay not even meeting until the last 50 pages of the book them previously only sharing flashbacks. overall 6/10
ceejay
Glasgow Boys
“Glasgow Boys” by Margaret Mcdonald is a beautifully crafted story of love, family, relationships and dealing with personal problems. This book can be a story people can relate to, or put themselves in the character’s shoes while dealing with growing up and building relationships. The main message is how love doesn’t have to focus on just romantic relationships, family is all around us, and family is who you choose to let in.
This book does what it set out to do really well, creating characters that you can relate to, route and care for. The story and characters are all well written, as it's a beautiful story.
Diving more into the characters, their situations mirror while being completely different. Banjo, for example, is short tempered and bad-mouthed, which may be a barrier for some people but I see it as developing the characters further as it makes it so much more impactful when Finlay swears, as he doesn’t very often.
Personally I recommend this book, as it has a beautiful story, with well written characters and messages.
10/10
Joshua
The Final Year
The final year is a book that tackles the stressful life of Nate and how the relationship he has with his friends , family , and education can affect the transition period to year 6 and preparation for SATS. Set around a modern British primary school the book shows Nate’s struggle to balance his exams and personal life, namely his waning relationship to his friend Ps and his brothers poor health and the book does so realistically by showing the strain it has on Nate mainly by using the metaphor of the beast which shows the pent up anger , frustration and stress he has to bear. One of my favourite characters is Mr Joshua who is shown to be a sort of mentor figure for Nate helping him revise and encouraging him to write poetry as a form to relieve some of his stress and frustration. Mr Joshua also refers to the book Skellig which shares many parallels to Nate’s own life. Overall I believe the final year can be an inspiring and heartfelt book to many children in similar situations to Nate or primary school kids revising for their seats in general.
James
Treacle Town
Treacle town written by Brian Conaghan is an exhilarating read which deals with a boy named Con O’Neil who is in gang culture. The story opens with the grim , horrible scene of the character biscuit also known as Mark’s funeral where it immediately shows the brutal consequences of joining a gang life. The book later develops into the main plot where Con has to write a diss song to combat the diss song made by a rival gang over Biscuit’s death. Whilst looking for inspiration Con stumbles along a poetry video by PaulaTik. Con is immediately gripped and mesmerized by how she uses words and poetry in general. One of the main dynamics of the book is Con and his father who uses going to the gym and bodybuilding as a way to cope due to his wife (Con’s mother’s) suidice. Con's mother introduced him to music primarily rap, which is still a joy for him after his mothers passing. Another main dynamic is the gang Con is in and how it has become one of if not the most important thing in his life. Like himself the gang Con is in all dropped out before 6 form and in most retrospects don't have much of a future and are in some ways trapped to gang life. This is where the name treacle town was derived from , meaning the town is sticky and keeping them in. The gang consists of Nails , Wee Z and Trig the “leader” who try to get revenge for biscuit's death. This comes to the climax where Con goes to a Poetry convention to see PaulaTik meanwhile Trig and Wee Z decide to avenge Biscuit leading to Trig’s death again showing the danger and violence inside of gang life as a whole. The main parts I liked about this book is the way it used real life brands and artists alongside swearing and slang from the area to fully enrich the world and make it more believable and ultimately tragic. I recommend this book to people who find themselves not fully understanding or any young person in general to show the dangers and hardships of people with this lifestyle.
James
The Final Year
The final year by Matt Goodfellow explores the feelings of a young boy as he transitions from year 5 to 6. the main character of the book is troubled with anger issues that he refers to as 'the beast' on top of this the boy is a young poet. He writes a poem in response to the events in his life which i think is a unique and interesting way to show emotions in a book. However, I do have one big criticism which is that I didn't like how the big plot development was handled. overall 8/10
Ceejay
I Love Books
This book showed me how books can inspire you into making reading your hobby. It also shows that you should always give something a try.
Felix
King of Nothing
'King of Nothing' is an amazing story,its title is such a well thought out title as we learn why it is King of Nothing. We go through a rollercoaster of Anton questioning his ideals again and again, trying to uphold his title of the King of School but as the book progresses his eyes are opened to realise by his real friends and family that reputation isn't everything. His first real friend who he thinks is a loser at the start but starts correcting himself that he isn't a loser he's just a loner. After Matthew saves him from the grasps of death ,he starts hanging with Matthew more and more and realises what a true friend is and he is able to escape the painful grasps of his former friends and their sexist un-developed ways. As he starts progressing towards his GCSEs he realises that having a reputation at school is nothing,being the king of school means nothing in his future life.The impact on this book of young people would be immense since it explores the concepts of friendships and reputation, making young people realise and see that your school reputation means nothing in the long run,it will not help you with getting a job or your GCSEs and you should focus on your future and your relationships with friends and family.
Gabriel
Play
'Play' follows four boys as they grow older and face the challenges that come with it, we get to see each one of the boys as they face their challenges in their own unique ways. the book hopes to tackle problems teenagers face and gives perspective on teenagers and the pitfalls that may happen to them. the novel is realistic in their approach and doesn't hold back its punches when it comes to depicting trauma. the book's realism approach doesn't personally appeal to me however I can still see how someone would like this book. Overall i would give this book a 7/10
Ceejay
I Love Books
I really enjoyed this book! I can also really relate to this book. The way that the illustrations show the journey it took for the girl to love books is amazing! I love how the colours show so much emotion and action as well!! This book would really help someone who HATES books to someone who LOVES books.
10/10 for me!!
Leila
Grey
I really enjoyed the book! The illustrations are good as the colours fill up the drawings. I loved at the end it was all colourful and at the start she is sad and grey. The colours opened a different world with colour, showing she wasn't in a world just grey. But it was okay to feel that way.
sophie