Monday 12 September 2011

Pinocchio

I think this book pressed the point of the story a little too hard. After the first two times it had done it - Pinocchio tried to be good, gets distracted, goes off to do something else - it kind of got repetitive. He does it for the first time in chapter 9, chapter 12 makes two, chapter 16 is third, chapter 18 fourth, chapter 20 fifth. Then a snake randomly dies for no reason. I do mean no reason, it serves no purpose. For one paragraph he is caught by a snake who laughs and dies. Chapter 23 is the sixth, chapter 25 makes seven, chapter 29 makes eight, and for the ninth time in chapter 36.
Do you see my point?
The language was understandable, which is pretty good considering it was written in 1883. But, because of the repetitive thing I am giving it only 22 out of 100

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland / Through The Looking Glass

I think it is unfair that I had to read two books and they only count as one on the list. Out of the two books I think I liked the second one the best because I could act out the whole book on my chessboard. I liked this prospect a lot and tried it out. Surprisingly it works perfectly, you just have to figure out the terms.
In terms of the books themselves, the first one was very odd and it was difficult to keep up with all the strange characters. I think that the best character in the first book is the Cheshire Cat. I liked him the most because of his attitude and evaporating skills.
In the second book the plot is a game of chess and Alice's quest to be a queen by crossing to the other side of the board. I think everyone knows enough about chess to follow this book, plus at the start of the book it says that all the moves correspond and stay within the rules of the game.
I think I give the first book 47 out of 100 and the second book 62 out of 100. This gives a mean score of 54.5 (My mum made me do the maths)

Jay writes - I always struggle with Alice books. The dreamlike surrealism and the nonsense gets on my nerves. I much prefer the poems within the books to the stories, and I am glad Luke could find things to enjoy in these classics that mostly don't appeal to me.

Moving Pictures

This is the first Discworld novel that I've read. While it was rather a long and confusing book, it was quite amusing and witty.
The book is set in a strange world that is a flat disc carried on the back of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle swimming through space. On the Discworld there are loads of different types of creatures including wizards, dwarves, vampires and witches. The basic plot of the book is that the alchemists of the Discworld have made a silver screen capable of showing moving pictures. They make the moving pictures in a place called Holy Wood Hill and everyone wants to be in one.
My favourite character in this book is Gaspode, who is an old grey street dog who temporarily knows how to talk. What I liked about him the most was that when people came along he literally said the words 'Woof woof.' He's got a sarcastic sense of humour and likes to think he doesn't care about humans.
My favourite bit in the book is when two characters are discussing hieroglyphics and they point out that sometimes two hieroglyphs put together can mean a new word. For example, says one character, 'woman' plus 'slave' means 'wife.' I found that hilarious.
Moving Pictures has lots of references to old movies and Hollywood - stuff like Gone with the Wind, Lassie, and the Oscars. This might be good for people who are older than me but my age group don't know enough about the history of Hollywood to get all the references. Despite this, it is still a very funny book and I give it 78 out of 100