Calling all explorers, adventurers and intrepid investigators! Your reviews are heading into uncharted waters this week (and peeking their noses into some VERY top secret diaries...)
We're diving straight in this week as two of our reviewers wrote superb reviews of Maps by Aleksandra and Daniel Mizielinski. This ingenious factbook visits people across the world. BookTrain125 summarised the basics for us: 'it's all about the countries of the world and their cultures, food, animals and dress… It was packed full of intriguing facts all presented in a colourful and interesting way. It has information from all over the world.'
First to comment was site member Brussels Sprout, who noted:
'I think that Maps is a very good book, as it says what people like doing around the world… It is also good if you want to play explorers because you can pretend you are on an expedition!'
BookTrain125 then followed on to explain how it all worked:
'Although this book was made in an appealing format I thought that perhaps it did not have enough words and was harder to understand. It had a lot of words but all spread around, and that made it harder to find a fact. Also it did not have all the countries, which was disappointing. Other than that it was fascinating. It was fascinating, appealing, interesting and informative.'
Another eager reviewer off exploring the world this week was Raindrop, who wrote a delightful review of the Green Android's Children's Sticker Atlas of the World! This interactive non-fiction book provides handy information about landmarks across the world … with stickers!
'I liked this book because it has loads and loads of information… You read the information on the page and you find a sticker about it then you stick it down. It has information about food and drink and landmarks… It's an amazing book with loads of brilliant pictures.'
Something now for our action-adventure lovers: Bookworm1408 wrote a terrific review of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Do we really need to summarise the plot for you? Well, alright - if we must! In this post-apocalyptic tale, Katniss from District 12 must battle in an annual televised fight to the death in order to entertain the capitol...
'One of the most amazing books ever! It's one of my favourite books because it's so exciting and it makes your heart race and your blood pump. If you haven't read it you have to, no matter what kind of books you like! I would say that you have to be over eleven at the least to read it because it is very violent and extreme!'
To diaries now (and top secret ones at that!) RugbyDog wrote an outstanding review of The Unbelievable Top Secret Diary of Pig by Emer Stamp. In this tale of outrageous animal antics, Pig and Duck get into an intergalactic spat with three evil chickens who try to send Pig to Pluto!
'I liked the The Unbelievable Top Secret Diary because it was hilarious and it was spoken in pig language which sounds like a sort of slang… I liked the big pictures, such as when Pig is on a diving board jumping into Duck's pond. I also liked where there was a page with the word BANG! and then below it in small letters 'I died' and then on the next page it said 'just joking I'm still alive'. It just surprised me and then made me laugh…'
More diaries - this time of a more human dimension - BookMad2603 reviewed something for our teen members: The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole by Sue Townsend. This story charts a longer period of Adrian Mole's life, which BookMad2603 felt made the book feel much looser and unstructured.
'I have very mixed views on this book, which are quite controversial. This story takes up a substantial amount of Adrian's life, therefore I don't think it was nearly as detailed as the previous books (The Secret Diary and The Growing Pains). I disliked the lack of intricacy in this story, and I didn't believe that there was a clear story-line. However, this book made me laugh and was wonderfully humorous. Starting with Adrian aged 16, the story tackles the impurities of adolescence, which is what makes this book so entertaining… Overall this book was rather "all over the shop", as it contained different sections of storylines compiled together, making it rather difficult to understand. On the other hand, it was incredibly funny'
Thank you to all of our avid readers for such a fantastic variety of reviews this week. Site members, if we have included your review in our roundup email us (childrens.books@theguardian.com), and we will send you an early Christmas present from our cupboards.
Happy reading!
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