This is a review by my friend, Jahanara.

Noughts and crosses is an amazing book for teens and young adults, it’s a thrilling story set in a world of injustice where noughts are discriminated against and crosses are superior. This book is the first of a fantastic series containing five books. Noughts and crosses is about the lives of Sephy, Callum and there children, Sephy is a cross and Callum is a nought so it is forbidden that they see each other but they do it anyway…

This book isn’t like the other books I’ve posted on book worming. Instead of there being a story, it teaches you about lots of different aspects of the English Language. For example, one of the chapters talks about lipograms. A lipogram is where a book, or a paragraph, or a nursery rhyme doesn’t include a particular letter. For example, in the book Brandreth rewrites an exert from the Twelfth Night without the letters l and o.

“If music be desire’s sustenance, make music yet;
Give me excessive music, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and thus die…”

Who knew what a lipogram was? I certainly didn’t before I read this book. He also has another chapter where he talks about tongue twisters. Here are a few good ones to try: Three free thugs set three thugs three. That bloke’s back brake-block broke. The two-toed tree toad tried to tread where the three-toed tree toad trod.

One of my personal favourite chapters is called double bubble. Double Bubble is a game Brandreth sometimes plays. You have to go through the alphabet and think about a word which has two of those letters. For example, for a you could do baa. For b you could do ebb and so on. You then carry on like that. Once you get to four letters, you won’t be able to do a full list. Some of my particular favourite words in this game are: qawiqsaqq. Qawiqsaqq is the name of a particular bluff in Alaska. Another one is hexahydroxycyclohexane. Hexahydroxycyclohexane is a chemical, a member of the vitamin B complex, which is essential for life. It also talks about collective nouns and much more!

If you are a logophile (someone who loves words) then this is the perfect book for you. I would recommend it for people ages 12+. This book would also definitely be suitable for adults.

If you decide to get this book, I hope you enjoy it and learn more about the English Language.

By Chloë Willoughby

The Wolves of Willoughby chase is a gripping book by Joan Aiken. It is about a girl called Bonnie and her cousin Silvia going on an adventure to stop their mean governess and her network of criminals from their evil schemes. She is trying to take over the mansion and the children are sent to a cruel school which the governesses friend owns which is far far away from Willoughby chase (the mansion they are staying at) They have to journey back there as soon as possible with the help of their friend Simon who owns lots of geese. Furthermore, there are wolves that try to eat the humans which makes it hard to travel around. It is a serious book but there are some funny aspects to it. I recommend reading this amazing tale and I would rate it five stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a review by my friend, Bea.

The protagonist in this book is called Penny. She has a best friend called Elliot who lives right next to her. She also has a fake best friend called Meghan who is really mean to her. Penny is really into photography and has her own anonymous blog. She posts pictures and does blog posts. At school, she is the photographer and set designer for Drama productions. She has to take a picture of all the cast on stage. It’s fine at first, but when she takes her picture, she trips and falls off the stage. Instead of getting up and walking away, she just stays there and doesn’t move. Unfortunately, someone caught the whole thing on Camera. Meghan than posts it on Facebook and it goes viral. Luckily, her mum and dad are wedding planners and they have a job in America. Penny didn’t want to go at first as it was going to be during Christmas, but when that happened, she decided that she would go. When they arrive in America, they meet a really nice family. They get asked to do another job and they stay with the family they met. When they go back to England, something big happens and it temporarily ruins her reputation.

This is an absolutely amazing book and I would recommend it to people who are 9+.

If you do decide to get this book, I hope you enjoy it.

By Chloë’s Willoughby

The Wind Singer is part of a trilogy. The protagonist is called Kestrel and she lives in a dystopian world. Where you live depends on how well you do in tests. If you do well, you get to live in a really nice house. If you don’t do very well, you live in a really small and run down house. Kestrel was born into a family of rebels and that behaviour rubbed off on her. One day, she decides to go to the wind singer (a statue in Aramanth which is where she lives) and climb on top of it in protest. When she’s up there, she notices a little hole. An official sees her up there and asks her what she’s doing. She says ‘Pongo’ to the official which is probably a bad word in Aramanth. She eventually does come down and she goes home. She asks her dad to tell her the myth of the wind singer again even though she’s heard it tons of times before. Her father told her the myth and something in it excited her. The people of Aramanth had taken the voice out of the wind singer to give to the Zars so that they wouldn’t destroy Aramanth. She remembered that hole she had seen and suddenly realised that it was true! But because Kestrel had climbed on the wind singer, she had to be punished. She started to run away from the marshals, and ran up a tower. The marshals had followed her and she realised that she was stuck. She saw a door and hoped that it would open. Unfortunately it didn’t. She could hear boots stomping up the stairs. Suddenly, she heard the sound of a latch opening and as soon as the door was open she went in. The room she was in was the Emperor’s who nobody had seen in years. He gave Kestrel a map and told her to go and rescue the voice of the wind singer. The rest of the book is how Kestrel, Mumpo ( a friend from school) and Bowman ( her brother ) find and rescue the voice of the wind singer. On their quest, they run into a lot of people. Good or bad, you will see…

This book is excellent and is full of suspense. I would recommend it for people who are 9 or 10 +. Adults will probably enjoy this book as well and also read with children who are under 10.

If you do decide to get this book, I hope you enjoy it.

By Chloë Willoughby