The Liberators at
Cranleigh
We are a group of
young people aged 12-14 who love to read or who would like to read more. We
talk about books and the ideas they raise. We swap ideas and try out a
wide variety of reading genres. We also like fun activities, quizzes and word
games.
Our book for January was Boys Don't Knit
by T.S.Easton
We all loved this book - we enjoyed the double entendres, and the
idea that the hero made such a success of knitting. We could really empathise with the hero, Ben,
whose interests are not mainstream. His
Dad likes to talk about football, gets Ben to do car maintenance at weekends and
insists on them watching adventure films together. Ben hates football, car maintenance and he’d
rather get on with his knitting, though he does his best to keep his Dad
happy. Ben’s secret knitting finally
comes out when he wins the regional finals of a knitting contest and is entered
for the final in London on the same day as the Chelsea match. Ben’s friends and the school bullies cause
chaos, which we didn’t find very realistic, but we did find very funny. The adventure continues in ‘An English Boy in
New York’, but the consensus was that this book stood out as a ‘one-off’ and a
sequel would spoil it.
Chatterbooks at
Cranleigh
We are a book group for children aged 10-11, which began in January
2013. We meet once a month on Saturdays at 3pm - 4pm. A typical session
includes a discussion on the book we have just read, a fun activity, and a
drink and a snack, as well as the opportunity to chat about all things book-related!
Our book for January was ‘Itch’ by Simon Mayo
Most of us loved this book.
Itchingham Lofte, or Itch for short, is an element collector whose
obsession causes chaos and trouble wherever he goes. We thought it was great that he kept losing
his eyebrows. Itch’s collection causes
explosions, hospitalisation of his entire class and dismantling of the school
greenhouse. A warm rock which no one can
identify, however, causes the biggest storm as Itch and his rock are hunted
down by a powerful energy company, activists looking for a safe energy source,
the government and a crazed science teacher.
Itch has to hide the rocks where no one can find them……..
The adventure continues with ‘Itch Rocks’ and ‘Itchcraft’, both really good followups. We were keen to
read this book and the sequels as the Dad of two children in our class helped
Simon Mayo with the science.
