The Liberators and Chatterbooks at Cranleigh

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.