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Claudine at St Clares
by Enid Blyton
Part of the St Clare's series, Claudine at St Clares is a realistic fiction book by author Enid Blyton. Featuring the fourth-form in the fictional girl’s boarding school called St Clares, the story follows the antics of the school’s inhabitants, ranging from the deceiving yet frank and amusing niece of the french mistress, a very sour new Matron with a daughter that appears to be a horrid sneak, two insanely rich and arrogant girls- one with more tales to tell than actual money, moonlight picnics with midnight swims, imprisoning people in cupboards, and a mysterious thief stealing money and some other strange things. The story is delightful and you’ll find yourself pulled in by the well-written characters and the humorous, thrilling and mysterious events that happen at St Clares. This series, recommended to me by my mother, is a classic and this book in particular is my favorite one out of the bunch.
It is worth noting that the stories of St Clares were written well before now and the setting is an all-girls boarding school in England, with no male staff mentioned. For those unfamiliar with the workings of such schools, some of the antics of our characters, their ethics (or as the books say, “sense of honour”), assigned work, the positions of all the people around the school, and the work the girls do may be confusing. For clarity in this review, the term ‘Matron’ means ‘school nurse’ and is not a character’s specific name, ‘dormitories’ are unlike college dorms and can be thought of as a room with a lot of beds in it, and ‘Mam’zelle’ is NOT the name of a character and is rather a shortened version of ‘mademoiselle.’ This name is given to all french teachers in these kinds of stories written by the author.
Claudine at St Clares provides an uncanny type of humor, provided by the one and only character Claudine, new girl of St Clares, french niece of Mam’zelle, clever with a thread and needle and came equipped not just with her regular school things but also a tongue ready to say what it likes and a brain filled with ludicrous ideas… most which she performs with good intentions! This type of character is new and quite refreshing. The plot is satisfying, with many mini mysteries that the reader will enjoy solving, and the way the characters are exaggerated only makes you like them more. The story is solid and I have nothing bad to say about it! A whole 5 stars!
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Battle of Crystal Castle
by Geronimo Stilton
“The Battle of Crystal Castle” by fictional author Geronimo Stilton (A scaredy-mouse living in New Mouse City, actual author is Elisabetta Dami) is a fun adventure story with excellent themes that could prove extremely enlightening and enjoyable for young children. Its intriguing challenges for the main character (Stilton himself) along the way and the surprising plot twists provide lots of entertainment. The magical world in the story called the Kingdom of Fantasy is, in every way, and there is no other way to describe it- “cool.” Arguably there are other books in the Kingdom of Fantasy “arc” that are a touch better as this was a bit fast-paced, but this is overall a very good book.
What this book is good at (and a lot of others in the series) is providing new, fresh material that is still enjoyable to people who have already read the prior books while new readers can still understand what’s happening without much trouble. Reappearing characters are still reintroduced and there are plenty of new ones for people to explore. This is the 13th book in the arc- I, unfortunately unable to get my hands on the last one- have skipped over the 12th book but I was still able to understand the plot without having to play guessing games (or rather, puzzles). There are many good themes such as fair play, responsibility, and friendship that the main character displays when dueling evil in the story, and all of these are somewhat unique to this book. Its beautiful illustrations and the creative use of colorful, funky fonts will surely please young children.
Despite having such great content ideas, this book is not without its setbacks. The main problems would be the recurring “love beats evil” repeating book after book… and while when done right it can lead to a dramatic and satisfying ending, this time it takes one page (not counting the illustration page in between) for the antagonists to be defeated, leading to the ending feeling rushed. The protagonists are extreme “Mary-Sues” and “Garry-Stues” with all being caring, kind, and loving fairies/magicians/magical creatures with overpowerful abilities. It also has some things that would come off as “cheesy” if the person was 9 years or older. (I am 11 and soon to be 12 years old. I confirm, super cheesy, and not because this is a story with a mouse as the main protagonist) The plot also has some pretty questionable parts- we know what the goal IS, but not WHY it’s the goal in the first place. However the story is still enjoyable and for that it lands a 3 ~ 3.5. I would recommend this book to anybody in elementary school who enjoys fantasy.
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The Martian
by Andy Weir
Andy Weir’s “The Martian” is extraordinary in every sense- also a little unhinging when you imagine the main character, Mark Watney’s situation, and also a bit comforting, because now you know exactly what to do if you are ever stranded on Mars all by yourself. Its almost flawless scientific accuracy, from the water-creating formula to the antics for communication is fascinating and leaves the reader with no questions about the logic behind this and the ideas that Watney comes up with, again, all with an amount of scientific logic behind them, will entertain the reader and his failed will be even more amusing, such as when we first tries to craft water and almost blows himself up.
The characters are well-written and have good amounts of personality, even the background characters. The rest of Watney’s Crew, although only appearing every so often, all have some sort of background story and have relationships with each other and Watney. Watney himself has a fully developed backstory and an interesting personality, and his funny sarcasm, ingenuity, and his generally comedic nature leads to funny moments- for example, when he decides to farm Thanksgiving potatoes and fertilize then with feces, he proudly claims that he can do it because of his role a botanist (“Hell yeah I’m a botanist! Fear my botany powers!”). The problems Watney must face before he ultimately is able to return to Earth keeps you on the edge of your seat, and will never let you be too sure of the happy ending that ultimately comes to almost all novels.
While “The Martian” is compelling in many ways, sadly not all people may be able to enjoy it. Stopping it at a solid 4.5 rating is the excessive use of crude language that may not be appropriate for everybody. There are also some very gory parts where some might become a little sick while reading (I was one of them). Although this is quite minor, some of the stupid emotional descisions the scientists at NASA make are quite puzzling. But none of this drags down the quality of this story and thus I am happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I recommend it to everybody- especially to people who like science fiction or those who are overall space nerds.
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