ESC Reads

Gladiator: Fight for Freedom

Sbookface — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Gladiator is an adventure/history by Simon Scarrow about a boy who must learn to fight to survive. The book is set in ancient Rome, just after the slave uprising, during Caesar’s time in power.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Adriano.Matousek — Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

This novel is written by Mark Haddon. It is an adventure and mystery story. Half of it is like a murder case and the other is a great adventure.

Girl, Missing

vbakulova — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:50:00 GMT

Girl, Missing is an adventure/mystery book written by Sophie McKenzie. It's about a girl who wants to know about her past.

Bend it like Beckham

koolkatia123 — Sun, 16 May 2010 11:38:00 GMT

Jess has a lifetime wish to be a football superstar, just like David Beckham. Of course her parents, want her to be a nice conventional Indian girl, who will study for law school, learn how to cook perfect Indian food, and marry a handsome Indian man. Jess has other ideas...

Point Blanc

ciaran.kelleher — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:49:00 GMT

Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitz is an exciting thriller full of action and mystery. It is the second book in the Alex Rider series and a good one at that.

Alex Rider is the main character in all of the series. He is tall but his appearance changes due to his mission, because Alex Rider isn’t any fourteen-year-old; he is a spy.

The Spook's Sacrifice

T Saget — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:32:00 GMT

Mam is in Greece because dark forces are invading, so she has to stop it. Tom is surprised when Mam asks him to help her win the battle, but he is the one to do it because he is the seventh son of a seventh son, (the special one).

When they get to Greece they travel for a long time but dark creatures are on the look-out. What sacrifices will be made to stop the dark from winning?

Inkheart

ckantor — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:45:00 GMT

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke is a fantasy book all about the life of a twelve-year-old girl. Inkheart is the first book of the Inkworld Trilogy.

The main characters are Meggie, a twelve-year-old girl who lives all alone with her father, Mo (Mortimer) also known as Silvertongue, who can read things into stories and out. Theresa is Meggie’s mother who, was “read into” Inkheart by Mo and then there’s Dustfinger, a fire breather who was “read out of” Inkheart but wishes to go back. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke is a fantasy book all about the life of a twelve-year-old girl. Inkheart is the first book of the Inkworld Trilogy.

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas

lpanagi — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:37:00 GMT

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne is set in Germany in World War II, at the time of the holocaust . The book is set in a house just outside a concentration camp called Auschwitz (but in the book they call it “Outwith”).

There are two main characters called Bruno and Shmeul. Bruno is almost eight years old. Bruno's dad is a Nazi. He is the head of Auschwitz concentration camp, just outside of Berlin.

The Hobbit

aarnould — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:32:00 GMT

The Hobbit(also known as There and Back Again) written by J.R.R. Tolkien is a very interesting and intriguing fantasy novel.

The main character is a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. Hobbits are a race of creatures slightly smaller than humans who are very welcoming and like having parties, but they don’t like going on adventures.

Class A

lbouet — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:25:00 GMT

Class A by Robert Muchamore is an extremely exciting book. It has a bit of violence and lots of action. You get stuck into the book as soon as you’ve read the first page.

Eagle Strike

ttaylor — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:23:00 GMT

Eagle Strike is an exciting book based in the Netherlands and in England. It is an action book, which builds up suspense right until the end.

The Strawberry Picker

ckantor — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:23:00 GMT

The Strawberry Picker is a crime novel and it is the first book in a series of three. The writer is German and the English translation has been very successful in England. Anybody I lend the book to is gripped by it, including my mother.

The Vampire's Assistant

Mkossakowski — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:23:00 GMT

The Vampire’s Assistant by Darren Shan is a fiction tale. The author tells a story about himself as a vampire. The book is quite scary. The tale is really interesting and it has lots of details.

Billy Elliot

Emma Paul- Ebiai — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:22:00 GMT

This novel, written by Melvin Burgess, is the book of the movie Billy Elliot. The story is told from the differing viewpoints of Billy, his father Jackie, his brother Tony and his best friend Michael. It is a tough, amusing and touching story involving music, conflict and choices.

Skellig

staghavi — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:22:00 GMT

Skellig by David Almond is a great book to read on a spooky night. It is about a boy called Michael who is moving into his new house. But his dusty, rat-infested, almost-collapsing garage is occupied by a creature who is covered with dust and feeds off dead, rotting bluebottles. Together with his best friend Mina, they drag the creature into the light, to reveal what they have discovered.

Billie and the Parent Plan

mayajoseph29 — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:22:00 GMT

This is the story of a girl called Billie. Billie’s dad had left her and her mum just before Billie was born. So ever since then she had been dreaming and describing the dad that she really wanted:

“I want a dad who is really fast at running and can time me and train me for the Olympics because I want to be a champion runner.” But does she get what she wants? Quentin is an old, bald man who is really uninteresting and doesn’t know anything about running.

New Moon

darcie-louise walker — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:21:00 GMT

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer is a romance fantasy story. It is about a normal eighteen-year-old girl, a pack of werewolves, and a family of vampires who are said to be ‘vegetarians’.

Looking for JJ

ievason — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:17:00 GMT

Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy is the story of a girl who invents a new identity to cover up her terrible past. It’s a tale of a love that she loses to be able to rebuild her new life.

The Fire Thief Fights Back

Mkossakowski — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:55:00 GMT

The Fire Thief Fights Back by Terry Deary is a fantasy/fiction tale. It is about Dreary himself, his mother Jenny Wonder, god Zeus and his cousin Prometheus(demi-god), the Avenger and a group of monsters. The main character and Zeus are not friendly to each other. Ma and Zeus as well are not friendly. Monsters are trying to kill Zeus and the Avenger wants to kill Prometheus.

Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief

staghavi — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:44:00 GMT

This story is about a boy who thinks he is as ordinary as any other boy (well, any other who gets expelled from school every year) until he accidentally vaporises his maths teacher and soon finds himself on a quest with Annabeth and Grover. Together they have to return Zeus’s master bolt (and, in this book the gods are alive and kicking) before the gods break up into the biggest war in the history of the Earth.

Silver Fin

c Kelleher — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:09:00 GMT

‘The Name’s Bond. James Bond’.... Silver Fin by Charlie Higson is the first of five good books. In the battle against evil James Bond, a 1.8m tall, 13- year-old school boy at Eton, soon encounters his biggest threat, George Hellebore.

New Moon

sparker — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:54:00 GMT

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer is a fantasy romantic fiction story. It’s about a family of vampires, a pack of werewolves anda normal eighteen year old girl.

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas.

JSummers — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:19:00 GMT

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne is a great written book that is set in the war. It is a adventure story (in most of the book) that is sad.

The book is about a boy called Bruno. He moves house and goes to live in the middle of nowhere with no friends. But one day he meets a boy called Shumel on the other side of a Russian and Polish prison camp fence.

Running Wild

jritz — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:24:00 GMT

Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo is a great adventure book. It’s about a 10-year- old boy and his mum who fly from England all the way to Indonesia, and it’s not just a holiday.

The main characters are a young boy called Will, his mother and Oona. Will and his mother have more or less escaped to Indonesia after the death of Will’s father, who was a soldier in Iraq.

Percy Jackson And The Last Olympian

mwise — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:38:00 GMT

Percy Jackson and the last Olympian is the fifth book in the Percy Jackson series. The genre is fantasy adventure, with a lot of ancient Greek monsters. It’s a descriptive, humorous book which is a real page turner. (When I read a part where there is a battle on a bridge I though it was a bit like Halo 3, a video game.)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

lbouet — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:02:00 GMT

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is written by an author named Jeff Kinney. It is a diary as the title points out but the main character likes to think of it more as a journal.

Twilight

kla — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:58:00 GMT

Twilight is a romance and fantasy story by Stephenie Meyer, about a seventeen year old girl, and a family of vegetarian vampires.

Stormbreaker

gtsikas — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:55:00 GMT

Stormbreaker is by Anthony Horowitz, who writes for children about 9–15 years old. It is an action murder mystery.
Some of the main characters involved are Alex Rider (teenager), Mr Sayle (evil mass-killer wannabe) and Mr Blunt (head of MI6). The book follows these three people mainly, especially Alex, who is the protagonist.

Why the Whales Came

mbcr — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:54:00 GMT

Why the Whales Came by Michael Morpurgo is a drama and mystery story. It’s about two children, and a ‘mad’ old man, on the Scilly Isles. It is set during WW1.

The main characters are Gracie and Daniel who are really good friends and it seems they’ve known each other for a long time, and a semi-main character is the Birdman (whose name is Zakaria Woodock) who is said to be mad and people avoid him.

The Enemy

ckantor — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:51:00 GMT

The Enemy by Charlie Higson is a drama and horror story. It is about a group of children aged fourteen and under who live in the remains of an old Waitrose store. There are about twenty to thirty children sheltering and hiding in this supermarket. Most people have died from an unknown, disfiguring disease except for these children. The remaining living adults are dying slowly by going crazy and losing their minds and intelligence.

Rat-Catcher

mlewis — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:50:00 GMT

Chris Ryan has written lots of books. He is an action adventure novelist and Rat-Catcher is only one of many books he has written.

Alex, Li, Paulo, Hex and Amber are a group of teenagers (13-14 years old), who can’t stop themselves getting into action. They call themselves Alpha Force because the word Alpha is made up of the first letters of all their names.

Fen Runners

ttaylor — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:50:00 GMT

Fen Runners is an action/adventure mystery story written by John Gordon. It has all a good mystery book could need: suspense, horror and dark, dangerous places.

Kit is a normal boy and has a friend called Joe. They are best friends and do everything together until one day they dive into Dutchman’s Cut. Their lives change forever.

How to Survive Summer Camp

vbakulova — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:49:00 GMT

How to Survive Summer Camp is a fiction and humour book. Iit is very interesting and once you start reading you can’t stop.

Stella Stebbings is a normal 12-year-old girl, (Well, not normal after going to the hairdressers before the wedding of her mum and Bill.) She looks like a boy and when her mum drives her to Evergreen summer camp where she is staying for the summer it gets worse.

Evil Under The Sun

aarnould — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:46:00 GMT

Evil Under the Sun, written by Agatha Christie, is a book about crime and mystery. Agatha Christie’s books are set in many different countries around the world and contain detailed descriptions and well thought out plots. These are the qualities needed to make a brilliant book.

The main character is a little Belgian detective named Hercule Poirot. He is a smart man who pays lots of attention to things going on around him; hence he can solve even the most difficult crimes. He is well known around the world as a fine detective, if not the best.