Book Reviews For Older Kids

Book Review: The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair by Lara Williamson

This is a lovely story intended for children but as an adult I liked it and was moved by it. It took me through some laughs and also, at times, brought me to tears while here and there through the story there are some quite significant life lessons drawn if you look for them.

The story is told through the mouth of 11-year old Becket Rumsey who lives with his little brother, Billy, and his dad, Stephen, who delivers fish from ‘The Codfather’ van, after their mam died giving birth to Billy four years earlier. The three have been living with dad’s live-in girlfriend, Pearl, who, Becket tells us “gives great hugs and tells us she loves us to the moon and back, which is at least 768800 km of love”. Their only other relative is ‘Ibiza Nann’ so called because she lives in Spain.

The story starts with Becket, Billy and their dad doing ‘moonlight flit’ from the flat where they’d lived so happily with Pearl, to a new flat in a different part of town with no explanation of why Pearl can’t come with them, will not be contacting them and must not, under any circumstances be contacted. Worse still, they think, it means them starting in a new school.

The brothers, disregarding dad’s instructions about Pearl, quickly set about trying to make contact with her, unsuccessfully using many text messages before they come up with the idea of ‘SNOOP’ (Secret Network of Observations, Operations and Probing) their own secret spy agency. Their investigations even take them as far as going back to their old flat and using their key to go in only to be caught by the new owners when they return. Undeterred, their efforts to find Pearl continue and ultimately are successful though not with the ending that they’ve desired so much.

The new school is not as bad as Becket had feared and he is befriended by two girls, Mimi and Nevaeh. Mimi likes to think that she’s the best student in the class and her friendship is strained when Becket turns out to be a better student. Nevaeh is heavily into butterflies, believing that they bring messages from her twin sister, Mariposa, who’d died shortly after being born. The third student who features in the story is Robert Absalom (aka Knuckles) who Becket describes as having “hands like ham slices and a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp”. Their friendship takes a long time to warm which Becket doesn’t understand until well into the story.

A thread running right through the story is Becket’s sorrow that he never got to say goodbye to his mum and he tells about his many attempts to find a way to say goodbye to her. Including his ‘Goodbye List’ – ten ways to say goodbye, from No.1 ‘Write a Poem called “Goodbye”’ to No.9 ‘Just say goodbye’. No.10 is ‘Can’t think of a number ten so will say nothing here until I have an idea’.

Interestingly, the book’s title is quite deceptive as “The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair” is actually a story Becket makes up when Billy can’t sleep or get back to sleep because of fears or troubles in his young mind but the armchair is the boys mam’s favourite chair; one of the few things they brought with them as they moved.

People and things to look out for – Knuckles has a sad and interesting story and becomes a school success; Catwoman (aka Camille (Cat) Womak) proprietor of ‘Crops and Bobbers hairdressers downstairs from their flat, their new neighbour and all-round lovely person; Brian, Billy’s snail friend; Camille, Orla and Kimberley of Dovedale House and the seemingly tangled love life of Becket’s dad. POOP-Project Observation Of Plants – a class project to improve part of the school’s garden. And look out for the origami cranes!

Phil Leighton

Book Review: Hunger Games (Book 1) by Suzanne Collins

I loved this book so much, it was super intense in the fighting scenes too, they were personally my favourite scenes. Alongside all the fighting within the arena, Katniss is a very strong woman who can represent how powerful women can be to the younger generation. She also has a romantic relationship with Peeta Mallark, which is super cute. This book goes straight into the plot and gives a lot of backstory to Katniss’ past. I would give this book a ⅘ rating because it was super long to read. However, I really enjoyed it and the rest of the hunger games series, would also recommend the films too. 

By Demi Gibson

All of these books and many more are available to borrow now at Blackfen Community Library. Come along, sit and have a read at our community hub and enjoy a fresh coffee from the Rooted Coffee House, our in house cafe.

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