The Cartoonist
I lent this book to Bryon and it’s made him cry. The boy in the story, Alfie, is an obsessive cartoon artist living in a very weird family. When his brother comes back home to live Alfie has to resort to desperate measures to keep his attic hideaway. The mother in this story is a nightmare. Byron is doing quite a bit of cartooning himself now. Most of his pictures have Elvis in them somewhere.
The Long Winter
Byron’s read all the Little House books. His absolute favourite is Farmer Boy because it has so many magnificent meals in it…but he says he likes The Long Winter because it has two Christmases– one when the family is waiting for the Christmas barrel to get through and have to be inventive about their presents, and a second one in May when they have food supplies… Byron can quote all the things that Ma cooks: brown-crusted loaves of white bread, a sugar-frosted loaf of cake, three crisp-crusted pies, turkey with stuffing and potatoes mashed with milk and butter…he reckons he’s going to have a Little House Christmas dinner on the menu when he has his own restaurant.
Thunder and Lightnings
by Jan Mark
Bryon says this is the story of two boys living in a very flat part of England near an airfield where fighter planes take off and land. The boys become friends. Victor is kind of unusual - he seems almost retarded, but actually he's an expert on military aircraft and completely obsessed with them and Andrew starts to worry how he might feel when the Lightning planes that he loves so much are scrapped. Byron says in a way not much happens in the story but it's still very satisfying - mainly because it describes the boy's friendship so well. And now he knows a heap about fighter planes.
The Birchbark House
I told Alice that Byron and Adele loved the Little House on the Prairie books and she sent them these books as Christmas presents (she hasn't even met them...she just loves sending people books...). Byron says this tells the story of what's happening to Native Americans while Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family are settling the West. He said it's fabulous : Omakayas and her family (her annoying brother, Pinch, her dear little brother, Neewo , her beautiful older sister, Angeline and her parents) live through four seasons in 1850, hunting, harvesting their food, surviving winter, dealing with the 'chimookoman' (the white people). There's a mystery about Omakkayas' birth that is very intriguing... Byron says that reading this story after the Little House books is like finding out how your next-door neighbour has lived all these years without you knowing...
Millions
Byron says this is very, very funny and sometimes sad and he wishes a heap of money would come his way like it does the two boys in the book because he’d know exactly what to do with it (go to Graceland, of course, and check out Elvis’ world). He says it nearly drove him bananas what happened to the money though he knows it was the right thing to do… He says Damian, the boy who tells the story, knows everything about saints and there is a saint for everything…even film…which this book has been made into,
by the way…
Asterix in Britain
This is about the fortieth time Byron has read Asterix in Britain – it’s his favourite because he loves how the Britons stop all their fighting every day at three pm to have… milk and water – tea hasn’t been invented yet…this is Bryon’s idea of an hysterically funny joke. My favourite Asterix is Asterix in Spain – I love how they call bacon and eggs huevos e rancheros…also, the naughty Spanish boy reminds of me of Billy. Adele’s favourite is Asterix and Cleopatra – she loves all the jokes about Cleopatra’s nose, which she says is a lot like hers…
Aunt Effie’s Ark
(Byron’s favourite author)
Byron loves Aunt Effie and Jack Lasenby because they tell such good whoppers and because there’s always a great glossary at the back of their books. Aunt Effie is the reason he’s started calling dried apricots dead man’s ears. Also, the illustrations are by David
Elliot and he draws excellent ships.
The Swing in the Summerhouse
This is the second book in Adele’s series (the series is called The Hall Family Chronicles)…Byron says it’s even better than The Diamond in the Summerhouse. Eddy and Eleanor’s uncle builds a summerhouse with a swing in the middle that can be turned in six different directions. Then he leaves suddenly on an urgent journey and Eddy and Eleanor discover the swing can take them to bizarre, magical places. Byron says the plot is so satisfyingly complicated he really can’t bear to finish the book.
Mr Bluenose
Byron’s favourite author ever comes through again…just as well, because Byron had gone back to re-reading the Seddon Street Gang stories, which he always does while he’s waiting for a new Jack Lasenby. Byron says this book is perfect because it’s like a blend of the Seddon Street stories and the Aunt Effie stories – reality with a dash of tall tale. He says Jack Lasenby does the funniest dialogue in the world and has more terrific boy detail than any writer he’s ever read.
Benny and Babe
Ms Love reckons me and Byron and Adele are having a Celtic phase because our books are all by Irish and Scottish writers these days…Byron’s book is by the guy who wrote Artemis Fowl but he says it’s heaps better…This one’s about the same boy who was in Benny and Omar but this time he’s back in Ireland staying with his granddad and making friends with a tomboy girl called Babe. Byron says Babe is smart and bossy and scheming – like me. He says the story made him laugh out loud.
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