The book I have chosen is Charlie and the chocolate factory, written by Rald Dahl.
The story is about a boy, Charlie Bucket, who lives with his grandparents and his parents in a tiny shattered house.
They're a very poor family, but Charlie's very happy living with all his family. One day, they announce on TV that there is a contest where if you find the five gold ticket in different chocolate bar Wonka, you can enter the chocolate factory guided by Mr. Wonka himself. Charlie is very happy, but he knows that his family can't afford to buy any chocolate bar.

One day, he finds some money on the street and decides to buy a chocolate bar, and a miracle happened. All happy, he goes home and his grandfather decides to go with him the day of the opening of the factory.
Inside the factory, he and his grandfather spend a lot of adventures with the four children who got the four remaining bills.

Finally, the one that lasts all the way visiting the factory, will be the winner.
It is a very funny and very crazy book, because many things happen inside the factory. Also, give a good example of how children can be. I recommend it, because the movie and the book do not look alike and the book is more interesting.

Mariona Fígols, 4t.

The Notebook is a romantic novel by Nicholas Sparks. It’s about a love story between Noah and Allie from their youth to their oldness. Even though in the book is appeared different place, it is in New Bern, North Caroline, where is happened the biggest part of the story.

At the beginning, Noah and Allie are young and attractive. Noah is strong and empathic, he like writing poems. Allie is sensible and sensitive women, she likes painting (in fact, during the story she becomes a famous artist). They fall in love despite Allie belongs a wealthy family and family’s Noah haven’t it. Their love is too big and real than one cannot live without the other.

I like the book, but I wouldn’t recommend reading the book. The story is wonderful, I think a lot of women like the love story but, I’ve been crying during twenty last pages.

In this epic love story, the writer has wanted to show the power of love, but in the real life I don’t know if love is too big to win all fight of life and if for forty years after a person could fall in love with the same person in every touch or look.

Sílvia Torra Mases

The book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas tells the story about a kid who lived in Germany when this was in dictatorship. The story starts when the father of this kid who works as a soldier is promoted and their family have to go to another place.

This kid who is called Bruno realizes that in this place there are nothing to do or play with, he hasn’t got friends there and he couldn’t meet new friends, so he gets upset because of the move to the new house. Afterwards he meets another kid and they speak with each other everyday for a year but when he gets the news from his father to return to his old house in Berlin he gets sad. After that when he tells the news to his friend they agree to do something special for the last day together to remember this friendship forever.

The most I like from this book it is that makes you realize how the things change when you see the story as an innocent kid who do not realize about the differences between people so he do not judge them for who they are, where they were born… I would recommend this book because I am sure that if you don’t know this story you will enjoy reading this book.

David Llordés Palou

WONDER

I liked this book a lot. I think, it has a very special force, because it has made me think very much about everything we have and we do not know how to value it enough.

From the beginning I have admired the main character August. He is 10-year-old boy who was born with a several healthy problems. He had a lot of surgeries because of his illness, he could not breathe, either could swallow what he ate or his saliva. But what most worries him, is his physical appearance. For that he always wears a helmet, as a result, nobody can see his face.

He has never gone to school, her mother teaches him at home. Although his parents were afraid of August going to school, they thought that it is the moment so that he began to go to a private school at fifth grade.

At first August didn’t have so many friends, all the classmates looked at him badly, but very soon he became a close friend with Jack and Summer.

In spite of his friendship, the worst for August was when Jack laugh at him due to his appearance to another boy. Because of this fact, August becomes “sick”, he could not understand the behaviour of his close friend Jack. August thought that Jack was different to Julian and his friend.

Eventually, August decided to explain Summer why he was angry or disappointed with Jack in order to feel better. Summer always is besides August in spite of what all the classmates thought.

One day, after the science class, Julian told August as a “freak” when Jack listened it, he hit Julian’s month. As a result, Jack goes two days at home, so that he wrote a letter apologizing to Mr.Tushman and later he apologizes to August so they reconciled.

Mr.Tushman discovered that August continued to be bullied by Julian and his friend, and he decided to explain it to Julian’s mother. But she defended her son, and she added that all the students should not be exposed to August. Julian’s mother was angry and she declared that Julian will not be back the following year in this school.

Finally, August becomes more accepted by his classmates and in the school.

In my point of view, August and his family were very strong, but without the support of his close friend Jack and Summer and Mr.Tushman he would have got over the school and perhaps never had been accepted as he is.

A wonderful boy.

 Vicky Huerta

Wonder tells the story of a boy called August who lives with his parents and old sister.

August or Auggie as his family call him, is an ordinary boy in many ways; he plays, he watches films and he is a big fan of the Star Wars films. But he was born with severe facial deformities and he was having twenty-seven surgeries. The story begins when his parents have decided that he should go to school, and the story covers is first year in school.

August was upset and afraid to face the kid’s reactions to his appearance, but there is also part of him that wants to do normal things. The director of the school, Mr, Tushman introduces Auggie to a small group of students before school starts, this will help the transition. Whereas some of the students are accepting August, others are a bit put off by him, and still others are downright cruel. However, August make two close friends, Summer and Jack.

The book was convicting, truthful, hopeful and heart-warming.One thing I really liked about this book is that it’s told from the point of view of different characters while it shows  that we  can’t judge people by how they look or what they like. Everyone should read this book because it teaches a good lesson.

Marta Pont Ruiz

The No. 1 Ladies´ Detective Agency  by Alexander McCall Smith

Joan Manel Minguell Mir. Fourth English Level

The main character in the story is Precious Ramotswe, who lives in Botswana. Mma Ramotswe ( That how she is known throughout the story) had no mother and was brought up by her father and her father’s cousin. She grew up to be a sensible, intelligent and quite well educated woman. She married for the first time to a musician, Note Mokoti, but they divorced when she got tired of being hit by him. At the end of the story, she will accept to marry to owner of mechanical workshop J.L.B Matekoni.

After his father died, she used the money from his farm to buy a small building and start his own detective agency. She called “The No. 1 Ladies’s Detective Agency”. She set up the agency with a shortage of means: a small white van, few furniture and an old typewriter.  But Mma Ramotswe has two main abilities: the intuition and intelligence necessary to solve the cases.

Mma Ramotswe encounters lots of different cases. Most of them which she has to solve are related to issues of everyday life: deception, betrayal or ambition. One of the distinctive features of the character of Mma Ramotswe is that she makes deeply observations about human behavior and reflects how these behaviors have been developed.

Being a book of adventures, in general, I could understand the plot, although with some difficulties, since there were many words that I did not know the meaning.

The Sense of an Ending is a short novel ( around 150 pages) by Julian Barnes published in 2012 and awarded with the Man Booker Prize 2011. The book is divided in two parts. In addition, it is narrated in first person by its main character, named Tom Webster.

The first part, which it is shorter than the second one, deals about Tom’s classmates lifestyle, boys who are deeply interested in literature and also philosopy. This part end by the suicide of one’s Tom peer called Finn, who had also been Veronica’s boyfriend.

The second part of the book, is currently located and it shows us the daily life of the main character,  who seems to be a lonely, guilty and nostalgic person. Morover, he has been unlucky with love although he gets on well with his former wife (Margaret) as they have one daughter (Sussy).

A few years before, Tom and Veronica meet again, and he asked her why his classmate committed suicide, so he tries to find out through his classmate’s girlfriend.

In my opinion, the book shows us a sadly point of view about elderly people and how they have been spending  their time. As the main character tells us his wonderful and exciting life when he was younger against his lonely and bored life nowadays.

In spite of having some problems to understand the  author’s main vision, I highly recommend it.

Ester Rocaginé

1. The story

When I finished this book I could differentiate at least two parts. In my point of view, the protagonist wrote about your past in the first part and about your present in the second part.

In the one hand, in the first part of the book, Tony Webster, the protagonist, explains about your memories. Tony is a man who is retired and he has a granddaughter of her only daughter. He is divorced but he has got a good relationship with your ex-wife. In this part he writes about your youth. He writes some anecdotes of his years in high school and in the university. In fact, he writes quite about your friends (Adrian) and your girlfriend (Veronica). I can remember that Adrian also had a relationship with Veronica but he committed suicide when Tony was abroad.

In the second part of the book, the protagonist backs to the present and he writes about Margaret, your ex-wife. Moreover, I can read that the mother of Veronica, your ex-girlfriend, found the Adrian’s diary. Tony could read a letter for him.

2. Characters

I want to stand out Adrian Finn. He is the Tony’s friend and all your friends admire your behaviour. Adrian is an intelligent boy and he studied in Cambridge. The relationship between Tony and Veronica broke and after Adrian wrote a letter where pretend to ask for permission to start a relationship with Veronica. Tony could read the letter when he returned of his trip but in this moment Adrian has already died.

3. My own reactions

In my view, what I liked the most was how Tony tries to recreate his past. On the other hand, I didn’t like that the characters were very complex as they changed a lot during the book.

I wouldn’t recommend this book because I think that it’s a boring book and difficult to read.

Written by Jordi Calderó (4t EOI Tàrrega)