Mini Reviews (1)

 Mini Reviews.

(1)

Made on Earth- Wolfgang Korn.
Published by Bloomsbury.
Review-
I think Made on Earth would be a great book to give to someone who is just beginning to learn about globalisation- it gives facts that I think they would find interesting and is written in such a way as to make the story, which is supposedly non-fiction (at least as far as I'm aware...) a fictional feel.
I didn't like it myself, and I find it hard to write a review about why I didn't like it because I probably would have liked it as a child- I felt, reading this book that is aimed at younger children, pandered to that age group. It tended to explain things in a way I thought was "dumbed down" for the age group when I thought that there were more simple ways of explaining it that spoke to the reader as an equal, and then there were things that I thought should have been explained but weren't touched on. It also seemed as if this book, which I thought was just going to present the facts, was writing in villians. The way it did this was subtle and never outright, but I got a sense that some people were being painted as bad instead of neutral.
Rating: Poor-
Though this book had good factors, overall it was a disappointment. If I knew someone was giving it to their child, I would recommend they read through it first, just to make sure they liked the format.
*Note, I did not get more than halfway through this book.*





















Girls Best Friend- Leslie Margolis.
Published by Bloomsbury.
Review-

My overall feeling, when going into this book, was unfortunately one of amusement. That sounds incredibly harsh and so I'm going to do my best to explain in the review space I'm taking up with this explaination- the fact that the main character, a girl who walks dogs in her free time (and against her parents wishes) is obsessing over a boy in her free time, comparing this boy to a dog she walks, is something I personally think is unnecessary. There is also the "She was my best friend but now she's a total- (insert chosen curse here)" thing, with the old best friend having transferred her affections to the "Popular" group and going around telling people how Maggie walks dogs and HOW LAME THAT IS OMG.
My question- Why?

Source- unknown.

I'm tired of characters who get embarrassed by doing something they love, and Maggie does. I know she's only young but I kind of wanted to tell her, loudly, to stick up for herself. And anyway, what's so bad about getting excercise, earning moula and walking animals?

Problems.
Rating: Oh Noo-
Please can we get a book where people, in this instance girls, learn to respect themselves and the things they love? I really want to see a young character in a MG book tell the nasty person that they can just leave if they're going to be so damn annoying and rude and that they might even have to go to someone about this bullying.
*Note, I did not finish this book. I can only say that if Maggie ends up being friends with this girl again... nope. Just nope.*

Thank you Bloomsbury Australia for these review copies.