'The Enchanted Wood’ is the first of the Faraway Tree stories by the wonderful author Enid Blyton. The book is about three children, Jo, Bessie and Fanny, who move to the country and discover a magical place known as the Enchanted Wood with an enormous tree in the middle called the Faraway Tree. At the top of the tree there are different magical lands, which change all the time. The children have many adventures in the Faraway Tree and make lots of new friends.

I liked that there are so many different lands, some of them nice and some definitely not! The Land of Birthdays was my favourite place that they visited in this book, especially when they could wish for any food they wanted and it would appear in front of them!

Enid Blyton’s writing is very good; she invents very exciting places and adventures for her characters to have. Silky was my favourite character, she’s a fairy who makes amazing pop biscuits and lives in the Faraway Tree. She’s always very kind.

This is one of the best books ever and I would love to have a magical tree in my garden!

5 stars

This is the third story in the Greek Beasts and Heroes books, but I didn’t realise until I’d already started reading it! Whoops! It contains 9 stories from ancient Greece which are told by a Greek man called Atticus who is on a quest. There is a map at the beginning of the book telling you where he has been on his journey which I thought was very interesting.

I love hearing different myths and legends from all over the world so I enjoyed reading this. My favourite story in the book was called ‘The Girl Who Grew Into A Bay Tree’ – it’s about Daphne, the river god’s daughter who is turned into a tree by Apollo.

I thought that Lucy Coats’ version of the Minotaur in the maze was a bit short, I wanted more fighting and for Theseus to have a harder time defeating the monster.

The book is illustrated by Anthony Lewis, there were lots of pictures all through the book to show you what the characters might have looked like and what they might have worn.

I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

3 and a half stars

"An evil wizard has enchanted the magical beasts of Avantia - only a true hero can free the beasts and stop them from destroying the land. Is Tom the hero Avantia has been waiting for? Join Tom as he braves Ferno the fire dragon..."

Ferno the Fire Dragon is the first in the Beast Quest series written by Adam Blade. A young boy called Tom leaves his home to go on a quest for the king. His job is to release the six beasts of the kingdom of Avanatia from curses which the evil wizard Malvel has put on them. Luckily Tom has the good wizard Aduro on his side as well as his friend Elenna, her wolf Silver and Tom’s horse Storm.

I think this book is quite good. The front cover makes it look very exciting and I like the pictures inside. I also really liked the free collectors cards that come with the book, although I didn’t like having to cut them out of the book, it would be better to have them separate.

This is a really cool adventure book, Ferno was a pretty scary monster! It’s not my favourite book in the world but I did enjoy it very much and I’m going to read all the other Beast Quest books with my brother Tom (who does not battle Beasts in Avantia!).

4 stars

‘The Indoor Pirates’ is the first book I’ve read by Jeremy Strong. It’s about a pirate called Captain Blackpatch who doesn’t like water so he turns his house into a pirate ship. He lives there with his friends, Lumpy Lawson, Bald Ben and twins, Molly and Polly. One day they get an electricity bill which they can’t pay so they need to find some treasure fast!

This book is very funny and exciting. The best bit is when the pirates jump down and ambush the rubbish truck – I almost fell off my bed laughing!

My favourite characters are Molly and Polly the pirate twins because they are always fighting, the will argue about anything, even what day it is, and they drive everyone else mad.

The pictures are by Nick Sharratt and were very good. I liked that there was a picture on nearly every page.

I think this book is good for girls or boys who really like to laugh. I can’t wait to read some more Jeremy Strong books

5 stars