Sunday 20 October 2013

The Hobbit: The Desolation of the Smaug trailer


On Friday 13th of December which may be unlucky for some- but not for us, the Hobbit The Desolation of the Smaug will be coming to cinemas! :) 

The stories follows the story from The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey, and stars Ian McKellon as Gandalf and Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins. 

The Hobbit is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The main protagonist of The Hobbit is Bilbo Baggins, Bilbo Baggins is the Uncle of Frodo Baggins who is the main protagonist of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The story also tells us how the ring came in the possession of Bilbo. The journey focuses on telling us about Bilbo, the wizard Gandalf, Thorin and their company of dwarves (there are fourteen of them in total- because thirteen is considered unlucky) the company set off to get the stolen gold from the dragon Smaug.

A sneak peak  of the trailer can be found bellow. 


Are you excited for the release of this film? Will you go to the cinema to see it?


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Thursday 26 September 2013

Avalon High by Meg Cabot


Title: Avalon High

Author: Meg Cabot

Publication Date: 27th December 2005.

Summary of the book: Elaine "Ellie" Harrison and her family have moved to Annapolis, Maryland, while her parents are on sabbatical. Ellie's parents are professors of medieval history; they plan to do research in Annapolis on their separate interest, the Lady of Shalott and a sword which resembles the Arthurian Excalibur.

Ellie is a 16-year-old junior in high school who is not thrilled about moving, but is used to dealing with her parents' eccentricities. Like when they named her Elaine, after Alfred Lord Tennyson's ill-fated character the Lady of Shalott. Elaine of Astolat, in the poem, killed herself when Sir Lancelot chose to love Queen Guinevere over her. Ellie sees the poetic Elaine as a weak woman and is not thrilled to be named after her.

Ellie makes a few friends at school and finds herself pulled into the intriguing world of A. William "Will" Wagner, as well as his best friends; Jennifer Gold (his girlfriend) and Lance Reynolds. However a strange connection brings Ellie, Lance, Jennifer, Will, along with their teacher Mr Moore and Will’s step brother Marco closer together…

I liked this book because it spins a tale on high-school characters being reincarnations of historical characters, in this instance Ellie and her friends are reincarnations of King Author and the Knights of the Round Table. There are a lot of references to the legend of King Author in the novel, but they are added subtly so that you don’t notice them straight away.

Jennifer, Elle, Lance and Will are all likeable characters, and so is Mr Moore who also plays a critical part in the novel. After starting to read the novel, you begin to understand the characters better, and they are more relatable, since they all have their flaws and none of them are perfect. At the beginning of the novel we learn that Elle’s parents are professors who take a keen interest in medieval history and this foreshadows what will happen at the end of the novel.

“Meg Cabot does it again with this lively and intriguing rendition of the story of King Arthur. The characters, storyline and intricate details will have readers not wanting to put the book down. This is an excellent tie-in for teaching medieval history, guaranteeing that Avalon High will have students clamoring for more.” –Teen reads.

This is one of my all-time favorite books and it is extremely well written and I found all the characters very likeable, and I liked how the books ties in with legends from history, making the storyline original and clever.

Currently there is a film adaptation of the novel starring; Britt Robertson, Devon Graye, Molly C. Quinn, Christopher Tavarez, Steve Valentine and Gregg Sulkin. Although in conclusion I found the film enjoyable, but they changed a lot of the book.

Buy the book: here
Read more about Meg Cabot: here
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Sunday 22 September 2013

How I live Now book Trailer

The award winning novel 'How I live Now' by Meg Rosoff is now being made into a film!


How I Live Now is the powerful and engaging story of Daisy, the precocious New Yorker and her English cousin Edmond, torn apart as war breaks out in London of a not-so-distant future, from the multi award-winning Meg Rosoff. How I Live Now has been adapted for the big screen by Kevin Macdonald, starring Saoirse Ronan as Daisy and releases in 2013.

Fifteen-year-old Daisy thinks she knows all about love. Her mother died giving birth to her, and now her dad has sent her away for the summer, to live in the English countryside with cousins she’s never even met.

There she’ll discover what real love is: something violent, mysterious and wonderful. There her world will be turned upside down and a perfect summer will explode into a million bewildering pieces. Summary from here

The film will be released on the 4/10/2013 for the UK.

The film stars:
Saoirse Ronan- as Daisy
Tom Holland-as Isaac
Anna Chancellor- as Aunt Penn
Harley Bird- as Piper
George Mackay- as Edmond

For full cast click here

For more news click here




Journey to the River Sea


Title of book: Journey to the river sea.

 Author: Eva Ibbotson (1925-2010)

Publication date: 2002

The novel is set in the early 1900s, and it focuses mainly on Maia who is an orphan, at the start of the novel she goes to live in the Amazon, with the Carter’s and their twin daughters, the family hate everything about the outdoors, and they refuse to go outdoors because of the nasty insects, the tribes people and the animals. As the story progresses we learn more about the boy she befriends on the journey to the Amazon; Clovis, who’s an actor, and later on Finn Taverner.

The story mainly focuses on friendship; the friendship between Finn, Clovis and Maia being one of the important aspects of the story. There are also mentions of greed, and how being greedy almost destroyed the family when they get their hands on a marvelous fortune

Maia is the main protagonist in the novel, and in more ways than one you can feel sorry for her throughout the novel, she has to overcome several obstacles throughout the novel, yet unlike the twins she sees every day as an adventure, and is shocked when she realizes that the Carter’s despise going outdoors.

I also find that it is good, how Minty (her governess) fits in with everything, as the novel progresses we find more about Minty’s strange past which fits in with the whole novel, making it all somewhat connected. Finn and Clovis are also well written likeable characters and I find it interesting how Ibbotson devotes equal attention to each of these characters so that each one has their own backstory.

The twins; being the main antagonist of the story are also very well written, and it makes you think of them as your own worst enemy! They seem to live in their own little world, and in the novel they appear to separate themselves from the other children as they only enjoy their own company, they are vain and selfish and they don’t like to share anything. For the best part of the novel they are plotting some way to get rid of Maia.

I was drawn by the unusual plot and setting, and I loved learning about Finn, Maia and Clovis, who were all portrayed as quirky, individual and interesting characters.

Buy it here

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-Kat

Welcome ♥

Welcome to The Bookshelf, here you will find reviews for the books I'm currently reading & enjoying. I'm Kat and I'm seventeen years old, but I will try to review books for all ages, and some of the reviews might have be written a while back :) Hopefully you'll find my reviews helpful, and it might inspire you to read books that you haven't read before!

-Kat ♥