Machine-gunners (New Windmills)

Description

Set on Tyneside in World War II, this is one of a series offering classic and contemporary fiction for schools to suit a range of ages and tastes. A German Heinkel bomber has been shot down, and someone has managed to get away with a machine gun and all its ammunition from the crashed plane.

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Customer Reviews

More Teenagers Should Read This Book
When I was in Year 8 at High School this book was an English reading text. Keeping adolescent boys interested is no easy job, but this book was one of a few I read in school. The book is fun with adventure, but also highlights some of the harshness of World War, especially when battlefields also extend to neighbourhoods.

Nicholas R.W. Henning - Australian Author

2010-03-08 (Sydney, Australia) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Gruesome and funny at the same time
World War II is raging, and a group of kids living in northern England has decided that they're not content to sit out the constant bombings and raids. A clandestine German machine gun means the difference between cowering in bomb shelters or being proactive. They do the best they can, offering observations about wartime that aren't always heard about. This book has moments of humor and grim reality. Well written and gripping, this is a good read for anyone who enjoys fiction about this era.

2009-02-13 (A Place-Sort Of, Montana) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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My First ever read book
I remember reading this book when i was 15 and it was the first book i ever read all the way through.
I was quickly transported back to WW2 in the london blitz.
This book was my first introduction to reading instead of just watching the telly.
I read the book in one day and my love of reading has grown ever since.
Bloody fabulous book and story.
Im 43 years old and never looked back since.

2008-08-24 | Chris Bishop | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The Machine Gunners
The book The Machine Gunners is not a bad book at all I just thought that it was too hard to follow at times. I also did not like how The Machine Gunners had so many characters. The Machine Gunners does have a good story line which makes up for it's flaws. I find some characters funny which helps me threw some of the dull parts. All and all I think this book will get mixed opinions, but it still would not hurt to read it.

2008-05-27 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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Finally found this book
I remember being in grade school and having the librarian read parts of books to get us interested in them. I remember when she stopped I was dying to find out the rest of the story.

I finally found it and read it. Worth the search!

2007-03-16 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Fathom Five

Description

Fathom Five. First Printing by Borzoi Sprinter December 1990. Paperback. 258 Pages.

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Blitzcat (PB)

Description

She made her way down the cliff, and on to the beach. At the edge of the waves, she stopped, shaking her wet paws. She knew that somewhere ahead was her person, but far, far away. She miaowed plaintively; stood staring at the moving blur of uncrossable sea. She led the way to safety, out of the blazing hell of blitzed Coventry. People touched her for luck; feared her as an omen of disaster. Wherever she went, she changed lives...From her beginning to her end she never wavered. She was the Blitzcat. "Westall's writing has always been strong and vivid but he has rarely written as confidently as this." - "Times Literary Supplement".

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Customer Reviews

Great book about WWII for cat lovers
This is an excellent novel! It sparked my interest in World War II at a young age.

It tells the story of a lost cat traveling through England during the Blitz. Much like Jack London's White Fang, Westall's cat character behaves like an actual cat, and not like a humanized version of one.

As a child, she gave me a clear window into the strange world of history. It was hard for me to relate to foreign wars before my time, but I loved cats. Seeing the war through the eyes of a cat helped me to really understand it for the first time.

Robert Westall has a very straightforward writing style. He stays somewhat detached from his characters, allowing the reader to make their own connections and judgments. I found this approach very appropriate for the story - it keeps things feeling realistic instead of seeming like a Disney TV special about a lost cat.

If you like this one, check out Robert Westall's other books about cats or World War II!

2008-09-25 (Wilmington, DE United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Blitzcat
"Blitzcat"
By:The coolest student in Centennial High School

Out of all the World War II books young adults could possibly read, Blitzcat is one of the mediocre books.
Blitzcat is a story based on a cat named Lord Gort who experiences warfare in Great Brittan. This cat roams around aimlessly looking for two things, his beloved owner and a place to stay away from the war. This book is really bland and it is a pretty weird book for a young adult to understand especially for a war book. And out of all the animals they could have picked to have an epic war story, they had to pick a cat. Seriously, why not just pick a badger or a squirrel. At least pick an animal worthy of helping. But other than that some parts were pretty awesome. For instance in one part Lord Gort saves a Brit's life by jumping on the leg of a Nazi and his action allowed the Brit to shoot and kill the Nazi. That made Lord Gort a hero in that part but most of the book focuses on the cat running around and through some huge battles just to get to his beloved owner. So all in all, this book is good but it's not a great choice nor is it on anyone's Christmas wish list.

2005-10-21 | George (Colorado) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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Happy to find a childhood love!
I read this book in my 5th grade class when I was a little girl. It tells the story of a forlorn black cat looking for his owner who has gone to fight in the war. This book began my love affair with WWII and enthralled me so that I can't wait to read it with the children I teach.

2004-11-18 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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The War through a cat's eyes
First, Westall captures cats better than any writer of fiction around. Without descending to silly anthropomorphism, he presents the behavior and perspective of the cat with just enough distance so that anyone who knows cats will recognize the authenticity at once. Lord Gort is a clever, finicky creature who runs away to find her person rather than be stuck with her person's wife and baby during the war. "Psi trailing"-- where animals can find their way to their owners, even when they've never been to the place where the owner has moved-- is a documented phenomenon, and scientists still don't really understand it.

Second, Lord Gort's travels give Westall an incredible opportunity to present different episodes in the lives of ordinary English people during the way. So we spend time at a train depot, where Lord Gort is hailed as good luck by hollow-eyed returning soldiers. She lives for awhile with a Scottish captain whose division is requisitioning a small town, and we see through her proximity a wary but tender relationship develop between the lady of the house, whose officer husband is in Egypt, and the captain. I was surprised at such a clear depiction of sexual tension and complex emotions in a YA novel, but it's handled subtly and seriously. Lord Gort is also present at the bombing of Coventry, which many Americans may not really know about-- I didn't. I knew Londoners were evacuated during the war, but had not realized the extent of the devastation-- a whole town of displaced people on the brink of starvation.

There's also a wonderful story, complete in itself, about a young war widow on the brink of a life-killing depression, who is jolted by Lord Gort, somewhat against her will, back into life. Her story brought me to tears.

This book is a very quick read-- I stayed up all night to finish it-- but it has a lot of information in it. A great book to teach, perhaps at the middle school level, and an enjoyable read for pleasure.

2002-12-30 (Millburn, New Jersey United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Not Worth Reading
It was slow, boring, dragged out. I had to force myself to read this book. It wasn't interesting which was amazing since the subject, WW2, is extremely interesting. This book was terrible and I would never recommend it.

2002-07-19 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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Ghost Abbey (Point)

Description

When her father receives an offer to renovate an old abbey, Maggi thinks that this new job will help her family get back on its feet, but she soon discovers that the abbey is haunted. Reissue. AB. SLJ. H.

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Customer Reviews

terrific..
Maggi is loveable, alive, curious, and endearing. I love this story to pieces and have read it dozens of times! The abbey is wonderfully painted in your mind. Characters abound. Going to the abbey is an adventure and learning it's history makes good fun. I agree, as I read a review by a young reader, "I too" wish the story didn't end, I want to know more of their future to come... :)

2005-07-21 (Minnesota) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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You are so nice to come home to
I just finished reading a couple of Young Adult gothics by John Bellairs, who liked to claim that his imagination got stuck at ten. His books really read like they're written from a child's perspective. Robert Westall writes in the same genre (YA ghost story) and "Ghost Abbey" is told from the perspective of a twelve-year-old girl, but without the whimsy that is Bellairs's hallmark. It's a book written by an adult for children. On the positive side, the story is more complex than, say, Bellairs's "The Vengeance of the Witch-finder." In fact, "Ghost Abbey" reminds me of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" more than anything by Bellairs. Westall ends his work on a more positive note, but it's still eerily similar to Jackson's ending.

A young teen-ager, Maggi takes care of her widowed father and her two cub-scout-aged twin brothers. There is also a slovenly housekeeper with the notion of marrying Maggi's father, who has 'kind, lost, blue eyes.' When a letter arrives asking Maggi's father, who is a master builder, to come fix up an old abbey, Maggi at least jumps at the opportunity to get away from the slovenly housekeeper and give her twin brothers a bit of a vacation in Chesire. She talks her father into going, and they all pile into the old Ford Transit van. Due to several mechanical breakdowns, the van doesn't arrive at the abbey until after dark.

Let the spookiness begin! Westall really knows how to build an atmosphere, and although Maggi knows she shouldn't be wandering around in the dark, she absolutely has to find the loo before she can go to sleep.

The author does a great job of combining the details of everyday life in an old abbey---how Maggi's father sets them up so that they can take hot baths; how Maggi manages her household allowance (the family eats lots of chips); how the lady of the Abbey gradually becomes part of the family---but Westall never lets his readers forget where they are or who else might be sharing the abbey with them.

Although "Ghost Abbey" is a very family-oriented story, Westall has also written collections of ghost stories for the adult market (he's especially fond of feline ghost stories).

2002-05-14 | starmoth (Gladwin, MI USA) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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DON'T MESS WITH THIS PLACE--IT COULD KILL YOU!
Twelve-year-old Maggi has her hands full in this English ghost story; everything from insolent louts and anachronistic ectoplasm to malevolent architecture. Having taken over as the Little Missus when her Mam died, she has to deal with a gone-to-seed carpenter father, horrid younger twin brothers, and a lazy floozy of a housekeeper with designs on Dad. Naturally father and daughter jump at the chance to refurbish an old abbey/house in Cheshire for an eager contractor friend, who believes in the Past. But who knows what awaits their arrival in their hopeful innocence for a new life? More than the schoolmarmish secretary for the Marigold Trust...

To be sure the new place has ghosts as well as a sinister conscience. Maggi learns to be kind to the house and respectful of its ancient contents. Soon she starts talking To the house (so it won't consider her an enemy), for she has realized its power of retribution. Aye, this is one abbey that can take care of itself. I hope you are good at reading dialect, for it's quite a challenge for Yankee readers to decipher the meanings of British phrases, not to mention imagine in our mind's ear the sound of Dad's broad Tyneside accent. Nevertheless, this is an interesting read about a young girl's attempts to preserve her family in the face of supernatural forces. Will she ever discover the Abbey's true secret and win its approval? Girls 10-14 will enjoy this book, but be warned: don't mess with old teddy bears!

1998-10-30 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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The Kingdom by the Sea

Description

Harry's family are running to the shelter when the bomb hits. As the rescue team pull him alone out of the rubble, Harry realises he'll be sent off to live with moping, fussy Cousin Elsie - the last thing he needs on top of the shock of losing his family. He runs away, meeting Don, a dog who's also lost his home, on the beach. In wartime every step is full of danger. Getting a meal, sleeping in a haystack - everywhere Harry goes he finds people full of suspicion, ready to turn in a boy on his own. But Harry encounters sudden kindnesses too. A family have left a caravan open, filled with tinned food for anyone who needs shelter. They all died when a bomb hit their home, but they help Harry when he needs it most. Joining eccentric Joseph Keilty by the sea, Harry learns to scavenge along the beach and makes friends with some nearby soldiers, until once more he is driven on alone.

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Customer Reviews

"In my opinion..."
I am always amazed by some of the criticisms on Amazon. Who are these people who think they have the right to judge a writer's work? Could they write a book and get it published? Perhaps if they prefaced their comments with, "In my opinion..." but even then their grammar and spelling is not always correct. "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones."

In my opinion The Kingdom by the Sea is a very good story. I discovered Robert Westall quite by accident but have read many of his books now. This book I think would take 2nd place only to Blitz Cat.

I recommend this book.

2010-02-16 | RGK (Seattle) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Engaging but flawed
As a mother reading aloud with a 10-year-old boy, I am always on the lookout for fiction (and nonfiction) that portrays boys as heroic and resourceful beings who do not need to be rescued by girls every time they get in a bind. This book was enjoyed by both of us for its plot and descriptions. I was a bit put off by the creepy child molester and thought that part could have been left out. While parents need to have "that talk" with their kids, it was awkward and not entertaining to have that situation arise unexpectedly during our reading time. I also was surprised by the number of sentence fragments and other examples of poor grammar throughout the book. Authors of kids' books - please help us out by modeling good grammar! We may read another of this author's books; the historical setting and problem-solving by the protagonist were admirable. My son loved the dog.

2006-02-07 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 3

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I had never thought ...
I have never thought that a book written especially for youngsters could bring tears to my eyes � This book actually has done this and not only once �Maybe, it is because I found myself in a bit of an unstable period while reading this story, but I was really surprised that the choice of words by Robert Westall made me a little emotional at times. On the other hand, main character Harry Baguley�s strong will to survive and his sense of humour never left him, so there was enough that made me smile. I loved the frequently used nice expressions and metaphors in the story and I was really touched by the beautiful description of Harry�s journey back to his hometown, by car in less than an hour. The whole story passes in review, but backwards.
What I DID NOT LIKE nor understood was the way the story ended. The book left me with a very unsatisfied and indignant feeling. I had to peruse the first chapters again to see what I had missed � but even then, I could not find any indications.

After all, I am very curious if the story has the same effect on young people as it has had on me �

2003-03-20 (Zwolle, The Netherlands) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Criticism of "A kingdom by the Sea."
Criticism of "A kingdom by the Sea."

The book A Kingdom by the Sea reaches out to the reader. I the book a boy's family gets bombed in the 1940's along Britain and he's the only one who survives. Throughout the novel the young boy, Harry Baguley, is on a quest to survive with his new dog. One good "plus" about the novel is the author every once in a while throws out some good action scenes which really allures the readers. Another plus is that in the novel, every conflict leads to another. For example, when the annoying Corporal Merman finds Harry's pillbox, Artie fights with him and teaches him a lesson. A minus is that the author all of a sudden throws out different information, at first it's good, but then it gets annoying. Another minus is that in the first 20 pages, the author makes it difficult for the reader to understand what he is trying to emphasized.
Some advice for the author is to make the ending a little more interesting and a little less boring. The plot is an alright one, but along the middle there could be more action such as conflict or maybe even fights. Otherwise the novel exhorted a good sense of conflict and action

2002-04-24 (Charlottesville, VA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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An excellent survival story
For my independent reading book this month, I decided to read:

The Kingdom by the Sea By Robert Westall

I chose this book for two reasons:

First of all, when I read the summary on the back cover, I realised that the story was a fight for survival.

At the moment, we are studying all about survival stories and survival methods in English Literature.

Secondly, the story takes place in England, during World War 2.

I am very interested in books and films about World War 2 because my grandfather was a young German soldier in this war.

When I was younger, he always used to tell me stories about how he survived the war. He was only a young man of 17 when he was sent to the front lines of Russia to fight for his country. I used to listen to his tales eagerly, trying to imagine how he could possibly survive all the danger he lived through.

The Kingdom by the Sea looks at World War 2 from another angle. This time, through the eyes of a 12 year old English boy, the same age that I am now.

Harry Baguely lived in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England during the war. His town was bombed regulary by the German Luftwaffe. One night, he had just made it safely to a bomb shelter, when a bomb drops on his home and wipes out his family and house. Left alone and unsure what the future will bring, he runs away. The story follows his fight for survival, along with a stray dog, who joins him on the way.

The story helped me to understand what life was like during World War 2 and how you can't trust everybody you meet. Each chapter makes you want to read on to see what happens to Harry. There's also an amazing twist to the story at the end. I could read this book again!

1999-10-15 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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The Scarecrows (Definitions S.)

Description

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Customer Reviews

A Dark and Powerful Story - Carnegie Medal Winner
A dark and deeply disturbing story of a boy overcome by hatred when his mum decides to remarry after his father's death. Even worse, is that she's chosen to marry Joe Morton, the man who embarrassed him at his boarding school Parents' Day, by turning up with his mum, no tie, in his flashy white Range Rover. Simon is torn apart with anger that his mum and little sister, Jane, seem to have forgotten his dad so easily. Having to return home in the school holidays, Simon explores an abandoned mill near his house, but there's something quite weird about the mill, and the way it's been left untouched for so many years. There is another powerful hatred here too, just waiting to be unleashed, and Simon is forced to face his fears.

Powerful and at times violent and deeply disturbing - a story for teens.

2008-09-20 (UK) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Haunting
I first read this when I was about 10 years old, and it has never left my mind.
It was my first real encounter with a deeply disturbing sort of thriller, and I have been grateful always. This is no mere blood and guts raggedy man story, this one is much more frightening, with an ending that won't be forgotten. It is very subtle, but the dread and fear just keep building up until there's nowhere left to hide. Give this one a chance, you'll be glad you did.

2007-01-25 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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