Andie's Book Review

Andie’s Book Review

Book: Juggling with Mandarins

Author: V.M Jones

Genre: Adventure

Pip,Pip Head,Pippin,Phil is an ordinary 13 year old boy who doesn’t really do that much but is forced to play football by his Dad. Pip hates it when his Dad comes to watch football because he is always screaming at the ref and telling everybody else that it was offside! Contact! And most of all not right.

Pip has got two great friends, Mike his best mate at school and Katie. Pip has always been friends her since they were young. Katie is more of a boy than a girl but there are always sides of her that defiantly show she is a girl.

Mrs. Holland is Pip’s teacher. One day Mrs. Holland announces there is a juggling competition so Pip gives juggling a go and finds out he has quite a big talent at juggling just like rock climbing. Pip has to keep rock climbing and juggling a secret because he uses mandarins to juggle and makes them all squishy. He can’t tell his family about rock climbing because his Dad would go ballistic because he is so driven to make Pip do football.

The author makes you feel as if you are there because the author is so descriptive.

The author does make you think the characters are real because the author explains the characters emotions so well.

I really like the way the author uses their words because it makes everything seem real.

I don’t have the book but my favourite part of the book was when Pip was in a rock climbing final and he wanted his dad to watch. Also when he was running after the milk truck and he rolled his ankles it made me think that my ankles hurt as much as Pip’s. I really liked the book because there are lots of different little adventures that Pip has to do without his parents knowing and because the author describes everything so well.

Victoria Mary Jones is a children’s author. She was born in Zambia in 1958 and educated in Zimbabwe. She completed a BA in English, Archaeology and Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town. V.M. Jones has a husband and two sons. All of her books are called Buddy, Juggling with Mandarins, Serpents of Arakesh, Beyond the Shroud, Prince of the Wind, Quest for the Sun and Shooting the Moon.