276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Monstrous Devices: THE TIMES CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE WEEK

£6.495£12.99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

I enjoyed everything about Damien Love's debut.' Anthony Horowitz, bestselling author of the Alex Rider series

This book is a fabulous choice for teachers! It serves as the springboard for numerous lesson ideas. A science unit in which students learn about the five simple machines then employ that knowledge by designing and constructing their own robots. Mathematical concepts obviously will be needed in conjunction with the construction as well as in determining the distance traveled by the novel's young protagonist, Alex, and his grandfather as they trek across Europe. That adventure easily lends itself to a unit on geography. History comes into play by studying the invention and different applications of robots over the years. (You could even debate the merits of automation of jobs.) Language arts lessons are seemingly endless; rewriting the ending, writing the story from one of the robots' points of view, changing the setting, etc. Vocabulary, spelling, you name it, this book is a gold mine! The story is very fast paced, and kept me engaged all throughout. The author's writing is very fresh and easy to glide through, with vivid imagery of the setting and robots and magic. He took magic and science and mixed them up together to create some dangerous tin monsters, human and mechanical assassins and a story filled with action.Right from the prologue, Damien Love instils a sense of mystery in us readers, giving us the sense of an impending doom. You start thinking 'oh lovely, sweet' and it soon turns into 'oh damn, that was dark'! There wasn't a miss in the adventurous tone of the story and throughout, we journey along as our MC face challenges after challenges. This grandad and grandson adventure has all the hallmarks of a whopping kids' thriller.' The Big Issue, Kids' Books of the year Let me start with the stupidest one first. I am aware it is kind of silly, but for some reason it drove me batty. Alex is bebopping all over the place with his cell phone, able to make calls and texts, but WITHOUT AN INTERNATIONAL PLAN. Also, his mom was able to text him, and he was texting her, but there wasn't the hassle of area codes. It was just like he knew how to make international calls no prob. Alex, 12 year old jetsetter. Things that should have been obstacles, even trifling ones, were just easily ignored or solved.

But as strange events start occurring around him, it doesn't take Alex long to suspect that the small toy is more than special; it might also be deadly. Just as things are getting out of hand, Alex's grandfather arrives, whisking him away from his otherwise humdrum life and into a world of strange, macabre magic. Hugely original, exciting debut novel... a fantastical but entirely believable world with scary killer robots oiled to perfection with automaton history, surprising characters and dry humour... Get hold of a copy, wind it up and let yourself go.' The Times He did get on my nerves at times. I can see why the author would go "Oh, I'm going to let grandfather smoke a cigaret but then make him repeat two times Alex should never do that since it's bad for your health!" Not only regarding smoking, but different subjects. I couldn't help think that maybe.. you shouldn't make his grandfather do those things in the first place then? The whole "yeah, you shouldn't do this yourself, Alex"-thing got repetitive after a while and I didn't like it. [It might definitely not be an issue for younger readers, but it got to me, okay.] What fun! An evil villain, a host of scary robots, big and small, and a hero with commendably bad personal habits. Loved it!' - John Flanagan, New York Times bestselling author of the Ranger's Apprentice series

Table of Contents

I did have a good time reading the adventure story, but I feel that some things were not as well-solved by the end of the novel as I'd like. I don't know if this is the first of a series, but I felt some of the plot points could be cleared up more. The resolution hardly felt resolved, and some of the characters ... they fell a bit flat. Alex's grandfather was funny at times, but other times, his 'uh's' and other hesitations seemed overdrawn. Less charming and more annoying. I felt bad for Alex most of the time - I understand the point of keeping some things for later in the book, but the kid is so caught up in a mess that nobody understands completely. Not even the people fighting seem to have the clearest idea of who or what they're on about. He just randomly fights against these vague "evil" forces without understanding the real history behind the bad guys. Who is that girl? Who is the tall man? Why are they all scarred up and how are the robots controlled by them? The little bits that are uncovered leave more questions.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment