The Gift By Dorothy Piper
site_link post a commentPeter Jones s oddball grandfather is scared of doctors So scared that when Peter s Mum makes an appointment for him to go see one he leaves home without telling anyone where he is headed Ever since Peter was small Granddad amused him by telling him stories of the far flung places he s been to on Earth But how could he have gone to all those places He had no passport or even a birth certificate Not only does Granddad say he s traveled the world he also claims to have been to the Moon and beyond He says he has a secret way of traveling and promises to share the secret with Peter on his twelfth birthday Peter can hardly wait His ambition is to be an astronaut In particular he is mad about Mars and vows to be the first person to set foot on the Red Planet Then just two weeks before Peter is twelve Granddad leaves home Peter is devastated However in the early hours of Peter s twelfth birthday a weird mysterious visitor comes to his bedroom and leaves him a note The GiftI enjoyed this book far than I thought I was going to if I m honest. When I read the description I thought it was going to be awesome I couldn t wait to read it Then when I started the first thing I saw was that the author put the Acknowledgements section in the front This is a little strange but I went with it And then I read the author thanking various scientists and astronauts for helping her get her facts and terminology right about Spirit the Space Elevator and other things I groaned because it was starting to look like this would be a hard sci fi read and I don t generally like those kinds of stories because I find the science gets boring after a while. But it s not like that at all The book contains only a few passing references to those things Those references are I guess scientifically accurate but interesting and not too much to bog me down. Briefly the story is about a young boy obsessed with all things space and Mars in particular The boy learns he has this special ability where he can detach from his body and go anywhere he likes in spirit form The book is about all his adventures and the friends he makes while travelling. The writing is good quality and for the most part the story held me There were a few scenes typically ones where than two or three characters were involved that confused me and I either just skimmed past them or had to re read them a few times to figure out what was going on. Something that I picked up in the language was that while the book is set in the UK and the author uses UK specific words for things as well as UK idioms and slang the spelling is all American color with no u a full stop after Mr. The Gift contains a free chapter of the series successor Staying Alive It s a good strategy to do that because it s really tempting Speaking of series yes this book is the first in a series but all the major plot points are resolved There s some foreshadowing and the protagonist makes a promise at the end but I wouldn t call it a cliffhanger Which is good because I HATE cliffhangers ebook
| The Gift By Dorothy Piper |
| 9781311078544 |
| ebook |