Books for 11+

[cerion76]

Hello, I used to be a school Librarian in a secondary school and there didn't seem to be a lot of books for boys in the 11+ group.

I then decided to write a book for them and I was wondering, in exchange for a free Kindle (or ePub/PDF/LRF) copy if anyone would review it for me on Amazon? I've got three great reviews on there already but the more the merrier!

The book trailer is on YouTube here:

Of course I would like an honest review and wouldn't mind if you hated it. We all like different books!

The story is this:

A century ago, in the world of Eleria, five families ruled over the elements of air, earth, fire and water. Destroyed by Magi illusion, their heirs are scattered across time and space. On present day Earth, Jake has an ordinary life of school, bullies, and parties... until he learns about his past. Can he learn to control his new-found magical powers and reunite the heirs before it is too late?

What do you think?

I'll have a look if you like. I'm a children's bookseller and write a review column for a teaching magazine.

Have you joined mumsnet specifically to get reviews for your book?? At least stay around for a while and join in first.

Thanks belledechochipcookie. I did reply to a previous post about something completely different. I figured if I can help people I will. Someone was asking for help from Librarians so I chipped in with my experience. I also thought as I was offering free copies of a book that noone would mind. Hey ho, I live and learn.

I don't mind, it's hard to get good feedback. I'd join in first though. People are more willing to help you out if they recognise you.

Haven't looked at the book - just to say, I'm a bit tired of magical powers in books!

Thanks PlanetEarth. The feedback is appreciated.

I have to say though, it is magic but not in the Harry Potter way. The families each have a power either air, earth, fire or water - except Jake the main character. He has all four because he is the 'High-King'.They are all linked through a planet wide crystal mind called the Matrix. I know :-) but not that sort of Matrix either! They use crystals to focus their powers.

The Magi use illusion (a sort of telepathy) and they can summon demons (or creatures made of elements from different worlds).

I tried to make it different from the usual magic literature...

It's just that when we're browsing for books (for girls though rather than boys), there seem to be two main types - fantasy/magic/witches and school/boyfriend stories. I just long for something different!

Mind you, when I was a teenager it was all pony books, maybe there wasn't much variety then either. Obviously nobody reads pony books any more...

I was never into ponies. I did have a my little pony though :-) I was always a bit, okay a lot of a tomboy. Lots of climbing trees, hiking etc.

I think that's why I got on so well with the boys at the school. My assistant would choose the girly pink books like Cathy Cassidy and I would buy the Percy Jackson type books. We actually worked really well together because of that.

You might like Catherine Fisher's Incarceron. It's really good and more sci-fi than fantasy.

Fantasy/magic sells at the moment, this is what children are asking for hence the amount of writers churning them out. It should be quality and not quantity though.

Magic has always been popular. I was heavily influenced by the Narnia series growing up and Enid Blyton. JK Rowling just found the perfect combination with Harry Potter which made the genre super popular!

S Meyer did the same thing with vampires. In the library there was a permanent waiting list for Twilight. Some girls would even reserve it again to read! We had to buy multiple copies.

I was chatting to the lady in Waterstones about Twilight; she screwed her face up and shook her head. 'At least they are reading something.'

Just to say that the Pony Club Secrets books are very popular in our house - DD devours them.

I have to admit that I didn't like Twilight. One of the thirteen year-olds asked me every day for three weeks if I'd read it. She'd bound in at the start of break, rush up to the counter, slap her hands on the counter, look up and go.

'Miss, have you read it yet?' She'd look at me with comlete incomprehension as if I'd grown two heads or something. 'But it's brilliant Miss, Have you got to the meadow bit yet?'

So I had to read it! ;-)

I bluffed for a while though - it took me a month to read. Usually I can devour a book in a night. In fact I read a book a night for a (school) year so I could recommend books to the kids. Completely forgotten most of them now. I remember discovering Percy Jackson and falling in love with it. Just a good old fashioned adventure. Perfect.

Anyway I thought Twilight was a good story just not my kind of thing.

I think the Twilight books have become more and more odd. The best Harry Potter book was the first one, they seemed to lose their sparkle after the publishers began to give her time limits and I found the plots too similar. I've not read Twilight though.

I'm not a fan of it but I would recommend reading it, just to see what all the fuss was about!

I think it was so popular because the main character was awkward and clumsy. What I mean by that is that she was not perfect. I think some of the girls could relate.