1. Athena: Longbow girl is the story of Merry Owen and her family. They live on a small Welsh pony farm in the shadow of the De Courcey’s  home, the Black Castle. Both the Owens and the De Courceys were sworn enemies, all except Merry Owen and James de Courcey, who were the closest of friends.

When Merry’s farm is in a deep debt, she finds the one thing, that might be able to save her home. The only thing standing in her way is the goading Professor Parks, who will stop at nothing to make sure they lose their farm forever.

I would recommend this book to anybody who likes the Tudor era. I rate this book five stars because it is a really good book. It is very interesting, full of action and you would never ever get bored!!

2. Beau: I would give this book 4 star because it was hard to understand . personally , the book doesn’t move on to another subject. But  the positive about this book is a lovely setting, description, not many  illustrations, apart from when you start a new paragraph but I still love it. It is a good and fun history book you really feel apart of it. I recommend this book to ages 9-13 . I hope you check it out. Its really good!

3. Ellie: Merry Owen – she is an adventurous, brave 15 year old who is destined to unravel the past.  When she finds a magical book, her life is transformed. Her chosen sport is archery, which she is outstanding at.  She is one of two children and lives with her mother, Eleanor and father, Caradoc.  Merry and her unusual pet – a Welsh mountain pony called Jacintha – are inseparable.

James de Courcy – he and Merry are best friends, even though their families are archrivals.  He saves Merry from being on the verge of drowning.  James’s chosen sport is football and he had a very accurate aim when it came to scoring and he is at a professional standard.

Highlights

One of the highlights for me was when Merry was transported from one second in her current life to an adventure going back in time by 500 years. I was captivated by this because it gave the story such a huge twist in events.

Another highlight in this story for me came when Merry found an ancient, mystical book in one of her eldest relative’s burial places.  I found this interesting because the idea of discovering a book like this on your own family’s land is beyond my imagination.  

Any weak parts

For me, the only weak part in this whole story was during the first couple of chapters as it did not really grab my attention.  I am now very glad that I continued with the book as chapter, by chapter my interest has grown and grown.

Any other information

When Merry discovered the book, she decided to keep it in her secret, lockable cupboard under her bedroom floorboards.  This aspect added to the tension that grew as the book went along.  Instead of keeping the secret of her family’s book to herself, she tried to show it to James while keeping his father in the dark.  But, this plan back-fired as James’s father ended up becoming more and more involved in the ancient book.   James’s father employed two scientists to investigate the meaning of the book as it had been written in ancient Welsh. 

Recommending this book

I would definitely recommend this book and feel it would be most suitable for children aged from 9–14 years.

The story also opened my eyes to all of the historical events that have happened hundreds of years before my birth.

The plot

The plot really grabbed my attention as it brought history to life!  As I was reading the book and feeling like I was in Merry Owen’s shoes, I did not want to put the book down.  It was a real page-turner.

4. Katie: I am really pleased that I was able to read this book as I think it was action-packed and intense. I enjoyed it so much.

Longbow Girl is about a girl called Merry Owen and she is best friends with a boy called James. The only problem with their friendship is that their families are enemies. They completely despised each other. Later on Merry finds a book and she feels that it is cursed. She sells it to a museum but forgets that it talks about a ‘River of Time’. One day she finds it and catches hyperthermia, when she attempts to swim through. The book is basically about a girl who goes back 500 years and lives up to her family name.

I rate this book 5/5.

5. Nikola: I just have finished reading an amazing book, which is called ''Longbow Girl'' by Linda Davies. This is the first book that I have read by Linda Davis, and I think is one of the best ones I have ever read. This book is amazing and I would recommend it for adventurous girls, but I think some boys might like it too. The main character is beautiful and very brave Merry Owen, and she is the Longbow Girl. She travels back in time to the kingdom of King Henry to save her ancestors. The story is set in the wilds of the Welsh mountains. Merry finds an overturned tree and a buried chest, which has old Welsh text, it leads her into a past filled with treasure and secrets. I think that the history in the book was realistic, because the events that are happening there, seem to be very realistic. By being realistic I want to find out more about history, because I would like to know if this is true or not. I would like to read more books by Linda Davies, because I really liked this book and I think that her other books could be good as this one. I really enjoyed reading this book, because is adventurous and is very interesting. I really like when Merry finds the text, because Merry then finds a lot of interesting things.

6. Nina: Set in Wales, a girl called Merry Owen lives on a farm with her family. Opposite, however, are their deadly enemies the De Courcys, who live in the Black Castle. They had been enemies for centuries and things weren’t getting any better. When the Owens find out that they owe the banks £60,000 they are afraid that they will have to sell their land to the De Courcys. But when Merry finds a lost copy of the Mabinogion, could their fortune be changed forever......

Merry Owen

Although she is the first longbow girl, out of a family of longbow men, Merry is amazing at archery and always hits bullseye. She is a brave, likeable young woman (in the book she is 15 years old) and is always willing to take risks to help others.

James De Courcy

Unlike the rest of his family, James is best friends with Merry and always finds ways to be with her. He is incredible at football and wants to get signed by Manchester United. James is daring and doesn’t care what his parents think about his decisions. He agrees with Merry that what his parents are trying to do (getting the Owen’s land to himself and kicking them out) is wrong.

I struggled to read this book for the following reasons: Firstly the beginning didn’t pull me in and I didn’t want to carry on. Another reason was that it was supposed to be a historical book where Merry goes back in time. She does do this but only quite late in the story, so I wouldn’t really count it as a historical book. I thought it would get more interesting when she did go back in time, but it didn’t. I would improve this book by making it more relatable to the readers and not make it so detailed. This is because it took a while to get into the story. Reading this book does not make me want to read more books by Linda Davies. I would not recommend Longbow Girl to anyone.