Rampage

By Julia Wills

1. Connor: The book is hilarious in it’s own way, the author, Julia Wills is very clever as she is using humour mixed in with ancient Greek mythological facts, it references ‘classical literature’ in a way that children would find exciting. Greek literature and culture include famous heroes and crude monsters, which make a young reader interested, it is a very cleaver way to teach history.

Julia Wills uses humour to make history interesting for her younger audience. She uses funny footnotes, and glossaries of ‘Greek speak’ so that you are more involved when reading. Some chapters also have titles which show humour, such as: “Gang Ram Style” and “It Ain’t Over till The Fat Lady Screams”. Mixing humour and education is very effective in the book and I think that she was very successful doing this. I think that she is an amazing author to be able to do this.

Julia Wills style of writing really captured my interest and kept me reading. I was exited at every chapter to find out what happens next. I would definitely read the next book in the series if she writes another, as this book was very gripping, always making me want to read more. I will definitely go back and read the first book called “Fleeced” and I hope that she does write another book.

I would recommend this book to readers over 9 years old. Especially those whom like history and especially Greek Mythology. I believe the information was historically relevent and I was able to understand the story very well. The historic elements of the story tied into facts which I have learned in other courses and read in other books.

I do not have anything negative to say about this book, I have really tried to find something negative to say but I do believe that it was the perfect book. Perhaps the only negative is that I finished the book and I really would love to read more.

I recommend this book 10/10 because every page is very exciting!

2. Daniel: The descriptions I found most interesting is when they started describing the ghosts since you can’t actually see ghosts it must have been hard to describe them.

Now that the book is over I feel that it must have been hard to be living in the world at that time since there were sorcerers and ghosts which you could see. Now that I have read the book and it is a series I now want to read the first book of that series (Fleeced). The book has encouraged me to think more about history and what happened in those days. Even though we are already learning about ancient Greece in my class, reading this book has made me want to learn about it even after we stop. If I could I would find the other book in this series and read it. I did not need to look up any historical facts about the story since I already knew about them.

I did like the characters since I have been learning about them at school. The characters I liked best were Aries and Alex because they were the real heroes and Rose because she was brave enough as a 12 year old girl to go to the dangerous Amazon jungle on her own to save her father. I do not think that the characters could be improved because they were very heroic how they were.

The plot did grab my attention since I like adventure. Since I am not an author or a story writer I do not know how to improve it. If I were an author I would. I would recommend this book because I know that some of my friends are also interested in adventure. The highlights of the book was when Rose found her father and found out he had problems. I don’t think there were any weak bits. I would describe it as a book I couldn’t put down since it was a very, very, very good gripping story.

3. Harriet: When I put down the book I felt like I had been part of the story and it was strange to come back to the world we live in because I’d been dragged into the pages. The book was so descriptive as soon as I started reading I became part of the atmosphere.

There are 5 main characters. Rose is an adventurous girl who is willing to explore further and also brave enough to head into the amazon forest to search for her missing father. I enjoy Roses perspective of the world because she thinks further into everything, such as horrible smelling fungi being something that nature lives on.

Aries is almost enemies with Jason, the capturer of the golden fleece and when he finds out he has to work with him, his emotions take over and he predicts disaster.

The goddesses and gods including Athena and Artemis give Jason all the things he needs, not just for going onto earth but for a lifetime! They give him some of their greatest weapons. I really enjoyed the gods, especially Athena because she is wise and has a snowy white owl. She had her owl with her as a symbol of good luck and because nobody can see Athena but we can see owls – which she carries, it seems so real and suddenly you seem to believe that Athena is defiantly real!

Medea, an evil cold hearted woman, is always looking for revenge on poor Rose. And when she finds out her ex-husband (Jason) is coming back on earth to put the nemesis lion into her hand to make the Erinyes* drag her to Tartarus*she feels so angry that her spine tingling plans had to finally go into action

*Tartarus was what the ancient greeks believed would happen when you were not a good person. *The Erinyes were three bat winged women who cried blood*

The author uses powerful phrases and one image in my mind was how nervous one of the characters was by describing her as her nerves as bat’s wings in her throat.

The scenes changed very quickly but the good thing was it made you want to know what the other characters were up to in that period of time.

I thought that the history was realistic because the author made the characters use what the ancient Greeks would use as an alternative to what we use now, yet it has only been developed. The Greek citizens would be wearing togas or for the gods something more respectful.

My favourite parts of the book was where all the action was – towards the end and suddenly , after a while you find yourself in the pages of the book  where like the characters, you find yourself lost in a world that adventures await! I would recommend this book to any age because it transports you into another world as well as giving you a valuable lesson in greek mythology.

4. Josh: I didn’t particularly like ‘Rampage’ because there wasn’t enough comedy and mystery in it, but sometimes it was quite interesting. It’s not usually my sort of book as I normally like football books.  My favourite bit of the book was when the hero fought the animal.

The book was written by Julia Wills. I would only recommend it to someone interested in mythology.

5. Leo: I didn’t enjoy this book, because it was very confusing during the story line. The best character in the book was Jason.  I found the event of Jason chilling out. The book didn’t me about the (period of history) because it was fiction. It has not made me want to find out more about it. I would not like to read more books by this author, because was confusing.

6. Lieze: I enjoyed the book because it has a lot of description and interesting things. My favourite character is a sweet girl called Rose, because she’s beautiful and brave. Rose also stopped a wicked witch called Medea from doing something evil and she made a blue butterfly into a green caterpillar. My least favourite character is Jason because he was supposed to be a hero but he ran away from danger.

I think that the history in the book is a bit realistic. The place I liked in the jungle is Brazil because it was very sunny but I don’t like that there are lots of weird, creepy animals in the jungle.

I’d like to read more books by this author because this book was amazing.

7. Mia: I enjoyed this book, because it was very funny when the story teller adds in their made up opinion. The book never taught me about the (period of history), there was just one character from the past. It hasn’t made me want to find out more about the gods, goddesses and legends. I would like to read more books by this author, because I like the style she has used. If you don’t understand a word she will number it the at the bottom of the page and tell you what it means.

8. Ryan: I did enjoy the book a little bit because it was complicated. Another reason I did not enjoy much of the book because lots of  mythical people! I also found out that this book is Greek. There was a special character who was called Alex. It was all made in different countries but I  liked the Amazon rain forest. When I mean complicated I mean like a jaguar has three heads. I believe the history in the book was mythical. I am afraid the book did not make me to find more about history! The book made me really to read more books by this author. This book is better for year five and six. I think this book is too complicated to read for children in year four or younger!

9. Sofia: I didn’t enjoy this book so much, because you don’t understand what’s going on in the story because there is too much information. The best character in the book was Jason because he was very interesting to read about. I found the event of the village quite funny because there was a boy who was caught by a chef. The book taught me about the (period of history) of the olden days because it talks about deserts and things like that. It has not made me want to find out more about deserts because it’s boring there. I would not like to read more books by this author, because he/she puts too much information in it.

10.Tristan

Rampage is an exciting book that keeps you reading for a long time. (I wish I had my own copy!!) when you have some spare time it’s hard not to read the Greek-myth based  story. It has quite a confusing start to it that I had a bit of trouble getting my head around because I am only in year 5. From the size of the exciting and historical book, plus the language I would say this book is perfect for year 6 (aged 10-11) and experienced year 5 readers (aged 9-10). As much as I would love to tell you what I have read so far I don’t want to ruin it for you! The start of it goes straight into an action packed scene with a smash!! And a crash!! Which is very interesting. Out of 10 shining stars I would give it a smashing 9.

11. Oliver. Rampage is a good book to choose because Julia Wills is an excellent author, she writes interesting books. 

In this adventure Rose is my favourite character because she has a really interesting journey to South America. She goes to look in the Amazon rainforest to see if she can find her missing father. Alex and his best friend Aries (the ghost-ram) are both on a quest in Brazil to help Jason the Argonaut (the Fleece-snaffling hero).

Another book I liked written by her is Fleeced.



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