Book Review

Since its the September holidays, our teacher has given us homework as usual. The book i am going to be doing is a book by Tom Holt, called The Better Mousetrap. I borrowed a whole series of Tom Holt's books at the library in Bishan. This story is not about mice, or Mousehunt, the most popular game nowadays. In fact, it is about magic and has a very complicated storyline.

As this book is a continuation from another story in the series, it only gives a brief introduction at the beginning about the two main characters in that book. The first, is a man called Frank Carpenter, who has a magical door, referred to in the book as The Portable Door. That is the only Portable Door in existence. Frank can use the Door to go to any place at any time. That meant he could just go to France from Singapore just by thinking the place while opening the Door and going through it. He mainly used this door to earn money by helping an insurance company boss, by going back in time to stop the accidents which happened. Without these accidents, the company would not have to pay the large sums of money to the victims. One such case happened to Emily Spitzer, who is the next main character.

She is a professional "Dragon-Slayer" who goes around killing dragons, monster spiders and anything mythical. In the book, these creatures exist and they sometimes get in the way of the public. This is where she is called in. However, the beasts are not killed by using swords or guns but by poisoning bait with a severe poison which causes acute indigestion. This method is unknown to the public as it would cause the pay to drop largely. The case which made them meet was a case in which Emily died. Her company had taken out a gigantic insurance and the company would have to pay a titanic amount of money. The job which killed her involved saving a kitten who was stuck in the tree, where she fell down. Frank went back in time to save her, but she still died. This was because the thing which killed her was a Better Mousetrap, a trap which would kill the victim no matter what. The only thing more powerful than it was the Door. Frank used it and then finally managed to save her. They both fell in love with each other but did not dare to tell each other.

Then, the head of Emily's company, hatched a venomous plan and Frank and Emily worked together to stop her. They told each other their feelings but had to fend off the company head,who was actually the one who had set the Better Mousetrap.

To know more about this book, you could probably borrow it at a library and read it. Thank you for reading this review!!

Gambling

The casinos being built in Singapore are going to be a great source of jobs and revenue for Singapore, but did you realise how many families it will break apart? Gambling can be harmless and fun if you do not get addicted. Playing now and then could be harmless. But the people who get addicted would do all sorts of things to get money to gamble and they would even resort to crime to get money for gambling. Although the casinos may have lots of good effects, it can have bad ones too. I think that the casinos should not be built, instead maybe an amusement park or something less harmful.

Lotteries

In my opinion, lotteries can have very harmful effects if you get addicted to buying them. Since they are cheap and the prizes are good, anybody can afford to buy them and this cause many people to become addicted. You could say this is a cheaper form of gambling. If you become addicted, you could lose a lot of money and still not know what has happened to you. That is what happens to many housewives. They are attracted to lotteries because of the attractive prizes and the cheapness of buying it. In my opinion, i do not think people should buy lotteries since if they save the money they spend on lotteries, quite a lot of money would be saved over the years. Rather than buy lotteres and wait to strike the first prize, why not work hard to succeed?

Paper By Catherine Lim

In Paper, a couple has a dream of getting a dream house which will be very grand and nice. At that time, the stock market was rising and the couple decided to try it out. they won a lot of money in thefirst few times and they were overjoyed. However, they got addicted and when the stocks began falling, they did not sell to reduce their losses. Eventually, they lost everything and the husband became delirious and sick. The husband died.

I think that gambling is very harmful. Just by getting hooked onto the stock market, you could lose everything. Sometimes, gambling a little here and there could be harmless, but if you get addiceted, you will lose evrything. So, control yourself and lead a gamble-free lifestyle!

Rocking Horse Winner

These three strories are all about how gambling ruined people's lives. It shows how serious the damage done by gambling is.

In Rocking Horse Winner, there is a family o five living in a big house and leading quit a good life. However, there was not enough money to keep up the appearances of the rich family since the parent's tastes were quite expensive. The parents began to worry and kept saying that there had to be more money. The oldest child, Paul, did not want his mother to be so worried and so he approached the gardener, who always talked about gambling with him, to help him place bets. When Paul was very sure of the winner, the horse which he thought would win would always win. They won a lot of money and his uncle joined them in gambling. After winning a lot of money, Pau used his uncle to give it to his mother. However, things got worse. Therefore, Paul decided he had to win in the three races to come. However, in the first two races, he did not win and he got more and more delirious, thinking only of the last race. When he got the answer to the last race, he got brain fever. Although he won a huge sum of money, he died.

I think this story really emphasises the bad effects of gambling and it shows us hat with unheaalthy influence, even children can be afected. Paul was addicted to gambling and that was what caused his death. I feel that gambling altough can make people rich and sometimes is good, it can also have many harmful effects.

Book Reviews

Book 4: The Saxon Shore By Jack Whyte

This is yet another fantasy book which i decided to read. it is set in the times of King Artur when he was a baby. The new colony, Camulod is being threatended by numerous enemies and Uther Pendragon, father of Artur gets killed by Lot, an evil person in control of a strong army. Artur is not killed but when Merlyn, Uther's cousin and best friend, arrives on the scene, he can do nothing. Only then does he realise that Artur is still alive on a drifting boat. Jumping onto the boat, Marlyn then realises the true heritage of the child. He tries to get out with the child but realises the boat they were on had drifted away from shore. That is the beginings of a series of adventures Merlyn embarks on to save the child from the hands of the hibenians, who tak him to exchange for one of their princes, Ronuil, who Merlyn captured and had freed.

I like this story altough it is very complicated and the story twists and turns everywhere. It is a great story. I would recommend it to teenages since it is a very complicated story.

Book Reviews

Book 3: Belgarath The Sorcerer By David And Leigh Eddings

This is also a book that tells the story before the bealgariad but it is told from another person, Belgarath the sorcerer's point of view. It reveals all the secrets about him, how he loved his wife, how he took it when his wife died.... At first, he was a very headstrong orphan boy who set out to explore the land away from his village as the villagers hated him for his stealing habits. Then, he met his master, the god Aldur, and learned how to use the will and the word. He was set the task of training the boy who would grow up and kill the evil god torak, when he rose again. A seasoned dunkard, he is a hilarious, wise, loving, ruthless and most of all, very very strong. I recommend this book to older teenagers since some parts maybe too difficult to understand.