Christmas in Prague is a book which was written by Joyce Hannam.
Carol is a harpist in an orchestra. The orchestra gives a
Christmas concert in Prague. So Carol must go with the orchestra.
She goes to Prague with her husband Jan and his father Josef. But
Josef has a secret in Prague: Jan has a twin brother in Prague. Carol
and her husband don’t know it. By accident, Carol sees him and
thinks he is Jan. She crosses the street and calls him but he doesn’t
recognize her because he is not Jan, he is his twin brother. At this
moment a bus arrives and hurts Carol. Jan’s brother calls an
ambulance. When Carol wakes up at the hospital, Jan, his father and
his brother are there. Jan’s father relates the story.
I like this story because the characters are friendly and
attractive. This story is realistic. The scheme is good. The story is sad
because Jan and his brother were separated when they were younger
and their mother died in December 1957 after Prague’s spring when
she tried to leave Czechoslovakia with her brother to avoid the
Russian repression. Josef always thought that his second son Pavel
had been killed by the Russians with his mother as his step-mother
had told him. But the end is happy because all the family is gathered
for Christmas.
By Amandine Le Ruyet
The Phantom of the Opera
In this story, there are some things I liked, but there are also many things that
I didn’t like (or just didn’t understand):
I liked:
 The fact that each chapter revolves around a different character
(mainly at the beginning).
 The beginning of the story and its introduction, the suspense, threat
letters, a murder and rumors about a ghost.
 The illustrations, because –although they’re too dark–they are very
practical to summarize a misunderstood scene.
But I didn’t like:
 The fall of the story that–I think–I didn’t understand, because I still
wonder why the ghost killed himself.
 The end of the story that destroys all the suspense of the beginning,
with a ghost who isn’t a ghost and all the “horror story” effect that is
replaced by an “impossible” love story.
As a matter of fact, and although there are some things that I liked in this
book, I can’t say that I liked it, because I chose a book called “The Phantom
of the Opera”, then I can’t expect to read a love story.
By Anouk THOMAS
« Sherlock Holmes and the sport of kings »
I liked “Sherlock Holmes and the sport of kings” because it’s a suspense case and it’s
strange that Silver Blaze, a horse, is the killer. I like Sherlock Holmes stories, his character, Dr.
Watson and I enjoy reading detective stories.
I think that Watson is very patient with Holmes. Holmes is very strange, very secret, a little
bit crazy and quite solitary. Watson is extremely loyal to Holmes, supports all his whims and
when Holmes has a fit of madness, he helps him. Holmes often handles people thanks to their
feeling and their fears. Watson is the best doctor in London so he is stronger than Holmes in the
medical field. I hate Mr. Ross (a character in this case) because he is pretentious and he doesn’t
rely on Holmes.
This book was shorter than stories I usually read but it was more difficult to read so I liked
it. Watson writes five chapters out of six, the sixth is written by inspector Gregory. When the
inspector writes, we are out of the story. But when Watson writes we are in the story. So I prefer
when Watson writes.
In this short story, there are suspects but the killer was not one of them. Holmes is the only
one who found the killer, Silver Blaze, and the human being who hides it. This man hides the
horse because he doesn’t want Silver Blaze to take part in a race.
By Garance Daveau-Lamiable