Jarvis 24

title: Jarvis 24
author: David Metzenthen
published: penguin

i actually read this a few weeks ago, but somehow never got round to reviewing it. Jarvis 24 has been a big award winner in Australia this year taking gold in the children's book council, and i gotta agree that it deserves it. it really enjoyed it.

Marc Jarvis has to do work experience, it's either that or spend a week in the school library doing assignments. as he walks past the local second hand car yard he decides to see if they'd let him work there for the week. only partly inspired by the beautiful girl walking out of the gate. from here the story unfolds. new and old friends and relationships.

this book kept me up all night, just because i couldn't bring myself to put it down. I'd also like to say that thanks to David metzenthen everyone who was near me while i was reading this book thinks I'm crazy because i couldn't help but laugh out loud.
i also loved reading from what seemed a typical guy, because it's rare in a non-adventure, sport, action book to have a main protagonist, especially one as realistic at Marc Jarvis.

over all i thought this book had a great, gentle ending, but there was one thing i was left wondering and i actually looked for a way to contact the author so i could ask him, unfortunately i couldn't. apart from that i loved the whole book.

Juice

Title: Juice
Author: Katy Watson
First Published: 2000 by Fremantle Press

Juice wants to be an Australian sprinter and she thinks she's got what it takes, the Body, the determination, support and her crazy new coach Wiz. soon though, everything is changing. Juice's head is spinning, she thought that she was just changing coaches so she'd become the best 100m sprinter around, but that was just the start. Soon she's crushing on her running partner, who seems to have issues of his own, her best friend seems to have been replaced by an alien, her Gran is moving to sydney and her family is changing completely.

this book is prequel to Mama's Trippin' , but saying that you can read them in any order because there is no necessary information in one for the other and they have different Protagonists.

there are some Big difference between how the two books are written, which i wasn't expecting. Juice is written in 1st person all from Juice's Point of view, while Mama's Trippin' is written in 3rd person from multiple points of view. Mama's Trippin' definitely had more serious themes, but both books i really liked.

my favourite thing about this book was that it was set it Perth, which is a rare treat for me, because it's my city and i knew the places they were talking about and other details just seemed so right to me.

the other thing i loved was the characters, they were so realistic. the way Juice thinks about things, especially her parents, her body and boys was, in my opinion, was really like in my own head. every character had flaws and not silly little things, but there were moments i wanted to yell "you idiot Juice, don't say that! she your best friend" i felt i knew each one.

that brings me to the first thing i didn't like. i felt that the book could have been longer, the ending wasn't rushed, but i felt it could have been stretched out a little further. i also was hoping that Von's feelings about his diabetes would be explored more, because in mama's trippin' i felt I'd like to know more and thought it would be in Juice, but i was a little disappointed, but it was explored.
my only over problem is I'm not sure how well the end of Juice over laps with the start of Mama's Trippin', I'm not sure if they match.

i really liked this book. a simple, yet great read.