Boekverslag : Aidan Chambers - The Present Takers / Tirannen
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 685 woorden.
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 685 woorden.
Author: Aidan Chambres
Published by: Magnet
Year of first publication: 1983 (by The Bodley Head Ltd)
Explanation of the title
Melanie Prosser is the school’s Bully. She and her friends Sally-Ann, and Vicky Farrant are making the other kids of their class bring presents for them. They are awaiting a victim that they are forcing to bring presents. If their victim don’t give them presents they are torturing him/her and making a fool of him/her. They are small terrorists who want to have presents from other kids.
A short summary
On Lucy’s birthday she’s got a pair of new shoes. When she comes to school that they Melanie Prosser and her two friends are waiting for her at the school’s gate. They are staring to make fun at her. She knew that this was going to hapen because Angus, a boy on her class, had sent her a note with a warning. He’s sending her notes all the time telling her he likes her. She likes the notes and she keeps them in her schoolbag but Lucy does not like him at all. Everyday Melanie and her friends are awaiting Lucy. She’s getting sick of it and at first she isn’t giving anything to Melanie. That only makes it worse and the torturing grows day by day until she gives her 5 pounds. (Which she had got on her birthday from her oncle!) Than she has a meeting with Angus, which was arranged by a note from Angus in where she tells her he likes her and wants to help her. At first she didn’t liked him at all cause he’s got long hair and he doesn’t washes himself each day but she gets interested in his ‘plans’ to stop Melanie Prosser so she’s going to meet him. She finds out that Angus isn’t what she expected him to be; he’s a reader, which she’s also and he’s much smarter than she thought him to be. Angus gets his plan from a book. The plan was to ignore Melanie and that she would stop than. She tries it but it doesn’t work. When she tells Angus on one of their meetings that she could get more interested in him when he should cut his long hair and washes himself more often the next day she comes at school his hair is cut off. He did it himself and so he looks awfull. Lucy feels pity for him (because she’s the cause of this terrible mess!) and takes him home where her mother cuts his hair in somekind of cut. Than she finds out that his dad is working on factory in the nightshifts and that his mother has left them a few weeks ago. Now a lot comes clear to Lucy and with Angus support she tells everything to her mum and dad. That evening her Mum goes to Melanie’s mother to talk to her about Melanie. Melanie’s parents aren’t home quite often so she doesn’t get much attention and was a bit neglected. Her mum chose Melanie’s side and so there wasn’t much Lucy’s mother could do about the situation. When Melanie comes to school next morning Melanie is absent. She never came to school again.
My opinion
The subject is quite interesting because bullying is happening to often at schools. Only the story itself was a bit boring because it was very predictable and the ending wasn’t much surprising. It is a thriller combined with a childish love story. The book is written for children at the age of eleven because the story is playing on primary school. The words and sentences were quite clear to me and so was the construction. The story was the same all the time; she got caught than she was said about that. It never made me cry or laugh unfortunately and it wasn’t much fun to read. The situation described in the book are very recognizable for everyone who’s ever met with bullying or being bullied. I was quite amazed after all that I could understand the book very clearly because I hadn’t expected myself to know enough words for reading an English book.
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