1 Kanussh.books

Realistic Fiction - 342 pages - published 2004

1/2/19

I found the book, CHERUB, to be an amazing book with a blend of action, suspense, and great character development. The book revolves around an organization called CHERUB and the main character, James. James is recruited as a spy for CHERUB, an organization that recruits young children for information gathering and other missions. As the book goes on, James develops as a spy and as a person, which makes him incredibly interesting and relatable. He is smart but reckless, who is going through maybe a little bit more than he can handle. I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars because of its amazing plot and characters. Enjoy!

I feel that the book club unit was interesting and fun, but went by a little fast and was slightly rushed. We had to read each section about every two days, which I thought was a little fast. I liked that we got to choose our books and book club groups, and I thought that the discussions went very well. Something I would change is the amount of time we have to read the books. For me it would be preferred to read the whole book in 3 – 4 weeks instead of reading in sections. Finally, I think that we should keep the blog posts for being held accountable to read the book.

In the first meeting of our book club, we discussed the book and how we thought it would be. We discussed what we thought the book was by reading the back, and saw that it would be about a kid who was recruited as a spy. I wondered about the kid and what he would be like, as well as what conflicts he would run into. I had read a book similar to the concept of this one called Alex Rider, and since I liked that book, I decided that CHERUB wouldn’t be all bad.

In our third meeting of our book club, we discussed the third part of the book, CHERUB. I had two open-ended questions that we discussed in our group. One was if two of the kids, Sebastian and Clark, who had been introduced to the book as two friends who were very cruel, had a chance of becoming better people. I was wondering this because it was possible that James had an influence on them, and it might’ve affected how they would act in the future. We discussed this, and concluded that they would probably stay the same because they were bullied every day, and would not be able to resist their cruel ways. Another question I had was that if the two antagonists, Fire and World, were in different circumstances, could they have used their skills to change the world. I was wondering this because they were both proficient in academics, mostly biology, and they were able to create a virus to try to kill some guests at a conference. We decided that it was possible that they could’ve used their skills in a different way. They could’ve changed the world, but they wasted it on a bad cause. Some other highlights of our discussion were about Bruce and Greg Jennings. Greg Jennings was beat up by Bruce because he disrespected James’ family. Shrinav, one of our group members, was wondering why he did this. This was already written in the book, so we changed the question to, how could’ve Bruce taught him a lesson differently. Some answers that came up was that he could’ve talked to him instead, or just ignored him.

The book I am reading, CHERUB is about a kid, James,  who has been recruited by a secret government agency that uses kids as spies instead of only adults. In the beginning of the book, a girl, Samantha, started making fun of Jame’s mom. James got so mad that he shoved her against a wall, and she was stabbed by a nail sticking out of the wall(Muchamore p.3). This is was not entirely on purpose, but it shows that James is violent, which could prove useful later on in some missions. A question that I had was if this would be more advantageous or disadvantageous to James and his future missions. It could be a disadvantage to him as his temper could get out of control, and instead of helping, he might jeopardize the mission. Although his temper might get out of control, his violent skills and anger will most likely help later on because he could get out of tight situations with it. Also, later on in the book, the reader learns that Jame’s mother, Gwen, is actually a thief(Muchamore p.8). This means that she might have shown James some of her tricks. If James inherited her skill, it could be a valuable asset later in the book. Because his mom is a thief, James probably knows how to pick locks and get away with all sorts of things. Another question that I had was if this skill set could deteriorate his skills and also be a disadvantage to his future. If his mother might have had a bad influence on him, he could use his in bad ways instead of helping CHERUB. Although his skills from his mother could result in danger, it will most likely be an asset because James has not shown any sign of betraying CHERUB. Overall, his violence and his skills from his mother will most likely prove more useful than not, but there’s still a chance…