Book Review |
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The Dark Portal |
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By Robin Jarvis |
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the first book I have read by Robin Jarvis and I was very impressed. The book is a little
creepy in places but it is not a horror book. The Deptford Mice books are set in London. They are about a community of little mice but they are written as if the mice were humans and had feelings and speech like humans. The characters are very nice and it is easy to picture them in your head because he describes them so well. In this book, the mice are living in fear of a grate which leads to the sewers. They think it is evil in some way and they know that behind the grate lies the kingdom of the rats and the evil lord Jupiter. A young female mouse braves the grating one day and loses her mousebrass which is an important charm given to each mouse when they are old enough by the Green Mouse who is good. She and her friends try to find it but instead they get tangled in Jupiter's plots and end up fighting for their lives! It has a lot of suspense and it is very exciting. Every chapter you want to find out more about the mice and the evil Jupiter's plans. The pictures are black and white line drawings and they are rather good. There is a lot of description and some of the bits to do with Jupiter are scary and a bit horrid so this book might not be suitable for younger children because it might upset them - not under 7 I'd say. There are a lot of difficult words to, he uses a lot of long synonyms so some children might find it hard to read and even if you read well it might be an idea to have a dictionary near if you want to know what all the words mean. Iestyn Evans |
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