Courage is one thing, but determination is another level of mind strength. These are two of many qualities evident in the personality of Alex Rider, junior spy.  

     Imagine living life with no parents, alone and forced to risk your life for an organization of people you have never met before. This is the life of Alex Rider, the main character in Anthony Horowitz’s book ‘Point Blanc’. This novel is an intricate yet teeth-clenching story about a young boy with the maturity of an adult, the courage of a soldier and the smarts of Einstein all combined to create one unstoppable kid spy.

     Anthony Horowitz writes this book to perfection, his wording makes you feel as if you are part of the book and the structure of the storyline keeps you questioning yet intrigued from start to finish.

     The start of the book is set in the gloomy city of London, when an average schoolboy becomes Alex Rider, kid spy. As the story goes on, you will find that Alex is used to living a tough life but finds himself out of his comfort zone when he is forced to change identity to solve the mystery of two deaths related to a schooling academy that goes by the name of ‘Point Blanc’. Alex must pretend to be a troubled schoolboy to attend this isolated, guarded school. He finds himself up against an evil duo, Dr. Grief and Mrs. Stellenbosch, two undercover teachers running a dark mission to take over the world. Alex must use his quick wits and athletic abilities to solve the mystery and get out of the academy before he is hunted and killed.

    The reason why I have been drawn to this novel is because the action packed chapters, the suspense of the mysteries and the tension of the characters combine to create this marvelous novel that is definitely worth reading. This excellent book will captivate most but I recommend this book for any person that is interested in mysteries, spies and action, particularly young teenagers. I rate this book 4 out of 5.

Matt. M, Year 9.

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Meet Alex Rider. He is a 14 year old MI6 special agent back at school trying to adapt to his new double life and double the homework. But the MI6 has other plans for Alex. Does this sound like a book that you will never put down?

Investigations into the “accidental” deaths of the world’s most powerful men have revealed just one link. Armed with only a false ID and a collection of excellent disguised gadgets, Alex must infiltrate the academy as a student to expose the truth to the rest of the world before it’s too late.

The book will grip you with suspense, daring and cheek and that’s just the first page! I would recommend this book to 12-16 year old boys who like reading about secret agent stories. I am giving this book four out of five stars only because the book isn’t at its full potential.

Ryan, Year 9

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Meet Alex Rider, a hesitant teenage spy who now works for Special Operations, MI6, who has just come back from his first secret mission. Witty, intelligent, patient and mischievous, he can get himself out of any situation.
Two of the world’s most powerful men have died and the only link is that they both had a son at Point Blanc. MI6 intelligence suspects this isn’t just coincidence, and Alex is chosen to investigate Point Blanc Academy. Put under disguise as the son of Sir David Friend, a worldwide supermarket owner, and a worthy candidate for Point Blanc, he is sent in with only a few discreet gadgets to aid him and no way to directly contact HQ.

`It’s going to be risky…’

Point Blanc is a thrilling, riveting story and is sure to please, especially if you enjoy any other of Anthony Horowitz’s books including the famous prequel “Storm Breaker”(which is now also a major motion film). I recommend this book to people around the age of 14, particularly boys. This is because the main character is also this age plus gender, and the readers associated with this audience can relate easy and may enjoy the genre more than others. Overall the book is great, and is definitely worth a read.

Thanks, Asher

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Alex Rider is a spy. He works for Alan Blunt in MI6, special operations. In the beginning of the story there was a conference meeting going on for the police. Soon then Alex got up into a crane. The crane had a boat attached to the hook and then he dropped the boat on the conference building, which put many lives at risk. He was arrested and taken to jail. Later the next day he was bailed out and taken to an MI6 base in a building. He went into an office room to talk to his boss and another lady.

They then discussed about what his actions had caused and what could have happened. Then he was told that he had a second mission. It was about a rich man who has been claimed dead but some clues say otherwise. There is a boy that Alex needs to befriend so he can gain as much information as possible. Alex hesitated a lot and didn’t want to do the mission. He was then told that if he didn’t then he would have to go back to jail and also get an interview from the police. So Alex had no choice but to continue with the mission.

On his second mission Alex travels to a school high in the Alps called Point Blanc. He has to pretend to be a boy named Alex Friend, the son of Sir David Friend, owner of some supermarkets.The school is right on the Swiss border. When he is there Alex finds that Dr Grien along with Eva S. Stellenbosch is cloning the students at Point Blanc. His intention was to make sixteen copies of himself. He calls it The Gemini Project.

Alex in great danger even though he has lots of gadgets from Smithers the gadget expert at MI6. Dr Grien makes up a horrible death for Alex when he finds out that really he is a spy come to investigate Point Blanc. But will he die or will he survive? Even if he escapes he will have to make the journey down the mountain.

I really enjoyed this book! It was adventurous and had a lot of action. I felt that in some parts of the book it did get a bit boring and cliché but the rest was really good and I would definitely recommend it to boys and girls from the age of 10 to 15.

Tom, Year 9