The Week at World’s End Written by Emma Carroll. Reviewed by Ivan, Age 10

This book (set during the Cuban missile crisis in the cold war) is about two kids who find a girl in their coal shed who claims that she is being followed by poisoners. It’s a very exciting start and I had no idea what would happen in the end.

The whole story is set in one week and I read it in less than a week, too, it was so exciting. Most of the reasons I stopped reading were because I fell asleep as it was really late and I’d been reading it for so long.

The book is split into seven days as well as chapters and it also has a headline from a daily newspaper at the start of each day eg. ‘’world holds its breath’’. This makes the story feel more tense, especially as you know that the Cuban missile crisis was a real event that happened in history and these are probably real headlines. It made me think about how amazing it is that we are all still here now! I didn’t know much about this period in time before I read the book and reading this book helped me learn a lot about certain events in the cold war and made me look up more facts about it.

My favourite character is Stevie’s friend Ray because he has a really wild imagination and is always kind to Stevie.

This book is aimed at ages roughly 9-12 years old. If you like historical books you will like this. Other books like this are When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and Anna at War but I’ve never read another book like this set in the 1960s but I think I might in future.