www.victoriaparkbooks.co.uk 174 Victoria Park Road Hackney London, E9 7HD Bookclub reviews Welcome to our BookClub page! The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce Chingis and Nergue are brothers who join the school of Julie O'Connor. Mimi Toolan is her friend. She is also friends with Duncan and Shocky. Julie makes friends with Chingis and Nergui and learns about Mongolia. Chingis is very funny. He tells Julie's teacher that his brother needs to keep his hat on to stop him going mad and killing everyone... like an eagle that has a hat on over its eyes. The brothers take polaroid pictures of things around them at school. They have some polaroid pictures of Mongolia but Julie works out that they are polaroid of things around where they are in England. They tell the children in her class that they walked from Mongolia along some railway lines. Julie wants to go home to their house after school. she thinks it might be like Xanadu, the capital of Mongolia. Chingis tells Julie that Nergui is going to be taken by a demon. They have to make a gingerbread man to put outside so that the demon will take the gingerbread man instead of Nergui. Chingis makes Julie's mother make the gingerbread man. Once they are friends with Julie they call her their Good Guide. One day Chingis is told by the teacher to take his coat off and he disappears. Julie looks in his coat and finds some of the polaroid pictures. She uses them as clues and ends up finding the brothers near the beach. They walk around and play together then she brings them home to their mom. Then they disappear for good. After they have gone, Chingis' coat is left behind at the school. Julie finds the coat when she is grown up and uses the pictures and her memories of the two boys to find them on Facebook. The picture at the end where they are grown up is a happy ending. The story is funny and also sad. At the end, the writer tells another story about a little girl called Misheel from Mongolia who went to a school in England and was very happy there. Everybody loved her. Then she was sent back to Mongolia with her family. This story is about how horrible it is for a family to be sent away from where they are staying. by Lisa Scheerlinck. The unforgotten coat is a really captivating book. I like the fact that the book is told from Julie’s older perspective. I also enjoyed the photos of Mongolia (or locally) and ‘the good guide’. It was really funny how Chingis made Julie and Nergui swap clothes. The mysteriousness of whether the demon exists or not is really intriguing. I thought the bit when Chingis made the dough man was strange because it was like he needed to bake or he would die a painful death. The after word was really sad, but it is true and it’s good to know that these things do happen but they probably had a good time in the country even if they were worried. The only things that could have been improved were that there could have been a bit more comedy and maybe it could be a tad more enjoyable with the characters being happier. I didn’t quite understand the beginning at first, but I read it again and understood it. That was it really. If you would like to send us a review please email it to: Email: info@victoriaparkbooks.co.uk Copyright Victoria Park Books Ltd. 2010                                web design & hosting by: www.dgt.uk.net The Un-Forgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce