Will Buster and the Gelmet Helmet

Odo Hirsch

Penguin: Viking

September 2004 $19.95

288p pb

ISBN: 0670042250

Will Buster, an ordinary schoolboy, receives a scholarship to Professor Alphonse Gelmet’s Academy of Leadership Excellence. His parents are only too happy to send Will away in the HoverPod. Life seems so easy at the Academy, all the pupils simply have to sit under the Gelmet Helmet and they seem to learn endless amounts of knowledge. But Will can sense something fishy going on at the Academy and together with his classmates, Stanley and Davina, they are determined to find out what is really happening at the Academy of Leadership Excellence.

I found this fast-paced adventure surprising at every turn of events. It is very appealing to lovers of excitement and I found the characters very easy to identify with. I saw how Will and his friends mirrored myself and people that I knew. The way Odo Hirsch, the author, used the language to set the scene was excellent. I would definitely recommend this book to people who love exhilaration, science fiction and mystery.

Evie, aged 13, Melbourne, Victoria