Customer Reviews

Up On Cloud Nine

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

School is an important time for teen freindships. The middle and high schools years are a prime time to meet and interact with all types of people of the same age. School is a melting pot for all different sorts of children. Everyone knows about the weird kid in school too. Anne Fine's Up on Cloud Nine tells the story of one such peculiar boy and his best friend and their relationship during the school years.
Up on Cloud Nine begins with the odd child, Stolly, unconscious in hospital bed as his best friend Ian sits by his side. Ian and Stolly have been best friends since preschool and Ian is basically Stolly's keeper. As Ian tries to figure out why his sometimes sane friend has fallen out of a third story window and ended up in the hospital with numerous broken bones, Ian writes down all the great memories that make up Stolly's life story. Although the book takes place over about 10 hours it is filled with great stories that span the pair's lifetime and piece by piece lead the reader to more insight on the present situation.

Anne Fine has written an exciting and descriptive page-turner that is hard to put down. Fine counters the gloom of the hospital situation with brightly funny stories as told by Ian as he waits for Stolly to awaken from his drug-induced, post-surgery sleep. The book is written in an interesting format in that Fine uses no chapters, only headings that hint of the next story. Fine also writes in a way that is easy to read. Instead of writing of everyday happenings by using an excess of lame,irrelevant, an overly-descriptive adjectives like most young adult wirters, Anne Fine writes the book in a more personal way, like she is telling a story. This should make appealing to all types of readers.
In conclusion, Up on Cloud Nine is a superb young adult book that should be liked by many. Anne Fine's outrageous stories that leave the reader wondering where such imagination and creativity could come from are what make this story a gem in young adult literature. Hooray.

Up On Cloud Nine is the story of a boy named Ian and his friend Stolly.Ian's best friend Stolly is in the hospital unconcious. In a way Stolly has always been up on cloud nine. He's always making his own rules and his parents don't pay much attention to him. So Stol ushually spends most of his time at Ian's. Mr and Mrs Oliver have important jobs so they aren't always around when Stol needs them. He would spend his time making up stories and invisable people. He was a very creative young person and he always brought the best out in Ian. Ian was the smart sensible kind of person and Stol thought of him as a big chicken. But together Ian and Stolly could and would do anything. Stol fell out of his window one day and this time it landed him in the hospital with a two broken arms and one broken leg.
Anne Fine is a great author. She really made the book come from the point of Ian and gave feeling to everything. This book makes me think about the well being of other people. It makes a good point and really shows Stol who cares about him. She showed from all points of view the thoughts of everyone in the story. She really made everything seem real in the book. It was like I was standing right there while everything was happening to Ian and Stol.
Fine also could have added some things to the narration. She could have had someone else narrate at some point. She made Stol seem left out and unwanted at sometimes but it can be helpful to those who can relate to his situation. All the stories were always about Stolly and Ian. Never Ian and Stolly. Stol was the big star when it came to adventures and experiments.
In conclusion, this is a great book and i suggest everyone read it. It has a very exciting plot and theme. This book had some sad and scary points but overall it was a great book. Ian and Stol were great friends and remind me of myself. I think this is the kind of book that touches you inside. Sometimes reading things like this makes everything seem better in your life.

Set in present day England, this is a book about some zany English people. Ian, the narrator, writes from the hospital bedside of his zany friend, Stolly. We hear about all the crazy things Stolly does and says and about how Ian's family is really looking after Stolly better than Stolly's own parents, who are very busy and imporant people. This is an eccentric novel about friendship and about being different. Lots of unusual English vocab and turns of phrase. I enjoyed its utimate message about friendship but found the string of "weird things Stolly did" tiresome.

I wasn't at all sure what to expect with this book, but it wasn't the deep and very thought-provoking storyline I found. The writing, though full of very British phrasing and dialogue (not to mention single quotation marks!), was easy to read and compelling. The story, though told in both a present and through a series of flashbacks, flowed effortlessly and kept me enthralled. The one problem I had was with the age of the narrator. I thought that based on the descriptions of school that he was a high-schooler, and yet the writing felt more like that of a 12-13 year old. This might be a British/American school difference, however, since I don't think it ever comes out and states an age. I know enough to know that the two educational systems are just different enough to be confusing!

But beyond the ambiguous age of the narrator, the story and the characters really did come to life. I could not put this book down, and was very happy with the ending, as open-ended as it was. I think the entire book was well-thought out, well-executed, and very much worth the time to read it. I'd recommend it to anyone (though my recommendations only run to the adults, I have no idea what I would think is suitable for children of any age, and it's really up to each parent's discretion, anyway).

This book was great book. It talks about how a boy named Ian has to face his friend Stolly in the hospital unconscious and hooked up to so many machines, with wires going off of him from left to right. But the problem with Ian is he has no clue how Stol got there in the first place. Ian has always said that Stol has always been up on clound nine his whole life, living on his own ways, his own rules, and his own choices. He pretty makes up his life as he goes. But for poor Stol his parents are always rushing back and forth with there jobs never with Stol and dont have time for him. So Ian's family pretty much adopted him. So Ian wants to find out whats going on with best friend. But it seems like everyday pieces start to come together for Ian but the answer doesnt make any sense to him! This book is a honest look at family dynamics and the best ways of friendship. But this book is an awesome book for people who want to know how honest looks on family and friendship are.

I read this book to my 11 year old daughter. It was rated at a reading level of 4.6 to 5 (American grade school level). I would not recommend this book to any kid, because of the graphic representations of suicide and the ethics of telling bald faced lies that seem to be treated lightly, humorously by the author.

The character portrayed has serious psychological issues, to include excessive lying and disturbing thoughts of suicide. While the story may come across as "cute" to older, more mature readers, I felt the serious issues the main characters struggled with were anything but cute.

Because the setting (and the author, for that matter) was in England, many of the terms would be diffucult for an American kid to understand; I was constantly explaining the British terms used, such as a pint (of beer), viaduct (vs. overpass), Mum (OK, that was easy), lift (elevator)etc. And my daughter thought the book was boring. So did I.