I see this book as a must read. its incredibly written, and takes the reader on the main charecters roller-coaster of emotions. the writter has a great sense of rythem in his writting style and uses it well by keeping it fresh for the reader. It is not a happy story, its not a heart renching story either... this book absorbed me, and took me along with the main charecters, Hal's, emotions and thought process.. sometimes intense, and sometimes bubbling with subtle humor, its a great story. ive brought myself to read more than once.

This book is, as you know, a story about life and death. Hal is the one who is telling us about the hole story: about how he met Barry, what they did in the 7 weeks they spended together before Barry died and the most important, THE PROMISE: The one who lives longer than the other most dance on his friend's grave. Then Barry dies, right after a fight, about a girl. And Hal loses the control over himself but had to keep his promise... This is a great book, that you all schould read if you get a chance.

I first read this book when I was a freshman in high school. It couldn't have come along at a better time on my life...and I"m rereading it again and finding new stuff all the time. The hardest part of the book is getting used to the different words and phrases that someone young in America might not be used to. But that shouldn't trip the reader up terribly to enjoy the central theme of the story. Chambers writes about a boy who comes to love another boy. What is interesting is how he understands the underlying newness that Hal feels towards Barry, and how Hal deals with his feelings towards Barry. The book never takes a high road on the subject of being gay, but tells it matter of factly, the story about a boy falling in love with another boy. Readers will know they are not alone in how they feel. I read this from an isolated high school in rural Iowa and this book certainly helped me get through some rough times. I'd recommend it to young and old.

The Toll Bridge is a story about development. The main character, whom is named nicknamed "Jan" within the book decides to seperate himself from his previous life, to clean the slate and start over, to find out who he is and what he really wants for himself. This becomes possible when he gets a job collecting tolls at a bridge (hence the title), which also offers him accommodation in a house where he lives alone. However this isolation is shattered with the arrival of Adam, a character who represents the complete opposite of Jan. The Toll Bridge is about the relationship that develops between Adam and Jan, and Gill who is the daughter of the owner of the Toll Bridge. However the bridge is not only physical, it also represents the mindset of Jan as Gill puts it "You don't know whether you're coming or going." Like a bridge that has two paths to take. Into the future, or back into the past. As the book develops, the characters interact with each other and bring up many issues that are relevant to development of the individual. However, an incident at a party soon smashes the world of the Toll Bridge into pieces, and Jan and Gill soon discover that Adam is not the same person they grew to know - Adam is on the other side of the bridge. This is my favourite book because it contains so many sub-plots that create a complete picture of the development of the individual personality, and evokes thoughts within the reader about their own "character".

This book, this wounderful wounderful wounderful book. Is the best one i have ever read. Aidan Chambers is one of the best authers i've ever incountered. He's masterful at teaseing the mind and leafing through are idel imagination, he makes charticors seem so real and alive its as though u are with them in that very room, breathing three air, touchign there skin, feeling their sun. This is a beautful book about a Teen age boy trying to excape his life of lies, then finding one liveing in a world of make believe, and the wounderful bonds that people can form together. I cryed. and i never ever ever cry.

The years in wich you leave school and start working, or maybe better the years that you leave your parents, start building your own life are probably the most intresting years of ones life. Some people wonder what they want to do and take some time to find out. Jany is such a boy. He decides to leave his parents, at least for a while, and he takes a job at a tollbridge. It is easy working and he can be alone and think about his future. His self-chosen lonlyness is rudely broken at the arival of Adam. Adam seems to have some troubles, so he moves in the toll house together with Jany. Then there is Tess. Between these boys and girl starts a strange kind of friendship, all are very different people. The story is written from the perspective of Jany (mainly, some parts are written by someone else), we learn what he thinks. we are a whitness of the changing of his personality, a change due to his confrontation with Adam, and the 'catalyst' Tess, catalyst in his developing towards a grown up. The book is great because the characters are real, it are real people. Reading it they are for a while part of your life. Jany is very open and fair in what he tells what happens, what he feels and what is spinning in his mind. You can feel page by page what is going on inside him. The only thing I didn't like when I read the book was that one of the characters stoped existing at the best part of the book, without any warning that they would not live happyly ever after. But that is an important literal trick; Jany wants to find out who he is, Adam wants to forget who he is. This book is a book for all ages, although it's probably written for the age 16 - 20. It is a must-read if you like other books of Aidan Chambers (like 'Now I Know', or 'dance on my grave') or if you like to read books with a more difficult structure

Chambers has created realistic characters with their own quirks and memories. I suppose the fact that nobody in this book is poorly portrayed is its best feature - Nik is a guy with desires, memories and opinions and His girlfriend is sharp-witted and fun.
Their strange ideas, her feminism, Nik's questions about Christianity and the Bible... I read this book six months ago, and I recently read "Postcards from No Man's Land". Chambers has a way to make you live with characters, even the parts of them that others would consider weird - as each of us has to live with him or herself from day to day.
The reader comes away with a sense of enrichment and newly opened eyes. A must-read.

I read this book when I was a senior in highschool,which was over three years ago. I needed to find a book for my class, so I chose this one because my name is Niki and I always sign my name NIK. I was really impressed with this book. It was definetly unique and it kept my interest. There are very few books that I really love and this is one of them. I highly reccomend it. It's definetly an original.

I picked this book up because an old friend of mind is named Nik. I thought that a would just chuckle at the coincedence and put is down again, but as soon as I started reading it I couldn't stop. There are precious few books that draw me in as quickly as this one. I could see myself and people I have known in the characters The plot was interresting and the premis intreaging. It was the best piece of non-liniear story telling that I have seen in a long time. I highly recomend it to anyone.

Chambers' story is an accurate piece of historical fiction; however, it is obvious after just the first chapter that Chambers does not intend for his novel to be primarily labeled as historical fiction. Rather, he intends his novel to be regarded as a coming-of-age story told in both the present and the past. As Chambers develops the narratives of Jacob and Geertrui, he shows that feelings of confusion, excitement and fear are common to all teenagers, regardless of their historical setting, as they struggle to come into their own.
Jacob and Geertrui are real, three-dimensional characters. They become persons with whom the reader can easily identify because Chambers allows the reader to hear their thoughts and observe how their emotions influence their decisions and often times change their rational or at the very least broaden their perspectives. I was thankful that Chambers explores the characters' emotions so in depth, because I believe that emotions are often more powerful than we realize and they are especially overwhelming during the teenage years. It is important that the emotions of Jacob and Geertrui are particularly potent for they find themselves in stressful situations.
The mature nature of Chambers' novel is shown in the first chapter. A mysterious, sexy stranger comes on to Jacob in an outdoor café. Jacob feels a rush of excitement because he's not used to attracting girls, but his excitement changes to bewilderment when Jacob realizes that he has struck a boy's fancy, not a girl's. I was just as surprised as Jacob to discover that Ton was in fact a boy, and I felt Chambers' description of this discovery was perhaps too vivid. (Jacob realizes Ton's true identity when Ton presses Jacob's hand to his crotch and Jacob feels his penis.)
Sexuality and sexual discovery are main themes in Postcards from No Man's Land. Chambers does not condone a particular lifestyle in his exploration of these themes, and I was thankful that he left the interpretation of Jacob's and Geertrui's sexual experiences up to the reader. However, I found it troubling that Chambers assumes Jacob is no longer a virgin because he is seventeen and that Geertrui and Jacob's grandfather can not restrain themselves from being sexually intimate.
Although Chambers does not seem to entertain abstinence as an option for teenagers, he does show that Jacob's and Geertrui's sexual choices, in particular, have consequences. Geertrui becomes pregnant with the child of a man who is never her husband, but the husband of someone else. Her pregnancy makes it necessary for her to marry another man who she does not love and to keep the true identity of her child's father a secret until her husband dies. Chambers accurately shows that Geertrui's relationship with Jacob's grandfather brings both pleasure and pain, but thankfully he illustrates how Geertrui's pain was tempered by the grace and forgiveness of others.
Overall, I was pleased with Chambers' novel. He writes with integrity and allows his reader to explore difficult issues without the fear of being judged. I would recommend this book to teenagers ages sixteen and above.

Chambers' story is an accurate piece of historical fiction; however, it is obvious after just the first chapter that Chambers does not intend for his novel to be primarily labeled as historical fiction. Rather, he intends his novel to be regarded as a coming-of-age story told in both the present and the past. As Chambers develops the narratives of Jacob and Geertrui, he shows that feelings of confusion, excitement and fear are common to all teenagers, regardless of their historical setting, as they struggle to come into their own.
Jacob and Geertrui are real, three-dimensional characters. They become persons with whom the reader can easily identify because Chambers allows the reader to hear their thoughts and observe how their emotions influence their decisions and often times change their rational or at the very least broaden their perspectives. I was thankful that Chambers explores the characters' emotions so in depth, because I believe that emotions are often more powerful than we realize and they are especially overwhelming during the teenage years. It is important that the emotions of Jacob and Geertrui are particularly potent for they find themselves in stressful situations.
The mature nature of Chambers' novel is shown in the first chapter. A mysterious, sexy stranger comes on to Jacob in an outdoor café. Jacob feels a rush of excitement because he's not used to attracting girls, but his excitement changes to bewilderment when Jacob realizes that he has struck a boy's fancy, not a girl's. I was just as surprised as Jacob to discover that Ton was in fact a boy, and I felt Chambers' description of this discovery was perhaps too vivid. (Jacob realizes Ton's true identity when Ton presses Jacob's hand to his crotch and Jacob feels his penis.)
Sexuality and sexual discovery are main themes in Postcards from No Man's Land. Chambers does not condone a particular lifestyle in his exploration of these themes, and I was thankful that he left the interpretation of Jacob's and Geertrui's sexual experiences up to the reader. However, I found it troubling that Chambers assumes Jacob is no longer a virgin because he is seventeen and that Geertrui and Jacob's grandfather can not restrain themselves from being sexually intimate.
Although Chambers does not seem to entertain abstinence as an option for teenagers, he does show that Jacob's and Geertrui's sexual choices, in particular, have consequences. Geertrui becomes pregnant with the child of a man who is never her husband, but the husband of someone else. Her pregnancy makes it necessary for her to marry another man who she does not love and to keep the true identity of her child's father a secret until her husband dies. Chambers accurately shows that Geertrui's relationship with Jacob's grandfather brings both pleasure and pain, but thankfully he illustrates how Geertrui's pain was tempered by the grace and forgiveness of others.
Overall, I was pleased with Chambers' novel. He writes with integrity and allows his reader to explore difficult issues without the fear of being judged. I would recommend this book to teenagers ages sixteen and above.

The story is all encompassing with enough of "literary gaps" to draw the young adult reader in: heart, body and soul. The above reviews have told enough of POSTCARDS' plot (too much really), so instead I invite you to partake in a reading experience of a lifetime. The dual storylines, multi-faceted character and no-easy-answers themes pulsate throughout the novel. POSTCARDS lives up to the author's own mission statement. "I will not compromise on language or content. At 15 people can handle the same language as me, they're just as complicated as me, and are very interested in thinking about important questions for the first time." (Aidan Chambers as quoted in Moira Dunkin's report online at:...)

Weaving the threads of Anne Frank's and James Joyce's writing into his own tapestry of an exquisite masterpiece, the LA Youth Writer's Group magnificently sums Chambers' feat of writing up:
The judges, from the LA Youth Libraries Group, were unanimous in their choice: "It is a rites of passage book that supports young people in dealing with life's emotional geography. The writer trusts young readers to make up their own minds about life's big issues. This is an outstanding novel which lingers in the mind; every word is well chosen." (see: above Library Association Record website cited above)

The only "no man's land" that exists is the land that doesn't bring POSTCARDS to the teen reader. Kudos to Aidan Chambers! Kudos!

The Present Takers is about a girl called Lucy that are scared of the bullies at her school.Lucy is the lastest victim and Melanie wants to get all of the presents from who evers birthday it is. And it is Lucy's birthday this week.Melanie thinks she is the best bully in the school, and her companions are Vicky and Sally-Ann.Angus trys to help Lucy and he made a plan to get back at Melanie.

The Present Takers by Aidan Chambers, was about a girl called Lucy who is bullied by a gang who take girls presents when it is their birthday. Lucy and her friend Angus make a plan to stop the gang. I give this book 7 out of 1o.

The Present Takers is a very sad book but very interesting book to read.I thought the book was very well written but Aidan Chambers should of put more happy parts in it.

Breaktime is a book centred around Ditto and his experiences trying to prove to his friend Morgan why literature is valuable.
It took me a while to become interested in this book, mainly because the themes seemed boring and uninteresting, but the story actually turns out to be quite a good read, and it mainly concerns Ditto's discoveries about himself, life, other people and sex. Its a story about growing up, experiencing new things and changing.
Or at least thats what it seems like, until you get to the last page, which will make you smile - and re-think the whole thing.