The Cardturner - Louis Sachar

When Alton's uncle, Lester Trapp becomes blind, Alton is told by his mother that Trapp called and asked him to be his cardturner for his bridge games. Alton has no idea what a carturner is, nor does he know how to play bridge. When he arrives at Trapp's club (where he plays bridge) Alton is told by Trapp that he has to read Trapp's cards for him and then play the card that Trapp tells him to play. And he must NOT ask 'are you sure?' once. After Trapp has played 24 hands, Alton drives him home. As Alton turns more cards for Trapp at more games, he starts to realise why his uncle is so cold ('with a heart as cold as brick' as his father would say') and he realises that everything isn't what it seems to be. Trapp has a skill for bridge and it fasinates Alton, so he asks Trapp 'why don't you play in a tornament?'. The club goes silent and nobody answers, apart from Gloria (Trapp's bridge partner) and she tells Alton that the last time Trapp played in a tounament, it did not go well. At all. Alton finds this hard to believe; his uncle is a bridge genius! So...What happened in theát tournament, over 20 years ago that caused Trapp to never play in one again? Who is Toni, and how come she and Trapp are so close? And what happened between that Annabelle girl and the milkman she swaped clothes with?

I found this book really interesting as it was about something that I knew nothing about. It also made me want to know what happened to Trapp as I knew from the start that there had to be a reason for him to be cold hearted. The ending was sort of a cliff hanger; part of it was completed but another part was still unanswered. This is a great book and I would definately recomend this to other people who enjoyed reading Holes :)

Caroline