September reviews from Albert Park

The giraffe and the pelly and me by Roald Dahl - reviewed by Zoe

A boy named Billy sees an old house in his street that has been shut down for years has a 'sold sign' on it. It used to be a ‘grubber’ (sweet shop), which he has always dreamed of re-opening. It is sold to a giraffe, pelican and monkey – and they set the shop up as a cleaning company. They are hired by a Duke to clean his huge mansion.  The Duke gives an allowance so they can set up a sweet shop.  Some robbers attempt to rob the shop but are in for a surprise when they see 3 animals there.  The sweet shop is very popular.

Rated: 5/5 - "Really good!"

Watch wolf - Wolves of the beyond, bk. 3 by Katherine Lasky - reviewed by Annabelle

It is about a wolf who becomes a ‘wolf of the watch’. Another clan causes trouble by stealing a cub of a grizzly bear, he has to save the cub before a war starts between bears and wolves.

Rated: 5/5 - "Brilliant story, it keeps you entranced. It’s a page turner, Lasky creates an amazing world and you want to read it over and over again."

The folk of the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton - reviewed by Tiana

Three children - Jo, Beth and Frannie-  take their spoilt friend Connie to visit the Faraway Tree. Connie doesn’t believe in the Faraway Tree. Connie is spoilt and doesn’t do chore,s she is used to servants doing everything for her.

The children find that the tree is dying. They find out that goblins are mining for jewels and are damaging the roots of the tree. Jo and the others think of a way to save the tree.

"I tried to read this book when I was younger but I didn’t like it.  This time when I tried it again I enjoyed it."

Rated: 5/5 - "Awesome book – everyone should read it!"

The cat who liked rain by Henning Mankell - reviewed by Alex

Lucas, a little boy, gets a present for his birthday from his parents. In the box is a cat and he names it Night.  The cat always hides away but Lucas always manages to find it. One day Night runs away completely and Lucas is very upset. Lucas then has a dream where it’s raining and the cat tells him he has run away to rule a land, not because he didn’t like Lucas. He never sees Night the cat again.

Rated: 5/5 - "I liked it and it was well written but a bit sad."

The spotty holiday - Billie B. Brown, bk. 12 by Sally Rippin - reviewed by Hannah

Billie travels to her grandma’s by plane by herself and eats a whole bag of mints. She sleeps in a dark room at her grandma’s house.

Billie gets chickenpox while she is there – and ends up not doing all the things she had planned to do on her holiday. She ends up making her own zoo and playground inside using stuff around the house. She then goes back home on the plane.

Rated: 5/5 - "I like the Billie B. Brown books."

Usborne illustrated stories from Shakespeare - reviewed by Letitia

My favourite stories are the 12th Night, Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I didn’t like Macbeth or Hamlet, the stories are a bit freaky. It is a compilation of his best known work. They all end in grief – well except for a few of them.

Rated: 5/5 - "Midsummer is the best."

St Kilda's September reviews

Myths of the Norsemen : from the Eddas and Sagas by Hélène Adeline Guerber - reviewed by Will

Will picked this as he’d seen it in a bookshop . It’s a collection of myths that tell the creation of the world, the deeds of the gods and heroes such as Odin, Thor, Siegfried, the evil Lokio and many more.

Will found it "entertaining and informative and very easy to read. Just awesome!" and suggests we buy it!

Rated:  5 reallys

To be a cat by Matt Haig - reviewed by Lola

The main character is Barney Willow. Poor Barney feels that life could not get any worse. He’s weedy, with stick-out ears. He hates his teacher Miss Whipmire, who he thinks is horribly mean and is the teacher from hell, and another schoolboy torments him no end, the horrible Gavin Needle.

Everyone seems to want to make his life a misery and he has no idea why. Barney thinks life would be so much easier if he were a cat. Next morning Barney wakes up and is a cat and so the adventures begin. 

Lola recommends this book - "it's odd but funny. The message is 'don’t take your life for granted'."

Rated:  4.9 reallys

The red pyramid : bk. 1, Kane chronicles by Rick Riordan - reviewed by Netta

The main characters are Carter and Sadie, and they have nothing in common but their parents. Their father is Dr. Julius Kane, a brilliant Egyptologist and their mother, a famed archaeologist who died under mysterious circumstances when they were both very young.

Although Carter and Sadie barely know one another, their father brings them together at the British Museum, promising a research experiment that will set things right for their family.

Netta loved the pace and style - "it's full of interesting twists and turns. Rick Riordan really provides adventures and good plots. He also does the Percy Jackson series - also good!"

Rated:  5 reallys

Gangsta Granny by David Walliams - reviewed by Rosa

Ben’s parents love ballroom dancing and every Friday he has to stay at his grandmas’ house. Ben is really bored and thinks she is the 'boringest' grandma ever. All she ever wants to do is play scrabble and eat cabbage soup, cabbage pie cakes and even have cabbage after dinner mints! However there are two things Ben does not know about his grandma - (1) She was once an international jewel thief; (2) All her life, she has been plotting to steal the Crown Jewels, and now she needs Ben's help. What can this help be?

Rosa recommends this - "it's really funny and made me laugh".

Rated:  3.999999 reallys

Cry blue murder by Kim Kane & Marion Roberts - reviewed by Lily

Celia and Alice share everything - their secrets, hopes and the increasing horror that a killer is on the loose and abducting schoolgirls just like them. Three bodies have been found, each shrouded in hand-woven fabric. From within the depths of a police investigation, clues are starting to emerge. But as Alice and Celia discover the truth, danger is closer than anyone knows. Who can be trusted?

Lily said the target audience is definitely teenage girls. Her recounting of the storyline really positions this book as a psychological thriller. 

According to Lily, Kim Kane and Marion Roberts are very new Australian authors writing Young Adult Fiction.

Rated:  4.9 reallys

Mockingjay : bk. 3, Hunger games trilogy by Suzanne Collins - reviewed by Jackson

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. Now that she has made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe.

There is a revolution underway and it is up to Katniss to accept responsibility for countless lives and to change the course of the future of Panem.

Jackson  "really liked the pace of this one more than the others - it's full of adventure and keeps you guessing."

Rated:  4.1415 reallys

August reviews from Albert Park

Flitterwig by Edrei Cullen - reviewed by Tiana

I’ve just started reading this book so I can’t tell you that much except that the main character's name is Ella and she is part human and part a sort of fairy type creature. She has these special glasses that can see into the fairy world.

Rated: 5/5 – "So far I like it because I like enchantment and interesting stories."

Unreal! by Paul Jennings - reviewed by Zoe

Has different short stories in it. 'Lighthouse blues' is one of my favourites. It is full of weird, funny, disgusting and inappropriate stories. 'Skeletons on the dunny' is scary!

Rated: 5/5 – "I like spooky, funny and weird stories."

Undone! by Paul Jennings - reviewed by Alex

Some stories are freaky, some are funny, some are just really weird! 'Nosebleed' is one of the weird ones, it’s about a boy whose grandfather makes him eat food he doesn’t like – so he decides to grow an apple-tree out of his nose. 'Another freaky story' is about the discovery of a new bug which, when it bites you, turns you see-through.

Rated: 5/5 - "All the books in his series are really good."

The search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi - reviewed by Emma

Eva the main character lives underground with a robot.  She has never seen another living person.  She lives on a planet called Orbona – she is in hiding from the Queen's hunter.  She is captured and then escapes with her robot.

Rated: 5/5 – "It’s a really good book and I enjoyed it."

Eragon by Christopher Paolini - reviewed by Ben

This is the first book in the series. The boy, Eragon, finds a dragon egg – this means he is able to become a dragon rider. The book just follows his adventures with the dragon and how he raises him.

Rated: 5/5 – "I like dragons and adventure, this book has both of these."

Christian: behind barres by Sebastian Scott - reviewed by Henry

I needed a book to read, I saw the cover and thought it would be about a cool skater dude – but freaked out because it’s part of the Dance Academy series! Yuuuk! He is a cool skater dude – but he does ballet so that cancels out everything!

Rated: 0/5 – "I don’t understand …"

The serpent's shadow by Rick Riordan - reviewed by Vincent

Brother and sister Carter and Sadie are the two main characters in the series and are out to stop the evil snake Apophis. They need the help of Ra the ancient Egyptian sun god to defeat Apophis. The book is the third and last book in the Kane Chronicles series.

Rated: 3½/5 - "It was good, but not perfect but better than the Percy Jackson series. I liked the first book from this series, it was the best one."

Give peas a chance by Morris Gleitzman - reviewed by Annabelle

It is a collection of short stories. My favourite one is 'Give peas a chance.' It’s about a boy who goes on strike and won’t eat his veggies until there is world peace – the strike spreads until all the kids in the world won’t eat their veggies.

Rated: 4.9/5 - "I didn’t like all of the stories in it – but I really loved ‘Give peas a chance’!"