not to be outdone by Albert Park, here are St Kilda's February reviews

To start the meeting off:

• Jack was anointed chip elf and has agreed to distribute chips - fairly, and in an orderly manner
• Lola was anointed orange juice fairy and has agreed to pour the juice with no spilling and not filling to the brim
• Olivia was appointed to give out the Freddo frogs fairly and in an orderly manner

The Fellowship of the ring : The lord of the rings, part 1 by J.R.R. Tolkien - reviewed by Jack

In this first book all the people on the Fellowship come together. From the smallest to the largest there are the Hobbits, Frodo the main character, Sam, Mary and Pippin. Then there is Aragon the human, Gimly the dwarf and Legolas the elf. They all travel together to the mountain to where the bad guys are in the castle of Sauron. Frodo runs away with Sam because he doesn't want to put the rest of the group in danger. I thought it was really, really good because it was exciting, in-depth and unfinished.

Rated: 3/5 reallys - "as I thought it could have done with a bit more humour!" Recommended for readers 7 years and above.

City of bones : The mortal instruments, bk. 1 by Cassandra Clare - reviewed by Zoe

The main characters are Clary, Jace, Simon, Isobel, Alex, Luke (the uncle of Clary) and Valentine, the super bad guy. Clary is all happy, she doesn't know anything about the Shadowhunters and Downworlders. The Shadowhunters hunt down rogue Downworlders. Rogue, as in evil, gone bad! Clary sees Jace with weapons and starts to freak out and tells her best friend Simon. She tells him to go and get the manager of the club. The club is called Pandemonium. He follows them into the broom cupboard and attacks a boy with blue hair and green eyes. They tell Clary that he is a vampire. Clary ends up finding out that she is a Shadowhunter herself.

Rated: 5/5 reallys - "really awesome." Recommended for readers 11-100!!

Pip and the wood witch curse : Spindlewood tale, bk. 1 by Chris Mould - reviewed by Sylvie

Pip is the main character and has a friend called Toad, and a little girl called Frankie. Jarvis, who is evil, likes capturing children at Hangman's Hollow, a big city. In the big forest branches all crumble and try to capture children. Children are hiding in drains, they are really clever, they creep and swim and mainly have lost their families, but in the last one there is a war between the forest and the city.

Rated: 4/5 reallys - "Quite exciting - it tempted me so much to just have non-stop reading!" Recommended for readers 6-8 years.

Nanny Piggins' guide to conquering Christmas by R.A. Spratt - jointly reviewed by Olivia & Lola

This is the last in the series and Olivia and Lola were devastated, so they wrote a letter which was both 'angry and pleadingful' to the author... and she replied! This was all with email. R. A. Spratt has a great website too (http://raspratt.com/). She's writing a new series called 'Friday Barnes : girl detective'.

In the book there are lots of funny fashion tips and recipes, there are 5 chapters. There are letters from Boris, the honey addicted bear, handy hints, games and inspiring stories.

Rated: 5/5 reallys - "Really funny!"

The book of lies by James Moloney - reviewed by Jackson

Starts off about a guy called Marcel. He wakes up and thinks he has a different name, Robert. He wakes up in an orphanage and he meets all the people there, including a little girl called Bea. Bea tells him that his name is Marcel but he can't remember everything because there is this random book she saw on this table, supposedly putting magic in his brain. He later finds out that apparently his dad is dead and his mom is named Eleanor and is captured by the false King Pelham... truth or lie?...

Rated: 4.5 reallys - "There is a lot to it and it is very exciting."

The house of Hades : Heroes of Olympus, bk. 4 by Rick Riordan - reviewed by Izzie

The main characters are Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. These two have fallen into Tartarus. The other characters are Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel and Leo and they are flying on a horse ship, the Argo 2. They are travelling to the doors of death. They need to get there before the evil earth goddess, who they are trying to defeat.

Rated: 4/5 reallys - recommended for readers 8 plus.

Holiday highlights - to end the meeting everyone shared where they went during the holidays:

1. Olivia - went to Perth for a week
2. Izzie - went to Apollo Bay for 2 weeks
3. Sylvie - went to Peterborough for 3 weeks
4. Zoe - went to Wilson's Prom camping for 3 days "which was totally awesome-caboose!"
5. Lola - went to Paris for 3 weeks
6. Jackson - went to Kyneton
7. Jack - went to Bendigo for a sleepover "to my friend Will's for his birthday."

first Albert Park reviews for 2014!

February

Emerald atlas by John Stephens - reviewed by Alex G.

This is the first book in the series 'The books of beginning’. Michael, Kate and Emma are taken from their parents by a strange skinny man. Kate the oldest has a locket her mum has given her with their names on it. They are sent to 14 orphanages, the final one being the mysterious Cambridge Falls. It's run by Stanislaus Pym. The children discover a book called 'The book of life' in his office and they go on different adventures.

Rated: 5/5 - "I really want the author to write the third book in the series because it's so good!"

Unbelievable! by Paul Jennings - reviewed by Zoe

'Pink bow tie' is one of the stories in the book. It’s about a boy who is in detention after only his second day at school. He’s there because he made fun of someone wearing a pink bow tie who turns out to be the principal. While there he tells the principal a story about how he dyed his hair, he met a boy while on a train who was smoking, he tells the boy off for smoking (says he’s too young), but the boy has a machine that can make people younger or older. It’s very funny.

Rated: 5/5 - "Really funny."

Eagle strike : Alex Rider, bk. 4 by Anthony Horowitz - reviewed by Alex W.

Someone tries to kill Alex’s girlfriend’s father. When they try to find out who it was they end up going after someone called Damien Cray. Damien Cray has invented a game console where you can actually ‘feel’ the person dying when you kill them on the screen. He also has classified information which can set off 12 American missiles… I’ll give the story away if I tell the rest!

Rated: 5/5 - "Super awesome!"

The quest for Paradise : the return to the Kingdom of Fantasy by Geronimo Stilton - reviewed by Tiana

Geronimo gets a message from the Golden Dragon to save a princess who is being held in Paradise. They have to somehow get a map of Paradise and the only way is to steal it from an ogre’s treasure chest.

Rated: 5/5 - "Very interesting, fun to read because it has font in different styles, colours and sizes. It's also easy to read."

Izzy the indigo fairy by Daisy Meadows - reviewed by Charlie

Rachel and Kirsty go to Fairyland (they do this by twirling) and meet Izzy the fairy. In Fairyland there’s a candy castle, monster gingerbread men, elves and lots of lollies and ice-cream. There are naughty goblins who try to get Izzy but she escapes.

Rated: 5/5 - "I like books about fairies."

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren - reviewed by Leticia

Pippi’s mother died when she was very young and thinks her mum is looking down at her from a hole in the sky. Her dad was a sea captain and went missing on a boat but she thinks he has become a king of the ‘natives’ somewhere faraway.

She lives alone with her pet monkey and horse in a big house that was bought by her father before he went missing. She is very strong, she can lift her horse up with one hand. She likes playing tricks too and she is a thing-searcher, she looks for anything and collects them. She bakes cookies on the floor (which I think is very unhygienic). She does lots of things.

Rated: 5/5 - "A really good story."