St Kilda reviews for April

Alice-Miranda in Paris by Jacqueline Harvey - reviewed by Sylvie

This book was really silly and weird but I liked it because I like weird and silly books! Alice Miranda and her friends travel to France with their school Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale and the Fayle School for boys. They are very excited because they are going to get to sing in a show for Paris Fashion Week. Alice Miranda and her friends practice for the show and meet lots of famous designers, however soon they find themselves in the middle of a mystery – some really expensive fabric, essential for fashion week, has been stolen! Are any of the designers harbouring dark secrets? Will they be able to solve the mystery in time for Fashion Week?

Rated: 5 reallys

The miraculous journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo - reviewed by Mia

This story is about a toy rabbit called Edward. He lives with a little girl who dresses him up in lots of outfits and always places him at the windowsill to watch her come and go from school. One day the little girl’s parents announce that they are moving to London. Travelling on the deck of a large ship, some young boys throw Edward into the ocean where the girl cannot reach him. Then Edward’s adventures begin. On a mission to return to the little girl Edward meets lots of odd characters such as a fisherman and hobo. But will he ever find his way back home to her?

Rated: 5 reallys

Horrid Henry wakes the dead by Francesca Simon - reviewed by Jack C.

This book contains 4 stories. Two of my favourites were 'Horrid Henry and the TV remote' and 'Horrid Henry wakes the dead'.

In 'Horrid Henry and the TV remote', Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter struggle to gain control over the television. Whoever manages to sit in the black chair gets to choose what they watch. Horrid Henry uses some pretty horrid tactics to win, pulling Perfect Peter’s t-shirt and even hiding the remote. Will Horrid Henry get his way?

Rated: 3½ reallys

In 'Horrid Henry wakes the dead', Henry and his classmates are preparing to perform in the school’s talent show. They’re very excited because the winner of the show gets to be featured on the TV show Talent Tigers! Horrid Henry wants to win at all costs. He must compete against lots of acts such as Ralph burping to the beat and even a caveman act about ‘Stone Age Steven’. Henry is confident he will win with his rap act, until he finds out Moody Margaret wants to do rap too. Their teacher Miss Battle-Axe says only one of them can do rap, and she chooses Moody Margaret. So Henry decides to put on an amazing magic show instead in which he will attempt to raise the dead!

Rated: 4 reallys

One false note by Gordon Korman - reviewed by Isobel

This is the second book in the 39 Clues series. Amy and Dan come from a big old family. They don’t much like their harsh and clever relatives who they are battling with to find the clues of their Grandmother’s will. At the end of the first book they find a clue which is a piece of music by Mozart. They travel first to Vienna and then to Italy in order to learn more about the second clue and hopefully beat their evil, campaigning relatives.

Rated: 4 reallys - "I found this book really exciting!"

Tom Gates : genius ideas (mostly) by Liz Pichon - reviewed by Gus

This is the fourth book in the Tom Gates series. The book begins with Tom getting a big shock about his older sister Delia. One of Tom’s genius ideas involves thinking about how to create the best day ever in which he gets to set all the subjects at school. He chooses music, art and fun experiments. Of course he also has to deal with his nemesis Marcus Meldrew.

This book has lots funny cartoon pictures too, and a mini flip book in the corner.

Rated: 4 reallys - "I liked this book because it was really funny."

Stones by William E. Bell - reviewed by Lilly

Stones is a Canadian book about a high school aged boy named Garnet Havelock. Garnet wants to stay in school, but he also has to earn money. His parents don’t seem to be around much so he lives in a trailer by himself on the property of a man who has a large, gothic mansion. When the man leaves town Garnet begins to see things, ghostly apparitions within its old walls…

Rated: 4 reallys - "I would call it a horror-thriller. It was a very good read."

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson - reviewed by Lola

This story is about a boy who is quite poor called Jesse Aaron, who has four sisters named May Bell, Brenda, Ellie and Joyce Anne. Jesse is in the fifth grade at school and wants to be the fastest runner in his year. He is set to win the school’s race until the new girl Leslie, who lives next door, manages to beat him. Leslie ends up getting expelled from school and over time they become good friends. Before then, despite having sisters, Jesse had been a bit lonely, drawing by himself and only ever showing his pictures to his music teacher. Jesse and Leslie build a fantastical stronghold near an apple tree that they visit and daydream about adventures in. One day Leslie goes to church with Jesse and his sisters and explains that she thinks the bible is a great story but not real. Jesse and his sisters have trouble understanding this.

Rated: 4 reallys

The 13 curses by Michelle Harrison - reviewed by Olivia

This book is the second in The 13 treasures trilogy. A girl called Red is on a mission to find her brother. While on his trail she gets sucked into a fairy realm and is immediately caught by the Hedgewitch. The dad of her friend and ally Fabian gets sucked in and captured too and they must work together to escape. In order to find her brother Red must find an audience with the mischievous and cunning Seelie and Unseelie courts of the Fairy Kingdom. They demand that she find all of the thirteen pieces of a magic charm bracelet scattered about in the human world for them before they will consider returning her brother. But a curse is growing over the charms, getting worse each day. What will it cost to collect the pieces? And will the fairies pay up?

Rated: 4 reallys - "I really enjoyed it."

Diary of a wimpy kid : Rodrick rules by Jeff Kinney - reviewed by Yuanquan

My favourite part of this book is when Greg and Rodrick’s mum Susan comes up with the ‘Mum bucks’ system. She gives them monopoly money for doing chores which they can cash into her for a penny a note. This is pretty exciting because they have no money. Rodrick blows all of his straight away on heavy metal magazines while Greg saves his up. Soon Greg gets greedy and decides to take the monopoly money from his friend’s game too. He ends up having to give it all to Rodrick though, rather than spending it himself because he wants Rodrick’s assignment for school. Susan is confused when Rodrick tries to cash in $20,000 in the hopes of buying a motorbike!

Rated: 4 reallys  - “Just straight!”

The adventure time encyclopeadia by Martin Olson - reviewed by Zoe

This book follows the Adventure Time television series. It’s great to read if you watch the series because lots of the characters like Jake the Dog and Princess Bubblegum are explored in more detail.
It is written by the evil sucker of souls Hunson Abadeer, who also happens to be the dad of Marceline the Vampire Queen.  Broken up into chapters such as ‘Worthless inhabitants of the Land of Ooo’ and ‘The Land of Ooo and You’, everything you need to know about the characters and their relationships, the spells and the secrets of the Land of Ooo are revealed. There are also lots of little songs that are really funny and pictures throughout. Some parts went on and on and weren’t that interesting, but overall it was awesome.

Rated: 4 reallys - "It was fun to read because the characters provide their own commentaries throughout."

March reviews from St Kilda

Coraline by Neil Gaiman - reviewed by Sylvie

It’s about a girl who moves house to an apartment and she finds a secret door which just opens onto bricks, but at night when she opens the door the bricks vanish and there is a world there where people have buttons for eyes. She doesn’t want to stay in this world because she doesn’t want to have buttons for eyes. The woman there tries to persuade her to stay and promises her a lot and then Coraline realises these people are evil and bad and tries to get back to her normal world but it is really hard.

Rated:  3 reallys - "The book is not as scary as the film!"

The key to Rondo by Emily Rodda - reviewed by Jack

This is about a boy called Leo who inherits a music box. One of the scenes painted on the music box has a queen in it. She is called The Blue Queen and she is eeeeevil. There are important rules that come with the box, like the key must only be turned three times. Rondo is the magical land inside the music box. Leo gets sucked in to the music box with his cousin Mimi who has turned it more than 3 times.

Rated:  4 reallys

The 26-storey treehouse by Andy Griffiths - reviewed by Gus

Two authors live in a tree that is 26 storeys high. Their names are Andy and Terry. Terry gets a sea monkey, Ed, instead of a mermaid. The mermaid is actually a sea monster. They have to shrink the sea monster until it is tiny. I don’t want to give away too much so that’s the end of my review!

Rated:  5 reallys

How to ditch your fairy by Justine Larbalestier - reviewed by Zoe

It’s about a world where everyone has their own fairy. For instance if you had a fashion fairy you will get great dress deals or a parking fairy you’d get really good parks or a love fairy all the girls or all the boys, depending, like you. In this story the girl gets a parking fairy. She doesn’t even like cars. She tries to get rid of it and get a different one. The girls don’t like the girl with the love fairy because all the boys like her. In the end they work out a way to swap. The story has got a lot of tension, it doesn’t leave you hanging and it finishes well. I had a lot of late nights reading it – it was so much fun.

Rated:  5 reallys - Recommended for those 9-29!

The 39-storey treehouse by Andy Griffiths - reviewed by Yuanquan

There are 13 storeys every single time. In this book they have added a non-erupting volcano, an opera, baby dinosaur zoo, a boxing elephant called the Trunkinator, not a very merry-go-round, a disco with a large dance floor and mirror ball and lots more.

I have got all 3 books and in September The 52-storey treehouse will be out. It is about when Terry invents a once-upon-a-time-machine - there is one toilet for 50 animals and 3 people and one bowl of porridge for each of them to eat.

Rated:  5 reallys

Red samurai by Tiffiny Hall - reviewed by Lola

This is the sequel to White ninja. It's about a girl called Roxy Ram and she is at a cemetery and she is fighting to the death with ninjas and ghosts. She becomes the White Warrior. Her sister is a diva with weird magic tricks like levitation and stuff. She is called Electra. Her mum has put mattresses on the ceiling so Electra doesn’t hit her head on the ceiling when she’s flying around at night. I haven’t finished it yet.

Rated:  4 reallys

Upper fourth at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton - reviewed by Izzie

It’s a story about the girls who are in the North Tower. They play tricks on the teachers like they stick pellets on the roof and when it rains they ping down. The main characters are Connie and Ruth who are twins, and Clarissa. The 3 of them go on a picnic with Clarissa’s old nanny. They go to the old nanny’s house. They get a lot of food and have a midnight picnic in a thunderstorm. When they go into the first formers' common room one of the teachers, Miss Potts (known as Potty) comes in and they all hide. 

Rated:  5 reallys

Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers - reviewed by Olivia

I’ve read it 3 times! I really like it because it’s a really good book. Mary Poppins comes down on an umbrella, the umbrella has a bird head that talks. She looks after Jane and Michael, John and Barbara and takes them on adventures into paintings. She has a magic handbag that has everything in it, also everything can fit into it. 

Rated:  3 reallys - "the book is better than the film, although the film is pretty good."

The illustrated mum by Jacqueline Wilson - reviewed by Louise

This is about 2 girls, Star and Dolphin, and their mum who is called Marigold. Marigold has red hair and emerald eyes and lots of tattoos. She stays out late and gets drunk, then one day she meets her old boyfriend that she’d had a baby with, that baby is Star. She wants to get back together but Mickey thinks Marigold is crazy (which she is). Star doesn’t want to live with Marigold but Dolphin goes into care. Marigold goes into a mental hospital. They meet up in the end and all is happy…… but then…..

Rated:  5 reallys

The magician by Michael Scott - reviewed by Jackson

This is about Josh and Sophie, 2 children who enter a world of magic with a man called Nicholas Flamel, disguised as Nicholas Flemming. He has a codex which holds the secret to eternal life but is also capable of destroying humans as we know them. Dr John Dee, who is working with Niccolo Machiavelli is just 2 pages away from that knowledge. Josh, Sophie and Nicolas Flamel and Scatty (Scathach) are running from Dr. John Dee. Sophie’s powers are awakened and Nicholas Fleming searches for a way to awaken Josh’s powers. I can’t tell you anymore.

Rated:  5 reallys

Base camp : Zac Power mega mission, bk. 1 by H. I. Larry - reviewed by Jack

This is about a boy called Zac who goes on these really weird and awesome missions.