August Reviews From St Kilda

Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman, Review by Spike

It's about an alternate universe to Earth where everything is the same except everything is magical. Every human has these things call daemons, which are animals which can only go a certain length away from you and they're part of your soul. When you're a kid they can change form but when you're older they keep one for. The girl, Lyra, lives free at Oxford College under the guardianship of
the college master. She has a powerful uncle called Lord Asriel,  and he's like an explorer. One day she goes into a room which is forbidden and she hides there. She sees somebody do something not good- I'm not going to say because I don't want to spoil it!

Rated: 5/5 Reallys. "I really liked it because the writer expects you to know a bit more than most books do, also I liked the idea of this alternate world"

Isabella's Secret by Jane Tanner, Review by Zara

It's about this girl called Isabella. One day she's lying under an apple tree when some butterflies come but they're actually fairies. Isabella plays with them. They're her secret. The fairies shrink Isabella smaller and smaller and smaller so she is small enough to fit into the fairy world. Then she plays with the fairy king. She wants to stay there forever but then she gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

Rated: 5/5 Reallys. "It's pretty good, I really liked the pictures."


The Illusion of Annabella by Jessica Sorensen, Review by Grace

Basically, it's about a girl called Annabella who on her birthday, her mum says 'we're going to take you out for a surprise, but we'll have to run a few errands first.' She takes her to an antique shop and is gone for a while, like 45 minutes. When she comes out she looks all flustered and her top is back to front. Annabella wonders why but her mother won't say. They get back and when her Dad asks them where they were her mum basically makes her lie and says they were just at the supermarket. So then they are going along the freeway when this lorry comes up which looks like it's being driven like a crazy person. It hits the back of their car and turns them around. Annabella survives but her parents don't. She's a dancer, but she received some serious injuries to her legs during the accident. Her doctors say no way, she will never dance again. That was all she had seen for her future, dancing, nothing else. She has about five siblings, the eldest looks after them and they are all sad all of the time, they don't work on their hobbies anymore like painting and swimming. Then a boy and his family move in next door and the discovery of a secret changes Annabella's life forever.

Rated: 4/5 Reallys. "The characterization is really good and the plot is very detailed and believable. I read it in about two days, it's a real page-turner, I couldn't put it down"

The Deep End by Ursula Dubosarsky, Review by Riri

It's about a girl named Betsy she has swimming lessons. She was in the frog group where you just blow bubbles and do stuff in the water. She was so good she had to go up the next group, octopus. She is really, really, really scared to go in it. Then she sees a girl who is pretending to ride a seahorse so then Betsy pretends to be riding a dolphin and she does it. At the end she gets to have popcorn.

Rated: 5/5 Reallys. "I would recommend it to anyone who has had to take swimming lessons" 

Animal Farm by George Orwell, Review by Yuanquan

It's about a farm where this guy called Mr Jones owns this farm called Manor Farm. The animals there are all really intelligent. There's an old animal called Major, a pig, who suggests a rebellion against Mr Jones because he is really mean to the animals and doesn't feed them enough and work them really hard. So he says he might perish but he hopes the rebellion will commence. There's also a song called beasts of England. So they rebel and drive Mr Jones off the farm. Then they start to manage the farm themselves. The pigs control the farm and become a bit like Mr Jones. At the beginning it's small. They're a bit bossy, they demand all the apples. They say 'comrades, pigs need apples to live', and everyone believes them. There's a pug named snowball. He writes down seven the seven commandments of animal farm, which all animals must obey. The first one is: Four legs good, two legs bad. Then the very smart pig named Napoleon who runs Snowball out of office by setting some vicious dogs on him and forcing him to leave. Then Napoleon makes more rules and suddenly the pigs are getting everything and the other animals are back to tiny rations and hard labor. The animals always thought the pigs would stay true to the commandment: Four legs good, two legs bad until they see all the pigs walking on their hind legs....

Rated: 4.9/5 Reallys. "There's no interesting fighting in it, but it's really good."



Paper Planes by Allayne Webster, Review by Alicia 


It's about a boy called Niko and he has a best friend called Nedim. They live in Sarajevo and are sort of poor because they are in war. Niko wishes that he had eaten all of his meals when they were in peace time. They experience lots of bombs and the last ones are full of shrapnel. One of them hit a man on his shoulder and they had to run away or else they would be dead. They have go to Australia as refugees. Niko and Nedim made a code with paper planes, and when Niko was going to the plane, he saw a boy holding a paper plane.

Rated: 4/5 Reallys. "I really enjoyed it, I loved the characters. It's really exciting because you get into the world and you want to see what happens."


Bluestar's Prophecy: Warriors by Erin Hunter, Review by Cailey

It's about a cat who tries to survive with their clan. She lost her sister and her mum because they died in a battle when a councilman from another clan scratched her to death. At the end she is having kids. She had a cat who liked her, but she like a cat from another clan...

Rated: 5/5 Reallys. "My favourite scene is when she has her kids. I am going to keep reading this series."


The Land of Stories: Worlds Collide by Chris Colfer, Review by Jakob

This is the final and sixth book in the series. It's about a boy and a girl who are half fairy, half human and the sixth book is about finding out where their other sister, who is turning evil is. They have to follow clues to New York.

Rated: 5/5 Reallys. "I'm only up to the part where the brother gets arrested. It's my type of fantasy. I would recommend it to a Harry Potter fan"