St Kilda reviews for May

Geronimo Stilton : the kingdom of fantasy - bk. 4, The dragon prophecy - reviewed by Gus

The characters in it are Geronimo Stilton, Scribblehopper, King Thunderhorn. Geronimo Stilton has got a dragon – the Dragon of the Rainbow.

Geronimo Stilton is trying to put out a fire around a talking forest. He gets singed – "roasted to perfection". All sorts of things happen to Geronimo Stilton – like he gets put in the mud, hit by a dragon, but he never, never dies! Geronimo Stilton has to find the last dragon egg.

Rated:  5 reallys - "The pictures are very good throughout, there is a menu in it where everything has spicy peppers. I like when he gets scared and when he has to wake up at night and when he saves the kingdom!"

Matilda by Roald Dahl - reviewed by Yuanquan

The characters are Michael, Matilda, Bruce Bogtrotter, Mr & Mrs Wormwood, Miss Jennifer Honey and Amanda Thripp. There are 21 chapters.

Mr Wormwood likes to sell second-hand cars with sawdust in the gearbox, and he fiddles the numbers back on the pedometer with the electric drill. It can go for 100 miles before it starts rattling.

Bruce Bogtrotter has to eat a ginormous cake and he is not allowed to leave the stage and no one is allowed to leave the hall until he finishes.

Matilda has magic rays that come out of her eyes and she can move objects.

I really like this sentence said by Mrs Wormwood to Miss Honey – “you choose books, I choose looks”.

Rated:  3 reallys – "I liked Charlie and the chocolate factory better."

Lost voices by Sarah Porter - reviewed by Olivia

It's about this girl who lives with her uncle and hates him. One night she is on a cliff by the edge of the water and she falls in and becomes a mermaid, and she sings and leads boats to rocks and they sink.

It is really good. The characters are described really well.

Rated:  4½ reallys - "because the start was a little bit boring."

Cry blue murder by Kim Kane and Marion Roberts - reviewed by Louise

This girl goes missing. Everyone goes "oh my gosh, what do we do?" They make little hope boats and send them off.

The book is made up of emails sent between 2 girls, one of them is in the school for nuns. One girl is sending the hope boats and one is sending the emails.

It's a really creepy story – there is a murderer kidnapping girls. There is another girl who gets kidnapped. There is this bit where the girl is being interviewed by phone… she says she was waiting on the kerb to go to canoe training, waiting for her friend's mum to pick her up, and she says when she got in the car she suddenly realised it was a man and her friend wasn’t there.

Rated:  5 reallys – "recommended for those aged 12+."

Joshua Dread : bk. 2, The nameless hero by Lee Bacon - reviewed by Jack

The first book is called 'Handbook for gyfted children'.

Joshua’s parents are the most famous super villains in the world. They are known as the 'dreaded duo'. The mum has power over plants, Dr. Dread (the dad) has superpower eyesight, so he can see really far. I think this is a really lame superpower to have!

Joshua’s power is spontaneous combustion. He can make things blow up, but only randomly, he doesn’t have control. To get control he has to concentrate really hard. His friend Sophie, she’s the one who looks like a giant banana, her superpower is being super strong, but when she uses her gift she glows (like the hulk). There is another friend called Milton, and there is a green gloopy thing that impersonates Milton.

Sophie and Joshua go to a superhero summer camp - they have been chosen to form the greatest superhero team of all time. There is this bad guy known as the Multiplier – he can clone himself once, then that clone can clone himself once, and so on, but each clone that is made is more stupid than the last one. They win.

Rated:  4 reallys – "I think it’s pretty good writing but the plot is pretty much the same as the other plot."

The Twits by Roald Dahl - reviewed by Jack

28 chapters – 87 pages. The main plot is Mr & Mrs Twit put sticking glue on a tree and the birds come and stick to the glue. Mr Twit goes up with a big basket and gets them. Mrs Twit cooks them in a bird pie with the legs sticking out of the pastry. They have bird pie every Wednesday.

Mr & Mrs Twit have monkeys that are from Africa. They are kept by the Twits because they are retired monkey trainers. Mr Twit had always dreamed of having the world's first 'upside down monkey circus'.

A roly poly bird comes along who is also from Africa and the monkeys tell the roly poly bird about what Mr Twit does with the glue. The roly poly bird can now warn the birds about the tree and the glue. The monkeys want to get revenge on the Twits. The Twits play awful tricks against each other, e.g. putting a frog in a bed.

Rated:  4¾ reallys

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."