More book reviews by Black & White Inc. book club

Operation Bunny! 

By Sally Garnder and illustrated by David Roberts

Operation Bunny is a story about a little girl named Emily Vole who is adopted by the rich Dashwoods, who completely despise their next-door neighbour, Miss String and her giant, talking cat, Fidget.

After a few years of Emily's life with the Dashwoods, she realises that she is being used as a slave. One day when the Dashwoods were out, Emily had fallen into Miss String's garden by accident when she was putting out the washing. Emily was very surprised how nice she and Fidget were. Miss String taught Emily how to read, write and speak three other languages.

After days of learning, Miss String showed Emily a set of seventeen magic keys. The keys were jumping up and down all around the living room because their shoes were tied to one another. Once Emily had realised, she quickly untied them and she became keeper of the keys.

Sadly a few weeks later Miss String got run over by a car. The driver of the car said he got distracted from a witch riding a broom stick. The man described her as the same woman who came round from the make-up department. After the day that the woman came over, Emily's little sisters had been acting very strange, almost zombie like. Something was wrong. After a visit from Mr Twizell, Emily escaped with Fidget to stop the witch, who Emily found out was called Harpella. 

On their journey, Harpella was really causing havoc. After she turned a whole train carriage into pink bunnies, it was up to Emily to get to the bottom of operation bunny.

Operation Bunny was one of my favourite books I have ever read. I thought it was a great book because it always kept you on the edge of your seat. It was funny when the people on the train got turned into pink bunnies because they only said one sentence which they repeated. I really thought I was looking through the character's eyes. Operation Bunny is a mystery chapter book. It is an easy read, I didn't find it hard. I recommend this book to anyone.

By Lucy, Room 5

Judy Moody and the Bad Luck Charm - by Megan McDonald

Have you ever looked after a pot bellied pig called PeeGee WeeGee in Washington D.C. ? Judy Moody has. Join Judy Moody, Jessica Finch, PeeGee WeeGee and Stink on an exciting journey. I recommend this book to girls and boys between the ages of 7 to 12. 

By Rebecca, Room 13.
For more information about Judy Moody books, a fan club and activities go to http://www.judymoody.com/

Book reviews by Black & White Inc.

A few of the members of Black & White Inc. book club would like to share their awesome book reviews with you. Reading these reviews makes me want to dive into these books immediately and I hope you will feel the same way ...

The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable

How would you like to go on a trip to Russia? Sophie, Delphine and her other friend Marianne travel to Russia but get left on the train and get picked up by Princess Anna Volkonskaya. It's an amazing book and I would rate it a ten out of ten. The thing that makes it amazing is that it is lots of things put into one whole book.

By Stella, Room 5.

Magic Spirit - Tilly's Pony Tails by Olympic medallist, Pippa Funnel.
Illustrated by Jennifer Miles

 Would you save a horse just on the roadside? Bruised with scars and cuts all over its body? Tilly is a normal girl who loves horses. She was adopted and now lives with the Redbrow family. She knows nothing about her past but was left with a horse hair bracelet. Then she meets Magic Spirit, the albino (type of horse) and everything changes, from being a girl gazing at posters of horses to actually being able to touch their shiny coats that feel like silk, as well as grooming and feeding them. But will Magic Spirit ever come out of his barn? This story is probably for 7 - 11 year olds. The book is a chapter book and the pages are brimming with adventure and fun. Enjoy! 

By Jess - Room 15

There is a really cool website for Tilly's Pony Tails fans with reviews, pics, a clubroom and more. http://www.tillysponytails.co.uk/books.asp?book=magicspirit

I will be posting more book reviews tomorrow night, so do drop by again. And please post constructive feedback (nice, friendly positive comments) because we'll be checking out the blog at book club next term and we do hope we'll have some encouragement to keep reading books and reviewing them for all the readers in the school to enjoy! 

PS - Not all of the books reviewed will necessarily be available in the school library, but I am sure you should be able to get hold of them through Auckland's extensive library network.

Kate

Book Reviews

Early in the second term the library started a voluntary book club for year five/ six readers. They cleverly named it Black & White inc. (for the ink on the page). The book club readers have been devouring books and are keen to share their reviews with you on the blog. Please feel free to comment and pass on your encouragement to them.

Pie - by Sarah Weeks 

Pie is an incredible story by Sarah Weeks about a young girl called Alice, her aunt Polly and the people of Ipswich. When Polly passes away her recipe goes with her! It's up to Alice to solve the mystery of the "stolen" recipe and save Ipswich from becoming broke, for without Polly and her humble pie shop, everything goes wrong! I highly recommend PIE to all ages and rate it about five stars! 
By Emma, Room 5.

Titirangi Library Holiday Storytime

Do you want to see the most enormous book ever?

Come along to Titirangi Library's school holiday storytime on Wednesday 24th of April, learn all about the heroes and villains of the Manukau Harbour and make a cool seafaring flag.

Are you a hero or a villain?

Come along to Titirangi Library on Wednesday 1st May to find out.  Enjoy some interactive stories and games and make your very own fake moustache.

Storytimes start @ 10.30 am and are suitable for 4-8 year olds but all welcome.

Top 100 children's books

I came across a list of the Top 100 children's novels of all time, voted for by the readers of School Library Journal. While lists like these are purely subjective - (your list may be totally different), in my mind it looks like a pretty impressive list and the PDF is beautifully presented and has interesting commentary. Do have a look and see what inspires you - the list can be downloaded here - SLJ list

We have many of these books in the library, but if you like the look of a book that we don't have in the library, come and chat to me or Selena and we will consider ordering it.

I am busy reading "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norman Juster, but Emma is reading it too, so it is doing a bouncing act between our two bedrooms and has two bookmarks! How many books have you read on this list? Do you have a top 100, or a top 10 even? Do share.

Kate

New Zealand Book Month

"New Zealand Book Month is a non-profit initiative promoting books and reading – and as a result, literacy – in New Zealand. One month each year we celebrate books and encourage all Kiwis to get involved." www.nzbookmonth.co.nz

Go to www.nzbookmonth.co.nz to download a (PDF) voucher that you can use to take $5-off a book valued at $10 or more. You can also find out which booksellers will redeem your voucher at this website. We also sent home vouchers, so check your child's bag.

There is also an incredible line up of children's events at libraries and other venues around the country - an opportunity to meet authors like Sandra Morris, the author of the children's book "Sensational survivors : an illustrated guide to New Zealand's remarkable wildlife" (which we have in our library) and Tanya Batt whom I had the pleasure of meeting in her shop in Waiheke. Tanya will tell stories and present her latest books - 'My Dad's a Dragon Catcher' and 'Catching Fish' at Glenfield Library on 27th March. There are many different dates, authors and venues, so I highly recommend checking out the events calendar on the NZ book month website.

Books change lives.

New books, coming soon.

We are processing some exciting new books which will be available to read soon, including: "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Third Wheel", a couple of hilarious David Walliams books (eg. Ratburger), a few super exciting Bear Grylls fiction adventures, a handful of EJ12 Girl Hero books, a new "Horribly Famous" book about Roald Dahl as well as "Roald Dahl's Marvellous Joke Book", "The Big Book of Boy Stuff", a couple of brand new Thea Stiltons, Lemony Snicket's "All the Wrong Questions" and Michael Morpurgo's new, "Mr Skip" which is sure to hook in plenty of new fans. We have a hoard of Beast Quest books, Anthony Horrowitz and more more more...