A Million Ways Home by Dianna Dorisi Winget - reviewed by Claudia of Room 1o

A Million Ways Home by Dianna Dorisi Winget: 

Reviewed by Claudia of Room 14

Poppy Parker's life has been turned upside down after her grandma (and guardian) ends up in hospital. But Poppy, dog-lover, extraordinaire artist and fixer of problems plans to "spring" Grandma Beth so Poppy can get out of an orphanage and things can go back to normal. But not all things go to plan when she witnesses a horrible crime and 'normal is running away'. To keep Poppy safe she will stay with Detective Brannigan's mum. It's weird at first but Poppy soon settles in, sort-of making friends with a girl named Lizzie and definitely best friends with Gunner, a beautiful German shepherd with an unstable future. 

While she and Lizzie navigate a rocky friendship and figure out how to save Gunner, Poppy also plots out a new plan to rescue Grandma Beth and get home, all while avoiding a dangerous criminal who might still be looking for her.

Will everything go to her plan, or will it not go to plan and fall to pieces?

Clubs Book Trailer - Book by Kate De Goldi

Presenting the ... Clubs Book Trailer (Click this link to view).


Well done to Jack, Amber, Brooke and Thewannya for an exciting trailer! We were honoured to have Kate De Goldi visit our school earlier this year. This Y6 book club group were inspired by Kate, and created this trailer about her book, "Clubs". They were also inspired by Jacqui Colley's illustrations. Let loose with a camera, they formed some interesting poses - and I even agreed to be tied to a tree, like one of the teachers in the book.


I will talk more about the making of the book trailers in a later post. Two have been completed (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and Clubs), and two more are in the final stages.


Hopefully, you will get inspiration from these book trailers for your next favourite book! 

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Book Trailer

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Book Trailer



Well done to Naomi, Alex, Hannah, Elyse & Imogen who made this wonderful book trailer, along with guest 'actor', DJ (Charlie). I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it :)

Look how many books we've issued this year so far!

Hi everyone.

I am so impressed by the number of books that Woodlands Park children read. I know that not every book that is taken home actually gets read, but many of them do. I have just done a statistical report on our library software and it tells me that Woodlands Park Library has issued ...

11145 books so far this year!

Keep reading guys. 

Have a happy holiday.

I am almost finished with a display for early next term called "Don't judge a book by its movie" which should be fun. See you in term 4.

Kate

Reflecting on a stellar visit from Mark Sommerset

Mark Sommerset doesn’t often do school visits these days, so we were very privileged that he spent the day at Woodlands Park School with our junior and middle school children. He entertained children with songs, performed readings of his laugh-out-loud, hilarious books (“Baa Baa Smart Sheep” and the sequel, “I Love Lemonade”) and shared a delightful movie that helped children to connect the idea of writing, design, illustrating and publishing while demonstrating that dreams are possible. 

Mark also delved deeper into his personal journey as a writer which is reflected in his book “The Boy and the Cherry Tree” – asking children to look for symbolism and deeper meaning. One of the children said that the tree symbolised “destiny”. We all felt very motivated and inspired after Mark’s visit and are extremely grateful for his time!

Thank-you Mark!

Mark Sommerset is visiting our school tomorrow!

 We are so excited that we are going to meet Mark Sommerset tomorrow! He is hopping on the ferry from his home in Waiheke Island where he and his wife Rowan create a wonderful array of award-winning picture books!

Mark's books have been available in the library and many of you will have giggled yourself silly over "Baa Baa Smart Sheep" and the sequel, "I love lemonade" -  Did you know that "Baa Baa Smart Sheep" was the recipient of the 2011 Children's Choice award in the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards?

"Two little bugs", a delightful tale about finding your wings, was the Book of the Year and won Best Children's Book in the PANZ New Zealand Book Design Awards.

The delightful rhyming "Cork in the ocean" was given a FIVE STAR rating by the Herald on Sunday and is a dreamy ocean adventure that can be enjoyed over and over again.

 I personally am really interested to hear the story behind Mark and Rowan's new book, "The Boy and the Cherry Tree" which seems to me to have hidden depths to it.

All of Mark and Rowan's books are on sale at the school office this week at special rates. Come and see me (Kate) from 3-3.30pm.

Mark will be signing books at 3pm on Thursday 11th September.

Gobble, gobble!

Kensukes Kingdom Trailer - gathering ideas for our Y6 book club!