Book Groups:Wind Singer

For book groups my group(Samantha, Catherine R, Elizabeth and Katerina) read the book Wind Singer by William Nicholson. Wind Singer is about a girl called Kestrel Hath who lives in a community where exams are everything, your rank, your housing and your clothes. Kestrel HATES exams and when she dares to rebel her family gets the biggest punishment yet.

I think our group went really well, we never ran out of things to talk about or went off topic. But sometimes we had difficulties with the food. I think that the book dragged on a little and that some of it was a bit too descriptive. But I think I gained the skill of working with others and keeping things fair with one another.

The Bungle in the Jungle

Cover of The Bungle in the Jungle

We all had a book when we were younger that we loved sooo much that we would ask our parents to read it to us EVERY night. I had so many favourites it was really hard for me to pick the best one! My favourites were The very hungry Caterpillar, The Little Red Hen, Brown Bear Barney, Commotion in the Ocean and  The Bungle in the Jungle. I thought, "which one!" but in the end I chose the most wacky one, and also the one that had the longest craze. The Bungle in the Jungle.

The person who wrote The Bungle in the Jungle was called John Bush. He wrote the book like a poem, having four-lined stanzas. He rhymed the lines having an AABB pattern. For example:

" I've an upside-down tortoise which, as you know,

  Can magic whatever we wish to be so.

  Swapping our  looks would be easy to do!

  Ostrich, my friend, may I swap with you? "

This book is about a baboon who gathers all the animals in the Savannah that want to swap their looks with another animal. They all gather together and start wishing to a magic turtle to swap looks with each other. But sadly, no one wants to swap with poor warthog. Baboon thinks everyone will be happy with their looks so he frees the turtle. All the animals are eager to see their looks so all run down to the water edge to look at their reflection. They all cry out, "What have we done!" obviously horrified and what they had done. The warthog, still looking his normal self, said, "I think a warthog looks perfect this way." and for another four summers the animals looked for the lost upside-down tortoise.

My favourite parts of the book are all its illustrations. The colourful mis-matched animals always got me excited. I would always snuggle down next to my dad as he read the story aloud to me almost every night.

What was your favourite book when you were younger?

Chasing the Valley Trilogy Review

In the country of Taladia in a small town called Rourton, lives Danika Glynn. Taladia is constantly being bombed by the Kings deadly alchemy bombs destroying homes and killing people. Danika's family were some of the people to be killed. But there are tales of a Safe Haven, a place where no bombs can fall because of its magnetic force protecting it.

Danika joins crew of refugees who also seek the Valley, but when Danika accidentally destroys one of the Kings bi-planes Danika becomes one of the most wanted fugitives in Taladia. With the Kings hunters on their trail, a mysterious boy called Lukas, and Danika struggling with her developing proclivity,(magically ability) she and her crew must always be on the move.

I really enjoyed this book, it's the first book of the trilogy. It is one of those book that you can never put down, and I mean NEVER. If you like fantasy, distopian future and/or adventure/killing then THIS is the book for you. I recon that its a cross between Percy Jackson and the Hunger Games.

So if you're looking for a good book to read then I definitely recommend you check this book out.