Kids Blog

The Lily Pond by Annika Thor

It is a book filled with mixed emotions and passions.  It experiences what it is to be a refugee during World War II

Review by Salem

5/5 stars

With the end of year upon us, celebrations were in full swing at the library as we had our final BookBusters meeting for 2011 and we farewelled our graduating members.  Our christmas party was filled with lots of fun, food and games but also some great reviews too (check out our recommended reads below).  Enjoy your holidays everyone and we hope to see you all in the library again soon!  – Theresa & Jesi

If you love cooking or you enjoy watching the cooking programmes on TV especially Junior Master Chef then this book will be just right for you.

The AWW Cooking School for kids is a great book to get you started on learning how to cook. There are great instructions for each recipe with step-by-step pictures for you to follow plus a picture of the finished dish so you will know what it will look like.

But the best thing about this book is it has all the food that kids like to eat. Things like pizza, pasta, eggs, pies, desserts, cakes and snacks. YUM

So what are you waiting for – Get cooking!

Newsflash – do you need some stupid information about your body, then take a look at What Body Part is That?

This book is full of funny, stupid, explosive and disgusting things about your body.

Take for instance your lips:

Lips are made of 100% lip meat and are generally found on the outside of your mouth. Lips are one of the most important parts of your body because without lips you wouldn’t be able to talk properly, use straws, wear lipstick, get lip-piercings or make pretend farting noises

Or what about Legs:

Your legs start at the top of the ground and go all the way up until they reach the bottom of your bottom and then they go all the way back down until they reach the top of the ground again. You can use your legs to walk from the bottom of a hill to the top and from the top of the hill to the bottom. Legs are also useful if you need to run away from anything or anyone – especially if someone asks you a difficult questions.

Or even your Face

Faces are a handy place on the front of the head to keep stuff like eyes, eyebrows, noses, mouths, cheeks, forehead, and chins right where you need them. Faces are not a good place to keep dirty socks and underpants, sporting equipment, apple cores, lolly wrappers and other bits of rubbish. (The proper place to keep this stuff is on your bedroom floor.)

One of the biggest science experiments of all time is about to take place in George and the Big Bang with George and Annie having front row seats. Annie’s dad is a scientist and they are heading to the Large Hadron Collider to explore the earliest moments of the Universe.

Are you wondering what the Large Hadron Collider is  – well that’s what is so great about this book. As well as the exciting story you will also learn lots of interesting things to do with the universe. Just so you know the Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest particle accelerator or it could be described as a huge electromagnetic racetrack.

So follow George and Annie on their terrifying adventure through wormholes, into far-flung galaxies and to the edge of knowledge itself.

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson

I listened to this on CD and, as with most of the stories I listen to, I really enjoyed it. Enjoying a story on CD often depends on the reader and Patricia Connolly reads this well.

The Star of Kazan is the story of a baby girl found abandoned in a church outside Vienna. Her rescuers are a cook and a house maid and they take her to live with them and the family of three professors where they work.

Annika learns to cook and clean alongside her ‘mothers’ and on her ‘found day’ the professors take them all out for a treat. When she is 12 they take her to see the famous Lippizana stallions at the show they put on for the Emperor.

Annika is always dreaming of the day when her ‘real’ mother will knock on the professors’ door and want her back. And then one day, just that happens, but all is not as she thought it would be, and an adventure soon starts.

Conor read the book Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey. He recommends it to boys and gave it a quadzillion stars.

Michael shared the Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. He gave the book one thousand stars and said both boys and girls would like it.

Jack read the Magic Schoolbus at the Waterworks and says its a good non-fiction book because you get to learn how water is recycled. He gives it 20 million stars and recommends it to both girls and boys.

Jacob read The magic Schoolbus: Inside the Earth another non- fiction book. He likes the part where they saw giant ants underground. He gave it the all the number of stars he can think off and recommends it to all.

Gabriella is currently reading one of the Ramona Quimby series and recommends it to girls. She gives it a thousand stars.

Julianna had just read the Secret Seven by Enid Blyton and had really enjoyed it. She recommends it to everyone as well. She gives the book two thousand stars.

E.B. is going to be the next Easter Bunny (and he can pop candy out of his bottom!). But he is not ready to take over from his dad, so he heads to Hollywood to be a drummer in a rock ‘n’ roll band. When he is hit by a car driven by Fred (who just happens to love Easter), they learn how to work together to be what they really want to be. A funny movie for the whole family.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling is about two wizards and a witch; the three try to destroy horcruxes.  Review by Anna

I read a series called Magic Treehouse by Mary Pope Osborne – there are people called Jack and Annie; they go on cool adventures through dark corridors and spooky places.  Review by Rosa

I read a book called EJ12: In the Dark by Susannah McFarlane.  It is awesome because it is a dark, scary story.  Review by Rosa

In Zac Power: Extreme Missions by H. I. Larry, Zac is woken up by this grandparents early in the morning.  He finds out he is about to go on a huge mission.  Zac’s mission is to find the four pieces of IRIS, the world’s most dangerous weapon.  Review by Matthew

The Familiars by Adam Jay Epstein is a book about the familiars.  Familiars are wizards’ helpers.  One day a cat called Aldwyn tries to steal a piece of fish and a bounty hunter chases him.  He escapes from the bounty hunter but is chosen by a wizard’s apprentice.  Later he must find the apprentice when he is kidnapped.  It is a very good book.  Review by Xandi

The 4 Powers of Daren Saner by Michael Oehley is about a boy called Daren Saner who lives on a starship called Superia.  It is controlled by a computer called Sir Asutab.  Sir Asutab lost control when Daren Saner touched a diamond-shaped stone and unleashed an evil spirit that went inside the computer in charge of the ship.  So the ship went crazy in outer space thousands of miles from anywhere!  I think it’s a great book because it’s fun and exciting.  It’s different from other books I have read.  I rate it 5/5.  Review by Xandi

At our meeting this month – in celebration of New Zealand Conservation Week –  we talked about the importance of conservation and how we can help keep New Zealand clean and green!  We looked at some books about conservation and did some fantastic brainstorming.  We also looked a bunch of cool new books and our BookBusters shared their reviews.  Here are some recommended titles: