See Ya Simon, by David Hill

See Ya Simon is an emotional book about a young boy, Simon, with Muscular Dystrophy (MD) and his best friend, Nathan. It is told in first person by Nathan, as he tells the story of the last year of Simon’s life. David Hill cleverly enters the mind of a young teenage boy dealing with his best friends illness. By having Nathan narrate the story Simon is presented as a brave and fun boy without it revealing his inner worries about his impending death.

Being a person who knows someone with MD, this story was extremely touching and gave a great, realistic look at the illness.

This story teaches you a lot about MD, and I strongly recommend it to everyone because of the characters, jokes and writing.

~ Emma (16)

Another New Zealand book that might grab your fancy, reviewed with flair…

Tanith by Sherryl Jordan

Full of suspision and anger at the girl that their Chief brought home one night, the villagers took it out on Tanith. Calling her “wolf-woman” and generally being mean to her, Tanith finds solace with a pack of wolves. The villagers find more and more reason to suspect Tanith of witch craft when a pledge son comes to love her. To destroy her “power” the villagers kill the pack of wolves. I really got into Tanith and just had to read it in a day, but unfortunately night came all to soon and I had to put it down just to continue it the next day! The only thing I didn’t like was the ending… Tanith should have gone with the wolves, and the pledge son should have gone with her. My favourite character would have to be the wolf cubs, they just sounded sooooo adorable. Over all a good book.

~ Ana (15)

Thanks to everyone who submitted reviews this week – you’re in with the chance to win (the draw will be on Monday)! If you reviewed a New Zealand book then you have an extra chance: quite a number of you did (it’s good to see you reading New Zealand stuff). Here’s the first of our highlighted reviews for this week:

Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox

This was my second attempt to read this book, and I was surprised at how easily I got through it this time. With the main character in hiding at the start, and everyone feeling confused and annoyed after the events at the end of the previous book, the start possibly wasn’t the most grabbing. But once the story got away from its prequel and started into its own, things became more interesting. Laura, the heroine, slowly slips back into society, along with her father who had become a fugitive from the Dream Regulatory Body, who control the dreamhunters (people who can enter the mysterious Place and catch dreams to perform for others).

Laura knows that Cas Doran, head of the regulatory body, is up to something, which she doesn’t discover until she journeys deep into the Place. This discovery sets off a chain of events that ends with discovering the true nature of the Place.

Also, Laura falls in love with another dreamhunter called Sandy, and is pregnant at the end of the book. It’s very sweet.

~ Sylvia (14)