CBC Book Week winners, short list and slogan

Now that the dust has settled on another exciting book week at my school I thought I would pen a few thoughts about the books from 2009 and our library happening over the last week.

Firstly the slogan – wow what a great one! I did struggle with Reading Rocks, Readiscover and Book Now! but not with Book Safari. We certainly had great fun with this slogan. The children made maps, binoculars, postcards, jungle animals and vines. In fact every day last week was just filled with fun. My library is overflowing with amazing creations.

On the short list front I just loved Puffling by Margaret Wild and so did all my youngest children. We were of course sad when it received no prize this year. Leaf by Stephen Michael King (Honour Book award) is a very special book and we were able to display the pages on our Interactive Whiteboard which really allowed whole classes to see all the little details. Even though Leaf is quite long I found even the youngest children became really involved. How to Heal a Broken wing (Early Childhood Picture book of the Year) worked well with slightly older students. As I have said in a previous blog, Bob Graham is one of my all time favourite picture book people. We prepared for How to Heal a Broken wing by reading Pete and Roland which is where Bob Graham began. I think talking about care and compassion, the really special family that Will belongs to and those key words of love, time and hope really helped the children to relate to this very special book.

I am not a huge fan of Colin Thompson, although I do appreciate the amazing hard work and detail in the illustrations of his earlier books like How to Live forever and Tower to the Sun. The Big little book of Happy Sadness (Honour Book) has a lovely story with all the right ingredients for me – an emotional story, an intelligent story that allows the reader to ‘fill the gaps’ and just the right amount of humour. I just love the slipper foot George and his grandma make for their three legged dog. I am not a fan of the illustrations but the children in my school did enjoy this book. From the short list we were hoping Nobody owns the Moon by Tohby Riddle would be awarded a prize. This book has a lovely message and such interesting illustrations.

Now we can start thinking about the 2010 slogan – Across the Story Bridge!

Untangling Spaghetti by Steven Herrick

I really enjoy poetry books especially ones by Steven Herrick such as Tom Jones Saves the World (it made me cry) and Do-wrong Ron (it made me laugh and cringe) so I was keen to read Untangling Spaghetti. This is quite different to the other books I have mentioned, because this is an anthology of Herrick poems and not one story, however it does contain some real gems.

Here is a short example

smoke alarm

during the night
our smoke alarm went off
and off and off and off and off
and off and off and off and off
and off and off and off and off
and off and off and off and off
and off and off and off and off

until dad hit it with his shoe


Other favourites are The Librarian, Advertisements for poetry, Guess that word and The Poetry Visitor.

For a quick read and a quick laugh why not borrow a poetry book from the library?

Pig City by Louis Sachar

Here is a book that is good from the very first word to the very last. I enjoyed this book so much I found myself reading it over breakfast then I would come to a part that was so shocking that I simply had to stop and take a break. A few hours later back I would come. Then I simply gobbled up the last fifty pages of this terrific book.

Pig City was first published as Sixth Grade secrets in 1987. I think we used to have this in our library but I had not read it perhaps because back then I didn’t know how much I loved the story telling of Louis Sachar.

In this book we have our central character Laura and her Year 6 classmates who are in the final stages of the year prior to High School. Laura starts an exclusive gang called Pig City and this is where the trouble really starts.

Mr Doyle, the long suffering class teacher, makes students copy dictionary pages as a punishment. By the end of the year Laura is certainly in deep trouble – she has to copy 16 pages!

This is a story about misunderstandings, rivalry jealousy, gangs and the ups and downs of school life but more than anything this is a story about friendship.

This book will certainly be one I remember for a long time. Students in Years 4, 5 and 6 will really enjoy this realistic, funny, sad, horrifying story about school life.

The Tapestry Book One The Hound of Rowan by Henry H Neff

A young boy with special talents is approached by a special school located far from home to come and join a set of first year students and learn magic so that we can fight against evil powers. He has a magical animal to care for and powers and abilities well beyond his age or experience. No this is not Harry Potter but it certainly contains all the same elements and yet this book is not a copy or a poor relation to Harry Potter it is surprisingly a very engaging fantasy story.

Max McDaniels visits an art gallery with his dad, his mum has disappeared (I hope the resolution of this will happen in the second book). While he is at the gallery he sees a tapestry with a vivid battle scene. A mysterious man with white eyes appears to be following Max with sinister intentions. Later Max is visited by Nigel who works for the Rowan Academy and so Max leaves his dad and goes to live at the Academy which has all the usual features of a boarding school with eccentric teachers, banquet halls, ball games, and older students who are bullies.

There are some nice touches in this story by Henry Neff such as a grove of apple trees which the students visit on their first day. “Every year a Class Tree will bear one apple for each living member of that class. When a member of that class has passed on , his or her apple turns to gold. Thus we remember them, and those apples we do not touch.” Page 74

Then there are the rooms which are configured to match the students. Max and his room mate David are given the most magical room with an glass ceiling that reveals the night sky.

I also liked the magical creatures that the students are entrusted to take care of. The children are taken to the Sanctuary which is guarded by YaYa, a black lioness. Among the rare and endangered animals is a winged bull or Syrian Shedu, a small dog or Somerset Bray, twin fauns, a red bullfrog, a highlands hare called Tweedy and a silver gazelle or ulu. For Max the creature he must care for is Nick a Black Forest Lymrill which resembles an otter with metallic quills, a foxlike tail and curing black claws like a bear. To feed their animals the students tell a food bin what they need for example Max says ‘food for Nick: Black Forest Lymrill'. “The bin was piled high with crates of writhing rodents and worms along with small stacks of metal bars.” Page 143.

Sport, in this book, is a game like soccer but the twist is the sports field keeps changing with varying degrees of difficulty. Hills, fences, barriers, walls, lakes etc all appear randomly as the game progresses adding to the drama and requiring amazing skill levels.

If you enjoyed the Harry Potter books, or Skulduggery Pleasant (Derek Landy) or The Tower at Moonville (Stephen Elboz) then I am sure you will gobble up Tapestry Book one The Hound of Rowan. A terrific start to the series which is sure to be a winner with Primary readers.

The castle of Corona by Sharon Creech

When I see a book by a favourite author I can’t wait to dive in. Sharon Creech does not disappoint with her book The Castle Corona. This is a completely different style and genre to other books by Creech all of which are on my most favourite books lists. Love that Dog, Ruby Holler, Granny Torrelli makes soup, Heartbeat and Replay are all in our school library and all are really fabulous.

In this latest book we have a fairy tale with all the right ingredients – a king, a queen, spoilt royal children, orphans and a special destiny you just know will end with those important words “they all lived happily ever after”.

Pia and Enzo are orphans living with an angry and mean merchant. They dream of a better life. One day they find a small pouch filled with mysterious objects two cornos or amulets to ward off bad luck, two gold medallions, a lock of back hair and a small piece of parchment with a message the children cannot read.

My favourite character in this book is the Wordsmith who is summoned in the evenings in the castle to tell stories. He carries a small bag or pouch, he asks the audience to supply story ideas and characters, looks briefly into his pouch and then weaves his magical tales.

This is a book for all Primary children especially those who long for happy endings and stories of castles, royalty and delicious food! Warning don't read this book if you are feeling hungry.

The toilet kid by Pat Flynn and Don't Breathe a word by Marianne Musgrove

I have just read two books with very different styles and subject matter but both fall into the category of didactic fiction – books that are trying to teach us something. Perhaps this is not a bad thing but as an adult reading a children’s book sometimes the lessons can get in the way of a good story. 

The first book is The Toilet Kid by Pat Flynn. At its heart this is a book about about anorexia although this word is never used and young readers could possibly read this short and funny novel all the way through and not know this is Kayla’s secret. I really did the enjoy The Tuckshop Kid which was the first book in this series but I am not sure The Toilet Kid is quite so successful. This second book has the same characters and setting but does not quite reach the humour of the first. Pat Flynn has a great web site you might want to check it out. 

Just as we are never really told about Kayla’s problem, in Don’t Breathe a word Marianne Musgrove does not use the word dementia until the very last chapter of this story. 

Sisters Tahlia and Mackenzie Carew try to cope with their elderly Grandfather. They know something is seriously wrong with him but they are afraid if his condition is revealed the sisters will be separated and put into foster care. 

This is an easy novel to read and the girls, especially Mackenzie, are very caring of Pirate, the grandfather but I really wanted to know a little more of the back story. Mackenzie is terrified of water, for example, and this is linked to the death of her parents but this important story element is only briefly touched on towards the end of the book. These criticisms to one side this is a very readable book with a realistic setting and strong characters who touch your heart. I would recommend these two books to sensitive readers in Years 4, 5 and 6.

The Wild West Witches by Michael Molloy

I did enjoy this book and I think it might be a good one to recommend to Harry Potter fans but I would have liked a character list perhaps under headings of good and evil. There are so many bad characters in this book with similar evil intentions that I did get a little confused at times. This book does stand alone but things might be clearer if you read the first two books in the series before this one – The Witch Trade and Time Witches.

Our heroes are Abby and Spike two gifted kids who, with their Light Witch friends, travel back to the Wild West in order to save the world from the evil Wolfbane. There are two sources of magic in this book one for good used by the Light Witches called Ice Dust and one very evil. Wolfbane needs more of the evil one called Black Dust and he needs Excalibur to get it.

I fear there might be too many literary and historical references in this book and that readers might find it confusing. Mention is made to vaudeville, Excalibur, Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley to mention just a few.

Putting aside this criticism, there are fabulous character descriptions in this book and these might be useful for teachers when they are working on narratives with students.

Sir Chadwick Street : Tall and slender, he was a handsome man with a bold Roman nose dominating his face and , in the chill air he was looking pinker than usual. His battered tweed hat was pulled casually over his long marmalade-coloured hair and he worse a flowing red polka-dot bow tie with his stylish, fine-cut tweed suit. Page 18

Polartius the librarian : His sliver hair lay in coiled pools on the stone-flagged floor. … The ancient man looked at her over his wire-rimmed spectacles. Page 53

Homer P Stout : Dressed in black, he was quite thin except for a protruding stomach that swelled his waistcoat and drew attention to his heavy gold watch chain. He wasn’t very tall but he nonetheless seemed to be looking down at them. Page 104

Just like Harry Potter and his cloak of invisibility, Abby and Spike have wonderful Atlantis capes which can be cleaned and dried with just a shake and which transform themselves into any appropriate clothing for the climate and place.


If you like an action packed fantasy story and know something about the Wild West during the goldrush times then this might be the book for you. I have given some hints about the plot in this review but really this book is quite complicated so I can only say read it and see what YOU think!