Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

This book contains all the elements I dislike in a story – rats, underground cities, spiders and lots of crawling through thin spaces which make me feel totally claustrophobic and yet I absolutely gobbled this book right up it is such a fabulous story. Gregor the Overlander is the story of Gregor who slips into the underworld when his sister disappears behind a washing machine in the basement laundry of their apartment building.

Gregor’s father disappeared exactly two years, seven months and thirteen days ago and once Gregor and is sister slip into this underground world it is clear to the reader although not to Gregor himself quite yet, that these two children will find their father and reunite the family.

There is a puzzle to solve and great friends who help including of all things cockroaches and bats. I also loved the food, the ingenious clothes and the special medicines developed by the underlanders.

"an Underlander servant placed a half circle of small bowls around him. At least three contained what looked like various mushrooms. One had a ricelike grain and the smallest contained a handful of fresh greens. He could tell by the skimpy potion that the leafy stuff was supposed to be a big treat."

This is book one of the Underland Chronicles but I didn’t have my usual problem with sequels as this one does have a very satisfactory ending although I will certainly look out for book two and in turn book three. You can read more here.

Fans of Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Skulduggery pleasant by Derek Landy will devour this action packed adventure.

Love that Dog (and) Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech

Verse novels always on my list of favourite books. Titles like Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, Farm Kid by Sherryl Clarke, Tom Jones Saves the World by Steven Herrick and Love that dog by Sharon Creech are among my most favourite books, so I was particularly excited to see another title by Sharon Creech, Hate that cat when I recently visited a new local book shop.

Today was the first day of my holidays and as a treat I started the day by reading Hate that cat. It certainly did not disappoint. Following on from Love that dog, we again enter the marvelous English class of Miss Stretchberry – such a lovely name. Over the course of a term or perhaps a month or even a year, students read a wide range of poetry and we read Jack’s responses to this through his poetry but his responses are so much more than just a commentary on the poetry, through his writing Jack tells us so much about his family, his dog, his cat, his own emotional development and his view of the world. As in Love that dog, the poems are presented in chronological order. I just re-read the poem from January 4th and it made me smile.

I have Love that dog as a cassette tape and it is a treasured possession of mine. Sharon Creech also provides copies of all the poems that Miss Stretchberry uses in class and in this second book she also thoughtfully provides an extensive poetry reading list. I hope to buy some of these titles for our school library very soon.

I especially like the way Jack tries out the poetry forms after each lesson. The poems are also a conversation between Jack and his teacher:

And I think I understood

what you said about

onomoto-something

and alliter-something

not HAVING to be

in a poem

and how sometimes

they ENRICH a poem

but sometimes

they can also make a poem

sound purple.

Purple!

Ha ha ha.

Listen to an audio sample here. 

Students in Years 4-6 will love these two fabulous books. I wish I had time to really explore both of these with a class because there is so much to read and enjoy. Look for all the books by Sharon Creech in your school library you will not be disappointed. I have talked about eight of her books on this blog - just click her name from the post labels. (Post edit 8th December, 2024 It was a moment of greatest joy in my life when Sharon Creech found this original post and made her comment!).

Teachers will take this story to heart, recognizing Miss Stretchberry’s skilled and graceful teaching and Jack’s subtle emotional growth both as a person and a writer. This really special triumph is bound to be widely discussed by teachers and writers, and widely esteemed by Creech’s devoted readers. Kirkus Star review

Listen to an audio sample here. 

Tensy Farlow and the home for mislaid children by Jen Storer

“Tensy rocked thoughtfully, toe to heel, and looked towards the rising dawn. The dark sea pounded the cliff-face and a few gulls stirred. She smiled as she felt for Olive's biscuit. It had to be a sign that things were looking up. Chocolate was always a good sign.” Page 189

Tensy Farlow and the home for mislaid children by Jen Storer is an amazing book. It reminded me of Fearless by Tim Lott. In this book we meet a very special orphan called Tensy Farlow. She is given this name by Albie Gribble after he rescues her from the River Charon. Along the way we meet human characters and their guardian angels. Matron Pluckrose is an especially memorable character reminiscent of the headmistress in Matilda by Roald Dahl and the orphanage she runs is even worse than the one in Oliver Twist.

This is a complex novel but so rewarding. I just loved the characters and kept hoping for a happy ending. Is there a happy ending? Yes and no. I can only say you need to read this book to find out for yourself. The ending was certainly not as devastating as the one in Fearless.

I found a lovely book trailer. I have just read about the idea of making book trailers written by Anne Waver in my latest ASLA magazine.

I was pleased to see this book featured on the cover of Magpies July 2009 issue. I agree with the reviewer "over thirty three chapters plus epilogue, readers will have to keep their wits about them to keep track (but) Tensy Farlow is a thoroughly entertaining read with a memorable heroine, wit and an unsettling atmosphere likely to appeal to fans of Odo Hirsch."

Regular Guy by Sarah Weeks

After reading Mr K’s blog (see sidebar) I decided to make some library purchases based on his recommendations. Regular Guy by Sarah Weeks is the first of many titles I have found this way. This is a terrific story – quick to read, good fun and filled with great characters.

Guy, our hero, is convinced he does not belong to his family. They are so different to Guy. His mum likes to Tye dye is underwear and make decoupage from his football cards. His dad is even worse. He like to perform a trick in restaurants where he sucks an oyster up his nose and …

Guy and his really good friend Buzz hatch an ingenious plan. They discover Bob-o an odd ball boy in their class, was born on the same day, in the same hospital as Guy. Buzz and Guy decide the adults need convincing that there has been a horrible mix up. Guy moves in with Mr and Mrs Smith for a most surprising weekend.

Children in middle Primary grades will really enjoy this short and funny story. You will also enjoy 35 Kilos of Hope by Anna Galvada which has the same feel and voice.

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.