Thursday's Child

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Thursday’s Child – Noel Streatfeild

Sequel: Far to Go – Noel Streatfeild

 Whoever she was, Margaret made herself the arch enemy of the cruel matron.  Soon things reached such a dreadful date that she decided to run away from St. Luke’s, but not without Peter and Horatio, and her three of everything.  So the children fled in the night to become the unlikeliest leggers ever seen on a canal boat.  And Margaret proved that she was a person of the very best quality.

 

I was introduced to this book back in grade five when my class teacher decided our class would read this book as our first novel study of the year.  I fell in love with Thursday’s Child and ever since then it has remained one of my all time favourite books.  Margaret isn’t the most likeable character but I like characters like that.  She’s headstrong but not in a naughty way like Enid Blyton characters tend to be.  This book is not for everybody, as I recall I was probably the only person who enjoyed this book and actually enjoyed doing the worksheets and assignment that followed.  A lot of my classmates had trouble following the story but I still believe that it’s a great book for the nine to twelve age group.

A Season of Transformation



A Season of Transformation – Jayne Fordham

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It is the story of five young people drawn together to complete a Quest, to protect their town from destruction.  In order to defeat the villain, Maxvale, the five virtual strangers must come together and not only forge a bond of trust but become proficient with the ‘abilities’ temporarily bestowed upon them.  In the midst of the lead up to the battle each of the young people has their own personal struggles they are trying to deal with.  Lucas, an adopted and bitter teenager struggles to become the person he wants to be whilst developing feelings for Makenna, a rich kid who doesn’t like his attitude.  Bonnie is a gothic that is dealing with an alcoholic father, Ben the school nerd and Adam the class clown are trying to break free from their high school stereotypes.  Can these five teens put their differences aside to defeat Maxvale and save their town?

I was going to begin this post by talking about how I do not read these types of books, YA fantasy/Romance, but that’s a lie.  I don’t like them that much but I do read them so I have something to judge future YA fantasy/romance books that I do have an interest in, by.   I got this in a goodreads giveaway which is how I got my hands on a book that is not available in the library. 

I am on the fence about this book; I like reality.  I like fantasy to have a sense of reality about it and I can accept it that way.  That’s why I do like this book, because the fantasy element does have a sense of reality and so do the characters.  The five teenagers develop special abilities to equip them in fighting for their town, Catherine Vale.  They develop these when they need to form a bond ad work together. I like that, in most other books the teenagers are often misunderstood teens who are outcasts because they are considered “freaks” and have had their abilities since early childhood. 

 

The book is well written for its genre and it was captivating enough for me to complete in one sitting.  It’s not a very long book at 229 pages, and doesn’t require a lot of concentration. It flows nice and easy for the reader to understand and keep up with the story.  It would interest anyone who enjoys YA fantasy and YA romance. 

The Honourable Upper Fourth

My Copy Scanned

The Honourable Upper Fourth – Eveline M. Williams

First Published: 1929

 The Honourable Upper Fourth is set in a school called St. Catherine’s.  It is located in Great Britain and this particular story follows the lives of the spoilt and conceited upper fourth girls who are given a shock when new girl Mary Blunt arrives at St. Catherine’s and is placed in their form.  They are downright rude to the poor girl who is nothing but warm and friendly to the hostile girls.  The other girls look down on Mary as she doesn’t have pretty clothes and is rather free as she and her father have just returned from years of living in the Australian bush. 

 A must read for people who enjoy reading school stories.  It’s a perfectly lovely book. To put the book into modern context, think about the first book in the Private series by Kate Brian #1 Private. It’s a bit like that book to some extent. A much older version of that book, after all it was written in 1929.  It is one of those books that I hope won’t be forgotten but in reality it has just about been forgotten as nobody I know has even heard of the book let alone read it. 

The Downfall of Augustus Hare

The Downfall of Augustus Hare – Margaret Ross

Firstly I must apologise for the very poor quality photograph I have included.  I had to take it in my bedroom where I only have one shonky light globe.  I had difficulty finding a picture of this book online so this is better than nothing.

 The Downfall of Augustus Hare was published in 1945 and it is about a deceitful hare called Augustus and when he decides to scam kind Caroline and Harriette Twitchett who have let a room in their home out to him.  A Grand Baby Show is organised to raise money for the Comfort Fund but of course Augustus Hare has other ideas about where this money should go. 

 The illustrations are amazing and were done by Margaret Ross.  I just love this gem of a book. I’d never heard of it before. I found it at a wonderful second hand book market.  It is definitely worth reading.

School Friends

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School Friends - Ann Bryant

 #1 First Term at Silver Spires

#2 Drama at Silver Spires
#3 Rivalry at Silver Spires
#4 Princess at Silver Spires
#5 Secrets at Silver Spires
#6 Star of Silver Spires
#7 Part at Silver Spires
#8 Dancer at Silver Spires
 #9 Dreams at Silver Spires
#10 Magic at Silver Spires
 #11 Success at Silver Spires
 #12 Mystery at Silver Spires

A much more recent set of books of a boarding school, I found these enjoyable but not one of my favourites.  It’s a twelve book series set over two years in a school called Silver Spires. The first six books follow a group of friends in year seven, books seven to twelve are set one year later and follow another group of girls in year seven.  They’re the most modern boarding school books I have read. They tackle some minor problems that the girls face at school, focus on family and friendship a lot and are a light hearted series for children. 

Ballet School

Image From Google Images.

Ballet School – Emily Costello

The Ballet School series consists of six books in total.  They begin when Becky Hill is promoted to intermediate one class in Ballet and end at her promotion into intermediate two. We follow Becky and her friends, Becky doesn’t always tell the story; Jillian, Katie and Megan have their own story lines in the books.  At the end of each book there’s a diagram of the positions of ballet.   Jillian was my least favourite character, she whined, was a brat and was very irksome throughout Moms in Tutus. Becky Hill is my favourite character with Katie Russo as a close second.  I also love how this is set in a small town (even though so many children/young adult books are set in small towns) because it helped give their ballet school some character.  

 I began reading this series ten years ago when I came across the first book, that was all we had.  The library had books two and three but it wasn’t until 2011 when I came across copies to finish my collection.    It’s a sweet series.  I love books from the 1980’s and 1990’s.  I just love the USA covers, the UK covers underwhelm me.   I don’t know how widely known this series is, nobody I know has ever read it so I gather it wasn’t very common where I live.  This is a series that I don’t want to see forgotten. 

#1 Becky at the Barre

#2 Jillian on her Toes
#3 Katie’s Last Class
#4 Megan’s Nutcracker Prince
#5 Becky, Boys and Tutus
#6 Moms in Tutus

Dymocks 2012 Top 101 Books List

This is what I believe is the 2012 Dymocks top 101 Book List.  I've bolded the ones I have read.  I enjoy finding these lists and use them as a guide to find new books to read.  Quite a few of these I plan to read so I won't bold them until I have read them.  :)   It's a bit embarrassing since I haven't read that many on the list.

1. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
8. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
9. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
10. The Lord of the Rings (Books 1-3) by J.R.R. Tolkien
11.The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
12. The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
13. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
14. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
15. The Bible
16. A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
18. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
19. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
20. Atonement by Ian McEwan
21. The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do
22. Persuasion by Jane Austen
23. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
24. Red Dog by Louis de Bernières
25. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
26. The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson
27. Breath by Tim Winton
28. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
30. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
31. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
32. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
33. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
34. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
35. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
36. The Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel
37. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
38. Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
39. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
40. The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris
41. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
42. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
43. Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
44. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
45. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
46. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
47. The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien
48. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
49. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
50. The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
51. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
52. Marley and Me by John Grogan
53. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carré
54. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
55. A Simpler Time by Peter FitzSimons
56. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
57. A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute
58. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
59. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
60. Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
61. The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman
62. Dirt Music by Tim Winton
63. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
64. Room by Emma Donoghue
65. The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester
66. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
67. My Booky Wook by Russell Brand
68. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
69. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
70. The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
71. One Day by David Nicholls
72. Bereft by Chris Womersley
73. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
74. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
75. Magician by Raymond E. Feist
76. Salvation Creek by Susan Duncan
77. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
78. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
79. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
80. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
81. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
82. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
83. Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
84. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
85. Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves by Matthew Reilly
86. Mawson by Peter FitzSimons
87. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
88. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
89. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
90. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
91. The Shifting Fog by Kate Morton
92. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
93. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
94. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
95. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
96. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
97. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
98. Bossypants by Tina Fey
99. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
100. The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
101. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/books/dymocks-annual-list-of-the-101-best-books-as-voted-by-the-australian-public-is-out/story-fn9412vp-1226347409706#ixzz1yaeTDpFT