The Eye of Ulam by Terry Denton

Terry Denton was born in Melbourne in 1950. He is one of Australia's busiest literacy writers. The eye of Ulam was published in 2001. It is a fiction comic adventure book. There are 130 pages in this book but it is mostly comics with pictures. This book is about a guy who lost his eye and needs to put an eye on the statue of Ulam to get his it back.

The first part of the plot is easy to understand. First, there is a guy called Nico who likes to surf and he’s been participating in a surfing championship. He has been practicing but then his friend says that his other friend has lost so Nico to decide to save his friend and give up the surfing championship. The story is at the statue of Ulam. The pace of the story is quite slow. It’s not that fast and it’s not straightforward. It’s not straightforward because it doesn’t tell you straight away that his friend is lost. It tells you one thing at a time. This is a good thing because it makes you more interested.

The parts that I enjoy are the parts where there is comedy I think these parts are funny. I don’t like the part where there are too many writings. The plot was ok- not too boring and not too interesting. The character was not believable because there is a character with only one eye in the middle. I think the novel is suitable for a year 6-7 kid. I would recommend this to some people because it is a bit funny so I think it’s not a really bad book.

Review by Evan Weng

THE EYE OF ULAM By Terry Denton

Terry Denton was born in Melbourne in 1950. He is one of Australia's busied literacy writer. The eye of Ulam was published in 2001. It is a fiction comic adventure book. There are 130 pages in this book but it is mostly comics with pictures. This book is about a guy who lost his eye and need to put the eye on the statues of Ulam to get his it back.

The first part of the plot is an easy to know. First, there is a guy called Nico he likes to surf and he’s been participated in a surfing championship. He has been practicing but then his friend says that his other friend has lost so he to decide to save his friend and give up the surfing championship. The story is at the statue of Ulam. The pace of the story is quite slow. It’s not that fast and it’s not straightforward. It’s not straightforward because it doesn’t tell you straight away that his friend is lost. It tells you one thing at a time. This is a good thing because it makes you more interesting.

The part that I enjoy is the part where there is comic, I think the part is funny. I don’t like the part where there are too many writings. The plat of the story was ok not to interesting and it wont to boring. The character was not believable because there is a character with only one eye. I think the novel is suitable foe a year 6-7 kid. I would recommend this to some people because it is a bit funny so I think it’s not a really bad book.

The 39 Clues 1-The Maze of Bones

The 39 Clues, is about the most strongest family in the world. The Cahill Family. Its leader Grace Cahill, established a great mission about saving the Cahill family. Grace's closest grandchildren, Amy Cahill and Dan Cahill. One is 14 and likes to read and the other is 11 and is a math whiz. There are 7 groups searching for the clues scattered all around the world. There are many family rivals that want to kill each other. there are the Kabras, intelligent and rich, Alistair Oh, an old Korean guy, the Holt's, dangerous and annoying and Irina Spatz, who always carries poison needles under her nails. the first clue is in the maze of bones which is in Paris, where Benjamin Franklin hid his Cahill clues. Then, Amy and Dan Cahill almost got buried in cement by the Holt's, close to getting burned and almost got crushed by a whole ceiling! Can Amy and Dan Cahill survive by finding the 39 clues?

Rick Riordan - The Battle of The Labyrinth

book is all about Percy Jackson, a normal boy on the outside but a half god on the inside. He is the son of Poseidon the god of the sea. In this book he goes on a mission into a labyrinth to find a string that can guide you anywhere you want but in the end they just use a mortal girl because there main enemy Luke has stolen the string.

This is a great book in which they fight more enemies than ever.

Sam

Firesong - By William Nicholson

Kestrel and Bowman are twins, who possess the power to communicate with their minds. Unlike Bowman, Kestrel is strong- willed and defiant, whereas Bowman is calm and usually the one who is more sensitive.

The story picks up with the escape of the Hath family from the Mastery, along with other willing Manth families and friends. They seek their homeland. Despite the wintry conditions, they know they are heading the right way, but thye grow weaker and weaker with starvation. Ira Hath is the only one who knows the way, but she is dying. She knows that according to the prophesy, she will die when they reach the homeland.

Bowman must sacrafice himself for his family and people and awaits his calling to join the Singer people, who must stop and destroy the Morah. it is prophesied that he will die as the Chosen one.

Will Bowman recieve his calling in time, or will the Morah rise again and cause chaos and destruction? That is for you to find out.

Three of Diamonds by Anthony Horowitz

Three of Diamonds is an excellent series of books written by Anthony Horowitz. This is a three books in 1 which are 3 different books written by Anthony Horowitz. All 3 books are a mystery series that happen to 2 diamond brothers.

The first book is about a French confection, where the 2 brothers go to France where they have to encounter some illegal drug dealers and escape there alive

The second book is about a picture of a blurred man who is said to be dead. The brothers have to prove if he actually is dead, and what is the mystery behind it

The third book is honestly the best of all the 3 where they go to a remote Scottish island with their old friends, and they start getting killed 1 by 1. The 2 brothers have to find out the mystery behind all this

I really recommend this book to anyone who likes suspense, and mystery books

I Am An Oil Tanker - by Fi Glover

This book is about a girl called Fi Glover who had a random appifany in a hotel at night, wanting to cross continents, seeking out truly unique radio stations in the world.
The book will introduce you to alot of different places like Austria, Belgium, Beirut, Montserrat, New york, Palm Springs and many more.

Its starts of in a bar in California and Fi Glover was suffering from an interesting collision in a bar with Dj Bob, his Texan lcik and some truly bad line dancers. She sat in her hotel room fiddlinng with the radio at 3am and began to wonder how often she'd been here, washed up in a strange town, searching for somthing familiar but local on the dials.

This book as a sort of sense of humour that would just be enough to make you laugh.
It is funny and exciting how she gets to places and how she gets interviewed.
I fully enjoyed this book and im sure you will too.

Journey to the Alcarria by Camilo Jose Cela

Its very common to hear that travel diaries all have boring features: endless descriptions, no dialogues and actionless! But the people saying that have probably never read this book by Camilo Jose Cela called "Journey to the Alcarria. The book is simply written, a bit more than 100 pages long and starts directly to the point by the begining.
The book is non fiction, about a traveler called Camilo Jose Cela, who anticipates a solo trip by foot to the center of Spain. The book is the story of his trip; the people he encountered, the landscapes he saw and what he thought. The author doesn't use any but an interesting type of writing which doesn't use too much descriptions but which offers efficient imagery by describing only the important parts

The purpose is mostly to tell you about adventurers who travel solo in dangerous places. I recommend this book to any fans of Spain and the country side.

Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure

One of the most interesting things I found about the book was the title, Hemingway Adventure. How did Palin come up with such title you ask? He started reading Ernest Hemingway's journalism, short stories, biographies and memoirs, including less fashionable novels for his research. Once he started to get to know Hemingway more, he was attracted to the same thing he was thirty-five years before - the unforced, unsesational, uncomplicated and magical ability to bring the world to life when he heard of Ernest Hemingway when he was a teenager.
Hemingway Adventure sets out to explore the amazing and rich territory of Hemingway's life. By his inspiration, Palin experiences Hemingway's adventure by either bull-running in Pamplona, fishing for marlin in the Gulf Stream or drinking daiquiris in Havana or even been attacked by cheetahs in Africa "The cheetah bares his teeth and backs up. My hand wobbles. I breathe deeply and keep it moving. It's almost there, hovering above the big, sad, yellow eyes, when the cheetah delivers a sharp and wholly unexpected right hook to my leg". I like it how he added suspension which shows the contrasts between the the big, sad, yellows eyes and when the cheetah attacks him.
Palin's writing is like no other; he allows his audience to portray what he wants as if a picture were to be painted. Humor is what makes his work so entertaining, along with his keen insights on life.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes humor or been taken on a short journey along with Michael Palin.

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Eclipse the third book of the Twilight Saga, continues the story of Bella Swan and her vampire love with Edward Cullen. In this book Bella is presented with a choice, one that would decide the fate of all characters involved in this novel; to choose to marry Edward and become a vampire or to love Jacob and stay human. The broken ribbon on the cover of the book represents these two options, they also represent Bella struggling to find the correct answer.

Continuing from the previous book New Moon Bella gets back with loving Edward but sees a new problem as Jacob Black also loves her. To complicate things even more, Jacob Black is a "Shape-Shifter Wolf" aka werewolf who's worst enemy is Edward Cullen because he is a vampire. As the story progresses, Bella found out that one of her die-hard old enemies has summoned an army to kill her, because of this she required the cooperation of both the vampires and the werewolfs to join and defeat the army. The question is will the two enemies cooperate to battle the army? More importantly, who will Bella pick? Edward Cullen or Jacob Black.

This book is recommended to any one who likes a bit of a chill mixed with sweet romance, although it is better if not already to start reading from the first book of the series, "Twilight".

Crusade - By Elizabeth Laird

This story develops on two tracks, one follows Adam, a christian serf of an English baron; the other follws Salim, a muslim apprentice of a well respected doctor.

This story is set in the medival times. When Salim, a merchant's son in Acre; when he hears that the city is being attacked by crusaders. To keep him safe, his dad sends him off with a doctor as an apprentice. Acre, also known as the Holy Land, had once been ruled by the crusaders until the great muslim, Saladin took it back. They are then captured by Saladin's army to look after the sick in Saladin's camp.

On the other hand, Adam, who had just recently buried his mother, embarks on a perilous journey to take Acre back from Saladin. He also wants to Once they arrive, they lay seige to Acre and crushes the city with the help of King Richard. Thats when the lives of the two boys link together. Not every encounter is a good one.

Magic Tree House

Reading Log~Magic Tree House＃2 The Knight At Dawn

This book was written by Mary Pope Osborne. It is really funny and scary. Its series all about Jack and Annie's adventure. This volume is about Annie and Jack's adventure to a castle and got caught by the men that is working in the feast. Then, Annie uses her flashlight and flash the light on their faces, and they ran away, after that they found a secret passage out of the castle so they climb out of the castle and into the moat and a knight came and brought them back to their treehouse. I really love this series of book and I wish to keep all the books in a glass case with golden key on it. I would like to recommend these books to you to read.

The Titan's Curse- Rick Riordan

With the Harry Potter series done, which book-series will be the next teen-book sensation? Well, look no further, because the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series will capture your senses! In this third installment, a scheming evil is unleashed that is planning to destroy the world!

Percy Jackson(main character) suddenly recieves an urgent distress call for his friends. He is called for battle. He'll need his powerful friends, his most powerful sword........and a ride from his mom. They race to the source of evil, but little did they know that a devious trap awaits them..

In this hilarious and perfectly-paced book, Percy would have to face his most dangerous challenge yet- the Titan's Curse.

I would recommend this book to anyone! this adventurous novel will have you turn the pages non-stop! I give this book three thumbs up! (If i had an extra hand).

The Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan

Having a reader's block can cause you to have a severe migrane. Which is why " The Sea Of Monsters" is the book for you! This action-packed novel will have your imagination go wild!

For 12 months,Percy Jackson (main character) thought he was finally free from Greek Monsters, that is until Man-eatting giants showed up at his school. And what's worse, the magical borders that protect Camp Half-Blood have been poisoned by a dangerous enemy.

In this dynamic, funny, adventurous follow up to " The Lightning Thief", Percy and his friends must travel into the Sea of Monsters to save their camp. Many surprises are coming your way!

I would really recommend this book to anyone who has read the first installment. This tale of heroism will cause you to read until the break of dawn. I give this book three thumbs up! ( If I had an extra hand).

The CHERUB Series

Warning: picking this book up may cause you to sit and read continuously for hours non-stop.
Have you ever dreamed of becoming a spy, highly trained, working for a secret organization? Have you ever had the feeling that when you read a book, it gets your heart beating faster wondering what will happen to the characters? Will they succeed? Or will they die. If you enjoy these fast paced thrillers, I strongly recommend you to pick up this book.
The story begins it's first book, (CHERUB: The Recruit) when James Adams' parents gets murdered by a gang and James is also injured. After realising his parents were dead, he was sent to a nursing home called Nebraska House, while James' sister, Lauren is sent to live with another relative.
One day, James and Lauren had been found missing from their orphanages. Their lives has changed forever starting now. The CHERUB recruits capable orphans from orphanages all over UK, training them as child spies and agents. What is so ingenious about this method is that no one suspects that children are being used in missions that generally involve adults, such as stopping drug trafficking, terrorism, etc. The children are trained from as young as possible, learning various skills, such as martial arts, which could aid them in missions, but obviously they are given a choice on whether to stay in the orphanages or to be recruited into CHERUB.
In the series, you will meet James, Lauren, Jake, Kerry, Kyle, and others going on various hair-raising undercover missions. You would wish this adventure was completely true and you could be in it. So open up the book and get ready to enter the CHERUB campus!

The Hunger Games By: Suzanne Collins

This is a interesting book about a kid trying to survive in a game called the Hunger games and the game key is to survive in the wild until all the contestants dies and you will win.

At First Katniss got selected for the hunger games tribute and she went out to fight for their district but what will happen to her mom and her younger sister, what will they do for a living?? Can Katniss win the fight and bring peace to all these?? Even though that her father taught her a lot of skills to survive in the Wilderness, she didn't know how to kill people. Can she kill all 12 people and come back safely?

This book is recommended to students and adults, it is 300 pages long but it's an interesting book to describe how she can survive in the wild and face all those wealthy people who was trained to do this??

The Ghost Next Door-R.L Stine

Burning hot flames surrounded the room, as Hannah Fairchild slowly fell asleep. Her body twitched and her eyelids flew open as the intense heat caught her. She realized that her bed was surrounded by fire, but what could a teenager like her could have done? She prepared for death as the roaring fire came closer and closer to her every second. Beads of sweat were rolling down her cheeks. Was it because of the heat, or the nervous feeling that circualted her brain? Luck was on her side as she realized it was just a dream. Alothough it was just a dream, it was one that she would never forget. That was when eveything went wrong...
When Danny, Hannah's neighbor appeared in her life...wait a second...Hannah had never seen him moving in! He had even claimed that they went to the same school and supposedly in the same grade, but how come they didn't know the same people? That was when she started to suspect that Danny was a ghost. Read this book to find out what happens next.
My favorite part of the book was when Hannah started to suspect who Danny was, because that was where most of the action took place. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure and ghost stories.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Though you can say that Fantasy books are only for "Kids", "The Lightning Thief" will blow your mind! This dynamic book is filled with tons of action, humour and surprises.
Percy Jackson( main character) seems like an ordinary kid. Well, he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer having been diagnosed with Dyslexia and ADHD( Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) . He had been kicked out from many schools due to his " health issues". Surprisingly, he later finds out that he's a son of an Olympic God! But the God's identity remains a mystery.
And to make matters complicated, Zeus' lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect!!!

Now it's up to Percy to return Zeus' property before the Summer Solstice or the world will end as we know it.

I would recommend this book to everyone interested in Greek Mythology. As a matter of fact, this book is so incredible that I would want to recommend anyone from 8 to 108!! This action packed novel will have your hands glued to the pages!! I give this book two thumbs up!! Copyright 2010

The Lightning Thief- Rick Riordan

The lightning thief is about a boy called
Percy Jackson, being one of the worst behaving students. He had been kicked out by school for uncountable times. Until one day, he met minotaur, yes, the one and only minotaur. In fact, the same one that the son of Poseidon, Theseus killed over two thousand years ago. After the battle, Percy fainted, as he woke up, he realized he was sent to this place called camp Half- Blood.
This is when everything goes wrong, Percy was told that his mom has dies during his fight with the minotaur. He realized his best friend Grover was a satyr and was to protect him from danger. After that he saw someone that looked exactly the same as his history teacher, Mr. Brunner. Yes, he is Mr. Brunner but his real name was actually Chiron Kentavros, the activities director in camp Half- Blood. Later on, he was introduced to Mr. D, the camp director. Do you know what Mr. D stands for? Dionysus, the god of wine! You know who he also met? The daughter of Athena, the goddess of war. The worst thing was that he was sent to cabin eleven which are people who still doesn't know who their mom or dad is. His adventure in camp Half- Blood is starting to begin.
I liked the part when everyone was playing 'Capture the flag' because there were a lot of action going on. It was also when Percy found out who his father was. The lightning thief is a fantastical blend of myth and modern. I recommend this book to everyone, especially the ones who loves myths and gods. This book is a must read.

The Truth Cookie by Fiona Dunbar

Are you having a reader's block? Do you want an adventurous, entertaining book to read? Well you have clicked on the right page! Get your lazy backside off the chair and go borrow 'The Truth Cookie'. This book is nothing but bottles and bottles of surprises.

Lulu is a pleasant young girl who lived a life so vivid and blissful. That was until her mother passed away and her father's girlfriend and son moved in. Her father was blinded with love, obliviously giving his girlfriend everything she asked for. Everyone knows the ugly truth behind her double-faced act besides Lulu's father. He is too hypnotised by love to even notice! It is now up to Lulu to show and convince her father that his girlfriend isn't so 'sugary sweet' after all. After receiving a book and finding a recipe of 'The Truth Cookie', she just might know how to reveal the truth of her step-mom to be's grotesque scheme and end the misery of the days. Is it too late to bring her father back? Read to find out!

I think that this book is funny, interesting and breath-taking because Lulu has to face many obstacles but also meets interesting characters! The twist of the book will bring shock to your emotions and bring tears in your eyes. I strongly recommend this book to all young mystery/comedy/cookie lovers! This book will take you to the last page without even letting you stop! Please read. You won't regret it.