Category Archives: Reviews

8 For 8 – The Island Book Trailer

This is a follow-up of my first 8 for 8 post. If you haven’t read it then it will help you to understand this page.

When I’d read all of the 8 for 8 books, my favourite was The Island by M. A. Bennett. The Island is about a boy called Lincoln (Link) who is a nerd and moves to a new school from being homeschooled by his parents, who were professors at Oxford University. Link is bullied at the new school, because he came last in a run, which determines where you are in the school hierarchy. He got the lowest time ever. This means that he’s treated like a slave and has to follow the instructions that the fastest runners give him.

When Link gets stuck with his classmates on a desert island after a plane crash it seems like it might be hell on earth. However, Link is the one giving orders now. Who knows what might happen to the people on the island now?

This book is based on BBC’s Desert Island Discs and has a Lord of The Flies theme.

I decided to make a trailer for this book. I used some LEGO to make the scenes as well as a camera and iMovie to make it look good.

Enjoy,

I enjoyed making this video, as it was fun and challenging!

8 for 8

This year at school, there is a book challenge called 8 for 8. It is extremely similar to last year’s 7 for 7 book challenge, except this one has eight books and more things you can do to enter.

The books are:

Scavengers by Darren Simpson
The Skylarks War by Hilary McKay
The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge
The Island by M. A. Bennet
Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow by Siobhan Curham
Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay
Everything All At Once by Steven Camden (aka Polarbear)
And The Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness

These eight books are all set from different perspectives and times. Everything All At Once is a book of poetry telling a story about school life. The Skylarks war has romance and history. There are many other things that make each book unique.

The things you can do to enter are:

Film a book trailer video
Make a piece of artwork
Write a piece of creative writing
Perform a performance
Write a blog or a review
Film a booktalking video
Or absolutely anything else!

These have to be based on your favourite 8 for 8 book, to try and encourage more people to read that book.

The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart

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13 Chairs by Dave Shelton

Thirteen chairs by Dave Shelton is a horror book with lots of different stories inside. However, instead of having a collection of stories on their own, Dave made a story to tell the stories to try and make the reader feel more scared and hooked to the book. The stories are all written in a different style. They are also true to the characters that are telling them to the audience.

I didn’t like all of this book because I couldn’t understand the old language in one of the stories. And I don’t particularly like horror stories. I also didn’t like the cliffhangers that were never finished, because it gives you a sense of anger at the book, with the reader thinking ‘ARRGH what happens next?! I want to know! I NEED TO KNOW!’

My favourite character was the main character, Jack. I liked him because he was being brave and scared the ghosts who were trying to scare him. The ghosts were telling spooky stories, but Jack told them about being alive and well. This made him special and different from all the other characters, as he was not scared to death as he was supposed to be but outplaying the ghosts at their own game.

In conclusion, I don’t like all of this book and would give it three of five stars. I would recommend this book to advanced readers and people that like horror stories.

This is part of the 7 for 7 book challenge. To see the main 7 for 7 post click here.

The Girl who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

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928 Miles From Home by Kim Slater

928 Miles from Home

This book is about a boy called Calum Brooks who is forced to put up with a stranger called Sergei Zurakowski who is moving into his flat along with his mum, Angie. When Calum gets run over, the two of them must work together to solve the mystery of who is vandalizing the Expressions community centre and who ran Calum over.

I particularly liked the book when Sergei and Calum are forced to work together and befriend each other. My favourite character was Sergei because the school bullies kept picking on him, and he was patient and kind with Calum when he was in an attitude. The story is full of mystery and adventure you never know what’s coming next. The story makes you feel really emotional through the speaker’s feelings. And you just wanted to keep reading the book because you can’t wait for what’s coming next!!!

I didn’t like the fact that the book ended because it just makes you want to know what happens next in his life.

I’d recommend this book to more able readers because of the words and vocabulary in the book. People who are fans of drama, comedy or mystery stories would like this book. I would compare this book to The Goldfish Boy and The Light Jar by Lisa Thompson.

The Goldfish Boy The Light Jar

This is part of my 7 for 7. To see the blog post about 7 for 7 click here

7 for 7

At school, there is a book challenge called 7 for 7. It is designed to make participants better at writing about what they are reading. To complete the challenge, specially chosen Year 7’s (including me) have to read 7 books and write reviews about all of them.

The books are

To see my reports on these books click on the name. If it doesn’t work I haven’t done a review on that book yet.

My Terrific Tenth Birthday

After I’d opened my presents , we went to Milton Keynes and I went on a Helter-Skelter, which was quite high.

Me opening my presents

Helter Skelter

It was really fun. Then we went to YO Sushi for dinner, I really enjoyed grabbing food from the conveyor belts.

YO Sushi

After that, we went to the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden. I had a quiz to do and there were chocolate doors into the Solo gallery, where you can find out about his childhood.

Wonka chocolate doors

In the story centre, I made my own movie with figurines. In the Upper Babbling room, which is a craft room, I made a snail in a jar. Afterwards we did the village and countryside trails, the countryside trail through the woods and through a field was amazing, there were grasshoppers everywhere. It was very relaxing!

view

The woods were the ones that inspired Fantastic Mr Fox, The Minpins and Danny the Champion of the World. Along the high street were some old-fashioned pumps that inspired Danny the champion of the World The library inspired Matilda and the crown house Sophie’s “norphanage”. We also went and looked at Roald Dahl’s grave.

When we had finished the trails we went to the Black Horse for tea, I had a delumptiosly, scrumdiddlyumptious pheasant and mushroom pie.😋

Back home, I was shown my scrumdiddlyumptious IRN BRU cake🎂, it was the best cake🍰 I’d ever had!!

Thanks for all your presents, I loved them all! Hope to see you all again soon.

Ooshies Review Fred’s Box

Fred’s Box / Ooshies

A Ooshie is squishy figurine that can also serve as pencil topper. Ooshie’s can be wrestlers, DC Superheroes and so much more! Some Ooshie’s glow in the dark. I got the wrestlers:

Randy Orton (glow in the dark), Jey Osu, Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns. These are all of the other wrestlers.

other Ooshies

Ooshie’s feel nice in your hands and are a bit sticky at first. If you want Ooshie’s but don’t want the same one more than once, visit Fred’s Box. I love Ooshie’s and would recommend them to everyone!!! 10/10 stars.

YOUR FAVOURITE CHARACTERS JUST GOT OOSHED!!!!

Leeds

In the Easter holidays I went to Leeds for a week, we stayed in a nice house. Then we went to BrewDog for tea and had Red’s barbecued food. I love Red’s.

brewdog / red’s menu

On the first day we went to Roundhay Park.

swing

There is a Tropical World, where you can see animals from all over the world. IT WAS AMAZING!!!! They also have a fun maze.

Tropical world maze

a fascinating tree

Then we went and had tea in an Indian restaurant called Bundobust and I had a nice drink I’d never heard of before called Chai.

Chai

My favourite bit of food was the okra fries, they look a bit like green chillies and were really delicious.

bundobust food

Then we went shopping, I got some clothes and Lego.

On the second day I played Monopoly for most of the day then I went to Nando’s with my Grandad, Mummy, Daddy and Georgia. Afterwards, I went to the cinema to watch the hilarious film of Beauty and the Beast.

The next day I was super happy because we went bowling and I won with 92 points! (I did have the bumpers up.) 🙂 😉

Then we went to the arcade and I got lots of prizes, played a game of air hockey, played Mario Kart together and spent ages on the two pence machines and me and Daddy won a red shoe.

I really enjoyed my time in Leeds and would love to go again.