The Winner!

the winning list is... THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU"RE INVISIBLE.
congratulations.

- Poke an irksome acquaintance in the face until they go insane.
- Pretend I'm a "voice" and whisper bad (but funny) ideas in the Queen's ears.
- Pretend I'm the voice of God, visit the Pope and tell him he looks good in a dress.
- Write "your fly is undone" on fogged up glass in public places.
- Sing (badly) into the mic on an empty stage in a busy bar.
- Trip up "posers" as they walk down the street.
- Continually turn someone's TV to the Bible channel.
- Yell "He IS the Kwizats Hadderach!" at a kid's Christening.
- Carry a penguin around under my arm to make people think they could fly all along.
- Do the above with other animals...particularly household pets.
- Wear a sheet and be a ghost.
- Spy on people I hate and use the gathered information against them. Mwahahahaha!
- Infiltrate and Area 51.
- Go on free flights.
- Never pay for another cinema ticket.
- Confuse the automatic doors that run on pressure sensors.
- Stow away in Johnny Depp's shower...he he he.
- Read top secret government files.
- Convince kids in toy stores that I am a possessed teddy bear.

thank you to all those who entered, they were all great.

could the writer of this list please email me at cherry-banana-split@hotmail.com with the address to send the book to and some information to help me pick a book for you. your age, genre preferences and the titles of a few of your favourite books would be a good start.

Follow the Blue

Title: Follow the Blue
Author: Brigid Lowry

once again another great book by Brigid Lowry.
Bec is restless, sick of being the responsible one she decided to become a new Bec, in a summer of change for her family. this story start with Bec's father in hospital due to a mental break down. soon after he comes home her mother, a famous cook, is offered a book tour to America and they both disappear for 6 weeks leaving Bec and her little brother and sister with a house keeper. along the way Bec dies her hair red, makes some new friends and falls in love for the first time.

as much as i liked this book i didn't think it was as good as all her others. i felt the characters wern't as well developed and that let the book down. apart from that it was great. like her other books the slightly more scrapbook style, in the case adding in recipes and instructions on things like how to Henna your hair, and the amount of detail really add to the book and make it enjoyable and more realistic. the thing i loved most though is how well she understands and expresses what it feels like to be 15. being almost 15 I identified with Bec a lot. feeling unsure about who you are, not knowing how to relate to her parents and just wanting her life to be more exciting are all things that a teenager goes through.

another beautiful book by brigid lowry.

I Am the Messenger

Title: I Am the Messenger (even thou my copy just says the messenger his website says I Am the Messenger)
Author: Markus Zusak
First Published: by Pan Macmillan in 2002

before i review this i should warn you that I'm still very mixed up about this book. i know i loved it, but it was very deep and complicated. in fact I'd love to talk to the author so if any of you happen to be Markus Zusak or know him leave a comment.

Ed is ordinary, it's just Ed. he drives a Taxi, he plays cards, talks to his Dog and sucks at sex. then the 1st card turns up and everything changes. Ed is given a mission, a purpose.

from the blurb, i didn't get the story i was expecting, though it would have helped if i had read the blurb properly. i was expecting an Alex rider or Artemis fowl type of mission, but this was much more ordinary. this book wasn't about the extraordinary part of having an adventure or mission, it was about what Ed did.

i feel i should explain a bit more about what this book was about, so I'll try. this is a story about Ed who is chosen to care, but not only for others, for himself, for life in general in a world that sometimes seems to not give a shit. it's about "small things that are big" (page 239.)

i really loved the beginning, it's one of the best intros ever. the story starts in a bank robbery. yes, lying on the floor while a man with a gun steals money and from there it all springs or so we think. Ed becomes the messenger, caring about people, changing things in his town.

the one thing i wasn't too sure about was the ending, in some ways i loved it and in others i hated it. but i can't say because it would spoil it and i HATE people who do that.

over all it was a book about life having meaning, about wanting to live and about the need to care. if somebody as ordinary as Ed can do it, so can the rest of us. we can change things and we can live.

do yourself a favour and read I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. then do me a favour and come chat to me about it, because i want to talk about it, but can't get my head around it to review it.

this book left me feeling like my life was special.

Tomorrow When the War Began

Title: Tomorrow When the War Began
Author: John Marsden
First Published: 1993 by Pan Macmillan Publishers

Ellie and her friends Corrie, Homer, Robyn, Fi, Kevin and Lee all go on a camping trip. when they return they discover Australia is at war and all there families are being held captive.

i think this is a great book, it's beautifully written. I actually found myself admiring the writing and trying to absorb it to apply to my own as I read. my favourite sentence was
"The, light switched off, the patrol got back into formation and continued down the road like a dark crocodile."

it was very different to most adventure/war/action books, it was really centred around characters which i usually really enjoy, but i found it made the pace a too slow. in the action parts involving guns and bombs found that it wasn't very compelling, there was a lack of suspense, I even managed to put it down in the middle of a shooting and not read it for a week. over all though i think that the characters shone through and made it an incredible book, even if the action wasn't so good.

for some reason, I'm not sure why, i was expecting this book to be in 3rd person. At first i wasn't so sure about reading from Ellie's point of view,I felt i wasn't getting to know her in the same way i was getting to know the other characters. as i read on i became really glad that we could read Ellie's thought, they were so interesting and insightful and i loved knowing what was going through her head.

a brilliant book for action and realistic fiction lovers alike. i can't wait to go and see the movie and read all the other books.

So Much to Tell You

Title: So Much to Tell You
Author: John Marsden
First Published: 1987 by Walter McVitty Books

So Much to Tell You is the incredible diary of a 14 year old girl sent to boarding school and her family life explodeds. there is one thing making her diffferent from every other girl in the school, she doesn't speak.

slowly through her diary enteries we learn all about her, she didn't plain to put all her secrets into this diary but once she started she couldn't help herself. once she started she couldn't stop. over the course of the novel she slowly starts to be herself again, still silent, but with some patience and kindness from a few other people she starts getting there. slowly.

not only do we learn all about her feelings and her life, we get her insightful observations of the people around her, some of which no one but the silent girl would notice. i loved how she learnt that she wasn't the onlt person feeling things. through English, with her awesome teacher the girls learn that lots of other people are feeling things like they are. it was a great reminder for me.

my faveourite thing was that we didn't find out her name until the last page. i felt is very symbolic, like she had finally found herself in all the mess and put herself back together.

i think that everybody should read this book, it's reallu sticks with you, especiaaly because it is based on a true story. if you are not convinved it's written by the man who wrote Tomorrow When the War began. in my opinion it's even better.