possum magic

Title: Possum Magic
Author: Mem Fox
First Published:1983
pages:27

this is the story of hush and grandma poss and their adventure to make the invisible hush seen again. they travel all round australia and try heaps of different foods. parts of this book are in ryhme and it has adorable pictures, even the invisable ones are cute.

this book was written by Mem fox in uni as an assignment and published when she realised there were so few aussie picture books. this book is a classic. most aussie kids would have read it at some stage. in 2003 for the 20th annaversary of this book we celebrated at school by having each class bring in a dish from the book. my class had to bring in red sauages, i'm not sure why because they aren't mentioned.

unreal!

title:unreal!
Author: Paul Jennings
first published:1985 by penguin
pages:107

this is a book of crazy stories which happen to be hilarious. they'd be good for almost any age, it would be a great birthday present for a younger sibling because you could steal it after or a good one to read when baby-sitting because not only the 9 years will be in stitches. the first story is about a poor boy who when ever he speaks must add 'with out a shirt' on to the end. admittedly not all the stories are laugh-out-loud funny, but they are good.

some of these stories are a bit weird, but they are written well and some are excellent. another cool thing is the covers. they are two layers, the top one has a hole in it showing part but not all of the under layer and they look really cool. there are lots of other short story books all the same idea but with different stories. in one story the protagonist always says the opposite word. eg yes instead of no, left instead of right. I'm not sure if you guys out of Australia watched Round the Twist, Paul Jennings also wrote that.

warning some of these tales are a bit strange and involve people dying, but not in a gruesome way.

She's Leaving Home

Title:she's leaving home
Author: monica trapaga
first published: 2009 by Lantern, an imprint of penguin
pages: 155

She's leaving home is a cookbook. it has great recipes all put into chapters like practical, travel, fiesta, comfort food and my family and other animals. now, i know you're thinking why is she reviewing a cook book? but let me tell you, this book is not just a cookbook. it not only has the best recipes it has all manner of useful things on food like which herb is for what and which part of the cow to buy. all this written in a gourgous fun style and surrounded by cute, colourful, creative atrwork.

monica trapaga wrote this book for her oldest daughter who was leaving home. it's a compilment of all their family favourites. my mum loves this book because it has lots of the traditonal spanish recipes her mum used to cook like paella. if any of you readers are australian you might know monica from playschool. she also sings the bananas in payjamas song. do you remember having monica on playschool stacey?

Secret Friends' Stuff

title: Secret Friends' Stuff
Aurthur: Margaret Clark
first published: 2006 by random house Australia
pages:281

Secret Friends Stuff is very like Letters to Cathy. it's advice given by Margaret to girls who write to her for help. she give great advice (i have experience) through emails and letters. she also writes about her own experiences at a teenager and gives us segments of her old diaries. it's split into five sections to help you find what you're looking for: Friends, more about friends, more and more about friends, boy friends and more about boyfriends. the book is written in a really personal and funny way, Margaret could be right there telling you the advice. in fact it's really like you're getting help from a friend. except for the fact that she a lot smarter than my friends when it comes to boys.

the only thing i dislike about this book is how hard it would be to find certain advice if you were looking for it. it would be useful to have a more specific contents or an index. i know there are lots of non-fiction books on the topic for girls, but i think this one is the best! it makes an interesting read even if you don't want help because it's cool to see how different people deal with different situations.

its short review because i can't really talk about a plot or anything.

Feeling Sorry For Celia

Title: Feeling Sorry For Celia

Author: Jaclyn Moriarty

First Published: 2000 by Pac Macmillan Australia Pty Limited

When Elizabeth Clarry's English teacher announces that their school and another high school that stands two blocks away will start a letter writing project everyone, including Elizabeth, is extremely annoyed.

Until a girl named Christina starts writing back to Celia. Soon enough the girls form a strong friendship and learn that letter writing is the only thing keeping them sane - what with Elizabeth's best friend Celia running away again, her dad deciding to come back to Sydney for a year (keeping his Canadian wife and son behind in Canada) and the Trail Run coming up.

Christina's life isn't that easy either - she has to juggle her boyfriend Derek with her four brothers and sisters and her boy-crazy best friend/cousin.

This story was truly amazing. It was written in the form of letters between Christina and Libby, notes between Libby and her Mum, and imaginary letters to Libby from societies such as The Association of Teenagers (who advise her to climb in the fridge and never come out again), the COLD HARD TRUTH ASSOCIATION and The Best Friends club, and later on some Anonymous letters from a boy who is on her bus...

The book was really hilarious even in the most shocking and sad bits. Here's a tip: don't read this book before bed because not only will you stay up half the night reading to find out what happens next, but you'll also be laughing so hard you won't be able to close your eyes. Trust me.

I give it a 5/5.

Merry Christmas

hey guys, merry christmas!! i wanted to give you guys all something for christmas so i've put together a bunch of carols, not traditional ones thou, aussie ones. take a look! i've linked them because i wanted to put up more than one. at least watch the first one, very funny and a bit true too.
Jingle bells- this is a book as well. very funny.

6 White Boomers- i remember singing this when i was about 6.

Aussie 12 days of christmas- this is a weird one so here's a proper one

TheThree Drovers- much more traditional

A Rose for the ANZAC boys

A Rose for the ANZAC Boys by Jackie French is a WW1 story through the eyes of 3 young women. don't worry, there still adventure, blood and suspense. Midge is a 16 year old kiwi sent to England to learn how to be 'lady like'. There she meets Ethel and Anne and is flung into the war and the open a canteen for soldiers in France. they not only give out food, but care for many wounded men. later midge ends up in the ambulance service.

these young women also suffer as their young ANZACs fight, brothers, cousins, boyfriends all of. what's worse a death notice or them being on the missing list? my favourite thing that this book shows is how the world radically change in just a few years, especially in a feminist view. Then it changed back again. women worked, ran everything and often faced almost as much as men did. then when the soldiers came back they were honored (which the deserve) and took over again. the women who worked to save men and saw them die were expected to go back home, forget and raise families or play tennis. can you imagine what a hard transition that would be?

i love Jackie French's writing, her picture books, novels and non-fiction. check out her other work as well. this book was defiantly a 'stop and think' novel. a good feminist view on war. i hope you join me in this though: thank you for all the women who serve during war. thank you for the women who helped at the front lines of WW1 and WW2 and the women left at home who kept the world running, sewing uniforms and bandages for them, sending food and running factories.