Category: Adventure

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy (Book 5)

  • A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket
  • Illustrated by: Brett Helquist
  • Number of Pages: 221
  • Cool Words: Austere

This book is about the three Baudelaire children who are made to go to a boarding school called Prufrock Prep. When they get there, they have to stay in the ‘orphans shack’ which is a really damp, dark and awful place. The academy is beautiful except for the orphans shack which is not even in the school grounds. There are two teachers that are nice, but the other teachers are really strict and mean. The Vice Principle, Nero, is a horrible person and reminded me a little bit of Trunchbull from Matilda.

Count Olaf is also there, as usual, but this time he is pretending to be the gym teacher Mr Ghengis. The children make a plan to escape with their friends, but they get caught and Nero expels the Baudelaire’s and makes their friends work in the cafeteria.

This was the best book in the series so far, because it was more suspenseful than any of the others. I knew that Count Olaf would appear, but I couldn’t guess who he was pretending to be until almost the end of the book. Because I couldn’t guess, I kept suspecting all the different teachers of being the Count which made the reading really fun!

I wouldn’t recommend this book to people who don’t like it when teachers are mean. Some of my classmates might find it a bit scary or upsetting. So maybe this book is for older kids, maybe 8 years and older.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill (Book 4)

  • A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket
  • Illustrated by: Brett Helquist
  • Number of Pages: 221
  • Cool Words: Hypnotized, Scrawny, Advanced Ocular Science

In this book, the Baudelaire children stay in Paltryville with Foreman Flacutono. The foreman is not very nice, calls the children ‘orphans’ and forces them to work in the lumber mill. At least there is Charles, who is very kind to them.

The children work really hard and only get one packet of chewing gum for lunch, which was a bit upsetting, because I imagined how bad that would be if it happened to me. The Foreman also keeps tripping Klaus up so that he breaks his glasses. And once he does he has to go to the eye doctor, which is in a building that is shaped like Count Olaf’s symbol and has a doctor inside who hypnotises people. Count Olaf works in the building as ‘Shirley’ the receptionist which is really funny.

When I first started this book, I didn’t think it was the best in the series, but then it got better and better. It was just that in this book, the adventure started in the middle, so the beginning was a bit slow.

Like the other books in the series, it is best to read this after you’ve read the previous ones otherwise you wont find it as funny, because when Count Olaf appears for example, you wont know him from before. So I would recommend this book to people who like the previous books in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window (Book 3)

  • A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket
  • Illustrated by: Brett Helquist
  • Number of Pages: 214
  • Cool Words: staggered, tiller, valuable, unbearable

In book three of the series, Violet, Klaus and Sunny are sent to live with their aunt Josephine. She doesn’t turn on the stove or anything hot because she is afraid that the house may fall down into the lake where she lost Ike (her husband). So she only makes cold food, like cucumber soup which the kids hate!

This story is very creepy and is full of leeches! Count Olaf appears again and this time he is pretending to be Captain Sham and has a wooden leg (which is really funny!). The book was a little bit slower than the first two books, but I still really enjoyed it.

I would recommend this book to Mathew and Darcy and other people who read the first books. I’m not sure if you would really enjoy this without having read the first books.

The Bolds on Holiday

  • The Bolds on Holiday by Julian Clary
  • Illustrated by: David Roberts
  • Number of Pages: 309
  • Cool Words: Frumpy, scruffy,

The book is about The Bolds going on holiday after sports day. They go to a beach where their son Bobby twists his ankle. Since they are hyena’s pretending to be humans, they can’t take him to the doctor so they pretend he is a dog called Trumpy and take him to the vet. It got a bit weird when they tried to take his private bits off at the vets…

Later, they lose Bobby and have to search everywhere to find him again.

I enjoyed the book, but it wasn’t the best one in the series. I liked the second book (The Bolds to the Rescue) the best because there were loads of interesting descriptions of the classes the Bolds were giving to the other animals.

I’d recommend this book to my friend, Hollie because I think it might be her style.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room (Book 2)

  • A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket
  • Illustrated by: Brett Helquist
  • Number of Pages: 190
  • Cool Words: Blackmailing, Count Olaf, Stefano

The three Baudelaire children – Sunny, Violet and Klaus – have unfortunate events. In the book they go to stay with Uncle Monty and his snakes. Everything is okay until Stefano comes, because Stefano is Count Olaf in disguise!

I loved this book, because it was really really fun, even more than the first book in the series. I really liked the Incredibly Deadly Viper because it made the story exciting. I’m actually scared of snakes, because some snakes eat people, like boa constrictors. And my mommy almost fell into a pit of snakes in Africa. She was at the Temple of Pythons in Benin, but Daddy saved her.

I would recommend this book to my brother K, but when he is older, because he really likes snakes.

Mr. Penguin and the Lost Treasure

  • Mr. Penguin and the Lost Treasure, by Alex T. Smith
  • Number of Pages: 203
  • Cool Words: beakiest, villainous, gnashing, twizzled

Mr. Penguin is running an Adventurer agency when someone rings him and asks for him to find a lost treasure deep under a museum. There is a rain forest down there, which turns into a jungle. Mr. Penguin has to face loads and loads of dangerous stuff while trying to find the treasure (like trying to survive being eaten by a crocodile!). There are also villains who are trying to steal the treasure…

My favourite character was Colin the spider. Colin is Mr. Penguin’s best friend, he is very funny and he is very smart. He is way smarter than Mr. Penguin. The illustrations of Colin are also really good. Colin has bushy eyebrows and he always looks grumpy.

I liked that Mr. Penguin is always moaning about his fish-finger sandwich that he wants to eat. That was quite funny!

I would recommend this book to someone who likes adventures and penguins of course! I also think that my younger cousin Zehra would love it once she learns how to read, because there are loads of animals in the story and she loves animals!

Aliens In Underpants Save the World

In this story, the Aliens save planet Earth with underpants. Earth is about to explode, so they tie together all their underpants and use it like a patch.

I like that the book rhymes. The illustrations are also really good. There is a lot of detail and colours in the drawings. The coolest word in the book is “elastic”, because it sounds stretchy!

This book would be good for kids who like alien invasions and things like that. There might be too much going on for a toddler like my brother , so I would recommend this book for someone a wee bit older, like a 3 or 4-year-old.

The Bolds

  • The Bolds by Julian Clary
  • Number of Pages: 263
  • Cool Words: affectionate, restraining, heartily, lumbering, torrent 

The Bold names are Mrs Bold (Amelia), Mr Bold (Fred), Bobby and Betty.  At first the Bolds live in Africa, but they move to New York. Then they discover that next door, there is a grumpy old man, who is spying on them… And that’s a big problem, because the Bolds are actually hyenas who are pretending to be humans!

Mr & Mrs Bold

Since they are hyenas, they do hyena things, like rubbing their bums on bushes because its itchy. One day, Bobby even does it as school, but he is lucky that nobody catches him!

This book was very funny and easy to read. There were no boring parts at all. My favourite character was Boo who is also a hyena. Boo is from the Safari Park where the Bolds go every night to dig a hole. They are trying to help Tony, a super old hyena, get away from the park.  I also liked Miranda, the monkey, because she is pretty funky. 

Betty reminded me a bit of Adrian in my class, because she is always chasing her brother and Adrian really likes chasing people too. Betty, Bobby and Mini are quite naughty. Like one time they were biting the legs of the teacher’s chair and when the teacher sat down she fell over. 

Mr. Bold is funny, because he tries to be funny and he is so NOT funny! He is always telling jokes. Here is one of the jokes:

Question: “What does a clock do when its hungry?”

Answer: “Goes back four seconds!”

The illustrations were okay, but I wish they were colourful. 

I would recommend this book to my mum, dad, Maide and Mr Webster because they really like funny things. 

Miranda

Wizarding For Beginners

  • Wizarding for Beginners, by Elys Dolan
  • Number of Pages: 203
  • Cool Words: glossy, trotted, flagrant 
  • German Words: Dummkopfe (stupid), Schnell (quick), Unterhose (underwear), Ja (yes), mein Hintern (my bottom)

This book is pretty difficult to read because some of the words are in German. I already knew some of the words because my mom is part German, but the people who don’t know German will find it a bit tricky since Albrecht uses a lot of German words. 

the mean mirror

The story is pretty exciting. There is an annoying mirror that keeps telling the monster which is very very friendly, that it’s hair is awful. That makes the monster feel bad. It made me furious. I would frown at him and he’s lucky it’s just a frown! I think the mirror is a boy, because every time I read about the mirror it feels like its a boy.

The mirror is actually not really important in the story. The important characters in the story are Dave, Albrecht, Terrence the Terrible and Brain (I call him Brain, but his actual name is Belinda because he is only pretending to be a boy so she can be a wizard). Oh and there is also a beast that is important. I like the friendly beast (most beasts aren’t friendly). 

The story is also pretty funny and mysterious. There are parts that are sad, like when Terrence tries to cook Albrecht (he is a goat). Terrence is cooking him so that the tiger can eat him. Darcy in my class also likes to pretend to cook people and Heather has a toy tiger that says “Raaaar!”. 

Actually Wizarding for Beginners is a bit complicated because there are loads of different characters and loads of languages. I also didn’t like the illustrations so much. They have too much going on. Mrs Szczypka, my photography teacher, says to only take pictures on a grey surface or a gold surface or just a really plain surface so that there isn’t too much going on. Because if there is too much going on, people don’t focus on the main thing.

I would recommend this book to 10-year olds that are studying German. I think its not really good for 6-year olds. 

The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark

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  • The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, by Jill Tomlinson
  • Number of Pages: 99
  • Cool Words: Knackety, Thunderbolt, Enormous, Nocturnal

I love this book. Plop, the barn own, is really cute. He is round and has knackety knees and he keeps falling off his branch. He is also always hungry, like me and my brother!

At the beginning of the book, he is afraid of the dark, but thats a big problem because owls are meant to be nocturnal.

As he goes along and tries going into the dark, he meets different people who tell him something good about it. He meets a boy, who tells him about fire works which Plop really likes. He meets a man who shows him what a telescope is and lets him see the stars. Slowly Plop stops being afraid of the dark and its nice to see him get over his fear.

I would recommend this book to Maide and anyone who is afraid of the dark.