18.4.08

JADE about "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke.


10 words from the story that i had to look up meanings for:
  1. illuminated = to light up
  2. dignified = calm, impressive and worthy of respect
  3. stubble =short bristly hair on the chin of a man who has not shaved for a while
  4. feebly = lacking in physical or mental strength
  5. pestilence = any deadly epidemic disease, such as the plague
  6. lynched =to kill a person for some supposed offence without a trial
  7. inquisitively =excessively curious about other peoples' business
  8. nonchalantly =casually indifferent or unconcerned
  9. genuinely =honest and without pretence
  10. dourly =sullen and unfriendly
A page long summary:

Victor is a detective. He had a meeting with a lady called Esther and her husband Max Hartlieb. They ask him to find their adopted child Boniface [most people call him Bo for short].
Esther thought he and his brother, Prosper might have come to Venice because when their mother was alive she had told them Venice was beautiful.
Meanwhile, prosper and Bo have made friends with a girl called Hornet, and three boys called Riccio, Mosca and Scipio, the thief lord. Bo had actually run away from his Aunt Esther and Uncle Max because they didn't adopt Prosper, as well Bo doesn't like to be separated from his brother.
Together the six children live in an old disused cinema that belongs to Scipio's father. Scipio doesn't usually live in the cinema, he goes there when he has stolen something or when he can .
Scipio is called 'the thief lord' because he never gets caught.
What they do with the stolen objects is take them to a man called Barbarossa, who pays for them.
One day while the children were out, they met Victor. well bo met victor. he even talked to Victor but he had no idea he was actually a detective.
When Scipio gets a job from a Conte, he is thrilled..he has to steal something that is neither gold nor silver but wood. The children can't figure out why something wooden would be so valuable, seeing he offered then five million lire for it.
When the children find out that Scipio isn't actually a street kid, they get mad at him for lying. They find he even has a nanny, and he was just stealing things from the unused things in his house.
When they arrive at the house to steal the object, they meet the lady who owns the mysterious object. her name is Ida spavento. While they were trying to find it, she heard them whispering and caught them all. They were all very scared but Ida was a nice person. They explained about the conte and she told them a story about the object [which is a wing] while playing by the dovecots while she was young. When they give the wing to the conte in the night they get cheated and get given the money.
After that, Proper and Scipio go back to the island, and Scipio and Barbarossa go on the magic roundabout that Ida mentioned in her story to them. Barbarossa breaks it.

By Jade.

HAYDEN about "Fire in the Sky" by Shirley Corlett

This book is written as a diary by a boy and is set during the eruption of Mt Tarawera near Rotorua.

Summary:
James is a 14 year old boy who travels with his Papa to the Pink Terraces to sketch them. He meets a boy called Will who lives near the terraces. James becomes good friends with Will. He invites Will to camp with him on the terraces.
Deep below Mt Tarawera, volcanic forces gather and it erupts. When it erupts James is at Will's family's house. They run for cover but along the sticky mud-filled track he can't find Will but he finds him again and they hide in the livery stables.
Some of the people staying in the same hotel as James and his Papa find them and tell him his Papa is missing.
They go on to Guide Sophia's house and papa is not there. When the volcanic ash stops falling they find Papa in a collapsed house alive.

My Opinion:
Overall, I think that Fire In The Sky was a great book.
I suggest this book for 9-11 year olds who like to know about history.
I rate this book worth 6 clouds and I give it a 'golden cloud' for the fact it is a recollection of history.

By Hayden.

Title page by Karen.

"Wanted" poster by Dean



BREANA about "The Gap" by Marie Gibson

Acrostic poem of the character Rosie:

Rosie is always on the run
Only is good with her parents
Scared nearly all the time
Is a tattle-tale
Eats only what she wants!

Questions I would like to ask the main character:
  1. How did you feel when you saved your sister?
  2. Would you like this book to be made into a movie, and why?
  3. What was it like being in the cave for a week with no food, water or supervision?
By Breana.

Acrostic poem on the character Matthew and Title page by Karene.



MRS J about "Milkweed" by Jerry Spinelli



He has no name, no home, no family and no background. He steals food, sleeps in the street and survives by not getting caught. He is called a Jew, everyone calls him a filthy son of Abraham, a Gypsy, and he thinks his name is ‘Stop Thief’ as that is what everyone yells after him!

He sleeps in a cellar with a band of boys who are just like him, who steal to stay alive and do their best to go unnoticed by the Jackboots.

The Jackboots control Warsaw, Poland in 1939. They have power, uniforms that shine, and guns. It is not safe to be a Jew, a Gypsy or a homeless orphan. The best thing to be is invisible. He doesn’t know the jackboots are Nazis.

His new friend and protector Uri forces him to take the name Misha Pilsudski and to memorize a made-up story about his Gypsy background so that no one will mistake him for a Jew and kill him.
Misha, a very young boy, is slow to understand what's happening around him.
When he sees people running, he thinks it's a race.
When Misha sees a girl he knows, Janina, herded into the Warsaw ghetto with her family, he knows he must follow her.

People in the ghetto are starving – only the rats and crows flourish as they eat the dead bodies.
However Misha is small enough to sneak in and out of the ghetto through a hole left by a missing brick, and bring food for Janina's family and an orphanage.
Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind...
And when the trains come to empty the Jews from the ghetto, he is a boy who realizes its safest of all to be nobody.

This book is set in one of the most devastating settings imaginable; Nazi-occupied Warsaw of World War II; and tells a tale of heartbreak, hope, and survival through the bright eyes of a young orphan.

Some of this book was painful to read, but I was ‘living’ the story as I read it and was engrossed. I read this book to a class of nine to eleven year olds in 2006. I have not forgotten it. I was pleased to be visited this week by Fleur, a student I had that year and who has moved on to another school now. She came to ask about Milkweed as she has not forgotten it either and wanted information about it so she could read it again…
As a teacher that is priceless.

Welcome to room 2's book review site.

As students' complete novels [or chapter books!] throughout the year they will be encouraged to add a comment, or summary of the story and their opinion of the book on this site.

Some novels will be read as home learning, others as part of a group or class focus, and some for holiday pleasure. Students are free to also attach portions of assignments or studies relating to the novels.

I will start with the first entry...