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Narrative Structure
__Beginning/Orientation:__ Little Red Riding Hood’s mother gives her a basket of food to take to her sick grandmother’s house on the other side of the forest.

__Problem/Complication:__ Little Red Riding Hood goes of the path and meets a wolf who pretends to be good to get on her good side.

__Problem seems to be resolved/Minor resolution:__ The wolf leaves and Little Red Riding Hood carries on towards her granny’s house.

__New problem/Complication:__ The wolf takes a shortcut to granny’s house and eats her. The wolf disguises himself as granny and Little Red comes.

__Problem is solved/Ending/Resolution:__ A woodcutter comes and chops open the wolf and granny pops out.

A Nursery Rhyme Turned Into A Story - Humpty Dumpty
One day Humpty Dumpty decided to sit on a wall. He was a stupid egg and when he started to rock he thought it was the wind. Then someone came up with a shotgun and fired. Humpty said “that’s mean,” and fell. Then the people all yelled “BREAKFAST!”

A 200 Word Story On An Everyday Object - A Shoelace
One night, at an ACDC concert a, security guard suddenly dropped to the ground, dead. He had marks on his neck, indicating he had been strangled, so they cut the concert short. Halfway to his car, Tom realised he didn’t have his shoelace and decided to look for it. The shoelace was there on the ground, exactly where Tom had been standing. Tom bent to pick it up and suddenly it snapped around his neck and tightened its grip. Tom screamed once and then collapsed to the ground, dead.

The next morning everyone awoke to a citywide power outage and later, when the power finally came back on, the police were sent to investigate twelve more mystery stranglings. After the investigations the police discovered that all victims had worked for a factory that made flat shoelaces and calculated that the next victim would be the owner, James Cronski.

Meanwhile, the shoelace was heading towards the home of James Cronski, its final victim. It had learned that this man owned the company it despised and was going to strangle him as payback for squashing it. But when the shoelace got there, it found no James Cronski and instead found a squad of police officers wearing neck braces to protect themselves. Suddenly the shoelace quivered and went limp. “It’s dead,” said Chief Jackson and bent to pick it up. Then they discovered that James had committed suicide. “That’s why the shoelace died” said Lieutenant Conroy, “its last victim died,” and from then on flat shoelaces have been made differently.

A 500 Word Story
It was a cold, stormy night in Dest, the largest city in Destora. Justin was in the forge, making himself a light, strong sword and enough arrow heads to last the long journey he was about to take. The night before, he had finished a belt with seven medallions and now he was going to set out on a quest to fill those medallions and end the time of the Dark Lord. He wanted to start in his own territory, but here he was well known and no one would listen. So he decided to start with the savage Jalis. * A week later, Justin reached the town of Jaliad. He expected to be killed immediately but instead he was challenged just outside the town by a knight in golden armour. Justin fought well but at last his sword was sent flying. The knight pulled off his helmet and said something Justin had never heard come from a Jalis. “You fight well, man of Dest. Tonight you feast with the Jalis. Tomorrow, I will kill you. My name is Grout, by the way.” And so Justin entered Jaliad with no gems, and came away with a glittering diamond in the first medallion of his belt. * When Justin reached Dread Mountain, he saw masses of dead Dark Army troops and crushed green beasts with huge claws. As he climbed further up the mountain he saw footprints, most small and shallow, but there was one trail that was huge and deep, with three claws. Obviously at least one of the green beasts had made it past the Dread Gnome’s defences and was prowling the mountain. Justin bent to get some water from his flask and at that moment was knocked out and captured. When he came to his senses, Justin was being tied to a pole and his weapons and belt were at the feet of the Dread Gnome who seemed to be the leader. “Hurry,” she barked at the other gnomes, but as she said it a huge green beast sprang out of hiding and gripped her in its jaws. The gnomes binding Justin stood agape and he took his chance and seized the belt and his bow. He fired two arrows, both hitting the throat and killing the beast. Hours later, Justin left Dread Gnome territory with a bright green emerald in his belt. * Finally, Justin entered the city of Ora with high hopes but came out disappointed. The battle that Justin had in front of him was not going to happen with Oran magic helping them. Justin still thought he had a strong army but he wished that he had magic helping him. Suddenly the Dark army came into sight, interrupting his thoughts, and before he knew it the Battle for Destora was beginning. They met the Dark army and plunged into battle. The battle raged on and suddenly Justin saw a shape fluttering across the plain and as he put his hand on the Topaz to clear his mind he saw it was the Orans, and, at the head was Zara, the Oran he had fallen in love with, holding the amethyst. As Justin reached them Zara held out the gem and slipped it into the last medallion. The belt exploded with light and the remaining forces of the Dark Army retreated to the mountains and Justin became the first king of Destora and married Zara.

Author: Emily Rodda
 * __The Wizard of Rondo__**

Publisher: Omnibus Books

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure

Duration to read: 5 days

No. of pages: 404

The Wizard of Rondo is the sequel to the best selling ‘The Key to Rondo’. In this book Leo and Mimi agree to enter Rondo but not too leave the town. When they enter Rondo, however, they find a note to their quest team telling of trouble in Hobnob and asking for help as soon as possible. So Mimi, Leo, Bertha, Conker and Freda set out to investigate the disappearance of the cranky Wizard Bing, and the wrong arrest of the Mayors wife’s nephew, Simon Humble. When they arrive in hobnob however, they found that the town was in the presence of the Strix, an ancient creature that collects the souls of oddities. They search Wizard Bing’s house for clues and ask his chicken flock what they saw. In the end they find Wizard Bing and free Simon.

The strengths of this book are the fact that everything was well described and easily understandable. It had good content and the reader could easily picture everything that was happening in their head. It kept the reader wanting to continue. It also had some good humour and some evil trickery throughout the book that kept it interesting.

The weaknesses of this book are the fact that there are some characters that are so full of themselves that you wish that you wish that someone would just hit them or tell them to be quiet. Also the chickens in ‘The Flock of Bing’ are a bit to mean to Moult just because they are jealous that she laid a golden egg. If they were a little bit nicer it wouldn’t be a problem.

My favourite character in this book would have to be Leo because he is sensible with things that could be dangerous but will risk possibly his life to rescue Mimi from the Strix and the Blue Queen. He is also quick witted and calm in the face of danger.

My favourite part in this book is the part when Bertha goes to the wishing well and wishes she was thinner. The well does the opposite and she swells up like a balloon because Wizard Bing messed up a spell many years before. Whatever someone wishes for something the well does the exact opposite.

Overall I think that this book was a great one and I give it a nine out of ten. It enthralled me reader and I didn’t want to put the book down. I would recommend this book to anyone between the ages of ten and fifteen who likes fantasy and adventures.

By Hamish

Reading Task 2 Term 3 2009
__**The Key To Rondo**__ Author: Emily Rodda

Publisher:Omnibus Books

Genre: Fantasy, adventure

Duration to read: 5 days

No. of pages: 370

The key to Rondo is about a boy named Leo who was left a family music box in his great-aunt Bethany’s will. When Leo’s cousin Mimi comes to stay, the music box rules are broken and Mimi and Leo find themselves in the magical world of Rondo. In Rondo Mimi and Leo meet a man named Conker and his talking duck, Freda. Mimi and Leo tell Conker why they are in Rondo and he agrees to help them. Leo and Mimi ditch Conker thinking they can no longer trust them as he pushed them through a gap, which is a magical shortcut from one place to another, and meet a pig named Bertha. Leo, Mimi and Bertha house with a kind family, Jim, Polly, Grandma and Rosebud, and the set of the next morning for Troll’s Bridge. Leo, Mimi and Bertha then storm the palace of the Blue Queen and get Mimi’s dog, Mutt, back and fly back to Jim and Polly’s house on a flying rug with Conker and Freda as they trust them again.

This book had great action and good description of characters and scenery. It painted a vivid picture in the readers mind and I never wanted to put the book down until I finished. I also liked the fact that the author put some magical shortcuts called gaps in the book too. It was very original.

The things I did not like about this book, however, was the fact that some characters sometimes got so annoying, I wished that I could hit them.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy adventures between the ages of 11 and 15. It is a very exciting book with lots of action and I would give it a 9 out of 10.



Reading Task 1 Term 3 2009
__**Lion Boy:The Truth**__

Author: Zizou Corder

No. of pages: 320

Publisher: Puffin

Genre: Fiction

Lion Boy: The Truth is the third and final book in the lion boy series. In this book Charlie is kidnapped by the corporacy and taken to the island of San Antonio. On San Antonio Charlie is taken to a hut in paradise because the corporacy wants all of the captives to believe that they are safe. On the island the air is contaminated with a chemical that makes anyone affected by it to believe everything they take in is true. Charlie is not affected by this due to his cat blood. Charlie’s father gets a job on the island and ensures Charlie can work with him and together they try to shut down the machine pumping the contaminated air and free the captives.

The strengths of this book are the fact that it is mostly a very exciting book that sucks the reader in. The book compels the reader to continue reading. It never fails to keeps the reader wondering what will happen next. The new characters to the series are described well and create a vivid picture in the reader’s mind.

Lion Boy: The Truth’s weaknesses are the fact that the words occasionally get a little bit hard to understand and it can sometimes be a little bit boring. It is also a bit confusing at times as well.

I would recommend this book to anyone between the ages of nine and fourteen who likes fantasy and/or action. It is a very good book.

I liked this book because it had some good humour and some great action. Over all I give this book an eight out of ten.