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Reading Task 1 Term 4 2009
Title: Sea Dreamer Author: Elizabeth Pulford ISBN: 978 1 86941 887 8 Genre: Fiction

Sea Dreamer is a compelling novel about a fourteen-year-old girl named Cassie who lives in Rewa Bay and has lived there for her whole life. Her best friend Rana is changing and their friendship is falling apart and Cassie is upset about it. Her crush on Mac Rollerston is growing and growing and trying to keep it a secret is getting harder. When her teacher Miss McKenzie asks if anything is going on in Rana's life Cassie starts to panic and has no idea what to do about it. Cassie decides to ask Rana what's wrong and Rana tells her she found a birth certificate which tells her that her dad isn't really her dad and that her mum's a liar and she hates her. Cassie has no idea what to do and starts to panic. When she goes with her brother across to an island near their house, she is hearing her name and strange singing. At first she thinks it's her brother but then he's right beside her. She then thinks it's just Rana playing a trick on her, but later on when they meet up she finds out it wasn't Rana and starts to get a bit scared. When Rana is going out with her boyfriend on a date, she asks Cassie to come with her. She tells Cassie that her boyfriend Ben has a friend that she might like, but it turns out to be someone Cassie really hates and she already has a crush on Mac, but Rana doesn't know and Cassie doesn't want her to find out.On top of that she has a family project to do about her history and she finds out one of her ancestors Sarah Cassandra Addison may or may not have been a pirate. Cassie investigates more and strange things start to happen and Cassie is hearing voices and seeing people.

I enjoyed this book, I actually chose to read it because the cover looked interesting and I wondered what it would be about. I usually don't read these kind of books but this turned out great. I couldn't put the book down sometimes. Throughout the story I would picture where the characters were and what they looked like so it had great description. My favourite character would have been Rana, she was so interesting and always had something going on. She was secretive and mischeivous, which kept me reading. My second favourite would have been Cassie, she was the complete opposite of Rana and was really into her school work and family life where as Rana found it boring. I definitley want to read other stories by this author as she was a really good writer and this was one of the most interesting books I have read.

Reading Task 2 Term 3 2009
Title: Aunt Effie’s Ark Author: Jack Lasenby ISBN: 1 877135 84 4 Genre: Fiction/Fantasy

Aunt Effie’s Ark is a fictional story about Aunt Effie and her nieces and nephews surviving the winter. Aunt Effie can never remember all the children’s names so she calls them ‘Daisy-Mabel-Johnny-Flossie-Lynda-Stan-Howard-Marge-Stuart-Peter-Marie-Colleen-Alwyn-Bryce-Jack-Ann-Jazz-Beck-Jane-Isaac-David-Victor-Casey-Lizzie-Jared-Jess’ which is all of their names put together. Aunt Effie hibernates for winter and the children are left to look after themselves. When she hibernates Daisy takes over and thinks she is the boss of everyone. Every meal they make is a big one including beef, chicken, mushroom and pumpkin soup, cheese and date scones, vegemite, cheese, and lettuce sandwiches and many more. They go on so many adventures and have so many stories to tell. I found this book really hard to read, as I had to keep looking back to places to get what was going on. There were so many different children; I really just didn't get what was happening. Maybe this book would have been easier to read, if you read it all at once, because every time I came back to it each night, I had forgotten what had happened. I think this book was pretty cool because it had heaps of things about adventures around New Zealand and I knew where the places were.

My favourite characters would have been the younger children; they were so adventurous and got into loads of troubling situations but always managed to get out of them. They would have to collect all the milk and eggs in the morning from Aunt Effie's farm while the older children built a barn for the animals. They got into some really funny situations but in the end, it was all fixed and they were all a happy family again.

My least favourite character was Daisy, the oldest one. She seemed really bossy and controlling and I didn't like her. The other children always were told what to do by Daisy but they never listened. Daisy was the only one who would wear school uniform to school.

Overall, I think this book would be better to read if I had have read the whole thing in one night, instead of stopping and starting because I got really lost. The book is really well written and great description; I could really picture what the children were doing and what they all acted like and looked like.



Reading Task 1 Term 3 2009
**The Lovely Bones** Author: Alice Sebold ISBN:0-316-66634-3 Genre:Mystery/Murder

The Lovely Bones is an emotional story about a girl named Susie Salmon, who was raped and murdered by an older man, Mr Harvey, who was her neighbour. He cut her up into pieces and hid them, except he forgot her elbow which was later found by police when they searched the cornfield she was murdered in. She was lured into this mans underground chamber where he wouldn't let her out and raped her and then later murdered her. As she makes her way to heaven she passes one of her fellow classmates who she had never really knew and she becomes a big part of Susie's life while she is in heaven. She watches over her family while in heaven and sometimes gets upset by the choices they make. She had her first kiss with a boy named Ray Singh and he becomes friends with her fellow classmate, Ruth, that she passed by on her way to heaven. They become best friends and Susie watches over them closely. Another main character in this book is Susie's younger sister, Lindsey, and as Susie watches over her and her new boyfriend, she wishes to experience everything that Lindsey does. She also has a younger brother, named Buckley, who was three at the time she died and never really understood. Susi's dad goes crazy with grief over his daughter and the killer and Susie's mum, who never really wanted kids, has an affair with the policeman working on the case.

This book is a very emotional and very well written story. It has a good plot behind it and keeps you reading as it leaves you hanging in places so you always want to read on. I would love to read some more of Alice Sebold's work as she is an excellent writer and keeps the story interesting the whole way. My favourite character in this book was definitley Lindsey as she was sort of the main character. She went through heartbreak and tough times and you could really feel her emotion. You could really tell that Mr Harvey had been through a lot in his life and that this was why he was like he is. His mother had been a murderer and she had taught him all about it. I felt really sorry for Susie's dad as he knew it was Mr Harvey but the police had no evidence to take him to court. This book is being made into a movie and I am definitley going to go and watch it.