Jake+Reading

Reading Task Term 4
Specky Magee and the Boots of Glory Felice Arena and Garry Lyon Number of Pages:260 Genre: Sports/Mystery Publisher: Puffin Australia Simon ‘Specky’ Magee was amongst the best of the footy players at Booyong High School. All he ever dreamed of was playing in the AFL (Australian Football League). He was living the life at his school until he received a scholarship for footy at Gosmore Grammar. You think that would be a good thing wouldn’t you? Well not in this case. The book starts off with a boy sneaking out the window of his dormitory in the night to meet someone anonymous using code names Red and Crusha and there was someone called Mr X. To me it was like they were trying to find out everything out about Specky to use him for a very important game of football between the two rivals, Gosmore Grammar and Salisbury College. It as called the Boots of Glory match and the thing that was so special about this was that it’s only played every 25 years, and the match is played for the boots of the best player on the field from the first boots of glory match. There was a big hype at the first assembly of the year when the principal, Mr. Stevens walked on to the stage and announced the team that was playing in the Boots of Glory match against Salisbury College. Specky and the other Scholarship winner, Tim Barton weren’t sure if they were going to be announced but sure enough, last on the list were their names. This book was a bit weird at the start of the book but towards the middle and ending it made me want to keep reading because of what was happening to Specky and Tim. They had to do initiation stunts to become part of the team. Tim had to get his ear pierced and Specky had to paint on the school’s horse, Sir Lancelot, Royals suck and send it to Salisbury College. Tim got away with it until he was running to his dormitory, and as for Specky, it was quite obvious. Principal Stevens knew about the initiation stunts and told the boys not to do any more if any other boys tell them to. They were then forced that night to steal the boots of glory. They were given the master key and they were out the window and into the Principal’s Office. They had the boots, but Tim heard someone coming, so they were out the window and on the field. Specky found a ball on the field so he put the boots on and kicked it. He showed the other boarders the boots and then put them back in the office. Mr X was there and he saw them so he told the principal someone had stolen them. I like this book because in the middle of the book Specky and his team are playing their regular season of Australian Footy when Specky gets notes under his pillow threatening him to not play well. It made me want to keep reading because it got more interesting. The key moment was when Specky found out hat one of his coaches, Mr Brennan was Mr. X. That put Specky into a weird state of mind. He didn’t care what the next note said, because he won the boots of glory for Gosmore. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in all sorts of sports. I would rate this book 9/10 because I found it hard to keep up with the names at the start. That was the only bit I didn’t get.

Jerry Collins Road to the World Cup Author(s): Tim Castle/ Jerry Collins Publisher: Tim Castle No. of Pages: 180 Genre: Autobiography/Biography

Jerry Collins Road to the world cup is a magnificent book to read. I had no idea about the book until he came to paper plus in TA. He wrote happy birthday to me and then off I went all day and night just reading the book about himself and how he wants to play in the Rugby World Cup. Unfortunately the world cup has passed but I still enjoy reading the book for the fifth time. Jerry Collin’s book was one of the best biographies I have read. The set out was awesome with lots of pictures about him through the stages of his life. The two things that really impressed me were that it had a diagram of him standing up showing all the bones he had broken when and where. The second one was that it had the complete Rugby World Cup draw, and the pools that the teams were in. It also had the time and place of the matches. Anyway back to the book. Tim Castle really got me stuck in to the book and when I had to put it down I was annoyed. He really knew what to write and say. In the book he explained what Jerry Collins wanted to achieve at the Rugby World Cup. You can probably guess what it was. Of course it was to win the World Cup and come back rated number One. They looked like the team in form to win but their luck turned against them in the quarterfinal against France. Jerry Collins then told the world that he was annoyed and he will be back next World Cup to win. Nothing in this book was annoying to me and it seemed like it was the perfect biography for anyone to read. I like this book all the way through and it never stopped surprising me. If I was to rate this book it would be a 10 out of 10 because it was just the best. Even if you don’t like or play rugby you should probably read this book even though the Rugby World Cup has been.

Reading Task 1 Term 3 2009
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