Moomin: Finn Family Moomintroll

Author: Tove Jansson

One day, Moomin, Sniff and Snufkin discover a magical top hat on top of a mountain. Unaware of its strange powers, they take it back to Moominhouse. After a game of hide and seek, they discover that whatever put into it will transform. So the family decides that the hat is to be thrown into the river to get rid of it for good. But Moomintroll and Snufkin get it back secretly at night. Soon after that, Thingumy and Bob turn up with a mysterious suitcase, containing a large bright ruby, the King's Ruby, which they stole from the Groke. Then Moominmamma's handbag disappears but it is found by Thingumy and Bob, who were using it as a bed. A great party is held in honour of Thingumy and Bob finding Moominmamma's handbag. During the party, the Hobgoblin turns up with his black panther, searching for the King's Ruby. Thingumy and Bob refuse to hand the ruby over, but when the Hobgoblin grants everyone a wish to thank them for finding his hat, Thingumy and Bob wish for the Hobgoblin to have his own ruby, the Queen's Ruby.

This book is my favourite in the whole series. I love all of the characters, but in this book my favourite is Thingumy and Bob. They speak in spoonerisms, for  example: "Man you cake it out?" asked Thingumy. "Mot nutch," said Bob. Thingumy wears a red cap. Only the Hemulen seems to understand their language.

Moomin: Comet in Moominland

Author: Tove Jansson


One day, Moomin and his friend Sniff find a strange symbol, a comet. They begin seeing the symbol everywhere, and so they go and ask the Muskrat what to do. He tells them that in order to find more information, they must travel to the observatory in the Lonely mountains and talk to the professors. On their journey, they meet several friends, and when they return they find that they must hide in the cave in order to escape from the comet. But will the comet actually hit Moominvalley?


I really love the characters in this series. My favourite character, well, one of them, is Sniff. He is quite greedy and loves jewels. He is always thinking of new ways to make money. He looks a bit like a kangaroo. He is also a bit of a wuss.

Maurice Sendak's birthday

Today, 10th of June, is Maurice Sendak's 85th birthday. Maurice Sendak died in 2012, but today he would have been 85. Google put up a special Maurice Sendak animation with all of his characters in it.

The Wolves of the Beyond: Watch wolf

Author: Kathryn Lasky



Faolan has become a member of the Watch where he is respected. But then he hears that a wolf has stolen a young grizzly bear cub. Faolan and Edme must return the grizzly bear cub to its mother otherwise a war will start between the bears and the wolves, who have lived together in peace for many years. For Faolan, it is very hard. His second Milk Giver was a grizzly, but Faolan himself is a wolf.

My favourite part in this book is when Faolan, Edme and Arthur the owl are saving Toby the bear cub from Old Cags, the wolf with the foaming mouth disease.

The Wolves of the Beyond: Shadow wolf

Author: Kathryn Lasky

Faolan, the wolf with the splayed paw, has become a clan wolf. He joins the clan as a gnaw wolf, the lowest ranking wolf in the clan. Heep, a mean gnaw wolf, becomes jealous and blames Faolan for the murder of a malcadh pup. But Faolan is innocent and the gaddergnaw games are coming. All gnaw wolves from different clans will compete in the games. Can Faolan and his friends show that he is truly innocent and can Faolan win the games and become a member of the Watch?

I like the characters in this book, particularly Heep.☺☺

The Wolves of the Beyond: Lone Wolf

Author: Kathryn Lasky

A wolf pup is born. A malcadh, wolf language for cursed one. The rules must be obeyed. The parents of the malcadh are to be cast out of the clan forever, they are to join new seperate clans and start a new life. The malcadh is to be taken by the "Obea" to it's tummfraw to die. But the pup does not die. It is swept down the river where it gets snagged on the foot of a great grizzly bear. The bear ends up adopting the pup and the pup gets to know the grizzly as Thunderheart. Thunderheart names the pup Faolan. Fao means river as well as wolf and Lan means gift. Faolan survives. But Faolan learns that he must join a clan. Then he is mistaken for a wolf with the foaming mouth disease. Any wolf with this disease must be killed immediately. Can Faolan survive? And what will life be like when he joins a clan?

I often get mixed up with all the wolf words for this and that but I still like the way the wolves and bears have all of their names for everything.

The Cloud Road

Author: Isobelle Carmody


Brothers Zluty and Bily, along with the Monster and Redwing travel across the desert in search of a new home. The group travel to the end of the desert where they find the cloud mountains. There they meet the diggers, which are quite different to the diggers that Zluty and Bily found at their old home. Then the brothers are told of the evil Monks and the story of the Makers and the Listeners. But Zluty is then taken hostage by the Monks who will turn his head into into metal. Can Bily save his brother?

I really like the story of all of the Makers and the Listeners and whatnot. I also like how Zluty and Bily learn about all of these new things, like blizzards, although the brothers learn what they really are at the end of the book. I can't wait until Book 3: The Velvet City comes out!

A wind in the door (Book two of the time quintet)

Author: Madeleine L'Engle


One afternoon, Charles Wallace Murry tells Meg Murry that there are dragons in Sandy and Dennys's vegetable garden. But Charles later finds out that they are not dragons. It is Prognioskes, a cherubim (which is actually plural for a cherub but he may as well be because he has multiple wings and eyes but he's rather like a seraph) . Blajeny, a mysterious man who insists on being a teacher, tells Meg, Charles and Calvin O' Keefe that they will have three tests. Meg and Proginoskes' first test is to name the real Mr. Jenkins out of three. But later, Meg finds inside the mitochondria of Charles Wallace, trying to save her sick brother who will die if he is not saved.

I like the characters in this book and the way they kythe, which is like telepathy, to talk.

---> Mitochondrion <---

Samuel Morse's birthday

Today, 27 of April, is Samuel Morse's birthday. Samuel Morse is the inventor of morse code.

                                       This is morse code -->

A Wrinkle in Time (Book 1)

Author: Madeleine L'Engle


It was a dark and stormy night. Meg Murry meets Charles Wallace Murry's friends, Mrs Who, Mrs Which and Mrs Whatsit, who take  them off to find their father who disappeared whilst he was working on a tesseract project. Charles, Meg and their new friend Calvin travel to faraway planets in search of their father. When they arrive at the planet their father is trapped on, Charles is kidnapped by the master of the little town they arrive at. Can Calvin and Meg get Charles and Mr Murry back?

I like how on the planet that Mr Murry is trapped on everyone does everything exactly the same, like robots.

Tesseract

Summer and Bird

Author: Katherine Catmull


Sisters Summer and Bird wake up one morning to find their parents have disappeared. Their mother has left them a picture note, so Summer and Bird find that they have to wander into the forest which is close to their home. Summer and Bird find talking birds and stories of their mother and father and stories of birds. The evil Puppeteer captures Bird and convinces her that she will be queen of the birds. Bird is taken to bird court and she does not realise that the great swan who is queen of the birds is actually her mother.

I like the character called Ben in this book. He is half bird, although Summer does not realise this at first.

A Quote from Mark Twain

“In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.”

- Mark Twain

The Word Hunters Book 2 The Lost Hunters

Author: Nick Earls


One day, Lexi and Al find the "& more" button glowing on the page of the dictionary. Once more, they are transported into the past. But this time they are looking for the lost word hunter, Alan Hunter, Lexi and Al's grandfather, who mysteriously disappeared into the past. With the help of Will Hunter, another lost word hunter, the word hunters are determined to find the lost hunter.

The Word Hunters Book 1 The Curious Dictionary

Author: Nick Earls


Lexi and Al Hunter come from a family of word hunters, although they don't know it. Then they find a dictionary hidden in their school library. Al and Lexi get transported to the past by the dictionary and find out that in order to make their way back home they have to travel further into the past, hunting a word, until they can come back to their own time in the 21st century.

The composer is dead

Author: Lemony Snicket


A murder has taken place at the concert hall. The composer is dead. The Inspecter is called in to interview the sections of the orchestra one by one. But he finds that none of the orchestra members are guilty. Then the Inspector realises that he has forgotten one more person...
I like the illustrations in this book. This picture book comes with the CD with music written by Nathaniel Stooky and narrated by Lemony Snicket.

The Composer Is Dead Concert Video narrated by Lemony Snicket

The illustrator of this book is the same illustrator of Wildwood and Under Wildwood

Greylands

Author: Isobelle Carmody


One night, Jack gets sucked into his own bathroom mirror and finds himself in a world without any colour or scent. Then Jack finds that he is being chased by wolvers. Alice, a girl who lives in the mysterious world, comes and goes to guide Jack through the grey world. But Jack is curious about her. What does she carry in her mysterious glowing bundle, what else is she hiding from him and does she have wings beneath her cloak? What had Jack's dead mother said about having wings and will Jack ever escape the Greylands?

 I like the way that the worlds and characters in this book are related.

A Hat Full of Sky

Author: Terry Pratchett


Tiffany Aching, a witch in training, leaves Chalk to go and work for Miss Level (a witch with two bodies) doing chores around the village. Petulia, a pig witch in training takes Tiffany to a small group of witches in training, led by Annagramma, a bossy witch in training who is disliked by most of the group. Tiffany tells the group about the imaginary hat she has but the girls don't believe her. Tiffany goes back to Miss Level's cottage and shuts herself in her room. Shut in her room, the hiver attacks Tiffany and takes her over. The hiver steals Mr Weavall's money, kills one of Miss Levels bodies and scares Annagramma. The Nac Mac Feegle start a mission to kill the hiver. The Feegles go inside Tiffany's head and find out that they must find three particular objects to wake the real Tiffany up: sheep's wool, turpentine and Jolly Sailor tobacco. Tiffany fights the hiver out of her head but the hiver is not dead...

The hiver is a creature that goes into the head of powerful people and takes over them. Everyone the hiver takes over becomes part of the hiver itself. When the hiver left Tiffany's head a bit of another of the hivers victim was stuck in Tiffany's head. The hiver cannot be killed.

I like Oswald, a spirit that helps around the house.

The Wee Free Men

Author: Terry Pratchett


 The Queen of Faires has stolen Tiffany Aching's younger brother Wentwell. Helped by The Nac Mac Feegle / Wee Free Men / pictsies, she has to travel to the land of fairies where she meets dromes that take her through several nightmares to get her brother. On the way, she meets Miss Tick the witch finder who chooses her to be a witch. And on the way back she meets the most famous witch, Misstress Weatherwax.

My favourite characters in this book are Daft Wully Feegle, Rob Anybody Feegle, Hamish and Not as Big as Medium Sized Jock but Bigger than Wee Jock Jock.

Liar And Spy

Author: Rebecca Stead


7th grader Georges has moved to an apartment where he meets Safer and Candy. Safer tells Georges about Mr X, a mysterious man who always wears black. Together, they spy on him, trying to find out as much they can. As they get closer, it turns out Safer was lying...











                                       
                                          Both Georges parents
                                           liked the painter
                                           Georges Seurat and
                                          named their son after
                                          him. This is a picture
                                          by Seurat.
                                         
                                     
                                         
                                           



                                                                                   A Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande
                                                                                   Jatte.

Under Wildwood

Author: Colin Meloy


Prue McKeel returns to Wildwood where Curtis is a bandit in training. She goes to a meeting where she finds that a new danger has arrived in Wildwood. Prue finds that somebody is trying to assassinate her. She and Curtis join up to go on a quest to unite a divided country. In order to do that, they must go under Wildwood. Meanwhile, a titan of industry , Joffrey Unthank gets children from his orphanage to work for him so he can industrialize Wildwood.