Goddess Girls: Athena the Brain (Book 1) by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

Rating 4 out 5 (for under 10 girls)
Rating 3 out 5 (for everyone else)
Reading Age: 8-10
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Aladdin; Original edition (April 6, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 141698271X
ISBN-13: 978-1416982715

"Athena thought she was a regular human girl until she receives a letter from her father, Zeus the king of the gods (and principal of Mount Olympus Academy). Zeus requests that Athena come attend MOA and, hoping her eccentricities will fit in better with the other god boys and goddess girls than they do with mortals, she happily accepts. While at school, Athena quickly makes friends--and enemies--with the other god boys and goddess girls and learns how to adjust to life as a goddess."

This story is set in ancient Greece when the gods were children in school. This story follows Athena as she starts her life at the god school and adjusts to this world. I loved the characters, they were fun and  captured their essences really well.

The book is really well researched and the Greek mythology is woven into the stories and personalities. For instance Athena is brainy, Aphrodite is beautiful and obsessed with boys, and Pandora is obsessed with gossip. Their school personalities reflect their adult persona's. The story of Helen of Troy is also woven into this book in a fun and quirky way.

The story is a quick, and an easy light read (for an avid reader). I knocked it over in about an hour while sitting on the plane flying off to my Christmas holidays. It really is just a cute story that is fun and light.

My only quibble was the ending. It just seemed to stop with a few things left unresolved. I sat there flicking the last pages thinking “is that it?” But as this is a series of books (with each book following a different goddess) perhaps the stories flow into each other?

Young girls (roughly 8-10) will probably love this series and relate to it best. It is also a great introduction to the Greek Gods and Goddesses. If I get my hands on other books in the series I will definitely give it a read.

Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae

Rating 4 out of 5
Reading level: Ages 4 and up 

Hardcover: 32 pages 

Publisher: Orchard (September 1, 2001) 

Language: English 

ISBN-10: 0439287197

ISBN-13: 978-0439287197 

Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.8 x 0.4 inches

"Gerald was a tall giraffe

Whose neck was long and slim,

But his knees were awfully bandy
And his legs were rather thin"

So begins the tale of Gerald the Giraffe who cant dance. Every year he dreaded the annual jungle dance as he could not participate with out being made a fool and be humiliated. But this year it is different, this year there is a full moon and a little cricket who teaches Gerald sometimes you just need a different tune to dance too.

This is a wonderful book to read aloud to children. It has an easy flow and rhythm, with rhyming words. You can have use silly voice to narrate the different characters which adds some fun.

The illustrations are bright and colourful. They convey the feeling and action of the story on each page. There is also a cricket hiding on each page!

The book finishes with a great "moral of the story" type ending. This one being about be happy with who you are, there is nothing wrong with being different, and sometimes you need to do things differently to achieve the same results.

This book will quickly become your child's favourite. It is one of our favourites to read.

Extras
A video of someone reading the book. For anyone who wants an idea of what to expect with the book.

Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman

Rating: 5 out of 5

• Reading level: Ages 0-8
• Board book: 24 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's (6 Aug 2009)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 1847385907
• ISBN-13: 978-1847385901
• Product Dimensions: 18.4 x 14.8 x 1.6 cm

Report: Assessment of damaged caused by Claire Freedman's book "Aliens Love Underpants"

By Agent: Zerk Mayflower

Details: I arrived on Earth early 2008 (Earth time) after the Department of Underpants Raids received a report from fellow aliens that in children's rooms over the planet Earth, books with their pictures where appearing.

Upon landing I immediately checked out the neighbouring underpants, then proceeded to go undercover in a local human child's bedroom. I posed as one of his stuffed animals ( a truly terrifying thing human children have, local fauna stuffed and then used as a toy!) and was able to blend carefully into the bedroom environment.

I located the book and read it thoroughly from cover to cover. It was far worse then we had feared. This Claire Freedman had revealed everything. How we don't have underpants in space, our underpant radar tracking machine, and even the games we play upon discovering underpants. It was all there in vivid technicolour glory! The artist did an amazing job of capturing our likeness, so detailed and colourful. Commander Featherlight looked particularly good in Granny's spotted bloomers (see attached image).

A thought then occurred to me, considering the humans were now aware of our presence why had they yet to raise any kind of anti alien defences? Puzzled I investigated further by spending the night in the boy's room. Once he had changed into something called pyjamas (which I will detail in a separate report, these look like they could be as fantastic as underpants!) his mother entered the room. They sat down together and read the book aloud.

Oh what a wonderful thing it was to sit there listening to our story! It was funny, it rhymed, and by the end of it I was entirely entranced. The boy and his mother were laughing loudly and making silly sounds while they read. They were having fun, and seemed completely unaware that they were reading a TRUE account.

So once the family had fallen asleep, I accessed their internet to further research the book. I found it is classed as a children's book. A work of fiction. Something to be enjoyed by children and their families. It had won a heap of awards as well so that meant it was a very good book by Earth standards. To confirm this finding I infiltrated and observed three hundred homes with children that had this book. Low and behold it was the same situation, everyone thought it was make believe and funny, not a real account of a pant raid.

Conclusion: There is absolutely no threat to the Underpant Raiding Industry.

Recommendations: That we continue to monitor Claire Freedman. Her book is far too detailed for comfort and she must be getting her information either from an insider or from observation. Either way we must improve our raiding methods to ensure this Ms Freedman can not obtain any more information.

Magyk (Septimus Heap Book 1) By Angie Sage

Rating: 3 out of 5
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 608 pages
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books; First Harper Trophy Edition edition (March 14, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780060577339
ISBN-13: 978-0060577339
ASIN: 0060577339

First Sentence: "Silas Heap puled his cloak tightly around him against the snow"

At birth Septimus Heap dies. His father that same night discovers a new born baby girl dumped in the wintry woods. Ten years later the evil Supreme Custodian orders young Jenna's death as it is revealed she is really the missing princess.

This is a charming little story which never really delves to deeply into the issues it covers. There is nothing really scary or upsetting. It was filled with humor and adventure and was a fun read all round. There was nothing surprising about the story. The author did do a good job of not revealing if it was Boy 142 or the evil apprentice as being the missing Septimus. But you knew one of them was going to be the boy.

One thing I did not like was the multiple points of view. There were about ten different points of view and I struggled sometimes to see the relevance of the characters view the reader got. I just did not think some of the points of views added to the story. Some of the views I could see were there more for humor sake then plot relevance, for instance when the story was briefly told from the dogs point of view. But others just annoyed me more then anything.

I enjoyed the characters of Boy 142, Jemma and even Marsha. Boy 142 and Jemma have potential to grow into very interesting teenage characters as they are very strong willed and have a good sense of right and wrong. Marsha is just good for comedy relief. The fuss she made of her purple leather boots reminded me of far to many people I now.

The book is cute and funny. It would resonate a lot better I think with the age group it is aimed at the 9-12 bracket. The series is popular and there are a few books now in the series. I nice book to introduce a young reader to the world of fantasy.

Never Smile at a Crocodile by Jack Lawrence

Rating 5 out of 5
Category: Children's Books / Children's Hardback Picturebooks
ISBN: 9781741696943
Format: HardCover
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: 01/11/2010
Pages:24

Age Group: 0-8 (ok and probably most adults)

Never Smile at a Crocodile is a beautifully illustrated book about the childhood favorite song. When I bought this book I didn't realise it was an Australian author. I got it mostly because where we live there are plenty of crocodiles so I thought the topic appropriate for my son.

You can’t help but not like this book. It is certainly a favorite for us.

The story is the lyrics from the song. Words wise they have kept it exactly the same. There are no surprises. If you know the song you know the story.

The art work by Shane Devries is delightful and detailed. The backgrounds are well imagined as he takes the reader from swamps, to jungles, to the circus and then the city. Lots of colours used but they are more earthy in colour and shade. The animals depicted are full of character and life.

http://www.shanedevries.com/

The main characters are a cheeky monkey (who defies the advice and smiles at said crocodile), a rabbit, and a guinea pig interacting with a very large crocodile. The images are fun and the characters are cartoon in nature. By that I mean they have the big round eyes, round bodies, and big toothy smiles.

This book is so much fun to read. As you know the song it’s very easy to slip into the rhythm of the song. My only quibble is the line “You may very well be well bred”, it can be a little hard to wrap your tongue around if you’re not paying attention. I wish they had updated the line a little but never mind. It's still charming to read and will give you a chance to explain the meaning of the term and later the word etiquette.

This book comes with a CD that adds a whole different level to the book. It is sung by Play School favorite Jay Laga'aia. His version is fun and playful and great to have playing along as you look at the book.

If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, you wont be disappointed.

Interesting Fact:
The song Never smile at a crocodile was originally written for Disney’s Peter Pan, although the lyrics were never used in the film but the tune was.