Elizabeth HoneyReviews

These books were really cute. Definitely comfort reading.

4.5 stars. Marvelous characters, exciting adventure, brilliant ubiety, creative settings. Gosh. Perfect for reluctant readers age 10-14, terrific for anyone else.

A tiny bit fantastical - no magic, and everything makes sense as it happens, but each of the few times I stuck a bookmark in I said to myself, Really, that could happen irl?!"

A little dated, with an emphasis on internet technology and a publication date of 2000, but push it on the kids as Historical Fiction and they'll be all, "Wow, what was WebTV?"

Northern Territory, Australia
Melbourne, Australia.
Concord, Boston, and NYC, USA.
Kingston, Jamaica
Loire Valley, France

Yes, all those settings, because there are actually five different kids, and some get to travel. Just so cool."

Quick fun read, esp. for MG make reluctant readers but really for anyone willing to let their inner child come play & learn.

I love the sketches that look like they may have been actually done by the child narrator (a la' Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and the photos that make this seem like a real memoir. I assume it's a novel, but it may actually be expanded from a real school camp event.

For a moment at the beginning, as Mark is introducing his friends, I wondered if someone was going to turn out to be autistic. But the characters with the blatantly 'heavy' issues were actually certain of the adults. Mostly the book reads like a simple fun adventure.

Otoh, if the child reader owns the book, and reads it both when s/he is 8 and again at age 11, nuances & depths will become evident. Different themes will become more interesting, and the reader's reactions to, say, the wisdom of some of the choices the kids make, may change.

Bonus, esp for non-Aussie readers, is the ubiety. It's very Australian, and though the casual reader will be amused by the wombats and Oz slang, a careful reader will get even more references to make it special - for example, knowing who John Marsden is makes one character have more depth.

So, the bit at the beginning that might resonate with autistic readers was cute:

In math we were doing prime numbers, and I was thinking if Jonah was a number, he'd be a prime number for sure.... Now, Wormz, he'd be a number everything could be divided into. He'd be an easygoing number 12. Me, I take the simple way, I'm 10. Mitch is definitely number 1."

I think this paragraph clearly reinforces what we already know about the boys. Mitch thinks he's the top dog, apex & primary. Wormz is friends with everybody. Jonah is the new kid - not aloof, not weird, but not into jabbering idly or spilling his guts to try to fit in. And the narrator is more defined by his role than his rather colorless personality."

Funny, charming, exciting - but I just couldn't suspend enough disbelief to enjoy it as much as some other readers have done. Mostly quite light reading - the themes/ lessons aren't so subtle one has to do dig for them. There's a token bit of drama at the beginning, when an elderly neighbor dies, and another at the end, when a bystander family seems to get badly hurt, but it reminded me of nothing so much as earlier works by [a:Roald Dahl|4273|Roald Dahl|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1311554908p2/4273.jpg] or of [b:Chitty Chitty Bang Bang|576335|Chitty Chitty Bang Bang|Ian Fleming|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1175950916s/576335.jpg|2245507]. If you can get a copy easily, enjoy - but don't bother hunting it down as I did.

The boy kept asking how the daffodil was doing, and every time he did he was told "that's not a daffodil" when he would bring something to someone.

Age: 4

Source: Pierce College ECE

This book was about a bond of friends and how they grew a daffodil toether.

AGE: 4,5,6
Source: Pierce College Library

I loved this book. It was an investigation about a family from Germany (the schmid's) who migrated to Australia.

This story talks about between two people who plant a daffodil bulb together.
Source: Pierce College Library
Age: 4-5

I love this book with my whole heart. The illustrations are charming, the text is delicious. This book is just like my childhood in so many ways. The skeptical kid? Check. The wise adult with the acerbically cocked eyebrow? Check. The miracle of a daffodil? Check.

This is so hopeful, so sweet, so wonderful. Go read it. Go read it to your favorite small person, then plant them a bulb & create the next generation of gardeners.

This is a book I have to own. Maybe you do too.

This book is an awesomely amusing amazingly funny book that tells the adventures of Stella Street and the new neighbour of the Phonies. The new neighbours are annoying and full of complaints about the other people living in Stella Street. The other people are curious about the Phonies and how they earn so much money and their abnormal habits.

The main narrator is Henni, a 11 year old girl who is friends with some other children living in Stella Street. Some of Henni's friends are the electrical dude Zev and a young kiddy called Frank. Together, the group of immature children set out to solve the mysteries of the Phonies.

A story of friendship between Tom and Mr Yilmaz. One day Tom and Mr Yilmaz planted a daffodil bulb together. When Mr Yilmaz would visit and share fruit and vegetables with Tom's family he ask Tom 'How's the daffodil?' Tom had many imaginative descriptions of it as it grew. The end papers have chalk drawn roads and car parks for a child's cars, this shows an imaginative child within this book. Honey shows the passing of time through text and illustrations. Time passes through the growth of the daffodil bulb, different colour shirts worn, types of clothes worn, fruit and vegetables grown by Mr Yilmaz, visits away and visitors.½

Take a group of guys known affectionately as the Coconuts, including Mark, who got an old camera for his birthday. Take Jonah, who suddenly arrived in Mark’s class, and didn’t get along with Mr Cromwell (who “became a teacher so he could be bossy and mean”). Take Bulldozer the wombat, who “when he’s older he’s going back to the bush.” Now, mix these ingredients together with the rest of class 5/6C at Gumbinya Pioneer Camp, and read all about it!

This is basically the very funny yet somehow completely realistic account of a school camp. Experienced school campers will recognise many familiar elements: numbering off; the accidental mud fight; the parent helpers with unpronounceable names; and the camp helpers from overseas in funny clothes. Being a ‘pioneering’ camp, the students also experience living without luxuries for a week. Plumbing is questionable (so is cutlery), and daytime activities tend to incorporate having to ‘think for themselves’.

In addition, there are the numerous teachers supervising the camp, each with their different personalities, carefully detailed by the narrator Mark in the first few chapters. Most significant to this story is Mr Brian Cromwell – “Crom the Bomb” – a hideous caricature of a teacher who embodies every loathsome characteristic a single educational professional could possibly have. That’s Mark’s impression of him on the cover of the book. Even the other teachers find him difficult to get along with.

Mark succeeds in convincing his mother that he should be able to take his camera to camp. She even provides him, at his request, with a roll of black-and-white film, because she decides she wants to see some photos of his experiences. “Thirty-six chances!” In fact only about half that number is included in the book, but they cover such diverse subject matter as the wildlife; fellow students; stuff they found in the bush; and Meatloaf, the giant… well, maybe you’d better read the story for yourself.

Besides the photos, which Mark is saving for special occasions, the book is also widely ornamented with drawings and doodles of the other things he’s describing. Some of my favourites include his impression of “everything absolutely crawling with ants in his sticky lolly dribble”, and the additions to each chapter number.

Not everything about the book is light-hearted: Jonah has a mysterious past, and some resolution is needed in his ongoing battle with The Bomb. On the whole, though, I would recommend this book as an easy read with short chapters for anybody in the mood either for a laugh or to reminiscence about camp. Similarly, this story is a great favourite to read aloud to classes preparing for camps.

I of course read this when I was in about Grade 4 or 5; what I remember is a wonderful story that takes its time unfolding, portrays detailed characters, and has an unusually complex and mature plot at its core.

When the Phonies move into Henni and her friends' street the children want them out. A humourous adventure story told from the point of view of Henni. 10+

An excellent cross cultural young adult novel written in e-mails between a girl in Australia and a boy in Berlin. Together these two teenagers unlock a 60 year old mystery, whilst surviving the usual teenage/life dramas. I enjoyed this book so much it is now on our school booklist for year 8 students.

The Stella Street gang are going bush! What starts as a fun family and friends camping trip ends as a fight for the environment and and a piece of fiddleback...½

Family holiday. Suzie wants to catch a fish but has no luck. Everyone else catches something but she doesn't give up. In the end she spots a whale and his calf.

FROM LIBRARY CATALOG:
Holidays at the beach mean camping, swimming, finding crabs, feeding seagulls, walking, reading ... Everyone has plans for things to do. Susie wants to catch a fish, but some people just aren't lucky at fishing. What she's lucky at is something quite unexpected and wonderful