Doctor Who - Shroud of Sorrow by Tommy Donbavand.

Doctor Who - Shroud of Sorrow by Tommy Donbavand. 

Reviewed by Tilly 12yrs old.

Doctor Who - Shroud of Sorrow. This book is a very good read, especially if you watch BBC's television show 'Doctor Who'. But there's something for fans of the old series too, it includes flash backs from the classic series. The central characters in this story are the Eleventh Doctor and his companion, Clara Oswald. 

The novel is about grief and how we deal with it. In the story the Doctor and Clara come from another   planet to Earth. They can travel through time and space by T.A.R.D.I.S (time and relative dimensions in space, if you don't watch the show). When they get to Earth they find that a race called the Shroud are taking over the world using grief as a weapon. The Shroud can transform their face to take on the  appearance of a dead, loved one. For example, one of the victims of the Shroud was called Mae and she saw her dead grandmother. The Shroud (disguised as Mae's grandmother) accused Mae for killing her grandmother. 

The Shroud can become things, for example a stain or a burn could be in the shape of the Shrouds form. The Shroud then transformed themselves into people but now they only looked like the disguise to the victim, the Shroud would now (because they were in human form) hold hands with their victim. All the victims would go through the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance but once they get to acceptance they would never go back to their normal selves. 

The Doctor, Clara and a couple of others who are not victims of the Shroud have to go through a wormhole to the planet the Shroud last attacked in order to find the key to saving Earth.

The thing I like most about the book is the characters Clara and the Doctor because the author got the them exactly as they are in the television show. When the Doctor uses his hands for form puppets of them Clara asks which one is him, he holds up a hand and she says, "The chin's too small." I loved these witty interactions they shared.

I also liked how this book used actual events from the Doctor's previous regenerations, for example, people the Doctor used to know.

I rate this book out of five Daleks:

I rate the book 4.5/5 because sometimes I would get confused about what was happening, but overall, I really enjoyed the read.

Today's papercraft is of a T.A.R.D.I.S:

Phyllis Wong and the forgotten secrets of Mr Okyto

Phyllis Wong and the Forgotten Secrets of Mr Okyto by Geoffrey McSkimming
Reviewed by Tilly

This book is AMAZING! I am usually very fussy about what I like to read because I get bored easily, but the whole way through this book was brilliant and I can't wait for the second book to come out.

The Characters in this book are...

 * Phyllis Wong  {the main character, Phyllis loves magic she is very good at being a magician because her grandfather was one too}

* Clement {Phyllis's best  friend, Clement loves gadgets and his family own an appliance store}

*Daisy {Phyllis's dog and she would do anything for Phyllis]

*Chief Inspector  Barry Inglis {he is an officer and also one of Phyllis's friends}

*Harvey {Phyllis's dad}

*Minette {one of Phyllis's friends and Minette is a belly dancer}

*Mrs Lowerblast {owns the shop of the first stolen item and is one of Phyllis's friends}

All the characters are great in my opinon. Phyllis is the best character, but I love all of the characters because each character is unique. They all have their own traits and are quite funny. Phyllis is a very likable character, she has lots of friends!

This story is set in a big city. Phyllis lives in a huge apartment with it's own personal theatre, where she performs her magic tricks.

Phyllis is a good magician, but is there someone better? Someone using their skills to steal? A theif acomplishing the impossible, like making the famous Van Rockechild necklace just disapear or switching somthing right in front of sombody's eyes without them noticing. Phyllis decides to solve the mystery because the first crime happens in Mrs Lowerblast's antique store and she is another friend of Phyllis. The genre of this book is mystery--a crime, but also the mystery of magic.

I rate this book out of 5...

Phyllis Wong and the forgotten secrets of Mr Okyto is a great read and personally it is my favorite book.

The paper doll I chose today is x-mas themed a Santa paper doll:

H~Hamlet

Reviewed by Tilly 10 yrs. old book reviewer.

 Hamlet written by Shakespeare and put into a graphic novel by Nicki Greenberg.

We all know the famous play writer William Shakespeare and the plays he wrote a long time ago like... Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, A Midsummers Night Dream, Julius Caesar and also Hamlet. Today I'm going to review Nicki Greenberg's graphic novel of Hamlet. 

Hamlet's done in pictures (as you know, graphic novels are like that) but these pictures are done differently than you would expect like the creatures in here aren't human and are some little black things {I have no way of explaining them - but I like them}. If you don't read much Shakespeare {like myself, I have only seen the movie of Romeo and Juliet} and want to read a graphic novel or just one Shakespeare play {or book}, this is a pretty easy read. It is a big book, but mostly pictures. Plus this is a long play, so you expect it to be big.

I recommend Hamlet because it's a quick read but a tiny bit hard because every Shakespeare book or play has different words like 'thou' and lots more other words not in our vocabulary. Also WARNING I DO NOT RECOMMEND FOR CHILDREN YOUNGER THAN MY AGE unless they don't mind death. It is a little gruesome. I loved it so much I watched the movie afterwards. That was good too. I also got my family to act out my favourite scene - the last one.

I rate this out of 5 paper dolls...

Todays Paper Doll is of Hamlet and colour it in yourself...

C~Catching Fire

 

Catching Fire ~ the second book in The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins

Warning, this review may contain spoilers for the 1st book The Hunger Games.

Catching Fire is about a girl called Katniss Eveerdeen. She lives with her sister Prim and her mother (her father died in a mine accident in their district, district 12 of Panem). Katniss takes care of her family now that her father is dead and her mother has gone into a deep depression. For 76 years there has been The Hunger Games, where 23 kids aged 12 to 18 died. Katniss knows because she was in the 75th Hunger Games. 

There used to be 13 districts and the Capitol. The Capitol was rich as they got as much food as they wanted. District 13 complained about the unfairness of the way the food all went to the Capitol and they got left with almost nothing. They started an uprise against the Capital, but the Capitol fought back and after that the entire district 13 was gone forever. To make sure this never happened again, the Capital created The Hunger Games where each district every year {not the Capitol of coarse} got a girl and a boy (called 'the Tributes') out of each district and they all have to fight to the DEATH. If they don't kill each other, then thats when the Capital brings out the obstacles like:

Wolf looking creatures - made out of the personality {but a lot more vicious} and the eyes of dead tributes. 

Tracker Jackers- bee looking things that if you get stung or hurt by them you will probably die. 

Jabberjay - These birds are made to copy what people say and are used in the games. They get the birds to do a scream of a loved one so the Tributes get very upset.

Fog- The Capital gets a fog that makes the tribuets weaker and have no strength and also it kills these tributes.

Monkey creatures - Orange monkeys that will use their claws to rip apart Tributes.

In The Hunger Games Primrose Everdeen's name got called out at the reaping and Katniss volunteered for her 12 year old sister Prim. That's how she became district 12's first girl winner and a hero to her people. A Tribute never has to go back into the reaping once they win. Until now.

Catching Fire has the Capital change the rules and decide that they want 'the girl on fire' back, so for the first time ever they put all people that have won the games before in the reaping and that only means one thing - Katniss is going back to the Capital. 

This book has a HUGE twist at the end of it.

I rate this book out of 5 paper dolls... 

todays paper doll is of Katniss Everdeen 

A ~ Australian story

Australian Story by Tania McCartney

This year me and my sister are participating in the A~Z blogging challenge! the book I'm doing today is Australian Story written by Tania McCartney, a book about Australia history. 

This is a fact book about, well just about everything, and  it starts from when there was nothing (before the big bang) to Julia Gillard our first female prime minister. It is a very good information book for my age group and younger. I came across this non~fiction book at a book launch at the Black Cat Cafe. I even managed to get the book singed by the author Tania McCartney. At this book launch Tania read the story out to all the people there, and, during the story she gave out little figurines, wigs, fake money and some other things that match the story. I got to hold the first mobile phone (even though this one was fake). After the story she asked us to all line up in the order of when things first came out in Australia. At the event there were some authors my sister and I have blogged about like...

Angela Sunde who wrote Pond Magic

Sheryl Gwyther who wrote Secrets Of Eromanga

There were lots more but we haven't gotten around to blogging about their books yet.

I really enjoyed this history book, it is small and can be read easily (which is good).

I rate this book out of five paper dolls...

~ Tilly

Today I have a dinosaur paper doll representing the dinosaur ages, a part of history...

Little Manfred

Little Manfred By Michael Morpurgo

Reviewed By Tilly 10yr. old Book Reviewer and Sometimes Writer

We're back!

After moving from Yass to Brisbane, my sister and I have been busy settling into our new schools - which we LOVE! But I've missed my blog, and Milly has too, so here you go with our first review this year:

For today, I am going to review the book Little Manfred by Michael Morpurgo. Little Manfred is about a 12yr. old girl named Charley and the Manfreds in her life. Turns out to be a few.

Charley's mother, Grace, had a wooden toy dog she loved which she had named Little Manfred. Charley loved that toy too, so much that she named their real dog (a border collie, just like my dog, Zoe) Manfred. But when Charley and her 7yr. old brother meet a stranger on the beach, she discovers her mother has a past. 

Now Charley has lots of questions. Who is this Walter from Germany? Who was Little Manfred named after? And, who was Marty? But most of all - what happened to Manfred?

This book was really good, it's an easy read and I found out some things about the war. It's interesting and a little sad, but cheerful too. I can recommend Little Manfred. Even though it was a small chapter book, I did expect something more from the story. Not sure why. You might not have heard of this story before but you probably know another book Michael Morpurgo wrote:

This book is right next to my bed and I'm about to start reading it... hope I don't cry! I'll let you know what I think.

 Anyway, I rate Little Manfred this out of five paper dolls...

Today's paper doll is an army woman (read the book and you'll understand why):

And if you're curious, here's my border collie, Zoe. I love her lots!

And more on books with dogs, my mum's new book is out and you can buy it on Amazon. That's so cool! She says we can't review it because we're related :( but have a look at the trailer, I'm going to make one for it too.

A Girls Best Friend

A Girl's Best Friend by Catherine Stine 

Reviewed by Tilly 10yr. old Book Reviewer and Sometimes Writer

A Girl's Best Friend is about a girl... who is you! Yes, the person who wrote this book wrote it about you! Also, you get to make your own decisions in the story and choose what happens next. So it's a book with more than 20 possible endings.

In this book you get 8 friends... (if you chose the right ending)

Emmy ~ A brave girl who loves swimming and  boating.

Isabel ~ A confident girl with a funky sense of style.

Amber ~ An animal lover and loyal friend.

Neely ~ A creative girl who loves dance, music and art.

Riley ~ A good sport on the field and off.

Paige ~ A nature lover who leads hikes an campus cleanups.

Logan ~ A super smart girl who is curious about everything.

Shelby ~ A kind of girl who is there for her friends and loves making new ones.

A Girl's Best Friend... well hopefully everyone knows what that is (here's a clue is it's a mans best friend too).

A Girl's Best Friend has a puppy in it. The puppy's name is Pepper and in this story you are intreserd in the Pepper (you work at a dog place). Pepper is more energetic than the other dogs all together. Pepper is a Husky. In this story you worry that he is in danger and you might have to break some rules to protect him - will you choose loyalty?

When my mum gave me this book, I was so excited, I jumped up and down. I've never read a 'choose your own adventure' book before and couldn't wait! I sat down straight away and read the story to the end. Now I can read it again and have different endings! It's not a long story, like a novel, but it was fun. I also like that the book has a nice hardcover.

I rate this book out of 5 paper dolls...

Here's a dog paper doll you can click on and print:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/319876600_3157917a38_o.jpg