Wilberfoss Primary School

SMILE is a graphic novel drawn and writing by RAINA TELGEMEIER.The Raina in the Book is the same person as the author.

It’s about an 11 year old girl called Raina.

When she falls down and knocks out her two front teeth she has to has to go through loads of dental appointments to get her teeth back to normal again.

Raina’s journey starts in Middle school all the way up to high school. Raina’s friends in middle school are horrible by teasing her lots but when she goes to high school she learns true friendship. You will have to read the book to find out about Raina’s friends from detail.

I like Smile because I like the characters and the book. I recommend it 10/10. I hope you enjoy it to.

Baggage

By The Etherington Brothers

DFC Library

Review by Mia (Year 6)

Baggage is all about Randall, who has to return the oldest piece of luggage in the lost property warehouse where he works to its owner, or he’s going to get fired:

To give you an idea of how silly Randall is… the case he decides to pick is the one right at the bottom of a huge pile.

And the whole pile comes crashing down on top of him, they all fly out the huge doors and take Randall with them.

Once he gets the case he starts looking at it for clues for who it belongs to, which starts us off on a really funny, really silly, but very good adventure.

The case is covered in stickers that act as clues – first Randall looks in a sweet shop because of the sticker of some really old bubblegum. The old lady who runs the shop (Ruby) knows the next name on the case, and Randall is off again. Randall runs into one of his friends and they end up crawling through some pipes (lots of pipes!). They look for a post box with the name Bennington on it. then a few seconds later Randall’s friend (Lucky) found it.

There are lots of funny things in the book that Randall finds including:

A floating ice-cream shop in the shape of a duck, Kong the collector, with his guard dog (the beast), cable car chases, a stinky rubbish dump, the Onionskins football stadium, meatball costumes, and much, much more…..

Randall and all of his friends go through lots of crazy adventures and get into a bit of trouble all just to get the bag back to its owner before mid night so Randall doesnt get fired!

I liked this book because I found it funny. My favourite bit was when he was in the sweet shop and the old lady was making rude things out of liquorice!

I would recommend Baggage to all readers because I really enjoyed it and I think that anyone else would like it as well!

Super Animal Adventure Squad

By James Turner

DFC Library

Review by Lewis (Year 4)

Super Animal Adventure Squad is a brilliant comic about 5 super animals who stop evil villians like Dr. Nefarious and his giant mutant ant, and Captain Green Beard and his pirate crew.

The Super Animal Adventure Squad is: Agent Rex, Agent K, Agent Irwin, Agent Bearbot, and Agent Beesley.

Rex the chameleon is my favourite character because he said lots of funny things and he was very silly. And Irwin was funny as well when he stamped on the ants.

My favourite part was when the unicorn on the television woke Agent K up. It was my favourite part because agent K screams. Another really funny part is at the start of “The Case Of The Baboon Bandit” where one of Captain Green Beard’s crew the night guard over the head and all he can say is …. “Ouch“!

It was a good book, with a great, funny beginning, hilarious middle and super silly end! I think that if you like humour and funny things you will love Super Animal Adventure Squad!

Super Animal Adventure Squad

By James Turner

The DFC Library

Super Animal Adventure Squad is a graphic novel written and illustrated by James Turner. The book is about a group of animal super-heroes. There are five heroes; Agent K, a cat and leader of the Squad; Agent Bearbot, a futuristic robot bear; Agent Beesly, a bossy bee who thinks he knows everything; Agent Irwin, an argumentative bird; and Agent Rex, a very funny but very stupid lizard!

There are two stories in the book; The Teatime Of Doom and The Case Of The Baboon Bandit.

In The Teatime Of Doom the evil Doctor Nefarius has a money making plan. He thinks if he steals all the cakes in the world then everybody would buy his revolting broccoli sponge cakes. But how will he get the cakes?

Well, he figured that bit out quite niftily as well; the evil Doctor has created an insect control helmet and with it he’s controlling every single insect to steal the cakes for him.

How will Super Animal Adventure Squad stop him?

In the second series; The Case Of The Baboon Bandit, the one-eyed pirate Green Beard and his crew rob the legendary Jade Baboon of Rangoon, a priceless statue. When the Squad track him down to his ship they realize that it’s not the Baboon the pirate wants, but the object hidden inside. That is the Magic Moon Spoon Of Rangoon!

But what does a pirate want with a magic spoon? What terrible plans does Green Beard have? And what does all this have to do with the sudden disappearance of the greatest chefs in the world? The only way you’ll find out is by reading this comical graphic novel!

Johnny Boo – Twinkle Power

By James Kochalka

Top Shelf

Review By Harry (Year 5)

“Johnny Boo has boo power and his pet ghost Squiggle has squiggle power. But which is better? And might there be a power that is greater than them both? Wiggle power? Giggle power? Squiggle goes on a quest to learn the secret of twinkle power from the twinkling stars, but doesn’t have much luck. Instead, a strange and hilarious secret is discovered about Johnny Boo’s hair. This book will have the kids howling with laughter.”

It is a random story because you will never know what will happen next. It is about a ghost called Johnny Boo and his pet ghost Squiggle.

The book is all about how Johnny Boo and Squiggle want each others powers and how Squiggle really wants twinkle powers from the stars.

I liked the book because it was very funny and it made me laugh really loud.

I think if you really like Johnny Boo, you should try the other titles in the series, and maybe try one of the Captain Underpants books by Dav Pilkey.

We were fortunate enough to receive some great pre-release copies of the latest round of great graphic novels from the DFC Library at Random House Childrens Books. (Perfect for Christmas!). And a group of very pleased Year 6s got their lucky hands on the books! Thank you to Random House for sending us these review copies.

Did we mention that they’re perfect for Christmas?

First up are three reviewers; Daniel (Year 6), Emily (Year 6) and her sister Ailie (Year 4). And they’re talking about The Boss…… (and Mr Bruton agrees with everything they say – it’s a brilliant book!)

The Boss

By John Aggs and Patrice Aggs

DFC Library

DANIEL SAYS:

I think The Boss is really exciting. It’s all about a school trip where, at a service station stop, Nazim and Bella find out that two crooks are planning to steal a priceless book at a castle.

The kids tell “The Boss”, a kid they all look up to. He’s definitely in charge, but he’s not mean, he’s just a leader, who deals with all the situations in the book really well.

The Boss figures out what everyone should do and gives everyone different jobs, placing them all around the castle to watch every move the crooks make.

It’s very dramatic when the bad guys make their move for the book, and the children have to tell the police what’s going on.

EMILY SAYS:

I really enjoyed reading The Boss, the art was really excellent and I especially liked the wild cover up stories the children used to get away with following the crooks.

The Boss is a superb mystery story, quite like some of Enid Blyton’s Mystery books, Secret Seven books and Famous Five books.

AILIE SAYS:

The Boss is all about a group of school children who solve mysteries.

It starts with a class of school kids going on a school trip. They stop at a service station where two children overhear two suspicious looking men talking about stealing something that’s at the castle that the children are on their way to.

So the children tell the Boss, the leader of the class, and a clever investigator, who decides to use the whole class to try and stop the thieves.

My favourite part of The Boss was where Nazim nearly gets caught by one of the tachers but one of his classmates thinks fast and convinces the teacher that Nazim is her new boyfriend. That was really funny.

I liked The Boss because it has all sorts of funny cover-up stories that the kids use to stop the teachers realising what they’re up to.

The Boss is so cool and I liked it very, very much!

Mirabils Volume 1: Winter

By Dave Morris and Leo Hartas

Print Media

Review by James

This book is an action/adventure book.  The plot of the story is that Jack a 17 year old boy finds a 2 faced coin which belongs to the Devil.

The Devil comes down to earth and tries to get the coin back but Jack had lost the coin and needs to get it back to save his grandma’s life.

Jack travels across Europe with a girl named Estelle and a boy called Dougy who he had a had an exciting duel with over Estelle …..

To get the coin he needs to go to France and India. He first of all needs to get a book to trade for the coin. Then needs to go to India to find the army so that he can get the coin off them. On his travels he comes across loads of troubles and gets accused of murder.

I liked the book because it wasn’t just set in one place but followed Jack around the world as he travelled from place to place, with lots of different, incredible settings, and the promise of danger and excitement never that far behind.I also liked how the action fitted with the story.

There are 4 books and I am going to read them all and I am really exited. This book is a really good choice if you enjoy tension and action!

Mo Bot High

By Neil Cameron

Asha is a girl at Midford High School. She is new and eventually finds out that all the pupils in the school can turn into Mo-Bots….. and so can she!

I liked the book because I like robots and it is really cool!

My favourite character is Asha because she is new and has an exteremely cooooooool red ROBOT!!!!!

I would love to read the second volume, but Mr Bruton says Neill Cameron hasn’t done it yet. But Volume 1 was a great comic, I loved it, it was AMAZING!

Squish – Super Amoeba

By Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

Squish is the first part of a new series by the writer and artist who also do Babymouse. I read the first book and it was hilarious!

It is based on scientific facts and turns them into something fun.

Even though it is short I enjoyed it I would recommend this book to people who like comics and who want to learn something about the super-small world around us.

I would give this book 5 stars and ten out of ten!

Thanks to Ryan  for the great review, and thank you very much for artist Matthew Holm for very generously donating a set of Squish books to the school graphic novel library.

And finally, here’s Ryan’s version of the character that he included with this review:

Astrosaurs – Skies Of Fear

By Steve Cole

(Astrosaurs Website)

“Captain Teggs is no ordinary dinosaur – he’s an astrosaur! On the incredible spaceship DSS Sauropod, along with his faithful crew, Gypsy, Arx and Iggy, Teggs rights wrongs, fights evil and eats a lot of grass!”

Astrosaurs is a series of books in the school library all about a crew of space dinosaurs who come across adventure.

In this book, the evil stranger Grandum has made the people of Squak Major forget how to fly.

Squak Major is a planet of pterosaurs (very big flying dinosaurs) and it’s up to Captain Teggs and his Astrosaur crew to put things right – but what will they do???

Babymouse – Our Hero

By Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm

I think Babymouse is really good to read.

It’s all about a mouse called Babymouse who is always dreaming of something else, and has lots of daydreams about being other people. In this story she wants to be a superhero. At school she has a locker that easts (really eats!) all her homework and the teacher called Mrs Slug who just doesn’t believe her. Also at school she has problems with a cat called Felicia, who really, really hates Babymouse!

Babymouse is quite good at everything but not dodgeball – poor Babymouse hates Dodgeball and always tries to leave her trainers at home.

In gym class the gym teacher Mr Croc is warming the class up for a wrestling match, and it’s Babymouse versus Felicia! At the end of the match Babymouse does a big swipe punch and knocks Felicia out. And after the excitement of the wrestling match Babymouse becomes popular in school and makes Felicia jealous.

Thanks to Matthew for the great review, and thank you very much for artist Matthew Holm for very generously donating a set of Babymouse books to the school graphic novel library.