The Dragon's Eye by Dugald Steer

Daniel and Beatrice Cook are no ordinary children, they are attending a school where you learn about dragons, led by the great dragonolist Dr Ernest Drake. In dragon school, they learn about everything and anything to do with dragons, and the best part is they get to see real life dragons. But there is one bad thing. An evil man named Ignatius Crook, his partner in crime Alexandra Gothyryk(or something like that!) are trying to gain the rank of dragon master, the highest rank of dragonology there is.
So can they rule the dragons? Can Dr Drake along with Daniel and Beatrice stop him? Find out in the first book of the dragonology series.

Recomendations

I am not always sure what to read so I would be grateful if you could leave comments below giving me some recommendations. I like Fantasy books with a little bit of humour in the them. This is not a very big post I, but as I say I would be grateful if you could leave suggestions below if  you have read a good book and you would like me to read it. If I enjoy it, I will do a book review on it and give you a shout out :)

Darke by Angie Sage

Septimus Heap, extraordinary apprentice is about to enter his most dangerous week yet. You might think he has gone through quite a lot already, but nothing can compare from what he is about to face, and what he is about to face is... his Darke Week. But while he is preparing, a powerful force is growing in the castle, wreaking havoc, and smothering every light in it's path... and to make things even worse, Marcia has accidentally Banished Alther to the Darke Halls. Can Septimus and crew get rid of the powerful Darke force, and find and defeat the culprit, and rescue Alther, and pass Septimus's Darke Week as well! Find out in this magical (or should it be magykal?:) ) adventure in the 6th (but no worse!) book.

The Boy Reader rates this book:
***** stars

Here are some comments:

"Full of hurtle-paced humor!" Telegraph

" A real discovery!" Amanda Craig, The Times

" Can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to read it!" Matthew Swain, The Boy Reader

Syren by Angie Sage

In the 5th book of the Septimus Heap series, Septimus, Jenna and Beetle have found and rescued Nicko and Snorri. All Septimus has to do is fly back with his dragon Spit Fyre, collect everyone and fly back to the castle. Simple right? Wrong! When Septimus arrives, he discovers Jenna's Dad (Milo Banda) has arrived and Jenna has been rather spoiled. After a couple of days, Sepitmus can stand it no longer. He gets on Spit Fyre, along with Jenna and Beetle who decided to join him, and flys away, but Septimus has set off with a storm coming in. Before long, Spit Fyre is struck by lightening and goes hurtling down towards a mysterious island. When he climbs off, Spit Fyre is badly injured. Not only that, the island has a mysterious presence that calls Septimus's name. There is also a mysterious lighthouse with cats ears. Apart from the island being strange, it is also very beautiful.
Meanwhile, Lucy, Gringe and Wolf Boy have become mixed up with an evil skipper who is a servant to the pure evil Tertius Fume,and some murderous crew
Join Septimus, Jenna, Beetle and many more characters in this exhilarating book, that once you start reading, you won't be able to put it down. (that's why I read it in a week!)

The Boy Reader rates this book 5 starts *****

But don't just take my word for it, here are some other comments:

"We can't get enough. More please." The Times
"These books open an array of dazzling worlds" TES
"MUST READ MORE!!!!!!!!!!" Matthew Swain, The Boy Reader

Summer Reading Challenge

Its summertime and hurray, schools over! Summer holidays also means the summer reading challenge is on. Run by local libraries, the theme this year is Creepy House. Shrewsbury library is dressed up as a creepy haunted house in the children's section and it looks great. What you have to do is read six books. You need to register at the library and they give you the information. Every time you read two books, you can go to the library and collect your reward. The first reward is some smelly stickers which are really revolting and a book mark. For the next two books you read, you get more smelly stickers and a chatterbox, and for the final two books, even more smelly stickers, a certificate and a medal. When you have all of these then your reading challenge is complete. I think its a really good way to get children reading because they can be rewarded for it. I strongly recommend you get down to your local library and sign up. Who knows, you might end up liking books as much as me! Good luck and enjoy the summer holidays.

Here is a link to The Summer Reading website if you want to find out more
http://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/

Burway Books signing

Hilary Jane Jones and Tracey Swain invited me to a book signing at Burway Books in Church Stretton. The book was part two of the journey, The Faire Glen (part on is called The Wicked Wood)

 

When I got there Hilary and Tracey  (no relation in case you were wondering) welcomed me and gave me a signed copy of The Faire Glen. Then (naturally) I started to look at the books the shop had. Eventually I chose on 2 books. How to Train Your Dragon and Horrid Henry, a guide to perfect parents.

When I was paying for my books the owner of Burway Books invited me to go behind the till to show me how everything worked. After that I went back to look at the other books and  found another one I liked. It was a bumper pack of Harry Potter books, but sadly I couldn't afford them. It was my birthday last week and I was spending my birthday money.

After browsing the range of books I asked some questions and had some photographs taken. I was there several hours there but it seemed like minutes (it's true what they say, time flys when your having fun) It was time to go, but my treats were not over yet. My mum had bought me a bumper pack which had The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King so to put a long story short, it was fantastic!!!


If you want to ask any questions, want to find out any information or see what great books Burway Books has the web address is http://www.burwaybooks.co.uk/

I have loads of books to keep me going so I will review them when I have read them.

Book review- Magyk by Angie Sage

Magyk, I think is an absolutely brilliant book. It is about a family call the Heaps. One night while Silas Heap is returning from collecting herbs for his new born seventh son, (Silas is a seventh son) he discovers a baby girl in the bushes freezing cold. He decides that the family will have to make room for one more. When he gets back, he finds the midwife holding his son wrapped head to toe in bandages. "Dead" she wails and barges past him. When Silas gets through the door, he find seven pairs of terrified eyes unblinking at him. Sarah Heap through teary eyes says "Septimus is dead an they've taken him. Silas pulls out the baby girl and places her into the hands of Sarah. Sarah bursts into a shroud of tears. Will they find out who the baby girl is, and the cause of Septimus's death? Find out in this epic quest of good, evil and mystery.

"Her yarn scoots along like a dragon boat with the wind in its sails" Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times.

"Absolutely fantastic. The best book I've ever read" Matthew Swain, The Boy Reader.

"Full of hurtle paced humour" The Telegraph.

"A real discovery" Amanda Craig. The Times.

Review of The Dragon Rider

 The Dragon Rider

The Dragon Rider is a story about a dragon called Firedrake. He sets off to find a place called The Rim of Heaven, a hallowed place where dragons can rest in peace from humans. On the way there, they aquire a boy named Ben who half way through the story think Ben used to be the legendary dragon rider. They also aquire an evil creature called Nettlebrand who's desire is to eat dragons. Will Firedrake overcome this evil creature or will Nettlebrand eat all the dragons? I'm not going to tell you, so you will have to read the book to find out!

World Book Day at St Thomas & St Anne’s School 7th March 2013

World Book Day is the biggest celebration of its kind anywhere. Millions of books vouchers are given away to children to either swap for a book especially written for World Book Day, or to put towards another book of the child’s choice.

On this World Book Day we were lucky to have a visit from Catherine Cooper. She is a Shropshire author who has written a series of fantasy books for children. The first one is called The Golden Acorn. Catherine came to St Thomas and St Anne’s school to tell class 3 all about her books. First she introduced us to the main characters, Jack Brenin (a young boy), Camelin (a raven who used to be a boy), Elan (a girl) and Nora (a lady who can do magic). Catherine told us how she thought them up from people she had met in real life. She brought some of the characters as dressing up costumes with her and some of class 3 got to dress up as them. The atmosphere was funny and exiting and everyone enjoyed her visit. Finally we were able asked her questions about future books and what she has planned. The day finished with Catherine selling copies of her books which lots of students bought. In my opinion she is a fantastic author and I have enjoyed reading the Jack Brenin series and can’t wait for the next one.

Update 21/2/2013

Just thought I would let you know what I've been to to this year.

• I'm revising for sats and it's about 9 weeks away before the exams
• I've finished all the Jack Brenin books that are out at the moment and they were all fantastic. I really enjoyed reading them. The series is The Golden Acorn, Glasruhen Gate, Silver Hill and The Lost Treasure Of Annwn  (I will do a review about the last 2 books)
• I've entered Chris Evans' 500 words competition because the grand prize is Chris' height in books! (fingers crossed I win!), but don't enter now because it finishes on the 22/2/2013. Take a look at the website to see the story's from last year: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/500words/2012/stories/ 
• I've started playing football because I didn't like it before but now I've decided I like it
• I'm reading The Dragon Rider which is over 600 pages long so it's going to take me a while to read.
• I'm a librarian at school now along with some other children. This involves helping children choose a book, then when they've chosen it I stamp it for the return date. When the books are returned I put them back in the right place on the shelves.

Don't worry I am still doing the blog but I'm very busy so it's been hard to fit time in. Sometimes the books take a while to read so I'm not going to be able to write a book of the week every week, but please keep checking in every so often to see if there is a new post. I also like receiving comments on my blog, so please feel free to leave a comment or any book recommendations.

First book of 2013

My first book of  2013 is:





This is the sequel to The Golden Acorn (the first one) and I got this one and number 3 and 4 for Christmas. I've read this and now I'm onto number 3!

Jack and Camelin have recovered the last three cauldron plates from ancient Rome and they've gone back to the present from the past, but there is one small problem, they can't find them! Even if they can find the missing cauldron plates will Nora have enough magic left to open Glasruhen Gate into Annwn and recover the Hamadryad acorns? Fun, adventure and magic all in one great book. 

Happy New Year!

I hope you had very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I got lots of presents  this last year including:number 2,3 and 4 of the Golden Acorn signed by Catherine Cooper, a ghost hunt game, a Skylanders case and another Skylander, a fossil because I want to be a paleontologist, a 3D puzzle of the world and lots of other things but the best present of all was a Nexus 7 which I am writing my blog with right now! I have started to read number 2 of the Golden Acorn, but apart from that I haven't done any reading, but hopefully things will get back on track next week when I go back to school. As I said I hope you had a very Merry Christmas, you had lots of fabulous presents and a Happy New Year!