Mt Roskill Grammar

229,041 pages read and 6,088 team points

Team members

callumg

6,565 pts

(5,968 pages read)

All the Broken Pieces

By Ann Burg

3 stars

Another verse novel for middle readers featuring a boy, adversity and sport. Well-written, with a strong anti-war theme.
Booked

By Kwame Alexander

3 stars

More of the same and it's probably a winning formula for the reluctant middle reader.
The Crossover

By Kwame Alexander

3 stars

A straightforward story but I can definitely see the appeal.
After the Quake

By Haruki Murakami

3 stars

It turns out I'm not quite the Murakami fan I used to be. Not a bad collection but I don't feel like the target audience anymore.
Teaching to the North-East

By Russell Bishop

4 stars

Required reading.
Persepolis - The Story of a Childhood

By Marjane Satrapi

5 stars

Superb.
The Arab of the Future - a Childhood in the Middle East, 1978 - 1984

By Riad Sattouf

4 stars

Graphic novel and memoir. Funny, sad, clear-eyed, kind, nostalgic. Cold War memories: Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, Mitterrand and Reagan.
Wishful Drinking

By Carrie Fisher

1 stars

Some honesty, myth-busting and score settling. Not for me.
Juice

By Tim Winton

5 stars

My favourite read of the summer and one of the best post-apocalyptic novels I've read recently. "The great mystery of people lies in the many ways in which they will deceive themselves." Grim and convincing.
Night

By Elie Wiesel

4 stars

A timely read as the demagogues continue to ramp up their rhetoric.
An Elephant in the Garden

By Michael Morpurgo

3 stars

Back to Dresden but without Vonnegut. I read this over two mornings alongside my daughter, who was curled up reading it silently on the sofa with me. Three stars for the novel, but that was a five star reading experience.
The Outsider / The Stranger

By Albert Camus

4 stars

Poor Mersault, which I guess is the point, but also poor nameless victim. I was pleased to read that there's a post colonial reply in the form of Kamel Daoud's novel, the Mersault Investigation, which I'll try to get to. Lots of great lines in this one. One of my favourites: "And I can say that at the end of the eleven months that this investigation lasted, I was almost surprised that I had ever enjoyed anything other than those rare moments when the judge would lead me to the door of his office, slap me on the shoulder, and say to me cordially, 'That's all for today, Monsieur Antichrist.'"
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

By Ransom Riggs

2 stars

A lot more conventional than I was expecting. Perhaps I needed to see the photographs. The terrible Welsh accents on the Audiobook didn't help. Still, the kids and I will check out the film. They didn't rate the novel either.
Absolution

By Jeff Vandermeer

4 stars

I very much enjoyed the Southern Reach trilogy and this prequel is up there with both Annihilation and Authority, my favourite of the three. Loved the first section, enjoyed the second but found Lowry's section hard going: such an ugly voice and an ugly mind to spend time in. Learned a bit more about Area X, but happily it remains inexplicable. Great series if you're into Zone fiction.
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

By Avi

4 stars

Very good. A nautical yarn, tightly told, with a satisfying take on class and gender. A bit of a stretch in terms of credulity but very true to its theme. I'm still hoping my daughter will read it but I'm happy that my son has picked it up instead.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

By Suzanne Collins

4 stars

Another postcard from the post-apocalypse. I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. Certainly better than the sequels. It's sufficiently convincing as a backstory and fleshed out a lot more of the world from a new perspective. Definitely worth adding to the series. My first audiobook, which I also enjoyed, particularly the function that ends it after a set time when I inevitably fall asleep.
Northwind

By Gary Paulsen

3 stars

Classic Paulsen, and his last book, published posthumously in 2022. I was worried it would be a bit too much like Hatchet when the spearfishing started, but it's quite a bit more spiritual than that, and very nautical. Five stars for the first chapter: a gripping start.
The Lost Child of Chernobyl

By Helen Bate

3 stars

Another graphic novel exploring life around "the zone." Less complex and introspective than "Springtime in Chernobyl," but similarly hopeful. It's aimed at a much younger audience.
Springtime in Chernobyl

By Emmanuel LePage

5 stars

An artist and his fellow "illustactivists" head to Chernobyl in 2008 to document the life of survivors around "the zone." Not what I was expecting, and clearly not what Emmanuel was expecting either: "I thought I'd be braving death and danger... And here, instead, is life."
The List

By Patricia Forde

4 stars

There was a fair bit of time spent nursing a boy to health, and some very stagey exposition, but all in service of a good story. Sad world. Very human.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road - A Graphic Novel Adaptation

By Manu Larcenet

5 stars

Grim, but a superb adaptation.
Hine and the Tohunga Portal

By Ataria Sharman

4 stars

Another enjoyable fantasy novel. Things move quickly and I wondered at times if it would have been worth slowing things down and stretching things out to a trilogy. There's plenty of world and adventure here to explore; I can easily see a sequel and return. A great story for younger readers and immersive in te reo and tikanga Māori.
Falling Into Rarohenga

By Steph Matuku

4 stars

I picked this up again having dropped it at the start of term. (Knocked 25 pages off the total, for those out there who are counting!) Well paced, engaging characters, great world building, a really good Maori fantasy novel. We've ordered a class set. Looking forward to Flight of the Fantail next.
The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians

By James Patterson & Matt Eversmann

3 stars

Almost. I've grown a bit cynical about the virtue we assign to reading and was looking for something to rekindle the passion. Francis Spufford's The Child That Books Built worked for me, this one not so much. There are some nice moments here, though, and I love their passion.

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Mt Roskill Grammar

229,041 pages read and 6,088 team points

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