Seatoun School

51,246 pages read and 3,000 team points

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Wendy B

5,432 pts

(4,982 pages read)

Dear Professor Whale

By Megumi Iwasa

4 stars

Lovely sequel to Yours Sincerely Giraffe in which pet pals Giraffe and Penguin discover facts about each other being from very different places. This time Professor Whale is writing to everyone to make lots of friends and try and encourage whales to come back to Whale Point to keep him company. Our old friends Giraffe and Penguin feature, and the old gang organises an Olympic Games full of good spirit. These make nice readalouds for year 2-4 and good for newly confident readers in that age group.
Junior High

By Tegan and Sara Quin

4 stars

Twins Sara and Tegan have always done everything together and when they start a new school and are put in separate classes, there are some things that they just need to handle on their own. First periods, first new best friends, first crushes - how do they handle all of this when they have stopped telling each other everything. I know this will be a hit with my year 6/7 school romance / coming of age book loving kids.
Lioness

By Emily Perkins

3 stars

If you enjoyed Succession then you might give this book a go. Therese is the owner of a successful chain of shops, flagship store in Wellington, selling beautiful homewares for those with spare cash floating around for such frivolousness. She’s also the doting and proud wife of a rich property developer and plays stepmother to his spoiled grown up children. Her life is filled with nail appointments and buying trips and carefully curated dinner parties. As the book progresses, Therese befriends a neighbour who makes her question her status, her values and priorities and she realises just how invisible she is in this family. Set in Wellington which I loved, I kept going to the end because it deserved to be finished and Therese was a character who I didn’t want to ditch, but I wasn’t overwhelmed with any feelings of anything. I did laugh out loud at one point at a scene which I imagined happening and would have been as equally mortified as she was. Read it and find out.
The Frozen River

By Ariel Lawhon

5 stars

I loved this historical fiction, set in 18th century America and a short but eventful 6 month period in time for a seasoned midwife, Martha Ballard. A body is dragged from the river and Martha is called to take a look before the authorities get hold of it. It is none other than that of an accused rapist and Martha and this body are in the thick of the action as the town try to make sense of what has happened.
The Polar Bear Explorers’ Club

By Alex Bell

4 stars

Fantastic magical exploration adventure for year 4-6. Stella convinces her father Felix to take her on his next polar adventure. This isn’t a world completely like our own because there is magic everywhere and magical creatures are the norm. On the voyage, Stella makes some new friends and one sneering enemy and a mishap on day one of the exploration turns their potential nightmare into a brilliant imaginative journey and a race against time. First in the series, the ending suggests trouble for Stella in book 2.
Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam The Spooky School

By Tracey Corderoy

4 stars

Solid readaloud for a year 2 class or excellent first chapter books for upper year 2, year 3s. Along the same lines as Rabbit and Bear, similar amount of words and tame problem solving.
Uma and the answer to absolutely everything

By Sam Copeland

4 stars

I found this funny and I think teachers would laugh along with their kids if they did it as a readaloud. Perfect for year 5/6. The AI bot that provides all the answers and the plans to get themselves out of trouble is sarcastic, lies to suit itself and finds Uma’s best friend quite useless. Does deal with the death of a parent and the resolution of this by the AI bot could be quite triggering for a child who has experienced this.
Fugitive Telemetry

By Martha Wells

5 stars

I’m getting dangerously near the end of this series now and this one took place before the previous book in the series. A dead body is discovered and despite the misgivings of other humans on Preservation Station, Murderbot has the skills to uncover the truth.
Stink: Worst Fairy Ever

By Jenny McLachlan

4 stars

Like Tom Gates but with magic, this follows the awkward situation for an 11 year old boy who accidentally causes a fairy to become obliged to do good turns for him before she will leave him alone. Unfortunately she is lazy and would rather hang out with his younger sister. Would make a good fun readaloud for year 3/4, possibly with a young 5/6 group.
Network Effect

By Martha Wells

4 stars

The school holidays is giving me the luxury of reading a whole series and so I enjoyed book 5 of Murderbot, a longer one than the others and admittedly a little confusing. Especially when Murderbot is cloned to save their own life. Interactions with other humans are entertaining and there is a relationship building with an unlikely partner. Roll on book 6.
The Stone Wētā

By Octavia Cade

4 stars

What an interesting book! A network of female research scientists spread out all over the world are responsible for caching climate data that otherwise would be manipulated to suit governments and corporations. Each scientist has a code name in the form of a different living entity, eg Bristlecone Pine, Fish Scale Gecko, Japanese Sea Star, and each lives in fear of their lives, carefully collating, passing, receiving and hiding climate change data. More than one person will be murdered during the course of the book. Very different and not a long read.
Exit Strategy

By Martha Wells

4 stars

Murderbot is a quick thinking, space soap opera loving, sarcastic character who, while scathing of humans and their abilities, actually enjoys saving their dopey asses. After starting this as the “fourth and final” book in this series of very enjoyable short books, I am delighted to discover there is at least a 5th and 6th book. Happy Days!
Rogue Protocol

By Martha Wells

4 stars

More sci-fi inter-space station, breaking into security, coding coverups and human - bot interventions. Murderbot is very cool, she doesn’t mind killing, she leaks when injured but mends pretty easily, humans and their stupidity irritate her but she can’t help protecting them. Good, short, readable fun.
Artificial Condition

By Martha Wells

4 stars

This is a return to Murderbot, the Assassin for hire with attitude. Only now they have gone rogue, broken into their hard drive and taken control. The universe is their oyster but they choose to befriend a vacant spacecraft and take a job looking after some naive humans. These are short books perfect as audio books. Odd little sci-fi phase for the holidays.
Us Three

By Ruth Jones

4 stars

Best friends since primary school, these three girls from a small Welsh town head off at the end of high school for a girls holiday, setting off a chain of events which affect their individual lives and test their long term friendship. Narrated by the author this is an honest and relatable look at relationships, it made me chuckle and leak a few tears.
Project Hail Mary

By Andy Weir

5 stars

Ryland Grace doesn’t even know his own name when he awakes from a coma. As bits of information start to slowly drift back to him, he discovers he is alone on a spacecraft heading towards a sun that isn’t even his own. He doesn’t recognise the two shells of the dead crew mates in the room beside him or why he is there, but he needs to remember fast because the future of the earth depends on him. He discovers he is a science teacher - why is the future of the entire earth’s population dependant on his apparent vast and expert knowledge of inter stellar life? Luckily it turns out he’s not the only living being out there with this kind of pressure on him. Wade through some science which starts to become easier to fake understand to find the warm friendship and humour of this book. The film comes out in 2026, I hope they don’t ruin this great book.
How I saved the world in a week

By Polly Ho-Yen

4 stars

Billy’s mum teaches him survival skills every chance she gets, in fact she moves him around schools and takes him out of school on “adventures”. He is used to not making friends and while he loves these adventures, he does sometimes long for his mum to be like other mums. One day she goes too far with her sketchy theories and he has to go and live with his Dad who is scathing about his mum and questions her mental health. Suddenly though, some strange behaviours in the community start to cause widespread panic and it seems Billy’s mum may not have been so paranoid after all. Gripping stuff for year 6+.
Pearl

By Sherri L Smith

4 stars

A beautiful graphic novel detailing the varied life of Hawaii born Japanese girl Amy, whose family is forced into detention after the bombing of Pearl Harbour while she, on a short stay in Japan, is drafted as a translator for the Japanese war effort. Torn between the two worlds she has to decide where her loyalties lie and face the consequences of working in the centre of Hiroshima. Suitable for year 6+.
The collected regrets of Clover

By Mikki Brammer

3 stars

I listened to the audio book of this, an interesting idea of the death doola, professional company for the dying to take down their final regrets and thoughts and help them transition peacefully into the next world. Clover was ideal for this profession because she has been starved of affection in her own life and craves neither the company nor interest of others. A new customer brings a few interesting opportunities of a more sociable and romantic nature. Not corny, nicely written but not cheerful!

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Seatoun School

51,246 pages read and 3,000 team points

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