St Patrick's College (Kilbirnie)

46,691 pages read and 2,872 team points

Team members

Izzy

13,962 pts

(8,462 pages read)

Faces in the Water

By Janet Frame

5 stars

Originally written in 1961. A fictionalised account of Frame's time in mental hospitals in the 1940s, with the dreaded electric shock therapy. Her writing is so descriptive it makes me want to cry. The thoughts & emotions are spot on. She describes a patient by asking, "How can people vanish and still be in the flesh before you?" Which so succinctly describes how it feels to watch a loved one in the grip of mental illness. Not an easy book, but senior students could use excerpts as examples of figurative language.
The Pōrangi Boy

By Shilo Kino

4 stars

Found it difficult to relate to the bullying, & couldn't understand why cousins would fight, but ultimately, it was a book I couldn't put down.
The Call

By Gavin Strawhan

3 stars

It was alright. Don't get all the hype though. Maybe I didn't get into it as much as other crime novels because I listened to it as an audio book.
All Dogs Have ADHD

By Kathy Hoopmann

4 stars

Cute pictures of dogs being adhd-y. Will try to think of our yr 10s as terriers rather than terrors. Freddie, I'm looking at you!!
The Bakehouse

By Joy Cowley

3 stars

Intermediate level. Nice figurative language but ultimately felt the story never realised the promised explosive climax.
Singing Home the Whale

By Mandy Hager

5 stars

Would make a great yr 11 or 12 text.
Downfall

By Paul Diamond

3 stars

Old D'Arcy sounds like quite the cad. Luckily we've only inherited the eyebrows!
Emergency Weather

By Tim Jones

2 stars

Got good reviews but I found it quite preachy & didn't feel a connection with any of the characters.
The Secrets of Strangers

By Charity Norman

5 stars

A whydunit rather than a whodunit. The mystery isn't what makes this unputdownable, it's the characters. A masterclass of gaslighting, lies, & the evil humans can perpetrate.
Revenge of the Tipping Point

By Malcolm Gladwell

4 stars
Sodden Downstrean

By Brannavan Gnanalingham

3 stars

Tamil refugee, Sita struggles through multiple obstacles to get to her cleaning job. Highlights difficulties of "otherness", inequities, poverty. Bleak reading even with the kindness of strangers. Just not very subtle.
The Bookshop Detectives #1

By Gareth & Louise Ward

4 stars

Cosy NZ mystery. Delivers exactly what it promises. Nothing startling, but a perfect read for the summer we're having.
Of Boys and Men

By Richard V. Reeves

4 stars
Banquo's Son

By T K Roxborough

3 stars
Sprigs

By Brannavan Gnanalingam

5 stars

A rugby final between rival boys' colleges is the precursor to an incident involving a young girl at the after party. In a lesser writer's hands this could be excessively grim, but here the story is told with Gliding On type satire. Very, very clever!!
Nine Girls

By Stacy Gregg

5 stars

Set in the 70s, a talking eel tells stories about the history of Ngaruawahia. Synopsis sounds crap but it isn't. It's a fantastic way to introduce the Waikato Wars to students. History with a hint of Wimpy Kid. Stellar writing. Loved it.
The Deadly Sky

By David Hill

3 stars

Mururoa was just a name, a vague association with nuclear testing for me, so I liked learning about it. And fiction makes the events much easier to remember! I liked how the author made comparisons with WW2 but overall it was it bit slow.
The Anxious Generation

By Jonathan Haidt

5 stars

Evolution, psychology, sociology, & social commentary all backed up by hard data. Loved it.
Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters

By Brian Klaas

3 stars

Interesting blend of philosophy & psychology. A great line on p.63 sums up much of the book, "In a world driven by a sense that deliberate optimization is always the route to progress, sometimes the contingent accidents are the ones that most inspire and improve our lives."
We Burn Daylight

By Bret Anthony Johnston

0 stars

DNF
His Favourite Graves

By Paul Cleave

3 stars

3.5 stars. A disturbing & twisty thriller set in small town USA. Cleave wrote this just after writing the screenplay for The Cleaner, which has a similar vibe.
We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord

By Garth Nix

3 stars

An otherworldly sphere plays havoc in small town, 1970s Australia. Reminiscent of Stranger Things, but also really original. The 4 kids are well formed & have a nice dynamic. Intermediate age.
Red Rocks

By Rachael King

3 stars
How It All Ends

By Emma Hunsinger

4 stars

Graphic novel about Tara, who skips ahead a year level & goes to high school early. Really sweet story & the characters felt authentic.
All That We Know

By Shilo Kino

4 stars

Can't say I enjoyed it, but I'm not the the target market. I can appreciate that it is cleverly written & thought provoking though
Remember Me

By Charity Norman

4 stars

Slow burn mystery. Well written. Great characterization. If you like Jane Harper, give this a try.
Supercommunicators

By Charles Duhigg

4 stars

Pop psychology. Better than expected. Like Malcolm Gladwell.
The Mess of Our Lives

By Mary-anne Scott

4 stars
The Tomo

By Mary-anne Scott

4 stars
Take My Hand

By Dolen Perkins-Valdez

3 stars

Set in 1970s America, this is the fictionalized account of two young, black girls who were involuntarily sterilized, & the resulting court case.

21 - 0 - 1

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St Patrick's College (Kilbirnie)

46,691 pages read and 2,872 team points

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