the portal

They said they were unprepared…they hadn’t read the book (1984  ) for months…they didn’t even like it…but, they’ve done it again. Despite a valiant attempt to oust these literary stalwarts by two courageous and competitive year 7 teams, Sam, Stuart and Ed have managed to secure their place in the 2008 Scotch Factor Grand Final.

‘The Chinese Princes’ – Sean, Matthew and Cormac, impressed us with their detailed knowledge of Chinese Cinderella.

‘Awesome’ - Jeffrey, Neil and Lachlan, also provided the year 10s with a credible challenge, proving themselves attentive readers of I Am David. However, the erudite team known as ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’, won by a small margin in the end.

Congratulations to all participants, including the audience who successfully tackled some abstruse questions such as ‘Which English Prime Minister won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953?’.

Teams wishing to compete in The Scotch Factor at the end of term 3 may see me for an application form at the start of term 3.

Mrs Sweeney

Images : http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cheesebikini.com/art/1984.jpg&imgrefurl

http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/pics/1984/1984-signet1981.jpg 29/06/08

http://www.ecommsec.com/images/1984.jpg 29/06/08

Nothing makes sense these days. Especially Morris Gleitzman’s The Other Facts of Life. At one point in the story I was so confused I didn’t know which way was up or down, and whether it rained donuts or frogs. This story contained chicken coops, nuclear destruction, pork chops, and a little boy with a bald head, and I can’t seem to find any sort of connection between these things, not even the slightest similarity. It was not enjoyable reading this book at all. Although it had a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, the plot was not enjoyable or in any way enticing. Another problem with the book is the inclusion of absolutely random ideas and sentences that were unnecessary and did not add to the book in any way except for making it even more confusing. I give this book a total score of 4 out of 10. I do not recommend it to anyone unless you like not knowing what’s happening and why it’s happening.

Review by Jake

The book The Runner is set in the early 1900’s in Melbourne, Victoria. Eastern Melbourne is the location; therefore it varies from modern day Richmond, Camberwell, Kew, Fitzroy and Hawthorn. It is told from the perspective of a teenage boy Charlie Feehan. When Charlie was a young Boy his father passed away. Now Charlie Feehan lives with his mother and his younger brother Jack. He lives in the poor area of Richmond and his mother is just managing to afford school fee’s to allow Charlie to attend school. The family is not receiving any money and life is getting hard until Charlie, without his mother’s consent, begins to work for Squizzy Taylor, a notorious and dangerous gangster.

Each morning Charlie would leave on his normal way to school, well that’s as much as his mother knew. Although what he was really doing each morning was heading down to Number Eighteen Darlington Parade, the residence of Squizzy Taylor and he would run errands for him until the end of normal school time. Charlie begins to get anxious and nervous that his Mum and teachers may begin to suspect something because of the numerous days of being absent from school and also because of the extensive money Charlie was bringing home. Squizzy assures Charlie that he will fix that for him. At first, the job’s a thrill – running with messages, illegal liquor, whatever Squizzy orders. It fills Charlie with power. But then comes the not-so-impressing parts of the job. Collecting Squizzy’s debts. Dodging Squizzy’s enemies. The very real dangers of the streets. And at some point Charlie has to ask himself– how long before running for a better life means cutting his life short? Read on to reveal the rest of the story.

Review by Jack

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a book different to any I have ever read. It is so unique because it is written in the eyes of a teenage boy, Christopher. But Christopher isn’t an ordinary boy – he suffers from a form of autism called Asperger Syndrome which makes his telling of the story exciting, funny and sometimes weird. Just like his habit of fasting and not talking to anyone if he sees 5 yellow cars in a row on the way to school. Christopher lives with his father who cares for him and attends to all his needs. As Christopher doesn’t really understand people (jokes, emotions) his best friend is a nice, caring teacher who gives him advice whenever needed.

The plot of this story begins when Christopher finds his neighbour’s dog dead on his neighbour’s lawn. He feels he needs to investigate, so he starts asking everyone in his street if they had seen anything suspicious. He finds some clues, which unexpectedly lead him to a much bigger mystery involving his broken family.

This book is in the teenage fiction/humour genre, but I think that it would be a great read for anyone over the age of 11. I would give this book a rating of 7.5 out of 10, because occasionally the story goes a bit off track.

Mark Haddon has created a classic and it is not to be missed.

Review by Tom

‘Once’ by Morris Gleitzman touched my heart. It allowed me to empathise with the main character Felix. I really enjoyed it since it was interesting and suspenseful as Felix goes through lots of troubles trying to find his parents. Some themes included in this books are freedom and tolerance – that’s what I like about this book. I also like this book because it is set in World War II, where everyone is either at war or enslaved.

On his journey, Felix meets a person called Barney who is kind and thoughtful. Barney is my favourite character as he ensures Felix’s safety when he is in danger. He is the type of person I would like to make friends with as he has a fantastic and caring personality. My favourite part of the book is when Barney and Felix are helping a Nazi – Barney giving dental surgery and Felix telling stories, ‘soothing’ the Nazi’s pain. It makes the setting seem ‘homey’. It brings a sense of warmth and luminosity. The part afterwards where the Nazi thanks Felix is very emotional as it shows a connection between them even though they are of different religions and are enemies.

I really liked this book and I recommend it to anyone who is mature enough to understand what it means deep inside – where strong and emotional themes are displayed. Because this book is fabulous, I would also like to read the newly published ‘Then’ – a sequel to ‘Once’. It may further explain what happens to Felix and Zelda after they escape.

Review by LQ

Have you ever experienced a plane crash? No? Then dude, you have to read this book! No I’m serious; you really have to read it.

Alive is about a plane crash in the Andes and the survivors are faced with tough choices. It’s a survival story of great courage and perseverance. The characters show great heroism while trying to find a way out of the treacherous Andes. They delight themselves in small pleasures, such as a cigarette. The characters have many disagreements but their amazing will to survive bands them together. When a lack of food becomes a reality, they have to eat the flesh of their dead companions. YUCK!!!! Many Leaders emerge throughout the story and you do have favourites. When a lifesaving treasure is found (the tail of the plane) it gives them new hope to get out of their ice prison. Leaders are chosen, and they are given more flesh to eat to give them energy. One thing that alarms me in the book is that one of them eats the genitals DOUBLE YUCK!!!!! All their hopes rest on the survival of their hikers. This is an amazing story that will have you captivated so look forward to some quiet time and get reading!!

Review by Alexander

Lynx Deodorant, blood, sweat, tears, secret crushes and a whole lot of swearing – this book has it all! Scot Gardner has used a perfect mix of everything that teenagers love to create this book. Let it take you on the rollercoaster ride that is Wayne’s life, with a lot of unexpected twists and turns along the way. He learns that everything doesn’t always go his way when he tries to deal with schoolwork, his best friends sister, bullies and his parents, not to mention an accident that will change his life.

I recently read this book, and from start to finish I couldn’t put it down, it was compelling. Wayne is the stereotypical rebellious teenager, he enjoys smoking, girls, big nights out and fights. Find out what it’s like when personalities collide. I found that every chapter of the book was like a new chapter of Wayne’s life, and this is what kept me interested.

I recommend this book to any teenager looking for a book that they cannot put down. Just down show it to your younger brother or sister to read.

Review by GUS

How would you feel if you read a book, no excitement, no action, nothing. The only thing I was left with was boredom. And wishing I could get the time I spent reading this book back. It is amongst the worst books I have ever read. I would seriously recommend not ever reading this book. If you read this book, you will realise that you have wasted valuable time in your life. To show how bad this book is, I have read better books written by year sevens. I am not joking. If you are reading this book now, I recommend you throw it out the window, or use it to make a fire. At least you would get some enjoyment from that. The movie is better then the book. So go out to your local video shop and rent the movie, but please don’t waste your time reading this book. This is the first book in the Alex Rider series. The other books are better but still I can’t stress how bad this book is. This book was probably written just to torture children. This book should have never been written. It is the omen. We should burn it. If you read and enjoyed this book, you have no sense of literature. Or have a life.
Anthony horrowitz attempted to write a book with excitement action. But he failed. Epic failure. It is evident that the book had real potential but with the setting, and the characters, and how he could never get caught, even when it is impossible to escape. He did. This completely ruined the book.

Review by SAMI[SCENE]

Mystery Of A Hansom Cab is one of the absolute worst mystery books I have ever read. It has no sense of mystery whatsoever. Firstly it reveals the killer and most of the parts of the story which would otherwise make it a mystery. Essentially it destroys the critical parts of a mystery in the first few chapters. When the author decided to reveal the plot in the beginning of the book I was outraged.

The setting is Melbourne in the 1800’s which is good for me as I can relate to some of the areas(scenes). The themes are: Murder, subterfuge. It is a little cliché for my liking, with many men in dark coats, alley ways and obvious plot lines. The chapter names are ridiculous with titles such as: “Mr Gorby makes a discovery”, “Mr Gorby makes a start” etc.
Although I am a fan of the mystery genre I was sadly disappointed with Fergus Hume’s Mystery of a Hansom Cab. I believe that Hume was trying to create a sense of mystery but he failed epically. The scenes are not well developed and the characters are very plain.

Over-all Hume’s Mystery of a Hansom Cab was a poor excuse for a mystery.

Review by Jinkinz

Are you intrigued by trivia? Do you have extremely embarrassing parents? Are you so much of a loser you look for relationship advice in Dolly Magazine? Welcome to the life of Seth Parrot, a very weird teenager. This book is a humorous book about a kid named Seth and his troubles. He is a bit of a loser, until he meets a girl. He loves muscular girls and she is one. He becomes friends with her and wanders whether she is his serious girlfriend. He even asks her and the answer is shocking. Seth’s dad knows lots of interesting facts and tells them to Seth. The start of each chapter starts with one of these facts. They are interesting and one of them is quite puzzling. Seth finds out a lot in this book and even something about his parents’ marriage. He finds a new enemy, love, bully and hairdresser. I definitely recommend this book if you are feeling sad about yourself, then you can read this book and feel better, because this guy is much worse than you.

Review by AKA