the portal

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

How would YOU feel if you were considered bad luck by your own family?

Your childhood years should be the most innocent and joyful time of your life, but for one girl, the main character in this book, this was not the case. Chinese Cinderella, by Adeline Yen Mah, is a story of a young girl’s struggle for acceptance and how she overcame the odds to prove her worth. She was pushed down by her unloving family. She had 4 siblings and 2 half siblings. Her mother died when she was just 2 weeks old after giving birth and because of this incident she was considered by her step-mother and her whole family bad luck. All her photos of her mother were destroyed, as ordered by her father.
“Tell me what my real mama looked like. I can’t picture her face’, Adeline had said in the book.
“There are no photographs of her,” said Aunt Baba… “Your father ordered all photographs to be destroyed”.
Her two half-siblings were given the royal-treatment because they belonged to their real mother who was Adeline’s stepmother.
This book is of great struggle and has been my favourite book ever read. The book is non-fiction as it is a true story. Her Chinese name was Yen Jun-ling but in school her name was Adeline. She was sent off to a boarding school as she was considered a hassle and also because her stepmother despised her. In the end she begs her father and stepmother to go to university, but they do not allow her, though all of her other siblings are allowed to go. It is not until her father notices her talent in the local newspaper and says that she has a talent for writing.
I regard this book as of a sad nature and a book that I would recommend to anyone who loves these types of books.

Review by Dim

I have just recently read one of the most confusing of my life. It’s called The Other Facts of Life and it’s by Morris Gleitzman.

Some of the sentences were just random and didn’t make any sense. The whole book didn’t make any sense. At times, I couldn’t tell who the friends were and who the family members were. Morris Gleitzman gave the family members friend characteristics and the friends family characteristics. I was so confused that every time I started reading this book, I wanted to put it down straight away. This story contained the most random sentences and scenes ever. One time, two people were in a chicken coop and there was a KFC box on the ground. Another time, Morris was describing an object then randomly added, “There was a cow”. This was the most confusing part of the book. Only one of the things in the book was described thoroughly and that was the boy when he shaved his head bald, turned himself tan and was naked except for a cloth around his waist. This got me disgusted and made me close the book and go to sleep. The title of the book doesn’t even match the content of the book. There were no facts of life in the book. And the picture on the front of the book is an egg. What has an egg wearing glasses got to do with anything? The first time I saw this book, I thought it was going to be a hilarious book but then when I opened the book and started to read it, it was one of the worst and most random books I have ever read.

Review by Xn00bX

I recently had the pleasure of reading the book, The Bombing of Darwin by Alan Tucker.

The story is about a young 14 year old boy called Tom Taylor who lives in Adelaide with his mother. It is set during World War II. Tom’s father is in Darwin serving for the army. His mum can’t live without her husband so she decides to move to Darwin with Tom. They go by boat and train. They live in Darwin for one year while his dad is there. Tom meets new friends, young and old, and learns lots of things from the locals and soldiers. But on February 12th 1942, Darwin is bombed by Japanese planes and Tom’s life is thrown into chaos.

This book has very good themes, such as war, family and bravery. This book is perfectly designed for teenage boys and girls. I would really recommend this book to all teenagers out there who like reading true stories and exciting, well told books.

Review by Woody

Around Australia in 80 Days is about a family whose ambition is to travel around Australia in 80 days. It is a diary-style book written by the father who is an author and journalist. He writes down everything from encounters with crocodiles to breakdowns and to what they did on each day. The family consist of a dad, mum and two children and they all stick together. They all go through ups and downs and still love each other. They come from the suburbs of Melbourne and will have to live in caravan for 80 days and sleep in the same room for 80 days. It is a book which is great for people who like travelling.

Review by Thomas

The book I am going to write about is called The Alchemist. It is written by Paul Coelho, who lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This book is about a boy in search of his personal legend, or literally the meaning of life. The boy in this book is called Santiago and he is a shepherd. He strolls around the fields with his sheep, without a worry in the world.
This all changes when he meets an old man who claimed that he used to be a king. He tells Santiago that there is a great treasure waiting for him in the Pyramids in Egypt. His wisdom helps Santiago to understand that his personal legend was not just to look after sheep, but much, much more. Santiago then goes on an amazing journey where he learns the abstract art of alchemy. Using this amazing technique, he manages to turn himself into the wind and he sets off for the pyramids of Giza, in Egypt, where he is to dig up his treasure. His journey will be treacherous, but with the guidance of the king, a strange gypsy woman and two special rocks, Urim and Thummin, not only will he find his treasure but finds the love of his life. A great book about a boy searching for someone who he didn’t even know existed.

Review by Peter

Holes is about a young boy called Stanley Yelnats who is accused of stealing a pair of shoes from a homeless shelter. Stanley is then taken to Camp Green Lake as punishment but when he arrives, he discovers that there is no lake and all there is is dried up desert.
Upon arrival at Camp Green Lake, Stanley finds out that he is required to dig holes. Each hole must be 5 feet wide and 5 feet deep. Over his days at camp Stanley meets other campers and also makes friends with his fellow tent mates. He meets a boy who is called Zero whose real name is Hector. Hector cannot read or write and Stanley decides to teach him.
One day Stanley finds something while he is digging and he hands it to X-ray (another of his tent mates). After finding the object Stanley figures out that they are not digging holes as punishment but instead they are looking for something very valuable.
Zero decides to run away and Stanley decides to go after him. They eventually meet up and they survive on Sploosh (something they find to drink). They see the Big Thumb and they decide to go up and look for food.
Zero and Stanley make their way to the Big Thumb and find some onions to eat. They both return to Camp Green Lake where a big surprise is waiting for them……

Review by Jeremy