Happy Holidays!

You’ve got to love holidays! I’ve had a wonderful Christmas in Melbourne with my youngest son Geoff and his partner Naasicaa, spent precious time with my mum and sisters, enjoyed soaking up the sun and cooling off at the beach, and had lots of time to do what I enjoy most… reading!

I seem to have a thing going on with the number four at the moment. It began when Mrs O Shea passed on four books for the holidays by American author Mitch Albom. I devoured these before New Year; my favourite was titled ‘The Timekeeper’. This story resonated strongly with me and was a reminder that in this fast, hectic world, which is so dominated and dictated by time, we should replace the fear of losing time with an appreciation of the time we have.

During December I read three books from the ‘Text Classics’ series I bought for the library last year. This series has republished many of the best titles from past and present Australian authors. I enjoyed ‘Ash Road’ by Ivan Southall, ‘The Watcher in the Garden’ by Joan Phipson and ‘They found a cave’ by Nan Chauncy. I have just read ‘The House that was Eureka’ by Nadia Wheatley. Its central themes are homelessness and unemployment, both during the Great Depression and in contemporary Australia and is based on factual material about the Sydney anti-eviction campaign of 1931. I would highly recommend it for those who like to read historical fiction. If you are a fan of ‘Playing Beatie Bow’ by Ruth Park or Belinda Murrell’s time slip novels you’ll enjoy this.

Stuff Happens! Well it does to the boys from Monvale Primary school. Last week I read about the exploits of Michael and Ned. This morning I read about Jack and Sean. Jack invents a new game (You play, you pay) which goes terribly wrong and lands him in hospital and his friends in the principal’s office. You’ll have to read the book for the details, but needless to say I don’t think it’s a game Mr Brown would approve of. Sean’s story was about the dilemmas he faced moving house, starting at a new school and finding new friends. So far there are only four books in the ‘Stuff Happens’ series, but there are bound to be more. They’re a great read boys and on the 5/6 PRC list.

Lastly I have to admit to never having read any of Andy Griffiths ‘Treehouse’ series so the four of these are on my bedside table for next week.

Happy holiday reading everyone! I’d love to hear what you have been reading.

8 thoughts on “Happy Holidays!

  1. The Aussie Nutcracker, Guinness Book of World Records 2015, Social Stories (Internet -Talking Matters) – Emily

    Guinness Book of World Records, The Alice Stories, The Grace Stories and stories on the Hootie’s owl website – Sarah

    The Diary of a Wombat, Josephine wants to Dance read to him and having a go at reading stories from Study Ladder – James

    • Thank you Gent family for your comment. You have certainly been enjoying some great books over the holidays.
      Emily I just received an advance copy of a new series called Ella Diaries and I’d love someone to review it and see if its worth getting for the library. Are you interested?
      Sarah if you have enjoyed the Grace and Alice Stories you may like the Nellie, Pearlie, and Lina Stories also in the Our Australian Girl series. We have these in the library. Let me know if there are others in the series you’d like to read and I’ll order them for you.
      Jackie French is a wonderful author James. One of my favourites is Pete the Sheep. I’m looking forward to sharing some great stories with you.

    • Glad to hear you’re enjoying the Zac Power series Miles. I would recommend you check out the Andy Roid series by Felice Arena. I read a couple of these last year and quite enjoyed them.

  2. I think the library is a great place because we are making flowers trees and othere things and I have gotting more in the reading

    • I’m glad you’re enjoying the library and especially reading Dakota. What kind of books do you like to read? Do you have any favourites to share?

Leave a Reply to Dakota.R Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *