PHASE 2-SMILE FOR KIDS IN HOSPITAL

Make a wish and it comes true. It did for me and I am so happy that my wish to collect 100 coloring books for kids in hospital came true on my birthday too.

55 coloring books was delivered to Pusat Perubatan University Kebangsaan Malaysia on April 18 2017. A big big thank you to my homeschooling friends from Clic who made this possible by crowdfunding and selling the SMILE cards.

The rest of the books will be delivered to Selayang Hospital. Watch the space for more updates.

With head nurse KJ Noriza (right)

Book Review by Nur (age 10)

The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief #2)

by Megan Whalen Turner 

Paperback, 362 pages

First Published in 2000 by Greenwillow Books 

Hello I am Nur and today I will be reviewing The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner. The Queen of Attolia is the second book in a three book series.

(May contain spoilers. I think. Assume yes. (Read the book! It’s super good!))

I think this book is very well made. The plot is excellent, the characters are amazing, and it’s hilarious.

First, my favourite character is Eugenides, Why? Because I think this character was very intriguing. Eugenides is Eddis’s thief, and he is very good at it. He states that ahem… “I can steal anything! Even with one hand!”.

Personally, there’s this funny part of the book showing that Eugenides is a mischievous, backstabbing, excessive planer, and cheeky to no end. The Thief (aka Eugenides) was feeling rather upset about losing his hand (which happens when the Queen of Attolia catches the Thief). The Magus (an old friend of his, who he meets in The Thief, the first part of this series) comes over and talks to him. His words were “Sitting in here isn’t going to help anything. Maybe you aren’t a Thief anymore, but you could still do something.” The magus patted the thief’s shoulder once but didn’t see how the Thief’s eyes narrowed as he watched him leave.

Then, Eugenides locked himself in his room for a while. He snuck out with a little army. He went to Sounis to “steal” Sounis’s magus. So, what he did was to sneak some of his army onto some ships in Sounis’s harbour and light the barrels of gunpowder in those ships on fire! The he went to the Magus’s room and “stole” the Magus. So, when the Magus woke up from his slumber and saw the thief he immediately asked, “What have you done?”. The thief replied, “Oh nothing yet.”. Then the magus heard an explosion from the harbour and saw the whole harbour on fire. He had no doubt in his mind that that was the thief’s doing. That’s hilarious right!

The only thing that I disliked about this book is that it’s kind of hard to understand. But I don’t think that’s the books fault entirely. This book was recommended for kids much older than me. but I promise you that when you pick up this series of books you will not be able to put them down! I recommend this for kids that are book worms or kids 12 or older. I give this book a 10 out 10 rating. This is Nur signing out. 

Book Review by Dhakshayni Jegatheeswaran

Anne of Green Gables 

by  L.M. Montgomery

First published in 1908

My favorite story book is Anne of Green Gables.I started reading the book just six months ago.And I have read the book twice completely.That's how interesting the book is to me.My favorite character is Anne,because she is a very imaginative girl.

It talks about Anne who was taken to a small town named Avonlea. Marrila Cuthbert and Matthew Cuthbert who were siblings and lived alone in their farm called Green Gables had wanted to adopt a boy to live with them and help with the farm but instead they got a skinny,freckled-faced and red haired girl whose name is Anne Shirley.Anne is a free spirited girl,always got into trouble and had fun in unexpected ways.At first Marilla and her brother did not know what to do with her and even thought of sending her back to the place where she was from,but soon they could not imagine how would life be without her.She made people happy and at the same time made some people angry with her in Avonlea in her younger days.But soon as she grew up,she never made mistakes and whatever wrong doings she used to do when she was younger.Anne made everyone happy at Avonlea and most of all Green Gables was never dull again!

I recommend this story to be read by everyone,thank you.

Book Review by Harresh Jegatheeswaran

Koron, Jaws of Death (Beast Quest: The Pirate King #2)

Author: Adam Blade

Paperback, 121 pages

Published: 2016 by Hachette Children's Group 

Out of all 10 books of Beast Quest stories  I've read, this particular story was the most thrilling among all. My favorite character would be Tom, that is the warrior boy who goes after the Beasts. The best part of the story for me would be when Tom battles with Sanpao, the pirate king and his army.
I would say this story kept me reading on and on because I simply loved the action instilled in it. I have to admit I did not like it when the story ended with a suspense because that meant I have to buy another book. 
And when I rate this book from a scale of 1 - 10, I would give it a 9. 
This book would be suitable for readers 12 years on wards because of its intensity.

JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH - (Book Review by Caitlin Smith)

James And The Giant Peach by Roald Dahl is an easy book to read. It has characters from over sized bugs, a peach which is the size of beyond imagination, a boy and of course villains.
This book has the elements of friendship, on how to work and support each other, to go through trying times and of course it has a happy ending.
This book is about a boy, an enormous peach inhabited by giant insects that plunges from the sky and becomes impaled on the Empire State Building.
The main character is James Henry Trotter made an orphan at the age of four when his parents are killed in an unbelievable accident while shopping in London. James goes to live with his aunts-Aunt Sponge,an overweight,short, lazy lady and Aunt Spike a bony , tall,  nasty woman who always has bad intentions. James is verbally and physically abused by his aunts. He is made to work long hours every day chopping wood and cleaning. His room is the basement and there is no bed so he has to sleep on the cold floor. James hardly gets a decent meal, he is not allowed to go to school or have any friends and is not allowed to go out of the yard.

So how does the peach come into the story? One day while James was chopping wood, an old peculiar looking man appears and gives James some magic green crystals.Who is this old man?-a wizard perhaps and the magic crystals are meant to solve James problems, but James the unlucky boy trips,falls flat on his face and spills the the beans into the root of the peach tree that never had a blossom and some were eaten by insects,worms and arachnids and that is how they became over sized,and a peach appeared on the tree and it grows to the size of a house.

Meet  Old  Green Grasshopper,Spider, Lady-bird with nine black spots, Centipede with 42 legs not 100, Earthworm ,Silk-worm and Glow-worm which are not worms but lady fireflies without wings. James and the over sized bugs together roll away in the giant peach,flattening the aunts as they leave and away they go floating on the Atlantic. Here is were the adventure begins,the peach is attacked by sharks, the peach flies (carried by seagulls),  and there is the cloud men,tall wispy angry creatures who control the weather and who attack James and the peach with hailstones, brushes, paints , hammers, frying pans,anything they could get their hands on. In the end the peach lands on the Empire State Building but trouble still follows because the Mayor,the police and the fire department think the biggest bomb in the history of the world was hovering over New York City or was it a flying saucer from outer space or men from Mars.

It is a happy ending for everyone.My favorite character from this book is centipede because of his sense of humor and because after centipede bites through the stem of the peach the adventure begins and when it rolls down the hill it crushes the nasty aunts.

I recommend this book fro ages 5 and above.