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.

My Small Birthday Celebration At PPUM

My birthday was on the 22 March. I had a very low key affair with my family. There was cake for sure.

I had a small celebration a week later at the oncology ward of Pusat Perubatan University Malaya. CARES always has a end of the month birthday celebration for the patients in the ward and I though what better way to celebrate with them. I brought along party packs and some friends from the home schooling group to sing some songs and play games with patients. That day we helped distribute party packs, color pencils which my friends brought along and guppy fish for each kid in the ward. We helped them fill up their own tank and they caught the fish themselves. That made them happy.

I can only hope we did bring some much needed cheer to the patients and their family. I am now officially a volunteer with CARES.

Party packs ready to go.

some of the items for the party packs

things for the aquarium

Tiny wee fishes

PIPPI LONGSTOCKING - (Book Review by Caitlin Smith)

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lingren,a Swedish writer who died in 2002 first wrote this book in 1945. This book was originally written in Swedish and the title was 'Pippi Langstump'. 

Pippi Longstocking is about a ginger haired nine year old girl, the strongest girl in the world who has no mother or father,lives in a Swedish town and shares a tiny little house called Villa Villekulla with a monkey Mr.Nilsson and a horse.This book was recommended to me by my mom's old schoolmate, Ms. Vannitha an avid reader herself. 

This book has 11 stories of Pippi's adventures.The first chapter tells the story of Pippi's mother who died when she was a baby and her father who Pippi says is the cannibal king was blown into the sea. Pippi is a very strong girl and she can lift a whole horse if she wants to. Pippi has neighbors, a boy named Tommy and  his sister Annika who live with their mother and father and she has many exciting adventures with them. 

My favorite chapters are Chapter 3: PIPPI PLAYS TAG WITH SOME POLICEMEN got me laughing out loud especially the part where she leaves them ladder-less atop her roof and chapter 10 : PIPPI ACTS AS A LIFESAVER where Pippi saves two boys inside a burning building. 
Other antics of Pippi that will make you laugh is she challenges the strongest man in the world at the circus and wins, she makes the two burglars dance the schottische when they try to steal her gold coins, she horrifies the grown-ups at a coffee party with her laughable manners.


I find this book cleverly written with words that will make you laugh.I highly recommend this book for 8 to 12 years old.

Phase one of SMILES- for Kids in Hospitals

On Tuesday 7 February 2017, I visited Ms. Norlin Ghazali, the Center Manager for University of Malaya  Cancer Research Institute. I delivered 73 coloring books, 6 boxes of color pencils and 12 mini puzzles for the children in the cancer ward, daycare and the clinics as well as children in other wards. I managed to collect these books with kind contributions from family and friends and the rest I purchased with money received from the sale of my cards and pocket money. Ms.Norlin told me that the books will be distributed to the oncology ward, the daycare, the clinic and also to the other children's ward in University of Malaya Medical Center.

                                         Me with Ms.Norlin Ghazali

Today Wednesday 22 February 2017,I was invited to join the children at the Paediatric Oncology ward at University of Malaya Medical Center for an end of the month party and I was given the honor of distributing the coloring books to the patients personally.There is a little place called CARES founded by Aunty Hoon  and  she along with Dr Vik and some very dedicated volunteers bring cheer and smiles to these children. 

                            Me with CARES volunteers and POKEMON toys

Today they distributed some delicious Chicken Biryani,POKEMON soft toys and the coloring books.I am grateful for the opportunity given and I actually did bring smiles to these children. I had warm fuzzy feeling of satisfaction that I achieved my goal. After that,I spent some time playing UNO with some of the children and I even made a friend-a young teenager who has been in hospital since August 2016. 
Before leaving Aunty Hoon asked me if I would consider coming again as a volunteer with CARES to spend time either playing games,making crafts or play my Ukulele and sing songs with the children.                               
Since I was invited to be a volunteer of CARES I gladly accepted and said YES. 

                                                The very dedicated CARES volunteers

With this I now embark on phase 2 of my SMILES project. It is exactly one month to my 9th birthday and my birthday wish is to collect more coloring books (100 books) that will be delivered to the Cancer ward in Hospital Kuala Lumpur and University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center. 

When we share our blessings with others, it is like shining our light on the world instead of hiding our light under a bowl.

BEACH CLEAN-UP AT PORT DICKSON

January 17 2017-we had a beach clean up in conjunction with Beach Clean Up Day. All this came about after my family and I had a little holiday in Port Dickson in October 2016. I was walking along the beach with a small garbage bag picking up the plastic bottles and other rubbish brought in by the tides and suddenly I saw something rather unusual. It was a turtle-a dead turtle washed up on the beach. I was shocked with the find and also sad about its fate. I was very very upset about it that my mom told me if something upsets you find a solution to the problem. So I researched why turtles end up dead and one of the main culprits is RUBBISH in the waters. The rubbish not only destroy the marine life it also has a impact on ours too. Fish, birds, marine mammals, reptiles, and other animals can become entangled in discarded plastics.Plastic is also mistaken for food and is eaten  turtles, and even whales. This can choke them, or make them think they are full with this "food" and starve to death because plastic cannot be digested.
I have never walked on the beach without slippers because there is lots of broken bits from bottles. 

Where do these rubbish on the beach come from? They could be from people who have picnics on the beach. These could be rubbish from our streets that has been washed down into drains and flows into rivers and finally into the ocean and it gets washed up again on the beach.You get the picture?

So I wrote an email to the general manager of THISTLE HOTEL PORT DICKSON as it was in that beach stretch that I found the turtle and all the rubbish. I explained to him my wish to have a beach clean up and gave him my reasons. I was surprised to receive a reply and Mr. Samm -the General Manager agreed to my request and the planning was underway.

I invited my home school friends to join me in the beach clean. Mr.Samm and Ms.Irene Wong invited the Southern Waste Management Sdn Bhd (SWM) and Majlis Perbandaran Port Dickson (MPPD).

Tuesday 17th January arrived. 49 home-school  friends and their parents joined me and staff of Thistle Hotel Staff for our first environment responsibility of the year. There was excitement and we had beautiful morning air blowing in our faces. We started at 9am with some exercise. My favorite part of the exercise was the Chicken Dance. After the exercise we were served coffee, tea, orange juice.We were divided into 6 teams and allocated a section on the beach to clean up. We were given gloves, garbage bags, rakes for the clean up.

The 3 teams with the most rubbish was in for a surprise. 

The whistle blew and off we went to our sections. There were a flurry of activities along the stretch of KM 16. We had half and hour to collect as much rubbish as we could. We collected twigs, leaves, sea weeds, plastic bottles, plactic bags, tikar, styrofoam, straws, cans, bottles and broken bottles. We gathered the bags at the starting point and we had a little talk from the staff of SWM who explained to us how to separate the rubbish.

So we separated the rubbish we collected into organic waste, plastic waste and other waste. The total rubbish collected was 232.5kg

-60kg of plastic waste, 92 kg of organic waste and 80.5 kg of other waste. 

The winning 3 teams received food hampers which we divided among everyone that come, the staff and workers from MPPD who carted away all this rubbish.We even received a certificate of appreciation from the hotel for our effort in the Beach cleanup.

After that we were served and early lunch of mee goreng, nuggets, fries, hot dogs and hamburgers that were cooked on the spot for us. 

To cool off from all that hard work my friends were allowed to use the pool and they were given 3 rooms to change, keep their bags and have showers. 

At 3 pm we were again served evening snack of mee goreng, nuggets, fries hot-dogs and hamburgers and cordial.

Some of my friends stayed till 6 pm before they went home. 

I was very tired after an all day out on the beach and pool but I was happy that my friends and I did do our small bit for the environment.

This is not the end of it. Me and my friends still have a lot of cleaning up to do but in the meantime we will have to 'educate' others on the dangers of rubbish and change the attitude towards littering.We have to reduce the use of plastic and there should be stricter laws to punish litter bugs. So look out for a group of kids who will be armed with garbage bags and gloves cleaning up not only beaches but parks too and we will not be happy if we catch you littering.

TURTLE HATCHERY PORT DICKSON

On JANUARY 10, 2017, with the help of my parents I managed to organize a trip to the TURTLE HATCHERY at GLORY BEACH RESORT, PORT DICKSON. 
There were 70 of us in total & all of them were my home schooled friends.

I wanted to learn more about these beautiful creatures after I found a dead hawksbill turtle on the beach in Port Dickson in October 2016. I was very curious about these creatures and why they were known as endangered. 

There are 7 different species of sea turtles in the world. In Malaysia we have 4 types. They are the Green turtle, Hawksbill, Leatherback, Olive Ridley, 

They are endangered because they are caught for their meat,eggs and shell. Some die because of the pollution in the sea or get caught in the nets and drown.

Glory Beach resort has a small turtle hatchery jointly managed with the Department of Fisheries, Malaysia. Mr.Isaac Raj, the General Manager of the resort told us that it is part of their social responsibility awareness program to help save the turtles. Since 2010, hawksbill turtles have been landing on the beach (Tanjung Gemok) to lay their eggs. The hotel makes the effort to collect these eggs , incubates them, hatches them and releases them back into the sea when they are matured enough to survive. Most of the time the Resort buys these eggs at RM 2.50 to hatch them safely at the hatchery. The reason they do so is because the survival rate for the turtles is 1% so that is why so many eggs are needed to keep the population of turtles going.


Mr.Ramesh ,our guide knew a lot about the turtles and he was entertaining to listen to. He showed us the eggs, baby hatchling of various ages. We were able to hold them in our palms . 

We also 'met' two very beautiful turtles. One was a hawsbill and the other was a green turtle. The hawksbill had a narrow head, and sharp bird like beak The hawsbill shell was beautiful, like  a beautiful art piece. No wonder it is 'hunted' -to turn the shell into jewellery. The green turtle was bigger.  It was not green at all.It is actually black and more brown in color. The green is not on the shell but on its underbody and it was very light green.

We could see claws on the flippers so were careful not to get too close. The flippers are strong and powerful.The turtles reach maturity after 15 to 20 years so we were not able to tell if these were male or female turtles just yet.

This green turtle opened its mouth I could see that they had  'teeth' like a saw  and I was careful not to put my finger near it. Green turtles are herbivores and eat sea grass , seaweeds and algae while hawksbills are omnivores and eat sponges. 

After that we visited the Turtle Hut where baby turtles were swimming merrily and later to the hatchery where the eggs are hatched.

The highlight of the evening was releasing 3 baby turtles into the sea. I got to release one of them.We wished them all the best and hoped they would come back all grown up to lay their eggs and to keep the turtles population going.

                                     Me and the turtle I was about to release into the sea

                                     My friends Awwal, ,Adelene and myself with the turtles
                                     we were going to release into the sea.

                                Me with my dad,Mr.Isaac Raj, Ms.Yayi and Mr.Ramesh and who are the Turtle Savers

Why do we have to play our part in saving the turtles?

• Sea turtles are part of two vital ecosystems, beaches and marine systems. If sea turtles become extinct, both the marine and beach ecosystems will weaken
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• Sea turtles (leatherbacks) eat jellyfish, preventing the large “blooms” of jellyfish – including stinging jellyfish – that are increasingly wreaking havoc on fisheries, recreation and other maritime activities throughout the oceans.
• 
  
• Herbivores like the green sea turtle are important for maintaining the health of coral reefs. Without them eating algae, corals can be overgrown and die from the algae which out-competes them.
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• Sponges contain spicules (glass-like spines) and toxins which the hawksbills immune to, making less competition for this food source. They are also particular about the types of sponges they eat which gives rare sponges an opportunity to grow creating greater diversity on the reef.
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• If sea turtles go extinct, it will cause declines in all the species whose survival depends on healthy seagrass beds and coral reefs. That means that many marine species that humans harvest would be lost.