Broken Glass

by Sally Grindley

Sandeep and Suresh haven’t always lived on an island in India, collecting pieces of glass just to half-survive, but going to school every day dressed in smart clothes and shoes . But after their father loses his job and so Sandeep and Suresh are forced to leave home, under fear of possible violence from their father. Not knowing where to go, Sandeep and Suresh escape into a big city and with Suresh thinking he could get a job, life doesn’t seem so bad. But after asking around, it seems clear to Suresh that he wouldn’t get a job unless he had a proper address and was at least sixteen.

  

They soon meet a group of street boys who were ready to welcome them into their ranks. Vikas, who seemed to be the leader of the gang of street boys said that they could become ragpickers and collect glass to sell to a dealer called Mr. Roy. I felt  very moved and appalled that children actually learn to live in such terrible conditions.Suresh and Sandeep had lots of fun being ragpickers and collecting glass all day.Soon, problems started to occur.Sandeep was involved in a robbery and Suresh wonders if Sandeep is coping as well as he thought he was.I can’t relate to anything or anybody I know who has gone through anything like Suresh and Sandeep. It is a pity that, even in reality, people go through this daily. Will Suresh ever get a job and will they ever be able to live in peace without worrying at night about what they would eat the next day?

Sally Grindley is a captivating and enthralling author. The style of writing was easy to read and comprehend, unlike some books in which you can get easily mixed up in the text.  

 I have read another book by her, Torn Pages. Her books focus on the living conditions of the specific countries the book is based on. Torn Pages is set in Africa and follows the lives of two orphan sisters and their orphan brother.

The Glittering Eye

by L.J Adlington

 

Shabati wakes up in a barley field, no memories, no past. Amy spends her Christmas in Egypt to visit her father, a T.V personality for the T.V show Action Archaeology. This book follows Shabati and Amy, two children with a huge time difference, but both in Egypt , Shabati in ancient Egypt while Amy in the modern Egypt.

Amy is pushed out of a normal Christmas at home into a wild adventure in Egypt. Finding himself in a barley field ,Shabati  remembers nothing of his past life .Shabati gets chased by animals and is found by the vicious Master Hob. Since Master Hob keeps on calling him shabati, he assumes his name really is Shabati,which means magical servant in Arabic. Amy finds herself in the company of her dad, Jason, who also is on the Action Archaeology!  T.V show, Kev and Dez, the cameramen, Ellie Powell, a  field archaeologist , Farouk, the Egyptian overseer  and Mazen, Farouk’s son, Anubis ,Mazen’s dog, Dr Rosa Hassan, the X-ray and CAT scan speicilist and Dan the technician .Amy is having a normal holiday (well as normal as you can get while going into tombs nearly every day )until  she  finds an entrance to a new tomb.Everyone gets to know about it and the work is abandoned from the Chariot Tomb, which was what the Action Arcaeology! team liked to call it and moved to the Cat Tomb, the nickname for the tomb that Amy had found. What is so special about the Cat Tomb and will Shabati ever be free from Master Hob’s rule? This entire adventure makes this book very interesting. This book gave me a glimpse of modern and ancient Egypt.

Molly Moon's Incredible Book Of Hypnotism

by Georgia Byng

Molly is an orphan, dumped in a ‘Moon’s Marshmallows’ box upon the hard doorstep of Hardwick House, an orphanage in the sleepy town of Briersville.For ten crucial years ,Molly has braved Miss Adderstone, the malicious, forbidding mistress of the orphanage. Molly’s boring, dull life changes overnight when she has a fight with her best friend, Rocky Scarlet and slips into the local library, escaping from the school cross-country race and humiliation from her classmates and the children from the orphanage. In the ‘Y’ section of the library, she finds a book called Yponotism. Ypnotism? I mean Hypnotism. She steals the book from the library and takes it home to the orphanage. She reads the book and perfects the art of Hypnotism on Petula, Miss Adderstone’s spoilt pet pug, Miss Adderstone herself, and Edna, the orphanage’s brutal, long suffering cook and cleaner.  Then, she wins the Briersville Talent Compition and goes to New York, with Petula, to find Rocky, who had been adopted by some Americans who live in New York. She finds work as the star of ‘Stars on Mars’ pushing Davina Nuttel out of the role by her hypnotic powers. It’s very exciting and amazing when she uses a giant magnifiing glass in the show so she can easily hypnotize the audience.  

A sinister Mr. Nockman steals Petula as a hostage so that he can blackmail Molly into robbing a bank for him. Molly finds Rocky and together…..What will Molly and Rocky be able to do? Will Petula ever be on Molly’s lap again? Well, to find out, read Molly Moon’s Incredible Book Of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng.

Before reading this book, I thought that Molly Moon was like Harry Potter, but it’s good that it isn’t ,as it’s a nice change from wizardry and  magic. Reading a Molly Moon book is like stepping into an extraordinary world in which everything is possible. This book and  all the other four books in the series are astonishing and highly believable .I can’t match any other character to Molly, Rocky, and Petula the Pug. 

Dissecting Owl Pellets ? Eww !

Today I went for another exciting experience at the Jo’burg Zoo. First, we ran to the Education Center to put our bags down and be told what we were going to do. Temba and Imelda told us we were going to hide food for the tigers but, they changed their minds and told us we were going to go to the caracals instead.I was a bit dejected as tiger is my favorite wild animal.But it was still fun in the caracals’ cage! We had fun hiding and rubbing on the rocks ,all the herbs and mince-meat. After spending about fifteen minutes at the caracals’ enclosure, we went to the speckled bears’ home and started hiding slices of watermelon, orange and apple as well as dead chicks and fish.

After giving the animals their food,it was our lunch break and I relished a tramezzini .After my lunch, I folowed some hens and found a hen's,cock and chicks’ hideout, in a huge bush! They looked so cute! Then we went straight to the Discovery Center and watched the trailer for the new upcoming movie, ‘The Legend Of The Guardians. The Owls Of Ga’ Hoole.’ about four times. After that, the TV personality Le-Roy from E-TV, a South African channel and the TV crew came to film us ,dissecting owl pellets .We learned that owl pellets are made up of bones and fur and even feathers of something it has eaten. Owl pellets are kind of like owl vomit of the things it can’t digest in an oval or round shape and can either be dark brown, a dusty peachy colour .We dissected them and separated the bones from the fur and matched them to a chart Imelda gave us. This reminds me that now I am on the Brazilian, courtesy FIFA ,Swedish and Norwegian T.V channels,courtesy my school, as well.I wish I could watch myself!

The day ended with a surprise gift ! Imelda gave us two free tickets each to the premeire of ‘The Legend Of The Guardians. The Owls Of Ga’ Hoole’. Some people were more lucky and got an owl plush toy .Though I wasn’t one of them but I enjoyed my day !

Mr.Mirror and Sweetie Land

continued

After about half an hour, the scene melted into much more pleasant things:

Candy trees with a chocolate bark, all kind of sweets in every shape and size that popped out of the ground and weighted down candy-trees.

Lia picked one up and she popped one in her mouth. “It’s delicious!!! Come on, guys, try some!!” So they all started to pop the little candy floss-balls with much enthusiasm and after they had picked up and eaten nearly all of the candy-balls, they all said things like “AMAZING” and “YUMMY NUMMY TO MY TUMMY!!!!!”

Lilah suddenly said, “Hey guys, here comes a Gummy Bear! Wow! He sure is huge!” Mr. Mirror, who had peacefully, tasting the different shades of the grass and placing bets like -“I bet you BS 5867 that this grass is much yummier than that dark green grass over there!!!”(By the way, just if you’re wondering what ‘BS’, it is the currency of Bunnyland.)

He was placing a bet with Lia when Lilah had said a gigantic Gummy Bear was approaching. At first he had thought she was making a joke but then Rose tapped his shoulder, her eyes wide. She whispered- “It’s true!” in his ear. His face fell when he looked towards the horizon and he saw a gigantic Gummy Bear galumphing over a giant chocolate hill. “PHEW!!!!” Mr. Mirror sighed “It’s not tooooo close ...” He asked Skye, their amateur ‘guesser-of-the-distance-between-us-and-the-thing-we-fear.

She said “Welllll......... according to my calculations, it is about.........”she gulped and said “45km’s away.” she said in a small voice.

Mr. Mirror’s face looked forbidding.

“This is not good, not good at all.” he moaned.

”Why??!!?!?!?” said Lilah, feeling dismayed, “I thought you liked Gummy Bears!!!!!” “I only like them if there’re sweets, and........”he gulped “and I don’t like them if there’re about 5674392 meters high. And I once read in the ‘Magic Mirror Times’ that they are friendly, well, if you call friendly............. EATING YOU UP AS SOON AS THEY SEE YOU!!!!!”

“Yikes!!!” cried Lia. “I never knew the TRUTH about Giant Gummy Bears!”

“Nor did I ! “said Lilah.

All the buns said “NOR DID I” and stuff like that.

Mr. Mirror said “QUIET!!”

All the bunnies looked at him.

Shocked, Lia, Lilah, Skye and Rose said “Mr. Mirror!!” in a whispering voice,
“What is it!?!” They whispered, outraged.

“Well,” said Mr. Mirror in a satisfied look on his face, he said” I want all you buns to dig a little safe -hole for all of us. Do you want to know why?” And, without waiting for them to answer, he kept on saying, “Well, because the Giant Gummy Bears only rely on sight, we will be hidden from it and it will not see us!”

“But,”said Lia, “If the entrance of the hidey-hole is uncovered, won’t the Gummy Bear SEE us?” she asked in a scared voice.

“Well,” said Mr. Mirror, “We will have a plan for that.” He chuckled and told them his plan, that they would also make a series of tunnels big enough for them and Mr. Mirror to fit in, but also big enough for the Gummy Bear to fit inside. And when they asked what the tunnels were for, he said “For a speedy escape!”So they got into action. The bunnies worked on the tunnel while Mr. Mirror worked on a map of the underground tunnels.

The map, when Mr. Mirror had finished it, was showing their escape route into Mr. Mirror’s Sweetie land friend, King Fudgedrop’s castle.Even though King Fudgedrop was actually a piece of fudge he also liked eating Giant Gummy Bears.

Mr. Mirror’s plan was simple; they would stand very near the hidey-hole, chat, scream and hoot. Once the Giant Gummy Bear was very close, they would run into the hole and let the Giant Gummy Bear get within a whisker’s space .........and in the last few seconds they had to, turn the other way and leave the Bear failing in the dust. Mr. Mirror had to carry some food for them. He also had to carry a disguise for all of them as the Giant Marshmallows grading the gate to King Fudgedrop’s castle were blind and couldn’t see properly but they ( the Giant Marshmallows,)relied on hearing and smell.

Suddenly, the Giant Gummy Bear came thundering along the hilltop.

Mr. Mirror said, “Well, this is it, guys!!” They all hugged each other, took a deep breath and started to do everything Mr. Mirror had told them to; stand very near the hidey-hole, chat, scream and hoot. Soon, the Giant Gummy Bear was very close to them and panting in excitement that he was going to have a very special dinner at his home- Fried Magic Mirror (AKA ‘Mr. Mirror), and grilled baby bunnies!!!!Lia, Lilah and the other bunnies were shivering and shaking. Mr. Mirror and Rose practically looked like stuffed chickens for Christmas dinner, Lia and Lilah resembled people looking at a squashed and plucked turkey, Skye looked nonetheless a wretch. They gulped and said their “farewells” and stared at each other like they would never see each other again. No doubt it, they would either die at the Gummy Bear’s hands or, if they were lucky enough to get past him, at the Giant Marshmallows.

Mr. Mirror had thought that he the Gummy Bear would chase him first, but, the Gummy Bear had a change of mind and had decided that he would chase Lia first, so, Lia and the others had expected that he would trick them, so they knew what to do, all jump in the hole at the same time, to confuse the Gummy Bear. Now, he Gummy Bear was confused and went first after Lia, then Lilah, then Skye and Rose then, he singled out Mr. Mirror and chased him to a Endearment field and cornered the G.B standing in the field and Mr. Mirror, standing at the end of the field and at the start of the Sweet ‘n’ Sour forest. Mr. Mirror, the most clever and witty Magic Mirror the worlds had ever seen, could not escape this terrible plight, no one could! Suddenly, Mr. Mirror saw a chance to escape; the G.B’s legs were wide open! So, he gathered himself, and ran, ran faster than he had run ever before and he escaped!! The G.Bs are not very clever, so that G.B only thought “Boohoo, he ran away, so cute!”

So, Mr. Mirror ran, and ran till he heard voices calling: “Mr. Mirror, were are you, Mr. Mirrooooorrrr !?!” he said, exhaustedly-“Over here guys, over here!”
luckily for him, Skye had wonderful hearing so she tracked him down and found him sleeping underneath a sweethie tree (in case you’re wondering what a sweethie tree is, it is a delicacy native to Sweetie Land which they are very proud of.)
Mr. Mirror had come across the sweethie tree he remembered from his school days –he had been an excellent student and he remembered two facts concerning the sweethie tree from his looking-glass stage-

1.That if you take one seed from its mother-tree, wherever they planted it, it would grow very quickly, though not as fast as in Sweetie Land, but fast, fast, fast compared to normal trees anywhere in the normal world! And they never died, no matter where they were.

2. A sweethie tree’s fruit wasn’t like other sweets, the sweethie wasn’t bad for your teeth, health or overall wellbeing, in fact, it was the best sweet you can eat as it cleaned your teeth, and acted as a medicine ,mineral or vitamin, which ever you told it to be!

Skye woke him up and said, “Mr. Mirror, Mr. Mirror, what happened, what happened??!!”

Mr. Mirror, who was feeling a bit woozy, said, “ Can I have a swethie puuuuurrrrlease?” and promptly fell asleep again .Since Mr. Mirror had told them all about the sweethie tree and the fruit it produced.

So, as the animals in Sweetie Land could talk and understand everything’s language, they asked a nearby squirrel if he could be as kind as to run up the tree and get them eleven sweethies (one for each of them, King Fudgedrop and one for planting in each So of their gardens.)

Sammy,the squirrel they were talking to, said-“ Great timing!! I was just about to go and get some for myself and my friends!! I’ll get eleven all right with five for myself!!”

“Thank you, Sammy!!!” they chorused.

Up Sammy went, up the tall,tall tree. Sammy came down with five fruits and said “I’ll be back with six!” and went up the tree again. Soon, he was back with six fruits and they said “Thanks!!” Sammy said “My pleasure, say, where are you guys going anyway?”

This was a very nosey question, but as Sammy had been so kind to them, they just had to ansewer!! Well,” said Lilah and told him the whole story. After the story, Sammy said “Who is this “Mr. Mirror” you talk about?” so they told him the whole story.

He said “Where is Mr. Mirror now?”

“Here.” said Mr. Mirror, who had woken up and followed them very quietly. Lilah introduced them to each other and they became instant friends. Soon they were all chatting around a campfire that Mr. Mirror and the buns had built and munching on sweethies, and other delicacies of Sweetie Land that Sam(he had let them call him that) had collected.

Soon, they noticed it was getting dark so Sam asked them if they had time enough to stay at his tree house for the night. They gladly accepted as they had not thought about where they were going to stay during the cold nights.

They head off to the tree house home of their pal,Sam.Soon, they reached his house. It was something quite simple,but that had a cutting-edge feel to it. It had, on the outside, a plain, but quite luminous yellow paint job, a plain inside but with T.V’s, DVD players, computers and a whole lot of other cool stuff.

“I made it myself.” Said Sam, looking proudly at his handiwork.

”Wow,this is some amazing stuff!!”, said Lilah, amazed that a tiny squirrel could have made such an astonishing tree house. Mr. Mirror and the others were just too amazed at the tree house to comment on anything but Sam said “This way, guys!” and he scampered up some stairs they had’nt seen before, Sam had scampered up the stairs and they saw that every time he jumped onto a step, that step log out up in a dancing stream of colours everywhere. So they all ran up the stairs and stepped into the house.

“Woah!” said Rose, in a whispering voice “It’s better on the inside than on the outside!” sighed Lilah in a soft voice.

“O.K! Let’s get this party started!” said Sam in a DJ voice. He went over to the biiiig wardrobe in the corner, called the others over and said “All right we all need to choose a outfit just right for a club !! OK, bunnies you look in that section there marked ‘Buns!!’, Mr. Mirror, you to the one on the far end, the one that is marked ‘Magic Mirrors!!’ and I’ll look in the the one marked ‘Sammy!!’, since it’s my clothes, they’re on top of the ‘Buns!!’ section, Mr. Mirror, could you please pick me up and put me inside the section??”

“Sure, Sam,” said Mr. Mirror, “I’ d love to!!” and he picked him up and put him down neatly on the high shelf.

So, Mr. Mirror chose a military outfit, perfect for the dance–floor, Rose, a sparkly,and shiny rose-red mini dress with a great selection of accessories ,great for the dance-floor. Lia, a frilly cerise(a hot pink colour) bikini top and bottom with matching high heels, accessories,and a glitter-fun faux fur purse,Lilah, a super-hot silver outfit, complete with a bolreo shrug, a purse, and all the accessories you could wish for.

Skye came up with a plain sky-blue outfit with very few accessories and an attractive pair of blue ballet shoes.Sam had on a cool ensemble, complete with a gold necklace, a droopy top with shorts and a big gold loop on his ear.

They all were awestruck by each others ensemble and they said in chorus”Wow, cool outfits, guys.Like mine?!” and they all looked at each other and laughed, well, everyone except Skye, she thought that they were laughing at HER and she said “ What are you guys laughing at?!” they all looked at each other and Sam said “We were laughing at the fact that we said ‘Wow, cool outfits, guys, like mine?!’ at the same time!!” “Oh,” said Skye, “I..I... .thought you guys were laughing at ME!” they all started saying things like “Oh, Skye we’de never laugh at you!!”,” Dear me, Skye, what made you think of that??!” and “Well, your ensemble does look a bit strange, go and wear something else!!!”

Skye said “I think I’ll go and change into something more pretty. Thanks for telling me that I don’t look very attractive in this outfit, guys.Rose, Lia, Lilah,can you please come and help me choose a better outfit?Not you,Mr.Mirror!!Neither you Sam!!”

“Aww!!” said Mr. Mirror and Sam together.They had been looking forward to helping at least Skye with choosing her clothes. But Skye and the girls were adamant, they were firm and said the boys either had to go to the bathroom, kitchen, the living-room , the bedroom ,the balcony or they could go to the woods for a walk, but they certainly couldn’t be in the wardrobe room!! Mr. Mirror and Sam wanted to go to the market to get some food for the house, since there was only nutty fruit salad, nut pie, and an old nutty chocolate cake.

Since Sam’s store of food was getting low, and were all very tired from the day’s events, so they all needed a large dinner to fill them up so they could sleep properly for the duration of the night and still have enough food to feed six hungry people for a seven day trip to King Fudgedrop’s castle and back to say that the King of Giantworld was using his power to make anything small, BIG on the harmless little gummy bears into giant, hungry ,evil and small-brained.

When the gummy bears are small and normal, they are very, very smart and they graduate at the top of their class, even with the meringues competing.The meringues are very competitive and they are also very clever, but not clever enough to beat the gummy bears in a surprise test! So, Mr. Mirror and Sam set off to the forest trade market, where you could either trade or buy the thing that you wanted. Lia, who always had a bag full of money where ever they went, had given Mr. Mirror a whole lot of money in a plastic bag, and Sam had a whole basketful of sweethies to trade in for the food, Lia told Mr. Mirror to go to the bank as soon as possible so he could change his currency into what they use in Sweetie Land, which is ‘S’ ,Sweet is what they call it. BS1.00 is equivalent to S2.00. Since Mr. Mirror had BS.599.00 in his bag, he was lucky and was given S.1,198 at the bank. Soon, they were at the forest trade market and buying everything Mr. Mirror and Sam thought they would -need for a long seven day and six night trip to King Fudgedrop’s castle and all the way back.

Of course,it would be easier to send a letter, but as Mr. Mirror had said, it was more proper to go there personally in this matter, containing fears about a possible war between the two neighboring countries. Mr. Mirror thought of everything but comfy traveling clothes and they were lucky that Sam had decided to check if they had had everything they needed and, at the end of checking, he said to Mr. Mirror, “Ayaye, Mr. Mirror, you’ve left out the clothes!!”

“What cloths?!?!” asked Mr. Mirror, truly bewildered.

“Clothes, not cloths, you silly mirror, you!!!”sighed the exasperated Sam .

“Ooooohhhhhh, clothes, then why didn’t you say so??!”Sammy sighed and shook his head. Mr. Mirror went back to the tree-house and dumped the twelve backpacks. He had bought a few extras in case one or two got lost. Three liquorice cutters, since they were going to pass through the Grand Liquorice Jungle, two changes of heavy climbing boots ,for….. well , you know what they are for, don’t you!!??Two small tents, for Mr. Mirror and Sam, since they wanted to sleep in different tents , and one big one for the four girl bunnies to share. He had included four pairs of socks, each, and a whole lot of food.

Meanwhile, Skye’s best buddies and cousin had put together a masterpiece outfit made out of pieces of clothing in Skye’s favourite colour; shades of blue, aqua and bluish green. She had been sent out to watch a movie on Sam’s home theater, play on his nintendo ds XL or play on his WII. They had called her into the wardrobe-room only after much argument and discussion, they finally agreed to put together a outfit in the shades of blue, aqua and bluish green. It had taken hours and hours to find the perfect outfit for Skye. She had practically watched every single movie in Sam’s movie drawer and was watching ‘Cool, let’s PARTY’ for the 2nd time and was getting bored. After the movie, Skye certainly did not want to watch the movie again. As she looked around the room and wondered what to do, she noticed a laptop computer on in the far corner of the room and remembered what Sam had said to all of them when they were standing outside the tree-house, “Whatever you do, DON’T go to the far corner of~ the fun digital room.” they had all said yes but then she had asked “Why can’t we go there?!?!” Sam had said “Please, it’s a little private computer, otherwise known in your world as I, B’s PC, which stands for ‘ I, Bunny’s Personal Computer,’ so, it’s quite personal, and it won’t do me any good if you look at it!” “Oooh, alright!!” said Rose, “We understand!” Lilah had said in a gentle whisper. So, Skye thought that because they had all agreed on the matter, including her, so she couldn’t even play games on it, which was what she actually wanted to do. She hesitated, because there wasn’t any other computer in the room, but there was one in the wardrobe- room, but her friends and cousin were using it and would not like it if she asked them to even get into the room only because she wanted to play some games on the computer, they would tell her to GET OUT and she couldn’t possibly take it into another room as it was not a laptop but a desktop computer! Poor Skye could not do anything until an hour later, which she spent in the kitchen, cleaning it up for Sammy, since he couldn’t reach anything higher than his waist.

While she was rummaging in the cupboards, she found a strange note, she read it out loud “TO: Mr Sammy Sqirrelincki. FROM: King of Giantland, Mickey” ,she broke off and gave an amused giggle, “King Mickey of Giant land!!” she said “HA,HA!” “Dear Sammy Sqirrelincki ,I, King Mickey of Giantland have come to know of your fantastic hospitality from my prisoner, King Fudgedrop of Sweetie Land. Hmmmm, surprised, dear friend, are you that your sister and your brother, Maxi and Max havn’t told you about it, and that about the fact that they havn’t come home in quite a while?!? Well, I King of Giantland have captured both your sister and your brother as well as the rest of your family!! Why, you ask me?? I have captured Maxi and Max because I want you to tell me if you see any Magic Mirrors who go by the name of Mr. Mirror .

to be continued...

Mr. Mirror and Sweetieland

Rose, Skye and Lia were playing Bonoply in the attic with Mr. Mirror who was now bankrupt. Skye and Lia were slowly starting to bankrupt Rose and Lilah, Skye’s cousin, who they had trusted enough to introduce her to Mr. Mirror. She had wanted to tell their parents about him but they insisted that she wouldn’t so she gave in and didn’t tell their parents.

So, they were playing and suddenly, Mr. Mirror said, “I’m hungry! You little buns got any food?” Rose, Skye and Lia smiled.

They knew that Mr. Mirror had an enormous appetite while Lilah just looked at him blankly. Rose hadn’t told her that he had an enormous appetite. So she told her about his love for food. Lia said, “Sure we do! I’ll go and get some for you!”

“What would you like?” she asked.

“Hmmm, I’d like a…..” Lia didn’t want to go through the whole list so she grinned and said “I’ll get you everything that’s in there! OK?” and without waiting for answers, she hopped down the attic steps and headed towered the kitchen and when she opened the fridge, which was an AHl3764862001 model from Bunnuika Companies, and gave a scream of surprise when she saw that ants and mice were swarming the fridge and every single crumb of the contents were GONE!

She shrieked and all the servants of the threshold came running to her and said “What is it, Miss Lia?!?” she sobbed, “I was hungry, and so were my friends and cousin, so I decided to go and get some food for us! B…..b……but the fridge is swarmed w…w....with ants and mice and they have eaten ALL the food!” she started crying and the servants said “OH NO! But you’re lucky because your mommy has just gone shopping!!!!”

“Why?” said Lia “we had a lot of food already before the ants and the mice ate it all!!”

“Oh,” said Dannie, the cook said, "Your mommy wants me to make a strawberry, mango and blueberry Soufflé Surprise for you ,so I gave her a list of things to get so I can make it tomorrow !!!!!”

“Cool !” cried Lia “But tell her to get the usual food stuff too. And tell her what happened, as well !!”

“Yes, Miss Lia !!!!” said Debbie and Debby, the twin girl bunnies who helped Dannie in the kitchen.

Lia, pleased, ran back to the attic and found Skye, Rose, Lilah and Mr. Mirror waiting for her.

“Where’s my food !!!!?” asked Mr. Mirror

“Sorry, Mr. Mirror,” cried Lia, “But there was no more food in the fridge !!! The ants and mice ate it all up.” she added, seeing the disbelief on Mr. Mirror’s face.

“Oh, I….I….I…..guess its OK.” he said.

"What’s wrong Mr. Mirror?!!?” asked Rose.

“I…I…..It’s just that I am starving a…a….and I’m really hungry and I can’t wait one more second to get a XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Large pizza once your mom comes back !!!!!!” He said in a dejected voice. Lilah, who had been quietly sitting in a corner, listening to the radio, suddenly said “Hold it, you guys! Listen to this !!!” turning up the volume.

The bunnies and Mr. Mirror listened to the radio and heard the newscaster saying
“Just in: A Buncar 300500 has overturned in the parking lot of the “Fancy French Food” grocery store. The name of the lady in the car is Mrs. Patricia Rowckwood of 94 Buntool Street. She has been taken to hospital with a broken leg and a broken arm .Her family is advised, except her children, to come and see her at the Buncitipal hospital. She was reported to be buying ingredients for a Soufflé. Thank you.”

Everyone looked at Lia, their faces pitiful. Her mom had been injured. Lia was looking at the roaring flames of the fire, her face aghast. She was crying (which she rarely ever did). Mr. Mirror started bawling, not because he cared about Mrs. Rowkwood, but because he wouldn’t be getting food any while soon.

Finally, Lilah said, “I’m really; really sorry about your mom, Lia I wish we could do something to cheer her up!” “Thanks, Lilah but you heard the newscaster, she doesn’t want us around.” said Lia.

“Oh, that’s just what he said. How do you know that’s what your mother said?!?!!” said Skye said.

Rose, who had been comforting Mr. Mirror and asking him questions, said “Hey guys, Mr. Mirror says he has………well, the power to travel to fairylands …….like never land, from Peter Pan and Narnia, from the Chronicles of Narnia, and …….well, you get the point, right?!?!??”

“Yeah, yeah we get it!” said Lia in a hollow voice

“So what?” (They weren’t as surprised as Mr. Mirror had told them a new magic power appeared in him when he needed it most. It didn’t fade after a while, though, it stayed forever so he could use it whenever he needed it most !!!)

“Well, Mr. Mirror could take us to a land of sweets, couldn’t he? Then we could get some of your mom’s favorite food, Lia, to cheer her up and he could fill himself up with food !!” cried Rose.

“Hmmm…..” said Lilah in a thoughtful voice, “Well, it is a sensible idea… But I want to know........ How DO we get there??!?!?!”

“Ah,” said Mr. Mirror in a sad voice, “That I will disclose, once you all consent to Rose’s plan”

“But its crazy ,it’s INSANE, it’s......it’s....." , said Skye in a shaky voice.

“Calm down, Skye!!” said Rose, Lia, Lilah and Mr. Mirror.

Skye had confessed to them last year that she was afraid of travelling, whether by land, sky or sea. She had endured travelling with them to other buntries and she really hated it.

“It’s OK,” said Mr. Mirror “THIS travel is different !!!” , cried Mr. Mirror in an exasperated voice.

“Don’t PUSH her !!!” Cried Lilah, “If she doesn’t want to go, she has a RIGHT to stay here and you can’t stop her!” she cried.

Skye smiled gratefully at Lilah. Lilah had been a good friend to her and it was through her she had met Lia and Rose.

They all thought Mr. Mirror was going to start bawling or shouting at Lilah but, he just hung his head down and said “I think you are right. BUT...... who wants to come?!?!?!?!?!” he asked in a cheerful voice. Only Rose and Lia raised their paws.

Lia looked at Skye and Lilah pleadingly and they both remembered that they were doing it for Lia’s mom, and not just for fun. So they both together said, “Alright, but ONLY this time !!!!”

“Thank you, Lilah, Skye !!!!” said Lia in an overjoyed voice. “It’s a pleasure, Lia, since it’s for Mrs. Rowckwood, I mean, your mom. And my aunt” said Lilah in a soft voice.

Mr. Mirror said, “Well, if you’ve finished chatting, we will proceed.” he suddenly said.

When they looked at him in surprise, he said, “Now, hold each other’s hands and Rose, hold onto mine and Lia’s hand and, Lia, you hold Skye’s hand and Skye, you hold Lilah’s hand, who will hold my hand, too. I’ll tell you what to do right now and why we have to make a circle. Okay.” he said, taking a deep breath, “I’ll tell you why we have to make a circle: Since this type of travel is very, very cold so we need to stay in a circle because the heat will warm us all. Do you understand?!?!?!?!?”

They all nodded to tell him that they understood.

“Right,” said Mr. Mirror, “I need you to repeat after me; FIGGY ,FAGGY,WHUM, WE WANT TO GO TO SWEETIELAND!!”

They all shouted together,” FIGGY ,FAGGY,WHUM, WE WANT TO GO TO SWEETIELAND!!”
Suddenly their background faded into darkness. The never ending darkness caused Lia to whisper to Mr.Mirror,”Where are we?!?!?”

Mr. Mirror didn’t answer.

( to be continued...)

The Lightning Thief

By Rick Riordan

When Percy Jackson finds out that his best friend, Grover Underwood has the hip and hind legs of a goat, he has no idea of what is going on. But after he has a fight with a mythological monster, the Minotaur and lost his mom, he drags Grover, who is a satyr, over the property line for Camp Half Blood. He soon wakes up on a porch outside a house, being fed pudding by a girl, who asks him a question which he doesn’t understand but the door opens and she fills his mouth with pudding. When he woke up again, a tall glass containing something that looked like iced apple juice was on the table next to him. When he tried to pick it up, he nearly dropped it and a familiar voice said “Careful” and he saw his friend, Grover leaning on the railing of the porch.

Grover steadied his glass and helped him drink. After he had finished, Grover placed it on the table next to him and takes him to Chiron, the activities director, and Mr. D, the camp director. When they reach where Mr. D is sitting with Chiron, Percy recognizes Chiron, who was his Latin teacher from Yancy Academy, a boarding school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Percy finds out that Mr. D actually is a Greek god, Dionysus, the god of wine. Later they see Annabeth and she explains to Percy that Camp Half-Blood is a camp for half human, half Greek god kids. He stayed in the Hermes cabin for a few nights, as their dad, Hermes, was the god of travelers so they took all the new campers in until they were claimed by their Olympian parent. After playing Capture the Flag, a sign appeared on top of Percy’s head, showing a sea-green trident, the sign of Poseidon .Percy was a son of Poseidon, the god of the ocean. A few days later, Chiron gave Percy a quest, to retrieve Zeus’s lightning bolt from the Underworld in ten days. Annabeth and Grover accompanied Percy in his quest and they face many dangers together. In their quest, they meet Ares, the god of war.

In my opinion, the Nintendo Ds game is hugely surpassed by the book as the game is not very fun as it is too easy. I have completed it about three times and probably not picking up again. In contrast to the book and game, the movie is as great as the book.

I think people around the world who like Greek mythology and fast-paced fantasy should drop Harry Potter and read Percy Jackson.

This book is not too scary but it has a lot of mention of Greek mythology monsters.

The Tooth Fairy

Movie Review

This hilarious movie tells the story of a negative thinking ice hockey player named Dereck played by Dawayne Johnson, who one night receives summons commanding him to come to Fairyland. While he is reading it, a pair of wings sprout from his back and he is suddenly sitting in a pink tutu and skirt. But he barely got to wonder why he was in this costume ,when he was suddenly standing in a beautiful hall. He was taken to the head fairy’s room and she sorted out his dress and filled him in on what was happening. The head fairy,Lily, played by Julie Andrews who also starred in the all time favourite, Mary Poppins, said that because he told Tess, the daughter of Carly ,his girlfriend, that there was no such thing as tooth fairies,so he had to serve a term as one himself for a week.

He was told that he was guilty of breaking children’s dreams. Dereck tried to convince her to let him off , but she refused. His case-worker, Tracy,played by Stephan Merchant, is a very tall and thin man.He was a bit mean and jealous of the winged fairies since he didn’t have wings but would like a pair. Tracy took Dereck to the flying school so he could learn how to fly.

Dereck got his first assignment, to exchange a tooth for money and bring the tooth back to the head fairy. It is very funny to watch Dereck do the tooth fairy antics . He soon also makes friends with Randy ,Carly’s son. In the next few days, Dereck gets many more assignments and he succeeds in them all. When his term is finished, Lily is pleased with him as he made the children believe in tooth fairies again and she releases him as a tooth fairy and he finally gets to live a normal life.

I personally think that children should believe in tooth fairies but should stop believing in them when they’re four or five years old. I have a very early memory .It was when one of my teeth came out and that night the tooth fairy didn’t come ,so I had to write a letter ,telling the tooth fairy to come and take my tooth and exchange it for money.

And she did come but I know even though I have lost a tooth today ,she isn’t coming !

Face to Face with Lions

The most exhilarating experience so far at my monthly Honey Badger Club meetings was being about two and a half meters away from caged lions. Luckily, there was a red line, if we past it , Imelda said, the lions might grab us. There was a very scary moment when we went into one enclosure,divided into two groups and the group that I was in,had to go back past the lions and through an empty cage.It nearly gave me goosebumps!

When we got in the other enclosure,we started hiding food ,like mince meat and herbs that we collected from the herb garden.We filled a black thick tube with mince meat and herbs.We also rubbed herbs on some logs we had gotten from the rhino’s enclosure.

Later,after we had our lunch,we played a game in which we were divided into three groups- reptiles,mammals and birds.We had to find ten cards with one of our group’s animals on it.Unfortunately,my group,mammals,lost but we still got a prize each.

This has been the best experience so far.

Rose and the Magic Mirror

by Rinya SIngh

Once upon a time in a land called Bunnieland , bunnies roamed free and there were no people. Rose was a three year old bunny who lived in MorBunnie, a very modern part of Bunnieland. Her best friends were Skye and Lia. They all lived next door to each other and everyday after they had done their homework, they would go to the park. When any of them went on holiday to places like Bun City and Bunniewood ,the others would probably go along without their parents. If their parents wanted to go too, they could. Skye, whose parents were very rich and lived in a Bunsion normally planned all the trips. Rose’s parents weren’t very rich but they didn’t care.

Rose and her friends loved their teacher ,Mrs Bentlowf. Mrs Bentlowf was funny and nice. Mrs Bentlowf sometimes let them play games in class and on fridays, she told them to secretly bring civies to school and they could wear them. Mrs Bentlowf gave them only maths and reading to do for homework so they didn’t have to spend one hour on homework and not get to play. Rose and her friends took turns to go over to each other’s house each day.

One day, while Rose, Skye and Lia were looking for things in Skye’s huge attic to use for their play , the Bunny Princess ,suddenly Lia shouted, “Hey guys, look what I’ve found!” both Rose and Skye thought that their friend had found some treasure .But instead of a treasure of some sort, Lia was holding up a big but beautiful mirror! Lia hopped over to them and showed them it to them closely .But her little paws weren’t stable, so the mirror wobbled and fell! Surprisingly, the mirror didn’t crack and break ,but it stood upright by itself and suddenly it grew arms ,hands, legs, feet and a sleeping face. The girls watched, awe-struck as the mirror’s eyes opened and it stretched it’s arms and yawned . Then, the mirror person blinked and looked around and when he saw Rose, Skye and Lia staring at him he asked them, “Now, who woke me up?” he asked .

Lia put a shaky paw up and said, “I did.” “Well ,” said Mr. Mirror, for that is his name, “Thank you for waking me up! My name is Mr. Mirror and you are…?” he asked. “My name is Rose .” said Rose. “ And this is Skye and Lia.”

“Well,Rose,Lia and Skye,I don’t suppose you have some grub for me to eat? You don’t know how peckish one gets after sleeping for a thousand years!,said Mr.Mirror.
So Skype ran downstairs and took out nearly half of the contents of the fridge as her parents were out.When she got to the attic,Mr.Mirror grabbed all the food and gobbled it up in two seconds.Now that he was full,he lay down to have a nap but promised to wake up soon.

When he was asleep,the bunnies knew that they would have many adventures with Mr.Mirror and they talked all through the evening planning and dreaming!

The Horse and His Boy

by C.S.Lewis


This exciting adventure story is set in the magical land of Narnia, Tashbaan, Calormene, Archenland and Anvard. This book tells the epic tale of Shasta, a talking horse named Bree , Aravis and another talking horse named Hwin. They face many perils along the way and get separated many times too but, in the end, nothing stops them from reaching their goal, to escape from Calormene and getting into Narnia. Shasta and Aravis ,though not friends at first, become friends afterwards .I don’t like the fact that C.S Lewis gives the present happenings first and then the things that happened before as it gets confusing! It is very funny when Shasta plans to steal Bree , but Bree ends up stealing him.

It is amazing when Shasta and Aravis are nearing Anvard ,how they manage to survive with only a little food, water and rest. It is very strange when ,in Tashbaan , King Edmund mistakes Shasta for Prince Corin of Archenland and takes him to where they are staying.They take him to have a nap in his room and while he was asleep,the real Prince Corin had climbed onto the window sill and had woken him up.Shasta asked Corin how he was to climb down onto the street below and Corin told him how.Shasta succeded and escaped.

“A king’s under the law for it’s the law that makes him king” is what King Lune tells Corin and Cor of Archenland in their castle.

The reason I liked this book more than the other books in the series in the Chronicles of Narnia is that it has more adventure than others.It tells much more of the land of Calormene and this series does not revolve around as much as the others around Lucy,Edmund,Susan and Peter.