Category: Book reviews by Albie

REVIEWED BY ALBIE, 8, NSW

Claire Malone Changes the World by Nadia L King, illustrated by Alisa Knatko, Dixi Books, ISBN 9786197458794

Albie received a review copy of this book from the author.

The video below is approximately two minutes long. A text version of this book review is also provided if you scroll to the end of this post.

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Video: Albie, 8, reviews Claire Malone Changes the World. 

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Text version:

Hi, my name is Albie and today I’m going to do a book review on Claire Malone Changes the World by Nadia L King and Alisa Knatko.

Claire Malone is around 13 years old and never goes outside. At the start of the book she is grumpy, sad, bored and lonely. And at the end of the book she is happy, fun and cool. My favourite character in the book is Marmalade, ‘cos she’s a very cute cat.

Claire wrote letters and changed. She wrote letters to the Prime Minister, the weather department and the Education Department. She finally wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and asked for a new park. The town all celebrated to get their new park! Yay!

I learnt to stand up for myself and do what comes naturally. This book gave me courage. That is why I love it. My favourite page in this book is here [holds up book] where the school teacher says … ‘At school, Claire’s teacher asked her class to draw what scared them most.’ This is little Claire there [points to illustration] and she is scared of bananas and no wifi. And everyone else is scared of stuff like fires, bees, snakes, spiders, ghosts! And she’s just scared of … a little old … no wifi! and bananas.

I thought it was really good because it’s really funny. I really do hope you read this book and love it as much as I do. Bye!

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Albie is a regular book reviewer for Alphabet Soup. Read a previous review here. To send us YOUR story, poem, artwork or book review, check out our submission guidelines.

REVIEWED BY ALBIE, 7, NSW

Wombat, Mudlark & Other Stories by Helen Milroy, Fremantle Press,
ISBN 9781925815818

Albie received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

The video below is approximately four minutes long. A text version of this book review is also provided if you scroll to the end of this post.

Albie (age 7) reviews Wombat Mudlark book, May 2019

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Text version:

Hello, my name is Albie May and this is my review of Wombat, Mudlark & Other Stories by Helen Milroy.

This is my favourite line from the book – and by the way Helen Milroy is an Aboriginal Australian woman who works at the university in Perth and did study Medicine in university when she was in university and this is her first children’s book. This is my favourite line, as I said:

‘From fallen star to a lonely whale, from an entertaining lizard to an enterprising penguin, these stories are full of wonderful adventure and enduring friendships.’

Talking about illustrators – the illustrations in this book are wonderful. They help to create the whole book and I’m very … impressed with them.

My favourite story is ‘Gecko and Big Rock’ because it is a really lovely story about a really brave gecko that has a lot of friends, including Big Rock, and he has a lot of kindness and generosity in his heart.

I would like to show you this picture of Gecko [holds up book to show a black and white illustration of Gecko]. I think I’ll tell you a bit about the story. He … Gecko … is a really advention [adventurous] type and loves to tell stories about his adventures when he comes back, and all the other animals are getting kind of sick of it. So … and then the cold weather comes and they get frostbite on their toes when they’re walking outside and they have an idea to build a giant pile of rocks to pierce the clouds and someone … and Gecko … goes to collect the rocks and when he’s collected enough rocks, he goes back, climbs the gigantic mountain of rock, catches hold of the sky, pulls it down, and saves everybody from the extreme coldness.

And thank you for watching my book review of Wombat, Mudlark & Other Stories. Thank you.

Read a sample chapter from the publisher.

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This is Albie’s second book review for Alphabet Soup. You can read her earlier review here. To send us YOUR story, poem, artwork or book review, check out our submission guidelines.