Tag: War

Book reviews by kids, Oxley Christian College

Book review: Amazing Australians in their Flying machines

Alphabet Soup

Amazing Australians and their flying machines by Prue and Kerry Mason and Tom Jellett. Image: Picture book cover showing a green airplane with people standing in a row along the wings. REVIEWED BY LUCAS, 9, VIC

Amazing Australians in Their Flying Machines by Prue & Kerry Mason, illustrations by Tom Jellett, Walker Books, ISBN 9781922244635

Lucas reviewed a copy of this book in his school library.

Amazing Australians in Their Flying Machines is a book where you can see how courageous people were when flying was new, including during the world wars. You can learn about how pilots sacrificed their lives for us while testing the planes to their limits.

How did these special men and women make flying machines even better?

The illustrations are drawn with great care and detail and have been well researched.

This information book is suitable for children around 8-10 years old who are interested in history and flying.

If you’d like to read more book reviews by Oxley Christian College students, you can click on ‘Oxley Christian College’ in the grey categories box in the right column of this blog. To send us YOUR book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!

Book reviews by kids, Book reviews by Matilda

Book review: The Silver Donkey

Alphabet Soup

REVIEWED BY MATILDA, 10, WA

The Silver Donkey

The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett, Penguin Australia, ISBN 9780143301578 

Matilda borrowed this book from her school library.

Two sisters called Marcelle and Coco discover a soldier in a French forest. He’s blind and he’s trying to go home across the Channel. If anyone discovers him he might be shot because he has run away from the war and so the children need to help him without telling anyone.

The silver donkey is a lucky charm that was given to the soldier by his little brother. Coco likes to hold it while the soldier tells the sisters interesting tales about donkeys. In every tale a donkey is spending its life pleasing or helping someone else. Coco was my favourite character in the book because she had a lot of enthusiasm and she was very determined. It was different from other books I’ve read. It was a very calm and gentle book even though it was about children planning to help a soldier escape.

This book will suit readers aged 9 to 12 because it talks about war. It’s a good book for readers who like a realistic story with a historical setting.

Matilda is one of our regular book reviewers. Her most recent review (if you don’t count this one) was of  The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen. If YOU would like to send us a book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!

Book reviews by kids, Book reviews by Matilda

Book review: Meet Alice

Alphabet Soup

REVIEWED BY MATILDA, 10, WA

Meet Alice cover

Matilda reviewed her own copy of this book.

Meet Alice by Davina Bell, ill. Lucia Masciullo, Puffin Books, ISBN 9780143306290

This is the first book of four in a series about a girl who likes ballet and dreams to be a professional dancer. When war hits, that dream is proving to be hard, especially when her ballet teacher is taken away because she is part German. Alice has to face the truth that everything is not okay.

I really liked this book because I love ballet too. This is one of the Our Australian Girl series and I’ve been reading books from this series for a long time. This is one of the best series I have read from their range.

I recommend this book for children aged 8+. It’s very educational.

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Matilda is one of our regular book reviewers. Her most recent review (if you don’t count this one) was of  The Flyaway Girls. If YOU would like to send us a book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!

Book reviews by kids, Oxley Christian College

Book review: The Soldier’s Gift

Alphabet Soup

REVIEWED BY ATLANTA, 9, VIC

The soldier's gift)

The Soldier’s Gift by Tony Palmer, illustrated by Jane Tanner, Penguin Books Australia, ISBN 9780670077571

Atlanta read a copy of this book in her school library.

The Soldier’s Gift is about a young girl, Emily, who is desperate to do anything to stop her brother, Tom, from going to World War I in Turkey.

She tries her hardest to stop Tom, but when the time comes for Tom to leave the farm, she knows he needs to.

Tom faces the Turks in battle!

What will he write in letters home to his family?

What are his family thinking about while they wait for news?

This book can increase our learning about the Anzacs and life on the home front during a tragic time of war.

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Atlanta attends Oxley Christian College and this is her first book review for Alphabet Soup. If you’d like to read more book reviews by Oxley Christian College students, click on ‘Oxley Christian College’ in the grey categories box in the right column of this blog. To send us YOUR book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!

Book reviews by kids, Oxley Christian College

Book review: Along the Road to Gundagai

Alphabet Soup

REVIEWED BY AIMEE, 9, VIC

Along the road to Gundagai (cover)

Along the road to Gundagai by Jack O’ Hagan, illustrated by Andrew McLean, Omnibus Books, ISBN 9781862919792

Aimee read this book in her school library.

A soldier remembers his home and his home town where his daddy and mother will be waiting for him.

He is yearning just to be returning along the road to Gundagai.

He’s gone off to war, but wants to be a kid at home again.

The pictures, not just the words, tell you some of the story.

This book is suitable for primary grade students from Year 1 to Year 6.

If you like picture books then you would love this book.

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Aimee attends Oxley Christian College and this is her first book review for Alphabet Soup. If you’d like to read more book reviews by Oxley Christian College students, you can click on ‘Oxley Christian College’ in the grey categories box in the right column of this blog. To send us YOUR book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!