Sick
Snot drools down my nose
I wipe it off before it gets my toes
My nose is blocked
Full of snot
I cough and splutter
I groan and mutter
How long will this last?
I hope it will pass.
I’m home from school today…
May 28, 2012
Conspiracy 365 – January by Gabrielle Lord, an Australian author.
Callum Ormand: innocent boy to him, No. 1 criminal to others. This book is in my reading challenge – in the Series category. January is the first book of a 12 book series, taking place over a year.
As soon as Anne Shirley arrives at the snug white farm house called Green Gables, she is sure she wants to stay forever… But will the Cuthberts send her back to the orphanage?
The Return of the Word Spy is the followup to The Word Spy by Ursula Dubosarsky, illustrated by Tohby Riddle. Both the author and artist are coming to the Literature Festival at my school in August.
This book was read as part of my school reading challenge, and is in the Awarded Category.
3 something.
Rushed home from school to get ready to go. I was hustling but my mother still said I was too slow. Made to wear lots of warm clothing which turned out to be a bad idea.
4:00pm
On train, getting bored. Have to finish homework. Can’t wait to see him and touch the Opera House.
4:50pm
Picked up Dad. Now going on a long walk up George Street and along Circular Quay. Lots of business people walk across the roads without the green man showing, pushing me out of the way. Great influence, they are. Not.
5:10pm
Dinner at Macca’s. Still looking forward to the big moment. Beside us, a group of teenage girls have just got off climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. They have bags with the Harbour Climb on it, and photographs taken up there, wearing jumpsuits. They sit at the table, but don’t talk to each other about their amazing climb or anything. Instead, they spend all the time sitting with their friends texting their obviously better friends.
5:40 pm
Walking to the Opera House. It’s dark, and Mum says it’s romantic walking along the water. Dad and Mum hold hands. Very embarrassing.
6:15 pm
Actually inside the Opera House. It’s bigger on the inside. And there’s lots of concrete.
We had to do a survey for the Writer’s Festival people. They asked us how good the event was, and we hadn’t even had it yet. One of the questions asked whether we’d made other arrangements for the night, like dinner. Mum was embarrassed to say we went to McDonald’s, so lied and said we had dinner out. Technically, we did. But it had taken us all afternoon to get here, so we only had time for fast food.
The lady said I could go and give another lady in black a question for him. But I went to do this, and they ran away, after spending too much time with a little Asian Boy, who could only come up with “What’s your favourite character”.
I bought a book, the only one I didn’t have. The man at the table who looked like the author with glasses and an American accent, turned out not to be him. He shouldn’t have been there fooling all those kids.
6:30pm
We are sitting in our seats. Mum got good seats, ordered early. This was a big mistake, because everyone else came in after us, and had to put their big butts and knees into us as they tried to get past to their seats. (which were on the other side, so they could have used another door). When we thought all the squishy and squashy was over, along came two of my classmates behind me.
I was sitting studiously reading my Wimpy Kid books when they bellowed out behind me. I went to talk to them for a minute, making sure we were out of earshot of my parents, so they couldn’t hear all our plotting, but actually because one of them had a broken leg and couldn’t come down to me.
All the lights dimmed. And poof – the best selling author, Jeff Kinney, author of ” Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, was on the stage. We all clapped and cheered. The audience of thousands went wild. Then it turned out, it wasn’t him. It was the same man from outside, who actually runs the writer’s festival so should know better than to pose as our hero.
Finally, he got off.
And the real Jeff Kinney appeared on stage, we cheered but not quite as much. He thanked us anyway.
He talked about his first cartoon, Igdoof, which he made when he was a college man. He showed us one of his rejection letters, which he managed to collect over 14 years before he became successful overnight. His first fan he actually met, after going to lots of book stores where nobody turned up, was an eight year old girl. They talked about sleepovers, which in any other time, might have got him in trouble.
He said Diary of a Wimpy Kid was first intended to be for adults. Then he kept getting lots of letters from teachers who said they had a “reluctant reader” who loved the book. For a while, Jeff Kinney couldn’t work out what a reluctant reader was. Finally he worked out it stands for a B.O.Y.The boys and parents in the audience laughed. The girls however, had their hands on hips. He needs to remember Girls Can Do Anything, including Wimpy Kid diaries, not to mention his first ever fan was an eight year old girl.
There were some cartoons, and funny foreign language versions of the book too. In Brazil they called it “Diary of a Banana”. Then there was the questions from the audience. I don’t think that Indian boy’s one was asked after all that. Mine would have been much better. I was going to ask which Mr Kinney preferred – drawing or writing, because I like to do both too.
7:30pm
We’ve had the questions and it’s all finished. Some bright spark named Daniel managed to ask Jeff if he could have his name in the next book. Jeff said yes, so we’ll be looking out for that then. We all clapped out of jealousy. Of course, Jeff Kinney also said, the next book is going to be about Valentine’s Day. So Daniel might turn out to be a lovey god. Disgusting.
I met Daniel – “the Daniel” in the queue for Jeff’s autograph which is where I’m standing now. He was right in front of me, with his sister. Along with about 1000 other people.
8:30pm
Still in the queue. We came out the wrong doors, so had to go all around the building to get to the end of the queue. Dad is standing in the queue, talking about staring out people via the “law of attrition”. It didn’t work very well. Mum is swiping the seats along the side. Kids are sitting on the stone steps reading their books – lots of us finished them in the waiting time. Most of us own all the books anyway. Jeff Kinney needs to get some more out before we grow too old for them.
I’ve touched enough of the Sydney Opera House now.
Daniel – the celebrity Daniel, who is going to have a character in the next book, gave up, and walked out of the queue. They went home.
So there, Daniel! Not so awesome now, huh? Because I finally got Jeff Kinney’s autograph right across my book, and you didn’t. Haha, Daniel!
It was really quick. All of one second. He did have a nice smile for the camera, though.
9:00pm
So tired. School night, and I’m still in Sydney, walking to the trains. Mum’s decided I can do without a shower when we get home. It’s hot, I’m sweating, my coat is off. I feel sick. Help me!
10:00pm
I’m in bed. Goodbye Jeff Kinney. And so long, Australia.
Review: Scientriffic Magazine
May 9, 2012
Review: The Word Spy by Ursula Dubosarsky
May 4, 2012
The Word Spy by Ursula Dubosarsky is a book about grammar, spelling, words, the alphabet and all sorts of interesting stuff including pig latin. I read this book as part of my school’s reading challenge, and it is in the category of Awarded, Non-Fiction, Australian authors or Recommended by Year 4′s. The author is coming to visit us during the literary festival later this year. For this reading, I chose the non-fiction category.
The Word Spy is illustrated by Tohby Riddle, who is also coming to my school for the Festival.
Electricity – Don’t Sit on it!
April 23, 2012
Slimed Again
April 22, 2012
You’re probably thinking Yuck, Eeeewwwww, Why would you want to make that?
Written by November
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