The Fall by Tristan Bancks

I am a keen reader of crime thriller novels. I enjoy the mystery, suspense, twists in the plot and the challenge of working out who did it and how the story will end. So a few weeks ago when Tristan Bancks released the first two chapters of his new crime thriller book The Fall, I had to read them. I also read the chapters with our Year 6 classes who were on the edges of their seats and many wanted to know when we would have the book to borrow – that’s what I call a win! You can read the chapter sampler HERE and also read how Tristan incorporated events from his life into the story. We now have two copies of The Fall to borrow! I’m getting ready for a stampede in the library….

In the middle of the night, Sam is woken by angry voices from the apartment above. He goes to the window to see what’s happening – only to hear a struggle, and see a body fall from the sixth-floor balcony. Pushed, Sam thinks.
Sam goes to wake his father, Harry, a crime reporter, but Harry is gone. And when Sam goes downstairs, the body is gone, too. But someone has seen Sam, and knows what he’s witnessed. The next twenty-four hours could be his last.

If you’re in Year 5 or 6 and looking for a book that has a nail biting plot then this is the book for you. I could not put the book down and read it in one sitting until way too late on a school night!

You too will want to know the answers to these questions and more…

What happened to the man who fell from the building?
Where has Sam’s dad disappeared to after saying he was going out to buy milk?
Who is the mysterious Scarlet who lives on the sixth floor?
Will Sam survive the next 24 hours?

Thanks to writing his ‘Harry Garner: Crime Reporter’ comics, Sam already has some great investigative and problem solving skills that will come in handy to solve this crime. As the story unfolds you will be reading as fast as you can and hoping Sam’s knee staples hold together in an action packed 24 hours.

When you’ve caught your breath at the end of the book, spend some time reading ‘Sam Gardner’s Ten Commandments for Life’...there’s some wise advice there for you!

New adventures for Jinny & Cooper

Many of our Year 3 students are big fans of the Jinny & Cooper series by Tania Ingram and are very excited that the next two books are finally here! Especially 3MC who had the opportunity to chat with Tania in a Google Hangout.

Watch the fabulous book trailers for Curse of the Genie’s Ring and Search for the Sea Bogle to see what magic, mystery and adventures are waiting for Jinny, Cooper and Tyrone…

You can also visit Tania’s website for some fun Jinny & Cooper colouring sheets and learn how to draw Cooper by watching his illustrator Tony Flowers.

Exciting news!

 

Click HERE to send your question to Cooper. 

 

How did the pages of our book go missing?

Tristan Bancks always encourages his readers to write about things that happen to them so I’m writing a story about what happened to our copy of Tristan’s latest book…

A few weeks ago as you know, I went along to an Author Afternoon Tea at The Little Book Room. I was excited to have our copy of Tristan Bancks’ latest book My Life and Other Exploding Chickens signed for our library.

Three nights later on the Sunday night, I snuggled up on my couch to read Tristan’s new book before everyone else at school got their hands on it and I wouldn’t be able to borrow it for months! I laughed and groaned as I read Tom Weekly’s stories. I was reading ‘Death by Clown’ and feeling sorry for Tom at the circus and his fear of clowns when I reached page 78 where Giggles the Clown had control of the remote control and was driving Tom towards a ring of fire and to my horror I discovered the story skipped to page 85!!! Oh no! Pages were missing! Who was going to win the battle of Tom Weekly versus Giggles the Clown??

At first I wondered if Tristan was playing a trick on his readers by leaving the last few pages out of his story. Then I looked a little closer and the pages hadn’t been left out, they had been RIPPED out of the book! How did that happen? Who would do that to a book? Leesa at The Little Book Room was as perplexed as me and kindly offered to replace our book.

In the LRC that week I told the Year 3-6 classes about the mystery of the missing pages and we all wondered why someone would rip the pages out. We had fun listening to ‘Sit Where You Knit’ (some of us with grimacing faces and tears in our eyes) before I posted the book back. I then rushed out to buy another copy of the book so we would have two copies, but more importantly I had to see if Tom beat Giggles and also finish reading the remaining stories! (You can now borrow the book to find out too).

On Saturday morning the mystery of our missing pages was solved! I watched the Kids’ WB show and their interview with Tristan Bancks at The Little Book Room. Adrian Beck, Shane Crawford and the Kids’ WB team had fun disguising Tristan so he could prank some kids in the book shop….Tristan was hilarious!

Some of the pranks Tristan did included ripping a copy of his new book in half, dropping an ‘original’ Wimpy Kid picture ‘accidentally’ into a fish bowl and ripping pages out of his book to eat! Yes he RIPPED pages out of his book! I laughed and laughed when I realised THAT must have been the book I picked up and bought and asked Tristan to sign!! What were the chances of me picking up that book?

The mystery of the missing pages in our book has been solved and who would have thought it was the author who was the culprit! Now we have our own fun story to tell about My Life and Other Exploding Chickens….

#ReadingIsFun

Skulduggery Pleasant – The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy

 

skulduggery

 The third book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series is out.  It is called “The Faceless Ones”.  For those of you who have been reading this series you know that the Faceless Ones are the evil enemies of Skuduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie.  The blurb suggests that perhaps not all will turn out well for our two main characters this time.  You can visit the Skulduggery Pleasant  website here.  You can even listen to an interview with Skulduggery Pleasant in the Extras section.

  If you would like to write a review of this book for our LRC Blog please let me know.