One of my favourite things to do as a Teacher Librarian is read the Bedtime Story for the Year 4 Sleepover.
Our library has a truly magical feeling at night and you almost expect our book toys to come to life at any moment. Our Story Chair was waiting for the Year 4s and set the scene for the evening with a caricature of Tom Weekly and his latest book My Life and Other Weaponised Muffins by Tristan Bancks. After dinner the students arrived at the library door warm and comfy in their pajamas bursting with excitement and anticipation and eager for their bedtime story.
The story I had chosen for the evening was called The Good Boy. In this story, Tom Weekly planned to be good for 24 hours. Despite some close calls at school during the day, Tom had managed to keep his cool and not get into any trouble. When he arrived home after being good for eight and a half hours he thought the remaining five hours before bedtime would be easy. Wrong! Tom discovered he had left their dog Bando inside while he was at school and Bando had eaten all the ingredients Tom had left on the bench for the French dessert project he had to make and photograph that afternoon! The Year Fours groaned and laughed as Tom came up with a very unique solution for his project by creating ‘Mousse au Chocolate de Bando’. After this storyI’m sure many of the students will not look at chocolate mousse in quite the same way again…
Thanks for a fun bedtime story in the library 4G, 4O and 4VT!
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 HEREand 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!
Tom Weekly is back in another book of the hilarious My Life series by Tristan Bancks. My Life & Other Weaponised Muffins is the fifth book in the series that is filled with funny, gross and clever stories, quizzes and jokes.
I bought two copies of the book for our library when I was in the city on Sunday. On the way home on the train I couldn’t wait to read it. I was only a few pages into the first story called ‘Meatball’ when I had to try SO hard to stop myself from laughing out loud because the man sitting opposite me on the train kept looking at me and probably thought I was crazy! I had to wait until I got home to find out how Tom Weekly avoided eating a meatball with a long black hair twisted through it…
After reading My Life & Other Weaponised Muffins I will…
use a magnifying glass when I eat meatballs
inspect chocolate mousse very carefully before tasting it
be on the look out for students selling nits
hope I don’t look and sound like Tom’s Nan and the other grannies when I do Yoga
definitely not be eating ‘toenies’ to help me write blog posts
make sure I have the handbrake on properly in my car
not look at my favourite blueberry muffins in quite the same way
Enjoy the book trailer for My Life & Other Weaponised Muffins
Visit Tristan’s website HERE to find out more about My Life & Other Weaponised Muffins
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 theirinterview 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….
As a teacher librarian, Twitter is an invaluable way to keep up to date with all things ‘books’, but for me the real value and joy is being able to connect with authors and in turn connect our students too. Connecting through Twitter with the four fabulous authors in this blog post has enriched both our reading and library program in ways I had never imagined…
I was excited to read on Twitter that The Little Bookroomin Carlton was hosting an Author Afternoon Teaon March 3rd and quickly sent my RSVP so I would have an opportunity to catch up withJacqueline Harvey, Adrian Beck, Felice Arena and Tristan Bancks together in the one place.
It was a treat to be at The Little Bookroom to hear these fabulous authors talk about their books, answer questions and chat about bookish things…
When four authors get together you can’t miss the opportunity to take…
an Author Selfie…
Did you know…
Here is some of the latest news about each of the authors from the Author Afternoon Tea and a reminder of the ways we have been lucky to connect with them.
Jacqueline Harveyhas two new books out for her popular Alice Miranda and Clementine Rose series. Click on the book covers to read some of each story…
Jacqueline has recorded the first five Alice Miranda books as audio books for Audible. Now Jacqueline can read to you! (Check with your parents if you want to subscribe)
Who would have thought Jacqueline would have written so many books including two successful book series since she visited our libraryon herbook tour for her first Alice Miranda book in March 2012!
We knowAdrian Beck is co-author of the Kick it to Nick series with Shane Crawford, but Adrian is also about to launch a new book in May for the Stuff Happens series and his character Dale also shares his red coloured hair! We can’t wait for this book!
Adrian is now the executive producer of Kids WB and it’s great to see lots of children’s authors talking about their books on the show. (Stay tuned because Jacqueline and Tristan will be on the show in the next few weeks).
We had lots of fun with Adrian last year when he came up with the brilliant idea of theYeo-low Medal reading competitionfor our school and wore his ‘best’ suit to present theYeo-Low Medalto our winners. We’re going to read for the Yeo-Low Medal again this year Adrian!
Felice Arena and his Sporty Kids series have been a big hit at our school. The Year Ones had fun tweetingabout the books with Felice last year as we read them and Felice recently made a surprise visit to see these students this year. We are looking forward to his Handball and Basketball books coming out very soon! Felice told us he has recently finished writing an historical fiction novel for older readers that will be coming out in February 2017.
Last year our school was incredibly lucky to have authors Felice Arena, Adrian Beck and Michael Wagner perform theirKicking Goals for Readers AFL footy show for us. It was such a fun way to celebrate books and footy!
Tristan Bancksis the author of the very funny My Life series that lots of our students enjoy reading. His newest book My Life and Other Exploding Chickens is out now and I laughed out loud reading about the Ninja Librarians (I might have sorted out my Book Week costume early this year)!
Tristan loves having his readers contribute to his stories and if you want to add an idea for his next story about nits (yes nits!!) for his next book you can do so HERE.
I was lucky to meet Tristan and see his presentation at the 2015 Children’s Book Festival . Last yearAt their Sleepover, the Year Fours squirmed a lot while listening to ‘Scab’ from Tristan’s book My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up that I read for their Bedtime Story in the LRC.
