The Puzzle Ring by Kate Forsyth

Review from Celia, age 9:

Hannah lives in Australia and is 13 years old, but she is meant to be in Scotland and be called Lady Hannah. One day, Hannah and her mum get a letter from Hannah's grandmother who lives in a castle in Scotland. Hannah talks her mum into going to Scotland to visit.

When they get there, Hannah finds a hag-stone at the Witch's Pool and an old rusted key in her Dad's old bedroom. Her dad has been missing for 13 years. Everybody says different things about where her father went, but he actually went through a portal into the time of Mary Queen of Scots. With the hag-stone you can see stuff that used to be there and magic things. With the key she could unlock a door in the music room that was her Dad's study.

Hannah meets other kids her age and makes friends. Then on a thin day she is going to go through the portal when her friends show up and argue that she didn't tell them she was going to leave. They all go back in time to the time of Mary Queen of Scots where they look for the pieces of the puzzle ring that may bring her father back and break the curse on Wintersloe Castle.

Eglantyne of the Fair Folk was married to one of Hannah's ancestors, she put a curse on Wintersloe Castle because people thought she was a witch and they tried to kill her as they burned witches in those days. She threw her puzzle ring into the air and sent them to the four corners of the world, so it couldn't be put back together and break the curse.

There, they meet an evil witch named Irata (don't say her name out loud!). They find all four pieces of the puzzle ring by using the hag-stone and find Hannah's father and escape back home.

In the nearby village there is a lady called Morgana Underhill, who is a descendant of the Morgana who was sister to Eglantyne. Hannah summons Irata by saying her name nine times. Irata comes through the portal and Morgana traps Irata in a mirror which they throw into the loch and the curse is broken. Morgana goes to be queen of the Fair Folk and for the rest of the years, everybody was happy at Wintersloe.

Comment on why she liked it : "Because it went back in time to the time of Mary Queen of Scots and had magic in it."

100 Cupboards by N D Wilson

On the recommendation of my local bookstore I bought this for my son earlier last year. My requirements were that he needed a novel - something a boy would like with some adventure, perhaps a little magic and aimed at his age (11/12).

He liked the look of it, started it, loved it and about 2/3 of the way through he stopped. It languished for months on his bedside table being overtaken by shorter novels borrowed from the school library. He finally started it again during the holidays and then put it down a couple of chapters from the end as it was a bit scary to read at night!

He finally finished it (during the daytime) and I finally got a chance to read it (he's quite strict that I CANNOT read his books before he does).

The story starts in a small country town named Henry in the state of Kansas. A young (12 y.o.) boy (also called Henry) who has lived a very sheltered, protected life goes to live with his Aunt and Uncle after his parents have been taken hostage while on a bicycle tour of Colombia. His Aunt Dotty is a friendly, frugal woman, his uncle is tall, thin and appears a little absent minded, however he deals well with the out-of-his-element Henry, and to top it off, his three cousins are all girls! The large front bedroom of the house is mysteriously referred to as "Grandfather's Room" but it has been locked since his death a couple of years previously and no-one can find the key to get in.

Henry is moved into the attic room where on his first night he hears some unusual scratching. He also sees coming out of the bathroom a mysterious short man in a purple robe who promptly becomes a hazy sort of memory.

On his second night, some plaster from the wall falls on his head and when he looks up, two small knobs are protruding from the plaster in the wall. Henry picks at the plaster and ends up uncovering, with his cousin Henrietta's help, a wall with 99 small cupboard doors that all appear locked.

Henry is wary, but Henrietta is excited and so the adventure begins. The mystery of the cupboards is slowly revealed, as Henry and Henrietta receive mysterious letters through them, realise that they are doors to other worlds, and have some quite scary moments before Henry finally starts using them.

The pace doesn't slacken, the momentum if anything keeps building and although there is a happy ending, there are some spine chilling events too!

I really enjoyed it, however I can see how my son got a little scared towards the end. The witch character is definitely not nice and the treatment is a little horror-style, albeit aimed at children. I am looking forward to reading the second instalment - the Dandelion Fire, although this may take months at son's previous reading rate!!

Spelling Rules & Grammar Guides

Author: www.KidsLearningisfun.com

I’m always correcting the children’s spelling and whilst my grammar isn’t poor, I must have missed the week at school when they covered things like clauses and collocation. (Have you ever heard of that last one??)

My son, in year 6, comes home with English homework that really makes me wonder if I was even on the planet for grammar lessons. The girls, in Year 3 don’t stretch me quite so far … yet!

I was thrilled to find the website KidsLearningisfun (through the fabulous site Connect2mums) who make some tremendous little guides for parents and children to keep at home and help out when you get stuck with helping with homework. I have two guides - Spelling Rules and Grammar which are aimed at grades 1 through 7.

My son at 11 is quite capable of using the guide himself (without involving me at all – always a good thing) and I can show the girls (age 8) the more basic levels.

The guides are well designed – each page on the spiral bound book is laminated so eating afternoon tea and doing homework isn’t as damaging as it could be! The guides are colour coded for easy and quick reference.

I like the spelling rules – mentioning some of those tried and true favourite sayings to remember your spelling such as “i before e except after c” that they no longer seem to teach in schools, and going into more depth by covering less well known rules and exceptions.

The grammar book is sure to become well used. Even my son took an interest flicking through it to refresh his memory, saying “I always forget what nouns and stuff are”. Hmmm, well boys are known for their inability to express themselves!

The guides are well priced at $22.95 for the Grammar and $19.95 for the Spelling Rules. Basically if you have a child currently at primary school or starting soon, these will become an indispensable part of the homework roundabout.