The First Summer Of Callie Mcgee

Allison Tait

“The first summer of Callie Mcgee”is a fantastic novel written by an author named Allison Tait. Allison Tait has published a total of sixteen books, the first book was published fifteenth of June two thousand and nine and “The first summer of Callie Mcgee”, Allison’s last book was published in August of two thousand and twenty three. Allison Tait was born in Madang, Papua New Guinea. The main reasons Allison became a writer is because she discovered it was the only thing she was good at and really enjoyed.

A bit about the book

“The first summer of Callie Mcgee” is a great fiction book but even though it’s fiction “The first summer of Callie Mcgee” still has a lot of ideas that are connected to reality and real life topics. “The first summer of Callie Mcgee” is about a girl that’s just about to start highschool with the name Calliope-Jean and to her it was not the ideal name to have in your first year of high school. So while Calliope-Jean, her mum and her dad are on their annual trip to ‘In the rip’ the holiday house on Sawyers Point with two other families she decided that from now on she was going to be called Callie. Usually for Callie these trips are just her and Sasha hanging out, Mitch being annoying and lots of board games and beach days. But this time Sasha has outgrown Callie and when Callie finds out about all the robberies on Sawyers Point she teams up with Mitch and his cousin Owen to solve them. After uncovering the mysterious robberies and coming across a ghost Callie discovers that there are definitely benefits of being Calliope-Jean. “The water in a rip current is always calmer than the waves on either side. Once in it, you’re best to just go with the flow.” This is the quote on the back cover of the book and I think it fits perfectly into the theme and story of the text.

“What’s she doing? She’s not walking out on those rocks, is she? She’ll be swept out to sea! Said Callie

“Looks like some dare, we need to stop her.”

My take on this book

“The first summer of Callie Mcgee” is an awesome book to read because of all the exciting adventures I got to experience while reading. This novel taught me that being different is good sometimes and that we are all different in our own ways. This book is good for people that like realistic fiction, short novels and reading about coming-of-age and friendships. I also recommend it for young-adults aged ten to fifteen.

What I rate this book

In the end I rate this book a 4/5 but could have been better with more detail.

The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins

“The Hunger Games” book was written by an author named Suzanne Collins. Suzanne has won a whopping six awards and over one million copies of even just the first book of the hunger games trilogy have been published. The book was so good that it was even made into a movie which was directed by a man named Gary Ross. “The Hunger Games” book was published on September 14th 2008,  Suzanne was inspired to write this book when she was watching television, specifically reality TV shows with footage of the Iraq War.

A bit about the book

“The Hunger Games” is an extremely thrilling book and super easy to speed through the reading. “The Hunger Games” is about a life after the war, when justice has been settled by dividing Panem into 12 districts, then there’s  the Capitol where Coriolanus Snow the President stands from the balcony of his mansion and rules all of Panem out of fear, control and power. Katniss Everdeen, our girl from district twelves, life is about to change when she takes her sister’s place in the horrible and gruesome trial, just for the Capitol’s amusement, the hunger games. The hunger games is when 2 children, a boy and a girl aged 12 to 18 from each district, 24 children in total fight to keep their lives with only one winner. But then district twelves star crossed lovers change the game.

 “May the odds be ever in your favor.” Is one my favourite quotes in the book because to me it resembles how unfair and cruel the games actually are but it also resembles just how much power the Capitol has over all the districts.

My take on this book  

When I was reading this book I felt completely submerged in the world of Panem, feeling all the emotions that Katniss was just like I was right there with her. And when Katniss said “I volunteer as tribute” my heart sank for her. So overall I loved enjoying all of this book and reading about Katniss’s experience in the games. This book opened me up to a whole new world of thinking, it taught me that some people are way less fortunate and how some people can become obedient to someone in power just out of fear. I recommend this book to young adults aged eleven years old and up. This is a good book for people that like fiction novels and books like the divergent series. “Hunger games” has a lot of action and suspense with a bit of romance. 

My rating on this book

In the end I rate this book a 5/5 and highly recommend it. 
   

(1.  Glowworms are the larvae of fungus gnats, a type of fly, not worms.

2. Glow Worms produce their own light through a chemical reaction involving an enzyme called luciferase.
3. Glow Worms use their light to attract smaller insects, which they then trap with sticky threads.
4. Glowworms are carnivores, meaning they eat other insects, and their light helps them hunt.
5. Short Adult Lifespan: Adult glowworms, the fungus gnats, live only a few days, primarily for mating.
6. Sticky Threads for Trapping: Glowworms spin sticky threads from their mouths to trap insects, similar to spiders.
7. Glowworms prey on smaller insects such as mayflies, midges, moths, and flies.
8. Adult glowworms also use their light to attract mates.
9. Glowworms glow at various stages of their life cycle, including larvae, pupae, and adults, but the larval stage is the brightest.
10. Glowworms play a role in controlling insect populations in their ecosystems.)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         This week, Monday in the afternoon we had Rob as our teacher and we had to come write down ten facts about Glow Worms. My favourite part of this activity was learning all about glow worms. I think finding the facts about glow worms and knowing what to search in google was a little bit challenging but over all it was quite easy.  

My favourite part of this manaiakalani challenge was getting to decorate my poster with all my favourite things, adding emojis and making the text boxes into different shapes. I learnt alot of new features on Google draw.

I think the hardest part of this challenge was getting all the text boxes in line with each other and making them into shapes. But this challenge was pretty easy.

I learn’t that you can put a grid on the photo and you can make gifs on webcam.

Click the slide 4 times, to show you the animation.

Hope you enjoy my name art animation.

One of the best parts at camp was definitely the surfing because I got to learn new tricks and skills, another one of my favourite parts was the waterslide because I could go down it with my friends.

A challenge for me was the smugglers cove walk because it was long, tiring, very sunny and hot. Also a challenge was  sleeping in the dorn with my friends, because of the bugs.

I am very grateful for all the parents that came to the camp to help out with the cooking and cleaning, I am also grateful for the bus drivers for taking us the places we needed to go. I am grateful for just being able to go on camp and have fun.

By  Ariya

Today my class and I went to Te Ahu Centre and did a circus skill work shops with all other school around the far north. My favourite activity at the skill centre was the games in the middle of the hall with the bamboo sticks and ropes I also really liked the skipping rope and silks. The sausage sizzle was delicious, Thank you circ-ability for an excellent day at your skill centre.

On Tuesday in the morning the year 4 to 8’s and I had athletics. The athletics was held down at the bottom field, this was were we did the high-jump, sprints,100 metre and 200 metre we also did shot put, dicus and long-jump. After lunch we did 400 metre sprints, 800 metre sprints and relays. I really injoyed doing the 110 metre sprints,long-jump and high-jump because they gave me a rush of energy and exictment.

Italy

As I started to pack my suitcase, I felt a burst of excitement trying to escape my body.”I’m going to Rome, the capital of Italy”. “The cars all packed,” my mum yelled to Dad from the driveway.

5 hours later my family and I were almost ready to board the plane. “Off to Rome the home of pizza, pasta and even some of the most beautiful beaches in the world”,the flight attendant said on the autocom. Now we were on our way to Italy but it’s a 10 hour flight.

We arrived at the accommodation 12 hours later because we had to wait in the airport for four hours. “Mum, why was our bus so late”? I asked her before I slowly drifted to sleep. “I don’t know honey but it’s time to go to bed”. 

When I woke up the next morning it was 4:30 a.m. The time difference is three and a half hours earlier than it is at home. “I’m so hungry,” I said to my mum. We started to make our way down to the buffet breakfast. As we walked I could smell the Aroma of bacon waffles, eggs and maple syrup. My mouth started to water.

After I finished my breakfast I felt so fat I could hardly move. “I think I ate a horse,” I said to my Mum,Dad and little sister. My brother was up getting fifths while  the rest of my family and I were sinking into our seats.

Breakfast is done and we are now way to the carnival at the wharf for four hours we made it to the wharf and started to play the carnival games but after a couple hours it got too hot and we had to get an ice cream once we finished our ice cream it got so hot I jumped in the water for a swim it was lovely and clear.

We got home for the day and decided just to order in some pizza it arrived and we ate until our tummies felt like Kaka. 

The next day we were all sad because we had to leave but we had a great time in Italy eating all the food and playing carnival games and swimming in the ocean. On our flight my family and I mostly spent the time sleeping and watching movies.