The Big Mile!

On friday at the end of this week, our school is going to be running a full mile for Sports Relief! The only catch is that we are all in none uniform, and if we want to, we can go in fancy dress! So you can go a banana, a gorilla or even Professor Dumbledore!! Look forward to see you guys in your costumes!

Chupacarbra

Have you heard about the Chupacabra in Puerto Rico? It is a dog-like creature, with a wide gate, short front legs, an elongated head with fangs and menacing eyes. It is said to suck the blood out of livestock- actually it hasn't been known to, it HAS! That's because it is real! Don't worry, as even though it has be know to kill Humans, there are none where we are. So don't panic!

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban

I think that this book is a true work of art, despite the fact that I have read this book millions of times (well 37 to be exact), so you might expect that I would be getting bored of it by now. However that's not the case. This book is so good that I can not put it down!

What is this instalment of the Harry Potter series about? Well, we start of the book on Harry's Thirteenth birthday, which the Dursley more than happily avoids. He gets a few surprise treats from them, which is quite nice. Then Harry runs away form the Dursleys and discovers the Knight Bus, which he goes on in order to get to the Leaky Cauldron, when he meets someone he didn't expect. When it comes to meeting the Weasleys, Arthur Weasley warns Harry about an escaped prisoner from a top-security cell in the wizarding prison Azkaban called Sirius Black, who is assumed to be after Harry. Together, Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione find out the truth, before it is too late- after all, the castle is surrounded by Dementors, and if Sirius black is caught, it's only a matter of time before he suffers a fate worse than death...

We meet a few new characters in this book, some friends, some enemies. Here they are:

1. Marge Dursley- Vernon Dursley's sister who hates Harry with all her life. She owns 13 Bull-dogs, and is quite big. She gets a shock when she offends Harry, which causes him to accidentally inflate her...
2. Stan Shunpike- The Knight Bus conductor. He has quite a thick tone in his voice, and is jolly and cheerful.
3. Remus Lupin- The new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. He is very trustworthy towards Harry and his friends, a very good teacher, but with one secret...
4. Sirius Black- The so-called mass murderer who escaped from Azkaban. Very intelligent, good friends with Lupin, plus he used to be best of friends with Harry's dad! He is also an Animagus (a human that can transform into a certain animal of his wanting at his own will. He has to of told the Ministry of Magic so he can be registered, otherwise they are breaking the law...) which is a clever disguise against the dementors.*
5. Dementors are prison guards of Azkaban. Their sole purpose is to suck the happiness out of prisoners, only leaving them with their worst fears and memories. They use the Kiss, which completely sucks out the soul of the prisoner, leaving them an empty existing shell. There is only one spell that can repel them or get rid of them. This is called the Patronus charm (Expecto Patronum) and it forms a defence barrier of their happiest thought, allowing the Demeter to feed on it, not the person themselves. A true Patronus gets rid of Dementors, also showing their designated animal.

In this book, my favourite character is Professor Lupin, as he is very intelligent, knows what he is doing, and has a strong bond with Harry- this is due to the fact that he was friends with Harry's dad until he died. He also is very trustworthy towards Ron and Hermione. In fact he is very caring to all the students, and never seems to raise his voice. My least favourite character is Marge Dursley, as she is very stuck-up, and hates Harry as much as she would hate elephant's mess on her shoe. She is very rude and insulting to him, and especially to his parents, which greatly offend him, causing him to accidentally blow her up. She likes to say how it is and is very self-centred. That is why she is a nasty piece of work.

In this novel, we discover a new side of Harry, a more serious side. He finds out more about what exactly caused Voldemort to kill Harry and his parents in the first place. When he finds out about the supposed betrayal of Sirius Black, he actually wants to hunt down him and kill him. In the end however, he finds out that it wasn't him who betrayed Harry's parents: it was someone everyone believed to be dead, but wasn't...

I think that this book is very good, but not as good as the fourth book, so I would recommend it, but to a slightly younger audience too.

Rating:9.5/10

Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire

This has to be my favourite book of all time. It is written with extreme care by probably the most famous author who ever lived-J.K.Rowling. A novel full of adventure, romance and secrets- it is a book you can relate to!

What is this story about? Well, we enter Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where we start off at the Quidditch World Cup Final, where Ireland and Bulgaria fight it out to win the cup. I won't spoil who wins, but all I will say is that it has a very unexpected outcome. Anyway, things are completely normal until a group of Death Eaters start to attack the campsite. All the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione come out alive, so no problems there. That's not the only unexpected event to happen in that book. Later in the book, we discover that the Triwizard Tournament- a legendary event that three schools take part in (Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang)- will be held at Hogwarts. So on Halloween night, we find out who the three champions are: Viktor Krum (Durmstrang); Fleur Delacour (Beauxbatons) and finally Cedric Diggory (Hogwarts). However, Harry gets a horrifying shock when he discovers that he has been entered into the tournament. There is one question- by who? Harry has to face three tasks that will test his courage, bravery and his choices. After the Last Task, Harry and Cedric are both in sight of the Cup, when suddenly, the Cup teleports them to a graveyard. Harry witnesses a horrific tragedy, and then he faces his worst enemy for the first time, not knowing how much danger the world is, or he is anyway...


We meet many different characters in our fourth year. First of all is Amos Diggory, Cedric's father who is very protective against his son, and very bold and proud. He may be a cheerful character, but he sure can be full of himself most of the time. Next we meet Ludovic Bagman (Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports and ex-Beater of the Wimbourne Wasps), and Bartemius Crouch Sr. (Head of the Department of Magical Communication). They have very contrasted personalities- Ludo is a very energetic, happy and excited man who never wants to see the negatives of anything, whereas Barty Crouch is a bossy, neat, important man who abides by the rules all the time. At the beginning we meet Bill and Charlie Weasley, Ron Weasley's older brothers. Bill is a cool, rebellious man who works as a curse breaker in Gringotts in Egypt, and Charlie, a man who loves dangerous beasts-especially dragons- and works in Romania against dragons. Next we have Professor Alastor 'Mad-eye' Moody, delusional ex-auror (dark-wizard catcher) who teaches the dark arts at Hogwarts. The thing is though, it is not actually Moody who is teaching Harry and his friends, but an evil death-eater on Voldemort's side...


 My favourite character in this book has to be Hermione, because this is the year where things get tough on her, especially with the Yule Ball on her shoulders. Who she goes with infuriates Ron badly- could their friendship survive this? Meanwhile, things at the beginning of the year weren't going well for Harry or Ron. As Harry gets into the tournament, Ron feels shunted to the side and kept in the dark, leading him into not being friends with Harry for two whole months up until the end of the first task, where he finally apologises for ignoring Harry. This of course causes a lot of stress for Hermione who tries to resolve things with both of them, only not succeeding well. She is more on Harry's side, yet she feels guilty for not being with Ron. Rowling does this to show us that even Hermione, who does her homework easily and is a know-it-all, can find things difficult as the years go by. I don't like Rita Skeeter at all, as she is a nasty attention-seeking woman who ruins other people's lives by finding out dark secrets and putting them all over the Daily Prophet, which either gets them attention that they don't want, or make them so unpopular that no one wants to go near them. She does this with Mr Weasley, Harry, Hermione, and Hagrid.


I think that this book is excellent for children aged 10, to adults, as it has got bits of humour, a few tragedies and one or two fall outs. I love this book, as it is very cleverly worked out and it doesn't give out too much info. Do I recommend it? Of course I do!


Rating: 10/10!