Ginette Cameron-Gardner – Primary Teacher/Librarian

NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge

We now have 8 students completing the Challenge, with Asher Levin in Year 1 being the 8^th. Congratulations Asher you are the 1^st completer in Year 1.  Mazel tov/מזל טוב.

More and more parents are contacting me for assistance with entering their children’s reading and I have personally helped a number of students  who have sought me out to help them with this.  They are keen to record the many books they have already read.

I hope that you all had a restful Shavu’ot and found time to read. There are many exciting books held in the Primary Library and and if you liked Harry Potter there are many more new series now arriving in the Primary Library as evidenced in the display just inside the doors.

One of these is:

Ice wolves, #1 in the Elementals series by Amie Kaufman

This is the story of what happens to the 2 orphans, how they are separated, and Anders’ quest to be reunited with his sister Rayna and save her from being sacrificed at the time of the Equinox.

Anders and his twin sister Rayna are orphans. They exist by living on the streets and gaining food through trickery. At night they curl up together for comfort and warmth inside a cavity in a roof high above the streets of Holbard in the land called Vallen. Rayna is Anders’ best and true friend as well as his sister. They have only each other to trust and rely on. Their city is guarded by Wolf Guards who fight using ice spears which they conjure up from water. They are guarding against the Dragons who live at Drekhelm and come to the town of Holbard and take away young people, especially at the Equinox. The Dragons defend themselves by breathing white fire. 

Monthly in Holbard there is a ceremony at which young people who wish to take part are tested to see whether they are maturing into humans who have the gift of being able to transform into white wolves who can morph between being a human and a wolf. 

The young people ascend the stage in front of the townspeople, state their lineage and how they are connected to the Ice Wolves and are then allowed to take hold of the Staff of Hadda to test whether they have the gift. Those that do, morph into an Ice Wolf rom touching the Staff.  Those that can do this are sent to Ulfar the Academy, inside the city, to train in combat and become the next generation of Wolf Guards.  

This thrilling adventure story with vibrant characters is set in an imaginary world for which a map is provided. As Marie Lu, #1 New York Times best-selling author of the Young elites stated in her review, this book “will keep you reading late into the night.”

Which side would you take, the Ice Wolves or the Dragons?