Kathy Helidoniotis

Devi Sharma is just starting at Year 7 at a prestigious Sydney Sports Academy( having won a dance scholarship) where she is introduced to Australian Rules Football. Having grown up in an Indian-Australian household where Bollywood dancing is everything and good girls don't play sport, she knows nothing about the game at all. But, her flexibility and stamina and natural skills mean she stands out from all the other girls AND better yet, she is suddenly enjoying herself, whereas dancing has become a bit of a chore.
The guest football coach and her P.E. teacher both encourage her to try out for the local girls team but how can she do this when her grandmother (Aji) expects her to study and be a doctor and a wife and her mother needs her to help with the dance studio she has just opened.
Devi turns to subterfuge with her best friend to try out and be selected for the team, and to play her first match. But she can't keep lying to her parents forever. Which shall she choose?

Great multiculturalism book - what it means to be an Australian with an ethnic background - culture clash. I also loved that she didn't know some of the terminology - e.g. speccy , hanger, torp - because she was from Western Sydney.… (plus d'informations)

I liked this book for two reasons. First, the language was very kid friendly, clear, and catchy. They asked the same question at the beginning of every page just switching the body of water. For example, "I went to the ocean and what did I see?," "I went to the bay and what did I see?," etc. The book also had a lot of rhyming. For example, "I went to the rock pool and what did I see? Sea horses, and crabs who were hiding from me." The second reason I liked this book were the illustrations. Each page had a plastic colored, sparkly material representing the bodies of some of the animals. For example, on the page about the rock pool, they had the sparkle material as the crabs body, but the legs were a regular illustration. The overall idea of this book is to teach children about the different bodies of water and what animals they might find living there.… (plus d'informations)

Age Appropriateness: Primary
Genre: Fantasy
Media: Mixed Media
Characterization: Lucas, the main character, changes greatly from the beginning to the end of this story, which means he is dynamic. In the beginning, Lucas is feeling very left out and lonely, but in the end he finds something special just for himself and is happy. This character is revealed by pictures and Lucas' words. The reader knows much about him by the end of the story through the many pictures shown and his thoughts and feeling being revealed, so he is also a round character. Lucas and all the other characters in this book are animals who do human things, so this is a good example of a fantasy.
Review: This book is about Lucas the lizard who is trying to find his place in the zoo and by the end of the story, he does. It is a good example of fantasy because it has animals acting like humans.… (plus d'informations)