Readathon

Every year the readathon is held on Scoil Mochua. It starts in the first week of March and ends around the first week of April. The idea is to get children to read books and raise money for the school and for charity. It began in 1992. The idea came from other schools and World Book Week. Every year Senior Infants to Sixth Class partake. Visiting authors come to do workshops in the classes during this event. Half the money raised by the children is used to buy reading equipment for the school. The other half is sent to charities. The pictures for the sponsorship card are taken from the History of Celbridge book. It will continue each year, hopefully very successfully. This year 15,000 books were read and £5,500 was raised.
Joseph Ryan (Fourth Class)
Simon Donnellan (Fourth Class)

Book Review: - The Twits
I enjoy reading and I especially like Roald Dahl books. The book I am reading is a Roald Dahl book. It is called 'The Twits'. It is illustrated by Quentin Blake. The story is a bit twisted. The characters are very bad. They are disgusting people. They do everything that is bad. It is a really really good book. The names of the characters are Mr. Twit and Mrs. Twit. There are 95 pages and 29 chapters. The book is funny and very interesting. Their house has no windows. Beside the house the twits have a cage with four monkeys in it. There is a dead tree that they put glue on and catch birds and have bird pie. But one time four boys get stuck in the tree so they have to go home with no pants!! Mr. and Mrs. Twit are really horrible to each other. They don't like each other one bit. But in the end they are history!! The book was very interesting. I would give it 10 out of 10.

Aoife Cleary
Second Class

Book Review: - Five Get Into A Fix
The title of one of  the books that I read for the readathon was Five Get Into A Fix. It was written by Enid Blyton. It is an adventure type story. The setting is in the Welsh Mountains. The characters are George (who is a girl), Timmy (who is a dog), Julian, Anne, Dick, Ms. Jones, the shepherd, Aily and Morgan. It starts off as the Five get bad colds at Christmas and the doctor says they need mountain air. The gardener says they should go to the Welsh Mountains. Then when they get there they have a lot of fun. There is a lot more but if I told it, it would spoil the story. It had a good ending. I have read this book three of four times. It has 184 pages. I would like to read other books by the same author. I enjoyed this book very, very much.

Eoghan O' Sullivan
Second Class

Book Review: -  Race Against The River
This story begins with two boys who set out on an adventure. On the way one of the boys gets his foot caught under a log and the river is rising fast. The other boy has to try to find help.
At the end of each chapter you have to choose a road that leads to a different part of the story. This makes the book really exciting because you don't know what will happen next.
I would give this 9 out of 10 because I like it very much and I wish it went on longer.

Ciarán McCreary
Fourth Class

Book Review: - Jeremy Brown of the Secret Service
My favourite book that I read for the readathon is called Jeremy Brown of the Secret Service. The author is Simon Chesire. Jeremy Brown may look like a short scruffy schoolboy with weedy specs but that's just a disguise. He's really an M17 agent working for the secret service. When a communications satellite falls from the sky Jeremy and his sidekick, Patsy Spudd are called into action to find it. Jeremy is short and scruffy, Patsy is a mean lean fighting machine. Sharkface is big with a nose like a shark fin. The computer thief is mysterious. I thought this book was brilliant because the characters are well drawn and it is  a funny book. I would give it 10 out of 10. This book has an attractive cover. I would recommend this book for 9 to 12 years olds.

David Crofton
Fourth Class

Book Review: - Back to the Hill
One of the books I read during the readathon was 'Back to the Hill' by the former Dublin keeper John O' Leary. He wrote about the pressures of playing for a top G.A.A. team. But all the pressure and hard work pays off.
In one of the paragraphs he said that in 1992 Donegal beat Dublin in the All-Ireland final. They were to go around Dublin in an open top bus but nobody followed the bus. Three years later Dublin won the All-Ireland  and they attracted a crowd of 50,000 approximately. I found this book really interesting and I would recommend it to any G.A.A. fan. I would give it 10 out of 10.

David Crean
Sixth Class

Book review: - The Island
This  is a fictional book written by Richard Laymon. It is set on a remote island with no inhabitants or anything. It is an island with clear water, green grass and beautiful unpolluted air. The main character is Rupert. He is 19. He is a small quiet type who expresses his personal feelings only on paper, that's why he has his journal where he jots down his feelings. The Island is about a madman named Wesley who has dreams about trapping him and some beautiful ladies on an island. He blows up the boat leaving no escape and he tries to kill all the men leaving just himself and the ladies. Yes, I liked the book because it was gripping and exciting.

Obinna Achara
Sixth Class

Book review: - "The Boggart"
The Boggart is a fiction book by Susan Cooper. It is set in present day Scotland and Canada. It's about a family (The Volnik family: Parents - Maggie and Robert and children Emily and Jessup) who inherit an old castle in Scotland at the start of the book. There is a boggart (a kind of mischievous ghost) in the castle. When the Volnik family stays in the castle for a few days, the boggart comes back with them. The boggart is amazed by their modern lifestyle. He plays tricks on them and takes their food. Later on a boy who lives near the castle tells them that they have a boggart. I thought this story developed well and had a good , happy ending. I give this book 9 marks out of 10.

David Geraghty
Sixth Class