Boomerranging Back to Our Aussie Friends From Conway, NH

Hi All,
This is Janis, the librarian from Conway, NH. Wow! What great posts you all have been adding. Its fun to read what each of you have to say. Thanks for answering some of our questions. We have quite a few characters in our books club...you may have guessed that by their posts! My sense is that while we are so very far apart geographically, we have many things in common. Certainly, books would be on the top of the list! Oh, and spaghetti too!

The last book we read for book club was "Marley: A Dog Like No Other" by John Grogan. We all really enjoyed it and like most dog stories, it is heartwarming and very sad. The group decided most dog stories are similiar because the dogs draw us in to the story and most of the time the dog dies. Do you think that is true? Do you have a dog story that you like? We definitely recommend "Marley". The next book we will read is "The Hobbit" by JRR Tolkien. We are going to read it for the month of September and take it slow. The kids here go back to school tomorrow and I don't want to load them down with too much reading...this is suppose to be for fun! We will also watch the movie near the end of the month.

On my own, I am reading "Whale Talk" by Chris Crutcher. Its a story about a high school kid who is very athletic but chooses not to play on the usual teams. He then gets involved with creating a swim team and has quite an odd collection of teammates. The story has some very sad offshoots and while I have only 25 pages left, I am unsure of how the story will end. I like this book and think high school kids could really relate to the story. Its well written!

Thanks for all of your information about sports. Most of the kids in our group do some sort of sport so we do talk sports alot! And of course the Olympics had us all talking and watching. I enjoyed the high dive competition...the Chinese were unbelieveable at that! We also have a Wii for the library so we play Wii sports and its been a lot of fun. We have a big room for this activity and a big screen as well so its definitely something we love to do!

August is one of my favorite summer months. It is warm (80) or more during the day and 40's at night. It begins to get cooler at night for us now....great for sleeping but also reminds us that the cold weather is coming. We live in the mountains and generally get lots of snow. Last winter was heavy with snow and we got over 140 inches!!! That's a lot of shoveling!

Look forward to hearing more from our friends down under...this blogging thing is fun! Happy reading, Janis

Hi Conway Kids from Barbara the Librarian

I've been enjoying reading your posts, and the kids from the Read-Rap group (which is what we call ourselves) have been having fun learning how to blog. Did you all enjoy the olympics? I especially enjoyed the athletics and the bmx racing.

The football finals are coming up soon, and my team Geelong, is on top of the ladder. I am attaching a clip from utube that is old, but is an example of the kind of game Aussie Rules is. The most spectacular aspect of the game is the 'specky'. That's when a player catches or 'marks' the ball by jumping up on another players back. It happens so quickly that it looks like the player is leaping really high in the air; and yes it can cause injuries! but Aussie Rules is a tough game. The only game that is similer is Gaelic Football (they play that in Ireland). Both codes get together and play sometimes. I love it when the game is close, because a losing team can kick a few goals and win the match just in the last few minutes.

'Up there Cazaly' is a famous and popular football song. Aussies love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxM8XB61ZvU

Australians think American football is funny because of all the padding the players wear. Sometimes our footballers will choose to wear wear a light helmet, and always a mouth guard.

To answer your question about boomerangs ... yes I am sure many are made in factories for the tourist market, but a 'proper' boomerang is made and painted by hand. A well made boomerang will come back when you throw it.

Thats all for now, Barbara

Hi ! from emily

Hi! It is Emily here. I don’t have a favourite book but I do have some favourite authors. I am reading 7 books at a time. I like reading books about animals. Aussies do eat spaghetti. I don’t have it much but I love it. What school do you all go to?

Hello to everyone in Conway! Aberdeen here!

Everyone seems interested in the food we eat so just quickly! we are a very multicultral city so we eat lots of different types of food. In Summer, barbeques are quite popular and in winter, pasta and soup are eaten a lot. Can you tell me, what type of things do you do at school? I'm in grade 5 at primary school and we do writing, reading, maths, art. Italian or Greek, sport and many other subjects. To answer some of Jenn's questions, yes we do eat spaghetti. I love it especially with meatballs. No, I can't make a boomerang and yes we do learn other languages.

Bye for now!

Hello from the super ultra mega genius warlord of the entire universe and beyond !!!

Hello to Conway
My name is Aidan. I am 10 years old. I have 2 brothers, Matthew 10 and Jeremy 5. My favorite authors are J.K Rowling, Andy Griffiths, Andrew Daddo and Kjartan Poskitt.
Tell me, How much pizza do you eat?
From Aidan

Hello from planet Zenon!

Hello!
I am Matthew from the planet Zenon! Just kidding, I’m from Australia.
I have two brothers, and 12 cousins. My favorite Authors are J .K Rowling, Andy Griffiths and Terry Deary. My favorite series is Horrible Histories. You may think I am a nerd, but those books are awesome!
In Aussie we do like spaghetti, and some Aussie foods are lamingtons, vegemite( a type of spread) and roasts. I love All cultures’ food, though.
The main sport that we follow in the world of Zenon A.K.A Australia, is Aussie Rules Football. Each team has eighteen players. You can kick or handpass (punch it off your hand) the ball. You try to get it to your forward 50m. Then, either someone kicks the ball after it touches the ground, or someone marks it. A mark is when someone grabs the ball after it has been kicked without touching the ground or being touched by another player. Then, they go back, and try to kick the ball through the central 2 posts. If they do, their team gets 6 points. But, if it goes through the outer posts their team gets 1 point. There are some finer parts of the game, but it’ll take too long!
Signing out, from planet Zenon.

Olympics

Hi I'm Amanda. Have you been watching the Olympics lately? Well if you have then have you seen Misty May and Karrie Walsh on Beach volleyball? They are my favorite players. I really like it when Misty May stops the otherteam from spiking and getting a point. Did you know that Karrie Walsh's Mom died and every time she wins a gold metal she sprinkles some of her mom's ashes on the court. Who is your favorite Olympic player? Well Bye from Amanda