Mandy Says:

Tobias Richard Vandevelde wakes up in a hospital bed with no recollection of how he got there, or what happened the night before. He’s horrified to learn (and so is his mother) that he was found stark naked in the dingo pen at the local wildlife park. Toby immediately blames his best friends, Fergus and Amin for setting up some sort of nasty prank, but it soon becomes clear they know nothing about it.

Things begin to get weirder after the doctors can find no good reason for Toby’s memory loss (maybe Epilepsy? Drugs? Some other kind of rare condition?) and the police are also more than a little suspicious of the teenager who claims there’s nothing wrong with him – well, not that he’s aware of, anyway. Things soon leap from just plain weird to totally bizarre when Catholic priest Father Ramon Alvarez turns up on Toby’s doorstep with the mean and scruffy looking Rueben. They seem to know things about Toby they shouldn’t – his hair grows abnormally fast, his sense of smell is almost unhuman, his reflexes are super-speedy and, most astonishingly – for Toby is adopted – he is the youngest of seven sons. Then the bizarre turns insane. The priest claims Toby is a Werewolf… and so is Rueben.

Of course, Toby and his mother know there’s no such thing as Werewolves. Their visitors are thrown out of the house and threatened with a phone call to the police. But Toby is left with a nagging feeling. What if his strange guests are right? It would explain the dingo pen thing. And the haircut problem. Toby decides to find out a little more information on his own, meeting up with Rueben and his friends. That’s when the real trouble begins…

If The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group were a movie, it would be one of those where you spend the whole time with your hands over your face, peeking through the slits in your fingers. Every step Toby takes, you just know he’s going to find himself in more trouble. The story moves along lightning-fast once it gets going and there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Set in both suburban Sydney and the harsh Australian Outback, Catherine Jinks paints a great picture of Australian life, be it a little on the supernatural side. Toby is a very likeable, everyday teenager; it’s easy to go along with him in his initial disbelief of his new identity, as well as understand why he eventually comes to terms with it (and that’s without a big-bad-full-moon-change scene).

The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group is a companion book to The Reformed Vampire Support Group, also by Catherine Jinks. I have to admit, I haven’t yet read about the Vampires in Jinks’s world, and they do make a few appearances here. I was a little concerned I’d find it hard to follow without reading the first book, but the stories really are separate entities and The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group stands up well on its own. It was refreshing to read a supernatural novel with a teenaged main character who wasn’t filled with lovey-dovey angst, self-loathing or a parent with issues. Instead, I found a hysterical tale full of bumbling, dangerous characters and suspenseful drama that wouldn’t let me stop reading.

Catherine Jinks – The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group

September 27th, 2010 by Allen and Unwin Children.

Paperback – 380 pages.

ISBN – 9781742373638

Bel Says:

Which Idiot is on your Idiot Box??
Has anyone else noticed that the start of TV silly season started a little later than normal this year? I have always found it strange that we were missing out on Summer Bay the whole way through summer.
Could it be the integration of all the new HD channels that delayed the inevitable demise of all the decent programs for yet another year?

While we were buffeted by reruns of Two and a Half Men all freakin’ year by those whiz kids at Channel Nine, the newb channels found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow by back tracking beyond the Soup Nazi and Ross and Rachel’s off again/on again romance.

Who knew ALF really was funny, the Olsen Twins were once sweet, Leonardo Di Caprio has ALWAYS been that sexy, and Murphy wasn’t actually Brown at all We’re also learning that the shows we watch now aren’t always the first attempt at their moral heartbeat. Big Bang Theory wasn’t the first show highlighting the fact that smart people having feelings too. Just look at Head of the Class to find one of the earlier versions of trying to make smart look good (we’ll ignore their fashion sense, or lack thereof).

We’ve gone WAAAAY back to when racism and sexism wasn’t politically incorrect. Love Thy Neighbour, where the ‘black’ couple who move in next door are unashamedly the butt of many an ignorant comment and joke by their racist ‘white’ neighbour is one example.

There’s Man About the House, about the two busty broads and their male housemate, who live in the same building as the childless, middle-aged couple, George and Mildred (who just happen to also have a show all of their own).
One of my Mum’s favourite shows has just started being shown on 7Two. I can’t remember too much about All Creatures Great and Small, but I can remember Mum telling me most shows started with the country vet shoulder deep in a cow’s… well you get the idea.

For those of you who want to go back even further, there’s The Flintstones, Here’s Lucy, I dream of Jeannie and Bewitched. (These poor women, being stuck in the late 60s, with all the horrid expectations of the 1950s housewife. Yick!) Lucy was probably the most progressive of these 4 shows; it featured a leading lady who wasn’t actually at the beck and call of a husband, whose children were all grown up and not living at home anymore and who had a day job.

But back to the era of bad fashion and crime fighters. We’ve got Knight Rider, with the Hoff, Miami Vice, with Don Johnson, Magnum P.I, with Tom Selleck, and The A-Team. If you don’t know who Mr T is, think of  those Snickers adverts with the crazy guy wearing way too much bling, driving a tank, and throwing chocolate bars at guys who aren’t doing so well on the sporting field. That guy (the one hurling chocolate bars) was arguably the star of The A-Team.
If a blast from the past isn’t your thing and retro is just making you gag, you could always check out the couple of shows that aren’t undergoing rerun mania: The Amazing Race, Fringe, Raising Hope, The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars.

Whatever your poison when watching the idiot box, I hope you all have an amazing start to the school holidays. In the words of Porky Pig: “That’s all folks!”

Jamie Says:

Bibliophilic:worth my weight in books

Disposable income can be a dangerous thing for an avid reader; not only are you able to cease reliance on libraries for your literary fix, but you are at risk of becoming … a bibliophile.

While the world is languishing under the iron fist of the E-book, a resistance has built up around strange icons made of paper and ink. I speak, of course, of books: tangible, solid, heavy (and, occasionally, expensive) tomes of knowledge and imagination.

I won’t go as far as to lay down a history of written text – around 5,000 years ago with clay tablets, or the use of papyrus as a writing medium (it’s from this that we gain the Greek word biblios or biblio for book) – but instead focus on the modern word and the medium and love of these volumes of text. As a species we have a habit of hoarding items of interest – as a dragon does with her pile of gold, so is the bibliophile with their books. And I am unashamed to admit my own hoard is of great importance to my life.

Love of the common book is a hard thing to explain; some are attracted to the smell of dusty pages, or the feel of well-bound pages, or just out of a magpie-like desire to collect. Whatever the reason, there is beauty and wonder to be found in the written word.

Bibliophilia can take many forms, although to the uninitiated these may all be equally strange. A classic bibliophile is a person who delights in the collection of rare or specialised texts. First editions, autographed copies and misprints are all delights of a traditional bibliophile’s collection.

In modern times, the bibliophile has become an almost socially acceptable role, with many

literate people collecting multi-part epics, the popular series at the time, and the mundane book club recommendations. Piles of mass-market paperbacks stacked high on bedside tables, bookshelves filled with overcooked modern fantasy, and randomly arranged volumes of the latest big thing have become status symbols just like the cups from trendy multinational coffee houses.

For the true bibliophiles, there is always a place for the majesty of real literature. Books that start genres take pride of place beside the signed first edition trilogy of a favourite author. Classics that have the market price of a small house are regularly traded among those who have money to burn.

But, as our primeval ancestors knew, the true joy is in the hunt. Second hand bookstores are grazing grounds for forgotten tomes. Booksellers who don’t realise the value of what they hold are often oblivious to the treasures that await the specialist shopper.

This is a love that no manner of assault by the lovers of electronic books will be able to quell. A book requires no battery, has no screen that can shatter, or moving parts to cease functioning. It can be read when all power as stopped flowing or while you’re stranded at sea or on a deserted island. They can be enjoyed in a group or on their own and they will make you a better person for involving them in your life.

I am a bibliophile. I love books.

Bel Says

Harajuku isn’t just a place—it’s an attitude.  The 4 most famous Harajuku girls are Love, Angel, Music, and Baby, the entourage of Gwen Stefani during The Sweet Escape Tour of 2007. Google Gwen, you can‘t miss them.

Harajuku is really a mishmash of quite a few fashion styles, but, generally, it’s most celebrated by teens and youngs adults on Sundays on the bridge across the train tracks from Harajuku station to Yoyogi Park, Japan.

Gothic Lolita ~ Looking like either modern day aristocratic Elizabethan debutants or over-the-top French maids.
~

Visual Kei ~ The Glam Rock  look – think 80’s goth rock, punk or heavy metal.
~

Ganguro & Kogal ~ Get hip with the orange fake tan… orange, gray, or platinum hair… light lipstick, and white eye shadow (like a panda)… slap on a set of fake lashes, bright clothes, and bling… and she’s all ready to go. The most famous Ganguro Girl is called Buriteri, named after a brand of soy sauce. Think Spice Girls with a tan.
~

Decora & Kawaii ~ Meaning ‘cute’. The clothes are meant to emphasize the cuteness of the person wearing them, or make them look quite childlike. Accessories include back packs with animation characters on them and oversized stuffed toys.
~

People even choose to express themselves dressed as Cosplay of anime or manga characters .

~

It looks to me that there are only a few standard rules when it comes to Harajuku:

• Stand out
• More is more
• Weird and cute is good
• Guys may look like girls if they so please (and vice versa)
• Being ignored is NOT an option
• If all else fails, pick something with COLOUR!!!

Gwen Stefani – What You Waiting For? (Featuring Love, Angel, Music, & Baby)

I tell you, I’m friends with quite a few vampires around the world. I even worked for a famous one for a while. Anyways, I decided to have a bit of fun with the ten commandments for my tips for dating a Vampire. (You know, that cute one who lives next door, who you’ve been friends with for ages) *eyebrow wiggle*.

TEN: ‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbours.’
~ If you want something he has, circle it in catalogues and leave it lying around his house so he can get an idea of what gifts to buy you. If you’re yearning after an ox or a donkey, in this day and age, you may need more help than he can give you.

NINE: ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.’
~ Nobody likes a liar. If he asks if there’re bits of his dinner in his fangs, tell him the truth.

EIGHT: ‘You shall not steal.’
~ He’ll know if you borrowed that Nine Inch Nails CD. Be sure to give it back.

SEVEN: ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
~ Who wants a girlfriend who can’t be faithful? Not him, obviously.

SIX: ‘You shall not murder.’
~ Yeah, he doesn’t want to die. Talk with words, not a stake.

FIVE: ‘Honor your father and your mother.’
~ He’ll probably want to be around you a fair bit, so you’ll both have to get on the good side with the respective parental units.

FOUR: ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.’
~He’ll really want to spend Halloween with you. Keep the day free on your calendar. Oh, and if Ozzy Osbourne tours again, be prepared to party hearty.

THREE: ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.’
~ Avoid using the names of the higher powers. I.E. God, Jesus, Allah, etc, it will make him choke on his soft drink.

TWO: ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image–any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.’
~ He’s probably on the run from a vampire hunter (or some crackpot who thinks they are one). So don’t lead the hunter right to him by posting his picture all over your FB. Not even those pics of him in his hot board shorts at the beach with his shirt off.

ONE: ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.’
~ Really I think what it means here is: once you go Drac, you’ll never go back.

Music: Vampire Weekend – Giving Up The Gun