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No Ordinary Excuse
‘I put on my imaginary thinking cap. Mine is a hot pink, domed helmet with purple lightning bolts on the sides. It pulls down from a long spring coil above my bed… So with my cap in place, I started thinking of possible homework excuses. Maybe I could tell Miss Haven that I’d spent the last two weeks under alien hypnosis and they’d erased any memory of a school project…’
Meet twelve-year-old Gemma Martin. She wants to be an actress, but school is getting in the way. Gemma has used all of the usual excuses to avoid her homework, but this time she’s facing serious consequences and must rely on her vivid imagination to create the most extraordinary homework excuse ever. Initially, Gemma’s stolen project story skyrockets her popularity, but it isn’t long before things start to spiral out of control and Gemma is headed for disaster.
No Ordinary Excuse is the story of how our biggest mistakes are often our greatest teachers.
“Michelle Adams has used every stretch of her imagination to produce a wonderful children’s book filled with mean girls, best friends, and life lessons. I very much enjoyed reading No Ordinary Excuse and recommend it to readers who enjoy adventure, humor, and intrigue.” 5 stars
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Original price was: $12.95.$5.00Current price is: $5.00.
Book Details
| Weight | 204 g |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 203 × 133 mm |
| Extent | 170 pages |
| Format | Paperback |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Junior Fiction |
| Release date | 11 February 2012 |
| ISBN | 9780987232519 |
| Imprint | Odyssey Books |
About The Author
Michelle Adams
Michelle Adams is not of the modern, fast-paced world. She exists in a realm where everyone has enough time to hear a good story, and the joy of growing and cooking your own food is the norm. Neighbours trade things over the fence and a tribe of children trample through the house on a daily basis. Some of them live here, but many others float in and out upon wafting aromas or wandering welcome bubbles. This is a happy place where the magic of imagination is alive and well.
Rosie Malezer for Readers’ Favorite –
No Ordinary Excuse is a novel written by Michelle Adams. Twelve-year-old Gemma Martin is the queen of excuses and her teacher, Miss Haven, and best friends, Callum and Kellie, have heard them all. When Gemma forgets to do yet another class assignment, she is sentenced to lunch time detention for an indefinite period, but Gemma decides to come up with an excuse that Miss Haven cannot possibly fail to accept. Although this excuse is not about alien abductions, kidnapping, or her homework having been eaten by a dog, it certainly is unusual and requires the assistance of her agreeable aunt who is just about to take a tour of Sydney, Australia. Initially, Gemma plans on doing an assignment about Cyclone Larry, but her father tells her about a disaster far exceeding that of Cyclone Larry. Cyclone Tracy, one of Australia’s worst national disasters, had devastated Darwin at Christmas in 1974. Gemma becomes intrigued by the infamous cyclone’s legacy which had caused almost one billion dollars in damage and had left so many people with nothing more than the shirt on their back. While her assignment goes on tour, Gemma suddenly realizes that doing your homework is easier (and far more interesting) than not doing it.
I found this book rather ingenious in that it is not only written in a way that will appeal to younger audiences, but it also has an educational value about a day which is imprinted on so many people’s minds. I found myself in tears in some places as the recollections were so vivid and precise. The letter from someone who’d lived through the terror of that night was the perfect touch. No Ordinary Excuse teaches children that every assignment has a reason, with each giving them a real opportunity to learn valuable lessons in their own time. Michelle Adams has used every stretch of her imagination to produce a wonderful children’s book filled with mean girls, best friends, and life lessons. I very much enjoyed reading No Ordinary Excuse and recommend it to readers who enjoy adventure, humor, and intrigue while learning some important historical facts about Australia.