Flora and Ulysses, Kate Dicamillo

When Floras neighbor, Ms. Tickham gets a vacuum cleaner  known as the “ Ulysses 2000X “ for her birthday, she declares to use it right away, But when this machine goes out of control heading towards an innocent squirrel Floras takes responsibility to nurse the squrrel back to health.

Flora Belle Buckman: Is a cynic… Well that is what she thought till now…

When Flora discovers a heart warming feeling for a squirrel she tries to tell herself that she is a cynic and never to hope but when her only choice is to hope, instead of denying it Flora decided to embrace it.

When Flora is doing her daily comic reading on her desk she looks outside of her window she sees miss tickham and the ulysses 2000X heading towards an innocent squirrel she jumps up to save the day. She runs downstairs and out the door but as she is running she hears the vacuum turn off, it was to late or was it…

I really liked this book because of the words and the plot. I rate this book 5 out of 5 because the discriptive language grabs you and makes you think about this word sounds like Flora. If you liked the sound of this book then make sure to read it.

Masterpiece by Elise Broach

51iTSvM1fBL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_This book is called Masterpiece written by Elise Broach and illustrated by Kelly Murphy. The main characters are a shiny black beetle named Marvin and an eleven year old boy named James. The book takes place in New York City, sometimes at James’s house (where Marvin lives) and sometimes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Marvin drew an amazing pen and ink illustration and by accident James took all the credit. Now James is expected to draw more illustrations but he can’t do it without Marvin’s help.

 

Marvin and James became really good friends because they would always travel together on wild journeys to The Met and they would collaborate all the time on new drawings. Marvin was sneaking out of the apartment again and again to go to the Met. The streets of New York City are not meant for a little beetle. Everyone in Marvin’s family was really anxious because he was unprotected in the big city.  Albrecht Dürer, who is a famous pen and ink artist is a very important part of this story. Christina, a woman who worked at The Met, has crazy ideas. She thought if James could make a forgery of Albrecht Dürer’s famous drawing then she could use the fake drawing to catch the real criminal who stole the other drawings. James and Marvin work together to find the drawings. “And Prudence! And Temperance! They’ve been missing for more than two years.” Prudence and Temperance are two of Dürer’s drawings.

 

I really enjoyed this book because I love art and drawings and I also like the four virtues that Dürer drew (a set of four drawings including Prudence and Temperance). I would recommend this book to people who like art and books that almost every chapter is a cliffhanger and you just don’t want to stop reading. I would rate this book five stars because I love art and even if it was complicated I really enjoyed how the whole story connected together and at the end you could connect all the steps together and understand everything.

 

The cats of Roxville station by Jean Craighead George.

The name of the book I read this summer is The Cats of Roxville Station by Jean Craighead George. The main character is a cat named Ratchet who was mistreated by her owner. She was kicked, locked in the closet, and even went days without food and water. One night Ratchet’s owner went to the river and threw her over the bridge, thinking that it would kill her. But luckily Ratchet survived, got out of the water and wandered into Roxville Station. There she stumbled upon a life full of danger and unexpected kindness.

At Roxville station there is a order of ranking
1. Queennella ( black and white cat)
2. Ice bucket ( white but dirty cat)
3. Flea market ( brown coat matted from fleas)
4. Tatters and Tachometer (black and white sisters)
5. Elizabeth ( a small calico)
6. Rachet ( tiger striped cat)

As she settles into this new life, Rachet begins to work her way up the food chain. She gains new respect from the other cats by challenging Queennella, the head cat. One afternoon, Ratchet crawls through a cracked window and into the basement of a haunted house, owned by a women who hates cats. Little does she know, Mike, a young boy who has tried to befriend Ratchet before, is living there as well.

Suddenly, Ratchet is whirled into a world full of humans, pest control, and fierce predators. If you like action, adventures, drama, and talking animals, then this a book for you.
I rate this book 5 stars.

ARTEMIS FOWL, THE LAST GUARDIAN EOIN COLFER

This book takes place in two different worlds. The human world, and the underground fairy world. The main characters are Artemis Fowl, his bodyguard Butler, and a LEP (Lower Elements Police) officer the elf Holly Short from the underground fairy world. The main problem is the super villain, the pixie Opal Koboi.

Opal has reanimated buried fairy warriors called the Berserkers. She has bonded them to do her bidding. Opal’s master plan is to destroy the humans. But to do that, she must unleash the power of Danu. The main character Artemis Fowl decides he must sacrifice to stop Opal. Of course, no one expected this. Artemis has always been very self preserving, and sort of greedy. Here is a quote announcing that. “Artemis Fowl planned to attack with the one weapon Opal Koboi would never suspect him of possessing: his humanity.”

I found this book funny, intense, and full of suspense. I really enjoyed it. If you like that sort of thing to, you should totally read it. There are also some really surprising moments, of course, but that is to be expected. It’s Artemis Fowl. He always was surprising. I would rate this book ten out of five stars.

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The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin

 The book that I read was The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin. The three main characters in the book are a girl named Pacy who is the middle child, Kiki who is the youngest and Lissy who is the oldest. The whole family lives in New Hartford which is in Upstate New York. Pacy is really sad because her best friend Melody is moving to California, Melody did not want to but her parents had a reason why they were going to move.

 images-1Pacy’s parents said “ The year of the rat is all about making changes”, but Pacy did not really understand why. Pacy wanted to know why did Melody have to move and why did such a big change have to happen. So far Pacy did not like how the year of the rat was going. When Melody started to pack Pacy, Pacy’s mom and Kiki came over to help. Since Melody had so many books to pack her mom said to give some to Pacy. So Melody and Pacy decided to split half of the books and when they were done with half of the books they would send the books in the mail so Pacy and Melody could both read all of the books. Once Melody left and Pacy was back at school she felt sad and lonely. While Melody was gone Pacy’s uncle Clifford was having a wedding so Pacy’s family got to stay in a hotel. After the wedding was over the whole family had a celebration. Then at night Clifford asked Lissy, Pacy and Kiki to jump on their bed because that means good luck and it means Clifford and her wife could have lots of children too! Then a few months before Chinese New Year, Pacy got a Call from Melody saying she was coming to visit on Chinese New Year!

I really enjoyed the book because I really like the Grace Lin books and because the book is fun to read with the adventures and surprises! I also liked the part when the parents tell stories inside the book about when they were a kid and the stories are so interesting. I also liked the book because its fun hearing about when Melody sends back the books to Pacy and Pacy gets a little note of how Melody liked the books and some of the books are actually real books. I would say a person who likes to read adventure and friendship would like this book because the book is basically all about adventure and friendship. I would rate this 5 stars out of 5 stars!

book review written by Olivia P

 

 

The Blood Guard By Carter Roy

This summer I read the book, The Blood Guard by Carter Roy. It takes place in Brooklyn, and an anonymous urban/suburban area. The main characters are Evelyn (Ronan) Truelove, Greta, Ronan’s redheaded old classmate and Jack Dawkins, a member of the blood guard and teenaged pickpocket. In the beginning of the book there was a prologue.  Ronan stayed home sick for school. And the house mysteriously got set on fire… He evacuated safely after leaping of the roof of his house. The main problem begins when Ronan gets picked up from his new school (because he moved after his house blew up) by his mom and she told him that his dad got kidnapped and they got chased by the “police”. They actually are not police.

 

 

That was a lot of information. Let me get down to the basics. There are 36 Pure human beings who always, every single time do the right thing. If one of them dies, something really bad happens to the world. WWII happened because one of the Pure died. They are the glue that keeps together the world.

 

By the way, the people who kidnapped Ronan’s nerdy dad were the people who were chasing Ronan’s mom, Bree, and Ronan. Yeah, those people I called “police” are actually agents of a bad guy group called the Bend Sinister. They believe that the world is horrible and they want a new start where they are the only people in the world left and then they can start anew. They are basically terrorists. “HOW IN THE WORLD CAN YOU GET RID OF BILLIONS OF PEOPLE BUT YOU!!!??,” You might be asking yourself. The answer is simple. Assassinate the 36 Pure.

 

The good guys in this book are, of course, the Blood Guard. They are people who dedicate their lives to protect the Pure. Bree is one of the Blood Guard. And much more characters you discover are too! Throughout the book the Bend Sinister chase Ronan for an unknown reason. There is a lot more, I just don’t want to spoil it. Come on, do yourself a favor and read this fantabulous book. The problem does get resolved,  and I’m talking about almost everything I mentioned. Almost…

 

(PS, I couldn’t find a quote to say that the problem was resolved.)

 

 

Here are my ratings of this awesome book. I enjoyed reading it over a weekend not in 2 hours like I do with some books. I also enjoyed the book because it was medium paced. It does not have many cliffhangers, and you can put it down whenever you want which is not always the case with some books. I would recommend this book to an action adventure and humor reader that has a fair amount of time on his/her hands. I say this because it is not a skinny book but it is not as fat as War and Peace or Moby Dick so you will probably finish it in a few days if you keep at it. I would rate this book four out of five stars.

 

The Outcast by John Flanagan

Hal is a very interesting teenager, his dad died fighting. Hal is an Outcast in Skandia. He has one friend named Stig whose father ran away.

It is about to be brotherband training where the 15-year-old boys train to be real warriors. So on the day the choose there brother bands Hal gets the group with all the outcast and he is there leader.

Hal is a very smart kid and is a day ahead of the other two brother bands already. But when it comes to training it gets harder for them and it gets more and more athletic every day.

Soon comes the part on a boat, Hal made his own boat named the Heron. She is different from other Skandia’s boats. And during one race one boat gets stuck and can’t compete brotherband training.

Any mistake they make they could lose. It difficulties is hard to match but eventually the win. And win brotherband training they are rewarded to protect a special artifact for a night. And the one night they’re there it gets stolen. They leave to get it back. Will the get it back or will the die! Read this awesome series to find out.

I really liked this book it was 5 out of 5 stars and is and is awesome because it grips on you like a claw and makes you want to read more. Read this book if you like adventure books and books by John Flanagan.

 

The Glass Sentence

The Glass Sentence by S.E grove is a book about a girl named Sophie Tims.It is the story of an adventure through time and places all over New Occident. Sophie lives in Boston in the country called New Occident.The book takes place in no real time because in 1799 something called The Great Disruption which put every country into another time period. Sophie is taken care by her uncle Shadrack because her mom and dad went missing when she was young. Sophie is very talented as well, she is a scout adventure.

 

The story is about her adventure with a boy named Theo. Together they travel to different countries scattered in different times to find the cause of the Great Disruption while looking for her uncle. They pay lot of attention to a map made by Shadrack that tells of memories when you touch it. For example when Sophie says in chapter 9 “I had no idea she had such a terrible story in her past”.  That’s when Sophie was  leaving at that time to find her uncle, she seemed scared leaving her home.

 

I would rate this book 5 stars, its really good. The best part to me was when the story finally got to the adventure and kicked up. I also liked when Sophie was brave and when she worked hard no matter what.   I would recommend this book to people who like confusing books, because it can be confusing. I hope you read this book you will probably enjoy it.

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The BFG By Roald Dahl

My book review is on THE BFG by Roald Dahl. The book is about a girl named Sophie who meets a giant named the BFG. Sophie is an orphan so she is used to being polite and helpful.  One night the BFG kidnaps Sophie because Sophie sees him. The BFG takes Sophie to giant vill. Giant vill is a place that has a yellow ground and no trees. And then Sophie realizes what giants do for their living…

…They eat children up at night…

So of course Sophie wants to make sure that the other mean giants don’t find out about her.

While the BFG isn’t saving other kids, and since he doesn’t eat  other kids, he catches dreams and he gives the good dreams to kids all over the world. Sophie does not want to stay in the place where there are giants because if they find out about her she will be eaten. “Why can’t I just go back to my old orphanage,” Said Sophie. “You can’t go back there because if you do you will tell everyone and then people will try to find us giants,” Said the BFG.

I liked this book because Sophie isn’t the type of girl that gives up quickly and she is very nice. I would recommend this book to people who like adventure and nonsense words like a snozzcumber or a wrilndgritting type of dream. I would rate this book 5 stars .

Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko

Screen Shot 2014-06-04 at 9.34.22 PMThis book review is going to be about the book Al Capone Does My Shirts. The book was written by Gennifer Choldenko. The book is about a boy that lives on Alcatraz, the worst prison to be on at thetime. As you might have guessed there are ups and downs when you are living around the worst criminals in America. Alcatraz is basically a gigantic rock (or island) covered in cement, topped with bird crap.

 

The main characters name is Moose, short for Matthew. He is very solidly built, nice to everyone except for the warden’s daughter named Piper. For example he is constantly hanging out with a 7 year old that likes him. When he first gets to the island he is sent to the warden’s office to promise to help the wardens daughter carry her projects to and from school. It turns out that Piper is more trouble than Moose thought.

 

Within the first few hours of school Piper has broken her dad (the warden’s) rule about not talking about living on Alcatraz. Also she makes people pay to have their laundry done by the criminals but then won’t pay the people who helped her do it.

 

In the beginning of the book you think that Al Capone is really bad but he is actually pretty nice to moose. For example one time Moose goes to the sell house and Al is complimenting him. He also helps Natalie Moose’s sister to go to a school for children with autism. He asks Al Capone to help her get in.

 

One quote from Piper is,”You won’t get any of the money we make.”. So to conclude this book review the book is about how Moose will keep a good record with the grownups and a good relationships with the children on the island. I recommend it if you like mystery and adventure, a fast moving book, or a book about living near a prison. I would rate this book 100 stars out of 5. ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************* Ok that might not be 100 but it is pretty close to it.