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.

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.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

This book is called Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. The book is about a girl named Minli hearing all different stories about long ago by her dad which is normally called Ba and one story, Minli hears a story she believes so much Minli goes out of fruitless mountain which is where she lives and goes to try to find it. The thing Minli tries to find is the man of the moon. The man of the moon grants wishes for people every ninety nine years, but the thing Minli doesn’t know is he only grants one wish. After Ma which is Minlis mom and Ba are still working Minli goes back to her house and leaves a note that she will not be back for a few days. When Minli finds the man of the moon she was going to ask how fruitless mountain can be fruitful again.

imgresThe night Minli goes out she goes out of fruitless mountain and goes up another mountain. Since Minli was really tired she took a nap near a forest and next to a lake. When Minli woke up she found a Dragon in the lake stuck with vines so she helped the dragon. The dragons name was Dragon. Dragon was made from a painting but the ink from the painting is actually where Dragon was born and if you read this book you will find out how the dragon was in the ink stone. Dragon said “I remember when a bird flew from the sky and dropped a peach pit onto the ground. I watched that pit grow into a tree and the peaches fell from the tree and more trees grew from the pits of those peaches until it became the grove of peach trees that the monkeys have now taken over.”Minli thought the dragon was very old. Soon Minli returns with a good answer from the man of the moon for Dragon and something really magical and amazing happens that night…

I really enjoyed this book it was one of the best books I have ever read. For an example when Minli meets a dragon and the dragon is nice that is really interesting because most dragons would try to eat you in stories. I  also really enjoyed the little stories that are in the stories because they are stories from long ago. I would recommend this book to people who kind of believe in magic or who like magic and who like hearing ancient stories and who like hearing things that are a bit make believe but sound so interesting and amazing. I would recommend the book to the people who I just mentioned because if you like those kind of books the examples all go into this book. I would give this book 10 stars even though we are only supposed to do 5 stars!

 

Bunnicula By Deborah and James Howe

This book is about the Monroe family and they have a dog named Harold and a Cat named Chester. Toby, and Pete Monroe, and Ms. and Mr. Monroe were out from the movies and then they brought back home a Rabbit that they found in the streets. After a couple of weeks with the new pet, this pet does not speak and ignores Chester and Harold. Chester the cat is jumping to conclusions and saying that this new “pet” is acting strange and might not be a normal pet at all.

Harold the dog is being the total opposite of Chester and just saying that maybe the new pet is just shy and needs a little time to fit in.

After another couple of weeks this new rabbit has been acting strange a lot and Chester decided to stay up all night and see what’s going on. While Chester was up, he saw the Rabbit eat all of the Monroes vegetables. This rabbit is not eating the vegetables but is sucking the color out of the vegetables that there turning white. The Monroes don’t know what’s going on but Chester sure does. So Chester tells Harold the whole story and Harold stays up during the night, and Harold can not believe what he’s seeing and Chester cannot believe what he’s about to say. Chester get’s all crazy and says that this rabbit is not just a rabbit, it’s a vampire rabbit and his name is Bunnicula. Here is quote from Chester the cat. “Don’t judge a rabbit by it’s cover if you know it’s a vampire.”

bunnicula-bgI would recommend this book to someone who likes mystery books because this book has a lot of mystery. I would also rate this book 4 stars **** because it’s a great book but in the middle of the book it starts to get a little confusing like, first Bunnicula sucks the color from the vegetables and then the Monroes figure out who it is and then they think it’s Chester and stuff. Some mystery books are confusing and this one is, just a little.

 

Taggerung, By Brian Jacques

This is a book from the Redwall series. It is called Taggerung. This book is about a young otter whose father was slain by vermin. These vermin took him in, and named him their taggerung. A taggerung is a beast who is very fast, very strong, and extremely dangerous. Taggerungs also have very good eyesight, hearing, and tracking skills. When this taggerung leaves the vermin clan because the chief Sawney Rath was becoming too dangerous for his own good, he goes off adventuring and eventually ends up at Redwall Abbey.

The main characters are Tagg, ( The taggerung) Nimbalo, ( a harvest mouse) Mhera, (Tagg’s older sister) Cregga Badgermum, ( The abbey’s caretaker) and Filorn ( Tagg and Mhera’s mother). This book takes place in Mossflower Woodlands.

A very important thing is that Taggerung goes through a change to find his real self. The taggerung realizes that he is not a vermin, and he has things that he wants to do anyway. Here is what the taggerung told Sawney Rath when he left. “ I no longer want to be with you or your clan, Sawney. You’ve become too dangerous for your own good. I’ve watched you change over the seasons from a clan chief, to a bad old beast. I go my own way now. our paths will never cross again, so I wish you better times and hope you learn to treat others more wisely.”

When Tagg leaves Sawney’s band, there are many plot twists. One of them introduces a very important character, Nimbalo. Tagg and Nimbalo become very good friends, and they are usually found together, having adventures.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and I would totally rate it 5 out of 5 stars. I would recommend this book to people who like funniness, action, animal perspective, and don’t mind a bit of violence. Also, you should be prepared for a little tiny bit of grossness. But other than that, I think that this book should be a movie so that we could watch it! That would be awesome!

This is the cover of Taggerung. The otter on the cover is the Taggerung.

 

Toys Come Home by Emily Jenkins


Toys Come Home is about a girl who has a lot of stuffed animals. In the book it does not say what the girl’s name is and it just says ‘the girl’. When the girl is not Unknowninside the room all the stuffed animals come to life and their names are stingray that is a stingray, bobby dot that is a seal, sheep that is a sheep ,rocking horse that is a rocking horse and tuck tuck which is a towel but she needs to stay in the bathroom. The stuffed animals can talk and play games and do lots of things. The stuffed animals don’t get to go outside and they just stay home all day in the girls room. There are lots of other characters that come in the book that I did not introduce yet but I will soon.

When it is the girl’s birthday that is when stingray comes to the girls house. Stingray got shipped in a little box and stingray was the girl’s birthday gift. When the girl brings stingray into the room all the stuffed animals stare at her and when the girl leaves the stuffed animals start to be mean to her. When it is night time stingray does not have anywhere to sleep so she just sleeps on the window sill. Soon the girl’s dad dries bobby dot in the dryer and bobby dot was not supposed to be dried so when he comes out of the dryer he is shredded into pieces. So the next day the girl brings Stingray to the toy shop to get a new bobby dot, but the girl does not seem to like him so much so the day after that she brings Stingray again to the toy shop and exchanges the seal with a bull. The bull is named Lumpy. Stingray and Lumpy make friends and now Stingray has a friend to play with. When the girl has her birthday party her parents think she is old enough to have a bowling party so the girl has a bowling party. One of the girls friend gives her a Plastic ball and the girl named it plastic and then Stingray, Lumpy and plastic all make friends. Stingray, Lumpy and Plastic also really like playing hungry hippos and Stingray says “More hippos are the best.” But Plastic thinks that her hippo was full of marbles nine hours ago and she doesn’t understand that you try to get the most marbles.

I really enjoyed this book because it is interesting how Lumpy Stingray and Plastic all make friends and it is exciting how all the stuffed animals can come to life. I would recommend this book because it is exciting and you want to know what is going to happen next. I would give this a five star rating out of five stars.

 

                                              review by Olivia Im Propp

 

 

A Forest World By Felix Salten

This book is about these wild animals that live in the forest. The main character is named Manni and he is a friendly donkey who tries to help other animals in the forest. Manni has lots of friends and he is an adventures donkey too. He lives on a farm that is not to far from the forest. There are other animals that live with him in the farm like Devil the stallion. The setting of this book takes place in the forest with lots of danger but pretty sight.

Manni and his friends have a nice life in the forest and the farm until poachers threaten them in the woods. The animals are going to have to choose whether to stay at their favorite place to live, or find a new place to live which could take days to find a new and perfect home. But also Manni does not want to go look for a new habitat or just stay, he wants to fight against the poachers and stay at his and his friends home. Also some important events from the book is when later on things start to change around. The stables change by getting all rusty and not in good shape. The trees start to get chopped down and some of the animals are starting to get sick. Another important event is when the forest gets so bad that the forest was turning into something that Manni and his friends would have never guessed.

I enjoyed this book because it shows how to keep your environment clean and healthy and to remember that animals need to be taken care of too. I would recommend this book to someone who loves animals and nature and poetry because this book has a lot of animals in it and has really descriptive words. I would rate this book 5 stars because the book was really understandable and had good chapters.1442486376

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mouse and the motorcycle, By Beverly Cleary

Mouse and the motorcycle, is about a mouse named ralph who is up for adventure and goes  out of the mouse hole,thinking its a breeze out in room 215 at the mountain view inn, but then Ralph finds a motorcycle and wants to figure out how to work it,but then he meets kieth the boy who is visiting the hotel in room 215.So read mouse and the motorcycle! and find out what happens.

And I rate it four stars.

Trouble According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney

Trouble according to Humphrey is by Betty G. Birney. Humphrey is the main character and this book is full of adventure because of the main character Humphrey. It takes place in many places like the school and other kids houses.

Once a family called the Paynes who complained about Humphrey and It was about getting their family sick and also Humphrey was not eating so Mrs. Brisbane  the teacher brought humphrey to the vet when Humphrey really just was sad about his human friends and what he had done to them accidently. This book was really good and if you like animals and adventure and even if you don’t you will probably like this book anyway.

One of my favorite parts as when Humphrey was at Seths and  Seths families and they [and Humphrey] had a competition on who can sit still the longest. The one who wins gets 2 tickets to the movies and can bring a friend and Seth [ who is called sit still Seth because he always pops out of his seat] won. I would really recommend this book in fact it is about my 2nd favorite book. This book is very good for 3rd and 4th graders. I think it is good for them because if I read this book in 3rd grade it would probably have been just right for me and I know it is just right for me in 4th grade because I read it in 4th grade. I rate this book five stars out of five because it is sure one of my favorites.

Trouble-According-to-Humphrey-9780142410899

Ivy and Bean Bound To Be Bad

Ivy & Bean Bound to be Bad

by Colette Leong

Ivy-and-Bean-Bound-to-Be-Bad-9780811868570

The book I read is called Ivy & Bean Bound To Be Bad and the authors of this book are named Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall. The main characters are really different from each other. One is Bean (but her real name is Beatrice) and she is a very exciting girl and wants to do more things. But Ivy is a more sophisticated and mysterious and good person.

The setting takes place in Ivy and Bean’s court called Pancake court which has lots of neighbors and lots of exciting people there. (Many kids live here in Pancake court and unalike people live here and lots of exciting characters in Pancake court.) Bean and Ivy want to be kind to nature but their bully Crummy Matt, just can’t help Bean be kind to nature so Bean has an idea to stand up for herself. Bean will do something bad and Ivy will convince Bean to be good so Bean can be good after all. But Bean went a little bit too into her plan so she started to be bad.

I rate this book four stars ****. If you want to find out what happens to Bean, will Bean be good or bad You should read this book if you want to find out what happens to Ivy and Bean!