11 Birthdays, by Wendy Mass

My book review is on 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass. It is about Amanda and her ex-best friend Leo. Leo is her ex-best friend because they have the same birthday and used to celebrate it together, but on their 10th birthday Amanda overheard Leo saying mean things about her to Leo’s other friends. She hasn’t talked to him since. Now it is her 11th birthday and it will be the first time they have not celebrated it together. Leo is having a party with hypnotists and football players and Amanda is having a lame Hollywood themed party. All she thinks that it is so unfair. After she has the worst birthday ever and she finally goes to sleep to end the day, things take a twist. When she wakes up it is her 11th birthday again! When she realizes someone else is stuck in this day again with her, she has to fight her way out. This book is full of unexpected turns especially when you meet Angelina, ( hint, hint, clue, clue.) I rate this book five stars to people who like a little mystery but not too much. I like this book because it is very fun and full of twists.

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is a book about a girl, Meg, who doesn’t really fit in with all the other kids. One night she cannot fall asleep because of a hurricane and goes downstairs and finds her little brother Charles Wallace. Charles Wallace knows everything about everything and was expecting Meg to want hot cocoa. Meg actually did want hot cocoa. Their mother Mrs. Murry woke up, also wanting hot cocoa. The twins stayed asleep. All three of them had sandwiches and after a while, a visitor arrived, Mrs. Whatsit. Mrs. Whatsit lives in “the haunted house” in the woods.

 

Charles Wallace, Meg, and their dog, Fortinbras go into the woods to see Mrs. Whatsit the next day. Suddenly they find a boy who’s name is Calvin. Calvin is a couple of grades above Meg. He is on the high school basketball team. They all introduced themselves and headed towards the house. Charles Wallace knocked on the door. A woman named Mrs. Who was knitting on a rocking chair inside the house. Mrs. Who is a friend of Mrs. Whatsit. They live together. Mrs. Who can only speak in quotes because it is too hard for her to verbalize her thoughts. Mrs. Whatsit wasn’t there so Calvin, Meg, and Charles Wallace went home.

 

Calvin stayed over for dinner. After dinner, Calvin took Meg on a walk and in the middle of the walk, Charles Wallace appears and says, “we’re going.” Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin head to the house in the woods. (Charles Wallace thinks that they’re going to find their father). When Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin are walking to Mrs. Whatsit’s house they find Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and a little silver shimmer in the air. The little shimmer start’s to talk, “ Alll rrightt, girrllss. Thiss iss nno ttime forr bbickkerring.” Charles Wallace says to Meg and Calvin, “That’s Mrs. Witch.”

 

That’s all I’m going to tell you because after that comes the part where you don’t want to put the book down. I loved this book because during a few of the chapters I couldn’t put the book down. When I stopped reading, I felt dizzy.

 

My favorite part of the book was when Meg, Charles Wallace, Calvin, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Witch all travel to a woman named Medium. And as they’re approaching Medium’s house, Mrs. Witch says “WWEE ARE HERE!”. I like that part because it is a little funny. (You will understand it if you read the book.)

 

I would recommend this book to people who like books that you can really get into because when I was reading it I literally could not put the book down. I would also recommend this book to people who like to read a book and want to be surprised because trust me, there are a lot of surprises. Lastly, I would recommend this book to people who like fantasy that is kind of realistic because the characters are easy to understand but what happens to them is fantasy. I think that ages 9+ should read this book. If you have read When You Reach Me you will love this book.

 

I would rate this book five stars!

 

Frogged

Frogged

By Colette Leong

The book I read over the weekend is called Frogged, and the author of Frogged is named Vivian Vande Velde. The main character, Igmone, Princess Igmone. Igmone lives in a castle with her mother, father and her younger brother. Her mother told Igmone to read a book called “The Art Of Being A Princess,” before her thirteenth birthday, so she can be a real polite princess.

Igmone goes to one of her favorite places of the courtyard. Igmone meets a frog prince by the pond. The frog prince is really a poor boy who lives on the streets, The boy Igmone left food for, who she felt bad for. But he is just not very nice person. Igmone thought she was just helping him but Igmone, herself got turned into a frog in the boys place. Later on, Igmone met some teenagers in a barn. They’re names are Lulla and Bertie. Lulla, an farmer.Bertie, an actor. Lulla and Bertie capture Igmone and She goes on an adventure with Lulla and Bertie.

If you read this book you will find out what happens out later in this book.I rate Frogged  **** four stars. Frogged is funny and surprising and I hope you think so too!

The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan

The book I read over winter break was called The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan. The Titan’s Curse is the third book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. The main characters are Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, Annabeth, Daughter of Athena, Thalia, Daughter of Zeus, and Nico and Bianca di Angelo. The book takes place in a lot of different settings. One of the parts you want to focus on if you read this book is trying to understand the prophecies, they are very hard to understand because they don’t make that much sense. I enjoyed the book because it has humor and it’s action packed. The part I got worried at was… wait I shouldn’t tell you. I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars because it’s a good read and to people who like crazy books with action and humor this book is good for you.

 By John Griffin Cook

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins


The Hunger games is an amazing book by an amazing author.  The Hunger Games is about the 12 districts in Panem (the ruins of North America) surrounding the harsh Capitol that thinks they always need to remind everyone of how much power they have. They do that by having a yearly hunger games.


                                                                    Important facts, skip paragraph (not recommended) for rest of review.

 

A boy and a girl get reaped by their names getting drawn from glass ball filled with paper slips with names (when you get picked to fight in the hunger games on live tv.) If you are poor (like many of the people in district 12 are) you can get free food (grains and oil) by signing up for tesserae but you need to enter your name 1 extra time. The reaping day parade is when they pick the people for the years hunger games. To be eligible to be reaped, you need to be between the ages 12-18. Every year towards 18 you get your name put into the glass ball one more time. Sometimes people can volunteer to be a tribute if the person warts or needs to. This is often done by career tributes (kids that train their whole life for the games and are the best players in the games, really good with weapons. Then they volunteer) The districts that tend to have careers are the more wealthy districts 1,2 and 4. Even though it is illegal to train for the games before they are reaped, the capitol allows it because their districts are more wealthy and trade better goods to the Capitol. Sometimes they let other people in even if they are not careers for certain reasons. Last few things before we start about the book: Effie Trinket is the escort for district 12, and Haymitch Abernathy is the mentor for district 12. A mentor is a previous hunger games victor and
gives the tribunes tips on how to win. Escorts are people from the Capitol to do parties and escort you. If you win, you get fame and fortune, losing means certain death.

 

Now for the good stuff! 16 year-old Katniss Everdeen wakes up reaping day and goes hunting (strictly illegal and punishable by death) with her best friend Gale. They talk in the Capitol accent and say “may the odds ever be in your favor.” They’re pretending it’s all fun and games until the parade arrives; her 12 year-old sister Primrose ‘Prim’ Everdeen is reaped, her name was only put in the ball once. Katniss’s father is died in a mine explosion (the districts industry is coal mining), it’s also the same one that killed Gale’s father. Ever since Katniss’s father died, she took over the family. Katniss volunteers and is the district’s first ever volunteer, very big deal. Now for the boys, Peeta Mellark is reaped. The peace keepers take them to there room where they will say their final goodbyes to their families and friends.

When they arrive at the Capitol via hi-speed train they go the penthouse (very luxurious) they get amazing food and really cool showers. They meet their stylist (to help with the interviews and opening day parade,) and Katniss Gets a new stylist, Cinna, who chose district 12 (they hardly ever/maybe only twice won the games) and, he’s great. Past stylists have made the tributes from district 12 look ridiculous and haven’t gotten very many sponsors (if they like what they see they get the mentor and during the games give them supplies to help them survive and/or fight.) The new tributes from district 12, Katniss and Peeta Mellark are… on fire. They look amazing and win the crowd and sponsors. Katniss earns the name ‘The Girl On Fire’.

Training and, ‘‘The 74th annual Hunger Games!.” In the training center there are many stations: archery, camo, hand-to-hand combat, sword fighting, knife throwing climbing, ect, ect. Haymitch said don’t show the others what your really good at.
 Katniss avoids archery and Peeta avoids weight lifting (his family owns a bakery and he throws 100 pound bags of flour over his head.) Katniss visits the plats station to find what plants are edible and which are not. See already knows very well from her family’s book, hunting and her father. See does little fighting stations and sees the careers showing of. They train for 3 days then have their private sessions. Now Katniss does her Archery magic. since Katniss is last person to go the and game makers (what they name is, they do) are drunk and and eating, katniss gives them a surprise… The interviews are on and Katniss again steals the spotlight. She talks about her 11 in training out of a possible 12, best of all the other tributes. “…let the games begin!” Haymitch advises Katniss to stay away from the cornucopia, the giant horn where all the good stuff is. Katniss sees only one bow and arrow but is late to react to the gong so she manages to get a back pack food and stuff. She runs of into the woods.

 

Thats my reveiw,  there is much more of the games in the, but too many spoilers in the rest! The whole series is from Katniss’s point of view. I time period is future.

I love it partly because of the twist of a bad future, not a good future. There is also some really cool teach in the book.

 

I would rate this book 6 out of 5 (yes, 6) stars because you will go to sleep thinking about it. It’s a great book, READ IT!!!!!!! 🙂 Highly addictive. BEWARE!!! 🙂

Keys of the Demon Prison by Brandon Mull

Fablehaven is about a brother and sister (Seth and Kendra) that find a magic world. In the magic world there is a demon prison and the keys are artifacts that have magic powers. The enemy is the Society of the Evening Star and they are trying to open the demon prison. The artifacts/keys are hidden on places that hold magic animals called preserves. Seth and Kendra look for the artifacts to stop the Society of the Evening star from getting them. There are many preserves but five are secret and have artifacts in them. I would recommend this book to people that like fantasy and adventure. My favorite part would be a spoiler so I won’t say it. I rate this book 4 stars because it wasn’t funny enough.

The Time Garden, by Edward Eager

I rate this 2 out of 5 stars.

 

The time garden is about 4 kids that find this garden that has thyme that takes you back in time takes you back in time. In the beginning of the book the kid’s parents go to london and they get dropped off at a old house. At one point they find out that a certain kind of thyme can take you different places and then they try and go to london and find their parents.

I thought it was weird because they meet a talking frog that can become a dragon and that it was sort of unrealistic because they go on a train alone to random strangers.

My least favorite part of the book was when they just came into the house because nothing happens at that part.

All in all I would recommend this book to people that like fantasy time travel.

The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley.

This book is about two girls, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm whose parent disappeared and were sent to live . The last trace of the person who kidnapped their parents was a bright red hand print. This book has a lot of emotion because Sabrina has a lot of anger in her. Daphne is very inthusiastic about life while sabrina is  a grump.

I give this story five stars.

Flora And Ulysses, By Kate DiCamillo

This book is called Flora And Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo. The main characters are Flora and Ulysses, and they live in Flora’s house in the late 1900’s. Three important events in the book are: Flora saves Ulysses from a vacuum, Flora discovers that Ulysses can understand everything Flora says, and they get into many different adventures. I really enjoy this book because it is exciting and funny.

My favorite part of the book is when Flora saves Ulysses because the vacuum was out of control and Flora was watching it all happen. Then all of a sudden, the vacuum went on top of Ulysses and Flora helped him. It made me laugh to imagine this happening in real life. I would recommend this book to people who like humorous books and fantasy books (because Ulysses can understand Flora). I would also recommend it to people who like Kate DiCamillo books because it is better than her Mercy books.

Lastly, I rate this book five stars because it was exciting, funny, and Kate DiCamillo added images and comic book strips that added to the story.

The Enormous Egg, By Oliver Butterworth

The main character of this book is Nathan (Nate) Twitchell, he lives in Freedom, NH. He has a lot of chickens/hens, and one day one of his hens lays an enormous egg.  It turns out that it’s a dinosaur egg! He hatches and grows big so they take him to Washington D.C and a senator makes a bill for the dino to go. Who will get the bill, Senator Granderson or Nate?

 

I enjoyed this book because it keeps you on your toes waiting for the next thing to happen.

 

I would recommend this book to people who like dinosaurs and who like being on their toes. At one point of the book someone asks if he can turn the dinosaur into a suitcase. I would give this book 3 stars (***) because I’m not the biggest dino-fan.