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 Homework Machine By Dan Gutman

I chose to write my book review on a book called The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman. There are four main characters in this book. Brenton and Judy are the smart ones in the class and they are both really shy and unique people. Then Sam and Kelsey are the type of kids who have a lot of friends and don’t get really good grades, though Kelsey at least tries. This story changes settings throughout the book between Brenton’s house and their  5th grade class.

One really important thing is when the author reveals that Sam had a dad in the army who died. The biggest probleimagesm happens in the middle of the book when people start to find out about the homework machine. The reason the homework machine got started is because of Brenton. Brenton invented the homework machine for himself but not to do all his work just a little. Then things got complicated. Judy, Sam and Kelsey started getting suspicious when the teacher gave out homework and Brenton didn’t seem worried. Brenton eventually told them about the homework machine and then they started to use it too. Someone in the group tells the school newspaper about the machine and that pretty much puts an end to a good thing.

 

I wouldn’t say I loved this book but I didn’t think it was horrible.   I would recommend this book to people who are looking for a book to read when they have nothing to do because it isn’t exactly the book that would have you down on your knees asking for more. I would rate this book 3 out of five stars.

 

Knightly and Son by Rohan Gavin

imgresMy mom bought me this book when she was in London. It is a mystery novel about a 13 year old boy named Darkus who has a strange fondness for tweed coats. Alan Knightly, his father, is London’s top private detective. He went into a coma four years ago in the middle of a case about a secret criminal organization called The Combination. The Code is a best selling book that may be linked to The Combination that’s making regular people commit crimes. One day a stranger from the Department of the Unexplained arrives with news of his father, and that’s just the beginning…

Darkus’s mother, Jackie, divorced Alan and married Clive Palmer. A very lazy, ugly, and rude man. Clive’s daughter, Matilda (Tilly) is the same age as Darkus and is very good at science. You will find more characters as you read the book.

My favorite part of the book is when Tilly looks from her window and light is shining in a weird way and she finds out it’s Morse Code.  Tilly goes on her computer and translates the light flashes to find out they mean, “S.O.S. Come asap. Darkus. S.O.S. Come asap. Darkus.” I like that part because I thought it was really cool that she figured it out so quickly and that Darkus knew Morse Code. The only thing I didn’t like about the book is that the author would explain one thing for a long time.

I would recommend this book to people who like mysteries because it is about a detective and his son. Secondly, you can read it in a week or two because it’s 330 pages long. Lastly, I would like to say that the whole book is typed in british slang.

I would rate this book out of .

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.

 

How To Rock: Braces and Glasses by Meg Haston

This book takes place in Chicago. The main character is Kacey Simon, she is a live reporter at school. Her best friend is super popular. She goes to her best friends birthday party at a roller skating rink and at the party she slips in skates then boom crash bang she falls. Kacey Simon gets braces and glasses and he best friends don’t hang out with her any more.

Kacey gets super worried that she is going down on her own popularity. She gets help from her old best friend from elementary school. She makes new friends and she gets a new life, but she still misses her old life. Kacey Simon decided to join a band and makes more friends she is lead singer and goes to practice after school.She gets a little bummed up with her new friends to, somethings go back to normal and some things do not.”I-I can’t be in the band”, that is when Kacey does something to break her friendship with one of her friends, but I am not going to say anything else.

I really enjoyed this book because there are very good descriptions and they explain the story really well and the story was really great. I think someone who likes books that can be realistic but not that much, because that is what the book is about a every day life for some people but not for all people. I would give this book 5 stars out of 5.

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Because of mr.Terupt

Because of mr.Terupt by Rob buyea

Because of mr.Terupt is a great book that always made me laugh. Any one who has ever thought of reading should read it.

It is is a bout a bunch of kids who love there teachers but when all this bullying and bad behavior leads to an accident to hurt there teacher what will all the kids do when they find out what happened to there teacher.

 

There  is friendship problems when girls don’t like each other and neither do parents.

 

I would give this book a hundred stars if I could but I can’t to I will only give it  5***** Because that is the limit but I loves this book and so will you.