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.

Every Soul A Star By Wendy Mass

Every soul a star is another great book by Wendy Mass. It’s kind of like Wonder, where it switches points of view. There’s Ally, Bree, and Jack.

 

Ally is a girl who has no experience with the outside world and civilization. Her parents run the Moon Shadow campground, and she’s lived there all her life. She doesn’t have any friends, except the pretend ones that live on other planets. But her parents are selling the campground, and Ally will have to move to the city and start school. She won’t be able to see the stars anymore. But there is something to be happy for. There will be an Eclipse soon, and thousands of people from all over the world will come to the campground to view it.

 

Bree is the second most popular girl in school. Her life’s ambition is to be a model and has all the magazines to prove it. But her parents are scientists, and don’t understand her at all. So when her parents buy the Moon Shadow campground, Bree is horrified. She doesn’t want to see gross bugs.  But she can’t change her parent’s minds.

 

Jack lives a very normal life, but he doesn’t have any friends. He spends all his time in class doodling, and that’s how he gets into summer school. But Jack’s teacher calls saying that if he comes on an expedition to watch an Eclipse, he can get out of summer school. Obviously, he takes the offer.

 

These three people all find themselves becoming friends. This book really is about them learning to adjust to a new life. Ally has to learn to live in civilization, Bree has to learn to live outdoors and not care about what others think of her, and Jack has to learn how to find himself and make more friends.

 

They all really start becoming friends at this campout where they’re trying to find a planet or star or something like that. There’s a big storm and they have to sleep in a shed because they can’t walk back to the campgrounds. It’s also really cool when the Eclipse is happening and Bree “lets her inner geek be released” in her words.

 

I really liked this book, and I love the author, Wendy Mass. I feel this book wasn’t as good as the others I’ve read by her because it was mostly about Eclipses, and I don’t know that much about those and it was hard to follow. I would recommend this book to people who like and know a lot about science, because it’s a very sciencey book. I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars because as I said before, it’s a little to sciencey for me, but it was still great.

 

        

 

Unwanteds :Island of fire

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This book is called Unwanteds written by Lisa McMann.This takes place on a island called Artime. Artime is an island that is green all over but has a mansion in the middle.  If you have read my other book reviews then you know that the main character is a boy named Alex and his new friends Sky and Crow, and his old friends Meghan, Samheed and Lani. In the third book Alex is under pressure now that the Unwanteds have no food, no water and are looking to Alex for answers. As Alex tries to pull everything together by getting the voice stealing thorn necklace off Meghan and finding Lani and Sameed.

In Quill, another section of the Island, Aaron has been planning an attack on Artime ever since he got a band of people riled up and then when he had taken over as high priestess and kidnapped high priestess haluki. Alex has to now decipher a cryptic note Mr.Today had left at his parting, a riddle:

Follow the dots at the traveling sun

Magnify, focus, every one

Stand enrobed where you first saw me

Utter in order; repeat times three.

“The unwanteds were beginning to starve. He handed it back to Henry and shook his head.”Give it to meg,”he said.”no, wait… to Carina Fathom and her baby. They need it most. Alex swallowed hard a

nd turned away so he wouldn’t be tempted to grab it back again.”  Alex is sacrificing everything for the Unwanteds, so they can live and keep Mr. Todays legend going.

I enjoyed this book because it has twists and turns you would never expect to happen, for example how Megan’s character had the necklace of thorns inserted on her neck and how they kidnapped Governor Haluki. I would recommend thisbook to people who like magical realism, action, adventure and drama. Unwanted would be a book for anyone who like dystopian books. The events in the stories fit like a puzzle piece. I would give this book 4 stars.

 

Every Soul A Star By Wendy Mass

Every soul a star is another great book by Wendy Mass. It’s kind of like Wonder, where it switches points of view. There’s Ally, Bree, and Jack.

Ally is a girl who has no experience with the outside world. Her parents run the Moon Shadow campground, and she’s lived there all her life. She doesn’t have any friends, except the pretend ones that live on other planets. But her parents are selling the campground, and Ally will have to move to the city and start school. She won’t be able to see the stars anymore. But there is something to be happy for. There will be an Eclipse soon, and thousands of people from all over the world will come to the campground to view it.

Bree is the second most popular girl in school. Her life’s ambition is to be a model and has all the magazines to prove it. But her parents are scientists, and don’t understand her at all. So when her parents buy the Moon Shadow campground, Bree is horrified. But she can’t change her parent’s minds.

Jack lives a very normal life, but he doesn’t have any friends. He spends all his time in class doodling, and that’s how he gets into summer school. But Jack’s teacher calls saying that if he comes on an expedition to watch an Eclipse, he can get out of summer school. Obviously, he takes the offer.

These three people all find themselves becoming friends. This book really is about them learning to adjust to a new life. Ally has to learn to live in civilization, Bree has to learn to live outdoors and not care about what others think of her, and Jack has to learn how to find himself and make more friends.

They all really start becoming friends at this campout where they’re trying to find a planet or star or something like that. There’s a big storm and they have to sleep in a shed because they can’t walk back to the campgrounds. It’s also really cool when the Eclipse is happening and Bree “lets her inner geek be released” in her words.

I really liked this book, and I love the author, Wendy Mass. I feel this book wasn’t as good as the others I’ve read by her because it was mostly about Eclipses, and I don’t know that much about those and it was hard to follow. I would recommend this book to people who like and know a lot about science, because it’s a very sciencey book. I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars because as I said before, it’s a little to sciencey for me, but it was still great.

 

 

Standing In The Light by Mary Pope Osborne (from the dear America series)

 

Carry is a young girl living in 1763 in Pennsylvania. She loves to wright in her diary. And she has three younger siblings named Thomas and Eliza and baby Will. She goes to school every day. And she is very kind and she likes to see the good in people. Because it seems to help her in the story. She and her family are religious.


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One day when Carry was  walking to school two native men come and take her and her little brother. They take them to their clan area but it is not right there. They have to take a long journey to their  clan area. When they get there Carry and Thomas get separated. And Carry worries that she will never see him again!

I really liked this book because it is an adventure and historical story (I LOVE HISTORY!) I would recommend this book to 3rd and 4th graders because I think that they would understand it the most and I think that is that level. I would give this book 5***** stars because it is so good because it takes history and add fiction!    (There are other books in this series if you are interested!) -Ruby

 

Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere, by Julie T. Lamana

(“Advanced Readers Copy”, being published April 2014)

      Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere is a amazing book by Julie T. Lamana. The main character is Armani Curtis. Armani is looking forward to one thing: her 10th birthday. Armani and her mom, dad, grandmother Memaw, Brother Gorgeie, Sister Seally, and a brother Kheelin, and sister Khayla, who are about two years old live in New Orleans, in the Lower 9’s.

      Then, the family hears about this hurricane Katrina, and says there’s gonna be no damage. But, they are wrong. Once the storm starts, Armani knows she will have to be brave, watch loved ones die, and have to help the family survive this horrible storm.

 

      Armani learns while the storm is wrecking her life, that she has to help her family survive this storm, even though bad things happen, she has to fight them away and help out, then maybe come back to it. Her idea is to somehow find lost family members, and what used to be her home. “For the first time in my whole life, I felt unsafe in a place where I’d always know, no matter what, I was going to be safe.” On the blurb (back of book). Before the storm, Armani was safe in her home with her family.  Once the storm hit, she lost some family and security.  Then she didn’t feel safe in the place that always felt safe to her. The aftermath of this storm made her brave.

 

      I enjoyed the book, because sometimes it was pretty sad, and then, it eventually got better. Also, there was one big problem, and there was another small problem, which might have got solved, and then there was another one, and maybe the big one got solved at the end… Read it to find out! I would recommend the book for 10+ because it was sort of hard to take in sometimes, and it was pretty intense sometimes. I would rate this infinity stars because it was so good. I like the authors writing style because it gave me a better sense of what was going on in the book, and it was very clear. And, the characters are really interesting. (This storm is real, and it was pretty bad. This book might be a little different when it is published, so be aware.)

Upside-Down-in-the-Middle-of-Nowhere_Front-Cover_sm

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 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!!! 🙂

Catching Fire By Suzanne Collins

(:WARNING DON’T READ THIS REVIEW IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE FIRST BOOK:)

Catching Fire is the sequel to The Hunger Games and is by Suzanne Collins. It is about a place called Panem with a place called the Capitol and 12 (or maybe 13) districts. The hunger games is when a male and a female gets reaped from their district to fight each other to the death and the people who got reaped from the other districts. The reaped people are called tributes. Being reaped means you get picked to be in the hunger games. The tributes from district 12 in the 74th hunger games is Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen. They’re mentor for the games is Haymitch Abernathy. Katniss’s best friend who despises the Capitol is named Gale Hawthorne. Peeta and Katniss win the hunger games and become victors. they are also about to become mentors when the Quarter Quell happens. The Quarter Quell is a special hunger games that happens every 25 years. For the 75th hunger games the victors are to be reaped from their district and fight. Now Katniss’s chances of surviving are even slimmer. When you are reading the book you will uncover all different secret/surprise characters. When Peeta and Katniss are reaped again they hear hints of rebellion spreading around Panem. I enjoyed the book dearly because I simply just could not put it down.

I would rate it 1 stars for people who cannot handle gruesome scenes. And 5 stars for people who can handle gruesome scenes and understand every single thing that is happening on the page. My favorite part of the book is when Katniss makes a jaw-dropping performance in the training area with her bow and arrows.  My least favorite part is probably when a poisonous fog starts chasing the tributes. Again, as mentioned, I would really like to recommend this book to people with a tough stomach.

                                                                                                                           

Fun Facts

Haymitch won his games on a Quarter Quell when they put twice the amount of tributes into the arena.

Peeta had a crush on Katniss since he was five.