Monthly Archives: February 2014

Feb
26
2014

13 Curses, By Michelle Harrison

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Red is a girl with special powers. She can see fairies. She is a regular thirteen year old until her parents die, in a car crash. Terrible things start to happen to Red. While her two friends are in England with a fat strange house keeper and the rest of the staff is very strange too. Her friends Rowan and Fabian are very strange. Rowan has the same powers as Red. Fabian has eye drops that let him have the special power. Red is more than athletic. She has a huge brain and has an eye for strange things. The setting of the book is in the fairy realm and human realm.

 

In this book they state the obvious You must go on an adventure. “Fabian we are going on an adventure.”(page 73) The characters younger brother gets taken by the fairies, in this book fairies are evil creatures. He is that last part of his family left. The book has a lot of flashbacks. The come out all of the sudden sometimes. Red gets stuck in the fairy realm and Fabian and Rowan have to save her. But Fabian needs the eye drops to get in. One problem that Red has is that she gets captured by a witch who wants to use her for evil. Will Red get her brother back will Fabian and Rowan come in time, find out and Read this book but please consider the following.

 

I give this book a four and a half. It’s not the best book I’ve ever read it should have ended different. It has great description and should have been longer. There is a series. I will probably not read the others. Though I kept reading the book. At the beginning it is kind of boring. You have to read through it.

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Feb
26
2014

Emily Windsnap and the Monster of the Deep, by Liz Kessler

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The book I just finished is called Emily Windsnap and the Monster of the Deep written by Liz Kessler. The main character in this book is, of course, Emily Windsnap because the book is based on her. Emily is the type of person who is brave one moment and chickens out the next, she is a girl when given a request is determined to get the thing done , she is a kind and supporting character, but the story wouldn’t be as good as it is without the help of these supporting characters; Shona, who I introduced in the first review, Mary, Emilys mom, and Jake, her dad.

In case you have not read the first book in the series and want to avoid any spoilers, do not read from #1 to #2. (#1) In the first book, Emily finds out that she is a “semi-mer,’ a partial mermaid. Once she finds out that she is a semi-mer she starts to get curious about what lies ahead for the other half of herself, the water half, or, will she end up in a scientist’s lab being studied. One of the things Emily gets curious about is if she will ever see her dad after she finds out that he was a full merman who was in jail for marrying Emily’s mom who is a human. So Emily and Shona plan to go on a journey to find her dad. Once Emily finds him in the jail and they are reunited she must find a way out without being discovered, but she doesn’t succeed. Both Emily and her mom are captured and brought to court. Emily Is brought to mermaid jail and makes a speech about how people or merfolk should be free to love who they want. Neptune, the judge, understood her point and agreed so Emily and her parents were all reunited and moved to Allpoints Island, where the series continues. (#2)

When all seems perfect and the family is settled back in, Emily goes for a swim and feels a strange, strong current pulling her to the darkest, deepest part of the sea. She escapes and returns home to tell her mother about it. On the day before the first day of school, Shona comes to Emily’s house with another mermaid who is going to give them a tour of the Island and the school. The mermaid dares Emily to enter a forbidden zone and wakes Kraken, the seamonster. Kraken was also the source of the strong current that had attempted to pull Emily in.

images The dare that Emily had pulled Shona into had awoken Kraken. Emily ultimately finds out that she and Shona are the only ones who can calm the Kraken be

The second book gets even more exciting and you want to keep reading to find out what is going to happen next. I rate this book five out of five stars and if you are someone who likes books about friendship, adventure, or a hint of fantasy, this book is definitely for you.

cause they are the ones who woke it.

Feb
26
2014

The Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket

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    The Bad Beginning is about three kids, one named Violet, one named Klaus, and one named Sunny. These kids are very rich, but when their parents die their lives aren’t so easy anymore. The kids end up living in a house with a man named Count Olaf. Count Olaf wants the kids money and so he doesn’t really treat the kids nicely, or if you want to say he treats the kids badly, that works too. At one point Count Olaf wants to marry Violet so he can steal the family’s money. I don’t want to give any spoilers so I will not go on.

     I liked the book a lot because it was interesting to see how the kids tried to solve their problems. The narrator of the story is the author. Klaus really likes to read books and is kind of a nerd. He doesn’t change much throughout the story. Violet is nice and a good sister to both Klaus and Sunny. She isn’t really like Klaus, (nerdy) but she follows along with his smart ways. She changes into a more smart and nerdy person throughout the book. The reader doesn’t know a lot about Sunny. The only thing I really learned about Sunny is that she likes to chew on anything she can find and she uses chewing to show her feelings. Sunny doesn’t really change throughout the book.

My favorite part of the book is when the kids first move in to Count Olafs house because it is funny to read how confused and scared they were. My least favorite part of the book is when Sunny gets hung from the top of the forbidden tower because it was scary to think of a little kid being hung from a tower.

BadBeginningI would recommend this book to people who like books where the story is possible, but also not really realistic. I would give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Feb
26
2014

Vordak the Incomprehensible by cooper

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imgresIn the book Vordak the Incomprehensible by Scott Seegert the main character is Vordak the Incomprehensible. Vordak the Incomprehensible is a sore loser. I know this because he goes to a hot dog eating contest, loses and gets very mad.

Vordak the Incomprehensible is also greedy, selfish, and misunderstood. Vordak the Incomprehensible is greedy and selfish because he wants everything to himself. “well,well. It appears our new neighbors are installing a satellite dish, Armageddon. I must remember to tap into their signal when its complete”. Theres nothing quite like the thrill of watching cartoon network for free! MUAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

I liked the book because it was funny to read about his dog. I would recommend this book for people who like comics because it had a lot of comic strip jokes. I give the book a ***** star rating because it was really really funny.

 

Feb
26
2014

Once Upon A Toad by Heather Vogel Frederick

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imgres       Once Upon A Toad  by Heather Vogel Frederick is about two stepsisters named Cat & Olivia and they both really hate each other. The book takes place in Portland, Oregon. The two girls are so different from each other. Cat lives with her mom in Houston, Texas and came to Oregon for three months because her mom is on a mission in space and Cat loves classical music and is a tomboy. Olivia, on the other hand loves arts and crafts and is a total girly girl.

 

       At school Olivia and all her friends make fun of Cat and call her mean names like Catbox and hold their noses whenever they walk by Cat. Cat thinks everything is as bad as it gets so she calls Great-Aunt Abyssinia (A.K.A. Aby) to come. She tells Aby everything and Aby tells Cat that she will find a really good way to fix this. The next morning Cat wakes up and things had just gone from bad to way worse. Everytime words came out of her mouth toads came out too. But whenever Olivia talked, diamonds and flowers came out of her mouth. Soon everyone all over knew about the diamonds, flowers and toads. After that everyone wanted Olivia so some people kidnapped their little brother Geoffrey to get Olivia. Olivia and Cat have to run away to find him and to stop all this crazy fairytale stuff from happening. One of my favorite quotes from the book that Cat said is, “I drew a shaky breath. It still made absolutely no sense. Middle-schoolers didn’t start spontaneously spewing toads. How could this be happening? How could that creature have come from me? My mouth still tasted like breakfast cereal, not toad. Not that I knew what toad tasted like.”

      I really, really liked Once Upon A Toad. I would recommend this book to people who like realistic fiction with a hint of fantasy because it’s about people not monsters and it’s in a realistic place not somewhere made up but the fantasy part is you can not just start spitting out toads and flowers and diamonds and there is no such thing as casting spells. I would rate this book four stars ****! The book is written in a fun way. I really like Once Upon A Toad and I think you should read it too.

Feb
26
2014

Eleven by Lauren Myracle

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imgres-13Eleven is a book by one of my very favorite authors, Lauren Myracle! She also wrote Ten and he Flower Powers Series.

 

Eleven is about a girl Winnie who lives in Wisconsin and turns eleven and is super excited for her party!  She planned it and everything. But when she gets home, her “friend” Louise completely takes over her entire party. Her best friend Amanda knows that she planned the party and worked really hard on it but follows Louise anyway. But there’s Diana Devine. Winnie doesn’t like her a lot but they are friends. Dianah is very nice to Winnie.

 

In the summer, Sandra (Winnie’s older sister) has a job at Baskin & Robbins with her boyfriend Bo. Winnie has an incident, and it isn’t so pretty…

 

A month later, Winnie visits Amanda at her beach house! There is a pond filled with jellyfish that can easily swim to the ocean.

 

To find out what happens through Winnie’s year of being Eleven are filled with, read the book!

 

My favorite part of the book is when Winnie and Diana go to the mall after school and see the kittens in the window. Diana blinks three times to a white kitten and says, “That’s how you say I love you to a cat.” I like that part because it’s so sweet and the way that they describe the kitten in the book, almost made me cry because it’s so cute!

I would recommend this book to people who like funny books because Winnie is very funny. Secondly, I would like to recommend this book to people who like friendship books because Winnie has a best friend Amanda who might dump her for someone else… also Winnie and Dianah become friends. Lastly, I would recommend this book to people who like realistic fiction because you can probably relate to this book a lot. The only thing that I don’t recommend is reading the rest of the series: Twelve, Thirteen, and Thirteen Plus One. Lauren Myracle is a great author though. I rate this book !!!!!

Feb
26
2014

The House Of Hades

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The House of Hades

By Tilda Sutter

I just read this awesome book called The House of Hades by Rick Riordan in The Heroes Of Olympus Series. Do not keep reading  unless you have read the first three books in the series.

Jason has a problem. He is on a quest to save the world. Usually Jason and Percy share being the head of the group of seven, but now Percy and Annabeth are in Tartarus, which is a place in the underworld.  so now Jason is in charge and he can’t handle that pressure. All of the stuff is kind of depending on him. “Whether or not he made it back to New Rome after the war, Jason had to step up now and act like a praetor”.

Piper needs Jason. She has a big crush on him. They are kind of together. But Piper also needs Jason because she can’t fight a fight by herself. But she has Hazel to help her. Hazel is Piper’s closest friend. Everyone is always underestimating her. “ Still underestimating me,” Piper told the goddess. ‘’ You really need to work on that”

Hazel can’t do this. She is supposed to be able to use magic. But no one decided to show Hazel how to do that. Her boyfriend Frank isn’t really helping, though he is trying. She is supposed to use her magic when they enter the underworld. Too much pressure. “I can’t even control my own dreams , She wanted to scream. How am I supposed to control the mist?”

Frank can’t live up to this. He does not want to be  a son of Mars, it makes him seem to strong and he feels so weak. All Frank can do is change into animals. His full life depends on a stick. If that stick burns, he dies. Leo’s teasing doesn’t help.  “Leo’s always teasing me, but this one really stuck to me I know I am not as pricey as Percy or Jason but am I at least worth 2 or 3 Franks?”

Percy is going insane. He is Tartarus the darkest place of the underworld. Monsters he killed are everywhere, waiting for revenge. Percy would not survive unless Annabeth his Girlfriend was there too. “They sat together on a ledge next to a fiery waterfall. “

Annabeth is too guilty. She was the one who got Percy here in the first place. Tartarus is not a place for Annabeth or for anyone who has at least one braincell. Not many people do here. She also lost her favorite kanife and is without a weapon. “When they reached the ledge Annabeth was sure she’d signed their death warrants.”

Leo can’t focus. If the person who was about to kill him was a girl, Leo would fall in love with her and trust her. Lucky for him everyone they are facing is a girl. All Leo can do is build things, fix things and break things after he makes them. Leo also is not considered smart. “He didn’t know  italian for Hello, may I see your dangerous chemicals please?”

I loved this book and think you will too. I recommend it to anyone who likes magical realism. I rate this book ******************** stars out of 5. It is also really funny. “Bob the Titan sat crossed legged next to the altar, happily munching on a piece of pizza.”

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Feb
26
2014

Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Ugly Truth By Jeff Kinney

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imagesGreg is the main character. He has a older brother named Rodrick and a younger brother named Manny. Rodrick is very annoying and is mean to Greg, he will blame stuff on him and write stuff about him that is not real. Manny is also annoying and mean to Greg, but in a different way. Greg is very nice, but he plays video games a lot.

Greg used to be friends with Rowley, but they just detached from each other. He does not know what to do. He needs Rowley and Rowley needs him. He doesn’t know that yet. “It was pretty clear that he thought we were friends and that he thought we were a package deal. And I didn’t want to change his mind so I said we accept.” What that means is that he got invited to a legendary party and he didn’t want to miss it.

Greg also has some other problems with Rowley. He is super jealous of him. Rowley and Greg live in the same small town. So they see each other a lot. Rowley gets his first pimple before Greg does. Rowleys Mom says He’s becoming a man.

I thought this book was amazing. I have read the series, and you can read them in any order just the order they have put it in is the best. I connect with it in so many ways. I thought it was really funny too. What I mean by that is some times some embarrassing stuff happens to him. I like funny books, so if you like funny books this is the book for you. I would give this five stars.

 

Feb
26
2014

Judy Moody Saves The World! by Megan Mcdonald (writer) and Peter H. Reynolds (illustrator)

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imgresThis is a great book because it is realistic and funny. Normally that does not go well together for me. Judy Moody likes to pretend she is a doctor and when she grows up she wants to be a doctor too so she has dolls to practice on and her brother to practice on too. Her brother is named stink and he is really annoying. Judy Moody lives in a small town.

She finds these crazy strips(crazy strips are band aids) that are have a contest and who ever wins it gets to put their idea on it. Everyone submits a design and who ever has the best design gets it to be the crazy strip of the month. You get a prize too. The prize is that you get a bunch of crazy strips and sunglasses.

Judy Moody has a project at school where everyone try to save the world. They all collect bottles and stuff that is from the rain forest. Did you know your pencil is from the rain forest. A lot of stuff is from the rain forest.

I loved this book. I would give it a four stars because it was really fun and interesting because I learned a lot of stuff that she learned. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes realistic, but funny books.

 

Feb
26
2014

The Name Of This Book Is Secret By Pseudonymous Bosch

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I am reading a book called This Isn’t What It Looks Like by Pseudonymous Bosch. It has two main characters, one named Cass, who is a survivalist, for example she keeps shovels in her school backpack  just in case a blizzard comes and She

Unknowngets covered in snow. There is another main character named Max-Ernest who is super smart and talks really fast, like when someone says something that is not accurate, he goes crazy and corrects it. The author of this book chooses to keep where this book takes place a secret, but it is sort of part of the story.

 

This book is about Cass getting in a coma. She does not get in a coma for normal reasons like being stressed, she gets in a coma because she ate a piece of chocolate that brings her back in time. This chocolate was made by a world famous evil chef.  This chocolate is supposed to help her find out “the secret” but stuff start to go not so much as planned. Max-Ernest learns that he is not allergic to chocolate and eats a little bit too much. It said in the book “Max-Ernest felt the need to eat 7 chocolate bars.” So now you get an idea of how much chocolate Max-Ernest was eating. This book also is about Cass and Max-Ernest trying to keep some “people” from finding out the secret, because the secret is a little bit too powerful for the “people” to handle.


I really liked this book because it is very mysterious, and every five minutes I almost fall out of my seat because something really unexpected happened in the book that changes the whole story. I rate this book five stars because it is surprising and I like that about it. I recommend this book to people who like being surprised because this book is very surprising.