Monthly Archives: May 2014

May
05
2014

Flush by Carl Hiaasen

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flush-carl-hiaasenI am currently reviewing the book Flush, by Carl Hiaasen. The main character is Noah, the son of a local environmentalist. Noah lives with his mother and sister Abbey, while his dad waits it out in jail. Noah’s dad is trying to stop the Dusty Muleman. Noah is honest and loyal. Even though his dad is a risk taker, he supports him and helps him prove the truth. Noah’s sister Abbey is more doubtful of their father, because she doesn’t want him to stay in jail. Meanwhile, Noah’s mom loves Noah’s dad very much; she knows he is doing the right thing but is upset that his decisions are affecting the family. The book takes place in Key West, Florida.

 

Throughout the book, the main characters, Noah, Abbey, their mom and dad are surrounded by trouble related the Coral Queen. The Queen is a gambling boat, owned by Dusty Muleman. Noah’s dad knows that Dusty is dumping waste into the beautiful, clear water. The only problem is, he can’t catch him! Noah seeks out the help of Lice Peeking, an only friend of his fathers…and an ex-employee of Dusty Muleman. Together, they figure out a way to catch Dusty Muleman in the act and free Noah’s dad from jail. “What’s wrong with him? Is he dense or what?” “Abbey don’t talk like that way about your father,” Mom said, “and the word is ‘deluded,’ not ‘dense.’ “ I think Abbey is upset about this.

I enjoy this book because it is a big journey if you are trying to do something good but get in trouble. I think Noah’s dad is very brave to do this. I recommend this book to people who like books like spying stories, action, and adventure stories because i think those are the kinds of words that would describe  this book. I rate this book 3 stars because I liked it but I am not into spying kinds of books.

 

May
05
2014

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

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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

 

May
02
2014

Dead End In Norvelt By Jack Gantos

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Dead End In Norvelt By Jack Gantos is a gothic-humor-historical-fiction-part -autobiography. If  you read the book then you will understand by what I mean by this.

 

Dead End In Norvelt is set in WWII in Norvelt. Norvelt is a place in Pennsylvania. It is called Norvelt because it was founded by eleaNOR rooseVELT and the last few letters became Norvelt.

 

The main characters are Jack, Bunny, Mrs. Gantos/Mom, Mr. Gantos/Dad, and Ms. Volken. Jack is funny and mischievous. Jack always can cheer-up and put-down anyone he wants to. Bunny, is Jack’s best friend. She doesn’t like that Jack got grounded and that she doesn’t get to play baseball with him. Mrs. Gantos is Jack’s mom. She is strict and loving, but not both at once. His dad, Mr. Gantos, has an old airplane that he rides a lot. Jack’s mom will not let Jack ride in it, even though he really wants to. His dad is always doing something with Jack behind his spouses back.

 

Ms. Volken is the hand-frying obitist. An obitist is a person who writes obituaries. Since she literally fried her hands. Now her fingers do not look and work the same way they used to. So Jack’s mom forces him to be Ms. Volken’s scribe. She is sometimes dead on serious and sometimes extremely hilarious. But sometimes people get mixed up between the two.

 

The plot is about Jack’s worst summer of his whole entire life. He got grounded by a dangerous stunt and his dad is forcing him to make a bomb shelter to protect from the russians. Even though they were in the middle of Pennsylvania and so on.

 

I enjoyed this book fairly well. It is not bad but it is not good. I say this because I wish that there was more action but the humor made up for it. I would recommend this book to

funny people. There is never a chapter in this book where there is not some stupid pun or a strange joke. I would rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.imgres

May
01
2014

Bartimaeus the Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

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Bartimaeus the Amulet of Samarkand is by Jonathan Stroud. The main characters are Bartimaeus, the big mouthed powerful fourth-level djinni, and Nathaniel, the full-of-potential nobel magician. Nathaniel will always admit something that will get him into some trouble.This amazing book takes place in London in 1985ish.

 

The power crazy Simon Lovelace wants to kill all the magicians of the ministry and start over with “more powerful” magicians; “Will you join us?” Maurice Schyler said “We can start over and form a powerful government.” “You are a Naive fool! I will never join you!” I said with great power. With a scowl Maurice Schyler said, “Very well then, ordinarily I would enjoy killing you slowly, but today I can’t spare the time.”  To do this, Simon Lovelace steals the Amulet of Samarkand to gain power.  Also, there is a shady group tied into it called “The Resistance” who are a group of commoners (non magicians) who don’t think that the magicians should rule, and they cause some trouble also.

 

I loved this book! The writing is really good, for example, “Jabor’s laugh was cut short by the roof caving in below him.” I like that kind of writing because it is a kind of “Show not Tell” that I enjoy reading. I would recommend this book to people who like a lot of Dystopian Fantasy kind of things. I would also recommend it to people who like a lot of violence. So if your parents won’t let you read Divergent, this is a book for you. I would rate this book five out of five stars! It was incredible!  The writer has a really good way of having a lot of loose ends and at the last second, everything comes together and the whole book makes sense!

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May
01
2014

Victor Cruz Out Of The Bluew, Victor Cruz and Peter Schrager

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imgresVictor Cruz Out Of The Blue by Peter Schrager and Victor Cruz is a Fantastic book because it gives you a good feeling and makes you love Victor Cruz.

This book is about Victor Cruz growing up to become a big NFL Star and his journey. He started in a small town and now is known world wide. He faces life changing problems and and struggled academically

I loved this book because as you know I want to play in the NBA. The chances are I’m probably not going to. But this book pretty much tells you that if you believe in something and you really want it you might actually get it. Although this book has a few things inappropriate for our age I think a lot of people should read it. Even if they don’t like sports you will learn to follow your dreams and just love Victor cruz.

Just to let you know not all fourth graders will like this book, but I hope you do.

I would rate this book 1,000 out of 5 because it is so inspiring and just a great overall book And all of you I hope will like it because it teaches you a lot of things such as,

This book is autobiography just to let you know.

 

May
01
2014

Are you there god, it’s me Margaret by Judy Blume

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My book’s main character is Margaret. She is 11 and she moved to a new school. At first she is very worried until…   Margaret joined a club with her friend Nancy, Gretchen and Jen. At school Margaret gets the assignment to write about something important to her, and she choses religion. But she does not practice a religion yet.

During the book she tries to find her religion and gets to experience both religions, Judaism and Catholicism. She choses these two religions because one of her grandma’s is Jewish, the other is Christian.This book is an amazing book, but I mostly recommend this book for the people who like a calm book, by that I mean that you just want to read more and get sucked back inside the book so it does not feel like your reading a book. Even though this is an amazing book I don’t think that boys would like it because it is about religion and women problems.. Anyway, go ahead if you feel like you want to read this book . This book is a fun book to read to your family, and I rate it 5***** becuase the fact that you can read it with your parents is fun because you can share why you like this book.

May
01
2014

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making By Catherynne M. Valente

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The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making is a very complicated but awesome book by Catherynne M. Valente. September, an ordinary 12 year old girl, is tired of washing pink teacups and playing with the same small amiable dog, and longs for adventure, the kind of adventure girls have in fairy tales. But she can’t find very much of that in Omaha, Nebraska. That’s why when the green wind rides up on a leopard and asks if September wants to go to Fairyland, she immediately accepts. (Wouldn’t you?) But there’s trouble in Fairyland, and September needs to sort it all out; and of course, there is fun included.

 

Through all her problems and adventures, September has always had friends to help her. All, strange, yes, one being made out of soap, another being half dragon half library. And she’s made many sacrifices along the way for other creature’s benefits, including trading her shadow for a pooka girl’s safety. She also has visited some very strange cities, like a city where it’s always Autumn, and a city made out of yarn. “I wonder if every city in Fairyland is made of some strange thing?” is all September can say when she steps through the bread gates of a town made all out of golden-brown baked goods.

 

I thought I wouldn’t like this book at first because I thought it was one of those magical-land books where the character goes on the same boring old-fashioned adventures, wishes to go home, and gets home. But it’s more of a mix between a book of riddles and The Wizard of Oz, with the bad parts of each taken out. So I would recommend this book to people who like both. I like both, and I loved this book, though at some points it got a little too crazy to understand the direction of the story. I would rate this book 4 stars because I loved it, but it was hard to understand at some points and it got a little boring towards the middle. But don’t stop reading in the beginning, because that’s what I did, but my mom told me to keep reading, and it got better.

P.S: The book’s as good as the title!

      

May
01
2014

Spirits in the Park, By Scott Mebus

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warning this is a second book in the series

 

Rory has known about Mannahatta, the Native American world, for a very long time. Rory is a really good basketball player, he is strong, filled with passion and loves everything. “The boy can’t relax.” Says Rory’s sister. Rory is known as the light because he can see the spirits. The spirits world is mixed with the normal world and the gods who ruled New York City in its early days.

 

Only a month ago is when the earthquake struck. The earthquake affected him and his family. And then Sergeant Kiffer takes Rory to his place which is a not very good bar. This is no ordinary earthquake, though. Is it New York City attempting at breaking the Trap around Central Park that holds the in the Munsee Indians? Or is it something else?

 

The Trap must open or the balance between Mannahatta and Manhattan will be destroyed! And only Rory can open it. But will Rory take help from his newfound friends, including the band of children of the gods? A.K.A the Rattle Watch?

 

The book includes encounters with some of New York most famous figures, including Washington Irving, Captain Kidd and Bill the Butcher who will help Rory figure out how to do that. And the answer may just surprise him. . . .

 

I give this a book a 3 out of 5 stars because I was not on the tip of my toes the whole time. I like books that have a dangerous corner every page of the book. I read the first and that was much different. Things happened after one thing was resolved. This book isn’t half as good as the first.

May
01
2014

Plastic Polly, by Jenny Lundquist

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UnknownThis book is about a girl named Polly. She is the 2nd most popular girl at Winston Academy next to her best friend Kelsey. Polly is the kind of girl who agrees with whatever Kelsey says. She and Kelsey are always ganging up on the 3rd most popular girl, Melinda. I don’t like Melinda because she is snooty and bossy. Polly also used to be friends with a girl named Alyssa. She and Polly and Kelsey got into a fight so now they aren’t friends anymore.

 

Polly’s school’s rival, American River and Winston Academy always have a talent show called the Groove It Up and this year Kelsey is in charge. But when Kelsey injures herself she can’t do it. Polly has to step in to help. “Kelsey rolls her eyes.’what happens to the vice president if the president is unable to perform her duties?’ I stop as the light finally clicks on.” That is what happens when Polly is asked to help.

 

I really liked this book because it would never happen at LREI because we don’t have a Groove It Up. It is in 1st person and I really like that because you get to know the character more. I would recommend this to people who have a competitive spirit because that is a fairly big part of the book. I would rate this 100 out of 5 stars. This is one of the best books ever. The author writes like it could be happening in to you.

 

May
01
2014

The Summer of May, by Cecilia Galante

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Unknown

This book reivew is by Cloe Davis

The main character is May, when she does not want somebody in the world she does not want them to be in the world. This book takes place  in 3 different places: May’s house, the school, and her best friends house

May did something she was not supposed to do.  Now she has to take summer school. She wants to get out of this situation that she does not like. She has a little help from her best friend. She is stuck in a classroom for the whole summer with the teacher she hates, Or will she get out of the problem? May’s best friend loves the Beatles, “Olive held up 2 CD’s,”The White Album? Or Abbey Road?” Olive read.” Those C.D’s are the Beatles, See she loves them.

I enjoyed this book a lot I loved, because the way the story is told and how the characters have there own personality. I recommend this book to people that like reading about other people getting trouble. But I also think that people who like all books would and will like it. I would want to rate this book 90 out of 100 stars I think that there could be more action. But I have to rate 5 or less so a 4 out of 5 stars.