Monthly Archives: September 2014

Sep
15
2014

Gabriel Finley And The Ravens Riddle

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When George Hagen introduces you to anyone in his book Gabriel Finley And The Ravens Riddle, within a two sentence paragraph, you will know who they are.  The two main characters are Paladin (Raven) and Gabriel(Boy).  Then there are some second main characters who accompany Gabriel on his trip under/Aviopolis, those people are Abby, Pamelia, Somes and Septimus.  But then there are people who introduce you to all of the big characters, which are in ⅓ of the book, Endora (Raven Mother), Aunt Jazz and Trudy.  You can’t forget Corax or his Valravens.  The setting takes place in two places, Brooklyn, and the underground palace of Aviopolis.  The main problem is that he needs to rescue his father and stop corax from getting the tork who will let corax and his Valravens take over the world.  With some help from friends and “bullies”. You will see just how far he gets.

There are many things that changed this story from a regular story about a boy and a Raven.  For example Gabriel and Paladin can talk in each others heads and they can merge and fly together.  Then Gabriel has to capture a writing desk that runs and has  a mind of its own.  When they capture the desk it has nothing.  If you read on you’ll see it has a kind of magic to open it.  I will give you a hint (quote) “where is my father.”  Well Gabriel makes a very big decision and that is to go rescue his father from Aviopolis and kill Corax, or at least stop him the problem gabriel runs into is like a 3 month process and if it gets resolved thats for you to find out.I loved this book it was one of the best I have read.  Here’s why.  It is a long book and that means that you can enjoy it for longer and you won’t have to write as many book reviews.  It is also a very descriptive book because you feel like you are sitting around a fire listening to Gabriel tell it.  Also it makes you dream about it.  A person who would like this book is someone who likes any theme mystery,fiction, nonfiction, animals or scary things, this book surprisingly, has it.  I would rate this book 5*****(stars) out of five stars.

Sep
15
2014

murder on the orient express by Agatha Christie

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Murder on the Orient Express is by Agatha Christie it is about a detective named Hercule Poirot who is traveling on the luxury train line the Orient Express. All of a sudden the train gets stuck in a snowstorm. Then the detective finds out that a rich American on the train named Mr. Ratchett has been murdered in the middle of the night. The murderer had to be one of the passengers in Poirot’s coach. What will happen next…?

 

When Poirot goes to the scene of the murder(Mr. Ratchett’s cabin) he finds a piece of paper that says “…member little Daisy Armstrong…” . Daisy Armstrong was the kidnapped and murdered daughter of an extremely rich american family. After finding this scrap of paper Poirot concludes that the rich American man Mr. Ratchett’s real name is Casetti. Casetti was the name of the infamous murderer and gang leader who killed Daisy. After inspecting the site of the murder, Poirot interviews all the people on the train to see what they know about the murder. But Poirot gets nowhere with the case. Then Poirot decides to inspect the luggage of all the passengers. Still after inspecting they luggage he has no new information. So Poirot sits down to think over what he does know.

If I was to tell you anymore of the book I would spoil it and it would be no fun to read. So I have decided not to write any more. The book is great and I hope you read it.I would rate it 5 out of 5 stars.  *****

Sep
15
2014

The Blind Side, Michael Lewis

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The Blind Side By Michael Lewis

 

This book is a true story about a boy named Michael Oher. He grows up in a criminal neighborhood where a lot of drugs are going on. As a kid he got taken away from his mom (because his mom was most of the time on drugs) but kept on coming back to her. Eventually the cops stopped trying to take him away from his mom because they could never find him. He grew up and got bigger and bigger but still he thought he was this fast, small, speedy boy. At around High School he had terrible grades and got taken out of every school. His friend’s dad eventually found a school and asked Michael (also known as Big Mike) to come and see it. It was the Briarcrest Christian school. He only got accepted in because he was good at basketball and football and they were willing to give him a shot. One night he had nowhere to sleep (like most other nights) and a family at Briarcrest told him he could spend the night. Night after night he spent there and then he finally moved in. They helped him get into college with a football scholarship and make it to the NFL.d

 

I enjoyed this book because it made me have so many emotions, and it was not just a football book it was a meaning full book about life. It also taught me a very important lesson. And It was  mostly about sports. I think mostly readers that like sports and a lot of drama will like this.

 

Check with your mom and/or dad first because it has a lot of talk about drugs, violence, and cursing.

 

I would rate it 5 Stars out of 5 because of how well it described everything.

 

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Marlowe Glass

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sep
07
2014

The Million Dollar Shot, by Dan Gutman

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The Million Dollar Shot by Dan Gutman is a great book. The main character is Eddie Ball. He is a nice kid who does nice things for people, including his best friend, Annie Oakely. He also loves basketball. Eddie lives in a trailer park in Louisiana with his mom.

Eddie’s mom works at a place called Finkles (They sell things called Finkles. They are a very unhealthy snack). Finkles is having a poetry contest.  The winner of the contest wins a trip to New York and gets to go to a Knicks game.  The winner gets a chance to sink a foul shot.  If they do, they will get a million dollars, and a lifetime supply of Finkles.  And if the person fails, all they get a life time supply of finkles. Eddie and his mom are very poor and barely get enough money to survive. Eddie wants to help his family and his friend by taking the Million Dollar shot.Unfortunately, Eddie isn’t allowed to enter the compitaion because the rules state that relatives of employees are not allowed to participate in the contest.  Eddie’s mom eventually gets fired from Finkels and Eddie can get in the poetry compitian, but can he win the compitaion!?

One important part of the book is when Eddie and Annie see their parents kissing.  This is important because Eddie gets distracted and starts missing some free throws while he’s practicing for a big day.  Eddie is upset when he sees his mom kissing another man.  Will Eddie calm down before his big moment in the spotlight?!  Find out all this in the book!

 

I really enjoyed the book because it’s about basketball, and it’s very realistic too. I really liked that Eddie went to a Knicks game in New York because I live in New York and I like the New York Knicks.  I also really liked when Eddie was in the locker room before the big moment all the Knicks players were saying, I hope you sink the shot and other positive comments.  I’d recommend this book to kids 8+ because if they are younger they would only understand why the title is called The Million Dollar Shot, but they wouldn’t understand what happens in the life that Eddie is living. I rate it infinity out of 5 stars.

 

Sep
07
2014

Game Face by sylvia Gunnery

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One of the books I read this summer is called Game Face by Sylvia Gunnery which takes place in a small town in Nova Scotia, Canada. The main character’s names are Jay and Colin who used to be good friends and now they are fighting over the position of team captain on the Rockets basketball team. Jay was elected by his team to be the team captain.

 

Colin is a better basketball player than Jay but Jay has a better attitude. Jay does not focus on himself as a team captain he focuses on what is happening to his team. Jay was picked by his team for the job of team captain because he is a leader. An example of his leadership is when Jay decides to see if the coach will let Colin be co-captain, because Colin had liked the idea of being co-captain and maybe he might have a better attitude if he is co-captain.

 

I am not really a sports book kinda guy but this one, I have to say, was good. It was a quick read, not hard. The book would pull me in I just wanted to read it for longer amounts of time. I would recommend this book to people who like basketball and good books. I would rate this book 4½.

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Sep
07
2014

Flora and Ulysses, Kate Dicamillo

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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.

Sep
07
2014

Masterpiece by Elise Broach

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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.

 

Sep
06
2014

The cats of Roxville station by Jean Craighead George.

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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.

Sep
04
2014

ARTEMIS FOWL, THE LAST GUARDIAN EOIN COLFER

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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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Sep
03
2014

The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin

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 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