Monthly Archives: January 2015

Jan
05
2015

Fenway Foul-Up by David A. Kelly

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searchIn The Fenway Foul-up  By David A. Kelly, Big D the best hitter on the Red Sox had his bat stolen at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.  Mike and Kate, the main characters, try to figure out who stole Big D’s baseball bat.  This is especially important because Big D only plays great with his lucky bat.

Mike suspects that the old man stole Big D’s bat.  He suspects this because he got the a bat that looked the same for his grandson. The old man was eating sunflower seeds when the bat went missing. Mike and Kate think this may be a clue to solve the mystery. However, the photographer was also eating sunflower seeds, so Mike and Kate are stumped.  After Kate looked closer she also found that  the old man’s bat looked newer with less scratches than Big D’s. My favorite character was Kate. She was my favorite character because she is smart, athletic, and funny. Smart because she speaks more than 3 languages. athletic because she plays a lot of sports. Last but not least funny because she makes a lot of funny jokes.

I liked the book and I didn’t like the book. I thought this book was really interesting because it was about baseball and I love baseball  One thing is I love baseball . The thing I did not like is that I do not like the Red Sox, but I thought the story was good. I would recommend this book to kids that love baseball. It was also a good mystery.  This book’s author reminds me of Matt Christopher because he does baseball books too and writes the story the same way. I give this book 3 stars out of 5.

 

Jan
05
2015

The Bridge to Terabitha by Katherine Paterson

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Bridge to Terabithia

 

The book I read was Bridge to Terabithia, the author of this book was Katherine Paterson. In this story there are two main characters. They are Jess Aarons and Leslie Burke. Jess really wants to become the fastest kid in the fifth grade. But his plan gets thwarted when the new kid strolls on to the boy’s side and demands to run in the boys race. Later Jess’ desire to be the fastest kid is not really important thanks to the new kid Leslie Burke. She just moved in near Jess. Jess and Leslie are not close in the beginning of the book. But then they become king and queen of Terabithia, Terabithia is Leslie and Jess’s kingdom. This book takes place in Lark Creek, in the early 1970s.

I thought a part that was most interesting was when Leslie and Jess created Terabithia, their imaginary kingdom, when they crossed the dried creek on a rope. I thought that was interesting because it was so creative how they came up with all their rules and structures. I also thought it was extremely important when they made Terabithia. The reason that part was important because it was the start of a great friendship,and important bravery for Jess. I think Leslie is brave because when it was pouring she tried to get across the flooding creek when the rope could break to protect Terabithia from disaster. She is also determined because she kept trying to talk to Jess to become friends when he was mad at her for winning the race. She is really caring to Jess because for Christmas she gave Jess paints and she knew that Jess always wanted paints because Jess really like drawing.

I really liked this book because I always enjoy tough friendships. In the book the tough friendship between Jess and Leslie was when they raced and Leslie won. It was difficult for Leslie because Jess was mad at Leslie because she became the fastest kid and he wanted to be that person.I would recommend this book to fourth graders because it is the right amount of sadness and happiness. Also it is a good creative book. There aren’t any TV shows, movies, or books that I know of that are similar (but you can ask Dan). I would rate this book 3 stars ***.   

Jan
05
2015

Toby Wheeler Eighth-Grade Benchwarmer by Thatcher Heldring

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I read Toby Wheeler Eighth-Grade Benchwarmer by Thatcher Heldring. The main character’s name is Toby Wheeler. The story takes place mostly in Pilchuck Junior High in Seattle. Toby loves basketball but has never played on an actual team. When Toby is playing at the rec center one day, his friend JJ points out that the coach for their school’s travel team is there. JJ is determined to make the roster. Toby meets the coach and the coach gives him a flyer that is his ticket onto the team if he wants to play. Toby doesn’t care so much about the team; he just wants to keep up with his friend JJ. The plot is about how Toby learns to be a good teammate even when he’s sitting on the bench.

 

 

Toby really wants to be on the court in a big moment in a game and when he finally gets to, he realizes that he should just play hard whatever the chance you get, big or small. Toby makes friends with the coach’s daughter, Megan, and he thinks that that friendship is making things worse with his coach, effecting his playing time. It’s not. Toby is just not playing up to his coach’s expectations. Toby thinks Megan wants to be more than friends so he writes her a note that makes the situation even worse. Megan then turns away from Toby. Meanwhile, JJ has a new friend in his band named Steven. Steven’s sister Valerie and JJ have a thing for each other. On Halloween, Toby wants to go trick-or-treating and JJ goes off with his new friends instead. Losing Megan and JJ, Toby feels sad and thinks he has no friends. When he first joins the team, Toby is overconfident in his basketball skills and is surprised to see that he’s not a starter or a key sub. He’s a reserve (benchwarmer). Toby is strong because at the end he’s able to bounce back and with hard work becomes a key sub. Toby is nervous when he wants to ask Megan to the school dance and his nerves get the best of him.

 

 

I liked this book because it was about a sport I play and also because the scenes with the basketball team are hilarious and funny. There’s one part where Toby does an imitation of his coach. It’s like a cold, it’s contagious, everybody on the team starts copying it. Toby’s old rec center rival Vinny Pesto plays for the league champions of the last three years and Toby is determined to beat him for his second time ever. They have lots of trash-talking battles which are crazy. For example: “That’s a nice costume, Pesto. I didn’t know they sold dog-butt masks.” I would recommend this book to sports fans because it is packed with basketball action. I would also recommend it to people who like stories about friendship because this book has friends and frenemies. This book is similar to some of Matt Christopher’s books which are about sports and friendship. I would give this book a rating of 4 stars on a 5-star scale. I can’t give it a full five stars because at some points there is too much happening and it gets a little complicated.

 

                                                              ****

Reviewed by Drew Kaufman

Jan
05
2015

Gabriel Finley and the Raven’s Riddle by George Hagen

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My book is called Gabriel Finley and the Ravens Riddle by George Hagen. The main character is Gabriel. His friends are included a lot too and they are very important in the story. They are Pamela, Abby, and Somes. The book is mainly about Gabriel and his friends traveling to an underground city, Aviopolis. They are trying to find Gabriel’s father who disappeared a long time ago. The setting of the book is Aviopolis and believe it or not, the cemetery. Aviopolis is an underground city of birds, specifically ravens, even more specifically, valravens. Valravens are evil ravens.

One of the many interesting parts of the book is when the ravens greet each other by asking riddles. If the raven laughs after the riddle, they are good old ravens, if the don’t laugh they are the well known, evil valravens. Another important and interesting thing is when they are in Aviopolis and then you have so much suspense about if they are going to find and bring back Gabriel’s father. Those are just two of the many interesting things in this amazing book. Three adjectives to describe Gabriel would be Brave, curious, and selfless. He is brave because he went with only his friends (no parents) to Aviopolis (a city full of evil birds) to find his father.  He is curious because he actually went and was being curious about where his father went many years ago. He would be selfless because when he had a chance to do something that he could be greedy with he didn’t use it on himself or be greedy with it, but he gave it up for his friends. I could give so many more adjectives to describe Gabriel besides these. But these are the ones that really stood out.

I enjoyed this book because it is an adventure and mystery book. I also really loved this book because when Pamela got the idea to use the raven as the violin, it was an amazing idea. Another example is when the author leaves you hanging about whether they found the father or not. I would recommend this book because many people like mysteries and adventures. Also because it is a very descriptive book, and that makes it easier to understand the story. I think this book is like the movie by Tim Burton  A Nightmare Before Christmas because they both go to a different world and they experience different things than what they are used to. I would give this book FIVE STARS! This is an amazing book, and if you like mysteries and adventures you will love this amazing book!

 

Jan
05
2015

Stay Alive Flood by Joseph Monninger

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searchThe book I read is called Stay Alive Flood by Joseph Monninger. It is the fourth book in the series called Stay Alive. The main characters of the book are Day, Kuru, Ellis, and Carmen. The book takes place in the apartment building that all the kids live in.They are stuck in 10 feet of water from a massive storm that floods the building.The kids have to devise a plan for them to survive the flood and get out alive.

At the beginning of the book the kids barely know each other but once they all realize that there is a flood in their town they join together to find a way out.

In the basement of their apartment building the owner’s son keeps 7 pythons as pets. When the flood occurs the pythons escape from their cages and are set free.

Carmen is wounded by one of the pythons when it wrapped around her neck while she was sleeping. All the kids felt  bad for Carmen and let her rest while they were still trying to find a way out . Day was my favorite character in the book because he’s smart, really nice and athletic. Day was good at chess which shows that he is smart, nice because he took really good care of his younger brother Ellis, Carmen when she was hurt, and played a lot of sports showing he was athletic. By the end of the book  all the kids learned a very valuable lesson in friendship and caring for one other.

I did not like this book because I thought there was too much talking and conversation among the main characters and not a lot of action. Also I did not like the ending because I wanted there to be more action. I would not recommend this book because I found it boring. I did think though that the idea of the story was good and liked the parts where all the kids were helping each other. The book and movie that pops into my head that feels similar to me is the book called The Lost City Of Ember. This book was also about a storm and how two kids had to escape by boat.

 

 

I would give this book 2 stars out of 5.