Monthly Archives: January 2016

Jan
14
2016

From The Notebooks Of A Middle School Princess, By Meg Cabot

Posted by

5600cad5539b4.image-1I’m reading a book called From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess by Meg Cabot. The main character is a girl named Olivia. Olivia lives with her aunt in New Jersey. She lives with her aunt  because her mom died when she was very young. She doesn’t live with Her dad because he lives in New York City, and her aunt doesn’t want her to meet him because Olivia is unaware that he is royalty. Olivia’s family wants her to have a normal life without knowing she’s a royal. A mean girl named Annabelle, who also attends Olivia’s middle school, doesn’t like her. Olivia tries to figure out why, and also how to fix it and become Annabelle’s friend.

She draws in her free time, loves animals and is a very positive person. She is also very kind. For example, she was not mean to Annabelle when Annabelle was being mean to her, and she is a very good friend. Olivia is also smart. For example, she gets very good grades in school. This quote helped me understand Olivia’s personality more, “Middle school has not been going great, but of course my expectations were very high.” It helped me because she was thinking about how great middle school could be and not how bad it could turn out to be. This means that she always hopes for the best, even if it doesn’t turn out that way.

Olivia had a surprise visit from her royal sister Mia, who she hadn’t known about. Olivia’s sister said she could pick one place she wanted to go and her sister would take her there. Olivia chose to meet her dad for the first time ever in New York City. When Olivia finally met her dad, he asked her to move in with him. They would need to live in a different country, and that means leaving Olivia’s best friend Nishi. Olivia’s aunt does not want her to move in with her dad. You will have to read the book to find out if Olivia moves in with her dad or not!

I love this book because Olivia has to make a life changing decision, like meeting her dad, moving in with her dad, and living in a whole new country with people she had only met a few days ago. I would recommend this book for people who like books about adventures . I would also recommend this book for people who like books with life changing decisions in them. I would give this book five stars out of five stars.  

Jan
14
2016

The Magic Faraway Tree, By Enid Blyton

Posted by

39-The-Magic-Faraway-Tree_EL_14nov12_pr_btIf you like magic and adventure you should read The Magic Faraway Tree. The name of the main characters are Joe, Beth, Frannie and Moonface. Beth is the most sensible, friendly and giving. Joe is most careful, adventurous and clever. Frannie is the youngest in age of all of them and she cries a lot and Moonface takes a lot, he has a sweet tooth but can also be clever. They live in the countryside and there is a wood right next to their house. They live on top of a small hill.

They go to different lands and in every land there is a problem like in the land of take-all-you-want Moonface gets so interested in a big quilt that he forgets to watch the hole that leads back down the tree and they get stuck in the land. The way they get up the tree is they climb up the tree and then once they get up the tree there is a hole at the top that leads to a land but you have to go up and then come down quickly because if you don’t get down you get stuck up there forever. The conflict of this book is to get in and out before the land moves.  

I think this is one of the best books I have read in a long time besides the Harry Potter series I would recommend this book to people who are not picky with books. Some people (like me) would think that the beginning of the book is boring and put it down and pick up another book.

I am going to give you a tip,  you must read farther because the middle of the story is more interesting. I would give my book 500 stars! Just kidding, I will give it ✬✬✬✬✬ stars.

Jan
14
2016

The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani

Posted by

 

imgres

The book I’m reading is called The School for Good and Evil written by Soman Chainani. There are three books in the series. There are two main characters in the book. One is named Sophie and she’s the witch. The other main character is named Agatha, she’s the princess. Sophie has always wanted to be a princess in the school for good. Then Agatha got in the School for Good and Sophie was stuck in the School for Evil. Sophie got really jealous and confused that Agatha is a princess and she’s not. This book takes place in two schools, The School for Good and the School for Evil.

Agatha is nice in the inside but pretends to not be nice in the outside. Sophie is the opposite of Agatha. She is cruel in the inside and pretends to be nice in the outside. Together they’re unique in a bad way. When you first start the book, Sophie and Agatha are normal girls in Gavaldon the town where they’re from. Everybody in Gavaldon thinks Sophie is good because she pretends to be. They think Agatha is evil because she wears black and lives in a graveyard in the woods. But it’s the opposite of what you think.

Sophie wants to be good so badly she believes she’s a princess, but she doesn’t know she is being selfish and cruel. One example of this is when Sophie was not grateful that her friend got something she didn’t.  Agatha thinks Sophie is good, and Agatha has been a true friend to Sophie. Sophie does good deeds to impress the schoolmaster so he thinks she is a princess. Tedros who is a prince, thinks Sophie is supposed to be in the School for Good because she’s pretty. He thinks they confused her with Agatha and that Agatha is supposed to be evil because she is ugly, has a negative attitude and wears black. You never know what’s coming next with Sophie and Agatha.

I really enjoyed this book because it has a twist in it that might surprise you. I also liked how much the author described the magic within the book. For example, how one of the teachers can talk to animals. I recommend this book because it’s a sweet story with a lot of magic and I like magic a lot. You really get pulled into the book and it’s really fun to read so I would definitely recommend it. I have a connection to one of the main characters in the book, Sophie. I’ve always wanted to be in a fairy tale and be on the good side. I rate this book five out of five stars.            

     

Jan
14
2016

The School for Good and Evil: The Last Ever After By Soman Chainani

Posted by

imgres

My book is called The School For Good And Evil: The Last Ever After. It is the third book in the series The School For Good And Evil. It was written by Soman Chainani. Sophie and Agatha are the main characters. The main problem is that all of the fairy tales that everyone knows are getting changed and rewritten by the evil Schoolmaster. Instead of good winning, evil is winning. Evil is killing all of the good characters because it has love on its side. Evil got love because Sophie married the evil Schoolmaster. As long as she wears his ring, evil will win all of the fairy tales ever to come and good winning will just be forgotten.

My book is set in two places. One of them is the Blue Forest. The Blue Forest is a forest that students from the school for good and the school for evil used to train in to prepare for the real forest, which is where they would go and live their real fairy tales. The second place that my book is set in is the school for new evil, which includes the school masters tower. The School For New Evil is the School For Evil but in a different and bigger building. The Schoolmaster’s tower is like the Schoolmaster’s house, but it doesn’t have any stairs to go down, you have to fly up and through a window to get in.

Sophie and Agatha were best friends. That was until a boy, Tedros came between them. Tedros is the prince of Camelot. Sophie and Agatha both loved Tedros. Tedros picked Agatha to be his princess. So, Sophie went seeking love. She came upon the evil Schoolmaster and found out that she loved him but he was evil. She married the Schoolmaster and became evil. The Schoolmaster wanted to change all of the fairy tales so that evil would always win and it seemed like evil was right and good was wrong.

Evil characters that have been killed by their good nemeses rise from their grave and find their enemies to kill them. Everything starts dying including the sun. If the sun dies, everyone in the world will die as well. The only way to stop everything dying is if Sophie destroys the Schoolmaster’s ring with Excalibur, Tedros’ father’s sword. Sophie must decide who she wants more. Her best friend, Agatha or her true love, the Schoolmaster.

Sophie is a confused person. She doesn’t know what is right and what is wrong because she always tries to be good, but no one appreciates it so she turns evil. Sophie doesn’t want to be evil, she wants to be happy. The only way for Sophie to be happy is if she finds true love. Sophie found true love but it is evil. For example, on page 2 it says “Sophie reddened, remembering she was all alone in this world. Everyone else had abandoned her. Every desperate effort to be good had been punished with betrayal. She had no family, no friends, no future.  And now, this ravishing boy in front of her was her last hope for love. Panic burnt through her muscles and dried out her throat.  There was no choice anymore. Sophie swallowed and slowly stepped towards him.”

Sophie is also desperate for love. She has always wanted to be good but when she fell in love and it was evil she wasn’t willing to sacrifice love for good. She was too desperate. For example, Sophie once had a choice. Her choice was love or friendship. She could have gone to Camelot with Agatha and been good just by destroying the Schoolmaster’s ring but she couldn’t. She knew she wouldn’t get a second chance at love and by destroying the Schoolmaster’s ring it would mean giving her happy ending to Agatha and losing hers.

Agatha has a very strong personality. She doesn’t let other people take her over or do things for her. For example, on page 147 it says, “If anyone can make Sophie see what love really is…it’s her best friend, isn’t it?” said Agatha. “The league’s old faces melted to childlike stares, as if finally seeing the young girl with hope instead of disdain. Tedros stepped next to his princess, chest proud. “Exactly. Leave Sophie to me.” Agatha’s smile vanished.”

Agatha is also very independent. For example, before she went to the school for good she lived in a small house in a graveyard with her mother and her cat. She did most things by herself and didn’t have any friends. But, Agatha stayed strong and was good even though everyone including herself thought she was evil and a witch.

One of the reasons that I really enjoyed this book was it was very descriptive and it makes you feel like you are experiencing everything that the characters are experiencing. For example, on page 542 it says, “Slowly their eyes drifted upwards, pinned to the trees, and as they adjusted to the darkness, they began to make them out… bony, vulturous shadows, eerily still on the elm branches, not making a sound.” Another reason I really liked this book is that every time they solve one problem it leads to another. It keeps it filled with excitement and action and makes the book very interesting. The last reason is that it doesn’t start with just Agatha or just Sophie, it alternates every chapter and when both of the girls are in the same place, the book says both of their thoughts so that you can actually understand what is going on and why.

I would recommend this book to someone who loves reading fantasy and fractured fairy tales. It is filled with both of those things and makes the book what it is. This book is about good against evil and which one is right and if you like changing concepts you would probably like this book. I would definitely rate this book five stars out of five stars (five being the best and one being the worst.)  

Jan
14
2016

The Chocolate Touch, by Patrick Skene Catling

Posted by

 

 

51q-9rbQqFL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_

This book is called “The Chocolate Touch” by Patrick Skene Catling.  The main character is John Midas.  He is a young boy who is very selfish and loves chocolate. One day he finds a coin on the street that has a chocolate bar on one side and a  fat boy on the other side, and it says “JM”.  He takes this coin to a candy shop and he says to the man,  “I only have this money. Do you accept it here?”  And then the man says,  “Yes, that is the only kind we take.”  So John pays the man and buys a box of chocolate and goes back to his house and puts in under his bed.  At night,  he takes the chocolate out and eats it all and then in the morning when he is brushing his teeth, he says to  his sister,  “Did you get chocolate flavored toothpaste?” because the toothpaste turns to chocolate. John then goes to breakfast and his food turns to chocolate and he loves it.  When he goes to school,  everything there turns to chocolate including his pencil, his lunch, and his glove.

His chocolate touch gets stronger.  At first only the piece of the object that went in his mouth turned to chocolate,    but then when he put anything in his mouth the whole thing turned to chocolate. For example, his trumpet turned to chocolate at band practice. He gets really embarrassed and sad and he runs out of school and goes home. He plans never to go back to school. He asks his dad to take him to the doctor who says he cannot help him.  John has an idea to go to the chocolate store because he thinks the man can help, but the store is gone and there is a sign that says, “for sale” and he starts crying.  He goes home to tell his mom that he has a chocolate touch and she starts crying and he kisses her on the cheek and she turns into a giant chocolate statue.  He gets really scared and runs back to the chocolate store where it was and it was there and he says to the owner who sold him the chocolate earlier, “Help me my mom has turned to chocolate and you need to fix this.”  The man says, “If you have the choice to have  your mother alive and still have the chocolate touch or don’t have the chocolate touch and have your mother be a chocolate statue what would you choose?”  John made the decision to…. (read the book to find out).  

I enjoyed the book because of the adventure and the problem was interesting.  I liked when John ate the whole toothpaste tube because it was funny.  I also liked when he ate his glove and the school bully wanted to eat some too and then the school bully spat it out because it gave John the advantage of having the chocolate touch but then he learned it isn’t an advantage.  I also liked when John bit his best friend’s coin because he thought it wasn’t real silver and he bit it in half.  It showed that it wasn’t an advantage at all and just made him lose his best friend.

I would recommend this book to someone who likes funny and interesting books.  I would give this four and half stars because sometimes there was stuff that happened and I couldn’t figure it out.

 

Jan
14
2016

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone By J.K. Rowling

Posted by

Unknown

In Harry Potter the main characters are… Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. One night a powerful dark wizard comes into the house of James and Lily Potter and their one year old son Harry Potter. This is Lord Voldemort. James tries to hold him off while Lily runs away with Harry. Voldemort killed James and went to kill Harry, but Harry’s mother begged Voldemort to kill her instead of Harry. Voldemort killed Lily Potter and went after Harry. But something special about him made Voldemort lose his powers and Voldemort  just made it out alive. That is how Harry got his lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

Harry went to live with his muggle (non magical) aunt and uncle. Harry did not know he was a wizard until ten years later, and that is where it all begins, when Harry goes into the wizard world. In this book the main problem is that a giant three headed dog named fluffy is guarding the Sorcerer’s Stone, the Sorcerer’s Stone is a ruby red stone and as long as you’re holding it you can never die. Fluffy is guarding the stone for Dumbledore, because Voldemort is trying to get it to come back to power. The dark arts are people who murder other people with a spell.  Harry’s defence against the dark arts teacher meanwhile is keeping a dark secret that Harry will never forget, once he finds out what it is.

Harry is happy when he is playing quidditch. When Snape takes points off Gryffindor for no reason Harry gets mad. When one of Harry’s friends are hurt he is sad. Professor Snape, a greasy hair, crooked nose git, hates Harry. Professor Snape hates Harry because when he and Harry’s father were in school together they were enemies. Snape is the potions master (he teaches potions.) But Snape has always wanted the Defence Against The Dark Arts job. At his first quidditch match, Harry got his broom jinxed either by Professor Snape, which is likely, or Professor Quirrell, his defence against the dark art teacher.  On Halloween a troll was set loose and got locked in a bathroom with Hermione, and thanks to Harry and Ron, Hermione was safe and they all ended up all alive. Harry, Hermione and Ron decide go to get the Sorcerer’s Stone they know they have to go through a bunch of obstacles before they can get the stone. Some of the obstacles are…  devil snare, troles, wizard chess, and potions.

I REALLY enjoyed this book because it has fantasy and fiction in it. I also liked it because it has a lot of beautiful language in it. I recommend this book because it has a good and an evil, and a good evil, and a too good! This is my favorite type of FICTION!! If I were to rate this book I would give it 5 stars being the best 1 being the worst I would give it a 5,                        

1 2 3 4 5!!

* * * * *

Jan
14
2016

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan

Posted by

searchI read Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. I enjoyed the first book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, so I read the second one in the Percy Jackson series. The main character is Percy Jackson. The problem in my story concerns a boy named Luke, who used to be a friend of Percy’s but then betrayed him. Luke poisoned the tree that used to be Talia the daughter of Zeus. That tree would put a magical shield around the camp to protect it from monsters. Now that it was poisoned it could no longer protect the camp. The story mostly took place in part of an ocean called the Sea of Monsters in the year 2013.

He is also really brave and likes adventures because he was willing to go on a quest that no man has ever returned from. Percy is also athletic because he loves to do flips and to practice every drill there is at camp. One of the hardest drills is a rock climbing wall that is very high and squirts out burning hot lava.

Percy did some interesting things throughout the story including going on a ferry that had Luke and some monsters on it. Another event that was interesting was a horse race with two people in a carriage that they had to design and build. A big decision that Percy made was to battle one of his brothers – a big ugly cyclops that had killed all of the people that have entered his island . But not someone named Jason who slashed his sword in his one eye and has half blinded the cyclops.

I like this book because it has a lot of fighting and adventure. My favorite fight was when Percy and Annabeth fight the cyclops and Annabeth puts on a cap that turns her invisible. Annabeth called out ”HEY LOOK OVER HERE REMEMBER ME! IT’S NOBODY.” And the cyclops said “No not nobody I remember you.” That is what Jason called him self.

I think the genre of the book is adventure, action, and mystery. I would recommend this book if you like battles. Also if you like Greek mythology. I would rate this book five stars.

Jan
14
2016

Dead End In Norvelt, By: Jack Gantos

Posted by

imgres-1The book that I am reading is called Dead End In Norvelt by Jack Gantos. This book is about a boy named Jack. Jack lives with his parents in Norvelt, Pennsylvania. This book takes place in 1962.There are two books in the series.

Jack’s Dad, A World War II veteran, wins a plane and goes about rebuilding it so that he “Can go anywhere he wants, anytime.” He especially wants to get out of Norvelt, a town he believes is full of “Communists,” unlike Florida where, in his words, “A hard working man can make big money building houses for rich people.” Jack’s father lies to his wife, getting Jack to help him build a fake a bomb shelter in the barn, when he is actually fixing up the plane and building a runway.

Jack is very interesting because every time he gets nervous or gets scared, his nose starts to bleed. It is like a red Niagra falls. Unfortunately, Jack overlooks this when he lies to his mom about what he and his father are up to with the  When his mother finds out about the runway, Jack runs away and his nose bleeds all over his face. When his mother catches up with him, she grounds him for life.

Jack is also a history buff and loves to read. He works for an old lady named Miss Volker who used to be a nurse and now writes obituaries for the local paper. Because her hands don’t work anymore, she soaks them in hot wax and gets Jack to write the articles for her. I think Jack will start writing his own articles for the newspaper after Miss Volker dies because he likes to help Miss Volker.

One thing Jack doesn’t like is examining dead people. When his friend Bunny takes him into the back room of the mortuary where her father works, she tells him to touch the dead guy’s neck and Jack doesn’t want to do it. Bunny takes Jack’s hand and makes him touch the dead man and it feels “Cold and stiff,” which Jack finds very disturbing.
I really like this book so far because Jack loves to read history. I also like it because I can never guess what is coming next. I would recommend this book to ages 10 and up because there is blood and death involved. I can relate to this book on a friendship level because of Bunny and Miss Volker, I have not found myself in the same circumstances as Jack. Still, I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.