Monthly Archives: June 2017

Jun
06
2017

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson

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Case file:

Daniel X

 

Image result for cover for the first book of the alien hunter seriesDid you ever wonder if aliens were real? Did you ever wonder if (or when!) aliens would invade Earth? Now you know. The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson is about a boy named Daniel X, the Alien Hunter. The book is a book in the Alien Hunter series. He has a thing called The List of Alien Outlaws on Terra Firma (alien word for “earth”) that lists all the aliens down to #1… The Prayer. The giant praying mantis that killed his parents when he was three. There is really only one main character, and that is Daniel X. He has the power of creation, so he can pretty much make things out of his memory appear and disappear at will. The book takes place in the near future (I think?) and on Earth and another planet, called Alpar Nok.

 

Daniel X is strong, brave, and loving. Strong, because in the book he got shot multiple times but he still stayed strong and… well… ALIVE. Loving, because he can summon friends and family with his mind, and when he does, they technically don’t know that they’re fake– from his mind. But this is why he’s loving… he never actually tells them that they’re fake. Brave, because the whole theme of the book is about how he faced someone in the Top 10 of The List… Ergent Seth. He had NEVER faced someone in the Top 10 of The List.

 

I really did like this book a lot. Daniel X is really funny! The first sentence of this book is, “If this were a movie instead of real life, this would be the part where in a strange, ominous voice I’d say, ‘Take me to your leader!’” I DEFINITELY recommend this book. I recommend it especially for people who like action blood and all the good stuff. But otherwise, definitely a genuine Fourth Grade level book. This definitely relates to Season 2 of the DC Superheroes show Young Justice. An alien invasion. Part of it takes place on another planet. Yeah. My rating of this book is from this list:

 

Five stars = I loved it. I want to read it again.

Four stars = I really liked it.

Three stars = It was pretty good.

Two stars = I didn’t like it.

One star = I didn’t like it that much.

This is my rating: ????? = I loved it. I want to read it again.

 

Introducing the greatest superhero of them all…

 

DANIEL X

Jun
06
2017

As Brave as You, By Jason Reynolds

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As Brave as You, by Jason Reynolds

This book is called As Brave as You. The (awesome) book is by Jason Reynolds. I chose this book because from the moment I picked it out and read the first page, I saw that it had that hilarious and sarcastic aura to it, and I really like those types of books.  This book is about Genie (age 11) and Ernie Harris (age 13 about to turn 14), who go to North Hill, Virginia, and they stay with their grandparents for a whole month.

 

North Hill is a small town in the middle of Virginia. At first, Genie and Ernie are like “Dude, what is this place? Nothing like home, man.” They hate North Hill. Ernie and Genie are from Brooklyn. They miss the shade coming from the tall buildings cooling down the streets. They miss the ice cream truck coming to the sidewalk every day. Something that they really hate in North Hill, is the sunlight. Imagine the sunlight coming from your bedroom window, except 30 times brighter. That’s how bright the sun is there. There are a lot of steep hills, woods and forests in North Hill.

 

When Ernie and Genie arrived in North Hill, they hung out with their grandparents the first few days and they thought it was boring because there were no other kids their age there. Their grandparents literally live on the ‘North Hill’ of North Hill. They live on the top of an actual hill. There are no other houses on top of the hill.

 

Over the next few days, they wandered around aimlessly not knowing what to do (except for Ernie, he mostly played with the dog, Samantha, for the majority of the first few days). One day, Genie was looking over the side of the cliff and saw a little tiny row of houses he had never seen before. In front of a red house, he saw a girl around Ernie’s age. They walked down the hill (Genie tumbled) and met the girl.

 

Her name is Tess. Tess lives down the hill from them. They became friends and Tess took them to the local tavern where they drank the North Hill “special”. It turns out to just be ginger beer. Ginger beer is kind of like ginger ale, I think. They chatted for a bit, went to her house, and after a while Ernie and Genie left. Their grandma was hollering their names from the top of the hill like a mad woman, so they ran back up. For the rest of the vacation, the three of them hung out, got into big pickles and made DIY items.

 

Finally, Ernie’s 14th  birthday comes up. Grandpa Brooke (that’s his first name. Weird, right?) decides that he wants to teach his oldest grandson how to shoot! Grandpa Brooke decides to teach him how to shoot in the forest, so no bullets would do any harm to outsiders. Grandpa Brooke was a sniper in the Vietnam War!  He taught some of the best shooters in North Hill how to shoot.

 

IF YOU DON’T WANT A KIND OF BIG SPOILER, SKIP THIS ENTIRE PIECE OF INFORMATION!!! I’M WARNING YOU!!!

 

It’s kind of surprising that Brooke is a blind man! Yep, blind, and he still knows how to shoot. Kind of crazy. Grandpa Brooke is also scared of going outside because the last time he was outside, he had just become blind (because of Glaucoma), and he was sitting on the front steps of his house. All of a sudden, a poisonous snake came out of nowhere and bit Brooke. He had to be rushed to the hospital, and ever since then, he was scared to go outside.

 

NOW YOU CAN READ YOUR HEART OUT!

 

Brooke, Ernie, Genie, and Crab (a shooter in North Hill who is a good friend of Brooke’s), all go to the woods to teach Ernie how to shoot. Genie isn’t old enough to learn how to shoot, so he just goes to watch Ernie.

Everyone Is oblivious to Ernie’s nervousness, except for Genie. That’s right, Ernie is nervous. The weird thing is, Ernie is never nervous about anything. Nothing at all. As soon as Ernie held the gun in his hands, he started to get really shaky and his hands trembled. Once he pulled the trigger the gun slipped backward from his hands, sending the bullet behind. It didn’t hit anyone, luckily. However, the gun slammed into Ernie’s mouth, knocking out two of his teeth. He had to go to the Emergency room and get braces. This is the kind of pickle they would get into.

 

About two weeks later, the brothers’ parents come back to get them, and Ernie and Genie can’t deny that they had a good time. Just as they were getting to like North Hill, they had to leave. Sad, right?

 

I would definitely recommend this book if you like sarcasm and wit. Also if you like some sort of tame adventure.

Again, this book is AWESOME! I would give it ????? out of ????? stars. THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ!!!

 

Jun
06
2017

The Search For WondLa

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The Search For WondLa

 

Eva Nine was dying. Can you imagine death? Well, she can. Truth is she’s actually dying here . . . of boredom. Eva nine does  not  live a normal life. Unless you call living underground with a robot and no other humans normal.

 

The only way she stays alive is Muthr. Muthr is a robot that has raised Eva in their underground sanctuary for as long as Eva can remember. She has been training Eva to survive in the world above them. Eva Nine has never seen any other humans other than a picture of a girl, an adult, and a robot. The only clue to finding these humans is the word WondLa at the bottom of the picture.  The only problem is Muthr can’t detect any humans above them though she does not tell Eva.

 

One night a marauding huntsman (of species unknown) attacks their underground sanctuary and leaves Eva with the only option to flee to the surface without Muthr. Though when Eva gets up there she does not recognize anything from Muthr’s training. Infact she ends up sleeping in a walking tree.

 

After befriending Rovender Kitt an alien wanderer and Otto  a Tardigrade, Eva  Nine and her new friends set out on the search for WondLa.   

 

I recommend this book if you like adventure. If you are  a curious person this book will always keep you interested with all the twists and turns to things you’re not expecting. I give this book 5 stars!

Jun
06
2017

Blubber By Judy Blume

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                      “Blubber is a good name for her.” Linda was always picked on, just because she was overweight. Even Jill (the main character) didn’t do anything. You would expect more. This book takes you through a sad story. It is usually set in the school that they go to. Which where the bullying happens.

 

Jill is nice, mean and she is also thoughtful. Jill is nice because in the end of the book she did what was right. Even if others did not like that idea. She is mean because because in the beginning she was like a bystander. Even though she knew that not stepping in would create a bigger problem. Girls and boys would pass notes to her in school about how to tease Linda and how to make her mad, but she still did not do anything. Jill is thoughtful because she tried to think about Linda’s point of view. So she did the right thing.

 

One of my favorite parts of the book was when no one did anything to help Linda. Everyone would make fun of her and call Linda names. But finally Jill stepped in and made a difference. I liked this part because the whole time you were holding your breath for something good to happen. And finally it comes. An interesting part of the book is that the teacher does not seem to notice and no one tells her.

 

I really enjoyed this book because it feels like you are in an awful cruel life. But it makes you want to read more because you want to know what’s happens. I would really recommend this book because it is so fun and sad to read. This book kind of reminds me of Wonder because Linda and Auggie are both being picked on because they look different. I would rate this 5 stars.

 

 

 

 

          

Jun
06
2017

Dairy Of A Wimpy Kid: Double Down

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Greg Heffley is an ordinary middle schooler who prefers video games over phys Ed. one day he watches this TV show about this guy who’s life is secretly being filmed. He wonders if his life is also being secretly filmed so when he is standing in the shower he gets a bit nervous. “Diary of a wimpy kid: Double down” is about Greg Heffley struggling with everything from his future to him having a girlfriend and a motorcycle. Greg is funny, desperate for a decent life, a “loser” at his school.

 

If There is a movie about someone’s who’s life is secretly being filmed then isn’t there a pretty good chance that Greg’s life could also be being filmed? The creepy thing is though, that all the other people in the tv show besides the main character aren’t actually being secretly filmed they’re actors! So that means that gregs family could be ACTORS. Like his brother always fights with him but if he’s just an actor then who KNOWS, maybe one day him and Greg will be…buddies! But if Greg’s parents are actors then that’s just messed-up! I mean if they watch you while you’re in the shower and pick out your  clothes then…I don’t even know what to say.

 

Sometimes Greg Heffley wonders if his life is really good enough to be on a TV show, so every now and then Greg will do something that will get the people at home watching a laugh, like falling on purpose of slipping in dog poo. Because in his opinion: “who wants to see a movie about some kid who stays up till midnight doing homework?”

 

I would give this book ten stars out of ten because it’s HILARIOUS! This book is pretty easy to read though so it’s definitely not the best book to read for reading thirty minutes a day. You should REALLY read this book and the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid series. This is the last book for now. It’s at the end of the series. You don’t have to read all the books before this one in the diary of a wimpy kid series though. It will make perfect sense even if you don’t. Please comment and let me know what you think of this book review!       

 

 

 

 

Jun
06
2017

My Last Best Friend

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This character’s name is Ida May and she’s not having the best time of her life when her friend goes away. Now she has the mean girl, Jenna Drews, to deal with all by herself. She has no other good/best friends and her friend Elizabeth who moved away likes all the things Ida does. Jenna is so mean that she calls Ida, I-duh. One day Jenna invites all the girls in her grade for her birthday sleepover at her house. Jenna’s mom makes her invite Ida. Jenna has a little sister named Rachel, a dog named Biscuit and her mom is head of the PTA.  (PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION)

I think Ida is daring, daring to take on her class a.k.a. Jenna Drews and followers without her friend. (Followers are the people who like Jenna, everyone else is afraid of her, technically even followers. The people who follow Jenna are Jolene, Meeka, Brooke, and Stacy.) Stacy just wants to be friends with Jenna. I also think she is caring and selfless because she wrote to her best friend, Elizabeth, and she never wrote back besides a birthday invitation (written by her mom) and she still thinks good thoughts about Elizabeth.

Mini SPOILER ALERT in first part of book.

At Jenna’s sleepover birthday party they paint rocks. Ida gets paint on her shirt and goes upstairs to change her shirt. By the time she comes back downstairs everyone had gone out to play but Ida’d rather stay inside. Rachel is still there under the table playing an imaginary game. Ida thinks it is Biscuit but it is Rachel. Rachel is playing a game where the coats are monsters and she is a princess. Rachel is protecting her “castle” from them. Ida decides to play with Rachel and she is the queen, Rachel names her Cordelia. That is one reason how the secret notes to Stacey start.

Stacey Merriweather is the new girl in town and is “friends” with Jenna. She makes up lies to tell to Jenna so she would like her and not be mean to her. Some of Stacey’s lies are, she lives with her rich aunt, her parents are news reporters, and her real name is Anastasia. So what I meant about how the notes started is Ida used the name Cordelia because she didn’t want to tell Stacey her real name and besides that, they would tell the truth the whole time. Their hiding place for the notes was behind a cow shaped hedge named Bessie and there was a loose brick so they slipped the notes in there.

I recommend this book. It is a series called, Friends for Keeps. I would give it a four or five star rating depending on where it is in the book. The first few paragraphs totally relate to your life if you are in Fourth Grade according to me.

Jun
06
2017

Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry By Mildred D. Taylor

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Roll Of thunder Hear My Cry is a sad, and emotional book! The main character is Cassie Logan, and the story follows her and her family through a year. Cassie has different reactions to different experiences and takes on an adventure through her mind, even though it is just her life.

 

Cassie is a very tricky and curious girl, but still has a big heart and lots of trust for her family. In one part Cassie and her siblings dig a ditch in the road and it rained so it became a lake and the white school bus got stuck when they came to splash the Logans. Another time she tricked a white girl who had been mean to her into thinking she was her friend and servant but then when it was to much she betrayed her. One time Cassie was so curious she snuck out of the house with two of her brothers to see what was going on in the woods. She always had a reason to cry or be scared but she would act harshly in these ways, which is what makes the book so interesting.

Spoiler warning, go to next paragraph to skip spoilers!!!!!

Cassie has so much emotion she almost ran into a fire to save her mom and dad. She ran into  the woods with a angry white mob, and she almost came back after she left to get her older brother back. She can be so angry or sad that the last lines of the book are “I cried for T.J. I cried for T.J. and the land.”

 

Spoiler clear now!

So I rate this book  4 ½ stars. It is action packed, yet a break from full on adventure like Percy Jackson or Harry Potter. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys history or books like The War that saved my Life, but also anyone who has read Percy Jackson.  I loved Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry!!!!!!

 

Roll Of Thunder

Hear My Cry

Over the water

Bye and bye

Ole man comin’

Down the line

Whip in hand to

Beat me down

But I ain’t

Gonna let him

Turn me round

 

Jun
06
2017

The End by Lemony Snicket

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Warning: This contains a lot of spoilers about the book and series.

 

 

The book I read is called The End. It is part of the Series of Unfortunate Events by the author Lemony Snicket. The main characters are Violet, Klaus and Sunny, and the sub characters are all the colonists of the island including Ishmael, Count Olaf, The Extremely Deadly Viper and Kit Snicket. This is in the recent past but is fictional, on a random island in the middle of an unknown ocean.

Klaus Baudelaire has good memory, he is a liar and is a bookie. He has good memory because when he looked at a book that nobody knew about he realized that it was his parents handwriting. He is a liar because when was insistent on putting his commonplace notebook into the arboretum but instead he put it into his pocket. He is a bookie because he loves to read that’s why he read that book that had his parents’ handwriting and why he kept his commonplace notebook.

An interesting part of the book was when Kit Snicket arrived on the island. This is important because Kit has played a small but also a big role in this story. A really important part of the book is when Ishmael shot the harpoon gun at Count Olaf that let out the Medusoid Fugues that can kill with the hour.   

I enjoyed this book so much because one, I love this series so much because well it’s awesome and well just fun to read. And two because of the mystery and the ending is, well, odd but good. I would definitely recommend this book if you like mysteries and adventure. If you want to read this you have to read all the books before it in the series, if you finish it it’s a big accomplishment at least for me it was.  A similar  show is on netflix and it is a little off but most of it is part of the book and most of you I know have watched  it. I would give this book five stars.        

Jun
06
2017

I Funny by James Patterson

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The book I will be talking about today is called “I Funny.” It takes place in high school in the present. The main character’s name is Jamie Grimm who enters a comedy contest in NYC. He is really excited to be in the contest.

 

Jamie is very funny, nervous from stage fright and is “old-school” as you can probably tell by the book cover with the mustache and glasses and fuzzy eyebrows. Every single time Jamie performs, he is sweating so much that his clothes become wet. In the book he does a lot of research on old comedians and their work. He is also funny for that same reason. Here is one of his jokes: “So a woman and her baby walked into a bus. And the bus driver said ‘Man, that’s one ugly baby!’ So the mom’s all angry and grumpy and says to the man next to her ‘That bus driver insulted me!’ So the man said ‘Go tell him that. I will hold the monkey.’” Pretty funny right?  

 

Jamie’s family died in an car accident but he survived with an injury to his butt. Jamie’s injuries have left him in a wheelchair though. He lives with his aunt and uncle. They are really very boring! They don’t laugh at all until the middle of the book.

 

My rating is ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ because it really cracked me up. To be honest, this is probably one of the most funniest books I have ever read. It is amazing and I highly recommend it.

Jun
05
2017

Wherever I Wind Up By R.A Dickey

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Have you ever wondered about R.A. Dickey, a retired baseball player? You should read Wherever I Wind Up. It is by R.A. Dickey. In the book R.A Dickey goes through the journey of being a baseball player. He grew up poor going to 2 dollar baseball games. As his life moves on his parents end up splitting up. As an adult he knows that he will not get a job because he is not smart enough. After college he got drafted to a major league baseball team. He then goes through a journey of going up and down from the majors to the minors. He travels as a free agent going from team to team. He starts as a Twin and then goes to the Marlins and then the Twins and ends up on the Mets. While he travels failing in baseball  his wife Anne lives in Nashville with his three kids. They keep separating farther apart both in their relationship and distance. He is a knuckleball pitcher. In the beginning of his career his coaches told him that he would have to be an almost always knuckleball pitcher to stay in the majors. He has trouble with his pitching when he moved to the Marlins but good things might be ahead on the Twins. The book takes place in Florida, Arizona, Minnesota, New York and Nashville. He is always moving. There are other places where the book takes place but these are the main places.  

Three ways that I would describe R.A. as is depressed, nervous and resilient. He is depressed because he misses his wife and feels like she might leave him. Being away all the time brought their relationship down and that caused him to become depressed. They are close to being divorced but they still love each other. R.A is nervous because he believes that he will never stay in the big leagues. He is nervous that the knuckleball will not work and the decision that he made will never pay off. Lastly, R.A. is resilient because he will sometimes not pitch his knuckleball even though the coach tells him to. He still mixes in a lot of curveballs and fastballs. This is why R.A is an interesting person.

My three favorite parts of the book are when R.A gets stuck in the Mississippi River, when he goes up to the majors for the first time and when R.A and one of the major league teammates went out together. The time when R.A got stuck in the Mississippi River was one of my favorite parts. This was because I liked how he used words to paint a picture. In his life he is sinking and in the river he is literally sinking so it is a metaphor. Another one of my favorite parts was when R.A first made it to the majors. This was one of my favorite parts because I liked how he felt so proud. He was proud because his sacrifices paid off. He was happy because he could get a chance to make good money. Another one of my favorite parts was when a baseball player on R.A’s team bought him clothes. He was getting clothes because he did not have enough money before to get them. This was one of my favorite parts because I loved how humble the other baseball player was.

I really enjoyed reading the book because I liked the story behind it. I liked how he faced so many obstacles and overcame all of them with a positive attitude. I loved the fact that it was the player who wrote the book because it gave a real addition to the content. I would recommend this book because it is really interesting to read behind the scenes access of a baseball player. His life story makes the book something to definitely read. There are some sad parts of the book and there are some mildly inappropriate parts and if you do not like this it is not a book that you would enjoy. Two books that remind me of this book are Who Was Jackie Robinson and Who Was Babe Ruth. They remind me of this book because they are narratives of baseball players lives just like this. I would give this book 5 stars.