Author Archives: Charlie

Aug
30
2015

The New York Yankees by Matt Christopher

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The title of my book is The New York Yankees, The Most Successful Team in Major League History written by Matt Christopher. The setting of the book takes place in all four Yankee Stadiums. The first stadium was Hilltop Park, next The Polo Grounds followed by the two Yankee Stadiums.  The main characters were Yankees stars throughout the 1900’s. For example, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Joe DiMaggio, Reggie Jackson and Yogi Berra.  There were two major issues, other than baseball related events, that postponed games during a season.  They were World War II and 9/11.

 

When the Yankees first started, they were very good.  Then, the Mets got better and they took most of the Yankees fans away. Then the Yankees traded for Babe Ruth who was really good. But he was also known for arguing and having a bad temper. But the gamble to trade for him paid off because he got 60 home runs in one season.  Then the Yankees got even better by getting Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio.  After a couple of seasons, Lou Gehrig got sick and was diagnosed with ALS which was then renamed Lou Gehrig’s disease (after he died).  After a while, Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio got old and retired and for a couple of years, the Yankees were very bad.  But their luck was not over.  A young star from the minor leagues went to the Yankees, his name was Mickey Mantle and all the sudden, they were good again.  After awhile, he started getting old and retired.  Again, the Yankees struggled for some time. But all hope was not lost when they got Reggie Jackson, a free agent. It was a big gamble because he had a huge ego but it worked out. In more recent past, the Yankees acquired big stars named Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriquez.  In their entire history, the Yankees have won 27 championships, the most in any major league sport and will probably have future stars yet again.

 

I enjoyed the book a lot. I think it gives you a lot of facts about the Yankees and tells you about each one of their stars.  I think the writer did a good job of giving details of each season.  A reader who likes the Yankees or baseball would enjoy this book. Also, if you like sports in general, I think you would like the book. I would rate this book four stars.  

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Jun
03
2015

The House Of Hades

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The House of Hades

Charlie

This scene is when Khione, the evil snow goddess, freezes Piper and Jason. They are demigods. Khione sends Leo (who is also a demigod) into the sky. When he gets down he lands on a island called Ogygia. There he meets a girl named Calypso. At first they both hated each other but then they started being nicer to each other. I chose this scene because it has a lot of action in it.

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Apr
08
2015

The Mark Of Athena by Rick Riordan

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This book is action packed, mysterious, and even a little scary. In The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, the characters are always out numbered and constantly solving tons of problems. The book is the third in a series called The Heroes of Olympus.  This book is about seven characters named Frank, Hazel, Leo, Piper, Jason, Annabeth, and Percy. They are all demigods.  The main story is about the characters travelling to Rome to follow the Mark of Athena. The Mark Of Athena is a Quest only Annabeth can do, alone. They travel on a flying ship, but they main setting is Rome, Italy.

One of the main characters, Percy, is brave, a natural leader and able to survive on his own.  Percy is brave because he fought Crysor (a gold pirate) all by himself. He is a natural leader because he takes charge and wants to protect everyone as much as he wants to protect himself.  He is able to survive on his own because when all of his other teammates were knocked out, and Crysor’s henchmen threatened to kill them with a dagger, he found a way to beat Crysor.  When they get to Rome, Annabeth finds where the Mark of Athena starts. Then she goes into a dark cave and is outnumbered by monsters but uses her knowledge to get out of it.  Then she had to face her greatest fear, spiders! She also had to defeat her mother’s (Athena) arch nemesis, the Arachne. Arachne was turned into a spider because she bragged too much.  The way Annabeth defeated Arachne was she tricked her into weaving a Chinese finger trap for her to get stuck in.  After the defeat, Annabeth reclaimed the Athena Parthenos.  Meanwhile, Percy, Piper and Jason also had their own mini quest.  This involved defeating the twin giants Otis and Ephialtes.  They had to get a god’s help to destroy them. After they won, they reclaimed their prize, which was Nico, another demigod who was captured by the giants.

I think this book was amazing because there are a lot of different things that are happening on every page. I love the author’s writing style I think it is good because he uses a lot of big words. It is a long book but is fast paced.  There are a lot of challenges that the characters face, which keeps the book interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes action, adventure, and mythology. If you have read the previous two books to this, you should definitely keep reading the series.  A book that is similar to this series is Percy Jackson also by Rick Riordan.  I give this book 5 stars.

Feb
25
2015

Aaron’s Gift by Myron Levoy

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My story is called Aaron’s Gift, from the book The Witch of 4th Street, by Myron Levoy.  This story is about Aaron Kandel and an injured pigeon he found in Tompkins Square Park.  He found the pigeon when he went to the park to go skating.  Aaron noticed that the pigeon could not fly. He decided to take the pigeon home and ask his mother if he could keep it there. His mother said yes because the pigeon was injured.  He tried to fix the pigeon.  His grandmother lived with his family and loved animals. She would feed the birds that came to their fire escape and would also talk to them. The main setting of the story is Aaron’s house in the Lower East Side.

 

Aaron is thoughtful because he wanted to save the pigeon. He is gullible because later in the story he falls for a trick the older boys play on him. Aaron was smart because he taught the pigeon how to take things back and forth using popcorn. One important part of the story is when the older boys tried to kill the pigeon by putting Pidge in a fire. Luckily, the pigeon flew away before they put him in the fire. He was planning to the give the pigeon to this grandmother for her birthday. Aaron was sad because he could not give Pidge to her because it flew on top of a tenement. But his grandmother thanked him because the pigeon was free which made her happy.

 

I enjoyed the story because it was happy in the beginning when he found the pigeon. It was scary and sad in the middle when the older boys tried to kill his pigeon and beat him up. And then it was happy again in the end when he got home safely and his grandmother was happy that the pigeon was free. I would recommend this story because it has a lot of drama and unexpected scenes. I would also recommend this if you enjoyed the other stories in this book. I would rate this story four stars.

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Jan
14
2015

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordian

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The name of my book is The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan. This book is from the series  The Heroes Of Olympus. There are seven main characters in my book. They are all demigods. Their nimgresames are Piper, Jason, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Percy and Annabeth. The problem is the seven main characters have to go to several different places to find clues that will lead them to the prison where Hazel’s brother Nico is being held.  There are a lot of different settings in the book. Some examples are Camp Jupiter in California, Atlanta, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina.

One of the main characters, Annabeth, is smart, caring, and in a relationship. She is smart because when Frank didn’t know how to figure out the Chinese handcuffs, instead of taking the handcuffs and showing him, Annabeth figured out how to calculate the escape from her diagrams on her computer. She was caring because when Percy (her boyfriend) was lost, she spent a lot of time looking for him. Annabeth and Percy are boyfriend and girlfriend.  When Percy, Frank and Coach Hedge were in Atlanta, they went to an Aquarium. In the Aquarium, they found Phorcys, a sea god. He tricked them into being captured in a glass fish tank designed for demigods.  Another part of the story that stands out to me is Echo and Narcissus.  Echo is a creature who can only repeat what other people have already said. She can’t talk normally because she was cursed. So far in my book, there has not been any big decisions made by a main character.

I have enjoyed the book so far. I like that there are a lot of different characters to learn about. I like how there is a lot action. I would recommend this book because each character is very different from each other and each have their own story. Each character has something they are going through. This book is fiction. This book connects to others in the same series. It is the third book. If you have not read this series yet you should read the first book first.  I would give this book 5 stars (even though I am still reading it).

Dec
11
2014

The Son Of Neptune by Rick Riordan

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The main characters are Percy, Frank, and Hazel. The story is about when the the main characters go to Alaska to find the prison of Thanos the God of Death to rescue him from the giants. In my book there are a lot of different settings,for example – Camp Jupiter is in San Francisco which is where the story begins.

The three main characters are all demigods. A demigod is a son or daughter of a god.  They go on a quest because Frank’s dad, the War god, asked them to go on a quest. On their quest they go to Portland, Oregon to find a blind man who  can tell them where Thanos’s prison is. The person who told them to see the blind man in Portland was Iris the Rainbow goddess. Iris owned a shop called R.O.F.L. Co-op which was an employee-run cooperative that promoted a healthy lifestyle. Percy has amnesia. Frank and Hazel have a curse. Hazel’s curse is that she could find gold and riches under the earth. This is a bad thing because the gold made Alcyoneus reform. Alcyoneus is a giant. Frank’s curse is that his life depends on a driftwood stick. If it burns, he will die.

I think this book is interesting because there is a lot of action in it. There are different sections to the story and they all come together like a puzzle. I like the main characters because they fight evil basilisks (fire breathing snakes). I would recommend this book to anyone who likes action because my book has a lot of action in it.

I would give this book five stars.  *****