Author Archives: Leela

Sep
14
2015

Counting by 7s

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This summer I read Counting by 7s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan. The main character is a 12-year-old girl named Willow Chance, who lives with her adoptive parents, Roberta and Jimmy Chance. They live in Bakersfield, California. Willow is really smart, and seems to understand a lot. She loves gardening and medical stuff. The other main characters are Jairo Hernandez, Dell Duke, Quang-ha Nguyen, Mai Nguyen, and Pattie Nguyen. Jairo is a taxi driver who thinks Willow is his guardian angel; Dell counsels Quang-ha and Willow; Mai is Quang-ha’s sister, and their mom is Pattie. Pattie’s real name is Dung, but when she found out what it meant in English, she changed it to Pattie.

 

One day, Willow comes back from school to find that her adoptive parents died in a car accident. Willow is taken to Jamison, which is a foster care organization. It is decided that she will stay at the Nguyen’s house until they find a permanent place for her to live. The Nguyens live in a one room garage behind Pattie’s nail salon, “Happy Polished Nails”, but when the people from Jamison want to do a home visit to make sure the house is a good place for Willow, the Nguyens have to pretend they live in Dell’s apartment, in the “Gardens of Glenwood”. After the home visit, they end up actually living at Dell’s place, while Dell lives down the hall with his new roommate, Sadhu Kumar. This change is good for the Nguyens and Willow because they get proper bedding, a living room, and a TV. The book is mainly about Willow adjusting to a new family after the tragedy of her parents death. Dell Duke says that it’s “kinda comforting knowing that the worst thing in life is already behind you”

I really enjoyed reading this book because firstly, it helped me get a better understanding of people like Willow’s life. Secondly, because I like how the author makes the narrator of the  story switch back and forth between all the characters. Thirdly, because all the characters have really sharp, quirky personalities, and I was able to see what it was like from their perspectives. I think that people who like realistic fiction will like Counting by 7s. I give it four and a half stars.

 

Feb
26
2015

Miss Emily by Burleigh Muten

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I read Miss Emily by Burleigh Muten. It is about Emily Dickinson, who was a real person but the book is historical fiction. The characters in the book call her Miss Emily (or just Emily). Emily is the aunt of two children: Mattie,and Ned. Across the street are their friends, Mac and Sally. Even though Emily is a grown-up, she likes to play with children. One day, she announces that the circus is going to come to town and she wants to sneak out at night and see the circus train arriving, so they can be the first to see the circus. The book takes place in Amherst, in Massachusetts.

 

Two parts I liked about the book were first, when Emily assigned characters to each child. Ned was “Senor Ranchero,” the ringmaster, Sally was “Sal the Gal”, Mattie was “Miss Swiftly”, half girl half bird, and Mac was King Boaz the Brave. I think this idea connects to our immigrant personas because it is a character we are pretending to be. My second favorite part was when the kids put on a show for Miss Emily and their other aunt, Vinnie, in the barn. I think this is interesting because it is the children’s way of making their own version of the circus. Three words to describe Emily are courageous, respectful and creative. Courageous because she is sneaking out at night and if she got caught the whole town would know and they would be in trouble. Respectful because she is always thinking about including all ages and people. Creative because she makes up stories and characters to go with them, like the circus characters she made for the kids.

 

I enjoyed this book because it is about an adventure – the adventure is that they are running through the woods to see the circus. It is pretty short, so if you like short books I would recommend it. I learned Emily Dickinson was a very interesting person, she wrote nearly 1,800 poems even though only ten were published. I would give this book four stars.

 

I also went to the Emily Dickinson museum in Amherst and I learned a lot of facts about her, like some of the poems she wrote. The museum is in the house she lived in. That’s where I got this book!

 

Jan
29
2015

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

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I read When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. It is about a girl named Miranda who is 12 years old. The book takes place in Manhattan, 1979. The book is mainly about Miranda’s best friend, Sal. Sal was really close to Miranda. It was always “Sal and Miranda, Miranda and Sal” until Sal got punched one day and strangely ever since he always played basketball but never played with Miranda and he didn’t talk to her much. This made Miranda feel lonely, but then she started getting mysterious letters and had to find out what they meant and how they would help her.

My favorite parts of the book that don’t give away too much of the book were firstly, when Miranda finds the first note that the mysterious person leaves for her in her bag. I liked this part because it’s like the beginning of a big mystery. My second favorite part of the book was when Miranda and her new friends get a job at Jimmy’s sandwich shop – The only guy who worked there was named Jimmy and they didn’t know what the store was called so they just called it Jimmy’s. I liked this part because Jimmy is a weird but funny guy because he only accepts two dollar bills and puts them all in a Flinstones piggy bank. Also he acts immature.For example, he always bugs Collin,one of Miranda’s friends about having a crush on Annmarie, Miranda’s other friend. I would describe Miranda as smart because once she has a few clues, she can solve a mystery. She is also thoughtful because she always has something on her mind. She also is curious because she wants to know who is sending the letters and what the consequences will be.

I loved this book because once you start reading it you just want to keep reading it. Also it involves time-travel which I found interesting. I would recommend this book because it is exciting. It is also very emotional. This book is like the book A Wrinkle Time because Miranda is reading it and some parts of the book are based on A Wrinkle In Time because in the end it turns out there is a little bit of time travel. I would give this book five stars because I would totally read it again. P.S , I actually am reading it again!

Jan
05
2015

The Grimm Conclusion by Adam Gidwitz

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I read The Grimm Conclusion by Adam Gidwitz. It is the third book of Grimm. The two main characters are Jorinda and Joringel (you pronounce it as YOUR-INDA and YOUR-INGLE). They are sister and brother. When they were born their dad died of happiness because all he and his wife wished was that they could have children. Their mom did not know how to raise them or cook for them. She was afraid she would not be a good mom so she did not take care of them very much. She went back to her study room and studied. She married (again) to someone who was not very nice but knew how to cook. Their mom was always in her study and never came out so the children were stuck with the mean stepfather. They missed her a lot and got really sick by it. The book takes place in many places but mainly in the Kingdom of Grimm in Germany.

My three favorite parts were first, when Joringel goes to Hell and meets the devil. The devil’s house is made of human body parts. My second favorite part of the book was the war between the children and the grown-ups. The grown ups are much more powerful, but some of the children start to tell a story. Everything that they say happens in the story really happens. My third favorite part was when Jorinda is ruling the whole kingdom of Grimm but she makes a lot of bad rules and is a tyrant because she keeps on thinking about her mom and everything that happened to her that was bad. I would describe Jorinda as brave and smart because she is not scared to do anything, like once Jorinda gets stuck in a big house and giant dangerous animals are all around her. All of them are chained up to the wall. She was sure she was going to die, but she found the one spot in the room where the animals could not touch her. I would also say that she was confused because she rarely knew what she is doing, where she was and why she was there.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it because the narrator comes in at random parts of the story and makes funny comments about everything, but I would only recommend this book to the people are not grossed out by death and blood, it has a lot of death and blood. I think this book is like the fairy tales Cinderella and Snow White because certain parts of the books are based on Cinderella and Snow White. All of the books of Grimm are based on fairy tales. I LOVED this book

I would give this book five stars.

Dec
12
2014

Spirits Key by Edith Cohn

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 Spirits Key by Edith Cohn is about a girl named Spirit Holden. She is twelve years old and she lives on an island called Bald Island. Spirit and her family (not including her mom because her mom died) have a gift, when they hold someone’s house key, they can see that person’s future. The story is mainly about Sky, Spirit’s dog. Sky is one of the wild baldie dogs the islanders believe possess devil spirits. Sky mysteriously dies and Spirit has to find out why.

I like the way the author makes every day objects into something magical. Two of my favorite parts were first, when spirit touches Sky’s dog tag for the first time and Sky’s ghost appears. Second, when spirit gets a letter from “holden spirits” that is delivered to her by an eagle. The letter was pinned to a box that had a dog toy in it. I enjoyed this part because the letter just falls out of the sky. The book is suspenseful because surprises seem to fall out of nowhere throughout the story.

I like that Spirit has such strong character. Spirit is brave, fearless and adventurous and she is never scared to take on a challenge or travel even if it is extremely dangerous;  For example, she goes straight into a baldie cave and almost gets her arm bitten off. I think this book is kind of like Harry Potter because both of the main characters can see the future but it’s never perfect or exactly the future. I enjoyed Sprits key and would recommend this book because of it’s strong characters and because it’s a fun-to-figure-out-mystery.

I would give this book three stars.