Author Archives: Noelle

Jul
16
2015

Beyond The PawPaw Trees by Palmer Brown

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51DLxrS2iXL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_One of the books I read this summer, is called Beyond The PawPaw Trees by Palmer Brown. It takes place in a magical land, in a magical past. Some of the places in the land that Anna Lavinia crosses include a train, a dessert and a little village. The main characters are Anna Lavinia,  her father, and her Aunt Sophia Maria. The challenge for Anna Lavinia  in the story is getting to Aunt Sophia Maria’s house. To be able to do this Anna Lavinia needs to cross the magical land between her and her Aunt Sophia Maria. Along the way she finds a key that is very important to her family’s story. Another challenge for Anna Lavinia is trying to find her father, who chases rainbows. Anna Lavinia has not seen her father in a long time, and neither has Anna Lavinia’s mother. On her way to her Aunt’s house she encounters a cliff, and she sees a little walled town below. She thinks her Aunt may live down there.

Something that changed the direction of the story the most was magic. Anna Lavinia was stuck at many points and the magic of the world helped her. An example is when Anna Lavinia was stuck at a cliff and she needed to get down to be able to continue her journey to find her Aunt Sophia Maria, and magic (with a little help of her umbrella) helped her float down safely. Anna Lavinia made some very big decisions and explorations. She explored through the magical land which could be very dangerous. Here are two examples from the book, “She thought she would try something else, because perhaps only the stones acted that way, so she opened her carpet bag and  found the fat woman’s tea cozy and tossed it out beyond the cliff. The tea cozy was so light it would not go dawn at all. A jar of pawpaw jelly went down well, a little slower than the stones.”  Another example is “Then she took a deep breath and jumped of into the air… Gathering her things together, Anna Lavinia commenced walking towards the strange walled town, which seemed to be farther than it seemed from the cliff.” Anna Lavinia’s challenge of getting to her Aunt Sophia Maria, gets resolved and makes it there safely with three new friends, a camel, a parrot, and the “thobby”. But will she ever find her father?

I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked this book because it is very descriptive. For example, when she gets to the little village, the author describes what the village looks like very well. I also liked it because I read another kind of old fashioned book called Pippa Passes (I also recommend it) and it was very good so I tried another old one. The last reason I liked this book was because I tend to like magical realism books because I can relate to the realism part, and the magic give it a fun twist. I think a reader who likes old fashioned books and magical realism will like this book. I think this because as I said before this is a magical realism book, and it is old fashioned. This was a great book. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars! *****

 

 

Feb
26
2015

Liar and Spy Rebecca Stead

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Liar-and-Spy-213x300I read Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. This book is about a kid named Georges (the s is silent) and he moves to a new house and this one has an apartment. The boy in his building is Safer and he thinks the man upstairs, Mr. X, is doing something mysterious. They start spying on him. The setting of the book is in their building and at school. This is in present time in the USA.

The main characters are Safer, Georges, and Candy. Georges is sensible, curious, and awkward. He is sensible because he never wants to do dangerous things when he knows he shouldn’t. He is curious because he still wants to spy even though he may get into trouble. He is awkward because he gets bullied for his name and he just ignores it. An interesting part is the end when you find out what Mr. X is up to. I also think it is interesting and funny when they spy through the lobby-cam. I think these are important because they are very interesting and important to the story.

I enjoyed this book because it is very specific. It has many details and it paints a picture in your head. I think when books are specific it makes the story more interesting. I also enjoy it because there are little mysteries inside the big one. This makes it fun. I recommend this book for people who like humor and mysteries. This is a good book for the kind of people who like humor and mysteries. I think this is like Jumanji because things are not what they appear to be. I give this book five stars.***** It was an awesome book!

 

 

Jan
29
2015

El Deafo by Cece Bell

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I read the book El Deafo by Cece Bell. The main character is Cece. This book is about Cece being a child and being deaf. She goes through school and find new friends now that she is deaf. Cece moved from the city to the country, and she has no friends. The setting of the book is mainly school and home.

Three adjectives to describe Cece would be imaginative because she made up the super hero character El Deafo and she pretends she is El Deafo. She would be observant because she needs to lip read to understand people when they talk. So that means she needs to pay attention more than an average person. One more adjective would be insecure. She is only insecure sometimes when she has to go out. She is insecure sometimes because she doesn’t like people seeing her cords for her hearing aids and her box for the hearing aids. I found it interesting when Cece met her first friend. At least she thought it was her friend! I liked it because there were so many things that could happen with friends, especially if you are friends with deaf people. I also liked it when she was pretending to be El Deafo in her mind. I liked it because she related her life to her stories and as the super hero she fixed all her problems.

I enjoyed this book because I like books about friendship and this book is all about friendship. I also like this book because I liked how she took her life experiences and turned it into a fantastic story! I think this book is like the book Sisters by Raina Telgemeier. I think this because they are both memoirs turned into graphic novels. I would recommend this book. I would recommend it to people who liked Sisters and Smile. I would give this book 5 stars! *****

 

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!

 

Dec
12
2014

The End by Lemony Snicket

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This book is part of a series called The Series of Unfortunate Events. The main characters are Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. This book is mainly about the siblings life on an island they washed up upon. The setting is a “safe and protected” island where eventually everything washes up on. The island has no fresh water and lots of wild sheep.

 

One part of the book that was really interesting was when the siblings found the secret location of Ishmael. This was interesting because it was amazing to find that Ishmael has secrets. Another thing that was important was when Kit had her baby! This was important because her baby added another chapter to the Baudelaires lives.  If I had to choose one of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny to write three adjectives about, I would choose Violet. Three adjectives to describe her would be inventive, creative, and persistent. Violet is inventive because there was the example when she once when invented the sling for Kit’s baby. Creative because she stretched her mind to build a raft out of books! Persistent because when she kept trying to help the islanders when they got sick even when they refused.

 

I enjoyed this book because it is a mystery book; like when you are trying to figure out if Count Olaf the villain if he is actually good or bad. I also enjoyed it because the author leaves you with so many questions roaming around in your head that you can figure out yourself like the question, “Are the parents still alive?” And so many more questions that you are itching to find out. I would recommend this book. I would because it is an interesting and descriptive book. And I think many readers like adventure and descriptive books. And I personally think it is easier to understand when books are descriptive. I think this book is like a series called An Accidental Adventure by C Alexander London because they are descriptive and they both have big adventures that take up many books. Also they are both written by awesome authors! I love this book so much…. I would give this book FIVE STARS!!!