Author Archives: Pema

Sep
24
2015

Three Times Lucky By: Sheila Turnage

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The book starts with a normal day in Tupelo Landing. The Colonel had come home, and Miss Lana had left for Charleston. They are the foster parents of Moses (Mo) LoBeau, the main character in this story. But the next day is not so normal – Mo never expected the murder that day and the mystery of who did it.

The author Sheila Turnage titled the book Three Times Lucky as Mo was always lucky. The first time she was lucky was when her house got flooded in a hurricane and her mother tied her to a raft.  The second time she got lucky was when she washed ashore on the raft and the Colonel found and rescued her before he fainted.  The third time she was lucky was when the Colonel and Miss Lana took her in.

Tupelo landing is a small town, where everybody knows everybody.  Mo’s best friend is Dale, the second smallest kid in fifth grade. Mo and Dale form a partnership called the Desperado Detectives. The reason they formed a detective group is because they wanted to find out who killed Mr. Jesse Tatum.

Joe Starr, a detective who came to town before the murder of Jesse Tatum, will help to find out who had killed Jesse Tatum and why. Could the bank robbery twelve years ago, the death of Dolph Andrews and Jesse’s dead cousin have to do with the murder of Jesse Tatum?

Dale had stolen Jesse’s rowboat, and on the night of the murder Dale had gone to return it. As result Dale suddenly became a suspect. Starr investigated Dale and found him to be innocent.  However, Starr pretended to have found Dale guilty to see if the actual criminal would get sloppy, because he would think he was off the hook.

(“Dale, I’d like you to ride out of here in the back of my car. In fact come here.”… Starr produced a pair of handcuffs. “Hold out your hands.”…. “I’m not charging Dale with anything.” Starr said. … “Dale’s no killer, I know that. but there is a chance the killer is watching this investigation, and if he thinks Dale’s our suspect, he might get sloppy.” pg. 155)

Since Dale was ‘sorta’ guilty there was a guard following him around . . . or that is what they thought. Could this guy be the answer to the mystery?

When Mo and Dale get home that night they find Mo’s house has been trashed. But where’s Miss Lana? The killer must have taken Miss Lana. What does he want from her? Starr arrives at Mo’s house. Dale shows Starr the guy who had been following him around thinking that this was one of Starr’s guys. Starr looks at the guy but this guy is Slate, the guy who robbed the bank twelve years ago. Did he take Miss Lana? But what would Slate want from Miss Lana and did he kill Jesse Tatum?

Can Mo find Miss Lana before it’s too late…..?

This book was really good. I loved all the mysteries, it would leave you wondering so that you wanted to keep reading. You wanted to find out what would happen next. I also liked this book because you couldn’t guess what was going to happen next. For example, I didn’t guess that Slate was the murderer. The author was very descriptive as she used a lot of similes which made the reading much more interesting.   You will like this book if you like mysteries, and especially if you like cliff hangers. I would rate this book 5 stars.

 

 

 

Jun
03
2015

Chomp By: Carl Hiaasen

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I read a book called CHOMP, it is by Carl Hiaasen. The book is about a dad and son who are animal wranglers. They keep many animals in their backyard. The son’s name is Wahoo Cray and his dads name is Mickey Cray.

Wahoo and Mickey need money for the bank, so Wahoo looks for jobs, for his dad. Wahoo finds a job for his dad. The job Wahoo finds is a TV job. Mickey can be the animal wrangler of the show. Guess what the TV shows name is, Expedition Survival. Expedition Survival is a “reality” show. It is about a survivalist Derek Badger.

Derek is the no good star of the show. He wants to put the real back in reality. Except he gets everything he wants and is, really annoying. Derek is pampered and doesn’t know anything about surviving in the wild.

Anyways, I made a diorama, and the scene I made is when Derek tries to act all tough and show off. He tries to eat a snake except this snake does not want to be eaten. Wahoo and Mickey are there and so is Tuna which is a girl that you will meet in the book she is the same age as Wahoo and she is really nice. Derek doesn’t get seriously injured but he gets some bites and bruises.

Something that also happens in the book is that Derek gets lost in the Everglades. Everybody looks for him. When Wahoo, Tuna, and Mickey go looking for Derek they run into a lot of trouble and a little search turns into a life or death situation. The Everglades is in Miami.

Mickey doesn’t like to put up with Derek’s nonsense. Mickey isn’t a very good listener. On the other hand Wahoo listens he has to keep his dad from doing anything to Derek. Wahoo is really responsible, but he is also really brave. Tuna is really kind so kind sometimes it annoys me. Her father is always doing bad things and she does not get mad at him, which I find really annoying. Wahoo’s mom is in China trying to make money. Wahoo’s older sister is at school learning to be a lawyer. This is an okay book, I would rate it 3 stars and 3/10.

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Apr
15
2015

The Girl Who Could Fly By: Victoria Forester

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The book I read is called The Girl Who Could Fly. It is by Victoria Forester. The book is about a girl who is able to float.

Some pimgreseople might think floating and flying are pretty much the same. But not for Piper McCloud. Piper is the main character of this book. Piper discovers when she was really young that she could float. Betty and Joe McCloud (Piper’s mom and dad) are normal farmers that live out in Lowland County. They own a farm with many animals. Like everyone else.

Piper has never been a normal kid but her parents would never think that she could float. Betty and Joe do not want anyone to find out about this. Eventually Piper teaches herself how to fly. The difference between floating and flying is: Floating, you just go a few feet of the floor and can’t control when it happens and what happens while you are doing it. Flying, you go as high as you want, as fast as you want, when you want, and where you want.

Betty and Joe hate when Piper flies because she could give out her secret. But she does fly and her secret gets out. In front of everyone in town. Now everyone is trying to get to Piper. The McClouds stay locked up in there house. Until one day Letitia Hellion and all her agents come and they take Piper away from home. To teach her to use her flying and be in a safe environment away from all the danger. Well atleast that is what the McClouds thought. . .

So Piper decides to go with Dr. Hellion. Not knowing what was going to happen and what the road ahead of her looked like.

Piper makes a lot of friends there.

The setting of the book starts off at Piper’s hometown which is Lowland County. There are a lot of farms there and it is basically in the middle of nowhere. Once Letitia Hellion takes Piper to her institute the book is placed there. I don’t know where the institute is but it is very, very cold there. The institute is called I.N.S.A.N.E. The name of it kind of gives you the mood of the place. If you read the book it will tell you what it stands for.

Piper is the main-main character but there are co main characters too. Like Conrad Herrington lll. He has been in the institute for the longest. His special ability is that he is very, very smart.

Piper is strong. The kids in the institute try to test her but they get really surprised when she doesn’t start crying or back down. She stands up to them and proves herself to them. Conrad is really mean to everybody at the institute including Piper now. Piper doesn’t get really upset and doesn’t sit there doing nothing like all the other kids. Conrad has a really good reason to be mean to the other kids he is just trying to help them. In his case he is not even being mean. Piper is also brave. She left her parents even though she knew she might not ever see them again. It was her who stood up to Dr. Hellion after what Hellion did to her. I won’t say anything else because I will give everything away. Last but not least Piper is nice. She takes care of Jasper (the smallest and weakest kid there). She tries to think about the nurse and the kids at the institute.

Conrad is smart. Of course he is smart! That is his special ability. He figured out what Dr. Hellion’s objective was. (I can’t tell you what it is) He timed the escape by every second and had perfect coordinations. Conrad is also caring. He tries to hide it and maybe he doesn’t know. He tries to help all the kids at the institute so the things that Dr. Hellion is doing doesn’t affect them as quickly.

I like the part of the book when Conrad tells Piper why he has been so mean.  Then Piper and Conrad become friends and it was interesting to find out the information that Conrad knows. Another part of the book that is fun is when one of the girls there tries to test Piper. Her special ability is telekinesis. She moves Piper’s water glass up and down and Piper at first gets really annoyed. Then she does something no one has ever done before . . .   A time in the book I really liked but was so annoying is when Conrad makes/pushes Piper jump out of a really tall window. Piper of course flies herself to safety. Then Dr. Hellion gets extremely mad at Piper. Piper gets confused because Dr. Hellion doesn’t really care that Conrad pushed her but she just cares that Piper flew. Even though if Piper didn’t fly she would die. I liked it because now I was starting to figure out what Dr. Hellion’s actual personality is.

I really enjoyed this book. It was funny there were some mysteries and surprises kept coming at you that you would not expect. I also liked it because I liked Piper. She is brave, strong, nice, caring, adventurous, and mischievous etc..

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. The cover might look scary but the book is not. It has people who have powers like telekinesis, smartness, storm creation, strength, electricity, and shrinking .I think everyone could read this book whether they love it or don’t like it that much.I would rate this book five stars

 

 

Feb
25
2015

The Meaning of Maggie By: Megan Jean Sovern

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The name of the book I read is The Meaning of Maggie by, Megan Jean Sovern. The book is about a girl named Maggie, Maggie is the main character. The book takes place in a modern town outside Atlanta. Maggie has two older teenage sisters their names are Layla and Tiffany. Layla is their parent’s favorite. Maggie’s mom and dad used to be hippies.  (Hippie’s are laid back people. They believe in peace. They also wear funky clothes.) Her dad has a disease called Multiple Sclerosis. It is when your legs and arms fall asleep and it is hard for you to control your limbs. Whenever something goes wrong they always says “Pull up your bootstraps”(Family motto).

 

Maggie dreams about becoming president. She is now one year closer to becoming it, going to college, being able to vote, and getting a tattoo. The book is written in Maggie’s perspective. Maggie Mayfield is writing a memoir about the time between her 11th birthday and her 12th.

 

Maggie is strong.  When stuff happens to her dad she tries to be strong. She tries not to show him that she is really worried. Maggie is also a fun person. Her dad is very sick but still she has fun. She doesn’t let that ruin her fun. Last but not least Maggie is smart. She has won Student of The Month multiple times. She is her teacher’s favorite because she is so smart. Unlike other kids she wishes that there were no vacations from school. But the thing she wishes for most is that her dad gets better. An interesting part of the book is when Maggie’s mom tells Tiffany that Maggie is her favorite and Layla is their dad’s favorite. Another part of the book I found interesting is when Phyllis and Donny come over. They are Maggie’s mom and dad’s old hippie friends. Maggie is so scared of them but after a while she ends up liking them. When Phyllis and Donny come one of them has a motorcycle and he takes the dad for a ride. It is funny because since her dad limbs are asleep they had to use a bungee cord to tie her dad to Donny so he wouldn’t fall off.

 

I really, really, really, loved this book. One thing that was cool about it was that there would sometimes be a sentence and a really small number would be at the end of it. At the end of the page the same number was there but Maggie is either explaining a little more or giving you her opinion. It was like she was just thinking. For example: “Well. some of us guessed. Some of us just10 knew the answers.”

Then at the end of the page . . . 10.  Me.

 

I would definitely recommend this book. It is sad and has some serious topics. But it is still a fun book. I think anyone can have fun reading this book. Some people might have more fun than others reading this. When you are reading this book you will not be able to put it down. You might or might not like how the author talks to from Maggie’s perspective (but I do). 5 STARS

(1 the worst- 5 the best)

Jan
14
2015

Fake Mustache By: Tom Angleberger

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So everyone thinks Lenny and Casper are two middle school nerds. Lenny believes that, but Casper just wants power and control, which every typical kid wants, but they do not try to get it the way Casper did. Now I am going to tell you how Lenny and a friend, who I am going to introduce to you later in this story, saved the world from Casper. Oh I forgot to tell you the name of my book is Fake Mustache by: Tom Angleberger. Back to the actual story. So the main part of this story is actually a problem. So Casper bought this mustache that was apparently a really fancy one. The mustache was magical in a way because it hypnotized everybody in town causing them to listen to whatever Casper says. Casper made everyone think that Lenny was the bad guy and he was the good guy. The story takes place in Casper and Lenny’s home town.

I would describe Lenny as brave because he stood up to Casper even though Casper was basically trying to kill him. Lenny is a really sweet kid because he made Jodie like him. I would also describe Lenny as smart because he came up with all these plans to save the world and stop Casper. I would describe Casper as a maniac. What type of person would meaningfully buy a mustache to hypnotize everybody and take over the world? Casper is not a very loyal person because he just turned his back on Lenny to get what he wanted. But I also think Casper is kind of sad because his parents never payed attention to him so he was trying to get attention. Lenny meets this famous actor named Jodie. While he is trying to save the world from Casper. Jodie was from the TV show, Jodie O Rodeo. Her TV show was cancelled. Then Lenny met Jodie. It turns out Caspers plan leads up to him running for President.  He almost became President and took over the world but luckily Lenny and Jodie came to the rescue. At the end of the book surprisingly Lenny forgives Casper and becomes friends with him again. I find that a really big decision. But the book just ends. You could have wrote a whole story about that. I kind of found it really annoying that the book just ended. But if the author decided to make another book in this series people would really want to read it.

I really liked this book. It was very interesting. The book was very silly and wacky. You would never think a author would write a book like this. When you thought something was going to happen something completely bizarre happens instead. I would really recommend this book. It is a fun and quick read. If you like crazy this is the perfect book for you. If you like simple and more predictable books you probably wouldn’t enjoy this book as much. This book is so different. I can not think of anything that relates to this book.

I would rate this book: FIVE STARS

Dec
11
2014

One For The Murphys By Lynda Mullaly Hunt

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I read One For The Murphys and the author is Lynda Mullaly Hunt. The main character is a 12 year old girl named Carley Connors. She had an incident with her mother which landed her in foster care with the Murphy family. The main problem is she really wants to go back to her mother. But she cannot leave foster care because her mother is in the hospital. Carley gets really upset at the Murphys and causes chaos in their house. The story takes place in the Murphys household in a quiet little town.

In this book a lot of things happen. Mrs. Murphy makes Carley go to school. On the first day of school Carley meets this girl named Toni, who is kind of mean to Carley. On the next day of school in class there is a boy named Rainer who likes to call Carley names. Carley and Toni both hate Rainer. Then surprisingly Carley and Toni become best friends. One day a policeman comes to discuss with Carley that her mother might have helped someone hurt her. So when Carley’s mother is ready to take her back, Carley does not want to go because of what the policeman said and she has really grown to like the Murphy family. Carley is smart and strong but can lose her temper very easily. She tries not to cry because her mother always said, “Crying is for losers.”

She soon learns that her mother knew something that Carley didn’t know that could change Carley’s mind about leaving.

I really enjoyed One for The Murphys. It is my favorite book because there was always something happening and  there was never a dull moment. Sometimes after I read a paragraph I would picture what that might look like in real life. The author was very descriptive throughout the whole book. I would recommend this book to people who like dramatic but fun books because it is a fun book but sometimes it can get sad. I would also recommend it to people who like a book you can read pretty quickly but not to quickly. I would rate this book five stars.