Author Archives: 24alexal

Jun
14
2016

The Lemonade Crime by Jacqueline Davies

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I’m reading the Lemonade Crime. It’s the second book in the Lemonade War series. I’m doing a diorama for my book review. I hope you guys like my diorama. The Lemonade Crime is about 3 kids, Scott, Evan, and Jessie. Scott stole $208, well that is what Evan and Jessie think.

In the book, Jessie accuses Scott of stealing $208 from Evan. She decided Scott should have a trial by jury. She assigned each person in the class a job for the trial. The jobs are judge, jury, plaintiff, defendant, lawyer, and witness. The trial is going to take place after school on Friday on the school playground. If Scott is found guilty of stealing the money, he will have to give his Xbox 20/20 to Evan forever. If Scott is found not guilty, Evan and Jessie will have to apologize to him in front of the whole class during Monday Morning Meeting.

The scene I chose for my diorama is when Jessie is setting up the ‘courtroom’. She is setting it up on the playground. She had a whole plan before she set it up. This scene is important because the courtroom on the playground is where the trial will happen. The outcome of the book all depends on the trial and all the characters are involved in that scene.

The materials that I used for my diorama are: a shoe box, mini sports balls, colored paper, plastic trees, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, a small cardboard box, markers, glue and scissors. I tried to set up the playground ‘courtroom’ just like Jessie did in the book.

I enjoyed making my diorama. It was really hard to make. I am very proud of it. This book was really good. I would recommend this series of books to fourth graders. It’s important to know that you have to read this series in order to understand everything that’s going on. I would give this book a five star rating for two reasons: (1) the action started really quickly and (2) a fourth grade was going to have a trial by jury themselves, and that’s really unusual.

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Mar
17
2016

Freckle Juice by Judy Blume

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41HNN53nwJL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_My book review is on Freckle Juice by Judy Blume. The main characters are Andrew, Nicky, and Sharon. The book takes place at Andrew’s house and in his school. Andrew desperately wants to have a lot of freckles like his friend Nicky. Andrew’s classmate, Sharon, sells him a recipe for freckle juice. She tells him that it will make him grow freckles, as many as he wants. But, will it work?

Andrew decided to pay Sharon the fifty cents she asked for to get the recipe for freckle juice. He raced home after school and gathered all the ingredients in the recipe. He made the freckle juice and drank it all quickly – boy was it gross! He ran upstairs to sit in front of the a mirror to look for freckles. Not too long after, he started to feel really sick. When his Mom came home, she took one look at him and said, “Andrew, you’re green. Absolutely green! Are you sick?” Andrew stayed home from school for a couple days. This is important because Andrew realized that Sharon had lied to him. He couldn’t let her get away with it.

When he felt better, he realized that if he went to school, Sharon would see that he didn’t grow freckles. So, Andrew used a blue marker to put dots on his face to look like freckles. At recess, Andrew’s teacher, Miss Kelly, gave him her secret formula to remove freckles. She thought he looked ridiculous because she knew it was just blue marker. Once Andrew used the secret formula to remove his fake freckles, Nicky said, “Could I use your magic freckle remover?” Miss Kelly tried to convince Nicky that he looked wonderful with all his freckles. Sharon overheard and whispered to Nicky that she would sell him her secret recipe for removing freckles for fifty cents. This was important because Sharon was trying to take advantage of another kid just to get fifty cents from him.

Andrew was very jealous of his friend Nicky’s freckles. Even though he didn’t want to pay Sharon anything, he was so desperate to have freckles, he paid her fifty cents for her secret recipe to have freckles like Nicky. Andrew was very gullible. Sharon doesn’t really like Andrew. He let her trick him into giving her fifty cents for freckle juice that was never going to work. Not only did he not get freckles, but it made him really sick. Last, Andrew was a very determined kid. He would do anything to get freckles. When the freckle juice didn’t work, Andrew used a blue marker to draw freckles on his face. His teacher, Miss Kelly, asked him what happened. He said, “I grew freckles, Miss Kelly. That’s what!”

This book was pretty good. One of my favorite parts of the book was when Sharon told Nicky she would give him her secret recipe for removing freckles for fifty cents. I liked that part because I knew that Nicky isn’t gullible and I thought that Sharon might be able to fool him too. Another part of the book that I really liked was when Sharon got Andrew to give her fifty cents for the freckle juice recipe. Andrew and Sharon didn’t like each other, so I was surprised that Andrew was tricked into paying her. Sharon is mean to Andrew, and I would never trust a mean person. I would recommend this book because it’s a nice children’s book and it’s not that long. It’s good to read because it’s a funny story. This book is unique, because I don’t know of any other kind of book that is like this one. I would give this book a 4 star rating.

Jan
15
2016

How To Handle a Bully, by Nancy Wilcox Richards

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imgres-1My book review is on How To Handle a Bully by Nancy Wilcox Richards. There are several main characters in the book. They are Rilla, Cameron, Olivia, Oliver, Lauren, and Nicholas. The book is about Rilla, her friends, and enemies. Rilla and her friends are training at the playground to win a new Xtreme bike in a fitness competition. Cameron and his gang, Olivia and Oliver, bully Rilla, Lauren, and Nicholas. Cameron and his gang hog all the playground equipment. If Rilla and her friends can’t train on the playground equipment, they won’t be able to improve and win the fitness challenge. The book takes place at Rilla’s school and the playground near her house in the springtime.

 

Kids learned about the fitness challenge at school. There were a lot of events at the fitness challenge including monkey bars, pull-ups, tire run and bike riding. Rilla did not know how to ride a bike without training wheels. Training wheels were not allowed at the challenge. Rilla was very scared of riding a bike without training wheels because the last time she tried, she fell and hurt herself. Lauren and Nicholas convinced Rilla that they could teach her to ride a two wheel bike. Rilla decided to be brave and try. By the fitness challenge, Rilla could do it! Rilla had another big challenge. Cameron and his gang bullied Rilla and her friends and scared them away from the playground. It was hard to train when they were scared away from the playground equipment. One day Rilla and her friends were riding by the playground. They saw that Cameron was alone and stuck. Rilla knew this was her chance to get back at Cameron and she took advantage of it. The next day Rilla, Lauren,  and Nicholas went to the park with more of their friends in case Cameron was there. When Cameron told Rilla and her friends to get lost, Rilla stood up to him. Cameron and his gang decided to leave the playground when they saw all of Rilla’s friends. This was important because Rilla wasn’t scared anymore. She believed she could win the fitness challenge.

 

Rilla is a really nice and fair girl. Instead of trying to scare Cameron and his friends away from the playground, she told them that they should share the equipment. In parts of the book, Rilla was really scared. She was afraid of riding a bike without training wheels and she was also afraid of being bullied by Cameron and his gang. Rilla showed that she was confident too. She was the best in her class at doing pull-ups and was one of the fastest kids on the monkey bars. One quote that really shows who Rilla is, is “I’d love to win that bike. But you know, I don’t really care who wins, as long as it’s not a River Rat.” The River Rats are Cameron and his gang. This quote shows who Rilla is as a person because she says that she doesn’t care who wins. She would be happy for anyone who wins as long as they are nice.

 

I loved this book because it’s a cute story about a group of kids trying to win a fitness challenge. This book is an awesome book for kids in third and fourth grade to read. How To Handle A Bully is a good book for people who like sports and for anyone who’s had an experience with bullies. I would recommend this book because anyone can read and enjoy it. Also, it’s a good book for schools and students because it teaches kids important lessons about bullying. I haven’t read any other books or seen shows that have bullying. I would give this book a five star rating.

 

Dec
15
2015

Einstein The Class Hamster, By Janet Tashjian

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imgresMy book review is about EINSTEIN THE CLASS HAMSTER SAVES THE LIBRARY by Janet Tashjian. The main characters in the book are Ned and Einstein. The book takes place at Boerring Elementary school. The students in Ms. Moreno’s class are trying to reopen the school library because it is closed. It closed because they didn’t have enough money to keep paying for  books for so many kids.

Einstein and his friends don’t want the library to close. Einstein’s friends are Ned, Ricky, Bonnie and all of the students and one turtle named Marlon. They need to raise money to save the school library. They were trying to save the school library by making videos of the class pets. They film videos of Marlon the class turtle chasing an olive. Since that didn’t work, Einstein had to save Twinkles (the snake that keeps trying to eat him) and it was a real save. Twinkles was actually in trouble. That save accidentally got on video and they posted it online. When the video was posted online, so many people liked it that they decided to bring it to a studio. The studio really liked it and they wanted to put it on TV. That is how they got all the money to save the school library.

Einstein is a very smart hamster because of his game show. Einstein is smart because he knows a lot of trivia facts and because he sometimes pays attention in school. Unlike most game shows, Einstein’s game show is not on TV. He pretends to have a game show. He shares lots of trivia facts and tasty tidbits. Einstein is a very brave hamster. He proved it when he saved Twinkles.

I really enjoyed the book because it was a really funny book and all of the trivia facts were actually kind of funny.  Einstein is a really funny character in the book. I read the 1st book of EINSTEIN THE CLASS HAMSTER. I thought the 1st book was really good so I thought I would read the 2nd book.  I can’t wait to read the sequel to this book. I loved this book a lot so I gave it a 5 star rating.