My movie is about the book Every Soul A Star. There are three main characters that are all very different. They all go through a different change like moving, or being alone for the first time. These struggles they have to get over, and in my movie it shows how the characters struggle or breeze through. I hope you enjoy seeing how these characters adapt to these things and how they approach them.
Author Archives: 24kated
Northwood, By Brian Falker
Imagine you get stuck in a forest that is in the deepest of the town where no one steps in by choice. You get grabbed by the dark trees that you can barely see in the night sky, 
and of course don’t forget the giant black lions that will kill you in one bite. The main character in my story is Cecilia Undergarment. She is really optimistic. This book takes place in a town called Brookfield. I think it’s a small town because everyone knows everyone. This story probably takes place (time period) in 2010 or 2011. I think this because they had helicopters, phones (but like not high tech like nowadays), and tvs.
The main character Cecilia Undergarment is interesting, courageous. She gets stuck in Northwood because her house falls apart (the house is made of balloons) and she is stuck in Northwood until something happens…. An example from the text to back up this information is “Cecilia didn’t panic, because she once read that usually if you panic you end up in a much worse situation than the first place.” Another example from the text is “I think she’s the only person that has come into this forest and tried to help everyone to get out” said a person that had also been stuck in North Wood. This shows how Cecilia wasn’t afraid and used her knowledge even though she is in a dangerous forest with no one expect a dog, and man eating black lions roaming around.
One thing Cecilia comes across on her journey are to twins named Avery and Evan. Cecilia and them become really great friends throughout the book. Avery and Evan lead Cecilia all around the castle where Cecilia stays along with the many others that had been stuck in the forest. Throughout the book Cecilia always tries to come up with plans to escape but….WAIT.. I can’t spoil the book!
I really enjoyed this book because the characters all had a really well and thought out personalities so that made it easier to understand what was happening and why. One example of this was how Avery in the beginning of the story mentioned how Evan was the smarter one and later in the book he was the one who came up with a gameplan that was the most effective. I would recommend this book for readers that can keep up with a lot of things at once since this book had many characters and different things going on at the same time.
One connection to my life in this book is that before Cecila got stuck in Northwood she had a neighbor that was super nice and a little chubby with a big beard but then he lost a lot of weight and cut his beard and became really rude. I had the almost same thing happen to my neighbor! I would give this book 5 stars because the end made sense to me and I realized how it all tied in and how creative the author was when creating characters. I really wish I could read this book over and over again!
Frindle, By Andrew Clements
The book Frindle is a 
about a boy named Nick Allen who lives in a small town in a suburban area with bigger towns further away. I think Nick is unique because he has so many factors to him. He is not solely a happy type, a mean type or a funny type, he is all of the above and more. For example, in the text it says, “If you asked the kids and the teachers at Lincoln Elementary School to make three lists-all the really bad kids, all the really smart kids, and all the really good kids, Nick Allen would not be on any of them. Nick deserved a list of his own, and everyone knew it.” This shows how Nick is unique and not like anyone else. Nick wanted Lincoln Elementary to be more exciting so he thought of a great idea and involved some friends. His Language Arts teacher, Ms. Granger, loves the dictionary. She absolutely cherishes it. When they are learning why words are words and why they are called what they are, he wanted to change the word “pen” to “frindle.” Ms. Granger does not like this one bit, because she thinks all words should stay the same if there no point in changing it but that doesn’t stop Nick.
When Nick launches his new word, he gets the whole fifth grade to hold up a pen and say, “Frindle” on Picture Day. The photographer that was taking the school picture didn’t have any film left over to take another since fifth grade was last. Ms. Granger decided this was taken to far and wants to put a stop to it. Another really important part in this book is the penalty for whenever a kid in Lincoln Elementary School says the word, “Frindle”. Ms. Granger will keep him or her after school and force them to write the sentence, “I am writing this punishment with pen” 100 times. The school office started having mad parents on the phone very often, and everyone was tired of it except the children. Nick was finally making his school a more exciting place, but it came with consequences.
About two weeks after the big punishment, Ms. Granger gave out and things started to get too crazy. The principal, Ms. Margaret Chatham, is sent over to Nick’s house to talk with his parents about the “Frindle” situation. When Ms. Chatham arrives in the room she is big, scary, and firm. Very firm. She talks slow but meaningful, and always sticks to her word. For example, in the text it says “Once Ms. Chatham on my first day of kindergarten promised me a gummy if I did a good job at school that day. At the end of the day, I got a gummy. A big red delicious gummy.” This shows how she always sticks to her word. Ms. Chatham asked Nick, “…” Oh, wait. You have to read the book to find that out…
I really enjoyed this book because I thought that the author developed the characters really well, and they all had a backstory with a distinct personality which I thought made the book that much better. Another reason I really enjoyed the book is at the end of almost every chapter there was a cliffhanger. I thought this was a smart idea so the reader will question the next chapter if they have stopped reading, and will encourage them to continue to find out what happens next.
Whenever I had to stop reading at the end of a chapter, I always wondered what was going to happen next. I would recommend this book, because you won’t ever get bored with it. There’s always something exciting or fascinating happening that you won’t want to stop reading. One connection I have to this book and my life is one time my friend started calling carrots “Pushas.” Everyone started saying it, so our teacher decided it went too far and made us stop. Some kids kept saying the word and had to talk with the teacher. I would rate this book five stars because it’s funny, interesting, and tells a good story about a boy and his bond with the 5th grade language arts teacher, Ms. Granger.
“Eleven” Book Review, By Lauren Myracle
The book Eleven is about an 11 year old girl named Winnie who lives in Atlanta and loves cats. Winnie is just starting middle school and is thinking it’s going to be great, but there are bumps in the road and problems she has throughout the year. For example, Amanda, Winnie’s BFF is ditching her for Gail, a new girl who is incredibly rude. Another example of how the year is not going her way is that her sister Sandra is being so grumpy that Winnie can never do her homework, which leads to bad grades, and Winnie’s mother cannot stand bad grades. Winnie hopes she can fix the mess she’s made including the fights with both her mom and Amanda.
Valentine’s Day is coming up in school and everyone is talking about it. Everyone has a valentine in Winnie’s grade except her. Winnie really wants one, so one night she asks Ty her little brother if he will call Deren and find out if he likes her. The only problem she comes across is that Ty is not a good person to do the mission she asked for. He hung up five times and made Deren’s brother really angry. Winnie is the only one sitting alone on Valentine’s day.
I really enjoyed this book because it has a lot of unexpected things that will pop out at you. For example, Winnie is having a great time at the beach with her family when Sandra breaks her ankle unexpectedly.
The book has very descriptive words so it’s fun to read and listen to how the author ties it all together. I would give this book 4 stars, because some of the parts or characters really didn’t have a meaning. For example, when it was winter time, Winnie’s mom got stuck on the road and Winnie almost had to stay overnight. I didn’t understand why the author put this in, because it was totally off from what I was reading in the sentence before. I still really recommend this book if you like drama, unexpected plot twists, and silliness.