In fourth grade we have been doing book reviews. This is our last one and our teachers said we can do a diorama or a movie or add drawing, but I chose to do a diorama. I picked this scene because it was the best part of the book to me. I also picked this part because it had a lot of action and I love action so that is why I picked this scene. What’s happening is the older brother was trying to turn an evil eel into his minion. So he went to go try and capture the eel! But his little brother and his friend tried to help the eel.  

In an empty fishbowl far far away there once was a dead fish. Was this Ellray’s fault? Read Ellray Jakes walks the plank to find out. The author’s name is Sally Warner. This book is a good series. The main characters are EllRay, a nine year old boy, and Cynthia, a nine year old girl. The main problem is that EllRay is irresponsible and Cynthia is mean. EllRay, the main character, is trying not to mess up as much because he messes up most of the time he is in school. Cynthia, the other character, is trying to be nicer to EllRay and everyone else in their class. This story takes place at Ellray Jakes’ house on Saturday morning.  This book also takes place at his school on Monday morning. The story takes place in the present.

Ellray Jakes is interesting because he is funny and he is also mindful about other people.  Ellray is funny because he makes up jokes with his friends and makes them laugh. He is also mindful because at one point in the book, he was responsible for bringing a book back from his house. He forgot the book at his house and he felt bad because the rest of his class was reading the book too and they couldn’t because he forgot it.  

Cynthia is also interesting because she is not so nice.  She blames stuff on EllRay, and that’s why he keeps getting in trouble.  One time the class was playing a tag game, and EllRay had to stand still because he got tagged.  When he tried to tag her, he accidentally grabbed her skirt and made her fall backwards because she yanked it out of EllRay’s hand. Cynthia got EllRay in trouble with the teacher.

EllRay has one big problem and that is how his class fish died, when he was supposed to take care of it for spring break. The reason why it died was because Ellray let his little sister put fish food in the fish tank. Then she put too much food in the tank, and the fish ate the food until it died from eating too much. When the fish ate the food, Ellray was sleeping because it was time for him to go to bed. The problem was that because EllRay messed up so much, he knew that no one would believe that it wasn’t him that killed the fish.

One event that changed the direction of the story was when Cynthia started to become nice.  The reason why she was starting to be nice was because she noticed that EllRay was getting in trouble so much because of her.  So, she stopped trying to get him in trouble.

I enjoyed the book because I thought it had a good setting. I liked that it took place mostly at school because it made the story seem more realistic. It was like it could happen in real life.  I also enjoyed this book because it was interesting how Cynthia kept getting EllRay in trouble, and it seemed like EllRay had trouble defending himself. I would recommend this book to 4th graders and 3th graders. I think that this book is funny because it has good jokes. If I had to rate this book from one star to five stars I would say would say five stars. *****

The book that I read is Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. The main characters in my book are Jack and Miss Stretchberry.  Jack is a 12-year old boy, and Miss Stretchberry is Jack’s writing teacher. The main problem in this book is that the boy named Jack had to write a poem and he has trouble because his “brain is empty,” and because he thought that writing a poem was for girls. Miss Stretchberry encouraged Jack to write a poem and to not be afraid.  The setting takes place at Jack’s house in the evening and room 105 at his school in Miss Stretchberry’s class.

One of the important things in the book is that when Jack said writing poems is for girls he remembered that his favorite poet was a boy/man so then he started writing the poem. The poem Jack wrote was about his new dog. He got the dog at an animal shelter, and when he first saw it, it was like the dog chose him. When he brought it home, he played fetch on the street with the dog and all his friends. They were on the street because barely any cars came down the street and there was a sign that said, “Children Playing,” so they were all safe.  Everyone was having fun until a blue car came out of nowhere and turned onto his street.  What happens next, you have to read yourself.

Jack finally did write the poem. Once he was done, he reread it. He liked it, so then he sent his poem to Walter Dean Myers, his favorite poet, to see if he liked it too. Walter Dean Myers didn’t write back right away, and Jack was constantly wondering if Walter Dean Myers would ever write and why he wasn’t writing back.  Two months after Jack sent the letter, Mr. Myers finally wrote back.  He thought Jack’s poem was good. The reason why he wrote back two months after is because Walter Dean Myers had a lot of fan mail. He responds to all the letters and that takes a while.   

I enjoyed the book for a few reasons: I liked that it was a poem; I liked the character of the teacher; and I liked that Jack was brave.  The book was set up in a poem way.  I really liked how it wasn’t exactly a poem, it was a book, but it was written in a poem way with short lines and beautiful language.  For example, when a character was sad, the sun started going down and when a character was happy, the sun came up.  Another reason why I liked the book was because of the teacher, Miss Stretchberry. She encouraged Jack to write his poem.  She was sometimes strict but she was supportive. I also liked how Jack was brave. At first he said that writing a poem was for girls and he really didn’t know how to write a poem. All he knew how to do was write short lines. But in the end, he did write one.

I would recommend this book to 3rd graders and 4th graders because of the good vocabulary and because of some beautiful language.  I also think they would really like the poems (there were poems at the end, too).  I give this book 5 stars.

 *****