Author Archives: 24shoshif

Jun
03
2016

Space Case by Stuart Gibbs

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Shoshi’s Final Chapter 

Introduction:

The main character is called Dashiell, but he goes by Dash. In Space Case there is a murder. Dr. Holtz is the person who got killed. Dash thinks he got murdered, but everyone else thinks Dr. Holtz was going crazy.

There is a girl who is Dash’s age called Kira who also lives on the moon. They secretly teamed up to solve the murder. They couldn’t let anyone know or else they would get in HUGE trouble!

Dash and his family temporarily live on the moon. They will only live there for three years, and then they will go back to earth. NASA has recently developed homes on the moon. Because both of Dash’s parents are scientists Dash gets to be one of the few lucky kids to be invited to the moon. Everyone else who wanted to go would have to pay billions of dollars.

Dash’s best friend is called Riley, who lives back in Hawaii (which is where Dash lived before he traveled to the moon.)

You might be thinking life on the moon is great. But it’s not. The food is HORRIBLE, kids can’t go outside, the toilets do not work properly, and to top it all off, someone has been murdered.

The big problem in this book is the murder. It’s what the book is all about. I think the person who killed Dr Holtz will be sent back to earth, put in prison and Dash will become the hero.

The chapter that I wrote about my book takes place after Dash arrives back in Hawaii. Everyone found out that Dash and Kira solved the murder and now they have become the heroes. But Kira doesn’t live in Hawaii so Dash is all alone with the paparazzi, fame, and questions.

My chapter starts on chapter 22 because the real book ends on chapter 21. I tried to make it so it would literally be the next chapter of my book. The chapter that I wrote is about one last adventure that Dash goes on back home in Hawaii.

                           Chapter 22

By Shoshi                  

 

I woke up to the sound of my mom yelling at the paparazzi to go away. She was very upset because they rang the doorbell at four in the morning to get a picture of me. I was all over the news.

“Young kid solves murder on the moon. He is finally back on earth. Find out how he did it!” Everybody wanted me on their channel. I was so famous. So, that’s how everything started. Then, later on that day at noon the President called. She wanted to speak to me.  

She said, “Hello, is this Dashiell?”

I said, “Yes. Speaking?”

“Chelsea Clinton. President of the United States of America. I would like to organize a meeting with you.

I nearly fainted. It was so surprising and awesome!

I replied, “Umm of course, of course that would be amazing but why? Why do you want to speak to me? Is it something about the murder that Kira and I solved on the moon? Like some award or something?

“No, Dashiell. There has been a murder and we need you to solve it.”

 

 

So the President called me and asked me to solve a murder for her. But she didn’t hang up yet.

“Oh, and I need to have a secret meeting with you at three in the morning tomorrow.” Chelsea Clinton said.

“Where will I meet you?” I asked.

“Right outside your front door. I’ll take you the rest of the way.”

“What will I tell my parents?”

“You won’t.”

“What if they hear me leaving?”

“Then you’ve blown it. Listen Dashiell, do you want to help or not?”

“I don’t know, I just got back…”

“Listen, how many people do you know who get offers from the President of the U.S. to solve a murder with them?”

“None,” I said sheepishly.

“So is that a yes?”

“Fine. I’m in.”

 

 

“Ring, ring, ring, ring, ringring ringring ringring ringring ringringring ringringring ringringring.”

My alarm clock went off. At three in the morning. I was already dressed in appropriate clothing, black pants, a black shirt, black sneakers, and a black hoodie. I was prepared. I also brought a black bag, which had a water bottle, a flashlight, batteries for the flashlight, and an apple in it.

I crept down the stairs, careful not to step on the stair third to the top, it squeaks really loudly. It would definitely wake up my parents.

I opened the front door as slowly as I could, so it wouldn’t creak. There, as she promised, I saw Chelsea Clinton waiting outside for me. But there was no car or any sort of transportation.

“Will you tell me where we are going now?” I asked Chelsea.

“Patience, Dashiell, patience,” she responded.

“I know. And please call me Dash.”

“I’ll consider, Dash,” she said with a wink.

“Follow me. Whatever I tell you to do you do. Understand?”

“Yes Ma’am.” I said.

“Now, stay behind me,” she said. She turned the corner. I followed. She turned another corner. I followed. She turned another corner. I followed.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Shhh. It might take a while. We’re walking. Four miles. We should be there in the next half hour.” She said like this was going to be the easiest thing ever.

One hour later…

“Uggh. How much farther?” I asked, still wheezing from our early-morning run.

“About… 1, 2, 3, 3 steps,” she replied.

“Phew. This run has really tired me out.”

“Well, here we are!” She said. Not even panting or looking thirsty. I was the exact opposite.

“Where?” I asked.

“Right through here,” she opened a door.

“Now get low and don’t make a peep,” she commanded me. I nodded.

There were voices. Two of them. The first one said,

“I know what happened to your daughter. And did I have something to do with her death? Well, I can’t tell you that.” The first voice said.

“Why did you kill her?” The second voice asked, sounding bold.

“You drowned her. Why?”

“She was interfering with my plans. I had to stop her.”

“What were your plans?”

“Don’t you know? I thought you would have figured it out by now, James.”

“Henry, just give it up already! I know that she stole your idea but is that a reason to kill her?”

“I won’t answer any questions I would not like to answer. I will do what I want to do, and no one will stop me. As for you, you know too much. Goodbye James.”

“Stop.” Chelsea commanded the guy addressed as Henry.

“And why should I listen to you? Chelsea. You may be the president, but you can’t kill me. Then you would be a murderer with no witnesses and no evidence about what I’ve done to Brooke,” Henry said. Not even flinching that it was the president he was talking to.

“How do you know I don’t have a witness? How do you know I’m not recording this on a tape that I will show to the police? How do you know anything about what I’m doing or why I’m here?”

“Again, I will not answer any questions I would not like to answer. Now back to business. Is there someone else with you? Someone Hiding, perhaps? I can sense another person in the room. Give it up or else.”

“Or what?”

“I’ll kill James.”

“Oh no you won’t.”

“How do you know I won’t. I killed Brooke. I can kill her father.”

“But how do you know where James is?”

“He’s right over there, James, come here. Now. What? Where did he go?” Henry growled.

“He’s gone.” And then I knocked Henry out with the back of my hand, and he felt splat on the hard concrete floor, unconscious.

 

 

“Good job, kid.” Chelsea said.

“Thanks.” I replied.

“Now what? We can’t turn him into the police. There’s no evidence.”

“I was recording it.”

“That’s helpful.”

“So, what do we do with Henry?”

“Well, the best solution is to stay with him until he wakes up, and then turn him into the police. With the evidence, of course.”

“But what if he tries to fight us?”

“He won’t.”

“But what if he does? You always have to be prepared for the worst.”

“Then, I will give him electric shocks until he stops. Each one getting harder and harder, worse and worse. Eventually, he will stop fighting and surrender to us, which is when we turn him into the cops.”

“Okay, but first he has to wake up.”

 

A hour and a half later…
“What? What happened? Where am I? What did you do to me Chelsea?” Henry asked.

“I did nothing. You did it all yourself.” Chelsea replied.

“Huh? I did nothing.” Henry stated, calmly.

“Oh, yes you did. You murdered Brooke and I intend to find out how. But, first I must bring to you to a place where you can’t harm me.” Chelsea said, without blinking.

“And where might that be?” Henry said with a laugh.

“I only answer questions I would like to answer, and that is a question I would not like to answer. And next time, don’t question me.” Chelsea said. Now Henry looked like a whole new person. He looked small and scared, like a puppy who was just born, and taking its first glimpses at all the scary things around it.

“Now, if you don’t want to get harmed, do exactly what I say, when I say it. Understand?” Chelsea asked Henry.

“Yyyyyyes.” Henry managed to say through his fear.

Then Chelsea brought Henry to the cops, along with her evidence of him saying he killed Brooke. The cops took him into a cell for questioning. Then Chelsea brought me home.

“Thanks,” I said to Chelsea as she was leaving.

“It was just like old times, back on the moon, except with Chelsea Clinton instead of Kira. Thanks for that.”

“Anytime.” Chelsea said with a wink. And then she picked up her motorcycle, which was hidden behind a tree the whole time!

“Bye Dash!” She called.

So I crept back upstairs into my room, changed into PJs, and slept. For two minutes. Then,

“Ring, ring, ring, ring, ringring ringring ringring ringring ringringring ringringring ringringring.” My alarm clock went off for the second time that day. I did not want to get up. But, it was my first day of school and I couldn’t be late. After all, I was the most popular kid in school, and I had the highest grades. I had to show up to keep my reputation alive. And after the first few days of school, everything was back to the way it was before. Just like old times.

The end

Mar
09
2016

The Boy Who Harnessed Wind

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Can you build a windmill? William Kamkwamba can. The name of my book is The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. The main character is a boy called William Kamkwamba. One big problem for William and his family is a famine that causes many deaths in where he lives. It takes place in Malawi, Africa around 2013. That’s where William lives. William made a windmill when he was only 14!

 

In Malawi Africa they use a different type of money. It is called Kwacha. Three kwacha is less than one American dollar.

 

I think William is an interesting character with an inspiring story. One word I would use to describe William is creative. For example, William and his family don’t have enough money for a real soccer ball. William makes one out of plastic bags that have been used already. He calls them jumbos. William also doesn’t buy toy cars or trucks. Instead, he makes them himself. He makes them out of things that some people would call garbage, but the things he uses can be used to build anything. He uses empty milk cartons, bottle caps, and the insides of tree branches to build his toy cars and trucks. It’s very interesting to learn how he uses these materials to make things that you wouldn’t typically think would and could be made out of those materials.

 

William is many things. But he is definitely not negative! William is a very optimistic person. William thinks about ways to make bad things good, and then he tries to make it reality. For example, one big problem for William and his family is that a drought hits Malawi and it gets very hard to survive because after the drought there was a famine. Luckily, they still have some maize from the year before the drought. William’s mother goes to the mill with corn to get flour.  She then uses the flour to make a type of cake that she sells to all of the hungry people for three kwacha each. Half of her profit goes to William’s father’s friend who is a trader. This trader gives them a pail of maize for the money she gives him. This maize gets ground into flour and baked into more of the cakes for the next day. The other half of the profit goes to William’s family to buy food for themselves so they can survive the drought as well.

 

I have one more thing that I think is an extremely important character trait for William. William learned how to successfully build a windmill in very hard times. You would have to be incredibly smart to do that. He learned from books in the public library. He read, collected and built in his free time, (which he had much of since he had to drop out of school because he could not afford it). He read about how to make one certain part of a windmill, looked around for that thing or replaced it with something that would work just as well as the real thing, and then he would build it. He got so many items to help him build the windmill from looking in places like the back of a bar or a scrap yard, and he stored them all in his room. Sometimes he would get told off for a dirty and messy room, but it was worth it because in the end he actually built a windmill and helped his family.

 

There were two events that happened in the book that I found most interesting. The first thing that I found really interesting was that even though people thought William was losing his mind from the hunger while he was building his windmill, William never gave up. William kept on going through it, through all of it and never even thought about giving up. In the beginning of the book everyone thought William was just like them. Then they thought he was crazy, but they were wrong. He built a windmill. He never gave up. He stayed strong the whole way through. It shows that there can be more to a person than you think there is. Another very interesting thing that I read in the book was that he learned all he knew about windmills from books. He sat down day after day after day after day and he read and he read and he read and he read. I think it is very inspiring and makes me want to read more to see what I can learn from books.

 

I really enjoyed this book. One reason I enjoyed this book was it was a fun read and kept me on edge about what would happen next and if William would survive and if he would make a windmill or not. I would recommend this book to someone who likes autobiographies, nonfiction books, a little bit of sad concepts and someone who likes to read about other places in the world and what they are like. This book reminds me of the book I am Malala. She struggled and wanted to help other people in her home country and so did William. Overall, I would rate this book five stars out of five stars, (one meaning I didn’t like it all and five meaning I loved it and I want to read it again.)

Jan
14
2016

The School for Good and Evil: The Last Ever After By Soman Chainani

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My book is called The School For Good And Evil: The Last Ever After. It is the third book in the series The School For Good And Evil. It was written by Soman Chainani. Sophie and Agatha are the main characters. The main problem is that all of the fairy tales that everyone knows are getting changed and rewritten by the evil Schoolmaster. Instead of good winning, evil is winning. Evil is killing all of the good characters because it has love on its side. Evil got love because Sophie married the evil Schoolmaster. As long as she wears his ring, evil will win all of the fairy tales ever to come and good winning will just be forgotten.

My book is set in two places. One of them is the Blue Forest. The Blue Forest is a forest that students from the school for good and the school for evil used to train in to prepare for the real forest, which is where they would go and live their real fairy tales. The second place that my book is set in is the school for new evil, which includes the school masters tower. The School For New Evil is the School For Evil but in a different and bigger building. The Schoolmaster’s tower is like the Schoolmaster’s house, but it doesn’t have any stairs to go down, you have to fly up and through a window to get in.

Sophie and Agatha were best friends. That was until a boy, Tedros came between them. Tedros is the prince of Camelot. Sophie and Agatha both loved Tedros. Tedros picked Agatha to be his princess. So, Sophie went seeking love. She came upon the evil Schoolmaster and found out that she loved him but he was evil. She married the Schoolmaster and became evil. The Schoolmaster wanted to change all of the fairy tales so that evil would always win and it seemed like evil was right and good was wrong.

Evil characters that have been killed by their good nemeses rise from their grave and find their enemies to kill them. Everything starts dying including the sun. If the sun dies, everyone in the world will die as well. The only way to stop everything dying is if Sophie destroys the Schoolmaster’s ring with Excalibur, Tedros’ father’s sword. Sophie must decide who she wants more. Her best friend, Agatha or her true love, the Schoolmaster.

Sophie is a confused person. She doesn’t know what is right and what is wrong because she always tries to be good, but no one appreciates it so she turns evil. Sophie doesn’t want to be evil, she wants to be happy. The only way for Sophie to be happy is if she finds true love. Sophie found true love but it is evil. For example, on page 2 it says “Sophie reddened, remembering she was all alone in this world. Everyone else had abandoned her. Every desperate effort to be good had been punished with betrayal. She had no family, no friends, no future.  And now, this ravishing boy in front of her was her last hope for love. Panic burnt through her muscles and dried out her throat.  There was no choice anymore. Sophie swallowed and slowly stepped towards him.”

Sophie is also desperate for love. She has always wanted to be good but when she fell in love and it was evil she wasn’t willing to sacrifice love for good. She was too desperate. For example, Sophie once had a choice. Her choice was love or friendship. She could have gone to Camelot with Agatha and been good just by destroying the Schoolmaster’s ring but she couldn’t. She knew she wouldn’t get a second chance at love and by destroying the Schoolmaster’s ring it would mean giving her happy ending to Agatha and losing hers.

Agatha has a very strong personality. She doesn’t let other people take her over or do things for her. For example, on page 147 it says, “If anyone can make Sophie see what love really is…it’s her best friend, isn’t it?” said Agatha. “The league’s old faces melted to childlike stares, as if finally seeing the young girl with hope instead of disdain. Tedros stepped next to his princess, chest proud. “Exactly. Leave Sophie to me.” Agatha’s smile vanished.”

Agatha is also very independent. For example, before she went to the school for good she lived in a small house in a graveyard with her mother and her cat. She did most things by herself and didn’t have any friends. But, Agatha stayed strong and was good even though everyone including herself thought she was evil and a witch.

One of the reasons that I really enjoyed this book was it was very descriptive and it makes you feel like you are experiencing everything that the characters are experiencing. For example, on page 542 it says, “Slowly their eyes drifted upwards, pinned to the trees, and as they adjusted to the darkness, they began to make them out… bony, vulturous shadows, eerily still on the elm branches, not making a sound.” Another reason I really liked this book is that every time they solve one problem it leads to another. It keeps it filled with excitement and action and makes the book very interesting. The last reason is that it doesn’t start with just Agatha or just Sophie, it alternates every chapter and when both of the girls are in the same place, the book says both of their thoughts so that you can actually understand what is going on and why.

I would recommend this book to someone who loves reading fantasy and fractured fairy tales. It is filled with both of those things and makes the book what it is. This book is about good against evil and which one is right and if you like changing concepts you would probably like this book. I would definitely rate this book five stars out of five stars (five being the best and one being the worst.)  

Dec
10
2015

Dead End In Norvelt, by Jack Gantos

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imgresMy book is called Dead End In Norvelt. It is about a kid called Jack and Miss Volker. The time period that this book takes place  in is 1962. Jack is an average kid who always has a bloody nose. Whenever he gets nervous or scared his nose bleeds. It bleeds a lot. Jack will do anything for his friends. He traded a plane ride to play a game of baseball with his friends. Jack is friendly. Miss Volker is an old lady, she is one of the original people who lives in Norvelt. She made a promise to someone that she would be the last original person in Norvelt. Mr Spizz is like an old delivery man who rides around on a tricycle. Mr Spizz wants to marry miss Volker. He asked her and asked her to marry him but she said no every single time (because she didn’t like him) except for once. She said she would marry him once she was the last original person from Norvelt. Then all of sudden all of the original people from Norvelt start to die. All of a sudden Miss Volker has to write a lot of obituaries, (since her job is to write obituaries) and needs some help. She asks Jack to help her out over the summer, and since Jack got grounded he is free to help her.

Jack was playing with his dad’s rifle and didn’t realize the rifle was loaded. He was not allowed to use the rifle. He fired and and a bullet shot out of the gun.  No-one was hurt and nothing got hit but his dad found out he had used his gun and Jack got grounded. Later on Jack mows his mom’s corn-field down because his dad told him to so his dad could build a runway for a plane, and get’s grounded by his mom while he is still grounded from his dad. Jack lives in Norvelt in around the present time and is grounded for the whole entire summer.

Jack’s mom’s corn field was for food for the old ladies of Norvelt. Jack’s dad told Jack to mow down the corn-field because he was going to make a runway for the plane that he won. Jack’s dad told everyone the runway was a bomb shelter because if Jack’s dad told someone that he was building a runway they would shut it down. He could get in big trouble. “Yes. ol’ Spizz was very cooperative with me, and it didn’t take too much work to get him to confess that he did…” You will have to read the book to find out what he did!

I loved this book! I love this book because it is a mystery and those are one of my favorite types of books. Another reason that I enjoy this book is that different problems keep  coming up in the story and once they solve one problem it leads to another. The last reason I enjoyed this book is that history facts are in the story so I can learn history in a book that’s not about history! If you like mysteries I would definitely recommend this book to you because it is a mystery! It is a mystery that keeps you on a ledge waiting to read more. If I rated this book I would rate it five stars out of five stars!