Author Archives: 25oliverb

Jun
09
2017

The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart

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The Mysterious Benedict Society is by Trenton Lee Stewart. This book is about four orphans who are all different in some way. One is very smart and brave. Another is very smart and nervous. One is a little smart but resourceful, handy, and athletic. The fourth is stubborn, short, and surprising (there is a little secret at the end of the book that will surprise you if you chose to read this book.) They all end up in this strange, secret, group of people who are trying to figure out a mystery. It was a dangerous mystery and almost the whole world relied on them. Little did the rest of the world know what was going on. The four children were informed that they were the one’s who needed to solve the mystery. The main characters in this book are Reynard Muldoon who is the very smart and brave one (Reynie for short). George Washington, the one who is very smart and nervous (Sticky for short). Kate Wetherall, the one who is a little smart, resourceful, handy, and athletic. The fourth is Constance Contraire who is stubborn, short, and surprising. I think that this book took place in 2017, if anything in the future. That is because although I don’t think that it mentions cellphones anywhere, but they do have technology that can brain sweep you, can project messages into your head without doing it one by one, and can make you feel good, relaxed and addicted to the machine all in one machine. That one machine is called The Whisperer. They also have secret codes, traps, secret entrance, and a whole lot more. This book takes place mostly in a boarding school.

 

One adjective that I would use to describe all four is dependable. Reynie is dependable because he is very smart, very brave, and the leader of The Mysterious Benedict Society. Sticky is dependable because he is very smart and even though he isn’t very brave and fierce, but when the moment comes when he needs to be brave, he does it and he does a very good job. Kate is dependable because she always finds a way to get the best out of something. For example, Sticky, Reynie, Kate and Constance were talking about how disable the computer’s connected to The Whisperer. Kate decided that she would do it. She went off to where she thought the computers would be. She saw that where she thought that it would be was covered with cement. Instead she found out some very, very important information by eavesdropping that would help them a lot on their mission. Constance is dependable because, like I said, she is very surprising. Alike Sticky, she is surprising (in a good way) at the right moments. Another adjective I would use to describe the four is brave. Reynie is brave because he is almost willing to do anything to help his society with what they’re trying to figure out. For example, Reynie had a session with The Whisperer and Reynie told everyone to sneak in on him and sabotage The Whisperer. He was that brave that he believed that his team could do it. Sticky is brave because when he needs to, he will do anything to help his team achieve their goal. Kate is brave because she is willing to do anything, hide, beat up teachers, search through buildings, anything. One example from the book is when Kate was running away from the executives and she climbed up a wall. Kate always carries a bucket full of tools. She dropped all of her tools while running away. “What good is your bucket doing now?” One of the executives asked. “I’m glad you asked!” Kate said, as she leaned over to fill the bucket up with water from the brook. It was instantly as heavy as a bowling ball. She gave the executive a friendly wink and dropped the bucket. Constance is brave because when she gets angry and wants to do something about it, she will not let anything in her way of stopping her from what she wants to do. Another adjective is smart. They’re all smart in different ways. For example they all solve problems in different ways. Reynie would probably would think of a very smart plan and use it. Sticky would think really hard on what to do then do it no matter what his mind told him to do. Kate would fight and jump and defend herself. Constance would put her mind set to making sure that no one would get in her way of doing what she wanted.

 

This was probably my favorite book ever. I had so many favorite parts. If I had to pick three though, one would be where at the beginning of the book, Reynie was going through all the secret tests to see if he was fit to be a part of their society. This was one of my favorite parts of the book because that was one of the parts of the book where I really felt a part of that story. I could really imagine what it would be like being either next to Reynie, or being Reynie. Another one of my favorite parts of this book was when at the end of the book, almost seven people were fighting the enemy who is the headmaster of the boarding school. That is one of my favorite parts of the book because it is very dramatic. Especially because it is about twenty pages from the end of the book so whatever happens there decides what the conclusion is for the book. My third is when the four children meet the headmaster of the boarding school and he looks exactly like the boss of their society! They get all mad and angry. Then they finally remember that the boss of their society said that he has a twin brother. That is another one of my favorite parts of the book because that could change the whole book. Would they have to fight the boss of the group that they were fighting for? No. They just got confused.

 

I really enjoyed this book because of how similar it was to reality, yet it still would never happen in reality. Two reasons that that is true is because one, they’re at a boarding school, but inside that boarding school is a machine that projects messages into people’s minds. The second is at first Reynie is taking a test to win a prize, next he discovers that that test is to see who is fit to be part of a secret society. This book doesn’t really remind me of anything. It is so unique because I don’t know another book or movie that includes this much information about everything that is going on at all times everywhere. If I had to rate this book between one and five stars, I would rate this book a five out of five stars.

May
04
2017

The Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket

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SPOILER ALERT, THIS REVIEW REVEALS LOTS OF IMPORTANT PLOT POINTS

A Series of Unfortunate Events, THE BAD BEGINNING is by Lemony Snicket. This book is about three kids that each have something unique about themselves. Violet Baudelaire, the oldest, has a love for inventing things. Klaus Baudelaire, the second oldest, has a love for reading books. The third child, Sunny Baudelaire (she is a infant) has a love for biting things. She can sure bite hard. She can bite rocks into perfect skipping rocks, etc. Anyway, while the children are sitting on the beach, Mr. Poe, one of Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaires great friends. “How do you do?” , asked Violet and Klaus. “Odo Yow!”, said Sunny. “Fine”, said Mr. Poe. Unfortunately this conversation was not going to end in a good way. Mr. Poe was about to tell them some not so good news. “You’re parents have perished in a terrible fire”, said Mr. Poe. Mr. Poe said that the name of their new parent is Count Olaf. As they meet Count Olaf for the first time, they notice that he has a tattoo of an eye on his ankle. From then on, the three children realize that Count Olaf isn’t just trying to be a good parent but is doing whatever he can to get his hands on the fortune that the Baudelaire children were left with. As well as that, the children slowly start realizing that that tattoo on Count Olaf’s ankle might mean more than just a normal tattoo. I think that this book takes place in the 1980s because it didn’t really mention anything about computers or phones.

An adjective that I would use to describe the three children is being very, very smart. Violet is smart because she invented a grappling hook using curtains shirts, and wire. Klaus is very smart because he has read tons and tons of books. So many books that he can solve almost every problem with all of his knowledge that he has gathered from reading so many books. Sunny is very smart because whenever something is going on in the books sunny knows what is going on. Another adjective that I would use to describe the three is calm. Whenever the three face a problem with Count Olaf they never panic. They always think of something. Another reason that the three are calm is because when they went to there house after the fire, they didn’t burst into tears and start rolling on the ground. They don’t let their emotions get the better of them. A third adjective that I would use to describe the three is brave. They will do anything to help each other. Once Count Olaf trapped Sunny in the highest part of his house. Violet knowing that there were dangerous people in the house made a grappling hook to go rescue Sunny. Another reason that the three are brave is because when one of Count Olaf’s crew members came to get the three from Count Olaf’s next door neighbors house, Klaus stole a book that he thought would really help them with a problem that his siblings and himself were having with Count Olaf without anyone seeing it.

I have a lot of favorite parts in the book. If I had to pick three though, one would be is at the end of the book when Count Olaf is still trying to get the Baudelaire fortune by marrying Violet. Violet totally tricks Count Olaf by signing the official document with her left hand. That is one of my favorite parts of the book because a nice young women tricked a mean old man. My second favorite part of the book is at the beginning when Sunny is biting rocks into perfect skipping rocks. That is another one of my favorite parts because that the first time you see Sunny biting something so it is very surprising and kind of scary. My third favorite part is when they are super happy when they see Count Olaf’s next door neighbors house and they get all happy but when they hear that the house they will be living in is the one next door. That is one of my favorite parts because I feel like that is the beginning of the part of the book where it gets mysterious.

I really enjoyed this book because you never really know what is going to happen next. Two reasons that this is true is because one, one moment the Baudelaire children are on the children are on the beach and the next moment they know that their parents are dead and two, they think that they are going to be staying in this amazing house, the next thing they know they are staying in this awful looking dreaded house. I would recommend this book to people who really like mysteries. That is because there are a lot of mysteries in one book, there’s not just one mystery per book. This book reminds me of the Mysterious Benedict Society because there are so many different mysteries and different things that the characters are trying to figure out. Also in each book the main characters are all somewhat intelligent. If I had to rate this book from one to five stars I would rate this book four stars.

Mar
17
2017

The Last Kids On Earth, by Max Brallier

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The Last Kids On Earth is by Max Brallier. This book is about a orphan boy who travels the world and just ended up in Louisville where there has been a monster apocalypse! The day the monster apocalypse happened, Jack lost all of his friends. Jack has made it his main priority to get his friends back and to find the “Damsel in Distress,” the love of his life, June Del Toro. The three people that Jack is able to come across is his best friend named Quint, a old bully named Dirk, who turned out to be pretty nice, and June Del Toro. I think that this book probably took place in 2015-2017 because there are CVS’s, Home Depots, and middle school’s that sound pretty modern.

Jack is very arrogant. On almost every page that he is either talking about slaying a huge monster, or “rescuing” June Del Toro. He’s always saying that when June finds out about it, she is going say “Oh, Jack, my hero!” Another adjective that would describe Jack is that he is very brave. Every time someone needs saving, he is always willing to help do something really dangerous to help even if the person thinks that they can handle it, he is always there to help. A example from the book is when Jack, Quint, Dirk, and June were running away from a monster Blarg, Jack shoved everyone in the car and defended his friends from Blarg. The third adjective that I would use to describe Jack is that he is a natural. He learns things very quickly. Two examples is that one, he learned how to make his own Mountain Dew very quickly, and the other reason is he learned how to catch very quickly (and at the right time, as Quint was throwing Jack his sword right as they were about to kill one of the biggest monsters).

There are many more different details about what the plot is about than what I’ve already told you. One is that the family that Jack lost when the monster apocalypse was named the Robinsons. They were not very nice people. All they did was make Jack mow the lawn. No quality time. No family fun night. No Friday pizza movie nights. Some of my favorite parts in the book is when at the very beginning of the book, Jack is fighting Blarg on top of CVS when Jack just wants a tiny tiny screw driver. I think that that is interesting because it is just so interesting how everything is just focused on Jack fighting Blarg and how Jack just wants a tiny tiny screw driver. Another reason why that is interesting is because Jack, a tiny human being is beating Blarg, a giant slimy monster. Another interesting part of the book is when Jack finally does find June Del Toro and the way she reacts to finding out that Jack thinks that she is a “Damsel in Distress,” she gets super mad. The reason that that is interesting because I’d think that even if June didn’t need any help, that she would think that it was nice of Jack to risk his LIFE to save her is really nice, and she still got mad at him! Another one of my favorite parts in the book is when Dirk slowly starts becoming nicer and nicer. That was very surprising to me because Dirk was so mean at first that you’d think that he’d never be nice but the fact that Dirk risked his life to get Quint a birthday gift is, WOW.

I really enjoyed this book because it is a really good mix of comedy and fantasy adventure and the slightest bit of realism. It has comedy because there are lots of strange odd things throughout the book like the fact that the Mountain Dew that Jack makes is just a mix of water and green food coloring. I would recommend this book to a lot of people because it is a great story and also it has lots of amazing pictures to back the story up. This book kind of reminds me of The Walking Dead but with other monsters apart from zombies but it is also a whole lot less scary. The reason that I think that is a pretty similar to The Walking Dead is because there are monsters in both, and there are people are trying to survive from the madness of the monsters in both! I rate this book one out of five stars (one being I didn’t like it five being I loved it and would want to read it again) I think that I would give this book a four stars.

Feb
16
2017

Crenshaw, by Katherine Applegate

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Crenshaw is about a boy, Jackson, in a not so wealthy family who is having some rough times but when he meets a old friend, the rough times get a lot more interesting.When he meets Crenshaw, his old imaginary friend who has come back to Jackson for a reason that Jackson is trying to figure out. Jackson’s parents were forced to move out of their house because they couldn’t pay the rent.

I think that Jackson is very silly, smart, and also really nice. He is silly because who’s imaginary friend would be a surf boarding, skate boarding, and extremely smart cat for a imaginary friend!? He is smart because one he is very good with building and he really wants to be a scientist when he grows up (also when their was a raccoon in the house, he was the one who got it out when everyone was freaking out!). And last but not least he is nice because when his sister woke him up at one in the morning because she couldn’t fall asleep, (this happened about five times throughout the whole book) he just went into her room and read her her favorite book, Lyle.

One night Jackson is playing a made up game called cereal bowl and Jackson sees a giant cat that is jet-skiing which confuses Jackson because he thought that he was way past his imaginary friend. The next night Jackson heard splashing in the bathroom so he decided to check what was going on in there at that late hour. He peeked in, and it was Crenshaw. And from then on, Crenshaw and Jackson have been hanging out more and more and Jackson has been learning more and more about Crenshaw and realizes more and more about how much Jackson needs Crenshaw.

This book is a very interesting book. It is really full of curiosity because it has so many different topics in the book. The reason that I really liked this book because it really changes topic a lot which is really nice because it really it always makes you wonder what is going to happen next. If I had to pick a one to five rate with stars, I would give this book four and a half  stars because of how much it makes you wonder about that jet skiing cat. 

Jan
27
2017

Boy Ends Up in Prison Camp for Being Mistaken by Police

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An important event in the book I’m reading(Holes) is probably when Stanley Yelnats tells the people/ people at his camp that the “crime” that he committed was by “stealing” a shoe. Stanley said that he was just walking down the street and a shoe just flew into his hand and apparently the shoe belonged to a very famous baseball player that was being given to a homeless shelter. The reason he ended up in the prison camp is because if you were in court it would be a pretty unbelievable if you said that the shoe flew into your hand. So he was considered guilty and went to the prison camp. It is a very good book, I would really recommend it. 

Dec
08
2016

All About Me!

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Hi my name is Oliver. I am a fourth grader. I like to read. My favorite kind of books to read are realistic fiction. Some of my favorite books that I’ve read are Holes, Wonder, A Wrinkle in Time, and Pax. If you like to read, come back often to see how what I read!