Category Archives: 2013-2014

Jan
29
2014

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

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So here is my book review on The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. So imagine you were an everyday city boy but you kept getting kicked out of schools for reasons you can not explain, well that is Percy Jackson’s life. He is twelve years old and this might be his first year where he is not kicked out of his boarding school, Yancy Academy. His best friend is a boy named Grover who walks with a limp and his favorite teacher, Mr.B is in a wheelchair. His least favorite teacher that hates him to death is Ms.Dodds. One day Ms.Dodds asks to speak with him alone, then his teacher attacks him and turns into a flying monster. Somehow he kills the monster with the pen, (that turned into a sword,) that Mr.B gave him. So now think, if you were an everyday city boy and a monster just attacked you and you killed it and you are only twelve you would be freaked out. So that was how Percy Jackson is feeling.

Very long story short he figures out that greek gods are real. His mom was married to Poseidon, the god of the sea. So he is half mortal and half god. He is called a half-blood or demigod. He goes to a camp called camp half-blood and meets a girl named Annabeth who is a daughter of Anetha. He also finds Grover there and it turns out that he is a satyr. A satyr is a person who has a human body from waist up and goat legs from waist down. Soon Percy and his friends are sent on a quest. Percy is being blamed for stealing Zeus, the god of the sky’s lightning bolt.They think Hades, the god of the underworld stole it. They have to find Hades, get the bolt back and prove to the gods Percy did not steal it.

 

While he’s on the quest you wonder if Hades really did steal the bolt and if proving his innocence to the gods is really the reason he accepts his Quest. To make it worse they have about 10 days to do it!!!!!!!! I rate this book *********************** out of five stars. This was literally the third time I read the series, ( did I mention Percy Jackson is a series)  I recommend it to anyone who likes a twist on realistic fiction.

Jan
29
2014

Keepers of the lost cities By Shannon messenger

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            book review by Oni Thornell

Eleven year old Sophie Foster Is not a regular girl, she is a telepath. She has been hearing people’s thoughts since she was 5 years old. This story takes place in San Diego and a place no one  could imagine. One day while Sophie is at the museum she meets a mysterious boy named Fitz. For the first time, Sophie realizes that she can’t  hear his thoughts. When he starts to talk to her, he apparently knows that she is a telepath. From that day on,her life changes in so many different ways that she doesn’t recognize herself . I enjoyed this book because it had all of my favorite things ;adventure, drama, humor and fantasy.

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One of my favorite parts was when Sophie was walking down the hall to see the school nurse because she burned her wrist with acid in physics class.  While walking down the hall she runs into a boy who had ditched his class and waiting till class was over. I would recommend this book to people who like adventure, drama and humor. I would rate this book with ten stars but since I can’t, five stars will do.

 

Jan
29
2014

Ivy and Bean Bound To Be Bad

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Ivy & Bean Bound to be Bad

by Colette Leong

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The book I read is called Ivy & Bean Bound To Be Bad and the authors of this book are named Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall. The main characters are really different from each other. One is Bean (but her real name is Beatrice) and she is a very exciting girl and wants to do more things. But Ivy is a more sophisticated and mysterious and good person.

The setting takes place in Ivy and Bean’s court called Pancake court which has lots of neighbors and lots of exciting people there. (Many kids live here in Pancake court and unalike people live here and lots of exciting characters in Pancake court.) Bean and Ivy want to be kind to nature but their bully Crummy Matt, just can’t help Bean be kind to nature so Bean has an idea to stand up for herself. Bean will do something bad and Ivy will convince Bean to be good so Bean can be good after all. But Bean went a little bit too into her plan so she started to be bad.

I rate this book four stars ****. If you want to find out what happens to Bean, will Bean be good or bad You should read this book if you want to find out what happens to Ivy and Bean!

 

Jan
29
2014

The School For Good And Evil by Soman Chainani

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imgresI am reading a book called The School For Good and Evil by Soman Chainani. It has a girl named Agatha and a girl named Sophie. It takes place in a little town and in that town every four years two children get picked to either go to the school of good, or the school of evil. Now you see, when they get picked, they get lost in the woods and end up in the school of good and evil. When children go missing in the forest, alot of parents can not find their kids and put up missing signs.

When people look at the missing signs they recognize the people on the signs. Then they see those same faces in their fary takes.  After they graduate from the school of good and evil, they get to be good and evil characters in fairy tales. That is the cycle. Sophie is pink, sparkly and is very nice. Agatha is dark and punk. This particular four years, Sophie and Agatha get chosen to go to to either the school of good or the school of evil. Something very unexpected happens. Agatha gets chosen to be in the school of good and is very surprised. Sophie gets chosen to be in the school of evil and is really surprised. At first, they think it is a mistake, but could it be that the characters are starting to find out who they really are? I recommend this book, especially to people who like magical realism that has realistic characters, but the story itself is not realistic.

 

I would rate this book four stars because it is magical and  fun.

 

Jan
29
2014

The Real Boy by Anne Ursu

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The Real Boy by Anne Ursu

The Real Boy - Front Jacket - 2-13I thought The Real Boy was a great book. I had a couple of favorite things about this book. Not only was it well written but it was adventurous, exciting, and a bit mysterious.

My favorite character in The Real Boy was Cat. You guessed it, Cat is a cat. She is brave like when she was fighting a mud monster she kept on fighting to protect Oscar, who is the main character. Cat was buried under piles and piles of dirt, rock, and mud in that fight. When Oscar was digging her out she told him (Oscar can understand cats) to go help Crow (another cat) who had broken her legs.

 This book takes place in Alethia, a land where you can’t use magic, except for The Barrow. The Barrow is where Oscar lives. Caleb is a magic smith, Wolf is Caleb’s apprentice, and Oscar is Caleb’s hand. Oscar lives in the basement of Caleb’s shop with his three cats. He chops herbs and puts them into medicine.

Oscar is Master Caleb’s hand, but when Master Caleb leaves his shop to his apprentice Wolf things go bad. Wolf goes into the forest for what should be only a couple hours and leaves Oscar in charge of the shop, but when Wolf has been in the forest for almost 6 hours Oscar worries that something has happened to Wolf…

to be continued…

I would recommend this book to kids 8+. I would give this book 5 stars.

P.S. I know what you’re thinking “If this book is called The Real Boy does that mean I’m a fake boy/girl” no it doesn’t mean you’re a fake boy/girl it means that in the book he is a real boy.

Jan
29
2014

Soul Surfer by Bethany Hamilton with help from Sheryl Berk & Rick Bundschuh

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1563Soul Surfer is a book about a girl whose arm got bitten off by a shark. This book is an autobiography about Bethany Hamilton. I personally like this book because I’m a surfer and she is one too, but also she’s a survivor.

This book is about “the soul surfer”. (A.K.A, Bethany Hamilton.) She is a surfer and goes surfing every day. She loves surfing so much that she’s homeschooled so she can surf more. Just like every other morning, she puts on her bathing suit and goes out to surf and it was almost the exact same thing that happens every morning. The thing that was different was her arm got bitten off by a shark! After that her life totally changed. She got so famous. She barely was in Hawaii because she was touring so much. Other than getting famous most of the other things were bad.

I’m pretty sure everyone knows about the movie Soul Surfer. A really cool part of this book is that in the book it shows Beth’s movie journal. It kind of shows you what happened behind the scenes of the movie.

This book is not hard but there are a few words that are confusing because they’re Hawaiian. I thought it was really cool because i’ve always been a fan of hers. I would give this book **** because there are some sort of boring parts but if you don’t read them the book doesn’t make sense. It’s a really good book and I think you should read it.

Jan
29
2014

Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs

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Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs is really good. It’s about a kid whose names Teddy who lives at a zoo since his parents work there, and Henry who is a Elephant that died. The book is set in  a zoo in Texas called Funjungle. Teddy thinks that Henry died because he was murdered. Was he right? You must read the book to find out!

 

My favorite part of the book was when someone let out a very dangerous snake just before Teddy entered the snake place at the zoo. I didn’t have a least favorite part of the book since it was so good!

 

I would recommend this book to adventure lovers because it’s a big adventure. I would give this book a 20 out of 5 star rating.

 

 

Jan
29
2014

Vordak The Incomprehensible by Scott Seegert (author) and John Martin (illustrator).

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vordak                Vordak The Incomprehensible is a great book. I love it because it is silly and goofy. Vordak is an evil villain. He is very smart and funny. He sometimes talks to himself. It is funny when he does it.  Vordak has an evil lair filled with creepy stuff. The book is him talking to you about what happened to him. He makes a bunch of inventions that work. He made an age reduction ray that makes things young again. He tried it on him, it worked, but it broke and he made him too young so now he has to go to school. My favorite part in the book was when Vordak went to school on the school bus to get to school. He has an enemy named Commander Virtue and he has a kid that goes to school at Farding High which is where Vordak has to go to school. There is some trouble at school though so Vordak does not like it. I like the books that are totally unrealistic like this one I recommend this book to people who like the books that are totally unrealistic and to people who like funny books too. I finished the book in less time than I thought I would read it.  I give this book five stars! Whoever reads it or has read it you are awesome!

 

Jan
29
2014

Alabama Moon, By Watt Key

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It’s about a kid named Moon Blake, he lives in the forest with his father. Then one day a guy buys part of the land that they’re living in. So the father gets stressed out, then the father gets a piece of wood stuck in his leg, After time he dies. He tells moon to try to get to Alaska, with his last breath. So Moon backs his stuff in the wheelbarrow and sets for Alaska. He finds out which way Alaska is and he walks that way. Then a police man finds him walking. They have a little fight with one another, after a while the police man puts him in the car and puts him in jail. He stays there for a while and then goes to a boys home. He meets his friend who has a breathing problem and another buff one. Moon has plans to get out of the mini hell, will he with his friends or will he be stuck in there for ever? Find out if you read the book, I give this book a five star rating. It was a great book, it makes me cry every time I read it.

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Jan
28
2014

The Journal of Ben Uchida

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This book is about the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is about a Japanese boy who has to go to an Internment Camp because he is Japanese. His father has been taken to be questioned. He has a sister. This takes place in California, 1942. I enjoyed this very much. It is in journal format. I would recommend this to people who are interested in history. I would give this 4 and a half stars.