Category Archives: 2013-2014

Jun
04
2014

Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko

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Screen Shot 2014-06-04 at 9.34.22 PMThis book review is going to be about the book Al Capone Does My Shirts. The book was written by Gennifer Choldenko. The book is about a boy that lives on Alcatraz, the worst prison to be on at thetime. As you might have guessed there are ups and downs when you are living around the worst criminals in America. Alcatraz is basically a gigantic rock (or island) covered in cement, topped with bird crap.

 

The main characters name is Moose, short for Matthew. He is very solidly built, nice to everyone except for the warden’s daughter named Piper. For example he is constantly hanging out with a 7 year old that likes him. When he first gets to the island he is sent to the warden’s office to promise to help the wardens daughter carry her projects to and from school. It turns out that Piper is more trouble than Moose thought.

 

Within the first few hours of school Piper has broken her dad (the warden’s) rule about not talking about living on Alcatraz. Also she makes people pay to have their laundry done by the criminals but then won’t pay the people who helped her do it.

 

In the beginning of the book you think that Al Capone is really bad but he is actually pretty nice to moose. For example one time Moose goes to the sell house and Al is complimenting him. He also helps Natalie Moose’s sister to go to a school for children with autism. He asks Al Capone to help her get in.

 

One quote from Piper is,”You won’t get any of the money we make.”. So to conclude this book review the book is about how Moose will keep a good record with the grownups and a good relationships with the children on the island. I recommend it if you like mystery and adventure, a fast moving book, or a book about living near a prison. I would rate this book 100 stars out of 5. ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************* Ok that might not be 100 but it is pretty close to it.

 

Jun
04
2014

Ghost of a Chance by Lauren Barnholdt

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I read the book Ghost of a Chance by Lauren Barnholdt. It’s the 3rd book in the Girl Meets Ghost series. It takes place in a nice town kind of like Connecticut but it never says the name of the town. The main characters are Kendall, the ghost helper, and Lily, the ghost. Kendall has a problem that she’s got to solve. So first Kendall and Brandon broke up, Ellie and Kendall aren’t really friends anymore and she has to help another ghost move on. The ghost, Lily, who she has to help move on is Kendall’s enemy’s sister, Madison.  

 

To help Lily move on Kendall has to sneak into a lot different places and it’s kind of funny because she gets caught once and almost gets caught the other times. What’s really weird is in the very beginning Madison hates Kendall and then Kendall says one thing and Madison likes her and then Kendall does another thing and Madison hates her again. When Kendall feels really stressed out about everything she goes to see her mom who when she last saw her Kendall has about 3 months old. A quote that shows how Kendall is feeling is this one, “I’m starting to not remember my own lies.”

 

I didn’t really like Ghost of a Chance. I think I would have a little while ago but now I’m into different kinds of books. I would recommend this book to people who like realistic fiction about girls because it’s a very girly book. I would also recommend to read the books in order and not to read any other books in between the books because, just like me you could lose interest. For myself I would rate it 2 stars. It was written well and it was funny but it just wasn’t my type of book right now. It was also really easy.

 

 

Jun
04
2014

Liesl and Po

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Liesl & Po  is a adventurous book by Lauren Oliver. The book takes place in the underworld and on Earth. This book is about a girl named Liesl she loves to draw. Liesl’s problem is her dad just died and she’s locked in her room in the attic, and she is bored.  In the attic she was ambitious when she asked a ghost to find her dad. One night a ghost comes to see Liesl to see her draw. But she was too sad to draw that night. That’s when the story begins.

But this draws two boy’s attention to Liesl, an assistant for an alchemist and boy named Po who happens to be the ghost “Can you find my dad?” Liesl asked, Po said, “Yes in return for a drawing.” (You will find out more if you read it). The assistant alchemist  falls in love with her. Liesl doesn’t find out for a while. When Liesl finds out it gets more dangerous because the assistant is carrying a package that may or may not go to into the right hands. (That package has a lot to do with magic).

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I enjoyed this book alot because it takes you on a wild story. It also has some romance. this book makes everything more strange about  ghost. I would rate this book  . This book is good for you if magic is what you want.

 

 

Jun
04
2014

Stink Moody the Second Book by Megan McDonald book review by cooper

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The main character is Stink Moody. Stink wants to get a jawbreaker and NOTHING for his big sister Judy. The problem is that Stink actually wants the jawbreaker to break his jaw !!! But it doesn’t and he gets furious. The book takes place in Stink’s home and at his school.

One important event is that stink doesn’t break his jaw and complains about it. He writes a note saying that the jaw breaker did not break his jaw and they sent him 21,280 jawbreakers! Another important event is when Stink was writing another note and then he goes to school. When he gets to school his B.F.F Webster won’t talk to him. And when Stink gets home he finds Webster’s birthday invite and says to himself  “thats why webster is so mad at me.”

I like the book because Stink gets 21,280 jawbreakers ( lucky) another reason is because it’s funny. It’s funny because there are funny quotes like, “ Hey bug you’re not ugly just bugly.” I would recommend this book for 7 year olds to 107 years olds because it’s laugh out loud funny. I would rate this book stars.

Jun
04
2014

Divergent by Veronica Roth

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This book is called Divergent by Veronica Roth. The main character in the books name is Tris short for Beatrice, she’s the kind of person who goes with any idea. The problem for this character is that she has to past a couple of test and if she does she will stay in her faction ( a faction is a group you choose to live with for the rest of your live when you our 18). This book takes place in a city in the future and if you don’t pass the test , you have to live on the street factionless. This book takes place in a city and the weird thing is that the perimeter is fenced off.

 

During the book she picks the faction Dauntless and thats the people she’s going to live with the rest of her life unless she doesn’t pass the test. “One choice can transform you”.  One of the test is to box someone and she loses so she almost has to live factionless. When she picks Dauntless her parents think she betrayed them and they don’t like her anymore. Do you think she’s going to pass the test,

if so, read the book.

 

Even though I didn’t finish this book It’s really good so far. The reason I like this book is because 1 It’s full of action 2 people get hurt and 3 there’s a lot of twist and turns. I would recommend this to people who enjoy a lot of problems and action. I would rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars.

 

 

Jun
04
2014

100 Things Mets Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

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by Freddie

 100 Things Mets Fans Should Know And do Before They Die by Matthew Silverman is all about the Mets, who are my favorite baseball team. For every two page there is a chapter about someone else, so there is not a main character. It is about the Mets heroes and how they were a big help to the Mets.

 

My favorite Mets player of all time, David Wright, is in there. He is their best third baseman of all time, With two Silver Sluggers and two Gold Gloves. A Silver Slugger is awarded to the best offensive player at each position. A Gold Glove is awarded to the best fielder in the NL and AL. He has been in seven all star games. The book tells you the most interesting facts about the Mets you’ll ever hear, like the Grand Slam Walk-Off, the year Tom Seaver got 25 wins and the horrible trade the Mets did to get rid of Tom Seaver. (For those of you who hate the Mets, it’s the opposite of the most interesting facts for you. It would be the worst. Except the  horrible trade I just told you about.)

 

I like that this book talks about the most famous plays of all time, like the grand slam single. The grand slam single was a walk off in the bottom of the ninth inning, game tied 3-3 and Robin Ventura  hit a grand slam for the walk off and got mobbed halfway to second base, so it was only a single. Later the MLB considered it as an RBI single since he never got to home  plate.

 

I would recommend this book to Mets fans. I would give this book 25 wins and 9 losses because that’s Tom Seaver’s record for the year he got 25 wins.

 

 

Jun
03
2014

The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forester

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The book that I chose to read is called The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria  Forester. The main character is a average girl or is she?…anyway her name is Piper McCl6639840-M-1oud she is 9-10 years old and has a big country accent, her parents are Betty and Joe McCloud. The list of supporting characters go on forever so im just not going to name them. The setting of the book shifts from Lowland country to the academy for children with extraordinary talents.

One really important event was when Piper learned to fly. It started out like this…when Piper was born she always had the ability to float a few feet above the ground. Finally when she got older Piper built up the courage to jump off the room of her farm house. She realised SHE COULD FLY!

Another important event was when piper had to make a big decision. She had to chose to leave her parents forever (remember she is only 9-10) or go to an academy for special children who have extraordinary talents. P.S you might think this is  spoiler but its not because it says it on the back of the book. Piper chose to go to the academy but little did she know that she would be taken from her parents do that .

I think the biggest problem is probably when she gets to the academy and settles in she soon realizes that what she thought to be the safest place for her . Her talent turns out to be the most dangerous place she could ever be. You might think the biggest problem is something else. But you might want to stay clear from this book, normally you all wouldn’t take my advice but trust me on this one I am saving you a lot of disappointment. One thing I liked about this book is behind all the discription this book has some incredible quotes. Like when Piper is teaching her self to fly she made up a little saying to make the lesson a lot easier “I am as light as a feather, as swift as a bird and I can fly.” So even though this book is horrible you might want to scan it to see all the good and funny quotes and take a look at the part when the author does tell the story how good the story is.

I didn’t enjoy the book very much but I hope others will. I loved the story a lot but there was too much detail, the book should have been 100 pages long but instead it was 320 something pages because of description. It is good to explain and have discription but this is too much, you could barely go through three words without having to move into description and change the topic. Some parts of this book were as painful to hear as to see a grown man cry. Just when you are getting into the story you can be taken out and distracted really easily. I would recommend this book to people who love and can take in gallons of description and who stick to one book even if it is horrible. (HINT, HINT) I would rate this book 11/2 stars*½ out of 5 stars*****

 

Jun
03
2014

The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley

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The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley is a series about two sisters who discover that their great-great-great-great grandfather was one half of the brothers grimm, famous fairy tale writers. Daphne is very enthusiastic about life while Sabrina is a grump.

 

The sisters learn not only who they are the descendants of but what they really did, fairytale documenting. In this book fair tales are history that have been documented. The Everafters fairy tale characters want to leave town to start a war. Willhelm, one of the Brothers Grimm, decides to act. To prevent the war Wilhelm Grimm goes to a powerful witch called Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga creates a magical barrier to prevent the Everafters from leaving the town. But there are some problems with this barrier — it won’t work unless there is at least one Grimm in the town. But with this barrier people get mad for example everyone in the the group called the scarlet hand lead by the anonymous master. The hands goal is to leave the town and start the war. To do that there might be some fighting inside the town too…

 

I would recommend this book to people who like fantasy. I rate it five stars.*****

 

Jun
03
2014

The People of Sparks, by Jeanne DuPrau

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The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau is an amazing book.

 

imgres(DON’T READ THE REST OF REVIEW UNLESS YOU HAVE READ THE CITY OF EMBER. THIS IS THE SEQUEL OF THAT BOOK. I’M WARNING YOU. YOU WON’T GET IT AND IT WILL BE A SPOILER. IF YOU WANT TO THAN YOU SHOULD CHANGE YOUR MIND. OTHERWISE IT’S A BAD CHOICE.  ~MARLOH. :))

 

The main characters are Lina and Doon. Lina is a kind-hearted, curious, nice, surprising, and an adventurous, 12 year old girl. Lina jumped onto a truck to see if she could see a city. She thought that she would be gone for two days, but she was away for twenty-eight days, almost a month. This example is from the first book, The City of Ember. Doon is different in some ways than Lina, and he’s different. Doon is smart,  adventurous, and has a temper. He’s good at figuring things out (read the book to see what I’m saying). In Ember there was something called Assignment Day where the 12 year old kids of Ember are assigned jobs (They take a slip of paper out of a bag and it say’s a job on it, and that’s the job they have for a while.).  When Doon picked his job, he lost his temper and threw down the paper that told him his job in front of the mayor. This is one example of Doon losing his temper. The setting of this book is in the future, and at one point it’s in a city (I think the city’s San Francisco because the book says it’s                                                                                                                                             hilly.)

 

The people of Ember/The Emberites “leaders” are Lina and Doon. They finally find a city that will take them for 6 months, but after that they are gonna have to build something on their own. One important event was when the Emberites found Lina and Doon. Another was when they found the settlement. Another was when Ben Barlow, a town leaders arm almost fell off.

 

I really enjoyed the book because it kept me on my toes. I would recommend this book to people who are 8+ because they might not understand it. I would also recommend this book to people who like cliffhangers. I would rate this book infinity stars because I couldn’t put it down.

Jun
03
2014

Perfect Season, Tim Green

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images-1Perfect season is a book for people who like sports, Mike Lupica, or Tim Green.

 

It is also by Tim Green, and is the 6th book in the ‘Football Genius’ series. The series does not have to be read in order, but would give you important information if you read football genius first.

 

The book is set in New Jersey, where Troy White, the main character has moved to from Atlanta. He is a star football Quarterback in his league. He had recently signed a contract with the NY Jets, and got a $5,000,000 signing bonus. But… his father took the money and threw it into a law case, and lost. He ran away and the family, broke before Troy’s job, is now broke again. And do you know what that means? Instead of going to a swank private school, that coincidentally is a football powerhouse, and playing with star Wide Receiver fund cousin Ty.

Now he is going to Summit public school which has an unbroken losing streak. Ty’s big brother is a wide receiver for the Jets.

 

Now, Troy has a connection and personal friend who was a star Linebacker in the NFL. He is also a real person. He insists that he should coach his public school team. When Seth comes down from Atlanta, Troy feels ready for a winning streak, a perfect season.

 

But when he meets Ty’s friend, Chuku, things start to change. Big things, and small things like Ty not being the fastest kid. Chuku’s dad is trying out to be a Linebacker for the Jets, and Chuku needs a home, and a school. Troy see’s an opportunity, one to make this season even better then it can be. This is where Troy’s adventure begins…