Category Archives: 2013-2014

Jun
03
2014

Unwanteds :Island of fire

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This book is called Unwanteds written by Lisa McMann.This takes place on a island called Artime. Artime is an island that is green all over but has a mansion in the middle.  If you have read my other book reviews then you know that the main character is a boy named Alex and his new friends Sky and Crow, and his old friends Meghan, Samheed and Lani. In the third book Alex is under pressure now that the Unwanteds have no food, no water and are looking to Alex for answers. As Alex tries to pull everything together by getting the voice stealing thorn necklace off Meghan and finding Lani and Sameed.

In Quill, another section of the Island, Aaron has been planning an attack on Artime ever since he got a band of people riled up and then when he had taken over as high priestess and kidnapped high priestess haluki. Alex has to now decipher a cryptic note Mr.Today had left at his parting, a riddle:

Follow the dots at the traveling sun

Magnify, focus, every one

Stand enrobed where you first saw me

Utter in order; repeat times three.

“The unwanteds were beginning to starve. He handed it back to Henry and shook his head.”Give it to meg,”he said.”no, wait… to Carina Fathom and her baby. They need it most. Alex swallowed hard a

nd turned away so he wouldn’t be tempted to grab it back again.”  Alex is sacrificing everything for the Unwanteds, so they can live and keep Mr. Todays legend going.

I enjoyed this book because it has twists and turns you would never expect to happen, for example how Megan’s character had the necklace of thorns inserted on her neck and how they kidnapped Governor Haluki. I would recommend thisbook to people who like magical realism, action, adventure and drama. Unwanted would be a book for anyone who like dystopian books. The events in the stories fit like a puzzle piece. I would give this book 4 stars.

 

Jun
03
2014

Dumpling Days

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The book that I was reading is called Dumpling Days, and the author is Grace Lin or Pacy Lin ( Pacy is her Chinese name.) The main character is Grace Lin or Pacy Lin ( This book is about the author, that’s why the main character has the same name as the author.) Pacy has two sisters and a big family, her sisters are Lissy and Kiki. She has an uncle but she doesn’t know his name so she calls him Uncle Flower, she has a dad and a mom, and a lot more siblings. The main character is trying to get better at painting because in another book, The Year Of The Dog, Grace got the 3rd place award in making books for all schools and Grace made a picture book with her drawings in it and when she takes a trip to China she has to go to a painting class. There is a girl who makes mean faces to her so Grace thinks of her as an enemy. Who Grace tries to be a better painter than the girl that is mean to Grace in Grace’s painting class. This book takes place in China because Grace took a trip to China for the first time also to see her family there.
Grace is not having the best time in China. She is having trouble speaking chinese, she feels like people are bullying her. She gets really sad and feels like she wants to go home when she goes to a night market. Grace might be able to win the art contest, will she beat her part-enemy? Grace has another problem, when people come up to her and speak chinese to her, Grace’s mom tells them they she can’t speak chinese ( this is how you say it in chinese —> wo bu hui swo xiong wo. ← that is how you say I can’t speak chinese, in chinese ) “How did I say I couldn’t speak Chinese, again? I couldn’t remember. What were those words Mom had taught us on the train?” “Meiguoren! Meiguoren! I said. That was the only word I could remember. American. She had the same look in her eyes as that mean bus driver in New Hartford from so long ago. My cheeks burned red as if her words were slapping my face. “Meiguoren! Meiguoren!” I said again, stupidly-like a parrot. I didn’t know what else to say. I felt like crying. “What’s up?” Clifford said, grabbing my arm. The woman yelled something at him. “ Dui Bu Qi, dui bu qi,” he said as he waved her away, and nudges me toward the road. “Sorry, sorry.” I saw her shake her head in disapproval and disgust as Clifford dragged me away. “She was mad at me!” I said to Clifford. “She wasn’t mad, exactly,” he said. “She just didn’t understand why you couldn’t speak Chinese.” A heavy feeling fell upon me. Like a crushing boulder.”
I enjoyed this book a lot. I like it because Grace is Chinese, like me. I like this book because I’ve been to China before. I also like this book because Grace is very much like me. Another reason I like this book is because the setting is in China. I would recommend this book to chinese kids because they might relate to this book. I would recommend this book to 8-12 year olds. I think a lot of people would like this book, maybe even adults. I like this book a lot and so does Clarissa (my sister) and Olivia P (my friend). I would recommend this book to asian kids too. I like it a lot so I think kids around 4th or 3rd grade would like it too. I would rate this book five stars out of five, 5 ***** out of 5 *****. If I could I would rate this book 10 stars!   

 

Jun
03
2014

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Wayside School Is Falling Down

by Dora Bremond

The Book is called wayside school is falling down by Adam Mccauley. It is about a couple kids but in each chapter Mrs.Jewls[the teacher in the book i am reading] is in it so I was thinking that she is the main character. Mrs Jewls always tries to help out a kid she is teaching and usually the chapter ends with cliff hanger. It takes place at Wayside school. The school is crazy and mrs. Jewls teaches there.

 

In a chapter Jason a kid chewed on pencils. Another time a kid named DJ  was always  happy but this day DJ was not happy and that made Kathy a kid be happy since he is always happy and she is always sad because of him. The main character Mrs.Jewls never really changed but her students did by being happy again and things like that. Mrs. Jewls is very nice and caring. I do not know if she has kids but if she does she would be a great mom. She says “ Jason give it back” and that is caring to me.

 

I have only read from page i to 84 and there are 179 pages but I love it so far. This is a good book for 3rd and 4th because it is the perfect level, [ that is at least what i think] . It is funny and it has a bunch of different chapters. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5****.maxresdefault

Jun
03
2014

The Day My Butt Went Psycho by Benjamin Winokur-Applebaum

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The Day My Butt Went Psycho, is a book about a boy named Zack.  The book, The Day My Butt Went Psycho is Written by Bestselling Author Andy Griffiths.  The Other main characters in the book are Eleanor and the B-team.  The problem is that butts are trying to take over the world and put butts on top of peoples neck and heads instead of butts.  The setting takes place in about 6-8 places.

After Zack finds out that butts are trying to take over he goes to fight them and their powers bare handed.  He finds some help and he and his friends go to take control over the situation.  One person is trying to foil their plans but they do not know who it is.  There are two moments in the story when Zack has changes, The changes that he has push the story around.  A problem about Zack is that he is cowardly and he is always being called an IDIOT.  Like a part from the book is when Zack falls into nettles and picks a fight by coming up to him yelling “You idiot, you absolute idiot!  you idiotic stupid moronic stupid idiotic idiot”.  butt

I enjoyed this book because it is full of butts and to me butts that talk and butts can think are very amusing to read about and a very likely topic my mom and dad would hate.  It is very funny because it is full of butts that explode butts that sing and butt piranhas, poopoises siren buttts that smell and sing like heaven and last “butt” not least there are butt hunters butt catchers, butt fighters and the butt teams. I would recommend this book to people who really like something funny and something I would recommend to you if you know this is not on your parents favorite topic to talk about.  I would recommend this book to you for that reason because it is full of butts and all that other stuff I do not want to go over again.  I would rate this book 1,000 out of 10 stars!

A great book for you and your butt to snuggle up and read!!!!

 

Jun
03
2014

Belly Up By Stuart Gibbs

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I recently read Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs. I think the book is called Belly Up because when the hippo died, his belly went up. The main character’s name is Teddy Fitzroy who is twelve years old, mischievous and smart. The story takes place at a big zoo called Funjungle which has a mascot named Henry the Hippo. The main problem of the story is that Henry the Hippo suddenly dies, and Teddy tries to figure out who killed the hippopotamus or how he died. The plot is complicated. The action moves around a lot because there is so much going on in the book. Many things pop up in your face as you read the book to make you keep reading.

 

As you read the book, it might not make sense immediately, so you have to be patient to to understand the story. Funjungle is a big zoo that has unique areas for different kinds of animals. For example, there is Hippo River, Reptile World and Carnivore Canyon (not open yet). Teddy has to go through all these areas to find evidence of how the hippopotamus died. When Teddy is in Reptile World, he searches for clues and someone sets out a poisonous snake to scare him off. For example, on page 122 the book says, “I rounded a stand of fake trees and something lunged at me.” They did this to make sure that Teddy didn’t get any information about the person who killed Henry the Hippo. When a girl named Summer Mcracken (the park owner’s daughter) comes into the story, she becomes friends with Teddy and wants to find out more about the death of Henry. Because she’s the park owner’s daughter, she has the power to help Teddy get into places that will give him more clues. This will eventually lead him to who killed Henry the Hippo.

 

The first reason I like the book is because of the mystery. My favorite part of the book is when Teddy sneaks into the autopsy, (it means to cut an animal open and see how it died.) He almost gets caught by the two sneaky characters, Doc and Martin (who is the businessman,) who are doing the autopsy. The second reason I like the book is because it’s humorous. For example, once Teddy and Summer go swimming in the hippo pool full of poop. Finally, I like all the characters because they all have different personalities. Summer is funny and Teddy is mischievous. For example, Teddy gave the monkeys water balloons and the monkeys threw them at tourists.

 

I liked this book and rate it 4½ stars out of 5 stars. I really liked this book because I was constantly asking myself what was going to happen next. Will Teddy also go belly up?

 

Jun
01
2014

Every Soul A Star By Wendy Mass

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Every soul a star is another great book by Wendy Mass. It’s kind of like Wonder, where it switches points of view. There’s Ally, Bree, and Jack.

Ally is a girl who has no experience with the outside world. Her parents run the Moon Shadow campground, and she’s lived there all her life. She doesn’t have any friends, except the pretend ones that live on other planets. But her parents are selling the campground, and Ally will have to move to the city and start school. She won’t be able to see the stars anymore. But there is something to be happy for. There will be an Eclipse soon, and thousands of people from all over the world will come to the campground to view it.

Bree is the second most popular girl in school. Her life’s ambition is to be a model and has all the magazines to prove it. But her parents are scientists, and don’t understand her at all. So when her parents buy the Moon Shadow campground, Bree is horrified. But she can’t change her parent’s minds.

Jack lives a very normal life, but he doesn’t have any friends. He spends all his time in class doodling, and that’s how he gets into summer school. But Jack’s teacher calls saying that if he comes on an expedition to watch an Eclipse, he can get out of summer school. Obviously, he takes the offer.

These three people all find themselves becoming friends. This book really is about them learning to adjust to a new life. Ally has to learn to live in civilization, Bree has to learn to live outdoors and not care about what others think of her, and Jack has to learn how to find himself and make more friends.

They all really start becoming friends at this campout where they’re trying to find a planet or star or something like that. There’s a big storm and they have to sleep in a shed because they can’t walk back to the campgrounds. It’s also really cool when the Eclipse is happening and Bree “lets her inner geek be released” in her words.

I really liked this book, and I love the author, Wendy Mass. I feel this book wasn’t as good as the others I’ve read by her because it was mostly about Eclipses, and I don’t know that much about those and it was hard to follow. I would recommend this book to people who like and know a lot about science, because it’s a very sciencey book. I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars because as I said before, it’s a little to sciencey for me, but it was still great.

 

 

May
28
2014

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

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This book is called Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. The book is about a girl named Minli hearing all different stories about long ago by her dad which is normally called Ba and one story, Minli hears a story she believes so much Minli goes out of fruitless mountain which is where she lives and goes to try to find it. The thing Minli tries to find is the man of the moon. The man of the moon grants wishes for people every ninety nine years, but the thing Minli doesn’t know is he only grants one wish. After Ma which is Minlis mom and Ba are still working Minli goes back to her house and leaves a note that she will not be back for a few days. When Minli finds the man of the moon she was going to ask how fruitless mountain can be fruitful again.

imgresThe night Minli goes out she goes out of fruitless mountain and goes up another mountain. Since Minli was really tired she took a nap near a forest and next to a lake. When Minli woke up she found a Dragon in the lake stuck with vines so she helped the dragon. The dragons name was Dragon. Dragon was made from a painting but the ink from the painting is actually where Dragon was born and if you read this book you will find out how the dragon was in the ink stone. Dragon said “I remember when a bird flew from the sky and dropped a peach pit onto the ground. I watched that pit grow into a tree and the peaches fell from the tree and more trees grew from the pits of those peaches until it became the grove of peach trees that the monkeys have now taken over.”Minli thought the dragon was very old. Soon Minli returns with a good answer from the man of the moon for Dragon and something really magical and amazing happens that night…

I really enjoyed this book it was one of the best books I have ever read. For an example when Minli meets a dragon and the dragon is nice that is really interesting because most dragons would try to eat you in stories. I  also really enjoyed the little stories that are in the stories because they are stories from long ago. I would recommend this book to people who kind of believe in magic or who like magic and who like hearing ancient stories and who like hearing things that are a bit make believe but sound so interesting and amazing. I would recommend the book to the people who I just mentioned because if you like those kind of books the examples all go into this book. I would give this book 10 stars even though we are only supposed to do 5 stars!

 

May
28
2014

The Day My Butt Went Psycho! By Andy Griffiths

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This is my 7th book review!vutt

I think book is better than any book I have ever read. Everywhere on the cover it says based on a true story. It even has a paragraph about how it is based on a true story. The main character is Zach Freeman. This is the first thing he said before he started telling the story.”This is my story. It really happened. It’s all true. Not even the names have been changed. I agree to tell my story in the hope that others can learn from it, and I would like to thank Andy Griffiths for helping me to get it down on paper. Like most people I took my butt for granted for too long. If this book can save even just one person from making the same mistake, then I will be happy. Who knows? The next butt it saves might be yours. May your butt be with you always.” He has a butt that can detach itself from his body. His butt is like the king of all butts. Now you might think this is a weird thing but it is not. This thing happens a lot. Zack Freeman is ready to tell his story of a brave boy and his crazy runaway butt. The story has a crack butt-fighting unit called the B-team, a legendary Butt Hunter’s awesome daughter, and some of the ugliest, biggest and meanest butts ever to roam the face of the Earth. Zack goes on an epic journey across the Great Windy Desert, through the Brown Forest, and over the Sea of Butts before descending into the heart of an explosive buttcano to confront the biggest, ugliest, and meanest butt of them all! In the story they have disobedient butts, runaway butts, psycho butts, kamikaze butts, exploding butts, cluster butts, nuclear butts, giant unwiped butts, butt rallies, buttcachters, butt-fighters, butt hunters, butt guns and explosive buttcanos. This book has some insane animals too. Zach travels through The Great Windy Desert, The Brown Forest and The Sea of Butts.  This book has a lot of mystery, cliffhangers and plot changers in this book. I recommend this book to people that like funny books. I rate this book 5 stars.

 

May
28
2014

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Dicamilo

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imgresI read this book called Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Dicamillo. The main character is this dog named Winn Dixie and this girl named Opal. Opal moves to Naomi, Florida and in Florida she has no friends. In Florida she becomes lonely and bored. All she has is her dad and her house and other people she doesn’t like. Until a stray dog runs loose into the Winn Dixie supermarket. Then she falls in love with him at first sight and lied that the dog was hers and named him Winn Dixie. Winn Dixie becomes Opal’s best friend.  Because of  Winn Dixie she meets new friends and the people she doesn’t like she becomes friends with.

 

In the book Opal makes all kinds of new friends, and becomes more forgiving. Opal realizes that every person has problems that cause them pain and everybody does things that are weird and maybe make you not like them but inside most people mean well. Opal is a kind lonely person who feels like she has no friends except for her dog. In the book Opal said, “And then I talked to God about how I was lonely in Naomi because I didn’t know that many kids, only the ones from church. And there weren’t that many kids at the Open Arms, just Dunlap and Stevie Dewberry, two brothers who weren’t twins but looked like they were. And Amanda Wilkinson, whose face was always pinched up like she was smelling something real bad: and Sweetie Pie Thomas, who was only five years old and still mostly baby. And none of them wanted to my friend anyway because they probably thought I’d tell on them to the preacher for every little thing they did wrong; and then they in trouble with God and their parents.”

 

I love this book because it really tells a story that is realistic but not true and the author wrote it nicely, and this is a book that you can really understand and relate to some of Opal’s problems. I would recommend this book to people who like dogs and are sensitive because that could help you feel like you are in the book and really there. I would rate this book five out of five stars.

 

May
28
2014

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imgres-4I am reading a book called The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. It has three main characters. One named Jason, one named Leo and one named Piper. All three of them got mysteriously taken to a camp called Camp Half Blood. Camp Half Blood is a camp for half bloods. A half blood is someone who has one parent who is a greek god and one parent who is a regular person. Camp half blood is a place where half bloods have to train to go on quests. A quest is basically an adventure that not a lot of half bloods go on, to save someone or to get something. It is a very good community. Everyone who goes there is sort of like a family. They do things together and they are all friends in one way or another

They all got taken to Camp Half Blood, and immediately have to go on a quest. The quest is to save Hera, a very important greek god. All of Olympus would just fall apart without Hera, because Hera keeps the family of the gods together. Hera is the wife of Zeus. She has been kidnapped and Jason, Piper and Leo have to go on a quest to help save her. You have to read on in order to find out if they save her or not. Camp Half Blood is a place with strawberry fields, and it is meant to help half bloods train for quests. It is where most half bloods go.

Everything is going wrong without Hera, like Jason and Piper keep on seeing visions of Hera and also, a very important Half Blood named Percy Jackson has gone missing! Piper is mostly going on the quest because she is hoping that she will find her dad who has been missing for three days. She is hoping that on the quest, she will find him. Jason does not remember anything. He has no idea who he is or where he has been. All he knows is that something is not right. He senses it. He is going on the quest, hoping that he will get his memory back.

Leo is a mischievous kid who has a way with tools. He keeps on seeing the ghost of his babysitter named Tía Callida who tried to kill him! He is hoping that that has something to do with Hera being missing, so that if he completes the quest, Leo will stop seeing the ghost of his babysitter. Leo thinks Tía Callida had been trying to kill him, but maybe she was trying to make Leo stronger. On page 137, Tía Callida said, “Where is your bravery, little hero? Show me the fates were right to choose you.” Do you think Tía Callida has been trying to kill Leo or trying to make him stronger? Maybe Tía Callida was trying to see if Leo could stay alive after she let Leo play with a Rattle Snake.

I am really enjoying this book because I like how Rick Riordan included greek mythology in this book. I also like how he describes the setting in a way where you have to think in order to understand the setting. I also like how the book is really funny when Leo is talking. I would recommend this book to people who like magical books because this book is magical, in a realistic way. I also would recommend this book to people who like funny books because this book has funny quotes here and there. I would rate this book four stars.

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