Category Archives: 2014-2015

Feb
26
2015

Miss Emily by Burleigh Muten

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I read Miss Emily by Burleigh Muten. It is about Emily Dickinson, who was a real person but the book is historical fiction. The characters in the book call her Miss Emily (or just Emily). Emily is the aunt of two children: Mattie,and Ned. Across the street are their friends, Mac and Sally. Even though Emily is a grown-up, she likes to play with children. One day, she announces that the circus is going to come to town and she wants to sneak out at night and see the circus train arriving, so they can be the first to see the circus. The book takes place in Amherst, in Massachusetts.

 

Two parts I liked about the book were first, when Emily assigned characters to each child. Ned was “Senor Ranchero,” the ringmaster, Sally was “Sal the Gal”, Mattie was “Miss Swiftly”, half girl half bird, and Mac was King Boaz the Brave. I think this idea connects to our immigrant personas because it is a character we are pretending to be. My second favorite part was when the kids put on a show for Miss Emily and their other aunt, Vinnie, in the barn. I think this is interesting because it is the children’s way of making their own version of the circus. Three words to describe Emily are courageous, respectful and creative. Courageous because she is sneaking out at night and if she got caught the whole town would know and they would be in trouble. Respectful because she is always thinking about including all ages and people. Creative because she makes up stories and characters to go with them, like the circus characters she made for the kids.

 

I enjoyed this book because it is about an adventure – the adventure is that they are running through the woods to see the circus. It is pretty short, so if you like short books I would recommend it. I learned Emily Dickinson was a very interesting person, she wrote nearly 1,800 poems even though only ten were published. I would give this book four stars.

 

I also went to the Emily Dickinson museum in Amherst and I learned a lot of facts about her, like some of the poems she wrote. The museum is in the house she lived in. That’s where I got this book!

 

Feb
26
2015

Who was Galileo? by Patricia Brennan Demuth

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515w08svuZL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_The book I read was called Who was Galileo. Patricia Brennan Demuth wrote the book. The book is mainly about Galileo’s life and how he was persecuted for knowing a scientific truth. He was born during the renaissance which was a time for rebirth of art and learning. Galileo loved learning and questioning how things worked in the world. Although Galileo created important inventions his life was at times difficult.

His father was a musician and he taught Galileo how to play instruments. A really cool instrument his dad played was called the Lute. When Galileo was just 8 his family move to Florence, Italy which is much different than when he used to live in Pisa. A part in the book that was really interesting was that eyeglasses had been around since the 1200’s but until 1608 no one used glass lenses to magnify far away objects. So Galileo set to work trying to build something that did and built the telescope. Three adjectives to describe Galileo are smart, curious, and energetic. Was smart because he was the first person to realize that the Earth moves around the sun not the sun moves around the earth. Curious because he always wanted to learn more and more. Last but not least Energetic because he had so much energy when he was a kid.

This book was fun to read because it had some really cool information that I thought was cool. One is I didn’t know that he invented the telescope. I recommend this book to kids who like reading about non- fiction.I give this book 3 stars out of 5.

Feb
26
2015

The Cats Of The Tanglewood Forest by Charles De Lint

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15716291I read The Cats Of The Tanglewood Forest by Charles De Lint. The book is about a girl who gets bitten by a snake and turns into a cat and the main character is a girl named Lillian.The setting of the book is on Lillian’s aunt’s farm next to a forest. It is in the country in America.

One adjective to describe Lillian is brave. I think this because she worked for giants and she didn’t run away until she had a reason to other than because they are scary. I think Lillian is kind. I think this because she gives someone something to eat when they’re hungry. I think Lillian is curious. I think so because she tries to find fairies in the forest. A part of the book I found interesting was when Lillian turns into a cat. I think this is interesting because it surprised me that someone would turn into a cat because they were getting bitten by a snake. Another part I found interesting was when Lillian has a potion that makes you able to speak with animals. I think this is interesting because it would be cool to be able to speak with animals. I think this because you could understand what they’re saying.

I enjoyed this book. I loved it because it is fantasy. I like fantasy because anything can happen and it is a surprise what happens next. I also enjoyed it has a lot of exciting things going on at the same time. I would recommend this book. I think you should read it because  it because it is a great fantasy book. I think this book is similar to Warriors Into The Wild. I think it is similar because it also has cats. I would rate it five stars.

 

Feb
26
2015

The Twits by Roald Dahl

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The-Twits-24ssvc8-4The book that I read is called The Twits by Roald Dahl. This book is about this revolting couple, Mrs. Twit and Mr. Twit, who hate children and each other. The setting takes place in their house with no windows in the United Kingdom and hopefully this isn’t happening nowadays.

An adjective I would use to describe both of the Twits is appalling. Appalling because Mr. Twit has things in his beard from decades ago and Mrs.Twit looks like a deformed hippo. The second adjective I would use to describe The Twits is creative. Creative because it was genius to think of putting pennies on Mrs. Twit’s walking stick everyday. This made her think that she was getting smaller so Mr. Twit tried to stretch her with 1000 balloons that were attached to the ground and then cut the balloons so she went flying up to the moon. The problem was that Mrs. Twit is smart too so she ate enough of the balloons for her to come down. The third adjective I would use to describe the Twits is friendly. Just kidding, they are the opposite of friendly. They are awful, horrendous, hideous, revolting and much more. They are all these things because of all the things they do to people or animals or their own kinds.

A good example of the terrible things they do is when they make this thing that is called bird pie.They put this super glue on a tree and if you put something on the tree you’re not getting it back. So what birds will do is sit on the tree and then the next thing they know they’re bird pie. One time these kids wanted to get a look at the Twits’ house and climbed onto a tree and the next thing they know is that they’re stuck. Mr. Twit was climbing up the ladder to get the children for his new children pie and one of the three kids had a good idea. His idea was to leave their pants on the tree and jump off with their nude tushies. Another important part was when Mrs. Twit wanted to get revenge on her husband for his prank. What she did was just sickening. She got earthworms from their garden and served herself some good spaghetti but gave Mr. Twit some earthworms. How does that sound? I think we’re going to have that for lunch tomorrow.

This book is great with worm spaghetti, food in beards (especially Mr. Twit’s) and best of all pranks. I recommend it because it’s by one of the all time greats, Roald Dahl. I definitely recommend this book if you like humor. I compare this book to The Terrible Two which is a book that I already wrote about. I would give this book three and seven eighths because I liked it but I like longer books and this book was only about ninety-four pages.

Feb
26
2015

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

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imgresThe book that I am writing about is called Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. The book is about a girl named Winnie Foster that  discovers a secret from the Tucks family and is deciding to keep their secret or tell it to someone. Also the Tucks family goes on never ending  journeys and Winnie Foster is thinking to join them or to stay where she is. The setting of the book is in several places, on journeys with the Tucks family  and at home. The setting of the country but it  changes a lot throughout the book which sometimes gets confusing because you have to read very closely.

The three adjectives I would call Winnie Foster would be stubborn, because Winnie wouldn’t listen to her friends when they were trying to tell her something important which was she needed to go  and she wouldn’t listen at all and did what she wanted to do. Another adjectives I would describe Winnie Foster is positive because there is one part where Mae, someone that Winnie knows, was in jail and they were getting her out secretly without telling the cops. And a friend of Winne’s  comes up with a solution  to bail Mae out, the boy that made the idea up doubts himself and  Winnie says, ”The plan is going to work come on lets get Mae out.” The other adjective is caring,  because there was a toad and he was drying out because he didn’t have any water so Winnie gets a cup of water and sprinkles it on the toad so it can get water in his system.

 

An interesting part in the book was when Mae had a shotgun and shot a man in a yellow suit right through the back of his skull and he dropped like a tree. I thought that was interesting because why would Mae do that to a man that didn’t do anything to her?  Another interesting part in the book would be when they were bailing Mae out of the jail secretly because the cop was watching her in the cell. And the jail guard was keeping an eye on Mae and she escaped with no problem with the guard there.

 

I enjoyed the book a lot because Natalie Babbitt writes very descriptive manner and I can make a picture in my head and imagine that I am in the book. Also I think Natalie Babbitt is a fantastic writer, I love her books! Another reason I loved the book is because the Tucks family goes on never ending journeys and I think journeys can end up good or bad. So I like that she included some adventurous  features in the book. I would definitely recommend this book because if you like adventurous, and descriptive writing  then you are going to love the book absolutely! Tuck Everlasting reminds me of this television show called Once Upon a Time a little bit because in Once Upon a Time they have adventures and sometimes the show can have sad parts in it. I would give this book five ***** (stars) because I love the way Natalie Babbitt writes her books the  style of the descriptive writing. Natalie Babbitt has several different books and I think you should check them out!

 

Feb
26
2015

Liar and Spy Rebecca Stead

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Liar-and-Spy-213x300I read Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. This book is about a kid named Georges (the s is silent) and he moves to a new house and this one has an apartment. The boy in his building is Safer and he thinks the man upstairs, Mr. X, is doing something mysterious. They start spying on him. The setting of the book is in their building and at school. This is in present time in the USA.

The main characters are Safer, Georges, and Candy. Georges is sensible, curious, and awkward. He is sensible because he never wants to do dangerous things when he knows he shouldn’t. He is curious because he still wants to spy even though he may get into trouble. He is awkward because he gets bullied for his name and he just ignores it. An interesting part is the end when you find out what Mr. X is up to. I also think it is interesting and funny when they spy through the lobby-cam. I think these are important because they are very interesting and important to the story.

I enjoyed this book because it is very specific. It has many details and it paints a picture in your head. I think when books are specific it makes the story more interesting. I also enjoy it because there are little mysteries inside the big one. This makes it fun. I recommend this book for people who like humor and mysteries. This is a good book for the kind of people who like humor and mysteries. I think this is like Jumanji because things are not what they appear to be. I give this book five stars.***** It was an awesome book!

 

 

Feb
26
2015

One Dead Spy by Nathan Hale

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61qPSDxSF9L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_My book is called One Dead Spy by Nathan Hale (The name of the spy). It is in a series called Hazardous Tales. The book is about a real spy named Nathan Hale telling his story to the Hangman, who is about to hang him, and an English soldier. The setting is the tree where the Hangman is going to hang Nathan Hale because he was spying on the English, and the time is 1776.

I would describe Nathan as loyal because even though he was sick he still wanted to spy on the English to help his country. I would describe the Hangman as funny because when Nathan was telling him his story he would always interrupt and make jokes. I would describe the English soldier as mean because whenever Nathan was talking about wars between England and America and England won he would always tease Nathan about America losing the war. One thing that I think is interesting is that there is a bonus story at the end about Crispus Attucks who was an escaped slave but got killed in a fight with English soldiers. I think this is interesting because I thought that the story would only be about Nathan Hale. Another thing I thought was interesting was when Nathan’s friend Ben escaped from the British army but he left his horse there so he went all the way back to the British army to save his horse. I think it is interesting because he could have died but he still saved the horse.

I enjoyed this book because it has a lot of wars and battles and I like to learn about that kind of stuff. I also enjoyed this book because it has very, very detailed pictures of battles and other stuff. I would recommend this book to people who like history because it has big historical events in it. I would also recommend this book to people who like action because it has a lot of wars and battles. I don’t think this book relates to any books or TV shows that I know of. I would rate this book 4 stars because it was a very good book.

Feb
26
2015

The Dear Old Briar-Patch

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Peter lives in The Dear Old Briar-Patch.   He is not an ORDINARY rabbit. Peter Rabbit and his wife live in the Briar Patch because none of the animals who want to eat him can get through the brambles. They could probably get through.But give up because they would get scratched up. It’s by Thornton W. Burgess (He is my great great great Uncle) He was inspired to write this book because he spent a lot of his free time to study animals out on the

green meadows. He learned a lot so he decided to write a book to share with his family. And to teach others about what he learned. This book is about a rabbit named Peter his wife Mrs Peter. Peter likes to explore a lot and he likes to learn about the other animals & their babies.  the book is winter, then it is spring. Mrs. Peter has babies too. But she didn’t tell Peter about it. Peter learns about all his neighbors by asking them questions, but some of them get

annoyed (especially the bees.)

 

Peter loves going on adventures. He’s very adventurous because sometimes he goes on an adventure and has no idea what he’s looking for. But he usually finds something interesting. He is also very short tempered because he is always arguing back. He YELLS, but he is nice. I really enjoyed the part when Peter was looking for the butterfly that makes a clicking sound because the other animals teased him. They said, “How are your clicking butterflies” in a teasing way. Peter didn’t let them tease him because he says back “If there’s a Clicking butterfly then I will find it.” And he did! One of the most interesting parts is when Peter saw a bee chewing wood, but really the bee (madam bald face) was making a special paper to make a hive so she can lay her eggs. Later  her babies will help out. My favorite animal that Peter meets is Tharisa, a special type of fly. She is the nicest and the most polite of all the animals he meets. Also the last animal.

 

I loved this book so much because I LOVE ANIMALS!!! I usually don’t enjoy reading. This time I really wanted to read more of it and more of it. I would recommend this book to people who love animals because the book is about animals. Also how their babies live. I think this book is similar to Magic Puppy because it’s about a animal that can speak English. I rate this book FIVE STARS!

Feb
26
2015

Invasion of the Overworld by Mark Cheverton

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The book I read is called Invasion of the Overworld, and it’s by Mark Cheverton. It’s about a kid who loves Minecraft, but he doesn’t really have any friends on Minecraft because he likes to prank people (it’s called trolling). We don’t know his real name, but his user name is Gamenight999. His dad’s invention teleports him into the game! Gamenight999 has to now use his skills to survive Minecraft. He doesn’t know what happens when he dies in Minecraft. Will he respawn? Will he go back to the normal world? Or, will he really die? This action of Gamenight999 trying to survive all happens in the world of Minecraft.

Gamenight999 is super ANNOYING. Well, at first he is. In the start of the book Gamenight999 is always trolling others and ruining minecraft for them. He is a noble person because in the end he learns that not everything is about him. He saves lots of other users, but by saving them his Minecraft character gets killed. He is also pretty clever because the way he trolls is that he hacks the game. You can imagine that hacking is not a piece of cake. I thought it was interesting that in the book there are lots of servers. There is one on top that is called the source. The source is the server that powers all the other servers. Gamenight999 learns that the mobs (monsters in minecraft) have one goal: to get to the source. They want to do this because if the source is destroyed, it makes a portal to the overworld, AKA the human world, then they can destroy that too.

I liked this book, it wasn’t the best book but because sometimes it got pretty slow but it was still good. I liked it because, well, I really like the game minecraft too. Also, I liked the character Gamenight999, he made me want to keep reading. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to game, especially if you like minecraft. If you hate minecraft, you shouldn’t read this book. It is also a good book to read because there’s lots of action and adventure and it is fun to read. This book is not like other books. I have read the minecraft guides but it is still different.

I would rate this book:

 

 

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Feb
25
2015

The Penderwicks in Spring

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The Penderwicks In Spring

This month I read The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall  a New York Times bestselling author who also wrote The Penderwicks, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street and The Penderwicks at Point Mouette. My book is set in a small town on a small street called Gardam street. Gardam street is near a woods.

The main characters are Batty, Ben, Linda, Sky and Jane.They are all siblings in the Penderwick family. Batty is ten years old. She is kind and likes to explore the woods near her house. Batty starts a ridiculous dog walking business and spends a lot of time with a very fat dachshund named Duchess. Batty loves to sing.

Ben is six. He is silly and loves rocks. He even takes rocks in the bath tub. Ben is being chased by his, little sister Linda, who is bananas.

Linda is four years old. She loves Ben. She is very good at escaping cribs and baby gates. Linda does not want to sleep in her big girl bed (a Twin sized bed, not a crib). Batty has to sleep in Linda’s big girl bed to convince her to sleep in it.

Sky is fifteen she likes to read and play soccer, and she does not like to bake. Sky ignores Batty because something happened between them that Sky will never forgive Batty for, or at least that is what Sky thinks.

Jane is thirteen. She is quiet and she is writing a romantic book about Sabrina Star, a girl who saves people. Jane can never stop talking about her book. Jane is a romantic, book loving girl. She is a very smart girl who loves her family, but she also has the teenager blues.

The Penderwick’s best friends Jeffrey and Nick, are the peace keepers sometimes however sometimes they are part of the problem. The Penderwicks older sister, Roselind, is coming home from college. Nick is coming back to Gardam street from war. And Jeffrey is coming to see them from Boston.

Batty’s problem is her dog walking business. The dogs will not listen to her! Also, she lost her voice and can’t sing anymore. Sky’s problem is that she is mad at Batty, and it is hard not to talk to your sister for a long time. Sky is really mad at Batty for a silly reason. When Batty was born, their Mother died. The doctors said she could die and save the baby or live and be sick and the baby would die. Their Mother decided to die without telling her family. When the sisters found out what she was going to do. They cried and said good bye, but Sky did not understand. When Batty grew older, Sky always did not like her because she thought it was Batty’s fault that their mother died.

Roselind the older sister is coming home right when Nick is coming home, and Roselind has a crush on him. But Roselind brings home a new boy named Oliver. Oliver is not very nice, but Roselind still likes him. Oliver is a movie maker. Nick does not like him because Roselind does not spend any time with him now. No one in the Penderwick family likes Oliver except Jane and Roselind of course. Jane likes him because he talks to her about Sabrina Star. Oliver talks to her not because he likes it but because he wants to turn it into a movie like every thing he sees that is not a movie. Linda is really mad at him because Linda loves Nick and Nick gave her dandelions for her princess crown. Oliver tried to take them out, and Linda said “no”, but he would not listen to her.

Ben was very excited to see Nick even though he had never seen him before. Nick had sent Ben a toy helicopter that he really likes. Ben runs over to Nicks parents house across the street from their house sometimes at night to see if Nick is home. Nick likes Ben too.

My book is about how your family does not always get along with your friends and your friends don’t always get along with your family. Also living in a big family is good in some ways and bad in others. For example if you live with a lot of people you do not have a lot of privacy. A good thing is that you have lots of people to play with. Sometimes there are family crises.

I enjoyed this book because it is about sisters. I like book about sisters. I am a sister. I recommened this book to people who like adventure. I would read the books in order our you will be confused. I give this book Five stars!!!!!!

By Mia