The book I read over the summer was called The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. I think the author really liked basketball because the setting of the book was mostly on the basketball court. The main characters in the book are Josh Bell and JB they are twin brothers that are 14, they’re on the same basketball team and play great together on the court. The book also had a lot of descriptive writing about basketball. Like my favorite line in the book when she wrote “ to JB, who skips downtown zips around then double dips it in the bowl SWOOSH.” They’re many problems in this book but the main one is that Josh and JB’s dad has hypertension and he is really sick, but he doesn’t like doctors so he keeps not going to the doctor and keeps getting more and more sick.

In the beginning of the book it explains who the characters are and what they’re like. Then in the middle of the book it’s all about their basketball careers and what they want to do in college and when they get older. Also what happens in the middle is that JB gets a girlfriend and he is hypnotized in a way because all he thinks about is her and cares less and less about basketball. There is also a problem in the middle when Josh gets suspended from the basketball team and school. He gets so angry. His mom who is also the vice principal suspended him because he was bad in school. Josh missed the semi final game. Later his mom decides to lets him play in the finals. Before the game Josh and his dad were playing one on one and when Chuck, their dad, was going to dunk, he fell. They called an ambulance to pick him up. He was in a coma for a while but eventually he woke up. He was in the hospital recovering and everyone thought he was getting better. But on the day of the game he had a heart attack! JB was crying so much and was so sad, instead of going to the game he went to the hospital. Josh went to the game and scored at the buzzer and won the championship! Sadly, after the game, Chuck Bell died of a heart attack.  He was 39.  Chuck played in the NBA so it was all over the news. Before he died he gave his championship ring to josh.

I really enjoyed this book because I LOVE basketball and this book was about basketball. I also liked this book because the book was written in verse and I thought that was really cool. Lastly I liked this book because I thought this author was really good at making me feel like I was connected to the characters.  It made the book very interesting. I recommend this book to kids that love basketball and like books that are told in poems. I give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Over the summer I read a book called Frindle. The author is Andrew Clements and he is one of my favorite writers.  The setting takes place in a class at a school. The school was called Lincoln Elementary School. The main character is Nick. The main problem is that Nick is a troublemaker going into 5th grade. The teacher can see everything behind her back, so Nick can’t pull any pranks on her. He decides to make up a new word for Pen. The word is Frindle. Now instead of saying Pen, people say Frindle. The teacher does not like it so if anyone says the word Frindle they will be staying in after school. Nick has a plan and makes over two hundred kids say the word Frindle in front of the teacher so it will be over flooding the classroom.

What changed the direction of the story was that Nick could not pull pranks so he made up a word. That word got so big that it ended up in the dictionary and he got famous. The character has to make a very big decision by keeping with the word and getting in a lot of trouble or backing away from the word and not getting in trouble. But he kept with it and he became famous and he did not get into a lot of trouble. The conflict is that the principal wants to put an end to the word but at the end of the book the teacher was actually on her side. On page 97 the quote says “I was with you the whole time.”

I enjoyed the book a lot. It was probably the top three books ever. I really liked this book because Andrew Clements is a great writer. One example of how I liked the book is that it had a lot of details, like it said, “One fall day when the leaves were brown, green and red there was a boy named Nick walking down his school street to go to school.” Another example is that the author gets you really into the book. Like he would have some parts when Nick thought he got in trouble but he was really not. My last example why I liked this book was that it was interesting and funny. He made me laugh a lot because of when they made 200 kids stay after school. I would rate this 5 stars. It was a great book.

The End

One of the books that I read this summer was titled Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. It takes place in the Ozark Mountains. The main character is a boy named Billy who is a dog lover but his parents didn’t have the money to pay for a dog. 

A very important part in the book is when after years of trying to make enough money to buy a dog Billy finally could afford two hounds. He named the two hounds Old Dan and Little Ann. Billy took the two hounds out to hunt beavers and the two puppies looked as if they had been hunting for years. Billy goes through a lot of tough decisions. For example his grandfather, a passionate hunter, tells Billy about a beaver hunting tournament with some of the most ferocious beavers in the country. Problem is that the dogs could get killed by the beavers and the blizzards don’t help either.

I won’t tell you what happens to the dogs or Billy but I could tell you that it was a great book. It was very touching. It was also very sad. I cried at the end of the book. But that is just proof to tell you that it was not one of those monotonous books that you fall asleep to. I got so attached to the book that it made want to shout to the characters “ no don’t do it” or “Let’s do it Billy.” If you don’t enjoy sad books then I wouldn’t recommend this book but if you like to feel emotional I think you would love this book. On a rate from one to ten I would give this book an eight.