Category Archives: 2014-2015

Apr
15
2015

The Girl Who Could Fly By: Victoria Forester

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The book I read is called The Girl Who Could Fly. It is by Victoria Forester. The book is about a girl who is able to float.

Some pimgreseople might think floating and flying are pretty much the same. But not for Piper McCloud. Piper is the main character of this book. Piper discovers when she was really young that she could float. Betty and Joe McCloud (Piper’s mom and dad) are normal farmers that live out in Lowland County. They own a farm with many animals. Like everyone else.

Piper has never been a normal kid but her parents would never think that she could float. Betty and Joe do not want anyone to find out about this. Eventually Piper teaches herself how to fly. The difference between floating and flying is: Floating, you just go a few feet of the floor and can’t control when it happens and what happens while you are doing it. Flying, you go as high as you want, as fast as you want, when you want, and where you want.

Betty and Joe hate when Piper flies because she could give out her secret. But she does fly and her secret gets out. In front of everyone in town. Now everyone is trying to get to Piper. The McClouds stay locked up in there house. Until one day Letitia Hellion and all her agents come and they take Piper away from home. To teach her to use her flying and be in a safe environment away from all the danger. Well atleast that is what the McClouds thought. . .

So Piper decides to go with Dr. Hellion. Not knowing what was going to happen and what the road ahead of her looked like.

Piper makes a lot of friends there.

The setting of the book starts off at Piper’s hometown which is Lowland County. There are a lot of farms there and it is basically in the middle of nowhere. Once Letitia Hellion takes Piper to her institute the book is placed there. I don’t know where the institute is but it is very, very cold there. The institute is called I.N.S.A.N.E. The name of it kind of gives you the mood of the place. If you read the book it will tell you what it stands for.

Piper is the main-main character but there are co main characters too. Like Conrad Herrington lll. He has been in the institute for the longest. His special ability is that he is very, very smart.

Piper is strong. The kids in the institute try to test her but they get really surprised when she doesn’t start crying or back down. She stands up to them and proves herself to them. Conrad is really mean to everybody at the institute including Piper now. Piper doesn’t get really upset and doesn’t sit there doing nothing like all the other kids. Conrad has a really good reason to be mean to the other kids he is just trying to help them. In his case he is not even being mean. Piper is also brave. She left her parents even though she knew she might not ever see them again. It was her who stood up to Dr. Hellion after what Hellion did to her. I won’t say anything else because I will give everything away. Last but not least Piper is nice. She takes care of Jasper (the smallest and weakest kid there). She tries to think about the nurse and the kids at the institute.

Conrad is smart. Of course he is smart! That is his special ability. He figured out what Dr. Hellion’s objective was. (I can’t tell you what it is) He timed the escape by every second and had perfect coordinations. Conrad is also caring. He tries to hide it and maybe he doesn’t know. He tries to help all the kids at the institute so the things that Dr. Hellion is doing doesn’t affect them as quickly.

I like the part of the book when Conrad tells Piper why he has been so mean.  Then Piper and Conrad become friends and it was interesting to find out the information that Conrad knows. Another part of the book that is fun is when one of the girls there tries to test Piper. Her special ability is telekinesis. She moves Piper’s water glass up and down and Piper at first gets really annoyed. Then she does something no one has ever done before . . .   A time in the book I really liked but was so annoying is when Conrad makes/pushes Piper jump out of a really tall window. Piper of course flies herself to safety. Then Dr. Hellion gets extremely mad at Piper. Piper gets confused because Dr. Hellion doesn’t really care that Conrad pushed her but she just cares that Piper flew. Even though if Piper didn’t fly she would die. I liked it because now I was starting to figure out what Dr. Hellion’s actual personality is.

I really enjoyed this book. It was funny there were some mysteries and surprises kept coming at you that you would not expect. I also liked it because I liked Piper. She is brave, strong, nice, caring, adventurous, and mischievous etc..

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. The cover might look scary but the book is not. It has people who have powers like telekinesis, smartness, storm creation, strength, electricity, and shrinking .I think everyone could read this book whether they love it or don’t like it that much.I would rate this book five stars

 

 

Apr
15
2015

Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key by Jack Gantos

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urlThe best ever book is called Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key. It was written amazingly by Jack Gantos. It is about a kid who can’t even stand still. His name is Joey Pigza. He is in a special school because he is so crazy. I don’t know anyone like him, he’s too crazy This book takes place in Philadelphia where he grew up. Joey has only one friend. His name is Charlie. Charlie has really tiny arms so he has to go the special school too.

 

 

Joey calls himself “wired”. He will jump around in circles and do many crazy things like banging on lockers and screaming at school. Joey is also very annoying to everyone. His teacher will ask him something and he will say “Can I get back to you on that?” and start laughing so hard. But he is also very smart. He loves doing math drills because he does them in two seconds when they normally take 5 minutes. One funny part was when Joey’s grandma got so annoyed by him that she ran into the sewers and ran until she got to Pittsburgh. I don’t know how, but she was crazy too! The special Ed teacher at school made Joey wear bunny slippers to help him sit still. However this did not work. It made the situation worse.

 

 

I loved this book because its a quick read. It took me only the break to read it. Another awesome thing about this book is that it has some interesting characters to listen to and talk about. I bet you if you read this you will be talking about it. I definitely recommend this book to people that like comedy because there were a lot of funny parts. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key is not really related to any book that I heard of but I can’t wait to read Joey Pigza Loses Control which is the next book in the series. I rate this bookimages

Apr
08
2015

The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett and Jory John

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imgresMiles is a prankster, and a serious one. I read a book called the Terrible Two by two writers named Mac Barnett and Jory John. Miles is a boy who has just moved from living in a city, I think, to living in Yawnee Valley a part of the country known for their cows. When he gets there he is ready to play the role of prankster at his new school but quickly finds out that the school already has one, and a great one too. On the first day of school, the children found a car sitting on the top of the school steps blocking the entrance. Nobody could find out who did it. Niles is also our main character. He is the kiss-up. Meaning that he is the teacher’s pet. Yawnee Valley is a small town with a population of 9,980 and a whole lot of cows. Barnett and John both make you feel like you are seeing Miles’s world out of a person who lives in Yawnee Valley’s eyes.

 

Miles is a pretty normal kid except that he pranks and he used to live in a pink apartment next to the ocean. I would describe Miles as whiney because he is always moping around even when something nice like a birthday party is going on. Also, mischievous because he pretty much is always either making up a prank or planning a prank like when he pranked the teachers. He made flyers that told eight of the teachers that there was cupcakes and bacon down in the cafeteria, (there was cupcakes but, no bacon and one teacher couldn’t eat cupcakes but, loved bacon). Plus quiet because he talks a lot at home but usually at school he just gives short answers and then walks away. I think one of the most interesting parts was when Miles throws a birthday party for a boy named Cody Burr-Tyler because he is turning thirteen years old except that Cody doesn’t exist. Miles made him up so people would bring great presents and then he would take all of them while announcing that Cody didn’t exist. But then as he is making his announcement, the principal shows up and ruins it.

 

I thought this book was OK but I didn’t love it. I think that was because I could thought he could have described things better than he did. I thought it was too focused on boys because the only girl that was Miles’s age was kind of an annoying know-it-all. I would have also liked it if it was longer because there were a lot of chapters but they were all really short. I would recommend this to people who enjoy action books or like pranks but, if you don’t like those types of things then I would not say it was for you. I haven’t really read any other books like this so it is kind of new to me. I would give this book 3 stars.

 

 

 

 

 

Apr
08
2015

Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter

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Warriors: Into The Wild

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I read the second best book in the world, it is called Into the Wild by Erin Hunter. Into the Wild is part of the series Warriors. The book is about a kittypet (a house cat) called Rusty. Rusty lives in a house right next to the woods. One day Rusty goes into the woods and gets attacked by some ThunderClan warriors (wild cats) who ask Rusty if he wants to be part of the ThunderClan. The rest of the book is about Rusty’s life living as a ThunderClan cat. The book takes place in the ThunderClan camp in the woods. The book always makes me feel like I am with Rusty on one his adventures.

 

Rusty does not always keep his name He is also known as Firepaw. If I were to describe Firepaw with three adjectives, they would be: brave, sneaky and smart. I think Firepaw is brave because he always tries to protect his clan and he always wants to help keep the clan alive by catching prey or fighting in battles. Firepaw is sneaky because he does not always follow the warrior code and does not always do what he is told. I think Firepaw is smart because he knows how to attack in different ways on different cats. The problem in the story is that the ThunderClan cats think the ShadowClan cats are going to attack. An interesting and important part of the book is the beginning of the book when Firepaw goes out in the woods and gets attacked. Firepaw gets attacked by ThunderClan cats who surprisingly offer him to join the ThunderClan. The only reason they asked this question is because the ThunderClan needs more warriors. Another interesting and important part of the book is when Firepaw fights the loner cat Yellowfang and breaks warrior code. Firepaw was hunting for food for the clan, and after the fight with Yellowfang he saw she was very hungry and he was very hungry so he caught a rabbit and gave it to Yellowfang and he ate the scraps. The first rule in warrior code is always feed the clan before feeding yourself.

I really liked this book and the writing style . I like it because it is about cats and I love cats. I also liked this book because the story is really interesting.  I was so into this book a soccer ball flew over my head while I reading the book and I didn’t notice. The characters are also really fun. I would recommend this book to whoever likes cats and is okay with a lot of dying. Like I said this book is really good and whenever I read about the cats it makes me want to cuddle with my own cats. All people who like Harry Potter and also like cats should read this book. There are other cat warrior books but they are not part of the series. There are also other books in this series that I have not read. I rate this book five stars!

 

 

 

 

Apr
08
2015

The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern

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Alon

 

For Maggie Mayfield, turning eleven means one year closer to college, 1 year closer to voting, and one year closer to getting a tattoo. In her family she has a dad, mom, and two older sisters. Maggie is in a constant fight with Tiffany, one of her sisters.  She really likes unhealthy things too. She also is great friends with her dad who share a lot of ice cream. And other candies and sweets together.  This book is, The Meaning of Maggie, by Megan Jean Sovern. The setting is 1988, in Atlanta. The main character is Maggie, who eats so much candy and unhealthy stuff to me she seems a little fat (ok maybe a little more than a little, but you get the idea.) The book is about Maggie’s life and her dad who has MS which my mom is currently studying, it targets the neurons and when that happens you lose control over a lot of functions of your body, for example, you might have trouble moving your arms. (if you read the book, you will find out what it means, MS.)

 

Maggie is nice, she helped her sister Layla with her homework. Maggie is also sensitive, she gave her family the silent treatment for about a week because she felt excluded because her family didn’t tell her dad’s sickness, MS. Maggie is finally smart, when she was ten she got an A in every subject except Gym, at least that is what I think because she sounds really bad at it later in the book.

The sad thing in this book, A.K.A. the plot, is that Maggie’s dad has MS

One interesting part is gym class, I wanted to read on to see if Maggie would be able to run the whole mile that they needed to run. Another interesting part is the last page, it just gives you more Questions, so I don’t recommend reading the last three pages, not really, but it does give you more questions. Also, another part I liked was that at the gym part it teaches good pointers about running. The end was also interesting because she did this: —– —- —- —- — — —, of course I won’t tell you what that means, you need to read the book yourself. Over the story, Maggie changed, at first she thought that fighting MS meant finding a cure, but at the end, she realized that helping her dad and being with him meant fighting MS. Maggie also helped her dad by not leaving him alone when she could go to the cafeteria with her mom and sisters.

 

One thing I really like about this book is that it leaves more questions at the end, I cannot compare it to any other book I have ever heard of. I like the author’s writing style because it leaves questions at the end. I recommend it to everyone because in this book, there are a lot of ways to enjoy it while learning about MS. I rate it 4 and a half stars.

Apr
08
2015

The Mark Of Athena by Rick Riordan

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This book is action packed, mysterious, and even a little scary. In The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, the characters are always out numbered and constantly solving tons of problems. The book is the third in a series called The Heroes of Olympus.  This book is about seven characters named Frank, Hazel, Leo, Piper, Jason, Annabeth, and Percy. They are all demigods.  The main story is about the characters travelling to Rome to follow the Mark of Athena. The Mark Of Athena is a Quest only Annabeth can do, alone. They travel on a flying ship, but they main setting is Rome, Italy.

One of the main characters, Percy, is brave, a natural leader and able to survive on his own.  Percy is brave because he fought Crysor (a gold pirate) all by himself. He is a natural leader because he takes charge and wants to protect everyone as much as he wants to protect himself.  He is able to survive on his own because when all of his other teammates were knocked out, and Crysor’s henchmen threatened to kill them with a dagger, he found a way to beat Crysor.  When they get to Rome, Annabeth finds where the Mark of Athena starts. Then she goes into a dark cave and is outnumbered by monsters but uses her knowledge to get out of it.  Then she had to face her greatest fear, spiders! She also had to defeat her mother’s (Athena) arch nemesis, the Arachne. Arachne was turned into a spider because she bragged too much.  The way Annabeth defeated Arachne was she tricked her into weaving a Chinese finger trap for her to get stuck in.  After the defeat, Annabeth reclaimed the Athena Parthenos.  Meanwhile, Percy, Piper and Jason also had their own mini quest.  This involved defeating the twin giants Otis and Ephialtes.  They had to get a god’s help to destroy them. After they won, they reclaimed their prize, which was Nico, another demigod who was captured by the giants.

I think this book was amazing because there are a lot of different things that are happening on every page. I love the author’s writing style I think it is good because he uses a lot of big words. It is a long book but is fast paced.  There are a lot of challenges that the characters face, which keeps the book interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes action, adventure, and mythology. If you have read the previous two books to this, you should definitely keep reading the series.  A book that is similar to this series is Percy Jackson also by Rick Riordan.  I give this book 5 stars.

Apr
08
2015

The School for Good and Evil a World Without Princes

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This book is so very interesting that it is impossible to put down. It is called The School for Good & Evil: A world without Princes. It’s from the Series The School for Good and Evil.

The author is Soman Chainani. He is an Indian-American writer and filmmaker. He attended Harvard. He was born in Miami Florida.
The book is about two best friends named Sophie and Agatha. They thought they had their happy ending because they were in a fairy tale (if you want to know about that read The School for Good and Evil) and They got home and were happy. What’s not to be happy about? But Agatha likes a boy named Tedros of Camelot. His dad is King Arthur. Sophie and Agatha both make a wish. Sophie wishes for her mother (her mother is dead), and Agatha wishes for Tedros. I want to tell you what happens but I don’t want to give too much away so if you want to know what happens keep reading, but if you don’t stop reading at STOP and start again at CONTINUE.

 

So since Agatha wished for Tedros, Tedros thinks he should kill Sophie. The School for good and evil has changed to the School for Girls and the School for Boys! Sophie and Agatha go to the School for girls obviously but they need to get the pen that writes their story. But unfortunately the pen is in the boys school and the boys are trying to kill girls and the girls are trying to kill the boys. And on top of that the school for boys won’t let them in and when I say the school I don’t mean the people in the school I mean the actual building. So Sophie turns into a boy and goes into the school. Okay that’s it. CONTINUE.

 

The book takes place at The School for Good and Evil. The author makes a clear image in your mind. When you read this book it’s like you’re there, witnessing it.

 

Agatha is nice, because she tried to stop someone from killing a Gargoyle once. She is not girly because she doesn’t care if ‘a hair is out of place’ or if her ‘lipstick is the wrong shade’ (she doesn’t wear lipstick). She is clever because she got in and out of the Dean’s office unnoticed. And for Sophie. Sophie is very girly. She loves pink and lipstick and has a million skin creams. She is friendly because she has lots of friends.

 

I liked this book because you never know what will happen next, it’s full of adventure, and it has more than one perspective.

I would recommend this book  if you like: Adventure, a bit of fairy tale and a little bit of mystery. I rate this book FIVE STARS. 18172465

 

 

 

 

Apr
08
2015

Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guide

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imgresDid you know that the earth is not round. The north pole and south pole are very flat. But near the equator is very bumpy. Some mountains actually stick out into space. The book that I read is called Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guide. It is by Ken Jennings. Ken Jennings is a Jeopardy champion. He won seventy  four games in a row. He also wrote a book on U.S. presidents and and greek mythology. His series is called Junior Genius Guides. My book does not have a main character. In fact it does not any characters. My book is about geography. It tells you facts about Geography. It tells you stories and facts. My book takes place all over the world. It tells you a lot about the ocean. Here are some places that you read about United States, North Pole, Tuvalu, Russia and China.

One part I really enjoy was when he was talking about mountains. I learned that Mount Everest is the highest point above sea level. It is 29,029′ (8,848 m) feet tall. But it is not the highest mountain on earth. Mauna Kea is. Mauna Kea is 13,796’ (4, 205 m) feet tall. Mauna Kea mostly under water. Only a little bit of it is above the water. Mauna Kea is in Hawaii.

Another thing that I learned is that the oceans contain lots of gold. A cubic mile of ocean water contains almost three ounces of gold. There is no way to take the gold out of the water. If there was a way to take the gold out of the water every person on earth would have five pounds of gold.

I really enjoyed this book. I think he is a little bit funny. I recommend this book to people who like to read nonfiction and like facts. I think Ken Jennings is an author who is different from authors of other books I have read. In the end there is a quiz on what you learned. He tried  to set it up like school. There are chapters called lunch and recess. Lunch has a recipe that you can make and recess has map games. I give this book five stars. If I could give it one million stars I would.

*****                                                         

Apr
08
2015

Year of the Rat

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Ally

PACY IS AN ORDINARY GIRL IN AN ORDINARY SCHOOL.

Well, not ordinary she wants to be an artist and writer. She knew that she had real talent so she wrote, The Year of the Rat. It is by Grace Lin. It’s about her life growing up as a child. It is the last book of the Year series. Grace’s Chinese name is Pacy. It is about two best friends named Pacy and Melody. Pacy and Melody are neighbors they live in New Hartford. The Year of the Rat is coming up and Pacy and Melody write some resolutions on a card because they’re celebrating Chinese New Year together. Melody is the only other Taiwanese family and Pacy’s  best friend. Anyway they are staying up ‘till midnight for Chinese New Year for their tradition. Pacy and Melody are given a card and they write their resolutions. Pacy‘s were really similar to Melody’s. But one of Melody‘s was different, hers was to stay in New Hartford and that’s where the sad part begins. Pacy asks “Why did you write stay in New Hartford?” Melody is sad now and says I’m not supposed to tell you on the New Year because it’s bad luck to be sad on the New Year but my parents told me we might move to California. Pacy thinks this is unfair that her best friend is moving. Her other friends Becky and Charlotte for some reason are strange with Pacy. After a while Pacy went over to Melody‘s house to help pack up everything and Melody’s mom told Melody to share half of her books but Melody loved them all so they took turns pointing to books and they would mail the books back. When it was time for Pacy to say bye she knew mailing the books wouldn’t be the same and a Chinese boy was moving in to Melody’s house and Pacy called whoever was moving in enemy. The boy’s name was Dun Wei when he went to school for the first time Pacy thought he was strange. For instance, he carried a lunch box instead of a paper bag and when the bullies came they called him Dumb Way and he got angry and muttered something back in Chinese. He swung his lunch box at the boys who called him Dumb Way and they all got in trouble and Dun Wei gave Pacy a hopeful look but Pacy ignored it.  On the full moon festival she celebrated with Dun Wei and said thank you when he gave her a lantern. He said “Bu ke chi. I mean you’re welcome.”  Pacy wished that she could change and be friends with enemy.

 

I would say Pacy’s personality is talkative because in the book she says a lot of things and learns a lot too. She is also shy because she didn’t help Dun Wei when he gave her a hopeful look when he got in trouble. Pacy’s other personality is brave because she said bye to her best friend. Charlotte and Becky are a little strange around her but Pacy found out why they are strange around her. It was because she ignored them when Melody came and she never answered to Becky and Charlotte when they spoke to her she ignored them because of Melody.

 

I really enjoyed this book because I understand this book really well. Also this book is really interesting because you can find out how life was. I  would recommend this book to anyone who needs something to do. They would now never be bored. I would say this book isn’t similar to any book I know. I would give this book five stars by Ally

 

 

 

 

Apr
08
2015

The Mistaken Masterpiece

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The Mistaken Masterpiece

The red blazer girls

Michael D. Bell

 

 

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 I really enjoyed The Red Blazer Girls because I like mysteries a LOT. It’s fast-paced and the story is told by a kid and we really kind of see eye-to-eye. We picture the world in the same way. The author is Michael D. Bell.

This book takes place in our current time.

This book is about 4 girls who  have an agency called The Red Blazer Girls. The mystery that they are trying to solve is the main problem is if a certain painting was painted Before 1961 because that’s when the painter died. And if they find out if it was painted before 1961 then the owner of the painting. But what obstacles will stand in their way?

… Elevators…Livvy Clack…psycho old lady…Broken nose…

My main character is Sophia, Sophia Is very, very, very nice to everybody, She also is very curious. The reason the reason Sophia is really nice is because there is this really mean girl named Livvy Clack, and Sophia is even nice to her! Sophia is curious because every time she sees something off she goes to find the explanation. last but not least Sophia is courageous, Sophia is courageous because She fixes every problem even if it means the worst.

The parts i found most interesting are Sophia gets a dog well it’s not hers a movie star, Nate asked her to babysit the dog, Tillie. but Tillie is a solution to a part of the mystery! and the other part i found interesting was that nate the movie star asked Sophie to babysit Tillie.It as inturesting because he’s a movie star and he’s asking a 12 year old to babysit his dog!And the last part I found ABSOLUTELY crazy is that Sophia breaks her nose! But you’ll have to read to find out how, and trust me, It’s crazy!

 

I really enjoyed this book because I like mysteries a LOT. It’s fast-paced and the story is told by a kid and we really kind of see eye-to-eye, We picture the world in the same way. I REALLY recommend this book if you are the kind of person who likes something fast pace and from a persons perspective like yours ( a kid).

I really truly believe that this book is one-of-a-kind.

I rate this book 5 stars, I LOVED it so much. I’ll read it again, and again.