Category Archives: Biographies
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern
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.
Who was Galileo? by Patricia Brennan Demuth
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.
Who Is Bill Gates? by Patricia Brennan Demuth
The book I read is called Who is Bill Gates? by Patricia Brennan Demuth. The name of the series is called who is or who was or what is.The main character of the book is William Henry Gates III but everyone called him Bill. The book is mainly about a man named Bill Gates who was born on October 28th, 1955 in Seattle. Also it is about a genius who went to Harvard and dropped out to make his own company. He was the co-founder of Microsoft and his other co partner is named Paul Allen and they were best friends.
The most interesting parts of the book for me were that he wrote with his right hand in school when he was bored even though he was a righty. Also I liked when gave 28 billion dollars to charity. Another thing I thought about is that was cool was he would stay at his computer and go to sleep at midnight then wake up in the morning blink once and start working again. Three adjectives that I would talk about Bill are nice smart , and happy. Nice because he gives a lot of money to charity. smart because when he knew all the answers to every question. For example When the teacher said a really hard math question he knew it right away. Last but not least happy because he almost always had a smile on his face. Almost every time the author put a smile on Bill’s face because bill was a really happy guy a lot of the time.
I enjoyed the book because I thought the author did a good job telling us about Bill’s life. I also liked this book because I thought Bill was a cool person to read about because he did so many things to change the world in computers and without him a computer would be the same as a broken piece of plastic. Also the author made me want to read more about Bill. This book reminds me of the movie Imitation Game because it’s also about a really smart guy who was smart at computers.I would give this book 3 and a half stars.
Victor Cruz Out Of The Bluew, Victor Cruz and Peter Schrager
Victor Cruz Out Of The Blue by Peter Schrager and Victor Cruz is a Fantastic book because it gives you a good feeling and makes you love Victor Cruz.
This book is about Victor Cruz growing up to become a big NFL Star and his journey. He started in a small town and now is known world wide. He faces life changing problems and and struggled academically
I loved this book because as you know I want to play in the NBA. The chances are I’m probably not going to. But this book pretty much tells you that if you believe in something and you really want it you might actually get it. Although this book has a few things inappropriate for our age I think a lot of people should read it. Even if they don’t like sports you will learn to follow your dreams and just love Victor cruz.
Just to let you know not all fourth graders will like this book, but I hope you do.
I would rate this book 1,000 out of 5 because it is so inspiring and just a great overall book And all of you I hope will like it because it teaches you a lot of things such as,
This book is autobiography just to let you know.
Out Of The Blue By Victor Cruz And Peter Schrager
The main character of this book is Victor Cruz. Victor Cruz is a football player. Victor Cruz was a fighter. He’d never give up. It took him 5 tries to get his SAT’s high enough to get into UMass. The book also gives a lot of messages like don’t give up, keep trying. This book is also cool because you would think that it would be easy getting into the NFL yet it’s hard look at Victor Cruz. One of the NFL’s top wide receivers.
I enjoyed the book because Victor Cruz is a person who I like as a football player and I like to see how he came about. Victor Cruz’s main problem was that he couldn’t go to college because his SAT scores weren’t high enough. His other problem was that he wasn’t getting enough playing time when he was accepted. Therefore no scouts would be able to find him and like how he’s doing and he’ll end up undrafted. If there was one more chapter in the book I would talk about his next “cut day” and how for once he can feel confident that he’s going to make the team. You can also look at a player a different way. The most exciting quote in the book is when Victor’s wife says, “Vic, I’m pregnant.” It really changed how I look at Victor Cruz. Now I can look at him like a father. I never thought he was a father. And now I know he is.
I think this is a good autobiography/biography to start with if you’re a sports fan that isn’t interested in biographies because that was me when I started to read this book. If I didn’t like biographies when I started the book why did I start to read this book? Well, I saw Marlowe reading Out of the Blue and it looked good but I didn’t know that it was a biography and I ordered it online. Don’t you like how things work out like that sometimes?
I would give this book 5 out of 5 stars because it is written well and you don’t want to put it down because you get dragged into the book and it’s really interesting. (Fun fact I sat at the couch reading this book over playing video games).
Hazardous Tales By Nathon Hale
Hazardous Tales by Nathan Hale which is funny because there was a spy named Nathan Hale in The Revolutionary War who is the main character in this book. It is about Nathan Hale ( the spy) who is about to be hanged on something called a gallows and the stories he tells to the hangman and a redcoat (English soldiers named after their red coats). It takes place in an English territory in 1779 during the American Revolution.
Nathan Hales one problem is that he has but one life to give for his country. ( A Nathan hale quote ” My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country” ). This book is about the entire revolution two main parts are when Nathan becomes the spy and when he gets slammed in The Big Giant Book of American History. It is very interesting because pretty much everything is true.
I would recommend this book to someone who likes humor and wars because it is about a war.If you like to learn while you are reading you should read it. I give it five out of five stars. *****I because of all the positive things I said in this review.
Soul Surfer by Bethany Hamilton with help from Sheryl Berk & Rick Bundschuh
Soul Surfer is a book about a girl whose arm got bitten off by a shark. This book is an autobiography about Bethany Hamilton. I personally like this book because I’m a surfer and she is one too, but also she’s a survivor.
This book is about “the soul surfer”. (A.K.A, Bethany Hamilton.) She is a surfer and goes surfing every day. She loves surfing so much that she’s homeschooled so she can surf more. Just like every other morning, she puts on her bathing suit and goes out to surf and it was almost the exact same thing that happens every morning. The thing that was different was her arm got bitten off by a shark! After that her life totally changed. She got so famous. She barely was in Hawaii because she was touring so much. Other than getting famous most of the other things were bad.
I’m pretty sure everyone knows about the movie Soul Surfer. A really cool part of this book is that in the book it shows Beth’s movie journal. It kind of shows you what happened behind the scenes of the movie.
This book is not hard but there are a few words that are confusing because they’re Hawaiian. I thought it was really cool because i’ve always been a fan of hers. I would give this book **** because there are some sort of boring parts but if you don’t read them the book doesn’t make sense. It’s a really good book and I think you should read it.
Little House In The Big Woods By Laura Ingalls Wilder
Long ago a girl named Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in the big woods of Wisconsin in a little log house. She lived with her older sister Mary, her baby sister Carrie, and her ma and pa, and there watchdog jack. Back then kids used to call there parents ma and pa instead of mother and father. This book is about her and her life and how they lived back then. Laura is a energetic girl who loves to play and loves being with her family. Her older sister Mary is way more different then Laura, for example Laura loves playing outside and getting dirty but Mary likes to keep her dress clean and listens to her parents. Some parts of the book is really nice and mellow but some of the other parts really has alot of adventure. When you read this book you learn how they lived back then, like when Lauras pa goes out to hunt food or how they made food back then like what kind of materials they used. This book is also when Laura and Mary have new expierences like when Laura and Mary go to town for the first time. I would recomend this book to somebody who loves adventure and likes books about other people and how they lived. I would rate this book 5 stars because when i first looked at this book I did not want to read it, but when i had to read this book it was really good and one more reason why i loved this book is because that it was really cool how i learned how they lived back then and specificly how the author of this book lived.