Category Archives: Mystery

Genre

Feb
16
2017

Evil Spy School, by Stuart Gibbs

Posted by

Evil Spy School is about a kid named Ben Ripley who goes to a spy school and an evil spy school, called SPYDER. The two schools are rivals. Ben fought in two wars with one of the schools. Evil spy school is located toward the bottom of Florida in a secret campus were only people who have permission slips are allowed to get out of the campus. Spy school is located toward the top of Florida and it is not as secret as SPYDER. This is the third book in the series so I recommend to read the first and second one that is called Spy School and Spy Camp.

Ben is brave, good at math, and gullible. Ben is good at math because he says it is a skill of his. He is brave because he goes to evil spy school not knowing he was sent there on purpose. He is gullible because he does the math to pinpoint a target for accuracy to fire the missile. He was tricked into doing math by SPYDER. Ben is not funny so do not expect this book to be funny. No one he meets is funny either.

One of the most interesting parts is that Ben gets expelled on purpose to go to SPYDER to find out information about what their plan is. He got expelled by blowing up the principal’s office. Another interesting part is that Ben discovers new stuff like that Sandy Hook (a beach) was a spot to keep missiles. Another thing he discovers is that the Statue of Liberty is a spot where the army watched over the city. The stuff he discovers is not true in real life so do not try them or look for them ever. At least I do not think they are real.


I enjoyed this book because Ben met new people on the way and all their personalities were different. I also enjoyed this book because Ben is a surprising character. You never know what he is going to do. I would recommend this book because if I am writing a book review on it, it would mean I like it. I also would recommend this book because Ben and his friends are not funny so it makes it more serious. This book did not remind me of Steve Harvey because Steve is a comedian for a TV show. It reminds me of the army when they are in war because they would be really serious. I would rank it, four and a half stars.

Feb
16
2017

Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett

Posted by

 

Where’s Vermeer’s A Lady Writing?

I read the book Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett over early January. It is set in in Chicago, Illinois and the time period is probably recent past. Calder Pillay and Petra Andalee are searching for a famous painting by the artist Johannes Vermeer, named A Lady Writing. They start to see things that the professional investigators can’t see. Also, in the illustrations there is a hidden pentomino code, as Calder is obsessed with pentominoes and they help him figure out some clues. If you didn’t know, pentominoes (they are usually in the form of a little plastic chip) are 5 equal squares put together to make 12 different letters of the alphabet. They are: F, I, L, N, P, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z.

 

Calder Pillay and Petra Andalee are super curious and can make connections easily. Petra and Calder use Calder’s pentominoes to randomly discover clues, like when they use their pentominoes to figure out something is hidden in Delia Dell Hall, nicknamed Delia Dell. This is a good skill for them and it has led them to many conclusions. They are curious because they decide to take the matter of the theft into their own hands. They’re also really good at seeing things that other people cannot see in this theft. They figured out where A Lady Writing was and nobody else could figure it out. There are many decisions that are made by Calder and Petra that are really influential to the story. For example, they have to decide if they want to tell Ms. Hussey (their 6th Grade teacher) about their investigation or if they want to open Mrs. Sharpe’s mail, big events that change their investigation or trust with other characters.

 

I absolutely loved the book. I thought it was really fast paced. I love how Petra and Calder are made fun of by their classmate (because they spend so much time together) by saying that they are boyfriend and girlfriend and how they eventually come to not care about her words, move past it and move forward with their investigation. I loved the chapter about Halloween. Petra dresses up like a lady from her dream, which Calder has seen before, which is also the lady in A Lady Writing. Super coincidental, or is it?

 

I recommend this book so much. If you like good mysteries with a good clever touch (like the hidden code in the illustrations), then this is the book for you. It is really full of action. There is a little bit of violence and an injury so I wouldn’t recommend this book for littler kids. I love art and before I read this book I didn’t know who Vermeer was, but now I am excited to see his other works.

 

My rating of this book is (drumroll, please):

Five stars. Amazing book. Really well written. It includes some beautiful and interesting language.

 

Feb
16
2017

The News Crew, By Walter Dean-Myers

Posted by

 

  One book that I read this month and enjoyed was the News Crew. The News Crew is a series and the first book is called The News Crew. The book is written by Walter Dean Myers. The main character in the News Crew is Zander. Xander goes to school at DaVinci Academy in Harlem, New York. The issue that the main character goes through is that the assistant principal wants him expelled. The book takes place in modern day.

Zander is brave, smart and curious. He is brave because he stands up to Mr. Culpeper, the vice principal when he wants to throw Zander out of the school. The tension between the two of them started when he was misbehaving in the cafeteria. The vice principal wants to expel Zander because he is not gifted enough to go to a school for the gifted.  He is smart because he writes in his free time. He is curious because he always wants to know about a topic when he hears it. He writes about the topics that he is curious about for the Cruisers, the school newspaper.

 

One part of the book that I enjoyed was when the school newspaper kids met in the media room to talk about what they would write about. This was one of my favorite parts because it educated me on world history. It taught me that the civil rights movement is still a huge issue now. Another part I enjoyed was when Zander saw Mr. Culpeper in the hallway and ran away. It was one of my favorite parts because it was really funny in the illustration. It is also one of my favorite parts because the author used some interesting words like   to describe the moment. One big decision that my main character made was to stand mischievous. to Mr. Culpeper because that would have expelled him from the school. Don’t get me wrong Zander is smart but he makes some bad decisions. One time he went into the girls’ bathroom when he should have gone to the boys.
I enjoyed the book a lot because it fit my reading style, a fast moving pace. Another reason why I enjoyed the book was because I felt I could relate to the adjectives that I would describe him as, curious, smart and brave. I think many people can relate to the book and that is why I think other people would enjoy it. I would recommend this book because everyone can relate to the book in different ways, which will allow lots of people to enjoy the book. The News Crew can relate to any book that highlights a character who goes to school. Some examples of books are: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Year of the Griffin and Percy Jackson and the lightning thief. (The beginning of the book). The book can connect to everyone in our fourth grade because everyone is a news reporter and Zander, the main character is a News reporter. I would give the book five stars.

Jun
14
2016

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Posted by

imgresThe Harry Potter series is by J.K. Rowling is a really magical book series. The book takes place in Hogwarts, and the main characters are Harry, Hermione, and Ron. This book is different than the ones before, because there is a twist at the end and it will surprise you. You should still read the series in order, because, if you don’t, you’ll get confused by a lot of things in the books. On a scale of one to five, I’d give this book a four because the book is really magical, but I was a little disappointed: I wanted something to happen that didn’t happen. The book is magical because there are so many cool creatures, spells, wizards, witches, and mysteries. Enjoy the book review comic!

FullSizeRender_1

FullSizeRender_2

Jun
14
2016

The Little Prince, By Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Posted by

The book I am reviewing is The Little Prince By Antoine de Saint Exupéry. The main characters are the Little Prince and the man. The Little Prince is telling the man about his planet in the sky. It takes place in a desert in around 1943 I think but I’m not sure. The book was written in 1943. I would give this book 5 stars ☆☆☆☆☆ because it was a super good book and I would recommend it to 3rd/4th graders through any adult. This is my script:

Narrator–  Hi. This is a part of the little prince. I really liked this book and I would give it 5 out of 5 stars. It is about a child who draws a snake and shows it to his parents and they said don’t draw, just learn math and spelling. So when he got older he became a pilot. One day his plane crashed and he met an extraordinary boy. That boy was the little prince. I hope you enjoy the performance!

Man– Tell me the story of the fourth planet you visited,

The Little Prince–  The fourth planet I visited, belonged to a businessman. This man was so busy in all his work with numbers, he didn’t even raise his head when I arrived. ‘Hello’ I said ‘Your cigar has gone out.’

Businessman–  ‘3 and 2 make 5. 5 and 7 make 12. 12 and 3 make 15. Hello.15 and 7 make 22. 22 and 6 make 28. No time to light it again. 26 and 5 make 31. Whew! That amounts to 501,622,731,’

The Little Prince–   ‘Five million what?’

Businessman–  ‘Hmm? You’re still there? 501,0000… I don’t remember… I have so much work to do! I’m a serious man. I can’t be bothered with children! 2 and 5 make 7…’’

The Little Prince–  ‘Five million what?’

Businessman–  ‘For the 60 years I’ve lived on this planet, I’ve been interrupted only 4 times. The first was 37 years ago, when a roach fell on my desk from god knows where. It had made a terrible noise, and I made 4 mistakes in my calculations. The second time was 19 years ago, when I was interrupted by a fit of rage. I haven’t time to get angry. I’m a serious person. The third time was 10 years ago when, I started thinking about how many stars there are that I can’t see and, I lost my place and had to start over. The fourth time…well… is right now! Where was I? 501,000,000…’

The Little Prince–   ‘Five million what?’

Businessman–  ‘Oh, the little things you see in night.’

The Little Prince–  ‘bugs?’

Businessman-  ‘No ,those shiny things.’’

The Little Prince–  ‘Fireflies?’

Businessman–   ‘No, those little golden things that make lazy people daydream. Now, I’m a serious person. I have no time for daydreaming.’

The Little Prince–  ‘Ohh. You mean stars.’

Businessman-‘Yes, stars.’

Narrator: To me, the point of this book was to tell the reader, ‘You don’t always have the perspective of a child, but, try to see things the way they do because children are the next generation, so, if you crush their dreams, they will never happen.’This was one of my favorite scenes because it makes you think about the stars and stars are beautiful. I hope you enjoyed watching! Bye!

Jun
14
2016

HOLES BY LOUIS SACHAR

Posted by

 

518Ts+tXaLLI read the book Holes by Louis Sachar. The main character is: Stanley. The main problem is that Stanley got sent to Camp Green Lake for no reason. (Camp Green Lake is a camp for kids who do bad things. Or is i?…) All they do is dig holes that are five feet deep and wide. It’s not a good place to be. The setting of the book is Camp Green Lake because the nearest town would be five miles away by car.

One big event that happened is: Zero (a boy from Camp Green Lake that he’s friends with) runs away and Stanley runs after him, but when they find each other, they are already the middle of nowhere. This event is so important because when they can’t find the camp, they realize that they need food or water. And fast. Two parts of the book that were my favorite is: at the end of the book when Stanley goes home with Zero because Zero finally finds a home. Another example is when Stanley gets his nickname, Caveman, because you know it’s a start to a good book.

One adjective to describe Stanley’s personality is brave, because he realizes that Camp Green Lake is wanting something, but they have to dig it up. Another adjective that describes Stanley is kind, because he rescued Zero from the waste land. The last adjective is clumsy, because he is the slowest digger, and also because he falls a lot. One quote that helped me understand Stanley’s personality is: “I always seem to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time.” Why that made me understand him, is because that means he is brave, because he has to stand up to who ever is there, and figure things out.

I really enjoyed the book, because the author made you feel like you were there. Another reason is that it is a book that has a bunch of things whipped into it. Drama, humor, sadness, and adventure. I would recommend the book, because like I just said, it has whatever kind of book you’re into. It really has a story to tell. I would give this book four and a half stars.

Jun
14
2016

The Lemonade Crime by Jacqueline Davies

Posted by

81l9bOSHnPL-1

I’m reading the Lemonade Crime. It’s the second book in the Lemonade War series. I’m doing a diorama for my book review. I hope you guys like my diorama. The Lemonade Crime is about 3 kids, Scott, Evan, and Jessie. Scott stole $208, well that is what Evan and Jessie think.

In the book, Jessie accuses Scott of stealing $208 from Evan. She decided Scott should have a trial by jury. She assigned each person in the class a job for the trial. The jobs are judge, jury, plaintiff, defendant, lawyer, and witness. The trial is going to take place after school on Friday on the school playground. If Scott is found guilty of stealing the money, he will have to give his Xbox 20/20 to Evan forever. If Scott is found not guilty, Evan and Jessie will have to apologize to him in front of the whole class during Monday Morning Meeting.

The scene I chose for my diorama is when Jessie is setting up the ‘courtroom’. She is setting it up on the playground. She had a whole plan before she set it up. This scene is important because the courtroom on the playground is where the trial will happen. The outcome of the book all depends on the trial and all the characters are involved in that scene.

The materials that I used for my diorama are: a shoe box, mini sports balls, colored paper, plastic trees, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, a small cardboard box, markers, glue and scissors. I tried to set up the playground ‘courtroom’ just like Jessie did in the book.

I enjoyed making my diorama. It was really hard to make. I am very proud of it. This book was really good. I would recommend this series of books to fourth graders. It’s important to know that you have to read this series in order to understand everything that’s going on. I would give this book a five star rating for two reasons: (1) the action started really quickly and (2) a fourth grade was going to have a trial by jury themselves, and that’s really unusual.

IMG_5125

IMG_5124

IMG_5123

 

 

Jun
14
2016

The Harry Potter Series by J.K.Rowling

Posted by

9780545162074_p0_v2_s1200x630This review is on the great series called Harry Potter by J.K Rowling.  This is a series of 7 books: The Sorcerer’s Stone, The Chamber of Secrets, The Prisoner of Azkaban, The Goblet of Fire, The Order of the Phoenix, The Half Blood Prince, and The Deathly Hallows. Each book tells the story of a year at Hogwarts and the summer vacation except for the last book which covers some of the future. These are probably the best seven books I have ever read. The main character is an eleven year old boy (in the first book) named Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The big problem in this series is that a dark wizard named Voldemort is trying to kill Harry.  This series takes place in England in 1991.  

It is very challenging to choose the most important events in such a big series, but I have chosen three. One huge event that changes Harry’s life is in The Prisoner of Azkaban, when Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban (the wizarding jail). Throughout the series Sirius becomes more important and a bigger part of Harry’s life, this is why his escape is important. Another big event is at the end of The Goblet of Fire. This is when Lord Voldemort comes back and tries to kill Harry. Harry just barely escapes, but that’s the least of his worries…now the darkest wizard is out to basically kill everyone but his closest followers and nobody will believe Harry that he is back. A third big event is the the Battle of Hogwarts in The Deathly Hallows. Many people close to Harry die in this battle which affects his life greatly for the worse.

Harry is very fair. I say this because in the fourth book ha could have cheated in a tournament but chose not to. Harry is also mentally strong. I say this because he is literally having a conversation with the most dangerous person ever and does not break down. A third thing I would describe harry as is brave. I would say he is brave because he was willing to go somewhere where there was a 99% chance he would die. A quote that explains harry is “I don’t go looking for trouble, trouble usually finds me”. I think this explains Harry because he’s always getting himself into a bad situation but he does not want to be in them.

I loved this series! One reason why I thought it was great was because it was I am an adventure fan and this is definitely adventure. I would totally recommend it, especially if you like Percy Jackson. I think any adventure fan would like it. On a scale of 1 to 5 I would give this series a 1,000!

I hope you like my Show Me. Just so you know, there are some random pauses in it. Sorry!

Jun
13
2016

The Last Kids On Earth by Max Brallier

Posted by

51BtFHNN45L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_The book that I chose to read is called The Last Kids on Earth by Max Brallier. The book is part of a series by the same author. The main characters are Jack, Quint, Dirk and June. The main problem is that the planet has been invaded by zombies and monsters and the main character Jack is trying to stop the zombie apocalypse. He is trying to turn the zombies into humans again. The setting of the book is at the school, the treehouse in Jack’s backyard and in the neighborhood where they all live.    

One big event that changed the story was when Jack met his friend because he was going to be all by himself and then he just found a partner. This event was important because, it was easier for him to fight because then he’d have another person and an extra person is really helpful. One thing that I found most interesting was when Jack first shows up at Quint’s house and Jack starts killing all of the zombies. I liked that part because it involves a back yard and a person silently killing a bunch of zombies. Another thing that I found interesting was when everyone at once attacked Blarg who is the big monster in the story. I liked that because I like big battles.

The first adjective I would use to describe Jack is brave. He was brave because he would attack all of the monsters. Another adjective to describe him is determined because everyone else wanted to give up at one point but he said “Now, if we just try a little harder, we can do it.” And he didn’t let them give up. He has a big heart so he is caring. All he wanted to do throughout the whole book was to save this girl named June from the zombies. One quote that Jack said was “I’m an orphan.” It is an important quote because it shows that he only needs to take care of himself since he doesn’t have a family.

I enjoyed this book because it involved a lot of war and it involved monsters and zombies. I like those things because they both involve weapons. I recommend this book because it has a great story, great author, and great illustrations. I think this book is related to the TV show called The Walking Dead because that’s like a town that gets invaded by zombies and the book is like a town that gets invaded too. I would rate this book 4 stars!!!!!!!!!!!