Posted by 24mylesg

The book that I am reading is Zombies Don’t Play Soccer by Marsha Thornton. The story takes place at soccer practice during the day. The main problem in this book is the Bailey Boomers, a soccer team, has a new coach named Grave, who turns into a zombie. She is making the soccer team practice till they drop. I think That is a sign that the coach is mean. When the Boomers first met their coach, they said her shoulders were bigger than a football player with their shoulder pads on.

The main character in the book is the new coach, Grave. I think that Grave is trying to change her personality. At the beginning of the book, Grave was mean. She keeps telling the Boomers to hurry up and go and move it and make a goal and run faster. She is never happy with them, and the Boomers thought she didn’t look very nice. She makes a big decision towards the end of the book, and that decision is to be nicer to the Boomers. This happens when the Boomers were playing one of the best teams and coach Grave snaps out of being a zombie (even though it never really says that she turned into a zombie).

An interesting part in the book was when after practice some of kids from the Boomers hid behind a bush and spied on their coach because there was a strange woman who was yelling at the new coach. The strange woman said, “Come with me,” but the coach shook her head. Then the lady said that she would sleep in this town forever. I thought that meant she would have to stay here forever and become a zombie or something dead! The lady who was yelling at the coach turned out to be coach Grave’s grandmother. Then the next day when some of the Boomers were at practice the coach acted like no one was there. The coach was staring into space and thought that there was no one there, just like a zombie! Here’s a fun fact from the book: If you try and look a zombie in the eye, it will move its head so it can’t look at you in the eye. That’s how you can tell if someone is really a zombie.

I enjoyed the book because of three reasons. The first reason was because the author used a lot of beautiful language. The second reason is that I thought the characters were really funny. My favorite was Eddie because he wasn’t afraid of anything and he would make fun of their zombie coach. The third reason I liked this book was because the author didn’t really say whether Grave was a zombie or not. I would recommend this book to 4th graders and 3th graders because of the characters and how funny it is, and how the author keeps a lot of stuff secret and you have to find it out yourself. I would give this book 5 stars because of its great vocabulary and jokes.

Dec

2015

The School for Good and Evil, By Soman Chainani

Posted by 24ellal

The book I read was called The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani. Agatha and Sophie the main characters, are from a town called Gavaldon. One day they are taken away at night by the school master. The school master runs the “School for Good and Evil.” Everyone at Gavaldon thought Sophie would go to Good and Agatha would go to Evil. There was one “mistake” though, Agatha ended up going to the school for Good being clueless of what to say and do, “She did the first thing she thought of and delivered a swift, loud fart.” And Sophie ended up at the school for Evil looking like a pretty princess.

Agatha wants to get home but Sophie wants to stay thinking that the girls will switch schools. Sophie always tried to be good. She would use Agatha as one of her deeds for being good. She used Agatha by tricking her that she was her friend. She did that by going to Agatha’s house everyday and give Agatha her favorite cookies. She used Agatha because Agatha’s father left when she was young and she lived in a graveyard with her mother who was a doctor that had no patients. Agatha was shy and had no friends except for maybe Sophie. She had a cat named Reaper that kept her company, but she had a very weary life. She never left the graveyard because people made fun of her and called her Evil when she walked by.

Sophie had lost her mother when she was young and had a very selfish father who was never proud of Sophie because she was a girl. Sophie’s father always wanted a boy so he could be worshiped and have more similarities with him. Sophie dreamt often about going to the School for Good and getting a handsome prince. She wanted to have her own fairy tale. Sophie is also obsessed with beauty. Every day she would put makeup and lipstick on. Boys didn’t care that she was selfish and rude they just thought she was pretty.

I really enjoyed this book, it was funny, exciting and sad. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who likes fairy tales, chapter books, and illustrations.

I rate this book five stars!

If you would like to take the test to see if you’re an Ever(Ever After) or a Never(Never After) go on to www.schoolforgoodandevil.com. Also if you really like the book you can read the other books in the series. And you should also check the date to see when the movie comes out on the website.

Sep

2015

Three Times Lucky By: Sheila Turnage

Posted by Pema

The book starts with a normal day in Tupelo Landing. The Colonel had come home, and Miss Lana had left for Charleston. They are the foster parents of Moses (Mo) LoBeau, the main character in this story. But the next day is not so normal – Mo never expected the murder that day and the mystery of who did it.

The author Sheila Turnage titled the book Three Times Lucky as Mo was always lucky. The first time she was lucky was when her house got flooded in a hurricane and her mother tied her to a raft. The second time she got lucky was when she washed ashore on the raft and the Colonel found and rescued her before he fainted. The third time she was lucky was when the Colonel and Miss Lana took her in.

Tupelo landing is a small town, where everybody knows everybody. Mo’s best friend is Dale, the second smallest kid in fifth grade. Mo and Dale form a partnership called the Desperado Detectives. The reason they formed a detective group is because they wanted to find out who killed Mr. Jesse Tatum.

Joe Starr, a detective who came to town before the murder of Jesse Tatum, will help to find out who had killed Jesse Tatum and why. Could the bank robbery twelve years ago, the death of Dolph Andrews and Jesse’s dead cousin have to do with the murder of Jesse Tatum?

Dale had stolen Jesse’s rowboat, and on the night of the murder Dale had gone to return it. As result Dale suddenly became a suspect. Starr investigated Dale and found him to be innocent. However, Starr pretended to have found Dale guilty to see if the actual criminal would get sloppy, because he would think he was off the hook.

(“Dale, I’d like you to ride out of here in the back of my car. In fact come here.”… Starr produced a pair of handcuffs. “Hold out your hands.”…. “I’m not charging Dale with anything.” Starr said. … “Dale’s no killer, I know that. but there is a chance the killer is watching this investigation, and if he thinks Dale’s our suspect, he might get sloppy.” pg. 155)

Since Dale was ‘sorta’ guilty there was a guard following him around . . . or that is what they thought. Could this guy be the answer to the mystery?

When Mo and Dale get home that night they find Mo’s house has been trashed. But where’s Miss Lana? The killer must have taken Miss Lana. What does he want from her? Starr arrives at Mo’s house. Dale shows Starr the guy who had been following him around thinking that this was one of Starr’s guys. Starr looks at the guy but this guy is Slate, the guy who robbed the bank twelve years ago. Did he take Miss Lana? But what would Slate want from Miss Lana and did he kill Jesse Tatum?

Can Mo find Miss Lana before it’s too late…..?

This book was really good. I loved all the mysteries, it would leave you wondering so that you wanted to keep reading. You wanted to find out what would happen next. I also liked this book because you couldn’t guess what was going to happen next. For example, I didn’t guess that Slate was the murderer. The author was very descriptive as she used a lot of similes which made the reading much more interesting. You will like this book if you like mysteries, and especially if you like cliff hangers. I would rate this book 5 stars.

Sep

2015

From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

Posted by Finn

This summer I read From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. The story takes place in a laundromat, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a school, a fountain, and Mrs, Frankweiler’s house. I think the story takes place in the present. The main characters in the book are Claudia and Jamie, who are brother and sister, Mrs. Frankweiler and her lawyer, Saxonberg. The main problem is that Claudia and Jamie are trying to find out if a sculpture of an angel in the Met was made by Michelangelo.

The story is about Claudia and Jamie running away from home and staying at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An event that changed the direction of the story was when Claudia and Jamie saw Angel for the first time. Claudia wanted to learn more about Angel and Michelangelo so when she learned that Mrs. Frankweiler sold the statue to the museum for $250 she decided to find her. Claudia made a big decision by running away. At the end they resolved the problem of learning about Angel from Mrs. Frankweiler.

I “kind of” enjoyed my book because only a few parts were interesting, like when the kids were at Mrs. Frankweiler’s house and they had to find the sketch of Angel. I didn’t love the book because I thought it got less interesting when Claudia and Jamie started to learn about Angel. One more reason why I didn’t love my book was because it ended without you knowing what Claudia and Jamie did with the sketch of Angel. I think any type of reader would enjoy this book because it doesn’t really have a specific genre. I would rate this book three stars.

Aug

2015

Emily Windsnap and the Ship of Lost Souls

Posted by Julia

My book is called, Emily Windsnap and the Ship of Lost Souls. It is by Liz Kessler. She lives in Cornwall, England. If you want to read the first book I would not suggest reading this book reveiw. Emily Windsnap is an Eighth Grade girl who is also a Semi-mer. (a Semi-mer is a Human but if the go deep enough into water they turn into a mermaid/man) Her best friend is Shona who is a full time mermaid and Her other friend Mandy (who used to bully her) is a full time Human. And her Boyfriend Aaron is a Semi-mer like her. This is the sixth book in the series I suggest reading the other books first: 1,The Tail of Emily Windsnap. 2, Emily Windsnap and the Monster from the Deep. 3, Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist. 4, Emily Windsnap and the Siren’s Secret. 5, Emily Windsnap and the Land of the Midnight Sun. This book takes place mostly at a place called Five Bays. It is run By Lyle and Lowenna Waters. She goes to Five Bays on a class trip (Shona’s School Shiprock also is coming) and everything there is unorganized and Lowenna is not there. The Emily and Aaron go and find a hidden place with a chair looking out onto the ocean. And then they see a ship that no one else can see and they don’t know why so they tell Mandy and Shona and they try to figure it out.

One day Shona and Emily are out in the water and Emily sees the ship up close and she sees a woman in the ship who she can’t hear but seems to be mouthing the words “Help us!” Then She goes into Lyles office with Mandy and Aaron and talked with Lyle who is suspicious about if they know anything about the ship and they denied knowing anything about it and then before they leave Emily sees a picture on his desk of the woman she saw on the ship. Later they sneak into his office and use his computer to look up the name of the ship which is Prosperous II and find out it is a boat owned by a vacation company. They need to know more so they ended up telling Lyle everything.

I really liked this book a lot and if you want to know more then read the book! If you like adventure books then you would like this book because Emily loves adventure and even admits in the book she can’t help pass up and adventure. I would rate this book five stars.

Aug

2015

When You Reach Me

Posted by Julia

The Author of When You Reach Me is Rebecca Stead. This book takes place in New York Upper West side 1978-1979. The main character is Miranda Sinclair. The other important characters are, Sal (her best friend), Marcus (the boy who punched Sal), The Laughing Man (a homeless guy who is always sticking his head in a mailbox and her friends,Colin and Annemarie (and Julia but Miranda doesn’t like her at first) The situation is she is getting letters and she dosen’t know who is writing them. When she got the first letter her house door was unlocked and the extra key (for if she loses her key) is gone and nothing appears to be stolen. Then she finds the first letter in her library book. This is what the first letter says:

This is hard. Harder than I expected, even with your help. But I have been practicing,and my preparations go well. I am coming to save your friends life,and my own. I ask two favors. First, write me a letter. Second please remember to mention the location of your house key. The trip is a difficult one I will not be myself when I reach you.

This is confusing because why would someone who took the key ask where it is?

If you want here are the other letters but they probably won’t make sense unless you read the book! 🙂

Second letter:

Miranda:

Your letter must tell a story-a true story. You cannot begin now, as most of it has not yet taken place. And even afterward, there is no hurry. But do not

wait so long that your memory fades. I require as much detail as you can provide. The trip is a difficult one, and I must ask my favors while my mind is sound.

A postscript: I know you have shared my first note. I ask you not to share the others. Please. I do not ask this for myself.

The Third letter:

You will want proof 3 p.m today:Colin’s knapsack.

Christmas Day: Tesser well.

April 27th:Studio TV-15

P.S Yawns do serve a purpose. They cool the brain by bringing air high into the nasal passage, which has the effect of increasing alertness.

The last letter:

This is the story I need you to tell this and everything that has led up to it Please deliver your letter by hand you know where to find me. My apologies for the terse instructions. The trip is a difficult one; I carry nothing, and a man can only hold so much paper in his mouth.

I really liked this book because it gives you clues that don’t make sense and then the more you read the more it makes sense. Also the book is the perspective of Miranda’s letter to the letter writer. I would suggest this book if you like books like that and if you like time travel and mini problems aside a bigger one. I would rate this book five stars!

Aug

2015

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Posted by Farin

The name of the book I read is The Mysterious Benedict Society (book one), the book is by Trenton Lee Stewart. The book takes place in Stonetown (somewhere on the planet Earth), in present time. The main characters are Reynard “Reynie” Muldoon, George “Sticky” Washington, Kate “The Great Kate Weather Machine” Wetherall, and Constance Contraire. The main problem is that they have to overcome their differences and learn to work together to save the world from Ledroptha Curtain, and his Whisperer machine before he makes the world his piece of paper.

“Sometimes, Reynie, trouble itself is the key.” – Mr. Benedict. The biggest turning point is when the characters (The Mysterious Benedict Society) worked together to shut down the Whisperer by confusing it. After bickering constantly about all the secrets and things they wouldn’t tell each other, they finally bonded together as a team and friends. Throughout the story an important decision is whether to cheat or not to cheat to get higher up in the ranks to become a messenger. Messengers go into the Whisperer and learn more about how Mr. Curtain is able to bend almost everyone’s minds. In the end the big problems do fade away but their shadows are still there.

This is a breathtaking book, and there are many examples as to why. But, for right now just three. The first example is that the characters are so relatable, a little bit of yourself is in every character. Constance is determined, stubborn, and very resistant to anything she doesn’t like. Reynie is the go to for puzzles, and problems guy. Kate is very resourceful, and adventurous. Finally, Sticky is the know-it-all. The second example is that the story was never boring, or dull, and it never made me want to do other things. The third example is that some of the many riddles and clever wordplay was easy to solve before the characters did, and other times you just have to go along with the book and the characters. The kind of reader that would enjoy this series is a reader that loves to think, and enjoys some mystery as well as action. The book gives you a lot of uncoded messages that you as well as the characters have to figure out. If I were to rate this book from 1 to 10 stars, I’d give it a full on 10. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Jun

2015

The Magicians Elephant

Posted by Clarissa

Elephant Crashes Through Ceiling of Opera House

Baltese – Yesterday, during a magic show while performing at the city opera house, a mysterious magician whose name is unknown made an elephant come crashing through the ceiling. The elephant broke both of Madam La Vaughns legs. After crashing through the ceiling someone called 911 and the police showed up to take the elephant away.

The magician said, “I only intended lilies.” but, how do we know if he only intended lilies if instead of lilies an elephant crashed through the ceiling. After breaking Madam La Vaughn’s legs the magician has been locked up in prison in a tiny prison cell.

There is a boy named Peter Augustus Duchene training to be a soldier by an old soldier Vilna Lutz. This boy said he needs to see the elephant to find his sister but, that makes no sense at all! We have no idea what he is talking about.

A police officer Leo Mantiene is helping keep the elephant away. We have no clue where the elephant is located now but we are sure it isn’t far away.

People all around the city are obsessed with the elephant. The bakers created an oversized pastry filled with cream and sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar and called it an elephant ear. The street vendors sold the pieces of plaster that fell when the elephant fell. The puppet show in the public gardens all are about elephants crashing through ceilings. Even in the ballroom the men and women would dance a simple two step dance called of course the elephant.

Is this no ordinary elephant?

Maybe this elephant will be magical and enchanted.

I made a diorama for this book I cut holes in the sides of the box from three perspectives.

the magicians perspective the audiences perspective