Jan
14
2016

The School for Good and Evil: The Last Ever After By Soman Chainani

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My book is called The School For Good And Evil: The Last Ever After. It is the third book in the series The School For Good And Evil. It was written by Soman Chainani. Sophie and Agatha are the main characters. The main problem is that all of the fairy tales that everyone knows are getting changed and rewritten by the evil Schoolmaster. Instead of good winning, evil is winning. Evil is killing all of the good characters because it has love on its side. Evil got love because Sophie married the evil Schoolmaster. As long as she wears his ring, evil will win all of the fairy tales ever to come and good winning will just be forgotten.

My book is set in two places. One of them is the Blue Forest. The Blue Forest is a forest that students from the school for good and the school for evil used to train in to prepare for the real forest, which is where they would go and live their real fairy tales. The second place that my book is set in is the school for new evil, which includes the school masters tower. The School For New Evil is the School For Evil but in a different and bigger building. The Schoolmaster’s tower is like the Schoolmaster’s house, but it doesn’t have any stairs to go down, you have to fly up and through a window to get in.

Sophie and Agatha were best friends. That was until a boy, Tedros came between them. Tedros is the prince of Camelot. Sophie and Agatha both loved Tedros. Tedros picked Agatha to be his princess. So, Sophie went seeking love. She came upon the evil Schoolmaster and found out that she loved him but he was evil. She married the Schoolmaster and became evil. The Schoolmaster wanted to change all of the fairy tales so that evil would always win and it seemed like evil was right and good was wrong.

Evil characters that have been killed by their good nemeses rise from their grave and find their enemies to kill them. Everything starts dying including the sun. If the sun dies, everyone in the world will die as well. The only way to stop everything dying is if Sophie destroys the Schoolmaster’s ring with Excalibur, Tedros’ father’s sword. Sophie must decide who she wants more. Her best friend, Agatha or her true love, the Schoolmaster.

Sophie is a confused person. She doesn’t know what is right and what is wrong because she always tries to be good, but no one appreciates it so she turns evil. Sophie doesn’t want to be evil, she wants to be happy. The only way for Sophie to be happy is if she finds true love. Sophie found true love but it is evil. For example, on page 2 it says “Sophie reddened, remembering she was all alone in this world. Everyone else had abandoned her. Every desperate effort to be good had been punished with betrayal. She had no family, no friends, no future.  And now, this ravishing boy in front of her was her last hope for love. Panic burnt through her muscles and dried out her throat.  There was no choice anymore. Sophie swallowed and slowly stepped towards him.”

Sophie is also desperate for love. She has always wanted to be good but when she fell in love and it was evil she wasn’t willing to sacrifice love for good. She was too desperate. For example, Sophie once had a choice. Her choice was love or friendship. She could have gone to Camelot with Agatha and been good just by destroying the Schoolmaster’s ring but she couldn’t. She knew she wouldn’t get a second chance at love and by destroying the Schoolmaster’s ring it would mean giving her happy ending to Agatha and losing hers.

Agatha has a very strong personality. She doesn’t let other people take her over or do things for her. For example, on page 147 it says, “If anyone can make Sophie see what love really is…it’s her best friend, isn’t it?” said Agatha. “The league’s old faces melted to childlike stares, as if finally seeing the young girl with hope instead of disdain. Tedros stepped next to his princess, chest proud. “Exactly. Leave Sophie to me.” Agatha’s smile vanished.”

Agatha is also very independent. For example, before she went to the school for good she lived in a small house in a graveyard with her mother and her cat. She did most things by herself and didn’t have any friends. But, Agatha stayed strong and was good even though everyone including herself thought she was evil and a witch.

One of the reasons that I really enjoyed this book was it was very descriptive and it makes you feel like you are experiencing everything that the characters are experiencing. For example, on page 542 it says, “Slowly their eyes drifted upwards, pinned to the trees, and as they adjusted to the darkness, they began to make them out… bony, vulturous shadows, eerily still on the elm branches, not making a sound.” Another reason I really liked this book is that every time they solve one problem it leads to another. It keeps it filled with excitement and action and makes the book very interesting. The last reason is that it doesn’t start with just Agatha or just Sophie, it alternates every chapter and when both of the girls are in the same place, the book says both of their thoughts so that you can actually understand what is going on and why.

I would recommend this book to someone who loves reading fantasy and fractured fairy tales. It is filled with both of those things and makes the book what it is. This book is about good against evil and which one is right and if you like changing concepts you would probably like this book. I would definitely rate this book five stars out of five stars (five being the best and one being the worst.)  

Jan
14
2016

The Chocolate Touch, by Patrick Skene Catling

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This book is called “The Chocolate Touch” by Patrick Skene Catling.  The main character is John Midas.  He is a young boy who is very selfish and loves chocolate. One day he finds a coin on the street that has a chocolate bar on one side and a  fat boy on the other side, and it says “JM”.  He takes this coin to a candy shop and he says to the man,  “I only have this money. Do you accept it here?”  And then the man says,  “Yes, that is the only kind we take.”  So John pays the man and buys a box of chocolate and goes back to his house and puts in under his bed.  At night,  he takes the chocolate out and eats it all and then in the morning when he is brushing his teeth, he says to  his sister,  “Did you get chocolate flavored toothpaste?” because the toothpaste turns to chocolate. John then goes to breakfast and his food turns to chocolate and he loves it.  When he goes to school,  everything there turns to chocolate including his pencil, his lunch, and his glove.

His chocolate touch gets stronger.  At first only the piece of the object that went in his mouth turned to chocolate,    but then when he put anything in his mouth the whole thing turned to chocolate. For example, his trumpet turned to chocolate at band practice. He gets really embarrassed and sad and he runs out of school and goes home. He plans never to go back to school. He asks his dad to take him to the doctor who says he cannot help him.  John has an idea to go to the chocolate store because he thinks the man can help, but the store is gone and there is a sign that says, “for sale” and he starts crying.  He goes home to tell his mom that he has a chocolate touch and she starts crying and he kisses her on the cheek and she turns into a giant chocolate statue.  He gets really scared and runs back to the chocolate store where it was and it was there and he says to the owner who sold him the chocolate earlier, “Help me my mom has turned to chocolate and you need to fix this.”  The man says, “If you have the choice to have  your mother alive and still have the chocolate touch or don’t have the chocolate touch and have your mother be a chocolate statue what would you choose?”  John made the decision to…. (read the book to find out).  

I enjoyed the book because of the adventure and the problem was interesting.  I liked when John ate the whole toothpaste tube because it was funny.  I also liked when he ate his glove and the school bully wanted to eat some too and then the school bully spat it out because it gave John the advantage of having the chocolate touch but then he learned it isn’t an advantage.  I also liked when John bit his best friend’s coin because he thought it wasn’t real silver and he bit it in half.  It showed that it wasn’t an advantage at all and just made him lose his best friend.

I would recommend this book to someone who likes funny and interesting books.  I would give this four and half stars because sometimes there was stuff that happened and I couldn’t figure it out.

 

Jan
14
2016

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone By J.K. Rowling

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In Harry Potter the main characters are… Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. One night a powerful dark wizard comes into the house of James and Lily Potter and their one year old son Harry Potter. This is Lord Voldemort. James tries to hold him off while Lily runs away with Harry. Voldemort killed James and went to kill Harry, but Harry’s mother begged Voldemort to kill her instead of Harry. Voldemort killed Lily Potter and went after Harry. But something special about him made Voldemort lose his powers and Voldemort  just made it out alive. That is how Harry got his lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

Harry went to live with his muggle (non magical) aunt and uncle. Harry did not know he was a wizard until ten years later, and that is where it all begins, when Harry goes into the wizard world. In this book the main problem is that a giant three headed dog named fluffy is guarding the Sorcerer’s Stone, the Sorcerer’s Stone is a ruby red stone and as long as you’re holding it you can never die. Fluffy is guarding the stone for Dumbledore, because Voldemort is trying to get it to come back to power. The dark arts are people who murder other people with a spell.  Harry’s defence against the dark arts teacher meanwhile is keeping a dark secret that Harry will never forget, once he finds out what it is.

Harry is happy when he is playing quidditch. When Snape takes points off Gryffindor for no reason Harry gets mad. When one of Harry’s friends are hurt he is sad. Professor Snape, a greasy hair, crooked nose git, hates Harry. Professor Snape hates Harry because when he and Harry’s father were in school together they were enemies. Snape is the potions master (he teaches potions.) But Snape has always wanted the Defence Against The Dark Arts job. At his first quidditch match, Harry got his broom jinxed either by Professor Snape, which is likely, or Professor Quirrell, his defence against the dark art teacher.  On Halloween a troll was set loose and got locked in a bathroom with Hermione, and thanks to Harry and Ron, Hermione was safe and they all ended up all alive. Harry, Hermione and Ron decide go to get the Sorcerer’s Stone they know they have to go through a bunch of obstacles before they can get the stone. Some of the obstacles are…  devil snare, troles, wizard chess, and potions.

I REALLY enjoyed this book because it has fantasy and fiction in it. I also liked it because it has a lot of beautiful language in it. I recommend this book because it has a good and an evil, and a good evil, and a too good! This is my favorite type of FICTION!! If I were to rate this book I would give it 5 stars being the best 1 being the worst I would give it a 5,                        

1 2 3 4 5!!

* * * * *

Jan
14
2016

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan

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searchI read Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. I enjoyed the first book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, so I read the second one in the Percy Jackson series. The main character is Percy Jackson. The problem in my story concerns a boy named Luke, who used to be a friend of Percy’s but then betrayed him. Luke poisoned the tree that used to be Talia the daughter of Zeus. That tree would put a magical shield around the camp to protect it from monsters. Now that it was poisoned it could no longer protect the camp. The story mostly took place in part of an ocean called the Sea of Monsters in the year 2013.

He is also really brave and likes adventures because he was willing to go on a quest that no man has ever returned from. Percy is also athletic because he loves to do flips and to practice every drill there is at camp. One of the hardest drills is a rock climbing wall that is very high and squirts out burning hot lava.

Percy did some interesting things throughout the story including going on a ferry that had Luke and some monsters on it. Another event that was interesting was a horse race with two people in a carriage that they had to design and build. A big decision that Percy made was to battle one of his brothers – a big ugly cyclops that had killed all of the people that have entered his island . But not someone named Jason who slashed his sword in his one eye and has half blinded the cyclops.

I like this book because it has a lot of fighting and adventure. My favorite fight was when Percy and Annabeth fight the cyclops and Annabeth puts on a cap that turns her invisible. Annabeth called out ”HEY LOOK OVER HERE REMEMBER ME! IT’S NOBODY.” And the cyclops said “No not nobody I remember you.” That is what Jason called him self.

I think the genre of the book is adventure, action, and mystery. I would recommend this book if you like battles. Also if you like Greek mythology. I would rate this book five stars.

Jan
14
2016

Dead End In Norvelt, By: Jack Gantos

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imgres-1The book that I am reading is called Dead End In Norvelt by Jack Gantos. This book is about a boy named Jack. Jack lives with his parents in Norvelt, Pennsylvania. This book takes place in 1962.There are two books in the series.

Jack’s Dad, A World War II veteran, wins a plane and goes about rebuilding it so that he “Can go anywhere he wants, anytime.” He especially wants to get out of Norvelt, a town he believes is full of “Communists,” unlike Florida where, in his words, “A hard working man can make big money building houses for rich people.” Jack’s father lies to his wife, getting Jack to help him build a fake a bomb shelter in the barn, when he is actually fixing up the plane and building a runway.

Jack is very interesting because every time he gets nervous or gets scared, his nose starts to bleed. It is like a red Niagra falls. Unfortunately, Jack overlooks this when he lies to his mom about what he and his father are up to with the  When his mother finds out about the runway, Jack runs away and his nose bleeds all over his face. When his mother catches up with him, she grounds him for life.

Jack is also a history buff and loves to read. He works for an old lady named Miss Volker who used to be a nurse and now writes obituaries for the local paper. Because her hands don’t work anymore, she soaks them in hot wax and gets Jack to write the articles for her. I think Jack will start writing his own articles for the newspaper after Miss Volker dies because he likes to help Miss Volker.

One thing Jack doesn’t like is examining dead people. When his friend Bunny takes him into the back room of the mortuary where her father works, she tells him to touch the dead guy’s neck and Jack doesn’t want to do it. Bunny takes Jack’s hand and makes him touch the dead man and it feels “Cold and stiff,” which Jack finds very disturbing.
I really like this book so far because Jack loves to read history. I also like it because I can never guess what is coming next. I would recommend this book to ages 10 and up because there is blood and death involved. I can relate to this book on a friendship level because of Bunny and Miss Volker, I have not found myself in the same circumstances as Jack. Still, I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Dec
18
2015

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, By J.K. Rowling

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imgresThe name of the book that I am reviewing is Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K Rowling. The main characters are Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione. Harry Potter lived with his mean uncle, and aunt, with their kid Dudley, before he went to school in England. The main problem is an evil sorcerer, Voldemort, who killed Harry’s parents and he was trying to find a powerful stone. Harry Potter is a boy who d0esn’t get bothered by a lot of thing because he is used to it because of his aunts and uncles.

He thinks the powerful stone is hidden in a mirror but he doesn’t know that the particular mirror only shows your biggest desires in your life. So Harry and his friends tried to defeat Voldemort and they succeeded. The book takes place in their school called Hogwarts.

One interesting part is when Harry, Hermione and Harry found an ogre that was trying to kill them so they made it faint by casting some spells and banging it in the head. There was a teacher named Hagrid and he had a three headed dog. While Harry and his friends were sneaking around the school they found Hagrid’s dog.

The dog woke up which woke up the whole school, Hagrid told Harry and his friends to cast  a spell to sing the 3 headed dog to sleep, and they did. It was really sad when for Halloween and Christmas, Harry’s “family” didn’t want Harry to come home.

I enjoyed the the book because there are so many adventures. I will give it five stars.

Dec
17
2015

The Penderwicks, by Jeanne birdsall

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Cover-Penderwicks-1-450wThe name of the book I read was The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall. It’s the story of four sisters on their summer vacation with their father and the people they meet. The story takes place at an estate called Arundel with amazing gardens and tons of tall trees. The Penderwicks stay in a little house on the big estate.

There are five important characters in my book. The five characters are Jeffrey, who I think is the main character, Sky, Jane, Rosalind, Batty and Hound, the Penderwicks, dog. Batty is the youngest of the four sisters then Jane, Sky, and Rosalind, the oldest. Jeffrey is a boy they meet at the house they have rented for their vacation. The Penderwick sisters are trying to help Jeffrey because his mother doesn’t listen to what Jeffrey wants to do. She wants him to grow up to be like his grandfather and go to a boarding school called Pencey Academy where he will become a soldier but Jeffrey has different ideas. He wants to be a musician. Sky, my favorite of the sisters, is adventurous and has a very short temper when dealing with Mrs. Tifton, Jeffrey’s mother and owner of the estate.

Mrs. Tifton doesn’t like Sky or any of the Penderwicks. She thinks they’re a bad influence on Jeffrey. Sky always gets into trouble like when Mrs.Tifton’s garden club comes over and Sky, Jane, and Jeffrey mess up her garden by accidentally ruining her rose bush with a soccer ball. In one scene, Sky was eavesdropping on Mrs. Tifton and she heard her saying bad things about her sisters and her mother who had died from cancer.  Sky barges in and stands up to Mrs. Tifton.

Batty, the youngest sister, likes to visit the gardener’s bunnies. One day when Rosalind can’t take her to visit the bunnies and neither can Sky or Jane, Batty goes alone even though she’s not allowed to go by herself. When Batty leaves the bunnies, she forgets the most important rule – to latch the screen door. Mrs. Tifton is very controlling. Mrs. Tifton and her boyfriend Dexter, my least favorite character, take Jeffrey to see Pencey and when they come back Mrs.Tifton says he will begin going to Pencey Academy in two weeks. That night he runs away and stays with the Penderwicks.

Jeffrey is usually a very brave boy like when he saved Batty from a bull. He is also very kind like when Sky got mad at him and said mean things but he forgave her right away.

I really enjoyed this book and I think it was a very interesting and fun story to read and I’ve already started reading the next one in the series. My rating from one to five is a 5.  

 

Dec
15
2015

Einstein The Class Hamster, By Janet Tashjian

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imgresMy book review is about EINSTEIN THE CLASS HAMSTER SAVES THE LIBRARY by Janet Tashjian. The main characters in the book are Ned and Einstein. The book takes place at Boerring Elementary school. The students in Ms. Moreno’s class are trying to reopen the school library because it is closed. It closed because they didn’t have enough money to keep paying for  books for so many kids.

Einstein and his friends don’t want the library to close. Einstein’s friends are Ned, Ricky, Bonnie and all of the students and one turtle named Marlon. They need to raise money to save the school library. They were trying to save the school library by making videos of the class pets. They film videos of Marlon the class turtle chasing an olive. Since that didn’t work, Einstein had to save Twinkles (the snake that keeps trying to eat him) and it was a real save. Twinkles was actually in trouble. That save accidentally got on video and they posted it online. When the video was posted online, so many people liked it that they decided to bring it to a studio. The studio really liked it and they wanted to put it on TV. That is how they got all the money to save the school library.

Einstein is a very smart hamster because of his game show. Einstein is smart because he knows a lot of trivia facts and because he sometimes pays attention in school. Unlike most game shows, Einstein’s game show is not on TV. He pretends to have a game show. He shares lots of trivia facts and tasty tidbits. Einstein is a very brave hamster. He proved it when he saved Twinkles.

I really enjoyed the book because it was a really funny book and all of the trivia facts were actually kind of funny.  Einstein is a really funny character in the book. I read the 1st book of EINSTEIN THE CLASS HAMSTER. I thought the 1st book was really good so I thought I would read the 2nd book.  I can’t wait to read the sequel to this book. I loved this book a lot so I gave it a 5 star rating.        

Dec
11
2015

The Chocolate Touch by, Patrick Skene Catling

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51q-9rbQqFL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_The name of the book I have read is The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling. The main characters are John Midas, Susan, Mrs. Midas, Mr. Midas and Miss Plimsole. One day, John Midas was walking and he saw a chocolate store. He went inside and bought a big box of chocolate. When he got home, he opened it and it was only one piece of chocolate. He ate it and he said it was the best chocolate he ever had. It was creamy, sweet, rich and very chocolatey. Now, anything that touched his mouth turned to chocolate. Even his trumpet turned to chocolate when he played it. The Chocolate Touch takes place in John Midas’s house and in his school.

 

There are a few very important things that happened in this book. Like when John brushes his teeth, his toothpaste tasted like chocolate. Also when John kissed his mom she turned to chocolate and could not move. There are quite a few things that changed what was happening in the story. Like when John ate something it immediately turned to chocolate. And when John plays the trumpet, it turns to chocolate and his whole music class saw they freaked out and were in shock .  John is very scared for example when John’s trumpet turned to chocolate he ran right out of the classroom before even telling his teacher he was leaving. John was impolite and polite at the same time for example when John ran home from school and went to his mom’s friend’s house to get the keys to get into his house his mom asked him to say hi to all of her mom’s friends and John said hello and ran home.

 

 

I really enjoyed the book because I love chocolate. I also really enjoyed the book because it was a very short easy read. But if you don’t like chocolate I would not recommend this book because you won’t be able to make as many connections, so you might not understand the book as well. I rate this book 4 and a half stars because it is one of the best books I have ever read in my life.

Dec
11
2015

Hamster Princess, by Ursula Vernon

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imgres-1The book that I read is called Hamster Princess, by Ursula Vernon. The main characters are called Princess Harriet and Ratshade. Harriet is not an average princess. When Harriet was only a tiny baby, a witch who is named Ratshade. cursed her so that when she was at the age of twelve, she would prick her finger but it also meant she would sleep for a very long time.  The curse made her invincible, but it also meant what I told you before, she would sleep for a very long time. The settings of the book are Harriet’s parents’ castle, her parents’ village, in which the name of her village is Hamster Vill, and other Kings’ villages in which are friend’s parents villages

One important part of the book is when Harriet gets cursed. It meant nothing could hurt her until she was twelve years old. Another important part of the book is what she does with the power. The power is invicibility.  Everyone started calling her Crazy Princess Hamster Bone because of some of the things she did like: jump off the highest tower in their village and attacking trolls and ogres. 

One event that changed the story is when Harriet swung Ratshade into the spinning wheel  and Ratshade got cursed instead of Harriet. Also when Harriet found a prince because that is what made the story find an ending because she got a friend too. An adjective to describe Harriet is that she is brave. She is brave because she is a risk taker. She jumps off towers in the kingdom and in the Hamster village, people don’t do that. Harriet is strong because she fights ogres and swings Ratshade into the spinning wheel. 

I liked Hamster Princess because the author threw out amazing ideas. One reason I did not like the book is the author would throw out  too many amazing ideas, which made it hard to follow. It was like too many facts just like this: there was a cow, and then a pig and then a chicken and then a cat and then the cow pooped. I  give this book four stars because sometimes the book was confusing, and it was like the pages were in the wrong order. I liked Hamster Princess because it was really heart warming.