Tag Archives: Adventure

Jun
09
2017

The Wishing Spell, by Chris Colfer

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The Land of Stories

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When I was little I wondered what happened to characters like Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood after their stories ended. Well in the Land Of Stories series, you can find out. The book I read is called the Wishing Spell and it is written by Chris Colfer. This book is about two kids, Alex and Conner, who are brother and sister. They are going through a hard time because there father recently died. For their 12th birthday, their grandma gives them a book called The Land of Stories. One night the book starts humming. Weird right? Alex then starts dropping her pencils on the book and they fall into the book! Eventually Conner and Alex jump into the book! When they land into the different world they realize that all fairy tale characters they knew growing up are real. As much as Alex and Conner enjoy this world they realize the only way back to the old one is to get the Wishing Spell.

Alex is smart, brave and cautious. She is smart because she remembers thoughts and lessons from the past and uses that to help her in the future. She is in the top of her class (unlike her brother) and pays attention to things. She is brave because she takes risks to do things that pay off in the end. She is cautious because she doesn’t trust everyone and makes plan B’s.

I thought the most interesting part of the book is when they realize their family used to live here. I thought it was interesting because the way the two twins reacted differently tells a lot about their personality. Alex is surprised and happy, she feels like she finally has a connection to some place because for the past year the twins had to move around a lot. Conner on the other hand doesn’t want his friends to know and is highly embarrassed. I think that Conner has less confidence and sometimes does things he might not necessarily want to do, for other people.

I enjoyed this book because I thought the ‘after stories’ made a lot of sense and by the end of the book I felt like I knew each character. I would recommend this book as well as the other two books. (A new one is coming out shortly.) Chris Colfer is in many shows and movies such as glee and struck by lightning. I think the Bailey twins are very unique because they share both many similarities and many differences. They each know so much about each other, but respect their differences. A quote from the book that I think would best explain Alex would be, “I think what I’ve learned from all of this is that villains are mostly people villainized by circumstance.” I think this explains a lot about her personality because in the beginning of the book, Alex only thought that the heros or princesses were the good people. But in the end like it said in the quote, they were mostly villainized by circumstance. They were originaly good people and something they did wrong made them an outcast. Even if Alex is wrong, she would usually not admit that she knew she was wrong. She learned that its OK to be wrong after her experience in the fairy tale world. I would rate this book 5 stars because of the creativity and the bonds between characters.

 

 

 

Jun
14
2016

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

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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!

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Jun
14
2016

The Little Prince, By Antoine de Saint Exupéry

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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
09
2016

The War That Saved My Life, Kimberly Brubaker Bradly

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For our last book review we had a choice out of many options to choose what we wanted to do. I chose to make a movie. First I made a script and then I did each characters part. I read this book because it helps you understand the struggle of kids with problems, living in World War 2. It tells you about history with a twist. Some things were hard for me to understand because I couldn’t ever imagine that somebody would do something so cruel.  In my video, I played all the characters, which was pretty hard. I think one of my least favorite parts was when I had to be a character named Miss Smith, and when I had to fall on the street about six times. Not to forget I was on the STREET! I would rate this book FIVE STARS AND A SMILEY FACE :D!

Mar
09
2016

Flora And Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

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   flora-ulysses  Do you like superheroes? If you do check out Ulysses the Super Squirrel!! The title of this book is Flora and Ulysses, written by Kate Dicamillo. The main characters are Flora, a girl who has few friends and likes superhero graphic novels,  and Ulysses, a squirrel who is a superhero and likes poetry.  The problem in the book is Flora’s mom doesn’t like Ulysses near Flora, and she wants to get rid of him for good. This book takes place in a neighborhood in present day, even though the plot might seem a little crazy.

Ulysses is comforting to Flora like ! In the beginning of the book Ulysses gets swooped up with a vacuum cleaner and becomes a superhero!! when he sleeps near her bed. Flora feels safe because Ulysses is a super squirrel that means he saves the day as a Superhero. Ulysses is also very poetic. He loves to write poetry and express his feelings through poetry. For example when he wrote a poem to Flora about how he liked how he felt near her. Most importantly he is heroic like once he punched a evil cat off Flora’s dad’s head Also later on in the book a cat seems to attack Flora’s dad on the head! But then Ulysses save him by vanquishing the cat. Can’t you wait to hear the next thing that Ulysses confronts! Well I’ll tell you a little. The enemy kidnaps Ulysses! You’re going to have to read the book to see who the enemy is. Remember how there Ulysses got swooped up by a vacuum cleaner. When he did something happen to him… he became a superhero!
      I enjoyed this book because I liked how the Kate Dicamillo made the superhero the squirrel and the sidekick a human instead of the other way around! I also liked how whenever Ulysses writes a poem they show it on the page. I recommend this book 1 because it tells you in the way that you’re capable of doing great things even if you’re a different species. 2 because it’s such a nice book and it teaches you lessons maybe that you knew or didn’t know. The genre of the book is a mix of comedy (it’s actually not so funny) and adventure. I would rate this book four out of five stars because some parts I either didn’t get or thought were boring. Other than that, read the book to see who the enemy is and what she will do to Ulysses.        

Feb
24
2016

The Sorcerer’s Secret by Scott Mebus

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The series my book is in is called, The Gods Of Manhattan and it’s called Sorcerer’s Secret. It is by Scott Mebus and it is the 3rd book in the series. The main characters are Bridget and Rory Hennessy. But there are many other secondary characters. Rory and Bridget are trying to save Mannahatta from an evil god named William Kieft and his spirits that want to kill all the gods in Mannahatta. Rory and Bridget try to kill him by exposing his deep dark secret that no one knows but him. This book takes place in Inwood, Manhattan and the time period goes from the 1600s – 2008.

One big event that happens is when Rory decides between killing Kieft or saving his mom from death. This was important because his mom means the world to him but if he doesn’t kill Kieft, all good gods and good spirits will die. If the good gods and good spirits die, then the normal people will have no protection from evil. One part I found most important in The Sorcerer’s Secret is when Bridget sees her dad for the first time. This is important because it is amazing that since she was born, her dad ran away, then when she was 9 years old she saw her dad for the first time and later on in the book something very important happened around her dad. One part I also found the most interesting was when Rory finds out his dad’s name. This was interesting because his dad is/was so famous but you would never think that that was his dad. It surprised me that his dad’s name was _______because out of every person in the world, I would NEVER guess that that was his name.

Rory is brave, happy, and angry. Rory is brave because he almost died for his sister to protect her. Rory is also brave because he does not let people push him around. Rory is happy because his family reunited with each other. Rory is also happy because he is a optimist. Rory is angry because someone tries to kill his mother and he loves his mother with all his life. Rory is also angry at his father but also filled with love for his father because he didn’t know his father for a long time and was just getting to know him when he died. “I forgive you, too,” he whispered down his father’s ear “I love you,” and then his father died in Rory’s hands.

I really enjoyed this book because it is a action book. I also enjoyed it because it is about a boy in fourth grade and you can relate to him. I would definitely recommend this book because it makes you want to jump right into the next page. I also would definitely recommend this book because it is a trilogy and it will consume time (if you read quickly) A few books and movies like this are the Percy Jackson series/movie, the Harry Potter series/movie, and The City Of Ember series/movie. It is like these books/movies because they are all action adventures and friendship stories. I would give this book 5 stars ★★★★★ because it is SO good I would actually consider reading it 100 times!  

Jan
19
2016

Survivors: The Empty City By Erin Hunter

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Lucky is a lone dog. He is trying to stay alive after the big growl (a earthquake) shook everything up. Buildings are caving in and pipes are leaking. Disaster is caving in for Lucky, his life is falling apart piece by piece.  Then Lucky finds some leashed dogs (dogs that are owned by someone ) there names are: Bella, Martha, Mickey, Bruno, Sunshine, Daisy, and Alfie. Can they survive in the wilderness? From Lucky’s perspective, he just wants to be alone. He decides that he’ll teach these dogs to survive and then leave. Lucky has the wisdom and he is the best at strategy he is a very quick thinker. Bella is kind to the other dogs. Martha has webbed paws and can see things out of the corner of her eye, Mickey is fast and smart. Bruno is strong and buff. Sunshine is small and keen Daisy can brighten up everyone’s hearts to hope when there is none. And Alfie is a good digger. Can these dogs survive?

 

The most interesting and important parts in the story were when Lucky escaped from his cage and the building he was trapped in collapsed. He and a dog named Sweet both got out of the building and he Sweet became a pack for a few days and then they split. After Sweet left, it changed Lucky’s perspective on survival. Lucky’s then decided “i’ve got to get a pack and be with someone because I’m lonely”.  Which was a big change from the old Lucky who said “ I’m a lone dog. I don’t need people and dogs to care for me.”  Lucky felt this even more when Martha saves Alfie from drowning.  Lucky changed his mind and started thinking maybe the whole pack thing isn’t so bad.

 

Lucky is independent because he chooses to do his own thing and be alone all the time. This was revealed when Lucky said “ I am a lone dog and I will never be in a pack”.  This is how Lucky thinks of himself and his life ahead. Lucky is inspiring  because he inspires the other dogs in the book. For example when, “I want to be just like you Lucky! I want to hunt!” said Daisy about Lucky. Lucky is intelligent because he always has good strategies. “We are going to going to come up the right side of the hill then Sunshine and the smallest will creep up on them from the forest so you guys will be look out” said lucky about his great plan to creep up on the other dog pack and surprise them.

 

I enjoyed the book a lot because of the amazing adventures of the dogs. To be a dog, I mean that would be awesome! This book is great and I definitely enjoyed it. I recommend this book to people who love dogs and who are going through situations like moving. The book makes you feel stronger and bigger. After I read this book, I said in my head “yes, totally reading the series!” I think the book “The Tiger Rising” is related to this book because the main characters are feeling the same thing. They want to get out of their situation and make changes in their life. I would rate this book ***** 5 stars.                          

 

                                                     

Jan
15
2016

Gods of Manhattan

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gmlgThe title of my book is Gods of Manhattan and the author is Scott Mebus. Also there are two more books. The main characters are Rory, a magician trick reader and his sister Bridget, a normal girl who doesn’t like girly stuff. This book took place on a hot summer day on Bridget’s birthday in Manhattan. The main problem of this book is they were trying to help save the American Indians from a trap that was set by a god. The god did it because the  American indians were annoying him and disturbing him. They don’t do it alone they get help by a magician named Hex that Rory does not trust.

The only reason Rory and Bridget got help, because on Bridget’s birthday, Hex did a unbelievable trick. Hex did a trick where he made a card that Rory wrote on go into Bridget’s present. The card said, “Hex is full of crap.” After that Rory was thinking about he did the trick ever since. Until five to ten minutes later he heard a voice call out, “I live on Raisin street.” Those are the two most important things in the book. Also they are my two favorite parts in the book. The most important thing he did was that he actually listened to Hex and went to Raisin street. Also when to Raisin street it was hidden and scary.

 

Some things about Rory are that he is smart, brave, and strong. He is smart because when he was in a tunnel of running water and he was about to lose his friend, he found a place that could make him safe. He is brave because when a demon attacked him, he stood his ground and fought against him after he lost the first time. He is strong because he pulled an alligator 10 feet against the river current flowing at 30 miles per hour to save his friend. After he did all of that he said “Thank god I did that right or else I would of been dead.”  

I loved the book it was really good. It was really good because it was always surprising. It was surprising because in one part someone that was a watch guard was a god. Also it had a happy ending. It is really good, so I would recommend it to other people. Only read it if you like surprises. This book does not remind me of anything. But it shouldn’t because it’s so unique in its own way.It is unique because I have never read a book like this before because non of them had a cockroach ridding a rat before.   I would rate this book 5 stars!!! Because I loved it and I would want to read it again.

Jan
14
2016

Who Could That Be At This Hour, By: Daniel Handler

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Daniel Handler is the name of the author of the book I read. The main characters that appear in this book are Lemony Snicket and S. Theodora Markson. The problem in this book is that a treacherous villain by the name of Hangfire is terrorizing a community named Stained By The Sea. The main problem that the characters are trying to stop is that Hangfire is a skilled arsonist and they are trying to stop him from burning down the community around them.

Some ideas that helped me understand the book better were …

that S. Theodora Markson is the lead investigator for the problem in Stained by the Sea. This idea helped me understand the book better by giving me more background information. Two is that Lemony Snicket is the apprentice to S. Theodora Markson. This information was very helpful because Lemony Snicket ?  is a very mysterious person. Did you know that Lemony Snicket is a very caring person for people he knows and does not know. The only BIG decision that the main character makes is to investigate the case that Theodora is involved in. Hangfire is a arsonist, killer, and kidnapper and he is very proud of what he does.

Hangfire is a lethal killing machine that has haunted Stained By The Sea for many years. 

I really enjoyed this book because Lemony Snicket is a very creative and caring person. I also like this book because of the characters. The last reason I like this book is because it is for all ages. 1 to 5 stars it is a 5 star rated book.

 

www.danielhandler.com