Tag Archives: awesome

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.

 

 

 

May
04
2017

Ghost, By Jason Reynolds

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The book I read is called Ghost. It takes place around now in a small neighborhood. It is by Jason Reynolds. The main character is named Ghost (Castle). He loves basketball but finds himself on a track team. Ghost finally has something to take his mind off of his dark past. One night, Ghost is in his bedroom sleeping when his mom comes in screaming for him to go. When he is running down the hallway with his mom, he sees his dad with a pistol pointing at him. That was the night Ghost learned to run. Several years later, Ghost is on a track team, considered a newbie. His father went to jail, leaving his mom to take charge. They are very poor so Ghost can’t afford track gear, much less anything that he needs for track. His Coach creates a strong bond with Ghost throughout the book, and they find out later that they have more in common than they think. The main question in the book is, Is Ghost running for his life or from it?

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Ghost is brave, smart and mischievous. He is brave because he is willing to do almost anything, and he is determined about it. He is smart because he finds his way out of things, in a clever way. He is mischievous because he steals a pair of sneakers, without getting caught.  He dosen’t have enough money to buy track shoes, so he cleverly does it. He also is one of those characters that you don’t know if what he is saying will happen or not.

The most interesting part was when Ghost created bonds with the other ‘newbies.’ They told each other their biggest secrets, they were surprisingly similar. A famous quote from the book is from Coach “Trouble is, you can’t run away from yourself.” Coach snatched the towel from his shoulder, folded into a perfect square, and set it in the space between us. “Unfortunately,” he said, “ain’t nobody that fast.” I  think this quote is important because it shares a lot about Ghosts life. He wants to run away from his past but can’t, so this track team helps Ghost a lot. When you read this book, that quote will stay with you throughout the whole book.

I definitely enjoyed Ghost. I loved every character’s personality, and how they were all so different yet the same. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves sports, a fast-paced book that you can’t put down and a book that you make connections with everyday. Ghost is very unique and has his own, teen, spunky and slang-talking personality. I would rate this book 5 stars because the book is all about sports and has a very unique setting. 

 

Jun
14
2016

Are You There God Its Me Margaret by, Judy Blume

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The book I read is are Are You There God Its Me Margaret by, Judy Blume. This book was about  a girl named Margaret who moved from New York City to the suburbs. And meets a girl named Nancy who is in the same class as her Mr. Benedict’s Sixth Grade. The end up being friends. Nancy also stared a club called the PTs’s which stands for Pre Teen Sensations. If I had to give the book a rating it would be five stars.

Password: littlered!

Penny’s Book project from LREI on Vimeo.

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!

Mar
18
2016

Who Was Steve Jobs? by Pam Pollack

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  13543010The book I have read is Who Was Steve Jobs? by Pam Pollack. The name of the series is Who Was _______? Steve was the creator of Apple which is a brand of technology. Steve didn’t create things like tablets, phones, computers or MP3 players. He improved them. For example an phone was a small flip phone and instead of a touch screen like we have you would press buttons to call and email people. What Steve did was make it with a touch screen. On this new phone you play games, listen to music, email, text, call, use a map basically anything a computer could do back then. Steve’s goal was to improve and update technology. Steve lived from 1955 – 2011.

A big event that happened in 1997  was when Steve returned to Apple from when he was fired in 1985. That was important because he became more successful after his return. Another big event is when Steve’s introduced the Macintosh computer to the world. That is a big event because after that Apple got a little more popular. I thought it was weird and interesting how Steve didn’t wear shoes to meetings because he thought that it was a good way to express he he was.

Steve was funny because, like I said he doesn’t wear shoes to meetings. He is also funny because he says a lot of jokes. Steve is  also smart  because he knows how to code technology. And he can build a bunch of different electronics.  And he is always creative because he made more fashionable and daily use electronics. And where very cool blazers. Steven said “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful , that’s what matters to me.

I enjoyed learning all the facts about Steve and hearing about his life. I recommend this book if you’re into electronics, coding, creativity and technology. I rate this book 4 and and half stars.

 

Mar
16
2016

The Surprise Attack of Jabba The Puppet: A Origami Yoda Series by Tom Angleberger

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51qv88fYzCL._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_The book I read is called The Surprise Attack of the Jabba the Puppett. It is part of the Origami Yoda series. The book was written by Tom Angleberger. In my book, the main group (because there are a lot of main characters) is the Rebellion. But the character I’m focusing on is Dwight, the owner of Origami Yoda. The big problem is that on the capital state test, Mcquarrie Middle School is doing really bad. So to pass the grades, everybody’s activities are taken away and instead replaced with FunTime. This doesn’t sound so bad, but it’s just  short  for Fundamentals. FunTime is a boring, head spinning, cheesy video with a singing calculator (Gizmo),  Professor Funtime, and a break dancing dictionary.

The Rebellion of little Star Wars finger puppets are going to stop FunTime and make their principal (Mrs. Rabasski) give back their activities. Some of the puppets are Han Foldo, Fortune Wookiee, Darth Paper, and Art-2-D-2. The setting of this book is on Earth at their middle school.

One big event was when the Rebellion sent a letter to Mrs. Rabbasski to ask for their activities back. When she called the main Rebellioners (including Dwight) to her office, they were definitely in trouble. When the Rebellioners got to the office, Mrs. Rabbaski tried to compromise. Since that did not work, she decided to call their parents. Dwight really did not want his parents to know about this. But Master Yoda (Dwight’s puppet) still believed in the Rebellion, so he stayed in the Rebellion. Another important event was when the head people of the Rebellion did not know that Jabba the Hut was behind the FunTime screen and kept turning FunTime on when Mrs. Rabbaski was speaking! It was a silent victory but Mrs. Rabbaski thought it was them!

The one of the words I would use to describe Dwight is weird, because Dwight has his own finger puppet and believes that it is alive. Dwight is incompetent at having manners and listening to people, like when Dwight started to try to kiss his elbow in the middle of class. He is also passionate  at being himself, and going with the flow. Dwight is very passionate in what he does, which is being the leader of the Rebellion, known as Captain Dwight.

I enjoyed this book because the plot was very interesting, and all of the characters had really great finger puppets and were great at playing them. I recommend this book to readers who love Star Wars, comics, chapter books, and funny, fantastic plots. I think this book that is similar to the novel Archie, because the main characters are both going through similar issues in school. Like that sometimes in the book Archie (the main character) would go against their principal in situations. Like when Veronica and Betty (Archie’s friends)  wanted their newspaper a different way and had to have this whole trial with their principal. That is very similar to what’s happening to the Rebellion at their school I would rate this book 5 stars *****.

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
15
2016

The Candy Smash by Jacqueline Davies

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imgresThe Candy Smash, by Jacqueline Davies, is a book about siblings named Jessie and Evan Treski and their friend Megan. They are in fourth grade in room 4-0. Their teacher is named Mrs. Overton. One day at morning recess, Jessie is working on her newspaper, The 4-0 Forum, when she accidentally knocks over her Valentine’s day box and something falls to the floor. Candy! Then Jessie won’t rest until she knows who put the candy in the box.

One day when Evan comes home, he discovers a new way to write poems. He goes into his room and locks the door and looks around the room. Then he picks up some Post-it notes and a #2 pencil and sits down at the desk. He starts to think about his Grandma and then writes words on the Post-its. Then he creates a poem about his Grandma from the notes. This is important because Evan finds something he’s good at, but he doesn’t want anyone to know about his new ability because he thinks that people will make fun of him. One big thing that changed the story is when Valentine’s day comes and The 4-0 Forum is published. This is important because Jessie is under a lot of pressure to get everything right. This changed the story because if Jessie doesn’t get the The 4-0 Forum ready, she will have an angry class of fourth graders to deal with.  

Three adjectives that describe Jessie are smart, kind, and persistent. Jessie is smart because she skipped third grade to be in fourth grade. Jessie is also smart because even though she is younger than everyone, everyone asks her questions if the teacher isn’t there. Jessie is kind, because she watches out for her friends. She does this by helping them and others.  Jessie is a very persistent person, because she does not quit until she gets her story. For example, she kept on asking questions to Megan about her crush in public to get a good cover story. When her brother calls her a pest, Jessie tells him, “I’m not always a pest, only when I really need something.”

I really enjoyed this book because it is about the friendship between two fourth graders. I also like this book because I can relate to this book a lot. I relate to this book because I am in fourth grade too. I think people should read this book because  it makes you think about what could happen if you were in Jessie’s shoes. It also makes you think about what would happen if you were a reporter. A few books like this are: Seaglass Summer by Anjali Banerjee, The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School by Candace Fleming, Calli Be Gold by Michele Weber Hurwitz, and Bobby vs. Girls by Lisa Yee. I would give this book four out of five stars.

 

 

 

Jan
15
2016

Freaky Friday By, Mary Rodgers

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      unnamedThe book I read over winter break was Freaky Friday, by Mary Rodgers. The main character in this book is Annabelle Andrews. Annable is 13 years old has brown hair and brown eyes. The problem in the story is that one night Annable and her mom get in a big fight about freedom. So the next morning when Annable woke up she was in her mom’s body, her mom’s room and her mom’s clothes. The story takes place mostly in their house.

  The fight Annable and her mom had was a big bad one. It was about everything food, clothes freedom, electronics, school, and more. Annable said that it was not fair that she could not eat marshmallows for breakfast. That’s when the whole fight started. Later on in the story, Annable loses her son (little brother) and she calls the police.  In the beginning of the book, I didn’t think that anything crazy would happen like life’s switching but it happened and when it happened it turned the book into a whole different story.

 

Annable Andrews is brave, nice, and awesome. Annabel is brave because when she found out that she was her  mom, she didn’t panic she was excited to be a mom. Annable is nice because she cares for her children (siblings).

I really enjoyed the book, because I love all of the Freaky Friday books, stories, and movies. I also really enjoyed the book, because I always wondered what it would be like for a child to be a parent. If you liked the movie Freaky Friday  you’re also going to like this book. I rate this book 4 and a half stars, because it is a fun, short, easy book to read and it’s a really good book.

Jan
15
2016

When Life Gives You .O.J By, Erica .S. Pearl

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This book is about Zelda ( but everyone calls her Zelly ) a eleven year old who just moved from Brooklyn to Vermont. This girl lives with her Mom, Dad, Brother, and her grandfather Ace. Zelda really wants to go home to her house back in brooklyn, she also wants a dog but her parents just say no, because they think it’s too much to take on in there small apartment. Ace is pretty crazy and has a big booming voice like an elephant you could probably hear his voice from a mile away. One day she wakes up with a jug on the side of her bed that says, “meet me in my room it’s important!” – ACE. When she goes to Aces room Ace is at the side of his bed watching .T.V   she asks what the jug thing is all about and Ace says it’s a practice dog and she could use it to get her a dog but if she is going to have to name it, so she names it OJ after all it is a orange juice jug! In astonishment she takes on the challenge and walks the dog three times a day (morning, day, and night) , and feeds him at lunch time with dog food and water, and on every walk she must unscrew the cap of the jug and pour out the wet dog food on the curb of the sidewalk. Her goal is to get her parents to notice her responsibility, and get Ace’s scheme done by the end of the summer. The setting of this book is in the summer in Vermont mostly at her house mostly outside and mostly with OJ.

 

At some point in the book she meets a new friend besides her other friend at sleep away camp. The new friend is Jeremy who is her neighbor     and surprisingly thinks oj is a great idea and that changes her perspective in moving to vermont ( that moving to vermont was not a bad idea ). Also at one point she has a sleepover at her friend’s house and then it really  backfired and everybody started being really mean to her. And that changed her perspective in staying friends with allie the girl who went to sleep away camp. One part was when ACE her grandpa gets a heart attack and goes to the hospital and she has to go home from her sleepover and that really changes her emotions and life. Before ACE has the heart attack she throws out ok because she thinks it’s her fault that ACE had a heart attack and that really changes the way she thinks about everything and ACE. The two adjectives i would describe Zelda with are, serene because she is quiet and keeps a lot of things in her head and to herself. Then for the second adjective, she is very circumspect because she was very catious and made sure nobody saw her walking OJ.

 

I really enjoyed the book for a fun- to read book and learned some things from the book and reading the book was a senior adventure into this 10 year old’s life. I really liked this book because it was about dogs and a girl with the love for her grand father. This book is also really interesting because it’s about her grandpa and usually it’s about the mom or the dad or BFF. And that’s why i found this book really interesting to read. I would rate this book a 4 because at some points in the story it got really boring.