Tag Archives: fiction

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
09
2017

George by Alex Gino

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“George” is a book by Alex Gino. This book is Alex Gino’s first novel. The main character is George. “George” is about a transgender girl, but George’s mom doesn’t know that George is transgender neither does her friends. Another thing that happens in “George” is that the teacher is casting for Charlotte’s web. George wants to be Charlotte but she can’t because she is a “boy.” The setting of the book is in New York. I know this because at one point,  George goes to the Bronx Zoo with her best friend and the friend says the zoo is an hour away and George says she lives in New York.

 

George is friendly, nervous and brave. George is friendly because she nevers gets in fights with anyone, even if she’s mad. I think George is nervous because she only tells her best friend that she is a girl but she doesn’t tell her mom or brother. I think George is brave because she is not scared when she auditions for the play.

Another important part in the book is when George says to her mom and older brother “What if I’m a girl?” I think this quote is important because she is finally telling her mom what she is. She is also expressing herself by finally letting go of what she has kept a secret for so long.

 

I really liked George because of the concept and how unique it is, I think George is unique because of the beautiful language. I also really liked George because it is not all over the place and there isn’t too much going on at once and there is only one plot. I do recommend this book if you like extraordinary books. I would also recommend this if you like quick and easy books. This book reminds me of Gracefully Grayson because it has the same concept of a girl inside a boy’s body.  I would give this book five stars because of it’s uniqueness.

Jun
14
2016

Lunar Strike by H.I. Larry

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Once upon a time on a hot summer day, there was a boy named Zac Power. He was a part of the GIB, which stood for Government imgresInvestigation Bureau. He wasn’t the only one in his family that was in the GIB. His mom, dad and his older brother Leon were all in the GIB. Zac had to keep his identity to himself. He couldn’t even tell his closest friends.Then one day his brother Leon told him that he had to go on a space shuttle to stop one of his enemies from wiping out all the electronics In the world.

Zac started his training. He had to become an astronaut in 3 hours which was going to be really hard because real astronauts take 3 years to learn it.

Two and a half hours later –

After most of Zac’s training was finished he had to feel what anti-gravity felt like.While he was floating in the air, his brother Leon gave him a box of cereal in case he got hungry, but when Leon gave him the box of cereal, the little mouse in Leon’s pocket climbed out and went inside the cereal box without anybody noticing.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Blast off! The rocket took off, leaving a big pile of smoke that looked like a huge storm was coming. When the space shuttle was leaving Earth’s orbit, Zac was amazed at what he saw in space. He saw all kinds of things like different planets and a meteor shower coming towards him. “Wait, what?! A meteor shower? How am I supposed to get past that?” Zac exclaimed. At that moment, something caught the corner of his eye.

It was a space shuttle that he had to find to knock out the ray, so the electronics wouldn’t get fried. He came in slowly, so the guns would think that he was a space rock. When he got in the spacecraft, the computer that could stop the ray was right in front of him. He only had 10 minutes to stop it. When he was trying to hack the ray, a huge robot came out of nowhere and tried to stop Zac from hacking the ray. Then all of a sudden the robot let out a cry and Zac saw the mouse eating the robot’s wires. When the robot was dead, Zac finished the hack and the world was SAVED!!!   

***

The book I read was called Lunar Strike by H.I. Larry. I would definitely recommend this book to other people. There’s also a lot of other books in this series, so if you don’t want to read this one, you can read the other ones. I would give this book four out of five, because some of the scenes in the book had a lot of action. I would give it a four instead of a five because the ending could have been more exciting.

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 *****.

Mar
09
2016

Book Review Three Fantastic MR. FOX

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Book Review Three Fantastic MR. Fox

By Alfredo

In the forest near three barns lives a fantastic Fox… Hello this is Alfredo’s third book review and the book is … Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl! The main character of this book is Mr. Fox. The main problem is that three ugly, fat, skinny, and short farmers are trying to kill Mr. Fox because he is always tricking them, an example is he always is eating their chickens or turkeys when they don’t see him. This book was made in 1970 and I think this book takes place near a forest in 1970.

Mr. Fox has at least three adjectives that describe him (I’ve been using the number three a lot). The three adjectives are… smart because he survives after three farmers try to kill him. He also is quick because he is always running from them. The last adjective is brave because he doesn’t get scared the whole time. One interesting part of the book is when Mr. Fox gets his tail shot off! One other interesting part is when he knows where Boggis, Bunce, and Bean (the three farmers) house’s are from underground. There are so many animal characters in this book like the raccoon, the mole, the rat, and their families. The final interesting part is that Mr. Fox can survive for a long time with no food, (those are not all the interesting parts, those are just some of them!) The biggest change is that the farmers almost catch Mr. Fox several times.

This book was very good in my opinion but one problem is that it was too short. I also liked that it was kind of diverse because of all the different things happening. I recommend this book to all ages. This book relates to everyone’s life because it reminds us we all have to survive. I would rate this book ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and one half.

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
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.

 

 

 

Apr
30
2014

Al Capone Does My Homework, Gennifer Choldenko

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search*°•The Al Capone series doesn’t need to be read in order, only the first and second book need to be read in order•°*

 This is the last book in the series.

Moose and the gang are having fun, spying on the cons, helping them to. Moose needs to help Capone, who has already gotten nat into a special school for kids with disabilities. Moose is nice, and now it is working against him flowers for Mae Capone, Al’s mom…

 

He needs help and has a limited time period to do it. He has to look like he is alone, not with his friends on the boat, ware Mae will be.

 

But there are some cons with them on Alcatraz that are up to something of their own.

Piper has found a list, not just any list, a list made by cons, and not just any list from a con, but a game, but not any game… a game that can kill, literally. And it looks something like this: And guess who the new assistant warden is; Moose’s dad…Nat is also getting really smart.

 

Feb
26
2014

The Magic Trap (Book 4 of the Lemonade Wars Series By Jaquline Davies

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The Magic Trap by Jaquline Davies is the 4th book in the Lemonade War series. The Main characters in this book are Evan and Jessie Treski. Jessie is really smart and skipped third grade. Evan is mad at her because he doesn’t  want his sister to be in his class (My guess is that if you have a sibling you wouldn’t want them in your class). I totally agree with you. Evan is a really sporty kid because he plays basketball a lot (Which is why I would recommend this book to Marlowe and all the other basketball fans). This book is in a modern time and it’s mostly in Evan and Jessie’s house. I think that it gives it a certain thing that makes an impact. (If you read it you’ll understand more).

 

Evan has been learning magic in his free time. One day Evan’s dad comes home and because his parents are divorced he’s mad at his dad for putting work in front of him and Jessie but he’s happy that he’s home. His mom has to go on a trip for work so his dad has to take care of him and Jessie. Evan’s dad suggests that Evan should put on a magic show and Jessie’s all over the idea and she asks if she can be the assistant. Evan isn’t sure. What will his dad do to help him with the show. But it might be upsetting to his mom.

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How will this book turn out? You’ll have to find out. I loved this book because it suits my personality because Evan is a kid who’s like me. I would recommend this book to any kid in this grade because you’ll find a way to connect to it. It’s as of now a 4 book series and I recommend reading the first book and then after that you can read any of the later books. I would give this book 5 *****’s because I could connect to it.