Tag Archives: friends

Jun
09
2017

The Wishing Spell, by Chris Colfer

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The Land of Stories

Image result for the wishing spell cover

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

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
02
2016

Every Soul A Star By Wendy Mass

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My movie is about the book Every Soul A Star. There are three main characters that are all very different. They all go through a different change like moving, or being alone for the first time. These struggles they have to get over, and in my movie it shows how the characters struggle or breeze through. I hope you enjoy seeing how these characters adapt to these things and how they approach them.

Jan
15
2016

How To Handle a Bully, by Nancy Wilcox Richards

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imgres-1My book review is on How To Handle a Bully by Nancy Wilcox Richards. There are several main characters in the book. They are Rilla, Cameron, Olivia, Oliver, Lauren, and Nicholas. The book is about Rilla, her friends, and enemies. Rilla and her friends are training at the playground to win a new Xtreme bike in a fitness competition. Cameron and his gang, Olivia and Oliver, bully Rilla, Lauren, and Nicholas. Cameron and his gang hog all the playground equipment. If Rilla and her friends can’t train on the playground equipment, they won’t be able to improve and win the fitness challenge. The book takes place at Rilla’s school and the playground near her house in the springtime.

 

Kids learned about the fitness challenge at school. There were a lot of events at the fitness challenge including monkey bars, pull-ups, tire run and bike riding. Rilla did not know how to ride a bike without training wheels. Training wheels were not allowed at the challenge. Rilla was very scared of riding a bike without training wheels because the last time she tried, she fell and hurt herself. Lauren and Nicholas convinced Rilla that they could teach her to ride a two wheel bike. Rilla decided to be brave and try. By the fitness challenge, Rilla could do it! Rilla had another big challenge. Cameron and his gang bullied Rilla and her friends and scared them away from the playground. It was hard to train when they were scared away from the playground equipment. One day Rilla and her friends were riding by the playground. They saw that Cameron was alone and stuck. Rilla knew this was her chance to get back at Cameron and she took advantage of it. The next day Rilla, Lauren,  and Nicholas went to the park with more of their friends in case Cameron was there. When Cameron told Rilla and her friends to get lost, Rilla stood up to him. Cameron and his gang decided to leave the playground when they saw all of Rilla’s friends. This was important because Rilla wasn’t scared anymore. She believed she could win the fitness challenge.

 

Rilla is a really nice and fair girl. Instead of trying to scare Cameron and his friends away from the playground, she told them that they should share the equipment. In parts of the book, Rilla was really scared. She was afraid of riding a bike without training wheels and she was also afraid of being bullied by Cameron and his gang. Rilla showed that she was confident too. She was the best in her class at doing pull-ups and was one of the fastest kids on the monkey bars. One quote that really shows who Rilla is, is “I’d love to win that bike. But you know, I don’t really care who wins, as long as it’s not a River Rat.” The River Rats are Cameron and his gang. This quote shows who Rilla is as a person because she says that she doesn’t care who wins. She would be happy for anyone who wins as long as they are nice.

 

I loved this book because it’s a cute story about a group of kids trying to win a fitness challenge. This book is an awesome book for kids in third and fourth grade to read. How To Handle A Bully is a good book for people who like sports and for anyone who’s had an experience with bullies. I would recommend this book because anyone can read and enjoy it. Also, it’s a good book for schools and students because it teaches kids important lessons about bullying. I haven’t read any other books or seen shows that have bullying. I would give this book a five star rating.

 

Jan
15
2016

Take The Reins by Jessica Burkhart

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2865641The title of the book I read is called Take The Reins by Jessica Burkhart. Take The Reins is part of the series called “Canterwood Crest.” The main character is Sasha Silver. The setting is at Canterwood Crest, a boarding school during the school year. The main problem is that Sasha has to try to get Heather, the mean girl, out of her mind because they are competing for the advanced riding team.

In this book there is a lot going on. Sasha goes to a new boarding school and meets a girl named Heather. She’s trying to get Sasha to go back to a different school again, because she thinks that Sasha is better than her at riding. Sasha wants to be on the advance team in riding. On the advance team there are only five people who can get a spot on the team. That’s why Heather is afraid that Sasha is going to get her spot in the team. During this book you learn a lot about how boarding school is. Sasha has two best friends who stand up for her all the time.  In film class Sasha meets a boy name Jacob. In the beginning she thinks he’s cute. Later on in the book they start hanging out.  Closer to the end of the book the intermediate team which Sasha is on have to plan the winter party. Whoever wants to participate puts their name in a hat. Sasha’s name got picked out of the hat. She had to plan the party with one of her friends Page and her other friends Callie and Nicole. The day before the party she logged on to her email and asked Jacob to come out to the dance with her. One big event in the story that changed what happened is on Parents Weekend the parents finally found out about Heather. They were quite surprised. This changed the story because Heather started being nicer to Sasha because she knew she was going to get into so much trouble if her parents knew about her being mean. Sasha is nice because when her friend Nicole did not get on the advanced team she was not bragging about how she did. Sasha talked to Nicole to make her feel better. I also think she is brave because she went to boarding school and no one knows what could happen at boarding school because you can meet new people everyday. I also think she is brave because in the book she asks Jacob out to the dance. A good quote that helps me understand Sasha is when Page says “Do you like the furniture if not we can change it” and then Sasha says “I think it looks great”. I think that helps me understand the character because she is very loose about things and she goes with the flow.

I enjoy this book because it’s very fast and a lot of ideas keep popping up. One example for this idea is of the party that Sasha had to plan, and then a page later there’s a new idea of the advanced team. I also enjoy this book a lot because I feel really good when I hear stories that are specific about what they mean. One example for that is they describe how many coats of lip gloss Sasha puts on. This book reminds me of this TV series called The Saddle Club because it’s about horseback riding and in that story there’s a mean girl just like Heather. A rating of my book is 5 stars because it just is amazing and I want to read it again.

Jan
14
2016

Frindle, By Andrew Clements

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    The book Frindle is a frindle about a boy named Nick Allen who lives in a small town in a suburban area with bigger towns further away. I think Nick is unique because he has so many factors to him. He is not solely a happy type, a mean type or a funny type, he is all of the above and more. For example, in the text it says, “If you asked the kids and the teachers at Lincoln Elementary School to make three lists-all the really bad kids, all the really smart kids, and all the really good kids, Nick Allen would not be on any of them. Nick deserved a list of his own, and everyone knew it.” This shows how Nick is unique and not like anyone else. Nick wanted Lincoln Elementary to be more exciting so he thought of a great idea and involved some friends.  His Language Arts teacher, Ms. Granger, loves the dictionary. She absolutely cherishes it. When they are learning why words are words and why they are called what they are, he wanted to change the word “pen” to “frindle.”  Ms. Granger does not like this one bit, because she thinks all words should stay the same if there no point in changing it but that doesn’t stop Nick.

When Nick launches his new word, he gets the whole fifth grade to hold up a pen and say, “Frindle” on Picture Day.  The photographer that was taking the school picture didn’t have any film left over to take another since fifth grade was last. Ms. Granger decided this was taken to far and wants to put a stop to it. Another really important part in this book is the penalty for whenever a kid in Lincoln Elementary School says the word, “Frindle”. Ms. Granger will keep him or her after school and force them to write the sentence, “I am writing this punishment with pen” 100 times. The school office started having mad parents on the phone very often, and everyone was tired of it except the children. Nick was finally making his school a more exciting place, but it came with consequences.

About two weeks after the big punishment, Ms. Granger gave out and things started to get too crazy. The principal, Ms. Margaret Chatham, is sent over to Nick’s house to talk with his parents about the “Frindle” situation. When Ms. Chatham arrives in the room she is big, scary, and firm. Very firm. She talks slow but meaningful, and always sticks to her word. For example, in the text it says “Once Ms. Chatham on my first day of kindergarten promised me a gummy if I did a good job at school that day. At the end of the day, I got a gummy. A big red delicious gummy.”  This shows how she always sticks to her word. Ms. Chatham asked Nick, “…”  Oh, wait. You have to read the book to find that out…

I really enjoyed this book because I thought that the author developed the characters really well, and they all had a backstory with a distinct personality which I thought made the book that much better.  Another reason I really enjoyed the book is at the end of almost every chapter there was a cliffhanger.  I thought this was a smart idea so the reader will question the next chapter if they have stopped reading,  and will encourage them to continue to find out what happens next.

 Whenever I had to stop reading at the end of a chapter, I always wondered what was going to happen next. I would recommend this book, because you won’t ever get bored with it. There’s always something exciting or fascinating happening that you won’t want to stop reading. One connection I have to this book and my life is one time my friend started calling carrots “Pushas.” Everyone started saying it, so our teacher decided it went too far and made us stop. Some kids kept saying the word and had to talk with the teacher. I would rate this book five stars because it’s funny, interesting, and tells a good story about a boy and his bond with the 5th grade language arts teacher, Ms. Granger.

Jan
14
2016

I Even Funnier, By James Paterson

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f906044348db44a554e9e441e04869ddThe book I am reading is I Even Funnier  by James Patterson . The main characters are Jamie, Pierce, Cool Girl, Gaynor,and Gilda. The story takes place in Long island in the present time. The book is about how Jamie’s friends are trying to help  him become  a good comedian. Jamie’s parents died in a car crash. Jamie survived but his legs do not work anymore and he was in the hospital for almost a year. In the hospital the nurses told him laughter is the best cure, so he watched comedians, he read joke books and he did everything he could to become funny.  When he was released from the hospital he hoped to become a comedian.  

When Jamie was released from the hospital he went to live with his aunt and uncle and his cousin, Stevie, who was the biggest bully in the world.  Stevie beat him up every day.  In the town where he lives there is a Planet’s Funniest Kids Contest.  Of course, Jamie entered the contest. The contest consisted of   several rounds of stand-up comedy to get to the finals. Jamie entered the first round not knowing anything about how the contest worked. He ended up winning the first round and the second, but then his uncle (a different uncle than the one he lived with) got sick so Jamie withdrew from the contest. Then Gaynor’s mom got sick and so he decided to make a Youtube video to help Gaynor’s mom feel better.

  The contest was still going on and two other people got to move on to the semifinals. However, there was also a wildcard slot and the judges picked him to fill that slot thanks to his Youtube video. When his uncle got better, Jamie went to the semifinals and then on to the finals, which was held  in Las Vegas. Jamie is very determined because he keeps on trying to win the contest and he does. He is also very nice because he helps other kids become good comedians. Also when people are bullying other kids he stands up for them.

I enjoyed the book because it was very funny and helped me understand that if someone is disabled, he or she can still do things like if they can not walk they can still play a game just in a wheelchair. I  also liked the book because Jamie got to the finals of the contest  by working hard and doing things for others like making the video for Gaynor’s mom to help her feel better, which was how he was able to move on to the finals. I would  recommend this book to somebody who is determined,somebody who likes comedy, and  somebody to whom friendship is important. I give this book four out of five stars. 

 

   

 

 

 

Dec
10
2015

Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide To Not Reading! By Tommy Greenwald

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81tobuDxVNLI’m reading Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading by Tommy Greenwald. The main Character is Charlie Joe Jackson. Charlie comes up with a lot of crazy plans, gets in trouble but never really learns. The book takes place in Charlie’s school and home. Charlie has a  problem. He hates reading!

To get out of reading Charlie had a deal with this kid named Timmy. For five years Charlie would buy Timmy a ice cream sandwich and Timmy would read all of Charlie’s books over the semester. But Timmy told his mom about the deal because he didn’t what to do it any more. Then Charlie got in a lot of trouble because Timmy’s mom told Charlie’s mom what was going on for the past 5 years.

You would think Charlie would have learned his lesson but NO he didn’t. For the end of the year assignment, he had to write this thing called a Position Paper. For the Position paper you have to pick a topic and write a five page essay on it, and read a bunch of books. Charlie chose to do his Position paper on Cliques. He got one of his nerdy friends and bribed his dream girl to go out with each other. So he could do his report based on them. Then, he tricked his nerdy friend to read the books for him and tell him what happened. But he got caught, again. His punishment was… well you’ll have to read the book if you want to know.

I enjoyed the book because, Charlie would never give up on what he wanted to do. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy comedy books. In my opinion this book gets four out of five stars because it was hilarious and interesting.