Category Archives: 2016-2017

Mar
17
2017

Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes

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I read Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes. It is the story of ten-year-old Deja Barnes, who lives in the Avalon Family Shelter in Brooklyn with her parents and two siblings. Deja is just starting 5th grade at a new school where she meets her new friends, Ben and Sabeen. At Brooklyn Collective Elementary, the students learn about  9/11 as it is the 15th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. As Deja discovers more about New York’s history and what it means to be part of a community, secrets about her father are revealed. The setting is Brooklyn, New York at the Avalon Family Shelter and Brooklyn Collective Elementary School in 2016.

SPOILER ALERT; DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE BOOK TO BE SPOILED!

Deja Barnes is mature, proud, and inquisitive. She is mature because she often has to take care of her brother and sister. Deja’s father can’t work, and spends most of his time lying in bed with a headache. Deja is in charge of her siblings when her mother is working to earn money for their family. Deja is proud because she willingly tells her friends and teachers at her new school that she lives in a homeless shelter, without being ashamed. She is inquisitive because she is eager to learn as much as she can about the Towers, even though her father has forbidden her. He and Ben skip school to visit the Tower Memorial.

One of the most interesting parts of the book is when Deja’s father tells her the story about 9/11, when he was working as a security guard in the North Tower. He was able to rescue one older women in the building, but the building collapsed after he took her to the ambulance. Deja’s father has felt guilty since then because he was not able to save his two closest friends from work. Deja starts to respect her dad and begins to see him as a hero. Another interesting part of the book is when Ben shows Deja the video of the twin towers collapsing. I found this part interesting because I realized what it is like to grow up in poverty, without access to the internet or a television.

I enjoyed this book because it teaches about 9/11 in a way that is honest but not scary. I also liked the book because Deja’s friends, especially Ben and Sabeen, as kind and accepting towards Deja. Many books show kids being cruel to each other, but when Deja starts her new school, she is welcomed immediately. I would recommend this book because it teaches about what it is like to be a homeless child in New York City. It is hard to imagine what it is like to not have enough money for a backpack or even school supplies. I also learned about 9/11 and the heros in New York City that day. This book is similar to Nine, Ten because they are both novels about the Twin Towers falling. I would give this book 4 and a half stars.

Mar
17
2017

The Last Kids On Earth, by Max Brallier

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The Last Kids On Earth is by Max Brallier. This book is about a orphan boy who travels the world and just ended up in Louisville where there has been a monster apocalypse! The day the monster apocalypse happened, Jack lost all of his friends. Jack has made it his main priority to get his friends back and to find the “Damsel in Distress,” the love of his life, June Del Toro. The three people that Jack is able to come across is his best friend named Quint, a old bully named Dirk, who turned out to be pretty nice, and June Del Toro. I think that this book probably took place in 2015-2017 because there are CVS’s, Home Depots, and middle school’s that sound pretty modern.

Jack is very arrogant. On almost every page that he is either talking about slaying a huge monster, or “rescuing” June Del Toro. He’s always saying that when June finds out about it, she is going say “Oh, Jack, my hero!” Another adjective that would describe Jack is that he is very brave. Every time someone needs saving, he is always willing to help do something really dangerous to help even if the person thinks that they can handle it, he is always there to help. A example from the book is when Jack, Quint, Dirk, and June were running away from a monster Blarg, Jack shoved everyone in the car and defended his friends from Blarg. The third adjective that I would use to describe Jack is that he is a natural. He learns things very quickly. Two examples is that one, he learned how to make his own Mountain Dew very quickly, and the other reason is he learned how to catch very quickly (and at the right time, as Quint was throwing Jack his sword right as they were about to kill one of the biggest monsters).

There are many more different details about what the plot is about than what I’ve already told you. One is that the family that Jack lost when the monster apocalypse was named the Robinsons. They were not very nice people. All they did was make Jack mow the lawn. No quality time. No family fun night. No Friday pizza movie nights. Some of my favorite parts in the book is when at the very beginning of the book, Jack is fighting Blarg on top of CVS when Jack just wants a tiny tiny screw driver. I think that that is interesting because it is just so interesting how everything is just focused on Jack fighting Blarg and how Jack just wants a tiny tiny screw driver. Another reason why that is interesting is because Jack, a tiny human being is beating Blarg, a giant slimy monster. Another interesting part of the book is when Jack finally does find June Del Toro and the way she reacts to finding out that Jack thinks that she is a “Damsel in Distress,” she gets super mad. The reason that that is interesting because I’d think that even if June didn’t need any help, that she would think that it was nice of Jack to risk his LIFE to save her is really nice, and she still got mad at him! Another one of my favorite parts in the book is when Dirk slowly starts becoming nicer and nicer. That was very surprising to me because Dirk was so mean at first that you’d think that he’d never be nice but the fact that Dirk risked his life to get Quint a birthday gift is, WOW.

I really enjoyed this book because it is a really good mix of comedy and fantasy adventure and the slightest bit of realism. It has comedy because there are lots of strange odd things throughout the book like the fact that the Mountain Dew that Jack makes is just a mix of water and green food coloring. I would recommend this book to a lot of people because it is a great story and also it has lots of amazing pictures to back the story up. This book kind of reminds me of The Walking Dead but with other monsters apart from zombies but it is also a whole lot less scary. The reason that I think that is a pretty similar to The Walking Dead is because there are monsters in both, and there are people are trying to survive from the madness of the monsters in both! I rate this book one out of five stars (one being I didn’t like it five being I loved it and would want to read it again) I think that I would give this book a four stars.

Mar
17
2017

Crenshaw, by Katherine Applegate

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Image result for Crenshaw book cover.

The author of this book is Katherine Applegate. This author also wrote The One And Only Ivan, if you liked that book you should definitely read this one! This book is about a boy who had an imaginary friend called Crenshaw, who comes back to the main character Jackson when he is in need of him. At the time it’s up to Jackson to figure out why. Jackson has a little sister named Robin, a dog named Aretha, and a mom and a dad. The story has some sad parts where the family is in poverty and struggles to regain money. I feel like the book is very well written so it feels like it is happening in real life! So at some points I got a little teary.

If I were to give three adjectives to describe Jackson they would be that he’s an optimist, fearful, and sometimes he thinks he’s imagining things. He’s an optimist because even when he’s living in poverty he looked on the bright side and said, “As long as we have a roof over our heads, I am grateful.” He is fearful because he’s afraid that he’s going to get made fun because he has an imaginary friend when he’s in 5th grade, and by the look of it he doesn’t really see anyone else that has an imaginary friend. He sometimes thinks he’s imagining things when Crenshaw magically appears, for example in the middle of the night he once he heard Crenshaw in his bathroom taking a shower!

There’s lot’s of interesting parts of the book. If I were to give two interesting parts about this book they would be when Crenshaw pops up in places at random moments. I think it’s interesting how Crenshaw pops up at random moments because it’s really cool to discover what Crenshaw will do next. For example, once when Jackson was watching a baseball game at Best Buy because they sold their T.V Jackson saw Crenshaw on the Best Buy T.V doing a headstand behind the ref in the booth! I also think it’s interesting to see how Jackson and his sister Robin react to all the change that’s happening in their lives. It’s interesting to see how Jackson reacts to living in poverty because if I were in the same situation as Jackson and Robin I would be freaking out.

This book is really well written so it makes you feel like the story actually is happening in real life. I love how the author makes it so you don’t want to stop reading and if you do it mostly ends on something stressful, so you want to read more. Also I love the book because there’s an animal as one of the main characters, and if there’s an animal as one of the main characters in the book, I’m in for it. If you are looking for a book this is definitely a good one! This book is exciting and it pulls you into the world of realistic fiction. I think the book is exciting because it is suspenseful and that makes you not want to stop reading. If I were to rate this book through 1-5 stars I would rate this book 5. (Partly because there’s an animal in the book, which means I always love it)!  

 

Thanks For Reading !!!!!!

 

Mar
17
2017

Strong Inside, by Andrew Marahiss

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The title of my book is called Strong Inside by Andrew Marahiss. The book is a biography about a basketball player named Perry Wallace, who is facing a lot of racism and segregation. He is black in the 60s and in a still segregated college in Nashville, Tennessee. He is grown enough to understand segregation.  People put signs on his door saying mean things, they talked trash in basketball games, the fans threw food at him, and he was not allowed to be part of a fraternity group because he was black.  People treated him differently and it influenced him a lot.  He became more quiet, knew to avoid people and stay away from segregationists. Perry Wallace had to be a lot more cautious.

Perry Wallace is quiet, mature, and perseverant. He is quiet because he grew up in the South and he learned to be shy and stay away from all of the terrible things that were happening there.  Instead of speaking up and standing up to the bullies he stayed away from all of them and didn’t do anything and let the racist slurs roll off his back.  Wallace is mature because he always knows what to do.  He drove away when there was a riot, like someone who is mature would, instead of getting into it. Another instance is when he was the first black player on the Vanderbilt team. He could handle all the pressure; that’s what’s mature about him.  Perry Wallace is mature because when people hang bad signs on his door, he doesn’t go berserk about it.  He is perseverant because he doesn’t give up when all of the racist segregation happens.  He didn’t give up when in a Mississippi game all the fans were talking trash and throwing things at him and not giving him a chance. He still played a great game. Perry Wallace has great characteristics because he is all of these things.

One of the most interesting parts is when the author talks about Perry Wallace maturing. This is the part I chose because it is not how a typical sports story would go. A typical sports story would intro the player, talk about him or her, then talk about the games and end the book by making the player win or lose. That’s what a typical sports story would be; but not this time, this book talks about Perry improving. It talks about his experience of being a black athlete in the mid-60’s. He is threatened, and he is cursed at. Another really interesting part of the book is realizing how he was treated. I’m just saying, it was hell. Why do you think he was treated that way? The worst place he played at (racist wise) was Starkville Mississippi and Auburn. Perry called it “Four Days in Hell”.

I liked this book because it is unique and it tells a different story than most other sports books do. The time period is very interesting to me since it’s not how we would live today. We don’t have segregation anymore and sports players of all colors, and other people, are allowed to do whatever they want. I have two feelings about recommending this book to other students. I think you should read this because it’s such an inspiring and realistic story.  It teaches people how hard it was for people of color in the 1960s.  Also, I do not recommend this book because there are a lot of curse words in it. This book reminds me of the movie Race; it is about Jesse Owens and him overcoming racism just like Perry Wallace did. Overall, I would rate this book with three and half stars. The reason I only rated it with three and a half stars is that it’s not a kid’s book, because of that I thought that it was a little slow moving. If you are a kid that likes grown-up books you will like this book, but if you’re a kid that likes fantasy and things like that, then this probably isn’t an amazing book for you, but otherwise it was great.

Mar
17
2017

Half Magic by Edward Eager

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I recently read a book called Half Magic by Edward Eager. This book is not part of a series. There are four main characters in the book. One of them is named Jane. She is the oldest and most sassy and nice. Another one of them is Mark. He is the only boy in the family and he likes to do adventures. The third one is Katherine. She is the second youngest girl in the family and she’s the smartest. And last but not least there is Martha. The youngest and the most adventurous one of them all. The book is about how one summer Jane found this coin on the Street outside of her house. She didn’t realize that the coin was magical…half magical. The four children have Four different adventures in the book and they do stuff that no kid would ever dream or think of doing. For example  defeating Sir Lancelot and going to a desert island while you’re at the park.

Mark is my favorite character because he struggles through being the only boy out of four kids. Mark is easy going, adventurous, and lonely. Mark is easy-going because when the others made their wish he didn’t object. Mark is also adventurous because he would go to places like a desert and the time of Kings and Queens. Mark is lonely because he is the only boy in his family because his dad died. He doesn’t have a boy to play with but he doesn’t show that he is lonely.

The plot of the story is that one summer day the four children find a coin that is magical.  They go and do many adventures. The trick about the coin is that you can only wish half of something, but if you want to wish something whole you have to say “I wish this twice.” One interesting thing in the book is when Jane wanted to belong to a different family. When she wished she forgot everything about her family. She left the house and went into a cold looking house. It made me sad because she didn’t want to live with her family anymore because she didn’t want to have a stepfather. Another interesting part in the book is when Martha was sleeping underneath a movie theater seat and wished she wasn’t there. She forgot that she had to wish it twice so she was half there. It was interesting to me because Martha started a riot and people were just running everywhere.

I enjoyed Half Magic because there’s magic and I like magic. I also enjoyed Half magic because it acts like real life. I recommend this book to ages 7 and up. You would like this book if you like magic, love, and anger. This book reminded me of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble because Sylvester finds a pebble that is magical just like in Half Magic. I would rate my book 4 out of 5 stars because it’s would not love the if somebody gave it to me to read but I would be interested in it.

Mar
17
2017

The Red Pyramid, by Rick Riordan

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I read a book called the Red Pyramid. The book is by Rick Riordan and it’s part of a series called the Kane Chronicles. The book is about two siblings named Carter and Sadie Kane. They only see each other two times a year because they got separated. Somehow, their dad unleashed mysterious gods and everything goes wrong. One of the gods is evil and tries to destroy the world (starting with North America). Carter and Sadie have to try to stop the god from destroying the world. The book takes place in America, Egypt and London in the 21st century.

 

The first character you meet is Carter. Carter is a scaredy cat. In all of his battles he thinks things are scary. At the same time though, he’s brave. He can fight off a really-powerful-obsessed-with-killing-and-blood god. Also he’s an ally. Carter is an ally because his friend was saying his uncle was a bad person. His uncle was actually not and Carter knew that, so he stood up for his uncle to prove that his uncle was not a bad guy.

 

One of the most interesting parts of the book was that some curses that you do can’t be done again within a certain amount of time. It’s sort of unfair because it’s an all powerful curse. I mean if you have a lot of troubles in one year and you’ve used a curse you can only use once a year and you need to do it in the same year, what would you do? I mean they use those curses for a good reason, not for a bad reason. Another interesting part of the book is that the book is sort of like a story with queens and kings. Rulers be selfish like Desjardins. Desjardins is the chief lector which means he sort of is the king of magicians. It’s illegal in magician law to host a god (which means share your body with a god). Carter and Sadie both host gods (not on purpose). Desjardins figures this out and try to stop them from completing a quest. With the strength of the gods, do Carter and Sadie complete their quest with the most powerful magician trying to kill them?

 

I liked the book. I liked it because the book is action packed and has funny dialogue. The book is action packed because there is a lot of fighting outraged monsters and evil gods. The book is funny because the author (Rick Riordan) pretends pretends that Carter and Sadie are speaking into a mic so when somebody “says” something not so embarrassing like if Carter said “I grew feathers and I saw myself sleeping. Then I flew to this place where evil gods were planning a scheme” (which means your ba left you. Your soul left you. You could die in your ba form). Then you would read Carter say: [Sadie just called me a human chicken]. Then he would go on with what he was saying. I recommend this book. Like I said, the book is action packed (which is my favorite genre!). The book is really unique because it’s an all-about-the-action type of book with a little bit of lovey dovey stuff that is really hard to realize it’s there. I rate this book four out of five stars.

Mar
17
2017

Furthermore, by Tahereh Mafi

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Furthermore

By Tahereh Mafi

The book I read is called Furthermore and it is written by Tahereh Mafi. Furthermore takes place about now but in a completely different world. In this book, Young Alice accompanies a past enemy, Oliver, to find her long gone father. They live in a place called Ferenwood and every year, there is a Surrender. Each 12 year old in Ferenwood has to enter a competition. The competition is to get the best mission by showing their talent. Alice can change the color of things, but makes a big mistake and presents her dancing instead. Unlike most kids, who get a task to complete, the judges don’t give her a task. No She decides to go with Oliver Newbanks to find her father.

Alice is brave, determined, and self conscious. She is brave to enter Furthermore, and risk her life for father. She risks her life because she is determined to find father, even if it means finding him with Oliver. Furthermore has strange creatures… not friendly ones. She is self conscious because she is constantly worrying about her pale hair and skin. One example is that in the book, for the surrender. The reason she danced instead of showing her real talent, was because she thought, what’s the point of changing the color of things… when you can’t even change your own color.

One of the most interesting parts of the book was when Alice failed her surrender. This was important because of the way everyone is the day of the competition versus when they get the envelope.The charting is laid out five to one. If you get a five, you did great, if you got a one, you did horribly, but you still get a task, just one not as good as a five task. This envelope Alice was so excited to open, but to realize she  got a card that was so bad she got a zero and didn’t get a task, (only three people in Ferenwood history had not gotten a task) made her very, very angry.
I enjoyed Furthermore a lot because there was a lot of magical, funny and shocking moments that made your heart stop. One example is when Oliver said, “It makes it so very difficult to stay alive there.” Then Alice said, “Oh, I can’t imagine, I can’t even imagine – goodness. I can’t breathe, can I? I’m sure I can’t breathe.’’ This is one of the many examples of dramatic Alice. Another reason is there is beautiful language in many spots of the book. For example, on page 146 it says, “Oliver had gone white. He was milk and paper and ghostly fright.” I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading adventure and books you can’t seem to put down. A character I would use to describe Alice would be, yes… Alice from Alice and Wonderland. And not the original as much as the movie ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass.’ I would say this because they are both on a mission, look similar and are both missing their fathers. I would rate this book 4 stars because I loved the book a lot, but not one that I would read twice anytime soon. 

Mar
17
2017

The Duel By Judith St. George

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The Duel is about the parallel lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. The book is set in different years.The first chapter is growing up and another chapter is the Revolutionary war. There are a lot of interesting facts behind their lives, and the musical Hamilton does not mention all of them like one of the facts is that Aaron Burr had a wife and a daughter named Theodosia. If you read this book you would know what I am talking about, if you didn’t, then read this book.

        I personally think that Alexander Hamilton is brave, resilient, and fast. He is brave because he fought in the Revolutionary war. He is resilient because he is living through rough times in life. One rough time in his life is that his mother died when he was 12 years old . Lastly he is fast because when he said he would get something done he would do it quickly.  He was fast because he would write like he was running out of time.

        The plot of the book is telling you about the abnormal lives of these two extraordinary men. One of the most interesting parts of the book is when they tell you that a hurricane happened in Alexander Hamilton’s town, and that he didn’t drown. That is interesting because it was a pretty severe hurricane and that he did not die was amazing because a lot of innocent people died from this tragedy. Alexander made his way to New York City after the hurricane to go to college.

        I enjoyed this book because I like to read books about history. It fascinates me because of these stories that people told non-stop and that means a lot. I would recommend this book if you like to read history or biographies because this book is pretty much a biography. This book reminds me of a musical called Hamilton because it is about Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. I would give this book five stars because it is so interesting and unique. It is unique because it is going back and forth with their stories kind of like wonder, so the author is making a comparison between the two characters.

Mar
17
2017

The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron

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I read a book called The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. The book is about a girl named Lucky that is 10 years old and her mom died. Because of that she has a guardian to take care of her. But then after awhile she thinks her guardian is going to move. She runs away to prove to her guardian that she actually wants to stay. At the end when they find Lucky  she does something that she would not have done if she did not run away. The book takes place in a town called Hard Pan in California. The time period is sometime before 2007 but there were computers. I know this because they did not have I-phones but they did have computers.

Lucky is really brave, sometimes cranky, and sometimes really sad. She is brave because she ran away from home in a dust storm. This makes her brave because in a dust storm people are trying to get inside and away from the dust but instead Lucky  is going out. She is cranky because whenever a little boy that is five years old comes to her house she gets really mad and tells him to get out. He does not deserve it because all he wants her to do is read him a book called are you my mother. Also Lucky is not always this cranky it is only when the boy is there.And last Lucky is sometimes sad because when she thinks about her mom she starts crying. Like wants she started crying into her mom’s ashes which were in a flower pot.

In The Higher Power of Lucky, it is important that her mom dies. This is important because if her mom did not pass away Brigette would not be her guardian. Also Lucky probably would not have ran away. Another important thing is that Lucky found the passport in Brigette’s bag. This is important because if she did not find the passport she would not have thought Brigette was going to leave. She would not have ran away if she didn’t find these clues.

I kind of liked this book because it is very slow and at the beginning nothing is happening. This goes on for about three fourths of the book. Like at the beginning it was mostly talking about her job at a place where they share their stories. Once you get to the last fourth of the book it gets interesting and you want to know what is going to happen next. Once I got to the part of Lucky  running away, I just wanted to keep reading. I would recommend this book because at the end you can’t stop reading you just want to know what is going to happen. I also would not recommend this book because at the beginning it is so so slow. I think that The Higher Power of Lucky is unique because in no other story that I know of there is a girl who’s mom died and feels not loved so she runs away. If I gave this a one to five star rating this book would be a three.

 

Mar
17
2017

Al Capone Does My Shirts By: Gennifer Choldenko

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Al Capone Does My Shirts about a boy named Matthew but everybody calls him “Moose.” Moose moves to Alcatraz. Alcatraz is a jail for the worst criminals like murderers, mob bosses, and convicts. To many people these are not the average neighbors that you would get in the city. You would find that in 1935 Alcatraz was a place with regular people living there because they have a relative working or something.

Moose is a character that is responsible, brave, and kind. He is kind because his parents are always away and he takes care of his sister because she can’t take care of herself. Moose is responsible because he has to take care of the whole family and when his sister didn’t get into the school she needed Moose to take all the calls on the phone. Moose is brave because he once got up close to “Al Capone,” a world famous criminal of murderer.

Moose has to live on Alcatraz with his dad who is a guard and a electrician so he can’t see him often. One of the challenges Moose has to deal with is his own sister Natalie who has problems thinking and has a problem getting into school. One interesting thing that happened is Moose made it into a school where he has to deal with a girl named Piper who  sometimes gets him in trouble. Moose’s mom is kind of struggling to make things fit with her and trying to get Natalie in school. It’s hard because Natalie is 16 but Moose’s mom says she is 10 so she can actually get into a school because she can’t go to many schools because of her learning problems like dyslexia and will freak out.

I enjoyed this book because it always has something to keep you entertained, like when Moose was taking care of his sister and thought he found a baseball from the rec  yard that cons would play with and needed to give it to a friend. (A “Con” is a inmate of a prison). One more reason I liked this book was because you meet so many new characters that are all different. I recommend this book because you will find out new characters and weird encounters like when Moose was on a boat and he met Capone’s mother! Another reason this book is good is because you will find out things other people in the book don’t know. Then you will know and it will be a cliff-hanger because no one other than you knows what happens. Overall I would rate this book four stars because it has good characters and interesting problems. They face but the book is a mix between slow and fast paced so you might not understand some parts but if you re-read you will mostly understand the confusing parts.