Category Archives: Realistic Fiction

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Apr
08
2015

The One And Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

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I read the MOST AMAZING book in the history of books called The One And Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate the best book writer ever. The book is about a gorilla named Ivan who lives at a mall in a glass caged domain without his family and not in a Jungle where he belongs. The place where all the action happens is at the Big Top Mall. The author really describes the Big Top Mall and gives a lot of information about living there and working there and being there and watching a show.
The main character Ivan is… smart because he knows a lot about humans and how they act, he is also kind because he makes art for people, and he is strong because he is a big gorilla. The main character is very believable. The most interesting parts of the book are… when Ruby the baby elephant came and when Ruby gets seen on tv. Ruby reminds me of my sister Olivia because she asks a lot of questions and she loves telling stories. The main problem of the story is Ivan’s friend Stella used to take care of Ruby until she died so now Ivan has to take care of Ruby, another problem is that Ivan got separated from his family so now he forgot how to be a gorilla and he forgot a lot about his family and all the fun times they had. Ivan misses his family.

I really enjoyed this book. It is very good. I really like the author writing style because she does not fill the pages with words. The book is funny, sad, and very interesting. I recommend this book to everyone. It is not so hard to read. It is cool that it’s from the gorilla’s perspective. One book that is like this one is Edward Tulane because it is told by the rabbit doll but the rabbit doll can’t speak so it is told by what he is thinking.

I rate this book:

FIVE WHOLE STARS *****

Apr
08
2015

Because of Mr. Terupt

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Because of Mr. Terupt

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Because of Mr. Terupt is a wonderful book♥. The author’s name is Rob Buyea. There is Jessica, who is very smart, Alexia, who is sometimes nice and sometimes mean, Jeffery, who hates school, Peter, the troublemaker, Luke who is also very smart, Anna who is very shy, and Danielle, who is very friendly. The book is about a class that has all of those characters. There is a teacher named Mr Terupt. Not all of the kids get along. One day the kids all go outside with their teacher Mr. Terupt. Everyone is having fun. Then suddenly something tragic happens. There is an accident. Someone gets horribly hurt.

 

Mr. Terupt is very nice. He helps kids learn, but in a fun way. He is very smart. He always helps kids with their problems. He is also very brave. He was a wrestler when he was young so he has gotten very hurt before. Some parts that I found very interesting, was when the accident happened. It changed the kids life’s. They were different, they thought different, they had different perspectives on life. This book is very sad. It made me cry. But it is very well written.

 

I LOVED this book. It is my favorite book in the whole world. It is so well written! It was so emotional. It was sad, exciting, funny, and extremely well written. I loved reading about what happened. In this book, there are trips to the hospital. It makes you sad. But you should still read the book because it is amazing! It is told from different perspectives. I like that because you can see how all of the characters experienced it. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who can take sadness. But mostly it is great! I think a Mango Shaped Space is a lot like this book. They are both sad but interesting. From one to five stars, I would give this book: FIVE STARS!

 

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Feb
26
2015

George Washington’s Socks A Time Travel Adventure By Elvira Woodruff

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imgresI read a book called George Washington’s Socks, by Elvira Woodruff. I don’t know if this is in a series or not but Elvira Woodruff wrote other books. The main character’s name is Matt. There are four other main characters, Q, Tony, Hooter, and Katie. The setting is in Nebraska and  New Jersey. The time is the 20th and 18th centuries. One night on their first club camp out, they were reading a book about George Washington when he crossed the Delaware River. They didn’t really feel that cool so they wanted an adventure. There was a lake near where they were camping so Q, Tony, Hooter, Matt, and Katie all camped out by the lake. When they got to the lake they saw a boat. Now just think of this, the name of the boat is Emit Levart, if you look closely you’ll see it. Read the title.

 

One thing I think is important to know is when the kids cross the Delaware river  they are wearing 20th century clothes. Think of how strange it would be to be a soldier seeing them. Another thing that I think is important to know is that when they time travelled  they came back at sun rise so the parents didn’t know what had happened. Except when Katie the little sister told her parents what happened the past night. One adjective that I thought goes well with Matt is courage. An example was when Matt was riding Blackjack the horse through the dark woods. Another adjective is bravery. An example was when Matt pick up the muskets to tried to scare the Hessians. He, Hooter, and Tony all failed. The last adjective is confident. The example was when Tony got mad that they could not get home but Matt always said “We will get home, I promise.”

I liked this book because there is always a problem. You can or can’t guess what what the next thing is going to be. I recommend this book to people that like adventures. Also to people that like time travel. This book reminds me of a book we read last year called “The Magic Tunnel.” That book was also about time travelling. But The Magic Tunnel was when the English took over New Amsterdam. I rate this book five stars. *****

Feb
26
2015

Gabriel Finley and the Ravens Riddle by George Hagen

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The book I read was Gabriel Finley and the Raven’s Riddle by George Hagen. The the book takes place in Brooklyn.  The main characters are Gabriel20307079 Finley, Somes Grindle, Abby, and Pamela. A wicked torc, a stubborn writing desk, and a group of valravens (evil flesh eating ravens), are obstacles in young Gabriel’s path to his father. Soon Gabriel befriends a young raven named Paladin, and learns the greatest secrets the world has ever held. He, Paladin and a group of friends travel down to the underground city, Aviopolis, where he finds his father. Soon his friends and his father get captured by valravens . To save them he challenges Corax (his uncle and the lord of the valravens) to a duel of riddles. Does he win? You will have to read to find out.

 

Abby is unique, thoughtful, and smart. Abby is unique because she is confident in wearing one color boot and a different color on the other. Also she does not care what other people think about her. Abby is thoughtful when she snuck caramel candies to Gabriel so he won’t have to eat the terrible food. Abby is smart because she cracked really hard riddles like “The mighty lion runs from me when my legs rise up in fury, yet quietly I serve beneath a judge and all his jury.”

 

One part that I found interesting was when Gabriel and Paladin formed into one, meaning that Gabriel went into Paladin’s body like a ghost. I thought that was interesting because I never knew what it was like in a raven’s body. How neat would it be to fly? A part that I found important was when Gabriel met his dad. That is important because parents take their children under their wing, and teach them important skills .

 

I enjoyed this book because it has a lot of adventures. Also I like friendship and family stories and this is one of them. I would recommend this book to readers who like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. I say this because Harry Potter and Percy Jackson are very similar because they are both special types of humans and go on special missions. I would rate this book five stars *****.

 

 

 

 

Feb
26
2015

The Meaning of Maggie By Megan Jean Sovern

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The name of this book is called The Meaning Of Maggie and it is by Megan Jean Sovern. This book is not part of a series. This book is mainly about a girl named Maggie. Maggie’s Dad’s legs are slowly falling to sleep and everyone in their family is trying to figure out a cure for him. The main characters are the Mom, Dad, two sisters, (Layla,Tiffany) and imgresMaggie. The setting of this book is mostly at their house. This book takes place over two years when Maggie was 11 and 12.

Some ways to explain Maggie is  very lovely because she helped her older sister Layla with her homework. I also think Maggie is very secretive because she sneaks into the kitchen and gets some candy with no one even knowing. Maggie is very smart because she gets really really amazing grades. In the book I really liked when Maggie, her Mom, and her two sisters had to drag her dad all the way down to the beach each of the days they were on vacation. I also really liked it when Maggie tried to come home from school early but failed. She did not want to run 5 laps in gym. Lastly I really liked it when Maggie’s mom distracted her when her dad was getting a shot. It was really funny because her mom was making all of these excuses to get her away from her dad. She did this because she did not want Maggie to get scared that her dad would not be ok.

I really enjoyed this book because I loved how funny it was! I also liked how surprising the book was! I would definitely recommend this book for a friend because I think it was awesome! I would also recommend this book for people that like funny books! This book reminds me of The Little Mermaid [Ariel] because it is about one girl who has a few sisters that fight. This book also reminds me of High School Musical because one of the main characters has a crush. I would rate this book 5 stars!

    

Feb
26
2015

Boys Are dog

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I read a book called Boys Are Dogs by Leslie Margolis. There is a seqboys-are-dogs-1uel called Girls Acting Catty, it’s really good too. Boys are Dogs is about a girl named Annabelle that has to move from Westlake, California because her mom wants to move in with her boyfriend. So she also has to move away from her girls only school to a boys and girls school called Birchwood Middle School. At first Annabelle is annoyed about the whole move and she just wants to go back to the fun hot days at summer camp. She expects a basketball hoop that her mom might have gotten her to sweeten the move but instead she gets a dog. Once she gets a little settled in she starts training her dog and she make a little progress but school is the thing thats on her mind most of the time. On the first day of school her dog chews up the clothes, and she became late. At school she was confused and turned every which way trying to get to the right room.to make things worse, in her classes she met this boy named Tobias that was mean to her called her spaz or spazabelle and she didn’t have enough courage to stand up for herself and he teased her for that too. But then she realizes that dogs are like boys and she used her dog training book to get boys to stop teasing her. But her biggest problem is her best friend, Rachel’s brother Jackson and she has to stand up to him but that takes a lot of courage but she doesn’t have all of it yet. It take place at Birchwood Middle School and Annabelle’s house.

Some parts of the book I really liked were how training her dog helped find inner courage and and a stronger personality. Also her dog was trained much faster than the boys she was trying to train. When she started speaking her mind in a stronger tone people started listening to her more and respecting her when all her friends were too scared to talk to boys the way she did. Three adjectives I would use to describe her are nice creative and brave. I would use nice because she tried to be  nice to her mom’s boyfriend even though she didn’t like him. Creative because not everyone would think of using a dog training book to deal with boys at their school. Also she was pretty creative about what costumes her and her friend should wear for Halloween. Last brave because moving and going to a new school is scary sometimes and she held together.

Also standing up to her bully is really scary but she did it in an authoritative tone.

I enjoyed this book and the reason is I agree that some boys act like dogs sometimes but Annabelle was very enthusiastic about getting boys to treat her fairly. Also I’m moving to a different school in sixth grade and this might be kind of what school might be like. Some people made a movie on disney channel called Zapped which was about a girl thats trying to train her dog with an app on her phone but she drops it in dog poo and now it could control boys. And this movie was inspired buy this book so if you liked the movie zapped than you will probably like this book. I give this book four stars!

 

Feb
26
2015

Liar and Spy Rebecca Stead

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Liar-and-Spy-213x300I read Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. This book is about a kid named Georges (the s is silent) and he moves to a new house and this one has an apartment. The boy in his building is Safer and he thinks the man upstairs, Mr. X, is doing something mysterious. They start spying on him. The setting of the book is in their building and at school. This is in present time in the USA.

The main characters are Safer, Georges, and Candy. Georges is sensible, curious, and awkward. He is sensible because he never wants to do dangerous things when he knows he shouldn’t. He is curious because he still wants to spy even though he may get into trouble. He is awkward because he gets bullied for his name and he just ignores it. An interesting part is the end when you find out what Mr. X is up to. I also think it is interesting and funny when they spy through the lobby-cam. I think these are important because they are very interesting and important to the story.

I enjoyed this book because it is very specific. It has many details and it paints a picture in your head. I think when books are specific it makes the story more interesting. I also enjoy it because there are little mysteries inside the big one. This makes it fun. I recommend this book for people who like humor and mysteries. This is a good book for the kind of people who like humor and mysteries. I think this is like Jumanji because things are not what they appear to be. I give this book five stars.***** It was an awesome book!

 

 

Feb
25
2015

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

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Antonio

The book I read is called Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. The book is about a boy named Jeffrey Magee who is homeless. After his parents died he moved to his Aunt’s house (like Harry Potter) but then ran away because the Aunt and Uncle hated each other. During the story he moves into four different homes. The story takes place in Two Mills, Pennsylvania.

 

Maniac is really generous because he always helps people out and fixes problems. There was a time when he helped a family do everything like dishes, cleaning, and repairing a stove. He is really talented at everything because he always scores a touchdown or wins races. For example he scored 49 touchdowns in one game making the score 295 Magee 0 Hands Down, which was his friend’s team. He is also very encouraging to people around him. He suggested to his friends to go to school even if they didn’t want to go. My favorite part in the book was when he first moved into a house with a girl named Amanda Beals. She was so nice and offered him books to read. Another good part was when he got a baseball glove that belonged to his old friend named Grayson for Christmas. The funniest part was when he was in church and he screamed A-MEN! and everyone laughed because he just couldn’t hold it in anymore. It was contagious.

I really enjoyed this book because it was an awesome adventure about a cool character. He shows us how to unite a black and white town. Maniac Magee made me laugh when he’d make jokes about himself. He joked about how he was so good at everything. I recommend this book because you can read it quickly and easy. I would recommend it to people who like adventure novels and stories about boys. This book is unique and I never read anything like it. Maniac Magee is like no other book that I read because it is about a homeless boy who is awesome at everything he does. I don’t know why or how.

I give Maniac Magee ***** STARS

Feb
25
2015

Out Of My Mind

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My book is called Out Of My Mind by Sharon Draper. It is about a disabled girl named Melody Brooks. She is disabled because she can’t walk, move her arms, or talk. But she is very smart and nobody (except her parents) knows it. She goes to school with a helper, named Catherine, who feeds her and helps her go to the bathroom (she wishes she could go to the bathroom by herself) and do the rest of the things she can’t do herself. She also orders a machine that helps her talk. She enters a team made of some of the smartest kids in the school and she makes the team and has the best marks out of EVERYONE. Her teammates think Catherine told her the answers and she cheated. These girls named Claire and Molly are really mean to her. Her team gets past the first round and everyone is preparing everything for the trip to Washington. Melody is sooo excited and her parents buy her new clothes, bags, and other things. She is just so excited. When they get there she doesn’t see any of her teammates.

 

WARNING: DO NOT READ ANY MORE UNTIL YOU GET TO CONTINUE BUT READ IF YOU WANT ME TO GIVE WHAT HAPPENS AWAY: Ok, so she gets to the airport and talks to  the woman who works there. Her mom said that they really needed to go to Washington because of the group and the woman said that she actually saw a group come in earlier and they already went to Washington. Melody stayed home a few days and the day that the group was coming back from Washington and she was DESPERATE to go to school for some reason. It was raining and she didn’t bring her talking thing so she couldn’t talk. Her mom was very stressed and was not happy. Melody saw her little sister Penny run into the street and she started screaming and crying and trying to move her arms but her mom could not stand it any more and she slapped Melody right on the leg! But Melody kept screaming and crying and Penny had to go to the hospital. Ok I’ve said WAY too much.

 

CONTINUE. Melody is smart, funny, and loved by her friends and family. She is smart because she beat everyone trying out for the team. She is funny because she is always thinking of funny jokes. And you know she is loved by her friends and family because her mom and dad are always taking care of her. Her sister Penny always wants to play with her. And her adult friend Mrs.V helped her study to make the team. And Catherine (not an adult but a teenager a teenager  is close enough) always helped her and made jokes and stood up for her.

 

I really like this book and really recommend it! If you like stories that make you feel for the characters then read this book I would give it FIVE STARS! You don’t read a book like that every day!

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Feb
25
2015

A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

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41ZUdisjQKL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_Mia is a normal kid to everybody, but is she really inside her head? I read A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass. This book is about a girl with a sort of disease called Synesthesia. The most common type is that each word you hear or read or write has a color or a couple of different colors and she has that. It is about how she had not told her parents or her best friend and she had no idea what it was called so she was kind of helpless. The main character’s name is Mia. The setting of the book is modern time and usually she is at her house or at school.

I think that Mia is shy, because when she went to the doctor to find out what was wrong with her she almost didn’t talk at all. She is caring because when her friend got mad at her for not telling her she tried and tried to calm her friend down. She is responsible because even though she has a hard time with work because of her colors she tries as hard as she can to finish it. Another interesting part was that her brother (Zach) was really into fortune telling and the future. Also her sister (Beth) was a really pretty girl trying to make boys interested but after she went on a school trip for two weeks she was into yoga and potion-making. Her best friend’s (Jenna) dad just left and now she hates pretty much everything because her dad is dating other women.

 

I liked this book because I think that Synesthesia is really cool and now I really want to know more about it. I also thought that the author did a really good job describing things because sometimes she did not even say what was really happening she just relied on you to figure it out. I would recommend this book because it is a really fun book to read because you can learn so much about Synesthesia. Also Out of my mind by Sharon M. Draper is like this book because the main character in that book feels lonely because she has a disease. No other books are like this because of Mia and her Synesthesia.

I would give this book a 4 star rating because there were some parts that weren’t realistic.