Category Archives: Realistic Fiction

Genre

Aug
29
2015

The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman by Meg Wolitzer

Posted by

images

This summer I read a book called The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman written by Meg Wolitzer. The main characters are Duncan Dorfman (from Drilling Falls, Pennsylvania), April Blunt (from Portland, Oregon) and Nate Saviano (from New York City). They each represent teams at a national scrabble tournament (the YST a.k.a. the Youth Scrabble Tournament) in Florida. There are four main problems:

  1. Duncan is a new kid in his town at a new school trying to figure out a new life.
  1. April is the only person in her sporty family who hasn’t won anything and she’s trying to get into the spotlight.
  1. Nate is getting homeschooled by his dad who has high expectations for him as a Scrabble player.
  1. ONLY ONE TEAM CAN WIN!

One event that changed the directional point of the story is when Carl Slater, captain of the Drilling Falls middle school Scrabble club and bully, finds out about Duncan’s power. I’m not going to tell you what it is because you have to read the book first. Fine, I’ll tell you what Carl says. Carl says to Duncan, “You’re telling me you can feel the words underneath your fingers without looking? I have plans for you, Lunch Meat (Duncan’s nickname from the first day of school — this is a part of the story you will find out about when you read the book!)” Duncan has to decide whether he wants to use his special talent or not to win. Another event that changes the story is when Nate gets frustrated during a game and quits the tournament. His teammate, Maxie, ends up quitting, too. They have a conversation and Maxie offends Nate. Nate says, “I am not selfish, Maxie. I had no idea you cared so much about this tournament.” Then Maxie says, “Oh, you thought I was just doing it for you Nate? Well, think again.” Nate and Maxie become friends again and finish the tournament (they end up losing to Duncan’s team and place third).

I enjoyed the book because it was a story about friendship. An example of friendship is when Nate walked away from the Scrabble game and Maxie came and got him back in to it. Another reason why I enjoyed the book was there was a lot of action in it. An action scene was when Nate’s father, Larry, met his old Scrabble partner, Wendell Bruno. Wendell was talking, and talking, and talking about when they played Scrabble together. And THEN he started talking about how he looks for a Saviano in every single Scrabble tournament. But it was an action part and a BIG part in the story. Also one last reason I enjoyed the book was because it makes you want to play Scrabble. After I finished the book, I wanted to play a game of Scrabble and I did. I would rate this book 5 stars because Meg Wolitzer did a good job of telling the story and not having it get too complicated with lots of characters who play a big part in the plot.

THE END *****

 

Aug
28
2015

The Report Card

Posted by

A good book I read is called, The Report Card. The Author is Andrew Clements (He also wrote Frindle which is another good book). It takes place in Philbrook Elementary School. It is about a girl named Nora Rose Rowley. She is a genius but she doesn’t want anyone to know. She has Hyperthymesia (which means she remember pretty much everything) but nobody knows. not even her parents. Her best friend Stephen is a good hardworking kid but she feels like he thinks he’s stupid. And she doesn’t think he’s stupid at all. So she get bad grades (on purpose) to prove he’s not stupid. But then her parents get the principal and all the teachers involved.

 

Then Nora comes up with a plan with Stephen to get all the kids in the school get bad grades on purpose and then it turns into a big mess. If you don’t want to know what happens in the end don’t read the rest of this paragraph. So there is a big meeting and Stephen’s parents are there and Nora’s parents are there and all the teachers, the principal, the superintendent and of course, Nora and Stephen. Then at the meeting Nora finds out that Stephen did a lot without her knowing and a lot of kids listened to Stephen. If you want to know what Nora does next you’ll have to read the book.

 

I liked this book a lot because I like Nora and she is an interesting person and I like the fact she is so smart but doesn’t tell anyone. It’s not my favorite book but I still liked it. I would rate it 3 stars

imgres

Jun
05
2015

Everything On A Waffle

Posted by

Everything On A Waffle

This skit isn’t really a scene from the book. The idea of this is to give you a sense of the characters. And when the characters say there turning Primrose’s diary into a book I mean the real book and I’m pretending it was a true story and it was her diary.

In my scene all the characters are in the book, but there are other characters I didn’t mention like someone named Ms. Perfidy, who took care of Primrose for a while her parents were away.

In my scene there are four characters.

Uncle Jack: Zoe/Tess

Uncle Jack is Primrose’s only other family member so he takes care of Primrose for a while. At first he isn’t the best person but then later on he is a hero.

Miss Bowser: Estelle/Stella

Miss Bowser is a cook. She works at a restaurant called The Girl On The Red Swing. She is a nice greeting person who always lets Primrose cook with her.

Ms. Honeycutt: Mia

Ms. Honeycutt is rich and full of herself and her ideas. She never cares what the other person thinks, she just does what she wants. She sent Primrose away once.

Primrose: Maeve

Primrose is an “orphan” her parents were lost at sea. But she knew that they were still alive. She just believed in her heart. Primrose is someone you can count on to be nice and give you a second chance.

STOP!!!

Before you watch my book review I would like to congratulate the actor in our scene. Big thanks to:

  • Estelle Guria ( Fantastic job without you this would be terrible, thank you for participating!)
  • Mia Sullivan ( Thanks so much you are a really good Ms. Honeycutt, I love your acting skill!)
  • Zoe Papavasiliou ( You are a super funny uncle jack, and you were so patient during the process.)
  • Stella Story ( Even though you weren’t in the real thing, in our first version you helped me work out problems and were cool with alot of things)
  • Tess Mccormick ( Just like Stella you weren’t in this but you had a great idea for uncle jack and the tissue box)
  • Last But certainly not least, Sophia Gregware ( Great video taper and you did a great job angling the ipad.)


                    Enjoy The Show!!!

 

New and improved Everything On A Waffle – 4th Grade Book Review from Namita Tolia on Vimeo.

 

May
29
2015

Middle School book 6 by James Patterson

Posted by

My book is Middle School book 6 Save Rafe! It is by James Patterson. In the video the main character Rafe is climbing a mountain because he needs to pass a training camp to go back to his old school that he got expelled from. He needs to go back because his new school that he goes to is closing so now he needs to go back to his old school. He needs to go to the training camp because the principal won’t let him come back to the school easily because they have very strict rules and he broke almost all of them. I would rate this book 4 stars.

Finn's Book Review from Namita Tolia on Vimeo.

Apr
15
2015

Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key by Jack Gantos

Posted by

 

urlThe best ever book is called Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key. It was written amazingly by Jack Gantos. It is about a kid who can’t even stand still. His name is Joey Pigza. He is in a special school because he is so crazy. I don’t know anyone like him, he’s too crazy This book takes place in Philadelphia where he grew up. Joey has only one friend. His name is Charlie. Charlie has really tiny arms so he has to go the special school too.

 

 

Joey calls himself “wired”. He will jump around in circles and do many crazy things like banging on lockers and screaming at school. Joey is also very annoying to everyone. His teacher will ask him something and he will say “Can I get back to you on that?” and start laughing so hard. But he is also very smart. He loves doing math drills because he does them in two seconds when they normally take 5 minutes. One funny part was when Joey’s grandma got so annoyed by him that she ran into the sewers and ran until she got to Pittsburgh. I don’t know how, but she was crazy too! The special Ed teacher at school made Joey wear bunny slippers to help him sit still. However this did not work. It made the situation worse.

 

 

I loved this book because its a quick read. It took me only the break to read it. Another awesome thing about this book is that it has some interesting characters to listen to and talk about. I bet you if you read this you will be talking about it. I definitely recommend this book to people that like comedy because there were a lot of funny parts. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key is not really related to any book that I heard of but I can’t wait to read Joey Pigza Loses Control which is the next book in the series. I rate this bookimages