Mallory on the Move

I am reading this book called Mallory on the Move. Mallory just moved to Fern Falls. When I am reading this, I think about what is happening in the book. Sometimes I am feeling the feelings that Mallory is feeling, and then sometimes it feels like I am talking to the characters. When I am reading this book I think that Mallory likes her new house, but she also really misses her old house. I also am wondering who would name their cat Cheeseburger? I really want to find out. To me, Mallory seems like a nice, funny, and smart person. I would like to be Mallory in the book, if I could.

I really recommend the Mallory books.

Black Beauty

(This is a sub for the date 4-21-08.)  This book, to me, is very special because the author is such a good writer, but she died very soon after she finish writing it. I'm lucky enough to read the full version. I stared reading it with my mommy when I was about four but, for some reason, she wasn't reading it to me anymore. 

I've always loved horses since I was born, but in the past month I grew more interested in them. I stared to read it again and the horse, in my mind, was so beautiful.  I understood  much more than I knew, and I really got why they called it Black Beauty. It was such a charming book. I would rate it a ten and recommend it to any horse lover. 

The End of the Beginning

When I read this book, I thought of this book as a drama and comedy. The voices in my head were laughing or saying, "Don't do that!" At some points the book was funny and and angry because the funny and pranksterish ant was making fun of the snail or somthing.  I could connect to this book because the ant and snail meet up and are going the same way out of cowincedence. That's happened to me before when I'm walking and I meet up with this guy named Griffin -- not our Griffin -- who is a sixth grader at MVMS.  I rate this book a 10.

Vampire

As you can see from the title, this is a book about vampires.  You see, I have been reading the "ology" books. For example: Wizardology, Dragonology, Egyptology, Pirateology, that kind of stuff.  And then there's Vampire.

I have always wondered why it's called Vampire, not Vampireology or the study of Vampanese.
Well, maybe it's because those sound kind of wrong. I love vampires, and other blood sucking morbid things, and this is totally the book for me. This book is not cheesy but cheesy "ish". Because it says stuff like, "Here is the true story straight from Dr. Venhelsing!!!" Or, "Finally, we've found it! Its the lost journal of prefessor Greeve Gulahhhh!" etc.

I would rate this book a 9.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I looked at the earlier Harry Potter books and compared them to Deathly Hallows, and it is a lot more serious and intense. I think all the charecters are very grown up and it seems like an advanced book. 

I thought it was strange that I could make pictures in my head, almost like a movie, even though there were people, things, animals, and words that I did not even know! I am enjoying the book more than I expected, but I have only read 90 pages, out of 759!  I would still give this book a 9 or a 10 because it's a new challenging topic.

No Dogs Allowed

I am not that far in the book, No Dogs Allowed, but my feelings about the book are that I don't really get it. When I saw the book I thought it would be about a puppy that was a stray, a family adopts the puppy, the family is really mean to the puppy, and the puppy escapes and goes through happy and hard times in the wild and, at the end, it finds a nice family. But that was my  imagination.  In reality the book is like a commercial that keeps showing the same commercial over and over again and I just wanted to fall asleep, and I don't even get the commercial.

United TATES of America- by Paula Danziger

United Tates of America (so far) is an average book. I really feel like I'm in the book. I think it's just like a real life 6th grade girl's story, of 6th grade of coarse. Which reminds me, when I read the back of the book, it was talking about how "... sixth grade was way worse that fifth grade ever was,"  which didn't make me feel too good about next year. That also reminds me that the back of the book gave away the book! It was like the real book, just without the details. 

Where I am now, the book has no plot. It's not really going anywhere. I think soon in the book there's going to be a plot and it's going to be (or suppose to be) big and shocking. I would give this book an 5 because it is an average book and I'm not that far.

Princess Academy

Princess Academy is about girls from a mountain called Mount Eskle having to go to an academy and leaving their families. When the girls get to the academy, a lady named Olana teaches them about how to read Danlander History, Commerce, Geography, Diplomacy, Conversation, Poise and Kings and Queens. All of the girls have to learn these subjects because next year the prince is going to pick one of the girls to become his wife. If a girl speaks out of term or breaks any rule, she either gets locked up in a closest or smacked on the palm of her hand; I find that unfair and mean, but maybe if Olana doesn’t do a good job of teaching she'll be put in jail, or something like that. 

When I read this book I sometimes think stuff like, "Yes, girls!" or, "No, don’t do that," or, "Wow! You girls are a really good team when you work together!" and other stuff like that.

I Have Lived A Thousand Years

I just finished re-reading I Have Lived A Thousand Years. This is such a powerful book even though lots of people have written Holocaust books based on information they read, or heard about. But this book is actually written by a real Holocaust survivor, who experienced most of the events in the book. When I read this, it was horrible because at some parts. In order to get more involved with the book, I would picture myself in the main character's shoes, and doing that made me really connect with what was going on and try and understand what she was saying as much as someone who hasn't experienced anything half as awful could. 

I have read a lot of Holocaust books, but there's something about this one that really takes a toll on me. At the end of the book there is a mass shooting of everyone in the cattle cars and she describes everyone's injuries and what people were saying and I could just picture their faces, and it really upset me. There was one part where I just fell apart with emotion and had to put down the book for a couple minutes and just think about what was happening. I'm not going to say exactly what it was because you should read it for yourself but it really made me reflect on everything I knew about the Holocaust and think about the brutal treatment of all the prisoners and how awful everything was. I hope that remembering all the monstrosities of what happened during that war will prevent anything like tit from happening again.

Christopher Mouse the Tale of a Small Traveler

I just have to say that this book is like a teeter-toter of suspense, emotion and relief. I start out just relaxed and reading about him with his family. Then I'm about as terrified as Christopher, who is being taken away from his family. But of course I'm relived that he is with some friends at a safe place and not in a horrible one. (I'm not telling what they are). Then I feel depressed about the fact that he has been separated from everyone he loves. I think you get the point. 

This book relates to many different books I've read about mice. The first ones I think of are Poppy, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, and The Rats of Nimh. They all travel to many different places and owners, going through good and bad. Another book this reminds me of this book is Bartleby of the Mighty Mississippi. Just like this, it is a short book that has lots of different settings and a final happy home. I'm getting to the end of this book and it seems like he is going to get the same type of thing (I'm still not telling) where he will stay. I can't wait!

The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch

The Last Apprentice Revenge of the Witch is the best "ghosty-ooh-scary-monster-flesh-ripping-evil-crazy" book that I've ever read .  A lot of those pointlessly scary violent books are just stupid and I'm just left there thinking, "Why did I just waste my time reading a pointlessly scary violent book that gave me nightmares and I didn't even give a darn. What the HECK!?" I sure have felt that way before. And then I think, "Why did I even keep reading it in the first place?"

But in Revenge of the Witch it's more like, "Ooh, scary, but what detail! I can actually pay a good amount of attention so that when people ask me 'Hey, have you read The Last Apprentice Revenge of the Witch? Cool! Did you like it?' I can say, ' Yeah, and I liked it so much that I didn't dunk my head in bucket of nails like I did the last time I read a really stupid scary violent book!' "

Hoot

Carl Hiaasen wrote Hoot in a new way. By saying this, I mean that I felt like one of the characters played a different part. For example, when I read a book I always feel like the authors make a runaway the bad person, like a runaway criminal. Or, a boy who doesn't live with his family lives out on the streets. I felt that what Carl Hiaasen did in terms of making the runaway the good guy was cool how he took a step away from a protected cave. I loved the book, overall.

How to Draw and Sell Comics!

This book is my awesome handy-dandy comic and sketch idea tool for when I'm sketching and making art stuff for when I'm at home. I love the wide variety of different drawings and references to some other comics. I've never actually read any of the words, but I think pictures have their own stories, but that is the beauty of artwork. It's all story but no words to guide your mind, you just let it roam free. I think that's why a lot of artists were isane. I wonder where the minds go when they wander? I guess they choose to stay at school, or choose to do something else. I think this book made me question what these artists were like. I wonder what they enjoyed drawing when they were my age? Think of that, a book that makes me think in a good way.



This is for week of 4/3 P.S. Never apologize for your art.

The Secret Garden

Have you ever watched a movie before you read the book it was based on? I really suggest you read the book, The Secret Garden, before you watch the movie. If you watch the movie first, it somewhat ruins the surprises for you and you would be waiting for something to happen that is 199 pages away.

At first, I had a very hard time starting The Secret Garden because I watched the movie before I read the book. In the beginning, I thought the book was very boring. Every time I tried to read The Secret Garden, I never got past the first six or seven pages. I know that you can't tell a book from its first six pages, but the first six pages completely bored me.

The last time our class went to the library, I picked up The Secret Garden and made myself promise not to put the book down. I am ever so glad that I made myself do that. If I hadn't done that, I would have missed out on a great book!

Every now and then it was hard to "read" what the characters were saying because a lot of the characters speak broad Yorkish. An example of broad Yorkish is "Tha'rt not nigh so yeller and tha'rt not nigh so scawny. Even tha' hair doesn't slamp down on tha' haed so flat." Luckily, the author tells you how to pronounce the really hard words - when I say "hard" I mean that you can't just sound out the word.

One thing really interesting is that the book was written in 1911. That's almost 100 years ago! And not only that, The Secret Garden is still wonderful to read. Maybe it's like some wines, the longer it's kept the better it tastes.

I would rate this book an extremely well earned 100! Just kidding. I rate The Secret Garden is a super 10.

Replay

At the beginning of the book I thought this book was going to be really boring and I would not get it, but it was not.   Replay is a really good book. It is by Sharon Chreech and when I finish this book I will have just read all her books, which is a cool thing for me. 

When I read this book, it makes think about me becoming an actress, but I can't even act. Let's just put it in these words, I am not actresses and I can't act, but I still think about me messing up and being horrible, and that makes me laugh. This book makes me feel good inside and I have no idea why.  Well, maybe it's because I have seen people in my class that are good actors and actresses and I just think that they don't know i,t but they are.  So it makes me feel good to think that they would like this book if they would just think that they were a good actor or actress, like I do. 

This book is interesting and I would recommend it to people in my class. This book is an easy read and it is still good!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Well, so far, this book had kind of been boring, at least until Harry got to Hogwarts. When I read this book, I think about what it would be like to be Harry. I think it would be exciting and scary. Exciting because he goes on such adventures, but, he also expirences very scary things like at the qudditch world cup. (I won't say what happens for the people who havent read the book.) I haven't really had that experience, but I have gone to a Rose Bowl, which is kind of similar.

Mallory On Board

Anchors Away! At least that is what Mallory will be thinking about in this book. The excitement is rushing through the McDonald family. Except, there is one bump in the road for Mallory, or should I say a rock in the sea. Her two best friends' mother and father are getting married. Why is that a problem? Well as Mallory would say, "because their suppose to be 2 separate families!"  

This book at first will made me feel bright and happy inside but, depending on my definition of sad, I could feel tears forming inside. That could probably turn my sunny day out of the picture. I think that it is true, what it says in the book, that there are good ships and bad ships, but there are no ships like friendships. There also is the feeling of being left out, like the extra one in the crowd.

To me, sad can have two meanings in this book.  The meaning of bursting into tears, or the meaning of the feeling as if you were being excluded and letting the sadness build up inside. This book taught me a lot about those two meanings. Also that if you'rr ever feeling left out by a friend, you should always tell them. I would rate this book a 10+.

The Truth About Sparrows

Beleive it or not, it is not about sparrows. I think that is hard to understand, but I can see why it is called that, though. See, this girl named Sadie and her family had to move to the coast of Texas during the Great Depression. They were cooking on the road and an old man comes by asking for food. She calls him Mr. Sparrow.  She feels like she and everybody eles who had to leave from their home. So she says, "we are all sparrows."  I think that, in a way, it is really great, but it is also a sad book. Not sad as in burst out in tears. Just sad where you wonder why she did that and you ask yourself what you would do in her place, or how you would feel.

In the process of the book her mom is pregnant and one month away from giving birth. They went out to pick pecans about five miles away from town with Sadies friend Dollie. So their just picking, picking, picking, and all of a sudden she can't find her mom. I felt this pang. It was like having the wind knocked out of me. Anything could be happening. When she finds her she is lying in a ditch, and her breathing is heavy and labored. I won't go in to detail, but that wave of nervousness and feeling of fear is so powerful it made me bang my head on the ceiling of an annoyingly small plane.

She got mad at Dollie and called her a bay rat (an insult that basicly says, "I'm big, your little, I'm right, your wrong, I'm smart, your dumb."). So Dollie, her previous best friend, and Davis, Dollies brother who at first thought he was really great and Sadie liked him to someone who Sadie likes yeah, not as a friend, start to leave her alone. I felt really sorry for her because now she was friendless, and felt lower than mud. I could feel how much remorse she felt.

Her dad told her that they were going to live by the sea and fish for a living. On the way to earn more money they had to stop to pick cotton. She felt really angry at her dad and thought he was a big, fat, liar. Her anger flowed into me and I agreed that is completly the way I would feel if I was in her position. Then you also feel like she is a little brat. The kind of person who if things don't go just their way they throw a fit.

This book is really powerful, it is rather slow. I could totally feel the emotion. So I would give it an 8. I hope you read it. It is in our school library.

May Bird and the Ever After, By Jodi Lynn Anderson

May Bird and the Ever After is a good book. I know that's not saying much but it's true.I think the book is over average rating, but it's not on my top ten rating list. I like how it has a mysterious woods. I don't Know, I mean I think it gives the book an every day, yet eerie feeling. But when she goes into the "ever after", it's surprisingly less scary.

I think her cat looks nothing like it does on the cover of the book. Actually I think all of them ( as in the characters ) look different on the cover, or any drawing, except, that May looks sort of like what she did on the cover.  

I'm kind of annoyed that May hesitates too long and thinks too much, epically in her case. I think she might stay there in the Ever After. I know There is second book of May Bird, and I think one after that too. I would give this book a 9 because of the reason at the beginning.

The Rangers Apprentice

The Ruins of Gorlan is a book where people are sweet, kind and awesome archers! When I first started this book I though it would be totally typicall and cheesy , the author proved me very wrong. There is an outstanding amount of peacful, humorous, friendly conversations( I think I laughed out loud in class ). It's sort of like half Lord of the Rings and half Saturday night live! This book has awesome action and humor to die for! It's perfect for me!

Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit

I think this is a wonderful book to talk about because seeing as I am doing Audrey Hepburn as my research blog topic, I don't want to give a summary because I want it to be a surprise. But, what I can tell you, is that this book is a lot better than any of the other websites I've been to. All the other ones just list facts about Audrey that were important and assume what she was like. But, tying to what we did in library today, the one I am reading is by Audrey's son, so it really tells the key things. He really knows what she was like on a daily basis, and he knows some of her habits and what they would do on the weekend. I love learning about little things she did like wear ballet slippers in the morning and a bathrobe and worry more about getting her son's homework done than he did. I think Audrey Hepburn is a great role model and she is someone to look up to for your whole life. Whenever I read this I think, "Wow, she was a great mother," and, "I wish I were like Audrey Hepburn!" I definitely recommend this book if you are interested in her and I give it a 9.

Replay

This book is by Sharon Chreech. I think she is a great author and now I am almost done with reading all of her books. This is the last book, I think, that I have to read from her and then I am going to go onto another author. Now onto the book, this book is very enjoyable. I would recommend this book to a lot of people that like the theater because this book is pretty much about a boy who wants to go into the theater business. The book is very interesting and when I am reading this book, (have not finished yet) what goes through my head was things like "WOW" or "That was so sad," and things like that.

I would recommend this book 1 thousand times because it is so good. I would rank this book a 10 because it is really well written and I know that everyone would like this book. (I think)

Christopher Mouse

The book Christopher Mouse is about a small whight mouses life. I am amazed, because he always seems to know what to do, even though he is only a few weeks old.  He can always tell when there's danger. When I think he's made a bad choise, it always works out. I think he has a crazy life for a mouse, and he is lucky to be alive. I was really focused when I read this book and it has a great ending.  I would rate this book a 10 because I would read it again.

Waiting for Normal

Waiting for Normal is the book I am reading, but I only got to the 1st page. At the beginging I thought in my head, "Huh! Who is that?"  But then I figured out who it was.  I like the title of this book because it sounds like you are an alien and you are just here for a month and it is not normal. I think that if someone in the book is different it will make them think of being in a place that they don't want to be in.

The Drinking Gourd

In the book, I was always wondering things like, "Are they going to make it?  Are they going to get caught?  Will they die?"  The Drinking Gourd  is based on a true story. It happened a long time ago when blacks were slaves. If you are studying about the Drinking Gourd, or you are singing a song about it in music class like our class is, and you want to learn what your singing about, then read this book. There is a song in the back of the book of what the slaves sang when they were trying to get away called "Follow the Drinking Gourd." 

Shipwreck (Island Book 1)

Shipwreck is a book about six kids who are all on the boat for reasons that are not so good. As I got into the book, I started to really enjoy it. At the beginning of the book the voice in my head started to say that this book had the same reason to go on the ship as in Holes. I was real impressed with the outcome of Holes around the subject of why the kids were there. I am now excited and questioning what the author of this book will come up with, or if the author will even come up with something at all. I recommend this book and, so far, would give it a 8.

The Excellent 11

This book is a non-fictional book about strategies for teachers and parents. I’m reading this because I want to figure out what all our teachers are thinking and what they’re trying to get us to think. So far I’ve read over the enthusiasm and adventure sections. They both had surprising, intriguing, and informative content. 

It's really amazing what this teacher (the author) has done, and the book is pretty interesting itself. The man who wrote this book seems like he's a very spontaneous teacher and he has pretty good points. His stories were touching and I think that it’s great he understands what troubled students and children are thinking, or in need of. 

When I read this I can be split between decisions. Sometimes I feel really bad for the teachers having to try and teach such difficult children, but sometimes I feel bad for the children because they are going through minimally caring teachers and other hard times. I’ve learned from this book that some teachers care about us and really try hard, but there are some teachers that really just give up on classes or kids that don’t seem interested. 

Now I know how much effort and commitment Maggie puts into teaching us, so I greatly appreciate her stretching our limitations and going past the school requirements (plus the “b” word, budget). Lets give a hand to the one of the greatest teachers ever, Maggie!

Maximum Ride-The Angel Experiment

Have you ever wanted to fly? I've always wanted to fly. To be able to look over the world seems so much more peaceful. I think that having a birds-eye view of things without the humming noise of a plane and 6 thicknesses between me and the actual sky seems so cool!

Maximum Ride is about this 14 year old girl, Max, who was tested on as a baby and now is 98% human and 2% bird! She can actually fly! Of course, with the rest of her abused, 2% bird gang, Fang, Iggy, Nuge, Gasman and Angel.

I simply love this book! There's fighting, humor and well, the main characters can fly! This is sort of like Percy Jackson and the Olympians in a way. Even better, it's almost as good as Percy Jackson and the Olympians!

I'd rate this book a 10 because of all of the above.

The Penderwicks

The Penderwicks is about 4 sisters who go to a cottage with their dad. Then they bump into a boy and the boy gets a very bad impression about them. 
I really like this book because it has a lot of emotion and I can really tell what the characters are feeling. I ask myself a lot of questions when I read it such as, "How could that happen?" and "Why did she/he do that?  Couldn't she/he have done this or that?"  I also like how the author makes every sister have a very different personality.
You should try this book!