Peak

This book is called Peak because I know it sounds crazy that's the main characters name. Peak was born a climber. His dad makes a living by guiding tours up Everest. HIs mom quit climbing when he was born but both his parents were rock rats. I think that what Peak does was way to risky. He basically just wanted to climb. So instead of just plain saying can we go climbing he decided to do it himself. So he scales skyscrapers. ( Illegally by they way.) Of corse his plan doesn't involve being caught but when he his he faces three and a half years of jail or going to Nepal to live with his dad. There is one twist. He doesn't go to Nepal right away. He goes to Tibet to climb Everest. His dad wants to have the youngest person to ever climb Everest have climbed with his group for publicity. I think that his dad is completely selfish and greedy. I know that isn't very fair but still. Most of the people who climb Everest don't come down to tell the tale. So using his son for publicity and at the same time risking his life seems so selfish. Though still this book was good. It was mainly about survival and if you know everything about me you know that I love survival stories. Plus it also shows you how lucky you truly are. The sherpa on the mountain that help you while you are climbing have to risk there lives like that to just support their family, put food on the table, and clothes on their backs. That piece of the book seemed to sting when you think about how much we take for granted. I hope that you at least consider reading this book.

Hurt Go Happy

In past posts I have rated books 10 but that's because I didn't get the rating system. But this book was absolutely life changing for me. It is about a girl who is deaf named Joey. Her mom doesn't let her learn sign language so she lip-reads. One day she meets an old man who has a chimpanzee who knows sign language, and starts to teach Joey. Some of you might know that I am 100% against animal testing and animal cruelty. This book was really an eye-opener for me and it is part of what influenced me to become a vegetarian. Towards the end I was crying so hard that I had to take a break from it to think it over. Of course I finished it and it is actually the best book I have ever read.

May Bird

The book May Bird looks a bit cheesy on the outside, but it's one heck of a book on the inside! This book has creatures like spirits, house goasts, dead robers, dead cities, and much more. May Bird, a girl who could never blend in with the girls at school, finds a passage from her world, her homeBriery swamp. May is not afraid of dark forests, and there is a forest right across the way from May's house. Her mom warned her not to go exploring in the forest, but of course, she explores anyway. She and her cat, Somber Kitty, discover a swamp that was said that people disapeared and never came back from this area. May ends up being dragged through the gateway of her world and the dead world by a house goast. May encounters new helpful friends and enimies that don't want May to leave the dead world.........alive.
May's goal: to get the heck out of the dead world.

Grossology

Egh! What is that icky goopy slimy lump? Ugh! What is that discusting morbid blob-like mass? If you want to know what these icky, goopy, slimy, lumpy, discusting, morbid, blob-like masses are, check it out in the grossley-orgonized book of GROSSOLOGY. This is the best book I've ever read to get the most putridest imformation out of and if you're the kind of person that likes stuff like this then this book's for for YOU. This book helped me learn more about all of the things you just read in the first two sentences from bruises to warts, from boiles to pus and brains to guts. Icky to ouchy, lumpy to goopy.

I would rate this book of yucky facts a 9 1/2

The Family Reunion

The Family Reunion is about a little girl and her grandma and they have cooking day every Saturday together. But then they went to the family reunion and turned out to not be happy. I liked this story because it shows that you don't have to be first at everything. I would give it a 10.

Watership Down

Watership Down was recomended to me and now I am really into it. It may be a bit to challenging for some people, and it started a bit slow, but its getting really exiting and the cool thing is the rabbits who are the main charecters have there own tipe of languege! It can be sad in some part so be prepared. I would give this book a rating of 8 because it is exiting but not so catching some times.

Goosebumps, Ghost beach

A boy named Jerry finds a creepy cave on the beach. Then some other kids tell him there is 300 year old ghost deep in the cave. He thinks its just a myth of the old times.

This book is great because of course, most of the Goosebump books are creepy. I think its great because I like ghosts and other things like that. 10!

Parrot In the Oven, Mi Vida

Parrot In the Oven is a great book to read, it is about a boy whois growing up in ghetto. His family is very poor, so the book can tell you about what its like when you are poor. I would give this book a 10 for it's humor, and plot. I just think that this book is one of the best I have ever read in my whole life. My favorite part is when he is working with his brother to pick peppers in a field. The humor in that part is great! I really recommend this book, but it does swear some.

The Cross of Lead

The Cross of Lead is probably the best book I've ever read!  I think it was a book wrote for me, it's not onley about companionship, but archery and sword fighting!  The beginning is teribly boring and sad but the middle and end are fantastic!  The author is Avi and I hear theres a sequel.

Judy Moody Predicts the Future

This book is really funny. A girl named Judy gets a mood ring out of a cereal box. She trys to change it but it doesn't work. So she trows it away in the trashcan in her brothers room. Judys brother "Stink"gets it out and trys it on. He discovers it does work. Judy trys to get it back by telling him she has ESP. She also makes a predictsion at school. I would give this book a 9.

Incantation

I just read this book and it was really good. It is about a girl who lives in Spain and is raised Catholic and is one day told she is secretly Jewish. By the way this is all happening during the crusades. Which is the time when Jewish people were killed for being Jewish if they didn't convert. Something I really liked about this book is basically every chapter something really unexpected happens! And believe it or not, at the end I was bawling it was so sad.

THE WHIPPING BOY by Sid Fleischman

This book is a good one because:
*It's a Newbery Medal (which really doesn't matter.)
*I like books in this time-zone
*A good plot
And much more!

The Ara is between, Victorian, and, mid-evil times. I like reading fiction and (again) this time-zone of books.
I only give this book a 8 1/2 because it has a quick plot turn (exciting!) but, the ending was what I would of guessed but, it ended to short.

Judy Moody around the World in 8.5 days

Judy Moody can be a strange book because the characters have funny names and some of them have strage personalites. If you like funny, wierd, rhyming names then this is a great book for you to enjoy. There are many other books of Judy Moody. I would rate this book a 7.3 because its not my type of book, but 7.3 is not a bad score for a book. Judy Moody doesn't brush her hair and she likes to collect chewed up gum, so don't follow what she does PLEASE!!

The Land of Silver Apples, by Nancy Farmer

Do you love the book The Sea of Trolls?  If so, you'll really like Nancy Farmer's sequel, The Land of Silver Apples.  This historical fiction book blends English and Norse mythology with early Christian history to produce an engrossing fantasy that is hard to put down!  Characters include elves, bards, kings, druids, hobgoblins, and an apprentice on a quest.  I recommend reading the Sea of Trolls before The Land of Silver Apples because I think that the reader benefits from the rich context of the story and the character relationships that are established in the first book. Rumor has it that the third book in the series will be out next year!

I rate The Sea of Trolls at a 9 and The Land of Silver Apples at an 8 because they really held my interest and made me want to learn more about European mythology.  To answer Clem's question before she asks it: neither book is a 10 for me because, while I love them both, neither is a life-changing piece of literature, which is one of my criterion for a 10.  The book will be back in the classroom tomorrow and available for reading over vacation.

Princess Lessons (one if the princess diaries books)

In the book it's slit up into sections: beauty, etiquette, fashion, character, and education. each section tells how you can look like a royal. in fashion and beauty there is a list of essentials. in characters it tells you how to make a friend,a good spectator, and other things that important.

I like this book because it tells you how or act like a royal. This book reminded me of the Amreican girl books because they tell you infomation about useful things.

Molly Moon (the series)

I am going to start the 4th in the series. I really liked the first three books because
they were all fast-paced and action packed.

Anyway, Molly Moon is about a girl who lives in an orphanage and her life is basically really bad. Then she discovers a book on hypnotism and that changes her life forever.

What first got me into the book was the cover. I love dogs and there was a big picture
of a dog on the cover and at that point I was into reading books about animals. I tried reading it. It wasn't about a dog after all. I could literally not put it down. When I finished, I could not wait to get my hands on the next one.

The next one was awesome also. The third was complete action.

I really,really,really recommend this series!

I would give them a 10.

The Amber Spyglass

I am reading the Amber Spyglass, the epic conclusion to His Dark Materials, a trilogy about a girl named Lyra, and a boy named Will. It has a complicated story line, 

but most fifth graders could figure it out. I thought that the first book, the Golden Compass and this book were about the same rating, around 7+, which is good... but definitely very complicated and you HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION! If not, you will most likely lose your spot in your head. (I've had that and it is not fun, trust me). This a very interesting trilogy for ages 10 and over,

                                                  

And for all those Harry Potter readers, read this next.              

Granny Torelie Makes Soup

This book is by Sharon Chreech, the newberry winner for walk two moons well back to the book. This book is about a girl and her friend Bailey and they get in a fight and the girl is very mad at "that Bailey". Then Granny Torelie comes in and helps out the girl ( I am sorry but I do not know the girls name). I can relate to this book because sometimes I get in fights with my freinds and get so mad at them that I wish I never knew them but thena at the end my fight with my friend we always makeup, usally. I would say to my uppinion this book is a quick read but it is very good and it taught me a lesson to alsways listen to my family and friends if they are trying to help me when I am in a fight.
I would give this book a 10 because to me this book was good and taught me a lesson so that is why i put the book at a 10!.

-Maddy Decarlo

The Stranger

I read this book called the Stranger. I would recomened this book because it is about a man who hit's a guy that forgets who he is. I would read this book if you like mastereose books. It is not that long but it is a really good book. I would maybe give this book a 8 1/2 maybe not a 10 because it is not that good but I like it maybe you will to. I don't know what you would give it but you mit give it a 9 or a 10. The man that get's hit lives with the man that hits him. The man that gets hit never learns who he is. I really want you to try to read this book.

Gender Blender

Gender Blender is my favorite book. It was the first book that i have read that has made me laugh out loud. It is so funny. However, at parts, it may be a little inappropriate. This book is about a boy, Tom, and a girl, Emma. They get pared up for a n assignment, and things go terribly wrong. This all happens because they hate each other. Emma and Tom switch body's. Gender Blender is about how they deal with their differences. I think that this book is really good to read, because is written around a good life lesson, it doesn't matter what is on the outside, it matters what is on the inside. This book was not only funny, but it taught me something too, like girls and boys are not much different on the inside. I would defiantly give this book a 10!

Rules

This book is called rules. It's not a very common title and because of that the author, Cynthia Lord, comes right out and says why. It is called that because the main character ( Catherine) is suffering the regular stress of being a twelve year old girl. As if that isn't enough her younger brother David has autism. This means that he sort of has problems with everything. So Catherine has "helped" him by giving him an ever growing list of rules that it is essential he follows. Then when her best friend goes to California with her dad for the summer, and a new girl moves in next door tons of problems come up in her life and just won't budge. Basically this book is about Catherine's life as she tries to make friends with Krisit ( the new girl), fend for her little brother from the bully Ryan, and keep up a friendship with a boy who can't talk and doesn't know sign language. So while this is all going on Catherine's sticking to her set of rules.
There are plenty of times where I have felt a pang or a wave of sadness creeps over me because of what happens. I feel like it is so easy to slide into Catherine and feel exactly what she would feel. This is a book that has amazing talent. It really allows you to see all the sides of the story, feel what everyone's feeling, and down right get sucked up. I think that I would rate it an eight. I would rate it that because it's a good plot and wonderful talent, but it can be slow. Thus numerous times boring. Even though I hope you read this book. Rules.

The Gift of the Magi

The Gift of the Magi is a booklet of tiny stories. The most famous one is the Gift of the Magi. That one is about two people who are in love and they basically try to by eachother's love.

O.Henry is a very tricky writer and his stories usally end with a twist. There are lots of miny stories for you to unravel. I am not done with this book because it's pretty tough to read at part's.

I would rate this book a 9.5 because it's really good but parts of it are confusing.

The Wednesday Wars, by Gary Schmidt

Mrs. Ritter put this book in my hands last week -- and when she recommends a book, it's always good!  Last summer she loaned me Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, another book by the same author, and I enjoyed it tremendously.  

Both books require a good amount of background knowledge, which might make them tricky reading for 5th graders.  But for those of you who know a little bit about the sixties (Vietnam, VW buses, Martin Luther King, Jr.), the time in which the story takes place will make sense to you.

This is also a good book for anyone who enjoys Shakespeare and might have a particular interest in learning some of Caliban's curses!  I give this book a hearty 8.5 rating.  

The Entertainer and the Dybbuk

Yeah, I know what your all thinking. What is a dybbuk, well thats actully a jewish spirit from the holocaust. It's about a guy named 'The Great Freddie' that works with puppets, one night he goes hom and gets possessed by a dybbuk. Freddie isn't that good at not moving his lips when the dummie is supposed to be talking so the dybbuk helps him for 2 things, if Freddie helps him get a bar-mitzvah (a jewish ceremony that makes someone jewish into an adult) and to help get revenge on the man who killed him. I would give this book a 8 and a half because it teaches you about the holocaust and it has some humor, but be prepared because this book is kind of sad. But still, it's a 8 and a half

The House On The Gulf

This book is by Margret Peterson Haddix. When I first saw this book I thought that it was going to be abouta flood or a big lake that over flows but it is not. This book has three main charicters who are the mom, the sister Britt, and the brother bran. In this book Britts brother Bran lands a summer job house-sittingin Florda, it seems great for Birtt and her family but then Britt suspects that the owners are not who Bran says they are. I would give this book a 10 because it is so well written and when I finish this book I will try out the authors other books and write about them on the blog. The tipe is sort of small but it is not that bad. I would reccomened this book to people or kids that enjoy books that ar kind of mysterie but also kind of ragular.
If you read the book have fun on Britt, her moms, and Bran her brothers journey through babysitting a house that might not be who they think the owners houe is.

-Maddy

Rascal

Rascle is about a racoon that becomes friends with a boy. They love each other. They are best friends.

Then, summer strikes. Its time for the racoon to go. Its to hard for them to seperate and the boy can't leave him. How will they deal with it? Will the racoon go or stay?

This book looks so sad to me. I am reading it with Max in a book club. I know I'll love this book. I dont know why but it seems like its going to be great.

Finding Her Way

I read a story calld Finding Her Way. It was about how blind people
can do everything that we can do. And how they do stuff a little different.
The girl that was blind had a schedule for the day. I liked this book because
it showed haw it does not matter what or who you are. And that is why I give
it a 10.

Ragweed

Ragweed is a mouse that moves away from his family to find adventure and gets to a city called ampperville. There are many mice that have clubs and stuff but there is also there cat group called F.E.A.R.(Felines Enraged About Rodents)Can Ragweed help mouse town fight back? I would give this book a ten because its very action packed and fun.

Pixie Tricks

I read a book called Pixie Tricks. I would give this book a 7 1/2-8 1/2 because it is non-fiction it is a good book because it is not so hard and not so easy. I really recomend this book if you like magical book's or if you like faries or pixie's. This book is not so long but it is a really good book. I could really picture the story. I think you sould try to find this book in the store's.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows

I am reading Harry Potter the 7th I think it is the best Harry Potter book yet. If you want to read this book you would have to read the other books before this one. This book is very intence. If you are a big Harry Potter fan and you haven't read the last Harry Potter you better get reading "just kinding". If I had to rate this book to 1-10 I would rate it a 10 because it is a very magical and mysterious and it can get scary in parts. If you don't have somthing to read then Harry Potter the 7th is on the line of best books ever.

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

This is a series about a sweet women who adores children. She adores children because of course children adore her. She spends so much time with children that she even has cures for their bad habits. This is a great book for a family and can be just right for a large range of grades and ages. It's a very settle and simple book but I love it. It's one of those books that you pass down for generations. I would rate it a ten but a different kind of ten. It's not that it has any problem (in fact to me it's flawless), it's just that for some people, it's a bit too layed back. I love the cozy warm feeling you get from reading this book, but other people may think that it doesn't have enough adventure, action, emotion or other things like that in it.

Little House on the Parrie

Its about a girl and her family and they move to a new country. Though this was 100 years ago so, they have to go by a covered wagon. And when they get there they have to re-build everything.

The Little Prince

I am reading, The Little Prince. It is about a tiny boy who visits tons of planets.

I really like it because it is funny. I think it's funny because the prince always asks ridulous questions like, "Will you draw me a sheep?" He said that to the narorator. This book also has wierd ideas because the prince is always refering to grown-ups as
"pecular" or "some what interesting" There was one man who would count every star in the sky and say that he "owned" them.

I'd rate this book a nine and a half because of it's humor and wierd ideas.

Hang A Thousand Trees With Ribbons

I am reading this book right after I just read Copper Sun. They are both about slavery, and about a girl who comes to America from Africa to be a slave. The difference is that in Copper Sun Amari was treated awfully and didn't have a good life. In this book, Phillis is treated like part of the family that bought her. In Copper Sun, Amari hates that boy that does things with her. But in this book, Phillis falls in love with the boy who is almost like her brother.

The Rabbit-Proof Fence

I loved this story so much! It is about these three aborigeny girls that are taken away from their poor town, Jigala, and brought to a place for blacks. Then, they try to escape, and get farther than anyone that has tried before. This is because the shelter that they stayed at has an amazing tracker that finds missing people. But because Molly, (the oldest girl), is so smart, she finds a way to hide their scent. I think that the tracker was a tiny bit on the girls side. Every time he could not find a scent, he would smile and he would seem happy for them. How they got home was they followed the worlds longest fence which led them to their town. This is a really good book or movie to watch. It has a lot to do with race and how bad it was. I would give this story a 10+.

Into the Woods

This book was recommended to me by Miss. Ritter. So naturally I have high expectations. This is one of those books where you can tell what mood the author was in when she wrote different parts of it. Like for instance if your mental picture is harder to form then there wasn't much detail. Though from this book the author is very skilled in putting out detail enough to make a mental picture but have it still be your own and unique. In the parts where she is rushing, these parts seem darker and blurrier. It makes me think that the author was annoyed.

The hook on this book is really amazing, it starts out as a big picture of rats then the way the author seems to be rushing made me wonder, "Are Storm, and Aurora rats?". I started reading through to find out. Before I knew it I was three chapters into the book. (and no they are not rats)

The cool and interesting thing about this book is it is continuously tying back to a fairy tale. It is a different one every time. Like the first chapter called The Piper Returns is about Storm wandering into a mysterious part of town called Hamilin. Then she sneaks into their town counsel and finds out their food was being devoured by rats. That they where trying to get an exterminator. Then someone said remember the last time!? So I think that was where the Pied Piper went. Or in the second chapter Storms sister Aurora pricks her finger making a blanket and gets really scared, then before (well what happens I can't say) it happens there is a note saying "Be sure to tell Aurora to be careful on her sixteenth birthday.

All-in-all this book so far has met my expectations and gone farther. This book is just plain (well there is nothing plain about it) great and I hope that all of you read it.

Amulet of Samarkand

I'm reading a book called the Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud.  It's a challenging yet incredible, you really have to understand the concept of magic!I suggest reading the Harry Potter series before.  Some things you should know about are: djinni (of the fourteenth level), scrying glasses, summonings, miner imps, uttuku, and horla!Unfortunetly I can't tell you what any of those things are, so you'll just have to read it!

Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge

I couldn't put this book down all weekend. Unfortunately, that meant that I left a lot of my chores, well, undone. Has that ever happened to anyone else?

Fly By Night is loosely based on English history, but the genre is definitely science fiction/fantasy. I was drawn to the book by one of the graphic elements on the cover which read, "Imagine a world in which all books were banned!" The main character, Mosca Mye, loves books but she lives in a time when all but "sanctioned" book are banned.  She has lots of adventures,  and I kept being surprised by the twists and turns in the plot, right up until the end!

We don't have this book in our classroom library, but Mrs. Ritter has it in the school library. This book would make a great book club book because there are so many twists that it would be fun to make predictions and have conversations about what is really happening that the main character may -- or may not -- know about.