The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is the classic tale of four kids who were sent off to an old professor's house in during World War Two. They discover a magical wardrobe that takes them to a land called Narnia. The land is being ruled by the evil queen and it is up to Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund to stop her. So they set off to find Aslan. The Lion King. They need him to guide them. It turns out the queen was planning on killing Edmund and Aslan sacrifices his life for Edmund's. 

Aslan is the wise king. He is represents all of the goodness of Narnia. Lucy is sweet and innocent, Peter is strong and sometimes acts like a father to all of the kids. Susan watches out for Lucy and Edmund but she is a lot tougher than she looks. Edmund rebels a lot, you can tell that losing his father made a huge impact on him, The Evil Queen makes it so it is winter everyday, but never Christmas. 

This was such a great book. It was detailed, yet easy to fallow. The story line was great and over all the book was very well written. It was one of those books that you want to keep reading. 

I made lots of connections between this book and the movie. There were a few differences. Just description wise, for example, in the book the witch just gives him enchanted Turkish delight in order to make him  want more. But the witch said in order to get it, he would have to bring him and his siblings to her. In the movie Edmund asks for it, instead of it just being given. I only saw a few tiny details.

The author C.S. Lewis' full name is Clive Staples Lewis November 29, 1898. He went to Oxford University and he enlisted in the British Army during World War 1. His books were based on the theme good will always triumph over evil. He died 5:30  p.m. a November 22. A week before his 65th birthday.

The Fortune Teller

The Fortune Teller is about a young carpenter with many questions about his future. So he goes to a fortune teller. He asks the fortune teller 3 questions. The questions ask if he will be rich, famous or find true love. The Fortune Teller tells him he will be rich... if he works hard and finds a good job, he will be happy... if he avoids being miserable, and he will find true love... if he finds her and she says yes. But then when the carpenter leaves the room he realizes he has so many more questions. So, he goes back only to find the Fortune Teller is not there. He puts on the hat and holds the crystal ball the teller had. All of a sudden the a woman comes to evict the teller, but she sees the carpenter thinking that he is the Fortune Teller and he made himself young. Then the real Fortune Teller vanishes and the carpenter got everything he wanted. Fame, riches, a good life and true love.  

The characters are the Fortune Teller, the Carpenter, the landlord. The fortune Teller tricks people into thinking he can tell their fortune and then after the Carpenter sees him he vanishes. The Carpenter is just looking for a better life, which he ends up getting. Everything the fortune teller told him came true. The landlord sets out to evict the real fortune teller but ends up getting her fortune told by the carpenter. 

This book was...OK. It wasn't one of my favorites. I think it is because it was far from my reading level. So, that made it a little boring to listen to. It was very basic. I was never a really big fan of picture books.

Because we read this book out loud, I took notes on the book and when we discussed the book, I would write down all my predictions and then I would write what actually happened. 

 

Lloyd Alexander was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 30, 1924. At age 15 he decided he wanted to be an author. He dropped out of teachers college to join the Army and was stationed in Paris.

Inside Girl

Inside Girl: The Sweetest Thing is about a girl named Flan who has two very popular, very wild older siblings. Her parents are always in a different country and all Flan wants is to be normal. 

The problem in this book is that Flan and all of her friends fall for the same guy, Adam. He is practically perfect. But Flan has a boyfriend and who becomes good friends with Adam. Flan's world is torn apart. Her friends all hate each other, her older brother and sister decide they need to be more parent like and Flan has no clue what to do. 

The characters are Flan, Sara Beth, Adam, Meradith, Judith, Bennet, Patch and Feb. Flan is a very down to earth kind of a person. She has a closet full of designer clothes and lives in Greenwich Village right next door to her best friend and famous actress Sara Beth. Meradith and Judith are two of her friends, they are nice but they can be very caddy. Bennet is her boyfriend. He is one of the nicest guys Flan knows, but there is just something about Adam. Adam is the best football player on the school team. He is smart, caring, very cute and Flan adores him. Feb and Patch are Flan's wild, crazy, party all night older brother and sister. Sara Beth is a drama queen to the highest level. She is always redecorating her house because it always has to fit her mood which changes everyday.

This book was just OK. It was kind of boring and slow. I didn't like it very much and I wouldn't read the rest of the books in the series. 

I just used post it notes and I visualized. Because I want to live in SoHo (which is where a lot of the book takes place) I had a good understanding of where everything was.

J. Minter grew up in NYC and went to Columbia University. 

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

This is the sequel to I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You. It is Cammie's second semester at Gallagher Academy and she has a lot os questions. Question number 1, does Josh remember her? Question 2, what is the Blackthorne? Question number 3, why is her mom acting so weird and question number 4, what really happened to her dad. 

Well, for starters Josh does remember her, only he is going out with DeeDee. And through the book Cammie realizes she moved on, too, and didn't even notice.

Blackthorne turns out to be a spy school for boys. While the boys are there, the girls realize weird things happen. Like having a Code Black, which is when the whole school doesn't let anything in or out. It goes into a complete and total lockdown. 

The girls decide to figure out what is going on. But that is almost impossible with one of the Blackthorne boys fallowing Cammie. He has a huge crush on her... but is really good at not showing. While Cammie hates him... or at least thinks she does. 

It turns out that because of what happened to Cammie the previous semester, the school realized the girls really don't know what goes on in the "real world" or in other words trust people who don't go to the academy.

 

Cammie Morgan is a very simple girl... if you consider simple to know 14 different languages, be able to kill you in 7 different ways only using her bare hands and has a mom who is one of the world's top spies. She loves the Gallagher Academy and will do anything to keep it a secret. Macey, is new to the school so she isn't at the standards of the other students, but she is working hard to get there. Liz is a genius, but she is scared of doing any wrk outside of a computer lab. Bex is quiet the opposite. She is british and one of the toughest girls at the academy. Zach is a new character to the series. Him and Cammie are to of the best spies at their schools. Zach is from Blackthorne. He always seems to find Cammie when she is trying to runaway from something... which really gets her annoyed. In this book Mr. Soloman and Cammie's mom start acting a little weird and Cammie thinks it;s because they know something about her dad...

This was a great book, it wasn't like a really good movie where the sequel stunk. It was more like a really great movie where the sequel is great if not better than the first. The ends to most of the chapters were cliffhangers and the author really did a great job letting the characters personality be shone through the dialogue.

For this book I visualized, wrote post-its and linked parts of this book to the last. It was cool being able to see the effect of something in the first book effect something in the second.

Ally Carter lives in the midwest where she is hard at work on GG3.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is about Professor Aronnax as he sets off to find a giant sea monster. But he is captured by the insane captain Nemo, who's submarine is the "sea monster".  They travel on the submarine on called the Nautilus that was invented by Nemo.

Once Aronnax realizes how insane Nemo is he has to escape. During their adventure they face giant squid, ice caps, find the lost city of Atlantis and face huge sharks to name a few of their dangerous in counters. At the end of the book they realize they are heading towards a whirlpool that no ship has ever escaped. But all of a sudden the characters wake up to find themselves in a fisherman's boat. he had no idea how they got there but they were free and Captain Nemo was no where to be found.

Professor Aronnax was French like  all of the characters in the book. He was strong, brave, capable of many different tasks, and smart. He was the Professor of Natural History at the Paris Museum. Nemo was an insane sea captain with this strong hate for the world. He treated Professor Aronnex and the rest of the crew poorly. Nemo also had lost his family. Ned Land was a strong fast and very skillful harpooner. Conseil was the professors right hand man. They were good friends.

This book was very adventurous, and had me on the edge of my feet a lot. I always wanted to know what would happen next. It would be really hard for me to put it down.

I mostly used post its for this. I didn't visualize r anything like that because there were some pictures in the book. But I did take a lot of notes and summarize. 

Jules Verne was born on 1828 in the seaport town of Nantes, France. He wrote over 100 stories. He died 1950 and is said by some to have "invented the future". 

The Wizard of Oz

 There are part of this book that are very similar to the movie and others that are not. The book that I read was the original way the book was. 

Dorothy was sucked up into a cyclone and landed in The Land of the Munshkins, where her house fell on the Wicked Witch of the East. She meets all of the munshkins and the Good Witch of the North. The God Witch tells her to fallow the yellow brick road to get to the Emerald City. The Good Witch also gives her the silver slippers and a kiss on her forehead. The kiss will protect her from evil. On the way she meets the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion. All of them also want to go to the Emerald City so they can have their wishes granted. Once they get to the Emerald City so the Wizard of Oz can grant their wishes he says he will only see one of them everyday. The first day the Wizard saw Dorothy. He appeared in the form of a giant head. He said he would not grant her wish unless she killed the Wicked Witch of the West. The second day the Wizard met with Scarecrow. The Wizard appeared as a beautiful fairy. The Wizard said she would not grant his wish until the Wicked Witch of the West was dead. The third day the Wizard saw the Tin Man. He appeared as a terrible beast. It had 5 arms and legs, the head of a rhino and was the size of an elephant. Once again the Wizard would not grant his wish until the Wicked Witch of the West was dead. Finally, the Wizard meets with the Lion. This time as a big ball of fire. The Wizard would not grant his wish until the Witch was dead. So the friends set out to kill the witch. The witch uses her gold cap, which would give her the power to control the flying monkeys 3 times, to kill the Tin Man, The Scarecrow and Dorothy. She would use Lion as a slave. Because of the kiss on Dorothy's forehead they couldn't harm her. They tore apart the Scarecrow and the Tin Man. They carried Lion and Dorothy to the Witch. The Witch uses them as slaves, but dodrthy gets so mad at her she throws a bucket of water on her, which makes the Witch melt. All of the witches slaves were s happy they helped Dorothy and Lion put Tin Man and Scarecrow back together. They go back to the Wizard. He grants all of the wishes, but in order to grant Dorothy's wish he needed a hot air balloon. But as they were leaving Dorothy lost ToTo and couldn't go. So the castle guard tells her to go see Glinda. She was the most powerful out of all of the witches. So they go to see Glinda with the Golden Cap. When they get there Glinda uses the Golden Cap to call on the monkeys so they could carry the Scarecrow, Tin  Man and Lion back to where they wanted to go. Then Glinda explains to Dorothy that if she clicks her heals together 3 times, she would get back to Kansas. 

Dorothy is a very sweet, caring and kind little girl. All she wants to do is get back home to Aunt Em in Kansas. Scarecrow is very witty and wants a brain. The Tin Man is very kind and thoughtful and wants a heart. The Lion is a lot braver then he thinks and wants courage. The Wicked Witch of West is a cruel, mean creature who is horrified of water.  The Wizard is a normal person who is from Omaha. He wants to be greater then he is. 

This is a good book. It's classic, well thought out and well written. I read the whole book in two hours. It is one of my favorite books.

I compared this book a lot to the movie. Judy Garland is one of my favorite singers and actresses so The WIzard of Oz is one of my favorite movies. 

Frank Baum was born in New York. His father was an oil merchant and he wrote 13 books based on the Land of Oz.  

Pink and Say

Pink and Say is about to boys who became good friends during the Civil War. Pink and Say were nicknames for Pinkus Alyee and Sheldon Curtis. They were both just teenage boys at the time. Sheldon was shot in the leg and had been lying on the ground for two days, dying. But then Pink finds him and brings him to his house for Pink's mother, Mo Mo Bay to nurse him back to health. Everyday Say would get a little better, until he was finally healed. That's when Pink decided that him and Say needed to go back to the war. 

When they decided to leave and were already the door they heard marauders coming. They rushed back inside the house and Mo Mo Bay hid them. They came in and took all of the food then killed Mo Mo Bay. After that they buried her body. Once they were done they realized they were being followed. Eventually they were taken to a Confederate camp, were Say survived, but they killed Pink. Say went on to live many more years and pass this story down.

Pink, Say and Mo Mo By were all really good people. Pink was a little tougher and was determined to fight for what he believed in. He knew how to read which Say didn't know how to do. Say fled during a battle, that is how he got shot. Say was affraid of the war and didn't want to go back, the opposite of Pink. Say touched the hand of Abraham Lincoln so he let Pink touch his hand, so Pin would be able to say he touched the hand that shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln. Mo Mo Bay loved the boys very much. She didn't want them to go back to the war because they were just boys. She also taught Say the meaning of bravery. 

This was a really sad book, but it was also a great story. She used some words that I didn't get because the book was written the way people talked back then. I did like how the different personalities were described. It really let you see what the characters were like. I also thought the illustrations were cool.

I did some visualizing during the story. I visualized the part when Say was on the ground with the bullet in his leg and the part when the marauders found them.

Patricia Polacco was related to Say. She has written many children's books. She went to ohio State University. She has a masters in the Fine Arts and a Ph.D in Art History.  Throughout her life she has lived in Michigan, Florida and Oakland, California. Oakland was a place where the   people were all different. Most of the people from this area contributed to her characters.