Friday, June 13, 2008
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
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.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Inside Girl
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
Monday, May 19, 2008
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Wizard of Oz
Pink and Say
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
This book is about Cammie Morgan. She is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Woman. But it isn't what it appears to be. It is actually an all girls school for spies. Cammie's teachers range from polite and sweet to teachers who get plastic surgery every year in order to look very different because they are wanted all over the world. At the academy you would study martial arts in P.E., the latest chemical warfare, fluently speak in 14 different languages, learn who to kill someone in 7 different ways with your bare hands and get extra credit for breaking CIA codes. But the story is mainly about Cammie using all of her training to keep a HUGE secret from her mom, who is the headmistress, and all of her teachers. That secret is that Cammie has a boyfriend. He thinks she is an ordinary girl who is very religious, home schooled, has a cat and is not allowed to date. She creates this whole other person. Things are working out fine, until Josh's friend, Dillon, figures out that she is a "Gallagher Girl", as the kids in the town call them. The whole neighborhood of Roseville thinks they are just a bunch of stuck up, rich kids. But some of the girls are far from rich, and don't have it easy at all. Dillon does eventually expose Cammie for what she was, but it turns out that all the teachers, including her mom, knew what was going on. So they tell Josh what the school really was after he fallowed Cammie to a CovOps final. CovOps (Covert Operations) is like a class where they learn all of the defense and tricks to being a spy. So, the final was of course a fake mission. They gave Josh some memory washing tea, so he forgot everything that had happened in those past 3 hours.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
TTFN
Monday, May 12, 2008
TTYL
TTYL is about three sophomore girls. It takes the reader through all of the girls ups and downs. Maddie, Angela, and Zoe have been best friends since the 7th grade. The book is written in their IM's, which gives a really clear picture of what they really think about each other. Yes, they all love each other like sisters, but you see them talking about each other in a kind of snotty way, and how the person they are talking to reacts to that. It also really makes their personalities stand out. You realize they are all really different, but by being so different they teach each other important life lessons based on their personal mistakes. Zoe trusts Angela, but every time she talks to Maddie about something she needs help with Maddie finds a way to make fun of her. In the middle of the book you see Zoe caring about Maddie because the "mean girl" at their school, Jana, humiliates Maddie in front of the whole school after pretending to be her friend. But Zoe stops trusting Maddie with secrets for a little while. Most of her secrets are about a flirtatious teacher. Even though their problems tear them apart they always find their back to being friends.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
The Market
The Market is about Kate Winthrop. She is a senior at Millbank High School and a complete and total nobody, until the MSSM (Millbank Social Stock Market) comes along. The MSSM is a game that the boys in her grade put together. Only the stocks are all of the girls in the grade. The person who makes the most money by graduation wins. Kate was ranked at number 71 out of 140 girls. Her and her friends came up with a plan. They decided to turn Kate into the most popular girl in school and invest a lot of money into her stock. Their plan is going fine, but her relationships with other people are not. One of her friends becomes so into the game that she tells Kate that one of her relatives died in front of everyone to have people give her sympathy, even though Kate told her friend not to do that. People she thought were her friends betrayed her. They would talk behind her back and it turns out that they invented the game. They also did almost the exact same thing her friends did. They were the popular kids and the also put a lot of money into Kate's stock then let her hang out with them, so she could become popular and her ranking would move up. Kate always knew the whole idea of her doing what she did could only end badly, but she tried it anyway. by the end of the book she learns that she was right and that your true friends will stay by your side no matter what.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
A Day That Changed America: D-Day, by Shelley Tanaka and paintings by David Craig
This book is about the experiences of different people on D-Day. Don Jakeway and his experience as a paratrooper. A paratrooper is a person who jumps from planes into war zones. Quentin Aanenson as a fighter pilot and Bob Giguere who was one of 125,000 troops who invaded the coast, and moved inland. D-Day was when US troops invaded the beaches in Normandy, France in World War 2. It was supposed to be a surprise attack on the Germans. In one day the Allies would take out German defenses in the Normandy area, securing a base in Europe, so they could get Hitler out of France and take back Europe.
Aquamarine, by Alice Hoffman
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Anastasia: The Girl King, by Carolyn Meyer
Trial by Journal, by Kate Klise
Monday, January 28, 2008
Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving
"Rip Van Winkle"is about a man who sleeps for twenty years. He does not like his wife and his only excuse for leaving his house is to go hunt in the forest. Rip liked to help people with chores. One day, when he was out hunting, Rip heard someone call his name. He saw a strange looking man, holding a big barrel. He offered to help the man. The man gave him the barrel and started to walk on. When they get to where they needed to be, Rip starts to drink what ever was in the barrel. He becomes very tired and ends up sleeping for 20 years. But to Rip, it only felt like a day. He wakes up not knowing what is going on in the world, but soon figures it out.