The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron is a compelling story about two boys named David and Chuck who saw an add in the paper requesting a spaceship built with materials found, not bought from a man they had never heard of called Mr. Bass. As most boys would, they started building immediately. They completed their ship and brought it to Mr. Bass who fixed it up so it could withstand space travel. He told the boys to bring a glass jar and a mascot with them to his home planet he called The Mushroom Planet. Also they had to leave at exactly two A.M. or they would miss the planet. Also to leave the place at four A.M. or they would miss earth. Then Chuck asked why the brought the glass jar. Mr Bass answered to open and close it on his planet so he could breath it's air again. As their mascot they brought one of David's parent's chickens as a mascot. They left at the exact time of two A.M. on arrival they met the great Ta's Wise Men (who weren't son wise). They told the boys that they ate one thing and that kept them alive. but the sun burned their crop so they hand almost none. the chicken hatched two eggs near the end of their stay and David gave them to the wise men who ate them and they had the nutrient the Mushroom people needed! They gave the Mushroom people the chicken and left for earth at exactly four A.M. right before they left Chuck grabbed the jar and got some planet air. They gave that and the spacecraft to Mr. Bass who agreed that they could return to the planet.
SN
Dear Mrs. Choi,
Have you ever met someone who was under a curse and had to do what everyone told her? Well, of course no one has. But in Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, a curse has been put on Ella to be obedient. Ella tries to be anything but obedient. If Mandy, the cook, would tell her to get some nuts, she would bring back only one or two. When she was ordered to do something, she would usually stall, trying to see if she could break the curse. I know a lot of people who would give up trying. But she never did. She kept trying till she broke the curse.
From,
BN
Stepping on the Cracks
Margaret and Elizabeth have brothers in the war. There is a guy named Hitler that was responsible for the war. The girls hate him because they never wanted the war to start and they want there brothers out of the war. They always say step on the cracks and break his back!
In school, there is this kid named Gordy who is always picking on them. one day, the girls went spying on him at his hut, and he caught them. He said, '' Are you crazy! There is a crazy man in the woods and he was right behind you with a knife.'' The girls got really scared now. But after awhile, they found out that the crazy man is his brother Stuart. He kept him in the hut because Stu didn't want to go to war. and if he told his parents that, they would beat him and he will have to go back to war.
It started snowing and Stuart got really sick. The girls wanted to take care of him and they brought medicine for him, even though Gordy was picking on them. So he allowed it for the first time and he was still picking on the girls. But medicine didn't work because Stu was getting really sick, so they asked their friend Barbara to take him to the hospital and they got the medicine so she got to take care of him.
When Margaret got home, she found out that her brother Jimmy died in the war. She was crying and her mom was crying. Now when the war ended, he wouldn't come home it would still be only be her, her mom and her dad. When they visited Stu one day, Gordy wasn't there. So he went to his parents house because he thought that they beat his little brother. But if he went there they would beat him. But they couldn't stop him and he got beat by his dad. His dad almost killed him. But he only got deaf in one ear. He was alright and so was his little brother. Now that family moved and the dad was all the way in California. And Barbara said to the girls one day that Stu wanted to marry her. The girls said that they would be her brides maids.
So in the end, he lived, his dad was no longer to be found, and the girls saved his life from almost dying with the sickness.
MR
The Sign of the Beaver, (in my opinion) was very bad, because i dislike the idea of an animal (in pain), can't be helped if its on a different Indian clam's land, like the part when Attean (one of the main characters) tells Matt (the main character) that the fox will bite of its own leg, just to get free. then later on in the story Attean's dog gets caught in a "white man's" trap while Attean is out hunting and Matt finds the dog, and goes to the village were Attean lives and tells his sister and...
EM
I would give Running Out of Time four stars out of five. It was a good story with a lot of cliffhangers which make you want to read more. The story is about a girl named Jessie who lives in a frontier village that is suffering from diphtheria. Since there is no medicine in the village, Jessie has to go on a dangerous journey to get the medicine. There are some sad parts in the story, but it was very exciting and interesting. There is a big mystery in the middle of the book, but I will keep it a secret because if I tell you it would just ruin the book. I recommend this book to people that like diseases, adventures, and cliffhangers.
TA
Dear Mrs. Choi,
Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh is about a 10 or 11 year old.Harriet is a girl that wants to be a writer and likes to spy. So she writes a story about what she writes in her spy notebooks.{she has about 14.}
Harriet is an only child living with her parents, a cook and Ole Golly. {Ole Golly is the nurse}. Harriet is very close to Ole Golly. When Ole Golly gets married and leaves to Canada, Harriet was very sad and when problems came up she would have gone to Ole Golly, but since she wasn't there Harriet felt like she can't go to anybody.
I really like the book Harriet the spy. It has many different feelings like, happy, sad, mean, hate, and friends.when everybody finds out the mean stuff Harriet has written about them. {Even her best friends}. Everybody goes against her. They make her feel the way they felt when they found what she wrote in her spy notebooks. they start writing mean notes to each other that they might not even mean.They even make a club called {the spy catcher club}.Harriet tries to make it up to her friends, but they don't listen to her. At the end sport and Janie {her friends or former friends} come walking up to her in the park.
sincerely,
AP
The Giant Rat of Sumatra or the Pirates Galore.
This story is about a boy that got shipwrecked. There were pirates that found him in the water and took him on their ship. They called him cabin boy. But the captain didn't. He called him shipwrecked. He was downstairs in the ship and saw footprints. Those footprints turned out to be a girl's. The captain gave cabin boy emeralds that he wasn't supposed to lose. He lost them, and the girl found them for him. That was close, or else the captain would hang him. He sewed them to his jacket so he wouldn't lose them again. There was a war coming between the Mexicans and the Americans. There were towns people getting ready for it, so they had a party on the ship that the cabin boy was on to celebrate. The war came. Luckily, the boy survived and everybody else did too! After that, it was time to go find his mom who was in Boston. He knew she missed him because it has been awhile since he had gotten shipwrecked. Cabin boy had to look for an American ship so he could go home because that was where his mom was. He finally found an American ship but it was so hard to say goodbye because the pirates were his friends. They helped him through a lot. But he had to do it. He said goodbye to the pirates. So in the end, it took him 5 months to get home to his mom. On the new ship the captain called him cabin boy. And he had something else that he was thinking about, the pirates.
MR
Dear Mrs. Choi,
In Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen, Brian spent over 50 days in the wilderness! Wow! And Brian was happy! He even had a late Thanksgiving meal! If I were Brian, I probably have died of hunger after two days. I would have spent all of my time complaining and missing my family. Not Brian. He spent all of his time hunting and ‘tiding up camp’, devoted to stay alive and safe.
Sincerely,
BN
Loser
Zinkoff wasn't good at anything. He couldn't even write his name right. When he was in first grade, there was a Take Your Kid to Work Day. He went to deliver mail with his father. On the way, he met a girl named Claudia and an old woman.
At field day at school, they had a racing game and he lost. Everybody called him a loser. Until, he got an A on a test. Everyone was cheering for him. Next year field day comes again and he was put on the same team with a kid that was picking on him. Even though he got an A. So, he didn't go to field day. He went to the old ladies house instead. He told her all about why he was not in school that day. So he was really sad. Because he was being picked.
In the sixth grade it was a snowy day. When he got home he found out that Claudia was missing. he searched for her all night in the cold snow. He gave up and went home. His parents were crying. He said that he was looking for Claudia but really they were looking for him! She was already found before he started searching.
One day, he went outside to play with these kids and when they were selecting teams he was a leftover. One team found out about when he was in the snow for so long and all the effort he did searching for that little girl all night. Zinkoff was a winner by doing all that for the little girl. The team chose him and found out that he wasn't a loser, he was a winner.
MR
Holes by Louis Sachar
Holes is a book about a book about a boy named Stanley Yelnats who has bad luck. Even though he is innocent, he is blamed for stealing sneakers and sent to a prison camp called Camp Greenlake.
I would give this book five out of five stars. It was very interesting and had good cliffhangers that made me want to read more. One of my favorite characters was Zero, who was another boy at the prison camp. Zero didn’t know how to read, and then Stanley became his friend and taught him how to read and write.
There is nothing I didn’t like about this book. Everything about it was good. There is a sequel called Small Steps, which is about Armpit, another boy at the Camp.
I would recommend this book to people who like suspense, historical stories (because part of the story takes place in the past), and stories about friendship.
TA
Dear Mrs. Choi,
Could you imagine being on the Titanic, and hearing that some people thought that it could maybe it could sink when everybody said that it was unsinkable? Well, I don’t think that anyone could imagine that unless they were there. Unfortunately, Albert, from Titanic Crossing by Barbara Williams, did. During the crash, his mom and uncle, who were there on the boat with them, drowned. After the crash, Albert now had to look after his very little sister under his grandmother’s watchful eye. What a big responsibility! That big responsibility at the age of 13! Wow! Could you imagine that?
Sincerely,
BN
Black Star, Bright Dawn
Black Star, Bright Dawn by Scott
O’Dell is about an 18 year old girl who
goes through happy, hard, and good
times. The book is about Bright Dawn
(the girl) and also her lead dog Black
Star. Black Star is his name because
he is part white Siberian husky and
part wolf. He has a black star on his
forehead. Bright Dawn got her name
because her mother was reading a
book the morning of the night she was
born. The book was about seals. In part
of the book she was reading it came
to a place, in the deepest of a sunless
winter for some strange reason, a day
dawned bright, bright as a day in the
spring. So that is how she got the name
Bright Dawn.
Usually a girl doesn’t go hunting with
the men and boys, but Bright Dawn
did with her father. Her father is a
very good hunter and he is very good
because he is patient. One of the times
he is sitting by a breathing hole the part
of ice that he is sitting on breaks and
floats away. No one can find him for a
few days and when he is found his right
hand is frozen and it is black. When a
doctor looks at his hand he has to cut
off his four fingers.
The book is mostly about the
Iditarod. Bright dawn and her father are
going to do it but then her father gets
injured. So then Bright Dawn has to do
the Iditarod by herself.
Now this is an adventure. The Iditarod
is VERY, very hard. Bright Dawn is
only 18 and she is doing the Iditarod by
herself! She meets a man named Oteg.
Oteg has done the Iditarod a few times
already, and knows a lot of the things
that you need to know. Later on in the
Iditarod Bright Dawn see’s that she
can’t do the Iditarod how she is doing
it. Oteg is telling her how to do
everything but Bright Dawn realises
that she need to figure things out on
her own. From then on she only does a
few things Oteg tells her to do. At one
point along the trail there is a moose
and one of Bright Dawn’s dog’s Sky
gets really hurts. Where Bright Dawn’s
house is the town is one of the stops
between Anchorage and Nome. When
Bright Dawn gets there, she only has 7
dogs and when you finish the race you
have to have at least 7 dogs. At the
beginning of the Iditarod your dogs get
a blue line of paint on them so that at
the end of the race they can see if any
dogs had been added which is illegal.
When Bright Dawn leaves her
hometown she notices that she has
one extra dog that she did not have at
the beginning some one had added a
dog she stopped and took it back
because she did know that it was
illegal. Bright Dawn ends up getting in
last place but gets $2,000 for her
sportsmanship. Like stopping to put a
marker back up so that the racers
would go the right way and doing other
things during the race that would help others.
Sincerely,
AP
The Giant Rat of Sumatra
by Sid Fleischman
When you hear “Pirate”, what do you think of? Do you think of a sea bandit, killing stealing, a peg leg, a hook hand, or a parrot? The last thought in your mind might be a tall Mexican gentleman, “si”?
Captain Gallows, a tall Mexican pirate has sailed all around the world in search of treasure. His most valuable possessions are the two large emeralds which are the eyes of the rat figurehead on his ship, the Giant Rat of Sumatra. When a young boy’s ship sinks off the coast of the Philippines he is picked out from the sea by Captain Gallows. The Captain calls the boy “Shipwreck” and agrees to help him find a way back to Boston where he is from. On the way to Mexico he becomes the ship’s cabin boy and is given the responsibility of guarding the emeralds.
The Giant Rat of Sumatra, by Sid Fleischman, is full of suspense, bandits, a war, enemies and barefoot bandits but it is also about love. Before the Captain left for sea he promised a girl they would marry. Now he has returned to Mexico and he must find that girl, and still get the boy back to his home in America. Through all of their adventures, they both discover new things about themselves and are changed by their experiences. A good quote that illustrates this story is by a French essayist and novelist, Andre Gide, who said that “One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time”.
-MG
Dear Mrs. Choi,
Give Me Liberty by: Russell Freedman, is about The Revolutionary War. The book stars out at William Gray's home. (William Gray is a Rope Master.) And his apprentice, 14 year old Peter Slater was looked up in his room so he could not take place in the Boston tea party.
The Boston tea party (for those who do not what the Boston tea party is) the Boston tea party was a bunch of people dressed as Indians, how dumped a the very expensive tea into the Boston harbor!
EM
Monkey Island is a very interesting book about a boy who is abandoned by his mother. Clay [the boy's name] leaves the hotel where he and his mom were staying and wanders till two men give him a place to sleep.There names are Buddy and Calvin. he lives with them for a while and gets to know them. One day young men and women come with chains and baseball bats and drive them out the park. They walk so fast that they lose Calvin. Buddy and Clay sleep in the basement of the church by breaking one of the windows so they can get in. The next morning they find Calvin drunk back at the park, and call an ambulance to take him to the hospital. Gerald [a person who supports homeless people in the park] and Buddy discover that clay is sick so Gerald takes him to a hospital. It turns out Clay is sick with pneumonia. While he is at the hospital a social service agent comes and asks him a few questions. Once he is healthy again he goes to live in a foster home with foster parents: Mr. and Mrs. Biddle. Clay lives with them till social services finds his Mom and they can live in an apartment together with Clay's newborn baby sister.
This book is a bit dark and I think that if you read it you should be okay with that. this book is definitely not the most cheerful book I have ever read.
JN
Remember
by Toni Morrison
Remember by Toni Morrison is not a chapter book. It is a picture book but not your regular ordinary picture book. The pictures are photographs not illustrations. They are real pictures. These pictures are not staged. This book is divided into three chapters: The Narrow Path, The Open Gate, The Wide Road.
In The Narrow Path, you will see photos of crummy old 'colored' schools. You will see a
'colored' girl playing with an old 'white' doll. This is a depressing chapter.
In The Open Gate, you will see that the United States Supreme Court judges decided that 'colored' and 'white' students can go to the same school. Schools in the United States of America are now integrated. You will see 'colored' people now having opportunities for a better future but The Open Gate also brought out 'white' people's hate for integration and it brought out a more public racism.
In The Wide Road, you will still see hate but you will also see heroes: Martin Luther King JR., Rosa Parks, black and white people together.
MG
Ella Enchanted
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine is about a 15 year old girl and she is under a curse. She got her curse when she was born. She cried too much so a fairy gave Ella a “gift”. The gift turned out to be a curse, but it was not meant to be a curse. The curse was obedience. Whatever Ella was told to do she had to do it. If somebody wished that Ella did something or asked Ella to do something she didn’t have to do it but any command she had to follow.I thought that was kind of sad because after Ella’s mother died the cook Mandy gave Ella her mother’s old pearl necklace. But Hattie, a girl who was at ella’s mother’s funeral, who figured out that Ella had to obey what she was told. Hatte forced Ella to give Hattie Ella’s mother’s necklace.
Some of my opinions about the book is that at one part it pretty much copied Cinderella. She went to a ball and had to be back by midnight or her carriage was turned back into a pumpkin and her coachman was turned back into a rat and her horses were turned into six mice. When Ella has to leave it’s a different situation but then her glass slipper comes off and the prince comes to Ella’s house and tries to put it on Ella’s stepsisters first and then Ella tries to put it on. Of course it fits and the prince asks Ella to marry him. The prince said to Ella “Marry Me!” that is a command. Ella wants to try and prove that she does not have to obey everything that she is told. She usually gets dizzy and starts to feel bad. This time Ella fights and fights with her body to try not to say she will marry the Prince. Finally Ella blurts out that she will not marry the prince and nobody can force her. By that time Hattie and her sister and her mother will family, Hattie tells Ella to go to her room, Ella says no. She fought off her CURSE!! Then Ella and the prince get married and live happily.
Sincerely,
AP
Martin's Mice
by Dick King Smith
Martin is no ordinary farm cat. His meals do not include mice becasue he thinks that mice are very preety things. Walking along in the loft one day, he finds a female pregnant mouse called 'Drusilla'. Martin decides to make Drusilla his pet and keeps her in an old bathtub. He feeds her and does everything he can to keep her safe. But one day, his mice runs away and Martin is ever so devastated. "I put half my life for this! I cared for them. If it wasn't for me they probably would have been caught and killed by my proficient mouser family!", thinks Martin. It is not until Martin himself becomes a pet that he realizes the real meaning of freedom and friendship. "If you love something let it go, if it doesn't come back it was never yours in the first place."
MG
