Hannah
Posted by BOOK NAME: Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank You Notes
AUTHOR: Peggy Gifford and Valorie Fisher
This is a funny book. I enjoyed it so much that I read it in one sitting. It doesn’t really say, but I think Moxy is about my age and in 6th or 7th grade. And the story in the book covers all the funny things that she does to get out of having to write thank you notes for the Christmas presents she has received.
The problem is that she hates writing thank you notes! She could just refuse to write the notes, but she is promised a very cool reward if she gets the notes written in one day. Plus, her mom insists that she do them before she gets her reward. The reward is that her dad has promised to take her to a big, fancy, Hollywood movie premiere. She might even get to be on TV. But her mom has told she won’t be able to go unless her thank you notes are done.
Moxy tries all sorts of short cuts to get her thank you notes done. Most of them don’t work out very well. First, she thought she would write a single note and run it through the copy machine. That failed because they ended up making thousands of copies instead the 12 she needed. Next she tried to make them look fancy by using gold spray paint. She ended up painting a “T” on her friends clothes and “hank you” on the wall of her room. She got in pretty big trouble for that!
The book has some cool illustrations that really make the book fun to read. You’ll have to read the book to see if she ever makes it to the movie premiere.
BOOK NAME: Double Identity
AUTHOR: Margaret Peterson-Haddix
This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading it. It’s a mystery that has lots of secrets. Bethany is the main character of the book. She is a normal 13 year old with a normal life until one night her parents drive her to another state to stay with an aunt and cousin she never knew she had. Her parents made sure she was OK, and left. She wouldn’t see them again for several months.
Her dad calls every so often to check on Bethany and talk to her aunt. He seems to be running away from somebody, but Bethany doesn’t know who. While she is staying with her aunt, some strange things happen. The people from the town act very weird as if they have seen a ghost. She gets a package containing lots of money and four different birth certificates. She also finds a bunch of home videos of her mom and dad and a little girl who looks exactly like her, but was born several years earlier. And then, her aunt and cousin tell her who she really is.
The reason that her parents have left her is that she must be protected at all costs. The people looking for her would surely find her if she had stayed with them. Once the secrets come out, she realizes there is no one in the world like her.
There are lots of secrets and twists in this book. It is really fun to piece together the details of this book and see if you can guess the real story of Bethany…if that is her real name!
BOOK NAME: Dragon Rider
AUTHOR: Cornelia Funke
This is my favorite book of all time so far in my life. As you might guess from the title, this book follows a dragon named Firedrake, Ben the dragon rider and Sorrel, who is a cat-like creature (called a “brownie”) that can talk with both humans and dragons, on a mission to save their kind.
The adventure starts in the Mythical Valley of Dragons. A rat comes to warn the dragons that humans are coming to flood the valley. Sorrel and Firedrake must go to New York City to find a map that will safely lead them to their destination. In New York, they meet Ben who is an orphan boy living in an old warehouse along the river. They meet Ben by using his warehouse for a rest place for a day. Ben convinces Sorrel to let him go along on their mission.
They have all kinds of problems along the way. They land in Europe and come across Nettlebrand, a dragon hunter. Then the chase begins. Ben, Firedrake and Sorrel now not only have to complete their dangerous journey, they have to defeat Nettlebrand as well. They will need all of the tools and tricks they have plus help from a few others along the way.
This book is full of adventure, mystery and learning to find out who you are as a creature and what you find valuable. I think anybody who likes adventure, especially if you have ever wondered what it would be like to ride on the back of dragon in the light of the moon should read this book.
BOOK NAME: The Day Joanie Frankenhauser Became a Boy
AUTHOR: Francess Lantz
This book is all about being yourself. Joanie is a huge tomboy and moves to a new school. The secretary at the new school typed her name as “John” instead of “Joanie”. So, she decides to roll with it, and live as boy at school and a girl at home because as she sees it boys have it easy. As she goes along she realizes that boys don’t have as easy of a life as she thought they did.
Back at her old school Joanie had a writing assignment and she wrote a super kid story. She liked it so much that she writes a series of stories about her Super Kid. She tries to keep them a secret, but the class bully named Zane gets a hold of them. He uses the ideas from the stories to make up his own League of Super Dudes. But when the Super Dude’s pranks go too far, Joanie has to decide whether to reveal her secret or to keep pretending to be a boy. Check out the book to see how she handles it.
I really liked this book because it has adventure and the story has things that I could relate to. It’s really about finding happiness with who you are and not judging people by what you think they are, but by their actions.
