Category archives for Parker
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BOOK NAME: Rucker Park Setup
AUTHOR: Paul Volponi
This book isn’t anything like a fairy tale. It isn’t a thing like any of the other basketball books and movies I’ve seen before. Through a murder mystery, it teaches a lesson through the harsh experience of a teenage boy named Mackey.
Mackey was a boy who never got to meet his father; he died before he was born. His mother didn’t have many words of advice to give Mackey about anything, and his step-dad wasn’t much help either. His only friend was J.R., and the only person who helped guide him through life was J.R.’s dad, Stove.
Mackey and J.R. were offered a chance to play on the Greenbacks basketball team. This was not only Mackey’s dream, but J.R.’s especially. They played extremely well throughout the season, and right before they play Fat Anthony’s team in the tournament, J.R is killed. The book then focuses on who did it, how and why.
The entire book is based on foreshadowing, and some of the best I’ve ever seen too. You know that J.R. is going to be killed when reading the prologue, and that it is somehow Mackey’s fault. Once you figure out who did it and how, you will have an “Ohh… That makes sense!” moment.
All of the parts fit together really well. My favorites are when you here from the view of a different character of the book for about a page at a time, and then it goes back to Mackey’s view. It can really reveal a lot of the hidden parts of the book. I highly suggest that you read this. It teaches a great lesson, and you’ll want to read it again to look at all of the hints that it gave you about who did it.
BOOK NAME: Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures That May or May Not Exist
AUTHORS: Kelly Milner Halls, Rick Spears, and Roxyanne Young
A cryptid is a creature that can’t be proven to be 100 percent real. The most famous
cryptids are perhaps bigfoot and aliens, but there are many more out there. Are you familiar
with the Kraken from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series? It turns out that it is a real
creature, except not the way you think it is. It is actually a giant squid that sailors would call
the Kraken. It wasn’t proven to exist until 2004.
Reading this book, I learned that things really can be misinterpreted. One of the cryptids
that has been spotted near Loveland, Colorado, is the Loveland Frog, which is apparently
a giant walking frog that carries a wand that sparkles. This may sound stupid at first, but
most of the sightings occurred at night, so the witnesses may have seen silhouettes from
two different figures overlapping each other. The sparkles that people say they saw from the
wand may come from the stars in the background. Because of the many possibilities that
the witness could have seen, that makes it hard to prove whether a cryptid is real or not.
There was cryptid called the Dover Demon, which looks like a classic alien from the movies
with large eyes and an oversized head. The thing is, it has only been spotted twice, both
on the same weekend. One of the witnesses took a brilliant photo of it. But if that only
happened one night, there are two ways to interpret it. First, an alien might have visited but
only for that weekend. Second, someone went a little bit crazy that weekend.
Overall, my favorite cryptid described in the book is the giant squid because they
eventually determined it was real and it’s large enough to kill a whale. I found this entire
book very interesting and highly recommend that you read it.
BOOK NAME: Stuck on Earth
AUTHOR: David Klass
Stuck on Earth is about an alien that gets the mission of coming to Earth to study human
beings and and decide whether or not they should be exterminated. To do this, the alien
takes over the body of a 14-year-old boy named Tom, who is such a misfit at this school
that he already has the nickname “Alien.”
The alien becomes confused by the random acts of hatred that humans constantly do
to each other like bullying at school, teasing of siblings, and warfare. However, the alien
becomes intrigued by the humans’ strange talents, like the ability to make money.
The alien believes Earth is a beautiful planet compared to the others, but is upset that
humans aren’t treating it right. He finds out that a company is dumping waste into a river
where an endangered species of fish lives, and he is determined to put an end to the
pollution.
What makes this book hilarious is the little things that we take for granted that the alien is
confused by, like reality TV shows and junk food. It was also funny how he describes those
things and the way he speaks to others. For example, when he takes over Tom’s body, he
starts talking with an advanced vocabulary that most people wouldn’t use, like referring to
everyone else as a “homosapien” all the time.
I highly recommend that you read this book because not only is it funny, it will help you see
and think about the world in a new way.
BOOK NAME: Project Jackalope
AUTHOR: Emily Ecton
When I first saw the cover of this book, I thought it would be boring and about talking animals with the main character being a jackalope–a jackrabbit with antelope horns. But this book really was something else.
This book reminded me of a past book that I’ve read called Boom! Both books have a kid who feels that he can’t trust anyone, and both include creepy guys in suits. One of the main differences is that Boom! went from realistic fiction to extreme sci-fi, and this book went from realistic fiction to minor sci-fi.
This book is about a kid named Jeremy who has a crazy full-grown neighbor named Professor Twitchett, who is still into the little kid spy stuff that I liked when I was in third grade. He left a jackalope that he created at Jeremy’s apartment, which immediately brought a government agency to his door. Obviously, Jeremy wasn’t big on an organization, the FBI for all he knows, chasing him, so he contacted Agatha, who knows Professor Twitchett way better than Jeremy. She panicked and said the Jackalope was her idea, and it all went downhill from there. Who knew the guys chasing them had puke-ray guns and man-eating robots? These guys never do give up!
My favorite character is Agatha because she always had a plan. I highly recommend reading this book. It will make you want to keep reading.
BOOK NAME: Mason Dixon: Basketball Disasters
AUTHOR: Claudia Mills
This book is about a fourth-grader named Mason Dixon who never wants to try anything new, and
describes himself as someone who “isn’t really a sports type of person.” It sounds like the only time he
tries something new is when his best friend Brody talks him into doing it.
Well, this time Brody talks Mason into playing basketball. You would think that since Mason is tall, that
would be easy, but he has no basketball skills of any kind, or at least he keeps telling himself that. The
thing is, Brody is the complete opposite, trying everything he can.
Overall, I didn’t exactly like this book because it keeps switching between basketball and what Mason
is learning about in school, as if all readers care about his fourth-grade social studies class. It also talks
too much about the old lady who lives next door to Mason and how she hates dogs. The book’s title and
cover would make you think it’s all about basketball, but it is only around 60 percent about the sport.
Depending on your age, you might think this book is better than I do. I’m in sixth grade and I found it off
topic at times, but it actually might be much more interesting to fourth graders or younger readers. My
favorite parts of the book were when it was about Mason and Brody playing basketball.
MOVIE NAME: The Hunger Games
BASED ON: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I loved the book The Hunger Games and couldn’t wait to see the movie. The story takes
place in future North America, where the government randomly selects a boy and girl from each
District to compete in the Hunger Games. The goal for them is to kill one another and become
the last one standing.
Many of the scenes in the movie were exactly as I imagined them when I first read the
book. But there were a few changes. First off, the District 12 mayor’s daughter gave Katniss the
Mockingjay pin in the book for good luck. However, in the movie, an old lady gave it to her. The
time that Katniss spends with her District 12 friend Gale is shortened quite a bit, but that is
obviously done because of the time constraints of a movie. The only huge part left out is Peeta
losing his leg in the end of the Games. President Snow was much older than I had thought, and
he has many more parts in the movie than in the book. The head Gamemaker also had no scenes
in the book, but he has many in the movie. Ceaser, Katniss, Effie, Gale, Cato and Haymitch were
exactly as I imagined. My favorite character in the movie is Haymitch, mainly because the actor
who portrays him makes the scenes entertaining.
Some scenes in the Hunger Games movie actually are taken from Catching Fire, the
next book in the series. One example is when the people in District 11 start
rebelling and are quickly out-numbered by the armored police ironically known as the
Peacekeepers. This actually happened in District 8 in the second book. President Snow’s reaction
to Katniss and Peeta’s threat is also in the movie but
doesn’t come until the second book.
I loved both the book and the movie and am looking forward to watching Catching
Fire and Mockingjay on the big screen.
BOOK NAME: Boom!
AUTHOR: Mark Haddon
This is the first eBook I have ever read, and I have got to say, it makes reading a lot easier. I read it on a Pandigital Reader that I received for Christmas. What’s great about it is you can annotate, quickly do Google searches of words in the book, look up the meaning of words, highlight, and even put in multiple bookmarks. The eReader also is lighter than most books, and it can still hold way more than just one book. I highly recommend that you get some type of eReader.
Boom! begins as a realistic fiction story told by a kid named Jimbo and his overconfident, but genius friend, Charlie. His teenage sister has a redneck boyfriend nicknamed Craterface, for obvious reasons. One day, Jimbo and Charlie decide to listen to what the teachers are saying at a staff meeting at school. After the meeting, they hear two of the teachers speaking a language even the police couldn’t decode.
Everything realistic stops here. I am afraid that I can’t tell you anymore without giving away what’s so fun about this book.
I will say that my favorite character in this book is Charlie. He kind of reminds me of Ferris Bueller. (If you haven’t seen that movie yet, I strongly recommend it.) They are both overconfident and always seem to have a plan for everything.
BOOK NAME: The Westing Game
AUTHORS: Ellen Raskin
I have got to say, this is one of the most clever books I have ever read. At the very beginning, you are introduced to so many characters, but only by name. You come to know the characters better as you read on. I suggest that you read through the beginning of the book without any interruptions to avoid confusion later and to understand each character. My favorite character is Sydelle Pulaski, who will do anything to get attention including pretending that she’s crippled by walking everywhere on crutches.
It starts with sixteen people getting a chance to buy an apartment at Sunset Towers, on the shores of Lake Michigan. It is an old hotel that most people thought went out of business because of how long it’s been since its last use. Most of the individuals were invited to the Westing House, an old building that a wealthy man by the name of Sam Westing lived in before his death, to hear the reading of his will. But this wasn’t a normal will. Westing, who was an amazing chess player, set up a game to see who should become the heir to his fortune. The answer to the game was simple: Who killed Sam Westing? But you will learn that the answer to Westing’s game is far more clever than just “Mr. Green did it in the ballroom with a revolver!”
If you like mysteries, you’re going to love this book.
BOOK NAME: Tall Story
AUTHOR: Candy Gourlay
This book is about a boy named Bernardo who was very short for much of his childhood and then magically grew to be eight feet tall when he was teenager. When he suddenly grew that tall, the earthquakes mysteriously stopped on the island in the Philippines where he lived with his aunt and uncle. When he was told he could move to England to live with his mother, step-father and half-sister, Andi (who are all pretty short), the people on the island begged him to stay because they were afraid the earthquakes would return with him not there. Bernardo’s sister was both surprised and disturbed by how tall he was. She was an exceptional basketball player, and wouldn’t let her below-average height bother her because she never missed a single shot. Meanwhile, Bernardo could just stand there and tip the ball into the hoop without trying. Life became very hard for Bernardo in school and at home, including his relationship with his sister. He eventually told her the story of how he became so tall and she found it very thrilling. You’ll have to read the book for yourself to find out how he grew so fast.
I liked how the book was written from both Bernardo’s and Andi’s perspectives. Every other chapter was from the other’s perspective, which gave it a lot more voice than if the author hadn’t done this. It was better than just writing it in the third person.
BOOK NAME: 1862: Fredericksburg: A New Look at a Bitter Civil War Battle
AUTHOR: K.M. Kostyal
PHOTOGRAPHER: Lori Epstein
When I first read the title of this book, I knew that the Battle of Fredericksburg was just that, only one battle, so I wondered how it was possible to fill an entire book with information about it. But as I started reading, I realized that this book just isn’t about one battle, but is much more.
The book explains everything from the culture of the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, to why they even fought the Civil War, and it ends with the description of the battle and how the town was eventually rebuilt. It also explains many of the battles leading up to the Battle of Fredericksburg, such as the Battle of Bull Run and Gettysburg. It even provides parts of real journals written by people who were in the war, including a Union soldier and an enslaved Virginian named John Washington. My favorite journal entry is the one written by Washington that describes the moment he was freed from slavery.
To be honest, the journals were my favorite part of this book because I got to hear the voices of real people who lived the war. I also really liked all the detailed color photos throughout the book.
You don’t have to be a historian or a fan of social studies to enjoy this book.
BOOK NAME: Mysteries, Legends and Unexplained Phenomena: UFOs and Aliens
AUTHOR: Preston E. Dennet and Rosemary Ellen Guiley
Unlike most books about UFOs that you might have heard of, this one explains the history of UFOs and explains the differences between UFO sightings, reported landings and crashes, and alien abductions. It also gives many different examples of each. Some normal things like weather balloons and the planet Venus are commonly mistaken for UFOs in the sky.
What’s interesting is that the book claims there have have been recordings of UFO sightings since the Stone Age. In the first chapter, it gives dates and happenings that involve alien and UFO sightings that are more than 2,000 years old. The book also talks about the different types of reported aliens, such as tall humanoids, short humanoids, and gray aliens. Certain parts of the book also talk about how the government doesn’t share information about those UFOs and aliens that much.
If you read this book, I promise you learn something new about UFOs and aliens. The reason I picked up this book at my school library was to have a laugh at what crazy people have to say about them. But this book was convincing enough to get me to actually consider that aliens may be real. All books have something good about them, and this one takes a ridiculous topic like aliens, and explains it as an everyday topic.
BOOK NAME: Eragon
AUTHOR: Christopher Paolini
I read this book before knowing there was a movie made of it. I watched the movie later so here’s my review of both in this blog.
The book is about a brave farm boy named Eragon, who lives with his uncle under the command of the evil King Galbatorax. Eragon regularly hunts in a magic-infested forest called the Spine. One day, he finds a blue stone and can’t figure out what it is. Before he goes to bed, a little dragon hatches out of it. Eragon secretly raises the dragon, naming it Saphira. They learn to communicate with each other, using their minds. When two monsters called the Ra’zac kill Eragon’s uncle, he seeks revenge with the help of others and this is where the adventure really begins.
The book was a lot of fun to read. I’d describe it as a cross between a typical medieval tale and Harry Potter. However, the movie was a disappointment. While it had basically the same character and main story, all of my favorite parts of the book were left out. I’d say it’s one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. If I had seen it before I picked up the book, it would not have made me want to read it. In this case, the book is far better than the movie.
BOOK NAME: The View from Saturday
AUTHOR: E.L. Konigsburg
The View from Saturday is a book that tells of four brilliant sixth graders in New York–Noah, Nadia, Ethan and Julian-who get to know each other better at weekly Saturday tea parties organized by Julian, a boy from England. While they meet, they decide to call themselves, “The Souls.” Soon after, they are all elected to represent their school at the Academic Bowl, which is like a spelling bee but they ask questions of trivia, math and about every subject you can think of.. Their team ends up beating all the other 6th grade teams and eventually all the 7th and 8th grade teams too to become state champions.
What I really liked about the book was how each of the four main characters told a different part of the story from their own perspective. It was interesting to read what each character was thinking as the story unfolded, while each one revealed more about the story. The author really made you feel you like you knew each of the main characters and after reading all four of their versions it all comes together in the end.
I would rate this book as having “the most voice” of any I’ve ever read.
BOOK NAME: Adam Canfield: The Last Reporter
AUTHOR: Michael Winerip
This book is one in a series about a student newspaper called the Slash and its coeditor, Adam Canfield. The newspaper used to be paid for by Harris Elementary/Middle School, where Adam goes to school. But the school stopped paying for it when the paper wrote a story that offended a big company called The Bolands and the company took the paper to court and forced the school to stop paying for it. Now the paper is paid for by the school’s students, mainly Adam and his coeditor and girlfriend, Jennifer.
What I really like about this book is that there are countless problems solved and stories written by the newspaper’s staff. There’s issues with finding the money to keep the newspaper running. There’s the Ameche brothers who are good at making money for the paper by selling ads but they don’t understand anything about newspapers so they get into trouble by offering to sell stories to businesses. There’s problems with the state test scores. There’s a school election where a candidate promises to give 100 free iTunes songs to every person who votes for him. Adam’s bike also gets stolen and then he has troubles with his girlfriend. There’s a lot going on in this book.
I like this book because there’s more going on in it than any other book that I’ve read. It is hard to stop reading.
BOOK NAME: Museum of Thieves
AUTHOR: Lian Tanner
I haven’t read a book like this before. It is one of the weirdest that I’ve ever read. It’s about a girl named Goldie who lives in an over-protective city where all children are chained up so nothing bad can happen to them-that is if you don’t consider being chained up to be bad. On the day that Goldie was supposed to be released from her chains, the city learns that 20 children have been killed in a bombing outside the town. The city leaders then decide that Goldie and all other children shouldn’t be separated from their chains. Goldie becomes so mad that she escapes the city. She then discovers a museum and sneaks into the building, where she meets the museum’s four keepers, named Sinew, Olga Ciavolga, Herro Dan, and the boy Toadspit. They all teach Goldie how to pick locks, act like someone else, blend in with the background, and other sneaky skills. While there, she finds crazy rooms and learns that the museum and its rooms sometimes shift. When the so-called Guardians of the over-protective city inspect the museum, they nail down the walls so they can map and find Goldie. They take her and Toadspit back to the city, where the adventure continues.
This book is so unique and strange that it is definitely worth reading. I consider it to be one of my all-time favorites.
BOOK NAME: Dweeb
AUTHOR:
By Aaron Starmer
Five 8th grade students, all geniuses in some kind of way, are accused by their school’s mean assistant principal, Snodgrass, of stealing money from a bake sale. The book is all about how they get out of this problem, and it’s quite amazing. The students are Denton, the negotiator; Wendell, the computer whiz; Eddie, the athlete; Elijah, the writer; and Bijay, the performer. Snodgrass locks them in a room under the school and forces them to study for the hardest test on Earth. To escape, they use a hole in the wall full of toilet pipes, a pile of computer scraps, and a Sudoku puzzle that is impossible to solve. (Don’t ask. You’ll have to read the book to believe it.) It ends with a maniac nurse on the loose trying to take over all students’ minds.
This book was so exciting at times that I read it for hours before my Mom would tell me to so I could get other things done. If it didn’t end with a such a cliff hanger, this would be a perfect book. It would make a great movie. I can only explain it as a book full of untold mysteries that are constantly being solved and created. You should read it.
BOOK NAME: 13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System
AUTHOR: David A. Aguilar
I’ve read a lot books about the solar system, but this one is not at all like any of the others. While they teach in most schools that there are eight planets in the solar system, this book takes a look at 13 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars (the rock planets), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (the gas giants), Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris (the dwarf planets).
This book doesn’t only talk about the planets, it also talks about the moons of each planet, the Asteroid Belt and the Kuiper Belt (a larger version of the Asteroid Belt). It also explains which planets and moons might have water and even how the solar system likely will end someday. (The good news is this won’t happen for another seven billion years, so don’t be too freaked out.)
I like how the book also tells the mythology behind every planet’s name. My favorite planet is the dwarf planet Haumea. It has the shape of an egg and rotates like a football being kicked off for a field goal. It is named after a powerful Hawaiian sorceress whose name is pronounced “Hah-oo-MAY-ah.”
The inside front cover of 13 Planets also shows what each planet would look like if you saw it through a 100x-power telescope, with the Earth’s Moon filling up the entire lens and Neptune barely appearing as the size of a speck of dust.
I would definitely recommend this book because it is a very fun and interesting way of learning about our solar system.
(AD) Check out 13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System in the National Geographic Store!
BOOK NAME: The Great and Only Barnum
AUTHOR:
Candace Fleming
P.T. (Phineas Taylor) Barnum was considered the greatest showman on Earth and the inventor of the three-ring circus. He was one of the people behind the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, which started more than 100 years ago and I’ve seen in person. This book is about Barnum’s life, which was crazy.
Barnum was born on July 4th, 1810, on the 34th birthday of the United States. He was named after his grandfather who was a comedian and prankster. Barnum, who was called Tale as a boy, grew up to be a performer and tricked people out of their money with a fake lottery. His grandfather even tricked him by giving him five acres of land called “Ivy Island” that Barnum soon found out was useless because it was infested with snakes. However, Barnum traded the land with someone else and eventually opened his first museum of human curiosities.
My favorite part of the book was when they explained the human curiosities like The Highland Mammoth boys, who were three fat guys from Scotland; Anna Swan: a 7-foot, 11-inch giant woman; Madame Clofulia, a bearded lady; Isaac Sprague, who was called “The Human Skeleton” because he was so skinny; and Chang and Eng, the Siamese twins who shared one stomach. Another curiosity that wasn’t in the museum was Charley Strattons, a 25-inch tall man they called Tom Thumb.
This was a very interesting book and what made it most interesting is that it all happened and wasn’t made up.
BOOK NAME: Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide
AUTHOR:
Tom DeFalco
After you read this book, you’ll look at Spider-man in a totally different way. I thought I knew a lot about Super-man, including the fact that his real-life name, Peter Parker, includes my first name, but as I started to look through this book I found out a lot more about this super hero. One of the strange things that I learned is that when Peter Parker marries Mary Jane, she gets tired of him being Spider-man all the time so Peter takes on four more super-hero identities: Ricochet, Dusk, Hornet, and Prodigy. Dusk spies on villains in the underworld, Ricochet throws gold disks at his enemies to stun them, Hornet carries a 50-pound jet pack on his back so he can fly, and Prodigy reminded of Superman.
I didn’t read this book from front to back. It would say something like “He climbed walls (see ‘Wall Climbing’ on page 146) to get to Green Goblin.” That made it really hard to put down. Everything tied into everything and I was jumping from page to page.
Some of the characters and events explained in this book have to do with other super heroes such as the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men gang, and Superman. People who aren’t interested in MARVEL comic heroes probably wouldn’t like this book. It was really hard to write this review because it is organized like an encyclopedia. If you like super heroes, I really recommend it.
BOOK NAME: The Magnificent 12: The Call
AUTHOR: Michael Grant
Are you afraid of anything? I’m afraid of huge spiders like tarantulas and flunking out of school. Mack, a 12-year-old sixth-grader who gets bullied at school, is afraid of exactly 21 things. These include arachnophobia, the fear of spiders; dentophobia, the fear of dentists; pyrophobia, the fear of fire; and pupaphobia, the fear of puppets. To top it off, he also suffers from phobophobia, the fear of fears. What’s odd is that while Mack is afraid of things that can’t really harm him, he’s not at all bothered when he is in real danger.
Mack seems to think he has a bad case of mediumness, meaning that’s he’s average in every way possible, with average parents, average grades and even the average eye color (brown). However, he soon learns that he has a special gift.
One day in the school bathroom, Mack sees the image of an old man in a urinal pipe and the man starts talking to him, even calling him by name. The man, who claims to be more than 3,000 years old, tells Mack that’s he is one of the Magnificent 12, one of only 12 people in the world with the enlightened puissance, which is like a magical power that can be felt in the mind and soul but not always seen.
Mack learns that he will have to find the 11 others with this special power and work together to defeat the Pale Queen, who wants to destroy the world.
More books about The Magnificent 12 are planned and I can’t wait to read them because this one was funny, exciting and amusing. I liked how a boy with so many fears happens to be someone called on to help save the world.
BOOK NAME: Roy Morelli Steps Up to the Plate
AUTHOR: Thatcher Heldring
Roy Morelli is a youth baseball All-Star. He’s good at baseball, but not so good at history. Since he got a bad grade on a history test, he had to move from the All-Star baseball league to the Rec League so he could focus more on school. The team he joins is the worst ever, but his two best friends, Fish and Kenny, play on it. They’ve never beaten a team before-any team. The only “win” they’ve ever had was when a team didn’t show up for a game and had to forfeit.
This book is about the crazy happenings for Roy, an eighth-grader, in both baseball and school. I like how much Roy helps his team get better and, midway through the season, the team comes up with the motto: “Let’s Win One.” And that’s what happens. They win their last game of the season on a bunt that ends up being an inside-the-park home run.
I liked the book, but I also like baseball. I’m not sure someone who doesn’t like baseball would like it that much since the book is mostly about that sport.
BOOK NAME: Lawn Boy Returns
AUTHOR: Gary Paulsen
This is the sequel to Lawn Boy, which was about a 12-year-old boy who just wanted to buy an inner tube for his bike so he used his grandpa’s mower to mow people’s lawns and ended up starting his own mowing company that makes a lot of money.
This book is about what happens next: tax difficulties, employee problems, fake relatives who want his money, and lots more.
The biggest problem is that Joey Pow, the boxer who Lawn Boy sponsors, beats a boxer by the name of Bruiser Bulk. Upset with how the match ended, some angry fans and Bruiser then start threatening to hassle Lawn Boy’s Grandma and Joey Pow. So Lawn Boy and his company come up with a plan to make enough trouble to get Bruiser and his fans to leave them alone. What happens next is very fun to read.
I really liked this book. It was easy to read and I was laughing my head off at certain parts. My favorite part was when Lawn Boy’s Grandma punched someone in the kidney, because that’s not something you see every day, at least not from my own Grandmas.
BOOK NAME: Andrew North Blows Up the World
AUTHOR: Adam Selzer
When I was in 3rd grade, I LOVED sneaking around my house and spying on my parents and brothers, but Andrew North takes spying to a new level. Andrew gets into spy gadgets, enemy spies, and a lot more in this book. At school, he loses his brother Jack’s spy gadget in Storage Room B without Jack knowing. The gadget looks kind of like a calculator and potentially could blow up the world. Storage Room B is a mysterious place at the school that Mr. Gormulka, a Russian spy who works at the school as a janitor, guards with his life.
The book is about how Andrew North gets back the spy gadget. You would have never guessed this is a spy book just by looking at the cover, or even reading the title. The cover makes it seem like an extremely boring book to me, but when I read it, it ended up being one of my favorites! My favorite part of the book is when Ryan, the class troublemaker, helps Andrew with his mission in the end. If you like spying and lots of excitement, you’ll love this book.
BOOK NAME: The Sea of Monsters
AUTHOR: Rick Riordan
This book picks up with the cliffhanger of The Lightning Thief and is just as hard to put down as the first Percy Jackson book. In this one, Percy learns that he has a Cyclops brother named Tyson. In the beginning, Percy thought Tyson was just a friend from school. However, when Percy finds out Tyson is immune to fire, he discovers Tyson’s true identity. Also in this book is the Golden Fleece, which gives power to whatever or whoever is touching it. Percy needs the Fleece to save the tree of Half-Blood Hill, which actually is Thalia, the daughter of Zeus who was turned into a tree by her father when she was close to death. Thalia, or the tree, was poisoned by Luke, who is a constant troublemaker and the lightning thief in the first Percy Jackson book. With the Fleece, Percy is able to save the tree. This book has some funny parts, including when the mean Cyclops named Polyphemus tries to marry Grover, Percy’s satyr friend, because he can’t see very well. This book is better than The Lightining Thief because it’s funnier.
MOVIE NAME: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
BASED ON: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
The question I kept asking myself when I read The Lightning Thief was “who is the Lightning Thief?” This book is full of characters based on Greek and Roman mythology that are living in today’s world, and one of them has stolen the master lightning bolt of Zeus, the king of the gods. There are many mythological characters and creatures that are friends, foes and relatives of Percy Jackson, who the book is all about. Percy finds out that he is the son of Poseidon, the god of water, and that he has magical powers.
They made a movie out of The Lightning Thief, which I saw at the theater while reading the book. The book had a lot more detail than the movie, including some characters such as Ares and Kronos. Overall, I thought the book was better than the movie. One part of the movie that I did like was how they turned seven security guards at a museum into the seven heads of the hydra monster. While the ending of the movie was all wrapped up, the book had such a strong cliffhanger that I found myself reading the second in the series, Sea of Monsters, before I had a chance to write this review.
