Posts in “Isabel” Category

BOOK NAME: Fudge-a-mania
AUTHOR: Judy Blume

This book is about two families that live in New York City, the Hatchers and Tubmans. The parents from each family like each other but the kids from each family do NOT like each other. The parents of the families decide to go to Maine for the summer. The kids think they are going live in houses next door to each other, like neighbors. This would be bad enough, but they actually have to live in the SAME house for the summer.  

The main person in the story is Peter. He is the oldest kid in the Hatcher family and Fudge (not his real name) is the youngest. Sheila is the youngest kid in the Tubman family. Sheila and Peter are enemies. This makes for a lot of trouble during summer vacation.  What makes it even harder is that Peter and Sheila are both given the job of taking care of Fudge during the summer and Fudge is a lot of work! 

But it goes from bad to worse when Grandpa Tubman (Sheila's grandpa) and Grandma Hatcher (Peter and Fudge's grandma) decide to get married. This means Peter and Sheila, although they are sworn enemies, are now related and in the same family. But they made a promise that even though they are related, they will always hate each other!

I really liked this book. I tried to read it all at one time, but my parents told me I had stop reading and turn off my light since it was a school night!

BOOK NAME: Ramona Forever
AUTHOR: Beverly Cleary

This is one of the books of the Ramona series. These books follow a girl named Ramona Quimby.  She is a third grader who gets into trouble a lot. Not serious trouble, but the fun kind of trouble

This is a story about big changes for Ramona, her family and the Kemps, their neighbors. Ramona's mom is going to have a baby, she no longer has to go to the babysitter after school and there is going to be a wedding, only no one knows it yet.

Ramona's mom is going to have another baby and is feeling really tired and needs a little extra help. Her sister, Ramona's Aunt Bea, is coming to help out. At around the same bout the same time, a new visitor comes to the Ramona's neighbor's house. It is their Uncle Hobart. Howie, Ramona's neighbor, had told her that her Uncle Hobart had a lot of money.  But when he drives up in a muddy van, wearing old jeans and a faded T-shirt, Ramona was surprised because she thought Uncle Hobart would arrive in a limousine and be dressed in nice clothes. Anyway, a very strange thing happens. Aunt Bea and Uncle Hobart actually know each other. While they are both living in the same neighborhood, they decide to get married.  

On the wedding day, the ring that Aunt Bea is giving Hobart gets lost. Everybody goes crazy looking for it because the wedding can't go on without it. It's a lot of fun to follow Ramona as she looks for it.  This was the best Ramona book because it has a lot of action and excitement.

BOOK NAME: Sideways Stories from Wayside School
AUTHOR:  Louis Sachar

Seriously! This book is hilarious. It's all about the kids in Ms. Jewel's class at Wayside School. The reason it's called "wayside" school is because it was built sideways. The school was supposed to be 1 story tall with 30 classrooms. But the builder made a mistake and built the school 30 stories high with each story only containing a single classroom. There are a lot of crazy things that go on at Wayside.

Ms. Jewel's classroom is on the 30th floor of Wayside. At the beginning of the year, Ms. Jewel has a substitute teacher named Ms. Gorf. She is mean and can turn kids into apples. I know it sounds weird, but it's true. If you do anything wrong or give an incorrect answer, Ms. Gorf wiggles her ears, sticks out her tongue and then...poof!...you are turned into an apple.    Pretty soon, all the students had been turned into applies by Ms. Gorf.  All of the "apples" demand to be turned back into kids and they plan an "apple attack" on Ms. Gorf until she gives and turns them back into kids again!  After that, Ms. Gorf leaves the school and never comes back and Ms. Jewel comes back to teach her class.
 
This is only one of the stories from the book. There are 29 more chapters in the book that talk about each kid in Ms. Jewel's class. Once they get passed Ms. Gorf and her apple turning magic meanness, Ms. Jewel's class has a pretty crazy rest of the year.   There are 3 books about the Wayside School. I liked them because they were all funny and silly...and made me want to read the others.

BOOK NAME: My Last Best Friend
AUTHOR: Julie Bowe

   
Ida May has just lost her last best friend. Her name is Elizabeth and she moved away because her dad got a new job in a new town. Now she doesn't have anybody who is nice to her. She decides it might be easier to be lonely rather than make new friends. But, Ida's plan to stay lonely fails when the new student comes to their class.

   Even though she kind of likes the new girl, Stacey, she isn't allowed to hang out with her because of the 4th grade bully named Jenna. But Ida May figures out a way to fool Jenna. She begins sending secret notes to Stacey. They create new names and talk to each other by sending secret notes to each other. They also have a secret hiding place to exchange the notes. Even if gets discovered, Jenna wouldn't be able to figure out who they were from because they used different names. In the notes, Stacey is Anastasia and Ida May is Cordelia.
 
    For a while, the secret note friendship works well until Jenna discovers their secret hiding place. Ida May has a tough decision to make. Does she reveal her secret identity and risk the mean things that Jenna might do, or does she tell everybody who she is and stick up for her friendship with Stacey?
 
    I think that this book is SO good that I wanted the story to keep going and going.  It's really cool how Ida May and Stacey figure out how to stay best friends even when one of them was about to move away.

BOOK NAME: Ivy + Bean    
AUTHOR: Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall

This is a story about two kids who were never meant to like each other, but became best friends. You see, Ivy and Bean are total opposites. Ivy is a girly girl, a bookworm and always wears pink.  Bean is a tomboy, sporty and is always getting into a little bit of trouble. They are total opposites. 

This book follows Bean as she plays tricks on her older sister. During one of these tricks, Bean escapes into Ivy's backyard. This is where the unlikely friends meet. Soon, Bean discovers that Ivy thinks she is a wizard and can put spells on people. Bean tries to get Ivy to put a spell on Bean's older sister, Nancy. Bean wants the spell to make Nancy to embarrass herself in front of all her friends. 

Ivy & Bean go try to collect all the stuff they need for the spells. On the list were worms, dead frogs and lots of cool other stuff. But in the end, they see Nancy having a tough time and decide that a spell isn't such a good idea.
 
I liked this book because it seemed like real life. I have an older sister just like Bean does.  And sometimes I pull tricks on her just like Bean does to Nancy. But in the end, I don't really want my sister to be hurt, sad or upset and that is also what Bean decided. It was also fun because even though Ivy and Bean were very different they stayed good friends. 

BOOK NAME: Diary of a Wimpy Kid
AUTHOR: Jeff Kinney

If you want to read a funny book, check this book out of the library and start reading. It's about a wimpy kid who is going into middle school. His name is Greg Heffley. His older brother, whose name is Rodrick, is going into high school and Greg has all of Rodrick's old teachers. They think Greg is going to be just as much of a problem as his older brother.  

As you might guess, this book is Greg's diary and is arranged by date. It has neat writing, just like a kid's writing, and lots of cartoon drawings. It covers the school year and ends in the summer. Since Greg is just starting middle school, he is trying to fit in and be popular.  He and his friend Rowley try to hang with the cool kids and talk to them, but they just ignore him and walk away. One time, right after Christmas, Greg and Rowley are playing with a scooter and Rowley breaks his arm. The popular girls make a big deal over Rowley's broken arm and even though Greg was there he gets ignored like usual.

He also doesn't get much help from the teachers because they embarrass him because they think he's going be a troublemaker like his brother. But Greg is a good student and really good in class.

I think you should read this book because it has lot of funny parts that Greg and Rowley do together in their 6th grade year to fit in. It also shows that the best way to fit in to be yourself.

BOOK NAME: Toy Dance Party
AUTHOR: Emily Jenkins & illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

This is a really fun book because you start thinking it is about a girl that plays with her toys.  But as you read it, you find out that it's really about her older toys being lonely because she only plays with the new toys.  So, the main characters of the book are really the toys and not the people.   

The main characters are Bossyboots the Stingray, Lumphy the Buffalo, Bonkers, Rocky Road, Millie and Brownie stuffed Mice, Spark the Shark. The "Silent People" are the Barbie dolls. These forgotten toys have lots of adventures together. There was one time when Bonkers the Mouse sucked into the vacuum cleaner and Spark the Shark helped rescue him.  He bit the outside of the bag and Bonkers bit the inside of the bag to make an escape hole that Bonkers used to get out. Everyone cheered for Spark and Bonkers. 

Another exciting part of the book is when Spark got bored and decided to go a tour of the house.  He found the Silent People and nibbled their arms and legs. He returned to tell everyone else how much fun he had.  When the girl the Barbie dolls with small bite marks she was very upset and thought there were real mice living in the box where she kept her Barbie dolls.  So, it was a funny trick that the old toys played on their owner.

I liked this story because it had funny parts, sad parts and really made you think that no matter how old you are, you can still have fun playing with your older toys.

BOOK NAME: Ida B....and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster and (possibly) Save the World
AUTHOR: Katherine Hannigan

This is an awesome book!  I really liked it because it was about a girl in 4th grade, just like me. Ida B. lives on a farm that has an orchard and she has a feeling that she can talk to nature and understand it.   

It is only her second year in public school, even though she is in 4th grade.  She went to kindergarten in public school, but was home schooled in grades 1, 2 and 3.  She's not very happy about going back to a public school. She felt like her heart had turned into a black stone with pointy edges on it. She had to go back to public school because her mom got sick and couldn't teach her anymore. Her family also had to sell some of the orchard to pay for the doctors to help her mom. 

A girl from her class moved into the house that was part of the orchard that they sold. Ida B. is not happy about the people moving in next door because they cut down part of the orchard. Ida B. thought of the trees in the orchard as her friends. So, she does a lot of stuff to try to scare them from building or moving in next door. She did things like make signs with scary pictures, put rubber snakes and bugs in their yard and other stuff to scare them away.  But, much to Ida B.'s surprise, the new family thought it was a big joke and weren't scared away at all.
 
This book was really good because Ida B. is pretty tricky and a lot of fun and the book describes her adventures. You'll have to read it to see if she keeps her friends in the orchard.  

BOOK NAME: Frindle
AUTHOR: Andrew Clements

This is a story about a boy that thought differently than everybody else.  He has good ideas in his head, but doesn't know where to put them.  His name is Nick Allen and this story is about how he changed the world. 

Nick always wondered why things were called the words they were.  Like, why is a dog called a dog and why is a house called a house.  So, Nick decided change the name of thing that everyone uses everyday.  He decided to rename the word "pen" to the word "frindle".  He needed help from his friends to make the word popular so everybody would use it.  He used his new word in school, at home and when he went to the store.   All of his friends did the same thing.  Soon, even the clerk at the store knew what frindle meant. When they came into the store and asked for a frindle, she would ask them "Do you want blue ink or black ink?" 

Everybody seemed to like his new word, except for his Language Arts teacher, Mrs. Granger.  She even punished everyone who used the word by keeping them after school.  But he stuck to his plan and even had some fun at Mrs. Granger's expense.

I really liked this book because it shows how even little kids can change things if they come up with an idea, stick with it and don't let people tell them what they can't do.