Instead of Three Wishes

Instead of Three Wishes
Written by Megan Whalen Turner

This book is composed of seven small stories. They all have some type of fanticy elements to them. The first one is called A Plague of Leprechauns. When I first started to read this story, I though it was just like ordinary find a rainbow and a pot of gold type thing. It was completely different. In a small town in North Twickin, New Hampshire, a leprechaun was spotted!! This sent a mass of leprechaun hunters to this small town. All this search for leperchauns sent a plague of bad luck to the town. All it would take is for a leprachan to show himself to you and you will get all of his gold. People did all they could to catch this leprechaun. One artist came to town just to find a quiet place to paint. He did not want to hunt for silly leprechauns, but he came to be know as the leprechaun.

The second story was Leroy Roachbane. Leroy lived in a roach infested apartment. His mother hated them,so every morning he would go into the kitchen and kill all of the roaches insight. His mother told him he needed to get more boric acid on his way home from school. The gentleman at the store knew his problems at home and gave him some extra boric acid and threw in some roach motels for free. On his way home he crashed on his bike and was knocked out. Then he woke up surrounded by little people. He told him he was the king of the roaches! This instantly intrigued the little people for they had a roach problem as well. Leroy saved there lodge and taught them how to keep it free of roaches. He woke up still laying on the ground. Was it a dream or was it  real? That is the mystery here!

The third story was The Factory. It is about a man, who works on the tallest crane in the factory. You learn that the factory was built on family property. There are many strange things happening in this book, like ghosts that read?!. It is a great story about the love of reading and learning, with an interesting twist. I really enjoyed the ending of this one, because it was not something I saw coming. It was very interesting!

Forth Aunt Charlotte and the NGA Portraits, this was very strange. It was like a story with in a story, with in a painting. It was interesting. There were a lot of deatails in this story that are important. You had to read it extremely close to catch all of the facts. There were times I had to reread sections because I missed an important fact of information.This story was unlike anything I have read. It was interesting.

Instead of Three Wishes is the fifth book. A young girl helps an old man across the road not knowing he was magical. He offers her three wish as a payment and she refuses it. He searches all over to find something that will repay her. He gets to know her and mother. He learns her likes and dislikes, what makes her happy, and what she longs to do. This is a great story for not loving what you have and not taking things for granted.

The Nightmare is the next one. This one was extremely interesting. It is a story about bullying and looking at yourself through the eyes of the people you bully or the people that are bullying you, because of the way you acted. It makes you really think about the image you are portarying to others. Is it a good one? Are people scared of you? Do they look at you like you are nothing but a pittiful child looking for attention? It was very interesting!

The last one is the Baker King. This one was not my favorite. It was interesting story line. It just did not suck me in like the other did. The kind had dissapeared, but no one knows he is really dead. They are all waiting for him to return. In the meantime, a bandit is coming to make him self king of the land. So someone finds a fake king to stand in place of the absent one. By a meraculous curse, the bandit dies!! Then the land is set aright again.

Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child

Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child
Written and illustrated by Bob Graham

Love, love, love this book!! It is filled with all types of fun things like fairies, tea parties, and a festival!! It made me want to hop into the book and join them! Annabelle wanted to find fairies! She had all of the time in the world to look and look. Her parents on the other hand were too busy to even think about fairies. They had to work and check emails and take care of her little brother Sam. As  an adult reading it, I realized how important it is to just slow down and take time to see the smaller blessings in life, like the fairies. It is a great eye opener to adults reading to their children. It allows the parent to really think about what their child is saying and take more time to listen to them. As a future educator, I need to do the same. It is important to me to listen to their little stories they love to blurt out, because in them you find out what they love, what makes them sad and most importantly what they see that I do not. Children look at the world in a completely different way than adults. They look at it as a place to explore, new things to see, new people to meet. It is a world filled with mystery, excitment, and wonder! They are facinated by the things adults look over, the things that adults do not even realize exist. I loved how this book made me want to go lay in the grass and look for fairies. I know I might not find any right away, but think of all the other magical things I could find!

Ramona the Pest

Ramona the Pest
Written by Beverly Cleary
Illustrations by Tracy Dockray

Do you remember what kindergarten was like for you? Well Ramona Quimby will soon find out. In this story, we follow her through kindergarten. There are many ups and downs she goes through. Ramona tries so hard to be the best student ever, so Miss Binney will love her. However soon after Halloween, she finds her self expelled from kindergarten. Ramona vows to never ever return, because clearly Miss Binney does not love her.

This was an easy book to read. Great for third and fourth graders to pick up and read. It was very relatable as well. Ramona was a normal everyday girl, who goes through some of the same struggles we all do. She looses her first tooth and she has to put up with the mean older kids, who always call her names. I loved that is was told from Ramona's point of view. It gives the book a fresh out look into what a child could be thinking about. It would make me laugh when her parents or sister would call her a pest. Ramona then tries to explain to her self that she is not a pest, she doing what any curious five year old would do even if some people did not agree with her. I feel like this book would be a great read out loud to first graders. They could really relate to Ramona or even the other first graders! I really enjoyed this book! It was a great read and really funny!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Written by Roald Dahl
Illustrated by Quentin Blake 
Author study 3


Who doesn't know the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Well a quick overview is Charlie and his family were very poor. Then one day Mr. Willy Wonka, the owner of the largest chocolate factory in the world, decided to let 5 children come into his factory. These 5 children were chosen by finding one of five golden tickets inside one of Wonka's candy bars. During the tour of the factory, 4 children came out, but one stayed inside with Mr. Wonka. Charlie and his grandfather were so excited to meet Mr. Wonka and eat all of the chocolate they want.

I love this story. It is fun and whimsical. It allows the reader to imagine what it would be like to be Charlie or Willy Wonka. I have never read this book before. I watched the movie, so as I was reading all I could think about was compareing the two. I found that I was really surprised at the book and the movie. They were very similar. I liked being able to find the small differences between the movie and the book. It made me more intune with the small details.

The Witches

The Witches
Written by Roald Dahl
Illustrated by Quentin Blake 
Author study 2

I really enjoyed this book! I did a little research and found out that his parents were from Norway and Scandinavia. So the fact that this book is set in Norway, gives us a little insight into his life. This book is about a little boy and his grandmother who live together. Grandma told him all about the witches of Norway and how to figure out which woman is really a witch. Along their journey, they ran into a witch convention! All of the witches of England were there, even the Grand High Witch her self!!  It was fascinating to read Dahl's creative work. I was in awe by how he constructed the plot for the story. I had no idea what to expect when I started to read these books.My friend told me it was a strange book. I did not think it was too strange. Yes, it was different, but it was not out of the blue or too strange to comprehend. It was clever and funny. The story was a great way to add another story about witches.

I did some research and it was said that this book had caused some controversy. Critics believed that it was too violent for children to read. I did not agree with that. It hinted about what the witches did to children, but it left it up to the imagination of the reader. I thought "violence" in the book was hilarious!! Formula 86, which is designed to turn children into mice, was the potion the witches were going to use to exterminate all of the children in England! It was also stated that it is sexist because all witches are women. Yes, it does say all witches are women, but it says that some men are ghouls. Dahl explains that not all women are witches, and some women are extremely nice. Along with that, it states that they were not human.

The BFG

The BFG
Written by Roald Dahl
Illustrated by Quentin Blake
Author study 1

I have nothing negative to say about this book. It grabbed you from the very beginning! What would you think if a giant man came and grabbed you through the window? Sophie was petrified!! "Is he going to eat," was all she could think about the whole way to the giants house. Once they arrived, Sophie found out that he was the BFG-The Big Friendly Giant!! From then on, Sophie learned about dreams and how all the human "beans" from different parts of the world taste like. She was disgusted by all of the other giants! Her and the BFG came up with a plan to punish them all. This plan involved dreams, running all the way to England, and even the QUEEN!!! It was an impossible mission!

One of my favorite things about this book was the way the BFG spoke. It had me cracking up. Some of the things were just ridiculous. I also liked how Sophie would try and correct him. It made it much more comical, because in my head I could see myself doing the same thing. It made me very relatable to her. This book is a great book on friendship. The relationship between Sophie and the BFG does take some work. They have to build a lot of trust with one another. Sophie has to trust that he wont eat her, and the BFG has to trust her with all of his secrets. Both players know their only way to survive is if they trust one another, so they do! They go on the biggest adventure of their life!

Soupy Saturday with the Pain and the Great One

Soupy Saturday with the Pain and the Great One
Written by Judy Blume
Illustrations by James Stevenson
Contemporary Realism 1

 This was a great book. I loved how the stories switched from different points of view. It reminded me a lot of me and my siblings. We are always fighting with one another. The stories were hilarious. It was a great take on sibling relationships. As a reader you were able to relate to at least one of the characters in some way. In the stories were real life issues, like not being able to ride your bike or staying the night at a friends house for the first time. There are many of these typed of events in this story that makes it relatable to all ages of readers. The amount of text in each story varied. It is a great book for a reluctant reader or a reader who is ready to make the jump to larger chapter books. The illustrations brought to life the comical aspects in each story. There was a funny twist on each side that allowed the reader to learn what the character is all about. The ending of the book caught me off guard. You do not think about what the cat or dog is thinking about when you are fighting with your siblings. The ending of this story brought those thoughts to life. I am going to warn you, it is awfully funny.