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.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo
Written by Diane Stanley
Biography 5

This book was very different from the last Michelangelo book I read. The last one was just full of information everywhere, while this one told it with a story. I liked how it used a story layout to inform people about Michelangelo. Even though this is a picture book, the amount of text on a page can be quite over whelming. I think that it would be better for 4-5th graders because of the amount of content that the book does hold. The images in this book are a little different that what you would expect to find. I liked them at first, but when they started to incorporate his art work using digital devises things got a little hairy. To me it did not seem like his art work was real. It made it look computerized. I feel like it would have been better to just use the real photograph instead of one that was changed on Adobe Photoshop. They just seemed to not relay the same message as the original ones did. I really liked how they had a bibliography in the back of the book. It made this book a reliable place to get information, and you could check her sources for accuracy, if you had any doubt.

On the Trail of Sacagawea

On the trail of Sacagawea
Written by Peter Lourie
Biography 4

I really liked how they added the prologue to the story. It gave great back ground information on why they went on the expedition in the first place.  The book is written as a family re-travels the path Sacagawea took to reach the Pacific coast. It is neat to see the pictures from today and then read about what they would have looked like when Sacagawea was traveling along that road. It was also nice how they broke down the sections in the book to specific things. You could read about the wild life around the Mississippi River, or learn about Powwows. It covered a lot of basic information that would have been important to Sacagawea. It was interesting to learn about the Tepee Rings they found in the dirt. It shows how people studying the Native American culture are able to still find information about how they lived just by looking in the dirt! The illustrations in the book are fantastic. They make you feel like you are right at home with the author, like he is taking this journey with you. There are some photographs in black and white that are compared to today's photograph of that same thing, or the place where it would have been. It is interesting to compare and contrast the two photographs. It shows us just how much our world has changed, since this exploration time period in our history.

Sacagawea

Sacagawea
Written by Lise Erdrick
Illustrations by Julie Buffalohead
Biography 3

This was a great book. I loved how it told about her life. It made it sound adventurous and dangerous, which it was. It showed how much Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark. With out her, they would not have horses to cross the Rocky Mountains or know what plants to eat or not to eat. She was the main reason for their survial and for exploring the west cost. I really liked how at the beginning of the story it had an authors note. In the authors note, she explained the pronunciation of her name. Since no one really knows it, there has been a lot of speculation of how it is spelled and pronounced. I thought this was interesting, because i have only know it as Sacagawea. I found out there were many different ways people spelled it. At the end it also gave a short summery of her life after the expedition west. Since the Native American culture does not have a written language, it is hard to accurately pin point what happened to Sacagawea and her family.  The illustration in the book are simply beautiful. The work very well with the text to give you a feeling of where you are in history and in the United States.

Sacagawea: Indian Interpreter to Lewis and Clark

Sacagawea: Indian Interpreter to Lewis and Clark
Written by Marion Marsh Brown
Biography 2


This was a very interesting book. I learned so much about Sacagawea. I was kind of concerned when I started to read it because it read like a story. I did not want to be fictionalized. I liked how they broke the chapters down chronological and the Illustrations they used.  The photographs were placed in the perfect spot. They helped the reader really see what is happening to her. Since the images are photographs, it really allows the reader to acknowledged she was a real person. She was a very prominent figure in our history. Her story has been told many times and in many different ways. This is a great way to read the truth about what Sacagawea did.
The way the book was written was easy to follow. It read like a novel. It would be great for 4th or 5th graders to gather information from. The way the chapters are broken down allow the reader to read about what he or she wants. 

Introducing Michelangelo

Introducing Michelangelo
Written by Robin Richmond
Biography 1

This is a full biography of Michelangelo's life. I really liked how during his first years of life we did not know a lot about his, so they referred to different art work that was done within that period to infer what Michelangelo might have worn or acted like. It was interesting to see some of the works of different artists to be used for such a task, but it really brought to life how important art is to preserving the culture of that time. It was nice that with in the text you had some stories about his life told from his masters at the workshop. It shows that he was a real person and touched many people lives with his art work. He greatly inspired those around him to love and appreciate art. The text is also lighthearted. It makes it easy to read and not seem to dull. It brings him to life. All of his sculptures, went into great detail in explaining how they were made and what they represent. This is very important because understand Michelangelo's work is a great way of truly understanding who he is as a person. The book is broken down into short chapters. This is nice if you are just looking to study one aspect of Michelangelo's life. It lets beginner readers find easy and clear spots to stop reading at and allows them to not feel overwhelmed with all of the text on the page.

Bound

Bound
Written by Donna Jo Napoli
Historical fiction 2

This book started off great! I thought that it had a great story line. The beginning of the book started off kind of slow, but it picked up towards the middle. It was really interesting to read about the great lengths women went through to make their feet smaller. I felt extremely sorry for Wei Ping and everything she had to endure. I am a sucker for pain, so some of the more graphics parts in this book made me a little sick to my stomach. I loved how it talked about some of the Chinese beliefs, like reincarnation and the spirits of their ancestors. This was a huge theme through the book, which it should have been. It was neat to read about how obedient and respectful they are to the spirits of their ancestors.

It was in the last 40 pages or so that I lost all connection to the book. The story that was unrolling nicely took a huge turn and began to sound like a classic fairy tale, Cinderella. Xing Xing, the main character, found a secret letter from her mother hidden under the floor. With that letter were beautiful fancy clothes. There was a huge celebration for the whole province. Xing Xing pretended she was sick, while her stepmother and stepsister, Wei Ping, went to the celebration. Up until this point I was fine with the story. I was fine with the book ending with her going to celebration in the fancy clothes, finding a husband and showing up her stepmother and sister. However, it did not go that way exactly. At the celebration, she sees her stepmother and sister looking right at her!! In a panic, she flees losing one her precious slippers. Here is where the story is the same. A gentleman from the palace comes to the house asking for all the young women. The evil stepmother says there is no one else but her and Wei Ping. Then out of know where comes Xing Xing and the show fits and yippie they go off to be married. Yay! I was disappointed. I felt like there could have been a way better ending to this story. It did not even say if Wei Ping got married, after all that agony with her feet.

Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam

Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam
Cynthia Kadohata
Historical fiction 1

WOW!! This book was intense. I absolutely loved it. I am a dog lover and I am from a military family, so this book really hit home for me. I have heard story after story about how different family members being in Vietnam, hearing this made me think about all of those stories.

From the very beginning It had me wrapped. I could feel the pain the little boy, Willie, was going through at the thought of getting rid of his dog. It had me balling. All I could think of was getting rid of any of my dogs! It was so rough! The story is told from the point of view of both Cracker, a German Sheppard, and Rick, who joins the Army. I really enjoyed how the author really emphasized the relationship between the dogs and the dog handler. It was nice to see that Cracker did not want to listen to Rick or really any of the military personnel for that matter. It was clear that Cracker was one of the best dogs in training. When they made it to Vietnam, I was so nervous something bad was going to happen to Rick or Cracker. It made me not want to put the book down. Because this is a book about war, I knew something bad was eventually going to happen. When a series of events happened, I was balling. All of my family was laughing at me, but I could not put the book down. It was hard for me to read this book, because I am a military child. I knew a lot of people that fought in the war or are fighting in the war now. I would read passages and think of some of my good friends in Iraq.

The bond that Rick and Cracker created between one another was so strong. It shows you really can connect between different animals. It also showed how much the soldiers depended on these dogs. The dogs were closer companions than the other soldiers around them. They were everything to these men. They were their life line. I loved how the book really emphasized that point a lot of different ways. The ending of the book was great! I loved how it had a choice ending, you were not really sure which way it would go. I loved that part of it. It made it more exciting to read the book and find out what happened!