All is Said and Done?

Something tells me that even though I am done with this school assigment I just might continue to add to this book list as I continue to read books, and maybe since I am not having to rush through everything I will actully be able to more fully enjoy all the books that are out there, and that I can make an even greater list for my family and for my class.

So stay posted for another post in the future.  More books and more memories. 

<3  Erin Christina

Love, Stargirl

“May our reunion be not a finding but a sweet collision of destinies.”

Love, Stargirl

By: Jerry Spinelli
Copyright 2007
Alfred A. Knopf
Realistic Fiction
Middle School Age
274 Pages

This is the sequel to Jerry Spinelli's best selling book Stargirl.  In this book it is written in letter form as Satrgirl writes the worlds longest letter to her love, Leo.  She tells him about everything she has been doing and all the people she meets.  This story also gives insight to Stargirls mind, she seems more real now, those little things that no one ever noticed before (since the last book was from Leo's point of view). This is after the other book and Stargirl and her family has moved.  Stargirl still loves Leo and has to try to live her life and get back to being Stargirl and not worry so much about Leo.  At one point after a five year old taught her that she wasnt herself any more she made the dicision that she had to let go of Leo.  She want nothing more then to be with him that since he was not in his present she could not see into her future (because she wanted him there) and she could not get out of life what she wanted.  She then had decied to let go of Leo, not really but in the way that she could move on.  If someday their destenys would cross they would be together again, but she needed to live.  So throught the story she learns some life lessons from her best friend the five year old Dootsie.  She also meets a bunch of other people including a boy, named Parry.  She, after getting know this boy started to wonder if she liked him or if he liked her.  The problem with him was the fact that he wouldnt just settle for one girl, in fact he hada bunch of girls who wanted them.  These girls called themelfs the honeybees and even went to the length of getting little bee tatoos for their little group.  There is a lot about Perry that Stargirl doesnt learn until the end.  Sadly, at least as far as we know, she does not end up with him.  She will forever love Leo, he may be all the way somewhere else but he is in her heart.  There are many charitors that she meets and one of which is the Betty Lou who does go outside she is afraid to and Charlie who is an elderly man who sits in the cemitary all day with his wife who has passes away.  These are two people that Stargirl changed.  She prepares for the winter solstice throughout the book and at the end of the book instead of sitting in the grave yard he goes to the "party" and so does Betty Lou, Dootsie dragged her out of her house.  Both of these people and most  of the town showed up for this sunrise.  Archie even came for it, and he brought a note from Leo to give to Stargirl.  It simply said "YES" but it was the answer to the question the she would send to him every morning durring her weekly trip to the hill to plant the marker to mark the solstice.  She asked him if they would ever meet again, and he had recived the message.  The book doesnt end with them together but it does end with her gaining hope for it and deciding that she will send this letter that she had been working on for a full year. 

I would recomend this book to anyone.  It gives a little more hope to those who did not like the ending to the first book, but they had to of read Stargirl to read this, but I have and will tell everyone to read that one, and so I will as well tell them to read this one.

This book, nothing was wrong with it. 

I loved this book.  It gave me a different look at Stargirl and when I thought that her and I really had nothing in common I found out there is more than meets the eye to a person.  She might be one of those rare star people but she is human and well and feels and has those days when her happy wagon is empty.  I am going to have to buy this book. 

The Lorax

"Unless someone like you cares a whole aful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It's not."

The Lorax
By: Dr. Seuss
Copyright 1971
Random House
Picture Book
Any Age
72 Pages

The story starts off in the present of a boy serching for answers.  There are no trees and no animals either, he goes to the onceler to get ansers.  The onceler tells the story to him.  A long time ago the land use to be beautiful.  Full of Truffala trees and animals.  One day the Onceler came in and cut down one tree and made a thneed out of it.  The thneeds were a hit and soon more trees were cut down.  The onceler made a factory and it grew.  Not only were trees getting cut downbut the factory causing smog and the the smog was killing the other plants.  The animals were having a hard time getting along.  The Lorax would often show up ate the Onceler's to speek to him.  He spoke for the trees.  The onceler didnt listion to him.  His company kept growing and polution filled the air.  The animals all left.  They came down the the last tree and then everyone packed up and left, except the Onceler, he stayed.  The Lorax went to him and told him what he had done, and he then lifted himself away and left nothing but a stone with the "unless" writen upon it.  The Onceler was left alone, to think on what her had done.  The land never grew back, everything stayed dead and the animals never returned.  The Onceler told the story to the boy and then gave him something.  He gave him the last seed to the last truffla tree.  He told him to plant it, far away, and maybe just maybe, the animals would return, just maybe the Lorax would return.

I would recomend this book to anyone.  It would be a fun book to use on earth day to teach that if we dont take care of the earth then that is what will happen to our world.

I dont think that there is anything wrong with this book.

I love this book.  I really love anything writen by Dr. Seuss, he is my favorite author and I love the messages in his book. 

The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree
By: Shel Silverstein
Copyright 1964
Harper & Row
Picture Book
All Ages
47 Pages

This story is about a tree who loved a boy and a boy who loved a tree.  The boy used to spend all his time with the tree but he started to grow and his interests changed.  The boy was soon interested in making  money, and so the tree gave him all her apples so he could sell them and make money.  She was happy.  After a long time the boy came back but he was still not interested in the tree, he didnt want money anymore he wanted to build a house so the tree gave him all her branches so he could build a house with them.  She was happy.  After a long time the boy came back, even older then the last two times.  The tree told him that she didnt have anything else to give, but this time he was interested in building a boat so he could sail far away.  So she told him to cut her down and make a boat out of her.  She was happy ... not.  After a long time he came back.  She tpld him she was nothing but a stump and could not give him anything.  All he wanted was a place to sit and rest, so she straighted up and he sat down.  She was happy.

I would recomend this book to anyone.  It can mean so much and many different things to many different people.  It is a good book.

I dont think that there was anything wrong with this book.  Unless someone takes the message as it is ok to take advantige of giving people because they will give you anything to make you happy.

I love this book.  This book has helped me through many hard times and made me see life and situations in different ways.  I LOVE this book.

Kittens

"Kitten's sharp claws can get it into trouble."

Kittens
By: Kate Petty
Copyright 1990
Gloucester Press
Non Fiction - Informational
4th Grade
24 pages

A mother cat is pregnant for about nine weeks and you can even sometimes see the kittens moving around inside her.  Once kittens are born their eyes are close but they can still find their way to their mother to feed, eatting and sleeping is what newborn kitten spend most of their time doing.  After about a week the eyes will open but they still really cant see well.  The eye color of kittens start off gray-blue but will change around five weeks old to green or gold, it is not often that they stay blue.  After three to four weels kittens can start to walk by themselfs.  One of the things that cats spend most of their time doing is washing themselfs.  They start off by getting licked by their mother but over time they will start to copy what she does to clean themselfs.  Once they reach eight weeks they are eating soild food and drinking from a bowl.  Kittens love to play and they learn to hunt as well.  Not only are kitten playful but they are very mischivious as well.  They love to learn how things work and were things go, but when they get older that dies down and the cat will start to calm down.  When a kitten reaches seven to eight weeks they can now leave the mother and move to a new home.  Cats can live for 15 to 20 years.

I would recomend this book to any cat lover or anyone who has a cat that will be having kittens soon.  It is full of infor that will be helpful to them.

I dont think that anything is wrong with this book.

I LOVED this book.  Cats are my favorite animal and I remember reading almost every cat book in my elementary libery.  No matter how many books I read there is always something new to learn still.

What Do You Do With A Tail Like This?

"Horned lizards squrit blood out of their eyes"

What Do You Do With A Tail Like This?
By: Steve Jenkins & Robin Page
Copyright 2003
Houghton Mufflin Company
Non Fiction
Young Elementary
26 Pages

Animals have different parts that help them do different things.  Different animals have different noses that help them with their envornment and do what they do.  Hyenas find their food with their nose while alligators while theirs to breath while hidding in water.  Different animals have different ears that help them with their envornment and do what they do.  Crickets ears are found in their knees and bats use their ears to see.  Different animals have different ears that help them with their envornment and do what they do.  Lizards use their tails to get away, its is easy they just snap off, but dont worry it grows back.  Different animals have different eyes that help them with their envornment and do what they do.  Chameleons can look two ways at once while fish have four eyes so they can see out of water and in water.  Different animals have different feet that help them with their envornment and do what they do.  Geckos have stikey feet so they can clige to things and clime anywhere and chimpanzees eat with theirs.  Different animals have different mouths that help them with their envornment and do what they do.  Pelicans uses theirs to scoop up fish while Anteaters capture termites with their long tongues.  There is so much fun infor in this book and it is really cute to learn how all animals are different.

I would recomend this book to have in the classroom.  This is a good book for a classroom to have when learning about different animals.  All animals are differetn and use different parts of their body differently.

There was a few things in this book that I thought was just kinda yuck but it is a informational book and it was really interesting to learn those things.

I learned some pretty interesting stuff from this book.  Some of the stuff I kind of didnt want to know but I enjoyed it. 

From Seed to Daisy

"Plants will be happier is they have more space."

From Seed to Daisy
By: Laura Purdie Salas
Copyright 2008
Picture Window Books
Non Fiction
3rd grade
24 Pages

A cute little book telling about the life cycle of the Daisy and also with nifty little facts in every section.  Like most plants the flower starts with a seed that comes from the parent plant, daisys are no exception for this.  If the seed grows it depends on a few things.  Not all wild daisy seeds will grow, but if in a guarden the person can make sure that the seed gets the right about of light, water, soild, and warmth.  When all the conditions are right the seed will start to grow.  Root grow out of it first and soon it will start to grow a stem and evern leaves and as it grows the plan and roots get bigger and stronger.  With all those things needed for the plant to grow it will keep grown and soon sprout buds and then blum into the beautiful daisy.  After they bloom insects will come by and pollonate the flower, which is needed so that the seeds in the flower will be able to grow other flowers once this one dies.  When the flower withers and dies it drops the sees, and the life cycle of the daisy starts over again.

I would recomend this book for a class when they are learning about plants and flowers and when they start learning how things grow.

I dont think that there is anything wrong with this book.

I learned from this book.  It is really neat how you may think you know all there is to know about something, but there is always something new to be learned. 

Life in the Rain Forests

"Did you know that almost half of the worlds rain forests have been cut down in the last 50 years and the clearance continues.  In 1989 rain forests were disappering at a rate of 60 acres every minute."

Life in the Rain Forests
By: Lucy Baker
Copyright 1990
Worl Book/Two-Can
Non Fiction
4th or 5th grade
32 Pages

A nicely done book that teaches about rain forests and the animals that live in them.  It uses pictures to explain some things.  Most rain forests are 120 ft above the ground and get 32 ft of rain fall a year.  There are three main layers: the canopy (top), understory (middle), and forest floor (the ground).  Most rain forests are located between the tropic of cancer and tropic of capricorn.  The largest rainforest ins in south america that streaches along the Amazon.  There is lots of vegitation in the rainforests and the perfect food for what the animals that live in them.  The different layers have differet food and different animals that live in them.  The rain forests is not a place for fun and games though, it is home to many dangerious and deadly animals.  Some of the animals are adapted to the point that they can hid from dangers (exspashly good for those who are pretty low on the food chain.).  Even though dangerious the rain forest is not only home to animals but people do live there too.  These natives of the rain forest(s) know how to take from the forest without casing damage to it and know the forest(s) well.  The sadest part of the book is talking about how humans are destoying the rain forests.  We have been cutting them down for years taking away the home to many plants and animals and leaving them to slowly die.  A lot of rain forest animals are on the endagered list.  Not only are we killing off plants and animals but we get many things from things in the rain forest like medicines, those things that wich the plants and animals give us. 

I would recomend this book to have in a classroom.  It is helpful for students when learning about different animals and different parts of the world.  It can also help them be aware for what is going on in the world.

I dont think that there is anything wrong with this book.

I enjoyed this book.  I have always loved the rain forest and well, I learned something new reading this book.

Out of the Dust

"Named him Franklin after the president..."

Out of the Dust

By: Karen Hesse

Copyright 1997

Scholastic Press

Middle School

Historical Fiction

227 Pages

Billy-Jo is an 11 year old girl who plays the piano amazingly and it is one of the things that she lives for.  She lives durring the time of the Dust Bowl.  Her family's farm is not doing to well and some horrible things happen thoughout time.  One night when he mom was cooking there was a bucket of karosine by the stove that she mistook for water.  She used that and caught on fire and Billy-Jo went to throw that bucket out and her mother was coming back twords her and her mother burst into flames.  Billy-Jo tried to pat her mother out and burnt her hands terribly.  Her mother died giving birth to the baby and the baby died too.  Everyone would blaim Billy-Jo for what happened.  The piano became a distant thing to her, she stoped playing it and just didnt know what to do anymore.  There was one point when she just tried to run away from home.  She returned to her father and their relationship started to grow better.  There was even another woman in her fathers life.  It took her a while to get used to her but soon excepted her.  As time went on, things started to get better, the dust started to stop, crops started to grow, and life started to become.  This book is her jurnal through this time. 

I would recomend this book to anyone.  It is such a good insight to what life was like durrning this time period, it was hard and just through Billy-Jo's words you can feel for her and the people.

I dont think that there is anything wrong with this book, what was said is life.

Back in 7th grade when I read this book for the first time I didn't like it.  Reading it now I dont know why I didnt like it, I really enjoyed it and think it is a very good story.

A Single Shard

"All that was left of the two vases was just a single shard"

A Single Shard

By: Linda Sue Park

Copyright 2001

Yearling Book

Historical Fiction

Middle School

148 Pages

An orohined boy, named Tree-Ear who lives under a brigd with his friend Crain-man, sneaks into a potters house to look at what he has made and ends up braking some pots and has to work for Potter Min to repay him for what he did.  That is how his jurney begins.  He is orriganlly just supposed to work for nine days and then be done but once his days were up he still showed up to work, so Min let him work for him.  Mins wife was kind and caring and fed him and even gave him extra food to take back to Crain-man when the day was done.  Tree-Ear finds out that Min wont ever teach him the art of pottery because it is past down from father to son and not to an orphin boy.  So with this said Tree-Ear did not give up.  He kept working.  Soon after the embassary came to visit to comission a potter to make pottery for them Tree-Ear would be on a jurney of his life.  After working long and hard on the two vases Min sent him on the long trip to take them to the emassary.  Before he left Tree-Ear gave Crain-man a little clay monkey he had made (this is immportent). So as he was taveling he got robed.  The robbers thought that he had rice in his pack and he did not.  They were not happy that it was not rice and they started beating him and they stole his money as well.  They took just about everything and right before they left one of the robbers took the vases and threw them off the cliff.  Tree-Ear went to go find them and only found tiny shards.  Looking hard he came across on shard that was bigger then the rest butit was still small.  This single shard showed all the qualities of how skilled Min was and what the emassary was looking for.  So he continued his jurney with the single shard and more determined then before.  When he reached his destination the guards did not trust him and would not let him in.  Tree-Ear remained determind and was soon let in and he refused to see no one but embassary Kim.  When he was finally shown to him he showed him the single shard and was told that Potter Min would get the commission.  They sent him home by sea and he brought the news back to Potter Min and Min's wife.  He brought such good and joyful news to them to get not good news for himself.  Crain-man was dead.  Potter Min put him right to work though.  Told him about the little clay monkey and how amazingly good work it was.  Min's wife told Tree-Ear that he would be staying with them (in a way adopting him) and gave him a new name.  No longer was he an orphin and also Min had told him that he needed to get to work beacause he couldnt help make pots without a wheel of his own. 

I would recomned this book to anyone

I dont think that there was anything wrong with this book.

I really enjoyed this book.  It was cute and such a good story.

Lincoln: A Photobiography

"If I go down in history for anything, it will be for this."

Lincoln: A Photobiography
By:Russell Freedman
Copyright 1987
Clarion Books
Non-Fiction Biography
Middle School Age
150 Pages

An interesting and well done biography of Abraham Lincoln with lots of pictures.  There is nothing in this book that does not have proof that something did or did not happen.  There are many interesting facts about Lincoln that most people do not know.  This is getting into his life, not just the frount that everyone saw him as.  There is more to a person then being the President of the U.S. and this book show that.  Lincoln was human, he has strengths and he had weaknesses, he had joys and sorrows, he even had self esteem issuses.  This was a great man who had hopes and dreams and great ambitions.  He went to school off and on and probly all together only got about a year of schooling, but you would never know that by hearing him speak or seeing all the great he did.  He was a funny man too, or well, he would tell jokes and anticdotes and no matter how many times he told the joke we would laugh just the same as if it was the first time tellingor hearing the joke.  He was human, a worker, a man, a husband, and a father all before he was the president.  He loved his family and his two boys who he believed could do no wrong.  He was anti-slavery and he had to be president through that had time of the nation splitting and trying to bring the nation back together and get through a war.  He had many firsts for the contry, and it was not easy.  You can see it in how he aged over his term as president.  So many people died, and he had to deal with the people and just so much pain, because as the president, everything is your fault.  This was at the time the most blodiest thing that ever happened, americans killing american and so many people who didnt truly understand what war really was.  The story that we all know, when Lincoln was killed, murdered while watching a play with his wife and his body guards not doing their job, they were down stairs watching the play.  Many morned the death of our president in many ways, even going out and watching the train pass by and also celibrated his life and all the good he did.  Abraham Lincoln did lots in his life, and was human.

I would recomend this book to anyone, teachers to use when teaching about Lincoln.  It is interesting and there was so much that I had no idea about.

I dont think that there was anything wrong with this book.

I enjoyed this story.  It was interesting and I learned a lot.

Love You Forever

"I'll love you forver, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be."

Love You Forever
By: Robert Munsch
Copyright 1987
Firefly Books
Picture Book
Young Readers
28 Pages

One of the cutest stories that a mother can read to a child (sorry I guess I am a bit bais).  It is a story about a mother watching her son grow up.  From a baby to a grown up man everynight she will crawl into his room and make sure that he is REALLY asleep and then she would rock him back and forth and sing to him "I'll love you forver, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be."  From baby to tadler to boy to teenager she does it everynight.  Even as an adult and he moves out some nights she will drive across town just to hold her son and sing to him.  One day she grew old and her son came to visit her.  When he got there she tried to sing him the song but only got half way through, she couldnt sing to him because she was too old and sick.  Her son held her and sang "I'll love you forver, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my mommy you'll be."  When the son left his mothers house he went home and thought for a long time.  Late that night he went ino his daughters bedroom and sang to her.
"I'll love you forver, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be."

I would recomend this book to anyone.  To mothers to hold their kids and read to them.  I say mothers mainly because this book is about a mother and her child, but yes, fathers need to read to their kids too, it ends with the the father singing so I guess it is ok.  But I do believe strongly that this book is one to be read to parent to child.

I dont think anything was wrong with this book.  But on a lihter note me and my friends were talking and one brought up why their was no dad it was only a mom and with the son it was only him and child and no wife.  We laughed for a little bit about it.

I love this book.  I cry ever time I read it or it is read to me.  It is one of my favorite books that I grew up on and was read all the time to me by my mommy who cried when she read it.

Wayside School is Falling Down

"Would you rather be traped and safe or free?"

Wayside School is Falling Down

By Louis Sachar
Copyright 1989
Harper Trophy
Novel- Fiction
Younger Elementary
152 Pages


A book full of crazy stories about the students in Ms Jewls class.  They are a class not like any other, in a school that is not like any other.  Their class is on the 30th story on a building with only 29 floors (there is not 19th story, it doesnt exsist).  Each chapter in the book tells a little story about one of the students and they do connect through out the book too.  They are just silly random funny stories.  One is about a student tired of being in class and wanting to be free, so he wonders down into the basment (no one goes there) and he runs into some people and he ends up signing a peice of paper that lets him be free.  Throughout the rest of the book no one understood why he could do whatever he wanted.  One student gets stuck on the 19 floor for three chapters and they were all chapter 19.  These students act unlike any other, and even the Ms Jewls is on the crazy side of things, she doesnt even know one of her students real names.  The book has pigtales saving a boys life, food that makes you kiss someone, a boys who is nicer the nice and a girl who is meaner then mean, and students being students.  Don't worry though, the school doesnt really fall down in the end, but it does however become a school for cows.

I would recomend this book for any young student.

I dont think anything is wrong with this book.  It is just a fun silly book full of fun silly stories.

I love this book.  I read this one and the first one about a million times back in elementary school.  It brings back memories.

Love That Dog

"I don't want to
because boys
don't write poetry.

Girls do."

Love That Dog
By: Sharon Creech
Copyright 2001
Joanna Coter Books.  Harper Trophy
Novel - Poetry
Younger Readers
86 Pages

A cute little novel about a boy who doesnt think he can write poety and really doesnt want to either.  Jack is writing to his teacher about how he cant write poetry and it is not for him.  You only get to read his side of the conversation but you can tell that his teacher is telling him that the things that he is writing are good and asking him if she can put them up on the class poetry board.  Jack starts to gain an oppinon on the poetry they are talking about in class and starts to discover from his teacher that the things he writes are a form of poetry.  He starts to LOVE poetry and is not ashamed of it.  He even writes a letter to Walter Dean Myers to come to the school and talk to his class.  He ends up comming and Jack is so full of excitment.  So the book you get to see the way Jack thinks about poetry and the way that he writes change.  It is a fun and exciting side to read, and infer what the teacher is saying.  Jack goes from thinking that poetry is for girls to loving poetry and wanting to do it.

I would recomend this book.  It is pretty cute and importent to know that when you think something is dumb, you can learn to love it if you try or even just gain an opinion at it.  Also you may think you are bad at something but you are actully good, you just didnt know it because you never tried.

I dont think that anything is wrong with this story, though it could be nice to know more of what the teacher was saying.

I enjoyed the story.  It was cute, and shows other forms of poetry.  They dont have to ryme, but a lot fo the time poems are feelings writen down.  I love poetry, it is one of my favorite parts of L.A.

The Boxcar Children

"I'll show you my cart made out of wheels and my pink cup" (Benny)

The Boxcar Children
By: Gertrude Chandler Warner
Copyright 1942, 1950, 1969, 1977
Albert Whitman & Company
Non fiction
2nd or 3rd grade
154 Pages

Four children (Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny) are running away from a gradfather that they have never met.  Their parents are dead, and they are supposed to go live with him.  They come across a box car in the middle of a forest clearing when they are running away from a baker and his wife because they were wanting to keep the three older kids and send the youngest to an orphanige.  The children weren't going to let that happen to them so they ran from them.  They started turrning the boxcar into their new home.  They even found a dog and named him Watch.  The children would go to the dump and search for dishes so they could use them to eat and drink out of.  Henry would go into the close town and work for a doctor and would get paid then go buy food for them to eat that night.  They had a pretty nice set up there for them.  The doctor relizes who the kids are, their grandfather had been searching for them and offering a $5,000 reward for his grandchildren.  Henry even meets him at one point when he wins a race and neither of them knew who the other was.  Well Violet gets sick and since they can't go to the hospital Henry gets the doctor to help.  He takes care of violet and also lets the childrens grandfather know about the children.  He stays with the doctor as the kids also stay with him while violet is getting better.  The kids get to know him and do not hate him.  The doctor soon lets Henry know who this man is, it is their grandfather.  They don't hate this man, the love him.  They all go to live with him and love it so much.  Soon, though, they get home sick for their boxcar.  Their grandfather moves the boxcar to his house, and the children are so happy.  They live happily ever after.

I think I would recomend this book to those kids who are just starting on reading chapter books.  It is an easy read and it reads kind of how a kid thinks, I got really confused sometimes because of it.

I dont think there really was anything wrong with this book. 

I am sad because I didn't really like this book, I just could not get into it.  Everytime I thought a good plot was going on it changed subject and was now somewhere totally different.  I got lost, reading a childrens book. 

Where The Wild Things Are

"Oh please don't go - we'll eat you up - we love you so!"

Where The Wild Things Are
By: Maurice Sendak
Copyright 1963
Harper & Row, Publishers
Picture Book
Any Age
37 Pages

Max, a boy full of energy and always creating mischief of one kind or another, one night wore his wolf suit to bed.  After chasing the dog around, his mother called him "WILD THING!"  "I'LL EAT YOU UP!" Was his responce to that and he was sent to his room without dinner.  That night something AMAZING happened, Maxes room started growing into a forest.  Trees were growing, grass started growing, soon he had no walls and roof but he was in the wide open world.  He found an ocean and a small boat that had Max writen on it, so he got in it and traveled.  He was sailing for what seemed like a long time, on to the where the wild things are.  When Max arived to this place the wilds things where there. "They roadred their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeht and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws."  Max, afraid of nothing, said  "BE STILL" and they all stoped.  He had tamed them with a "magic trick".  Max looked them in their eyes and didnt blink, it frightened them, and Max was named "the most wild thing of all", the king of all the wild things.  Being wild things Max cried to them "LET THE WILD RUMPUS START!"  The rumpus did start.  They danced through the night, played through the day, and partied.  Max grew tired and and commanded them to stop and he sent them to bed without their supper.  Max grew lonly and wanted to be back home, where he was loved best of all.  He started to smell something, it smelt good, it came from far across the world and he started to follow it.  He gave up being king of the wild things and left.  As he sailed away the wild things called to him "Oh please don't go - we'll eat you up - we love you so!"  But Max would not and he sailed away.  He traveled and ended back up into he very own room, where he had supper waiting for him ... and it was still hot.

I would recomend this book to any child and parent, I mean, it is still one of my favorite books at 20 years old.  I read it to the child I nannyed for this last fall and she loved this book.  She started to memorize it and she would tell me if I started changing words.  I would say stuff on the pages that didnt have words and when i skipped over saying them and just turned the page she would say "NO" and go back and "read" the pages to me.  She was 4, so, this book I think is good for all ages.

I dont think that there is anything wrong with this book.  The wild things could be too scary for some kids, but I have read this book to many childern and I havent met anyone who doesnt like it.

I love this book.  It is one that I grew up on and that my children and students will grow up on and have there to read. 

A Year Down Yonder

"There wasn't much more than a nickel in her purse, and a sandwich for the train in mine"

A Year Down Yonder
By: Richard Peck
Copyright 2000
Puffin Books
Fiction
4th or 5th grade
130 Pages

Mary Alice has been sent down to live with her grandma while things are not going well with her family.  Because of the war going on they along with everyone else in the US have lost just about everything.  So her parents send her down south to live with grandma for about a year while the family can get their feet planted back on the ground.  This Chicago girl is far from home trying to adjust to how Grandma Dowdel does everything.  For one, her cat can't even stay in the house, so the city cat over time tansfroms into a contry cat, even has a little kitten of her own durring the book.  The things that Mary Alice learns from her grandma are lessons she will never forget.  After a long time of just wanting to go home and back to how things used to be she finds good friends, love, and a side of Grandma that she never knew.  When the time came to going home, she wanted to stay, She wanted to take care of Grandma, she wanted to make sure she was alright.  It goes to show, never judge a book by its cover, because no matter how mean someone is on the outside, there could be so much niceness hidden inside.  Grandma was not all that bad: she cheated people out of money so someone else could be able to get by for the next year.  She took in a boarder, but charged him a lot, she later introduced him to the woman he married (because she was better then the other that had her eye on him).  She even saved the cat and kitten when the tornado hit, those cats that shed, she brought into her house and protected them.  Mary Alice would never forget that year, and would get married in her grandma's house to her soldier, who she wrote, who she met durring her time at Grandma's house. 

I would recomend this book, well I dont really want to, I did not really like it.  It was interesting and funny, so maybe it would be good for older elementary school kids.

I got kind of lost durring the book, more so near the end when it seemed to be jummping around without much reason and connection to things.

I liked the message the story had, but I did not really enjoy the book, it never hoocked me in and it was one of those that I really had to sit down and force myself to read.  Is it bad that I feel bad for thinking that?

The Story of Ruby Bridges

"Please God, try to forgive those people. Because even if they say those bad things, they don't know what they're doing. So you could forgive them, just like you did those folks a long time ago when they said terrible things about you."

The Story of Ruby Bridges
By: Robert Coles
Copyright 1995
Scholastic Press
Non Fiction Picture Book
Middle Elementary School
25 Pages

The story of a young girl who had an unbelevibul amount of courage.  A child who taught many so much and changed the life and history for everyone.  The story of one little African Amarican girl who went to school, for the first time. 
A child of a poor family, bairly making it by and then her father loses his job and they are forced to move.  Both parents did their best working to take care of their family, they wanted the best for them.  They wanted to be near God's spirit and feel him from the very start, so they went to church every sunday.  Durring this time in New Orleans in 1957 they were segrigating the blacks and whites, they had to go to different schools and could not recive the same education, and this was aginst the law.  In 1960, a judge ordered some girls to go to two different white schools, and little six-year-old Ruby Bridges was one of them, but the only black child sent to that school.  Her parents were proud that she had been chosen, and they prayed, they prayed long and hard for their daughter to stand tall with her head up high.  They knew what this would mean for their people , all the american people.  The first day Ruby was to go to school angry protesters stood outside of Franyz Elementary School in protest.  They did not want a black child going to this white school.  These people yelled names at Ruby and the city and state police did nothing for the child.  Ruby was escorted by federal marshals that the persident ordered and they carried gun with them.  Week after week, month after month, this was Ruby's school day.  The marshels protected her from the crowd who always tried to get at her, Ruby would run through them just to get to the school and away from the mob.  People would not send their children to school, so everyday it was just Ruby going to school and her teacher who saw no difference in the type of student that Ruby was compared to the others.  She noticed that Ruby was not scared, but she enjoyed her time at school, learning to read  and write in an empty classroom.  Her teacher did not understand how Ruby did it, she was all alone in everything and still so relaxed. Mrs. Henry (her teacher) thought Ruby would have to brakedown eventually.  One morning as she watched Ruby walk thought the mob of protesters she saw Ruby stop in frount of them and talk to them.  She watched as the marshels tried to get her to move into the school, as the mob looked like they were ready to kill this child.  Ruby stoped talking and turned and walked into the school.  When she entered into her classroom her teacher asked what had she talked to them about.  Ruby did not talk to the people, she had forgot to pray until right in the middle of the mob, every day she prayed, prayed for those people who hated her.  She said this prayer twice a day, once before she went to school and once after school.  "Please God, try to forgive those people.  Because even if they say those bad things, they don't know what they're doing.  So you could forgive them, just like you did those folks a long time ago when they said terrible things about you."
It took two years until the first two students went back to the school, two boys joined Ruby.  The mob was not happy about this, but soon more students started going back to school.  They had knew they had been cheeting their kids out of an education.  This lead to the desegrigration of the schools.  All because of the courage of Ruby Bridges. 

I would recomend this book to have at home and be read to kids, to have at school and read to the class.  This is such a great story for children to learn young about how things used to be, and to understand some black history. 

I can't really say there is anything wrong with this book since, well, it is true.  What is wrong is the world.  This book should be read.  This is history, and should be taught. 

I loved this book.  I even cried.  I hate the fact that things like this happened, even to a child.  How people could be so racasist that day after day, week after week, month after month stand out inforunt of this school and not even send their children to school FOR TWO YEARS!  I think we could all be a little more like Ruby, she kind of makes you feel like you can do anything. 

The Giver

"I counld't quite get hte word for the whole feeling of it, the feeling that was so strong in the room" "Love" The Giver Told him ... "Love" It was a word that was a concept that was new to him.

The Giver
By: Lois Lowry
Copyright 1993
Dell Laurel-Leaf
Fiction
Middle School Age
179 Pages

Jonas lives in a "world" to him that is perfectly normal.  Everything there is how it has always been, his comunity has rules and is run in a very orderly fashion.  To some the way things are done here may seem werid, but to them, it is all they know.  They have pills to take away pain and to take away what they call sterrings.  They have releses to those when they are old, children who do not meet standerds and cannot be assigned to a family unit, and sometimes when people do things that are not allowed in the comunity.  He is an Eleven and will soon be a Twelve, and that is the big group to go into.  Each family unit is put together by the elders and everyone once their birth year groups become Twelves get assigned to what they will do until they enter The House of the Old.  Jonas was aprehensive about the cerimony in December.  Strange things that already started happening to him that he had no idea what was going on.  Things would change for breif seconds but then go back to normal, he could not explain this.  At the cerimony of Twelve, Jonas was skipped over from being assinged, everyone noticed.  At the end the head elder went back to him and Jonas was not assingned something, he was chosen to be the Reciver of Memory.  This is when the life that Jonas once knew, would never be the same.  He was the Reciver of Memory, things he never knew that were he was started to learn.  So many things that there had once been that they had never known of.  All these things were taken away for Sameness.  Sunny days, hills, snow, oceans, color, Jonas now knew of these things as the once reciver, now The Giver, transfered the memories he once had been given to him.  Not all these things were good, Jonas also had to recive memories about war, death and it pained him.  He was told at the start that this would not be easy and he alone had to bear this, he could not share anything with anyone.  He didn't understand why everyone could know these things.  Jonas also learned that the people didnt understand things, lies that had been told to everyone.  A release was not a sending out of the comunity into Elsewhere, they were killed, injected and then the bodies thrown away, Jonas saw his father release a new born baby, just because it was the smaller of a set of twins, and in the comunity you cannot have that. 
The Giver had once tried to train another reciver, and well she ended up not being able to take those memories.  She asked to be released, she injected herself, once she had died those memories returned to the people, it was not a good thing, the people didn't know what to do, things that they had never experinced before, Feelings they don't have.
Jonas couldn't take this, no one knew what it was like to feel, to see color, pain, emotions, his world that he knew was lifeless and no one thought for themselfs and just was.  The Giver and him came up with a plan.  Jonas would leave and The Giver would stay behind so as the memories returned to the people he could be there to help them.  Jonas wasnt to happy with this plan but he went along with it.  Things, however didn't go as planed.  His father had been taking care of a child so they would not have to release him and so the child was staying with Jonas' family unit.  Gab (the child) had the same pale eyes as Jonas and also The Giver.  Well without relizing it Jonas had before had transfered memories to Gab a few times and he would sleep soundly.  Well one night Gab did not stay at the house unit with the family and he did not sleep soundly, Gab was to be released.  So Jonas left, and took Gab with him.  He road his bike far and just kept going.  Soon things around him started to change, things were not not the same as they were back in his comunity.  He just kept going and going.  Snow started too, cold and hungry, starving, Jonas did not know if he could keep going, Gab too was suffering.  He would think of those warm memories he had recived and transfer them to Gab to keep them warm.  Soon Jonas was sure he knew where he was.  At the top of a hill he even thought that he could hear beyond, he didn't know what it was, but he was sure that it was what The Giver had once said, music.

I would recomend this book to anyone.  Well middle school age at least.  There are things in the story that I think if younger then that, they would not understand.

So to me I really don't understand why this book has been chanlleged and wanted to be banded and on the censor list we got in class.  Well yes, there is a part of the book they talk about sturring, sexal feelings, and also killing people by injection, but it is a book, and it is life.  If you are not ok with that then this book would not be for you but it is such an amazing book.

I love this book!!  I have since I read it in seventh grade.  If you really pay attention to it, it reminds me of how life would be if Satan's plan had been chosen.  No choices, we would just be, everything black and white, and rules strongly enforced.  The people weren't living, they just were and that was it.  It really makes me appriate the life I have, and how to know how importent knowledge is.  To learn and grow and teach from your heart and your experinces.  Life is not black and white, it is full of colors and choices, pain, emotions and feelings.  I love this book and there is so much to be learned from it, as long as you read it with an open mind and read inbetween the lines.

Beauty

"And since I am the only one who sees you, why are you not then beautiful"

Beauty
By Robin McKinley
Copeyright 1978
Haper Trophy
Fairy Tale
Middle School Age or maybe even 4th or 5th
247 Pages

A sixteen year old girl with a nick name that is far but what she is, Beauty, has her own tale of magic and the prosses of love that only those who know how to look beyound what they see can have.  Beauty was anything but beautiful, she was awkward and not very porportional.  She knew she was not beautiful and did not like her nick name at all because of it.  Her sisters however were beautiful and it was common for guys to give them a poper hello by even bowing to them and just nodding their head to Beauty.  Hope, Grace, Hounor (Beauty) live with their father in the city and have a very good life until, the bussness goes under when their father lost all his ships in a storm.  They all took this hard, they lost basicly everything, Grace even lost her love.  The family moves with Hopes soon to be husban (Ger) and they move far away from the big city to the kind of place they have never really lived before.  OH before they moved they had an auction for all their belongings.  Most everything was sold, but some people gave the family things, including a horse the Beauty had helped take care of since it was born.  This horse needed her, she was the only one that it would listion too.  So the family moved.  Ger was the new town blacksmith and they moved to a little cabin right by the woods.  These woods were not what they seemed to be though.  Nothing lived in them, no animals ever came out of the forest.  People told stories about this place, that is why they had lost their two blacksmiths before Ger.  Inside these woods, lived ... the beast.  After all the stories they were told never to go into the woods.  Beauty who was now even more interested remaind out side of them, but not after she went a little inside them. 
Their father got a letter saying that one of his ships had returned, this made Grace on edge hopping it was Robbies boat (Rod, the man that she loves, and even though it has been a long time she still loves him)  He leaves to go back to the city.  When he returns, their lives are changed forever.  He had gotten lost in the woods, he had found the castle, he had met the beast.  All because he tried to take one of the roses, he would have to return with Beauty, and she would then belong to the beast.  He told them all this story.  When the time came Beauty left with her father, of course there was much discussion about this, but she has made up he mind, she was going, by her own free will.  They found the castle, all you have to do is get lost in the woods and you will find it, and her fathers horse was too afriad to go in there again, but Beauty and Greatheart went.  She told her father goodbye, and she entered the gates to the castle. 
The enchantment of the castle started to grow on her, of corse at first she was a little bit firghtened, but she spent six months there.  Everyday was about the same.  The beast that she was so afraid of at the start, began to grow on her.  Everynight after dinner he would ask her to marry him, she said no, but everytime it got harder.  She hated dressing in the fancy dresses, she thought they were too beautiful for someone as ugly as her to wear them.  The beast (who I did fall in love with reading this book) thought she was beautiful "And since i am the only one who sees you, why are you not then beautiful"  There are no mirrors in the castle, since the beast would not be looking at himself, so to him, the only one that can see her, she is beautiful.  She loved his libary, that had books that werent even writen yet in them, he gave her everything, and still night after night she said no. 
Something happened, she found out through another one of the castles enchantments that Graces love had returned.  The beast let her go to her family, she had to tell Grace, because there was another who wanted her hand and the family was trying to convince her to marry him.  BUT if Beauty did not come back in a week, the beast would die, because he cannot live without her.  She spent her week and an extra day at home with her family.  They had sent letters to Robbie to tell him where they were and hope that he would return with the person who they sent the letters with.  The night at she stayed extra she had a dream that Beast was dead.  She woke up and saw the rose he gave her before she left and saw that it was wilted and brown and the pettles were fallen.   She raced to him, she could not find the castle.  Her and Greatheart had no energy.  They found the catsle after such a long time with such little rest, and she ran to him , still having trouble in the castle finding her way.  Then she found him, just like in her dream, he was there sitting still, unresponsive.  She called his name she was crying, "My love wake up."  He did awake, and he thought she had broken her promise.  She was there, and was never going to leave again, Beauty loved Beast and wanted to marry him.  Something happened, and when she opened her eyes Beast was no longer there and it was a man, the man from the painting she had seen in one of the rooms in the castle.  After a having to have the conversation of what just happened because Beauty started worring were her Beast was and that she could not marry this guy, he was her Beast, and they did marry.

I would recomend this book to anyone.  It was a little slow at the start but I really got into it and I think that it was a really good book.  I already told all my roommates that they should read it.  I think I kinda liked it better then the disney movie.

It was a little slow at the start, but it was so beautifuly writen, it kind of makes up for that.

I loved this book.  I want to read the other book for it.  I felt like I could be Beauty.  People calling her Beauty when she thought she was nothing of the sort.  She thought so lowly of herself.  Now all I need is to meet my Beast Prince, who thinks that I am beautful.  That is why I love that qoute so much, because when you ar ein love or someone loves you, what does it matter what you look like, because they love you, and they see you for you and to them you are the most beautiful person in the world. 
"And since i am the only one who sees you, why are you not then beautiful"

Children Just Like Me

Children Just Like Me
By: Barnabas & Anabel Kindersley
Copyright 1995
DK Publishing, Inc.
Age:?
Non Fiction (Informational)
79 Pages

Children all around the world are not that different, yes they may look different but inside they are all the same.  In the book there were lots of kids introdcued from all over the world, who you would think would be so different but really ended up having a lot in common.  They all have hopes and dreams.  It is really intersting to read about them. What each child does during the day and what their families are like kind of makes you take a look at you life and relate and feel and wonder about so many different things. 

I would recomend a teacher to have this in their class and to read it when studing about differnt cultures or things like that.  It would be a great reminder that though different on the outside, on the inside children all over the world are just like eachother

I did not find anything wrong in this book.

I loved this book.  I really did.  It really got me thinking.

Carnivores

"The jaws of many carnivores move up and down.  This helps them tear and bite meat."

Carnivores
By: Heather C. Hudak
Copyright 2005
Weigl Publishing Inc.
Non Fiction (Informational)
Older Elementary School Age
24 Pages

Carnivores are those animals that eat meat.  Most of them hunt and kill their own pray.  Each is built in a way that makes it easy and helpful for hunting.  They have jaws for killing and chewing and the digestive system to help them digest meat.  They have very keen senese that help them locate their pray and to hunt.  Every animal is different, some have hightented hearing, smell, or sight.  All help them hunt their pray.  They can be found anywhere, land or water, there are carnivores all over the world.  A few exsamples of them are: Cheetah, swift fox, blue whale, least weasel, and the peregrine falcon.  Even just looking at those you can tell that they are all of different shapes and sizes and build differently.  There are many carnivors that are hunted and are endangered and close to extintion.  The biggest issue with this is humans, hunting and/or destroying habitats of animals.  The food chain cannot keep going if these animals are dying, it effects all the animals.

I would recomend this book to students who are interested in different kind of animals.  Also to a teacher to teach about different kind of carnivors and teach students that they are all different. 

I did not find anything wrong with this book.

I enjoyed learning about this books.  Most of the time you forget that there are some animals that are carnivores that you probly wouldn't think are.  So it was a good reminder to me.

Giant Pandas

"Giant pandas are flexible.  They can touch their heads with their hind feet."

Giant Pandas
By: Don Cruickshank
Copyright 2007
Weigl Publishers Inc.
Non Fiction (Informational)
Elementary School Age
24 Pages

Giant panda live in the mountains and forests in China, and are rarely seen because they are shy animals.  They spend most their time looking for bamboo, that is what they eat for food.  They have opposable thumb and razor-shrap teeth that help them eat the bamboo, if they did not have these then eating it would not be that easy for them.  The panda is back and white which helps keep them warm when it is cold and cool when it is hot.  The giant panda lives alone and rarely comes in contact with others.  They mark their territory with their sent so other giant pandas know that another panda lives there.  Durring the day the pandas chill out and eat and are most active durring the night and also durrning mating season.  The giant panda's diet is 99% bamboo, they will eat about 25 and 30 punds of bamboo a day!  Their days goes for just about 8 hours of eatting 4 hours of sleep and wake up to eat more.  The pandas are hunted by humans and have put a major decline in the population of  the giant panda.  There are only about 1,000 of them left in the world, more then 160 of them are in zoos and breeding centers. 

I would recomend this book to anyone interested in pandas.  In the back of the book there are myths and legonds that are pretty intersting about the panda. 

I did not find anything wrong with this book.

I enjoyed the book, I learned something new and was really interested.

How do Bats Fly in the Dark?

"Both bats and birds have wings.  That is where their similarities end."

How do Bats Fly in the Dark?
By: Melissa Stewart
Copyright 2009
Marshall Cavendish Benchmark
Non Fiction (Informational)
Older Elementary School Age
31 Pages

Bats are often mistaken for birds when people look up to the night sky and think they see a bird, most likely they see a bat.  Bats sleep durring the day and play at night.  There are two types of bats: Megabats and Microbats.  Megabats live in the warm and tropical and eat mostly fruit. Microbats live all over the world and they mostly hunt insects.  Microbats also have the better eyesight out of the two groups of bats.  Bats make noises by making clicking noises with their tonuge, there are also many bats who use their noses.  Bats use sounds to find out where they are in relation to other things.  They will make a sound and listion for its echo, since really bats are mostly blind they have amazing hearing and that is how they know where they are and also do their hunting.  Bats wings are lightweight and flexible.  They have their hand and finger bones fused with their wings for extra strength.  So the big question is how do the bats fly in the dark?  They use their body and their wings to fly and all the other things, using sound to know where they are.  Bats were built for their conditions.

I would recomend this book for a teacher to use for her class when teaching about bats.  There is even an activity in the end of the book.  Also if a child wants to learn about bats they should read this.

I did not find anything wrong with this book.

I enjoyed this book.  Though I thought it would be written differently, but it was interesting.

The Senses

*The picture for this book is not a picture of the book, they are two different books, but I was unable to find a picture of the book so I am using this one.  Again, this picture is not a picture of the book that I am writing about.*
"Your senses of taste and smell work together."

The Senses
By: Veronica Ross
Copyright 2002
Thameside Press
Non Fiction (Informational)
School Age
32 Pages

What are your senses? What are they good for? Well you have five of them: touch, taste, sight, hear, and smell.  With these you can tell things about things.  Your brain takes in messages about these things and sorts through all the infromation to tell you what is going on around you.  When you look at something, you see it because light sent massages to your brain.  Sound travels though the air and into your ear and to your brain and it tells you what sound it is.  You need to take care of your eyes and ears so you dont lose the wonderful gift you have to see things and hear them.  Your tongue has many taste buds and different parts of the tongue taste different things.  That message is sent to your brain and you then know what you are tasting:  Bitter, soure, salt, or sweet.  When you smell things the air moves around  in your nose.  The message is sent to your brain to tell you what you are smelling.  Touching works the same as the others, you touch something and the skin sends a mesage to the brain.  With the senses not everything is good, they help you also feel pain.  If something it sharp or hot, your senses will tell you.  Keep your body healthy and also find out the other things that your body can do, and how they help you like your senses do, like your reflexes, balence and also learning new skills. 

I would recomend this book to any child.  It is intersting to learn about how things work. 

I did not find anything wrong with this book.

I enjoyed this book.

What's for lunch? Corn

"Eating corn will give you energy."

What's for lunch? Corn
By: Pam Robson
Copyright 1997
Children's Press
Non Fiction (Informational)
Younger School Age
31 Pages

Corn is a very yummy vegie (ok that is my thought .. I love corn).  Eatting corn can give you energy, and energy is good to be able to get though the day.  Corn comes from a plant called maize that can be very colorful and is used to make many other things other then just grow corn, like popcorn, cornflakes and animal food.  Maize grows best in the hot contries, but does grow all over the world.  Maize needs water and sunshine, just like all plants, to grow.  They are planted in the spring in time for the rainny season, so they have lots of water to grow.  There are female and male flowers on maize.  the wind blows the pollen from the male to fetilize the female.  The female collects the pollen.  The female has the seeds inside of it called kernels and they grow on a cob that is protected by the husks on the female.  When the kernels are yellow, this is the stage we eat it, corn on the cob.  When the kernels are taken off the cob, we call it corn.  Sometimes we take everything and send it thought mills where machines clean, dry, and grind it into animal food, glue, cornstarch, cornmeal, and even corn flakes. Many different products come from corn like: corn oil for cooking, dried up kenels make popcorn, cornchips, toco shells, and cornbread.  Maize is a wonderful plant and super yummy!

This book should be in a school so any kid who is intersted should read it.  I would recomend it to someone who wants to be a farmer or absolutly loves corn.

There was nothing that I could find that was wrong with this book.

I should of learned, I just read the strawberry book, and I am even more hungry now, BUT I did enjoy this book! I do love corn, and sadly that is something else we are out of in my apt.

Strawberry

"How do you like to eat strawberries?"

Strawberry
By: Jennifer Coldrey and George Bernard
Copyright 1988
A & C Black (Publishers) Limited
Non Fiction (Informational)
Mid Elemetary School Age
25 Pages

How are strawberries grown?  They grow in the summer time, and those that were planted before that "rested" durring the winter, their roots that are still there start to take in water from the soil.  Soon the plant starts to grow and flower buds grow on the plant.  The sun feeds the plant as well as water does.  insects visit the flowers, and when the pollen from the flowers are transfered by them, strawberries might start to grow.  Strawberries start to grow and they start off green.  As they grow the get bigger and bigger and start to turn red.  This means that the strawberry is ready to eat!  When they are not eaten, they are left to rot, but, when this happen the seeds from the strawberry can fall into the soil for another strawberry plant to start to grow.  Strawberry plants and even start the growth of another strawberry plant off of them.  The older plant fcollects food for this new plant.  Durrning autumn the plant starts growing and getting stronger and now it can grow on its own if it needed too.  Winter comes and the cycle repeats.

I would recomend this book to those student intersted in gardening.

There was nothing wrong with this book.

I have mixed feelings on this book.  It was really intersting, but I am really hungry and it probly was not the best book to read because I REALLY want some strawberries now, and sadly they are not in season.

Caring for Your DOG

"Dogs need care and companionship"

Caring for Your DOG
By: Jill Foran
Copyright
Weigl Pubishers Inc.
Non Fiction (Informational)
Upper Elementary School
32 Pages

A book full of fun and intersting informations about dogs.  Dogs have been loyal companions to humans for a long time.  People all over the world own dogs.  There are many different kind of breeds of dogs.  Each breed of dog is the way they are for different reasons, and also part of different groups.  Not all dogs are house dogs though, there are wind dogs.  Sometimes people ever train those dogs for certine jobs.  The average life span for a dog is 10 to 15 years and they can have three to six puppies a litter.  By the age of one year the dog will most likely be as big as it will get.  There are a few things you need to look into when choosing your pet.  Ask yourself these questions:  What do I have time for?  How big will the dog become?  How much will the dog cost?  Those are importent questions to know the answers to before you choose your dog, so that you will be able to take care ofit properly and give it lots of love.  Knowing how much your dog eats is importent.  Growing dongs need more then adult dogs and also making sure that you dont over feed your dog, because that can be bad for them.  The dog is built the way they are so they can do certiane things, from their nose to their toes everything is the way it is for a reason.  Do lots of things with your dog and take them in to the vet for checku ups when they need to so that your dog can stay happy and healthy and have a long happy life. 

I would recomend this book to have in a school classroom or libary so that a student who is intersted can read it.  Any child who wants to own a dog should read this book.

There is nothing wrong with this book.

I enjoyed this book and learned a lot.  It also made me kind of sad though, started missing my dog that we had for a long time that we put to sleep my Sr. year of highschool (while I was on band trip, AND my parents didn't tell me, I never got to say good bye to her.)

Taking Care of Your Body

"Don't put anything inside your ears, not even cotton swabs."

Taking Care of Your Body
By: Sylvia Goulding
Copyright 2005
Rourke Publishing LLC
Non-fiction (informational)
Older Elementary aged kids
32 Pages

There are a lot of intersting and helpful facts on how to take care of your body in this book.  It tells you about the topic and then other really cool facts.  Did you know that your hair grows faster in the summer?!  Helpful things to try to keep that part of your body healthy on each page.  There are helpful hints about taking care of you toe nails and finger nails, yea, if you dont take care of them they can get infected and you can get sick.  Make sure to always dry between your toes.  Taking care of your skin is very importent, watch out for that sun, it can really hurt you, and it is different for kids of all different skin colors and types.  If you don't take care of your eyes you can end up with eye problems.  You an also damage your hearing if you don't take care of your ears.  How loud do you play your music?  How often and, when you do, how do you clean your ears?  Take care of you teeth, make sure to go to teh dentist for cleaning and also when you have a toothach, if you don't the pain can get worse and what to do to fix the probelm will be more then what it would of been.  You also need to take care of not only the outside of your body but the inside too, make sure you know what you are putting in your body, watch what you eat.  Stay active and have fun playing outside, exsersise CAN be fun!  Be careful though, avoid hurting yourself, and when you do make sure to take care of it.   Staying away for harmful things is importent, putting things like drugs and alcohol into your body is bad.  Staying healthy is a good way to avoid feeling stressed, but when you do start feeling that way there are many ways that you can turn that frown upside down.  When you do get sick and hurt, there are lots of people out there who can take care of you and help you get better.  When you do these things it will help you to live a long, happy, healthy life.

I would recomend this book to be in a classroom, even to be used as a lesson on taking care of yourself.  You could turn this book into a lesson and depending on what grade you are teaching you can even have students in groups and have each group a topic and they can teach the class.

I did not find anything wrong with this book.

I found this book really intersting.  Taking care of your body is something importent.  I even relized somethings that maybe I should be doing that I am not doing.

Wolves

*I could not find a picture of the book so I just used a picture of a wolf*
"Again and again, a raven  dives at a poair of wolves.  it teases the wolves..."

Wolves
By: Victor Gentle and Janet Perry
Copyright 2002
First published in 2002 by Gareth Stevens Publishing
Non Fiction (Informational)
Elementary level students
24 Pages

In this book you will learn about wolves, they are pretty intersting.  Did you know that wolves and raven are in a way playmates?  Wolves love playing but there is a time and place for that.  They live in packs and all have rules and jobs that they are supposed to do.  Each pack has a leader, the alpha male and alpha female.  Only the alphas have pups.  Living in a pack is not always easy for pups and sometimes one will leave its pack, but that doesnt often happen, it is much safer to live in a pack.  Wolves live in places that are far away from people, in places that they can hunt and have enough food.  There is no record of wolves killing people in North America, and yet people still kill wolves for that reason.  The number of wolves are going down since the 1950's.  It is sad because there are things that people don't relize the wolves do. 

I would recomend this book to anyone interested in learning about wolves or writing a paper on them.  It would be a good book to have in the classroom or school to infor children who want to learn or who are interested.

I did not find anything wrong with this book.

I enjoyed this book.  I learned a lot and it was interesting.

The Great Gilly Hopkins

'Gilly was Crying now.  She couldn't help herself.  "Trotter, it's all wrong.  Nothing turned out the way it's supposed to." '

The Great Gilly Hopkins
By: Katherine Paterson
Copyright 1978
HarperCollins Children's Books
Fiction
5th grade to Middle School
178 Pages

Gilly is an 11 year old girl who refers to herslef and "The Great Gilly".  She is a foster child who has been passed around a lot, three times in the last year as the book starts taking place.  She likes to make trouble everywhere she goes.  This new house that she is going into, she didn't know, but would change her.  The book never comes out and says it but Gilly is pretty predjudus and this makes for trouble when Mrs. Trotter (who foster mother) is black, Mr. Randolph (the blind next door neighbor who is over at Trotter's house for dinner all the time) is black, and her teacher at her new school is also black.  Gilly wants more then anything for Courtney (her birth mother) to come and get her.  Gilly has made trouble everywhere she has been.  She would do amazing in school, borderline genious and then just stop all together and do nothing.  She can beat up six boys all by herself (and she knows it!), she could be called and evil genious.  Gilly used to be loved, even had someone she could call mama, but when they moved to FL, they left Gilly behind.  So Gilly doesnt trust or love or anything, she is The Great Gilly Hopkins and nobody gets the better or her.
So in this new foster house Gilly treated everyone badly, even her teacher at school, and even stole from Trotter and Mr. Randolph to set out her plan for running away to CA after getting a letter from her mother, she knew where she was.  Gilly wrote her mother a letter telling her about such a horrible place she was living in and she was gunna run away to CA.   Well when Gilly's plan fails, she got busted at the bus station and the cops were called, things changed for Gilly.  She started doing work for pay (to pay back for the money she stole and gave some to a partner in crime as payment for help)  and was to clean things and also help William Ernest with his reading.  W.E. is another one of Trotters foster kids that is slow.  Gilly helped him and they started to grow closer, no longer was W.E. afraid of Gilly, but you could tell that he loved her.  She also started teaching him how to fight and stand up for himself.  There was a time that Gilly was the only healthy person out of the four of them and she had to take care of everyone.  She was never told she had to do all she did, but she did it, this is where you see the change in Gilly.  It is at this time that Gilly's grandmother shows up.  Cortney had called her, after 13 years of not talking, and told her about the letter.  After seeing the place Gilly was living in she decied that she was going to take claim of Gilly.  Well the office let her grandmother take Gilly.  Gilly did not want to go.  After everything she was gunna fight to stay after fighting to leave.  Gilly wrote that letter, it is Gillys own fault.  So Gilly went to live with her grandma, and wrote to W.E. and lied so everyone would think she was happy.  For Christmas Courtney was coming to visit.  Gilly was excited, she would come and take her home with her.  Courtney was paid to come, she didn't want to be there and she didn't love Gilly like her post card had said.  Gilly was gunna run away and she called Trotter to tell her.  Trotter told her she couldn't.  They had a converstaion that kind of raps up the book, and you can see the change in Gilly more then ever there.  "I love you" Gilly told Trotter before she hung up the phone.  She went back to Courtney and her grandma and they left.  It wasnt anything that Gilly had thought or dreamed it would like but, Trotter would be proud.

I would NOT recomend this book to kids who aren't ready for this kind of book, with the language and the predjudus it just not be right for some students.  I think middle school age kids would be right for this book.

There really wasn't anything WRONG with this book, but in some peoples eyes there could of be.  So who ever reads this will just have to be careful and read with an open mind till they get to the end and see how much Gilly comes to love those that she hated at the start.

I had mixed feelings while reading this book, but it got to the point where I could not set the book down.  I really do like this book and hope that everyone else who reads it will grow along with Gilly as I did.  You really have to get into her head, and start to feel with her.  I cried at the end of the book.  Not only is Trotter proud of her, but I am too.