Stargirl

"It was a rebellion she led, a rebellion for rather than against.   For ourselves."

Stargirl
By:Jerry Spinelli
Copyright 2000
Published by Dell Laurel-Leaf
Realistic Fiction
12-14 (Middle School Age)
183 Pages

Your typical stoy of boy meets girl, girl is a little crazy, boy still likes girl, girl likes boy, then ... well I guess it is not the typical story, but it is more real then those others. 
It is a school like all the other ones, everyone knows everyone, and everyone is excepted.  They were happy and fine in their conformity to eachother.  Then Stargirl starts school.  She is different, she is her own person, doesn't care what anyone thinks about her.  At first people think this is werid, but then, everyone starts being THEM and not hiding themselfs to fit in.  Well Stargirl took herself too far when she started cheering for all the teams and not just her team.  The shunning was back on.  Leo, our boy in this story, finally relized after getting over his confused feelings that he was in love with Stargirl and the whole school knew, she loved him and he loved her.  The shunning moved to Leo as well.  He told her she should change.  She then became like everyone else, but that didnt stop the shunning.  Leo started shunning Stargirl. 
No one seemed to get the message that Stargirl was teaching them.  She was her own person, did her own thing, wore her own clothes, and loved everyone.  Even the last time anyone saw her, she had been accepted again by all, (except Leo who didn't go to the dance) and Hillari Slaped her and said "Your ruin everything"  Stargirl kissed her on the cheek and left.  Leo, even after many years, still did not get the whole picture.  Why out of everyone did she love him?  What was it about her?  What made her so different?  But he never forgot her, never.

I would recomend this book to anyone!! I have already told my roommates they have to read this book.  I might (depending on what grade I teach) will read it to my class.  It is such a great book!

There is nothing wrong with this book, well except in my opinion the ending.  I wanted her to come back and for everyone to be themselfs and her and Leo to be happy, and him FINALLY excepting her for her and not being ashamed of her.  Other then that, it is a great book and should be read by EVERYONE!!

Well if you can't tell yet, I LOVED THIS BOOK!!  It made me think of me back in the day, like yesterday.  There are so many times I have changed me to fit in.  Anyone can relate to this book.  Just like Stargirl, even right now  in my life, I am not happy not being me.  Changing for friends, for  church leaders, for boys, to be the person I want that person to see.  I just want to be me, like Stargirl.

Plantzilla

"When you give a living thing love, you never know where wit will lead."

Plantzilla
By: Jerdine Nolen
Copyright 2002
Harcourt Books
Picture Books
Older School Aged Kids
29 Pages

Mortimer Henryson wants to bring home a plant over summer vactaion and gets the permission to.  The name of this plant is Plantzilla, he wanted more then anything to take this plant home.  Thoughout the story Mortimer writes his teacher along with his parents everyonce in a while and the teach a few times.  The plant grows and starts to eat REAL food, loves meat.  Plantzilla starts to act alive and is getting bigger and bigger.  The parents start to think Plaztzilla is not the best thing for their son, that he should be playing but Mortimer wants to spend all his time with Plantzilla.  Plantzilla starts taking over the house and even ate the dog! The parents do not like the plantand Mortimer pleas with his teacher to write them and explaine what is going on to his parents.  The plant has gained human charictoristics, and even shows caring for the family, withthis the mother starts changing her mind about things. The teacher returns home from his vaction and finds out that they have been writing letters, he is more then willing to pick up Plantzilla from them.  The mother invites the garden club to see Plantzilla and it also starts blooming.  Mortimer wants to adopt the plant and the teacher and parents allow it.

I would recomend this book to students who love plants.

There was not anything wrong with this book.

I did not like this book.  I do not know what I would do to change it or anything, I just simply did not enjoy this book at all. 

Shelly

"He's fine..wait and see."

Shelly
By: Margie Palatini
Copyright 2006
Dutton Children's Books
School Aged Kids
Picture Book
39 Pages

3 out of the 4 eggs hatched, but Shelly was not ready too.  His three sisters were ready but he was not. His sisters wanted him to be ready, but it did not matter to him.  Their parents told them it was fine, he was just taking his time, they just had to wait.  The girls; however, were impatent.  They went to the park and had fun, but Shelly didn't have an easy time doing those things, one sister finally decied that he wasn't ready, not ready like her at all. Back at home they did some painting.  Shelly again had a hard time, another sister decied that he wasn't ready, not ready like her.  The last sister wanted to dance with Shelly but it wasn't easy for him, she also decied that he wasnt ready.  All of the girls left and it was quiet, Shelly knew it was his time.  He buolt a fort, he palyed cards with his bunny, he did a puzzle, and so many things including a sign for his door that said NO SISTER ALLOWED.  He had a busy day and when the girls came home he put the top of his shell back on and the girls saw him and agreed that he was still not ready.  They wanted him to be ready, so he told the Wednesday and the girls were so excited!  The girls however, didn't ask which wednesday. 

I would recomend this book to any child.  It is a cute little book.

I do not think anything is wrong with this book.

I loved this book.  It was a cute little story.

Cinderlily

"The faded, unforgettable charm of a once familiar bloom."

Cinderlily
By: David Ellwand AND Christine Tagg
Copyright 2003
Candlewick Press
School Age Kids
Fairy Tale
23 Pages

Cinderlily wants to go to the Royal Autum Ball.  She is a beautiful lily but she is shy.  She is forced to help her sisters get ready for the Sultan's Ball and help the stand out.  Her sisters told her she was not allowed to go to the ball, she had to stay home while they got to go out and have fun.  As Cinderlily cleans she dreams nad strats dancing around with her broom.  Soon a fairy is hovering over her.  Cinderlily is told that she can be transformed adn go to the ball but at midnight the magic will be over.  Cinderlily's pettles were no longer wilted but beautiful and white.  and golden carrige comes up being pulled by six butterflies.  At the ball all the flowers are trying to impress the Sultan.  The fairy watching closly casts a spell so that he will meet Cinderlily.  They dance and have fun until the clock strikes midnight and she must run off.  He pettles wilting again as she runs off, one of her pettles falls off.  The Sultan searchs all the gardens far and wide looking for the beautiful flower.  He takes the pettle to see if it fits anyone, but the pettle fits none.  THen he sees her and he trys the pettle with her and it fits and she blooms again. And they get married.

The Kangaroo

The Kangaroo
By: Diana Noonan
Copyright
Chelsea Clubhouse
Older School Age Kids
Non Fiction
32 Pages

The kangaroo has it's own special life cycle.  They are mamals, but it is an unusal one becuase it is also a memeber of the marsupial family.  The kangroo keeps their young in a puch until it is ready to be out on its own.  They live in mobs and are noctural feeders, so they eat at night or in the early morning when the weather is cool.  Durring those hot sunny days they take their naps in the shade or dig holes to stay cool.  Male kangaroo will fight to see who can court the famale.  When a newborn is born it staying in the pouch, this tiny thing has to crawl into its mothers pouch with no help.  There it will feed and grow.  The mother can seal her pouch to protect the baby.  After 4 months the newborn is now called a joey and at 5 months it can leave the mothers pouch, and at 20 months it is free to be on its own.  There is so much more information on Kangaroos too.

This book is good to have in a classroom, but it is more for the older school kids because it has a lot of information on breeding and things that younger kids might not understand.

I don't think there is anything wrong with this book.

I learned a lot from this book.  I enojyed it.

Ladybugs

"Red, fiery, and bright"

Ladybugs
By Mia Posada
Copyright 2002
Carolrhoda Books, Inc
School Aged Kids
Non Fiction
28 Pages

Lady bugs are littel round beetles with read coats and black spots, the like to crawls through graden, trees and flowers.  Lady bugs are harmless, they just crawls around looking for tiny green insects call aphids- that is what they eat.  Lady bugs lay their eggs on a leaf in the shade, the start off yellow and turn white after five days.  The things that hatch out of the eggs are not lady bug look alikes, but larva and they spend their days searching for food.  The larva that to shead their skin so they can keep growing.  When the larva is almost grown it attaches itself to something and molts one last tme and has bevome a pupa (kinda like a caterpillars cacoon. it starts rounding out and after five days it comes out of its shell and looks like a lady but, just discolored.  Soon the red starts coming in and the spots start to aper.  Soon the lady bug learns to fly, and it is free.  There is also so much more information on ladybugs.

This book is a good book to have in a classroom or also at home.  It is more in story form for kids to enjoy as a story and not just a lot of information. 

I dont think there is anything wrong with this books

I enjoyed this book, I learned so much about lady bugs, I liked it better then the two books before this because it was more in story for with an information thing at the end so I was able to read and learn rather then have a lot of information thrown at me, so this would even be better for younger kids then the other books.

The Beautiful Butterfly Book

"Many butterflies make extaordinary voyages, travelling in huge clouds of fluttering wings."

The Beautiful Butterfly Book
By Sue Unstead
Copyright 2005
An imprint of Pinwheel Ltd. Winchester House
School aged kids
Non Fiction
18 Pages

This book teaches about butterflys.  What are the differences between butterflies and moths?  Most people confuse butterflies and moths, but really they are very different. What is the process from caterpillar to butterfly?  From egg to caterpillar to cucoon to butterfly they go through an amazing metamorphosis. There are many different butterflies so there must also be many different caterpillars too.  butterflies have such beautifuly colored winds and that is one way you can tell the difference between all the butterflies.  What are some of the butterflies?  Where did they orginanate from?  You can attract butterflies to your guarden, some butterflies like certin types of flowers. 

This would be a wonderful book to have in the classroom, or even at home for kids to learn more about butterflies. 

I did not find anything wrong with this book.

I enjoyed this book, I didnt know that there was so much that I didnt know about butterflies and there was some really cool information in it.  I even kind of came up with some fun ideas for learning about butterflies and activities a class could do.