Book Review: Dead End in Norvelt

Dead end in Norvelt

By: Jack Gantos

Book review by Anette

Meet Jack Gantos, a kid with a nose problem. Whenever he lies or gets scared or over excited, his nose starts bleeding like crazy. But let's get past that. One day he accidentally fired his dad's japanese rifle and lo and behold, the longest grounding has begun. Jack is now grounded for THE WHOLE SUMMER. Until Miss Volker asks him for help with writing obituaries. Old ladies start dropping like flies except for one singular person..............

I really liked this book. It has some very, let's say,  descriptive, words, especially when someone dies. My favorite character is Jack, because he cares about things that other people don't care about. I like his friend Bunny, because she is so short, and can run under her dining room table full speed. And not get hurt.  But I find it scary when Jacks nose starts to bleed, its just weird. I would give this book 4 1/2 stars.

Book Review: The Fourth Stall

Book Review: The 4th Stall By Chris Rylander

              Book Review by Tom

    When there is a problem somebody has, Everyone knows where to go and that is to Mac. But one day when a 3rd grader walks into his office he gets involved in a gambling ring and the toughest bully of them all.

    I would give this 2 ½ stars out of 5 stars. I mine they don’t really expand on aspects that I would liked(I can’t tell you them because it is a spoiler).  The ending isn’t very good.

Have you read this book?

Miguel's Trip to DC

My trip to D. C.

By Miguel

Hello!  I’m back!  I got here on Saturday.  Some of you may be wondering, Where is Miguel?  Well, I’ll just tell you I was in D. C.- LEARNING STUFF.  History.  Anyways, a full list of the places I went to are: Dulles airport, Hyatt Dulles (the Hotel I stayed in), Arlington, the Capitol; Lincoln, Vietnam, Korea, and Jefferson Memorials; Saudi Arabian embassy (practically in Saudi Arabia), Lib.  of Congress, Washington Monument, Smithsonian History museum, the Smithsonian Nature museum, the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, the Spy museum, Gettysburg, Little round top, the FDR memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Eternal Flame (inside Arlington), and on a cruiser on the Potomac river.  

Well, conclusion, it was awesome!  If you had to pick one place to go out of these, which one would it be? 

Book Review: Bad Magic

Bad Magic By: pseudonymous Bosch

Written By: Ariana

OK. You need a book. And yes, you are like super picky with books. They have to be perfect and well balanced. They have to be like Goldilocks likes it; “Just right”. I totally understand. Why? ‘Cause we have something in common. We need amazing books. so that's why I am writing this-er typing this. I wish to tell you about the amazing book Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch. F.Y.I his name is spelled with no caps whatsoever, even though it is a proper noun (If you refer to earlier posts I have posted about another book by him) Yes, this is my fourth favorite author. In my opinion the prizes are Diamond, Gold, White Gold, Red Gold, ruby, Silver, Bronze, Copper, Iron, Aluminum, steel and tin foil. (I know super creative) That's a big prize. (The book has big competition; Harry Potter, Spy Camp, and Mr. Lemoncellos Library) This book is so exciting it just never gets old.

    This book is about a 12 year old who doesn't like magic. In fact he hates it. He doesn't believe in it. He thinks it’s stupid. But, when he writes in a journal “Magic Sucks” the writing mysteriously appear on the walls at school. He is accused of…. (Drum roll please) Graffiti. He gets sent to a camp for ‘struggling youth’. He meets a Spanish talking llama, a psycho maybe-magician, talking bees, a ‘ghost’, and struggles upon a creepy mystery. Not to mention, a deserted island and an erupting volcano. Would you read a book like this one?? If not, give it a try.

100 Word Challenge: Jean

My Adventure

                     By: Jean

    One day I went on an adventure.  It was more like a trip.  It would be the awesomest trip ever!  The place I went to was a water park.  It had water slides and some big rafts so you can go with your friends and there was a hot tub and a pool.  It was so fun and there was not high limit or age limit to go in the hot tub.  There was also balance beam and if you fall you fall in the water and there were things to balance on, it was awesome!

100 Word Challenge: Emma

My Ultimate Adventure

I was sitting on my bed. I was hungry, so I went to get a Jack in the box burger out of the fridge. I went down the stairs and into the kitchen and to the fridge. I opened the box with the burger and raised it to take a big bite. But then it turned into the Jack in the box mascot! And it was very mad!! I started after me yelling crazy things, I  had a feeling it wanted to terminate my existence. I ran out of the house as quickly as I could, And then I blacked out.

100 Word Challenge: Tommy

My Ultimate Adventure starts with 2 things. A Greek god and a passion. The Greek god was Daedalus the creator of the Labyrinth and the passion was to fly. I thought if I could fly in a plane and see Zeus, maybe I could see Daedalus. But where would he be on a Saturday? The first place I looked was at the library where he could see if the library had true information about him, but he wasn't there. I went to the Empire state building and asked for the 600th floor which is where Olympus is.To be continued

100 Word Challenge: Anette

I am trapped. I don’t know why. All I remember is the glass in the car shattering and the scream of my parents. Suddenly I realize I am under water, and a hand  is grabbing for me. The big warm hand grabs on to my hair and yanks. Hard. I wince because if I scream I will surely get a mouthful of water. My dad pulls me out of the water, and I see we are on a ledge. Mom starts screaming because then I realize we are stuck. I scream too. louder and louder. As loud as I can.

100 Word Challenge: Tom

100 Word Challenge

        By Tom

    My story starts in my room where I was suddenly thirsty! This is when my ultimate adventure begins. I opened and got hit by a cold gust of wind coming from my sisters room I closed my door quickly and went in to my pile of clothes and found a sweatshirt I put it on and ran out the door. After I want down the stairs I found a new mattress blocking my path to the kitchen so I ran back and charged towards the mattress and as I hit it and the mattress fell I ran for the fridge. 

100 Word Challenge: Izzy

I went to  bed and when I fell asleep a dream popped in my head and it was an adventure, no it was the best adventure ever.... there was a grand rollercoaster 50 feet high and an exciting loopty loop. The ride had a tiny line then I ran up, sat in the back row and I was off. I was flying and have the time of my life. Then when I came back to the station where I started  no one else was there then I came back another time no one was there again but I was glad.

100 Word Challenge: TO

I woke up to the sound of my friend saying we are nearing the drop zone we were doing a H.A.L.O. jump that stands for high altitude low opening suddenly the pilot said get ready to jump I checked my parachute and my breathing mask then we opened the plane door then I felt a cold rush of air pass me I wasn't too scared because the H.A.L.O. jumpsuits came with backup parachutes and a watch that beeps when you pull the shoot then the pilot said jump so I set the watch and jumped my friend didn't jump.

100 Word Challenge: Jonah

Hi.  I am a spy.  I’m only 11 years old, but I am a spy.  And I am about to go on the greatest adventure of my life.  My mission was to go to the land of nowhere to go kill an army of trolls.  I was on a plane to the land of nowhere.  When we got there and got out of the plane I saw tons of trolls.  Oh no, I thought.  The troll army was already taking over the land of nowhere.  I pulled out my killer taser, aimed at all the trolls and they all died.

100 Word Challenge: Sofi

“Wow! You could pick anyone in the world, and you choose me to be a spy?!!! EEEEEEEEEE!!! That's incredible! I can learn to fight off 18 enemies at once, or learn how to shoot someone from a mile away and hit them dead between the eyes! I could maybe even learn how to go undercover and learn how to pretend to work for the enemy and really work for the good guys!!! When do I start my ultimate training?!

    “Now.” The woman named Alexandra said. She was so calm.

    “I am ready to train.” I said defiantly.

    “We leave now.”

100 word Challenge: Aaron

100 Word Challenge By: Aaron

And then I found out what I had to do.I had to go through the lava mounds to get to freedom.It was the only way to get to be a free black.So I stole my master's shoes and headed off, even though it would be a long hard journey I was willing to take to be a free man. I headed off not scared after what had happened to me in the cotton field. I thought about how great life would be. Already 3 days of walking, and then I realized... I'm actually going the wrong way!

100 Word Challenge: Soren

100 word challenge: Soren

I wanted to go on an adventure. Not just any adventure but an awesome one, maybe Nike town in New York, meet someone famous besides myself. Then I decided what I wanted to do for my ultimate adventure. Go skydiving. Skydiving seems awesome and really fun. I found a place and an instructor. First he gave me the skydiving suit and said "suit up, we get on the plane in 5". I finished suiting up and then he

said never mind the plane has a leak. Sadly that was my ultimate adventure and got a full refund. 

100 Word Challenge: Kate

My Ultimate Adventure

    Slowly, I drift under the cold and salty water trying to push myself up to the surface, but failing, continuously. Suddenly, I see a faint glow far in the distance getting closer and closer to me. Before I know it, it is a few inches away from me, but I am still sinking. It looks like a dolphin. No, a unicorn.

    Suddenly, a voice says, "I am a dolphicorn. A dolphin mixed with a unicorn." Before I can say or do anything, the dolphicorn lifts me up and fly out of the water, up into the cold, dark night sky. 

100 Word Challenge: Chanel

Today I'm going to have the best day ever. I'm going to call it my ultimate adventure.  Today I'm going to buy a pet unicorn. That's right, a unicorn and it's going to be a girl.

    "Mom I leaving, going to buy a unicorn."

        "OKAY".... She said with a confused voice.

    As I walked down the street, I  saw Jean washing her grandma's car.  I had shorts and a water shirt on. I don't know why/ but I did.

        "Hey Jean", 

"Hey Chanel" she said.

"I heard you're getting a unicorn."

    "Why, Yes I am! I'm on an adventure."

100 Word Challenge: Taayan

This would be my ultimate adventure. I would have $999,999,999,999,991 and I would sue every McDonald's of making fake food and turning people obese. Then I would buy all the baseball parks in the world and I would by the Cardinals, the baseball team. I would then swim down to the bottom of the pacific ocean and I would try to come back up with no oxygen mask. After that,I would go home and try drink 6 bottles Gatorade of in less 15 seconds. After that,I would lay down and take a nap for 6 straight hours. 

100 Word Challenge: Asher

My ultimate adventure would be to shut down any food that would make people become more fat instead of becoming more healthier. Another ultimate adventure I would want to have is to get rid of any type of soda because one it unhealthy for you.  Second of all, it has a lot of calories inside of it and it has lots of sugar in it.  And three it has lots of sodium in it. Another thing that would be my adventure is to make baseball the most popular sport in the world and I would make golf the worst sport.

Book Review: Chasing Vermeer

Chasing Vermeer

By : Blue Ballet

Book review by: Anette

I really like this book. I would give it about 3 and a half stars, and I would say it is for those observant people who notice things. Chasing Vermeer is about two kids, Petra and Calder. They become friends, and soon they find out the "A lady writing", a famous painting, has been stolen. The thief sends out letters to the media, and soon everyone is trying to recover the painting. Will Petra and Calder find the missing piece, or will it be lost forever?

My favorite part about this book is when they say that they will eat a blue peanuts M&M for every time something weird happens. I would say this book would classify has a page turner, and I really like how the Illustrator ( Brett Helquist ) hides tiny surprises in his art. You really just need to know where to look!! This book is also liked by Mrs. Barnes, and I think you readers should read it too!!!