WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead

Miranda is an average sixth grade girl who lives in New York City with her mother.  Her only friend is a boy named Sal, and together they walk the streets of their neighborhood, making sure to avoid the “laughing man.”  One day Sal gets punched in the stomach by a boy named Marcus for no apparent reason.  After that, Sal shuts Miranda out of his life with no explanation.  Having lost her only friend, Miranda decides to make friends with Annamarie and Colin, two other kids in her school.  Miranda starts to receive notes from an unknown person.  The notes are found in private areas of her things, such as her coat pocket, her backpack and a bread bag.  The notes instruct her to write a letter about her life and the writer of the note says he (or she) is going to save her friend.  Miranda also becomes friends with Marcus, and they talk about time travel and A Wrinkle in Time.  Miranda does not believe that time travel is possible, but Marcus does and it makes for very intriguing discussions.  The book is a mystery tying together the laughing man, Marcus, Sal, Miranda, and time travel.

Kevin Cheely

I would rate this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.   The book is a mind-bender and I got confused at some points.  However, it is not the average mystery novel, and made me think and want to read more.

HOLES by Louis Sachar

Stanley is a boy who is wrongly accused of stealing a pair of shoes, and he is sent to a rehabilitation center in the Texas desert as his punishment.  He meets six other boys at Camp Green Lake –Squid, X-Ray, Magnet, Armpit, Zigzag and Zero—and they befriend him.  They give him the nickname of “Caveman” because he is overweight.  Every day the boys are sent out into the dried-up lake by Mr. Sir, Mr. Pendanski and the Warden to dig holes.  They dig all day long by themselves, and their holes are about ten feet away from each other.  They are aware that they are digging for something but they do not know what it is.  If a boy finds something interesting to the Warden, that boy gets the rest of the day off and an extra-long shower.  One day, Stanley finds a gold tube about the size of a pen cap.  On the cap are the initials “K.B.”  Stanley later remembers a story about how his great-grandfather was robbed by a famous outlaw named “Kissin’ Kate Barlow,” and he comes to realize that the boys are digging for his relative’s treasure.

I would rate this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.  There was a lot of action and suspense, particularly in the middle and the end.  I found it to be a little slow at the beginning which is why I gave it a 4.5 instead of a 5. 

Kevin Cheely

Vincent says

Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen
Hatchet is about a boy named Brian Robeson.  The book starts with a kid flying in a plane and while he's flying his pilot has a heart attack.  Then, the plane turns off course and crashes into a lake in the middle of the north Canadian woods.  The boy makes it out of the plane and crawls out onto the shore and mosquitos are biting him everywhere.  The rest of the book is about how he survives in the north Canadian woods and what he makes to survive.  Some of the things he does to survive are: making fire, picking berries, and making shelter, all with his hatchet.  I liked this book very much and I encourage other people to read it.
I give the book 5 out of 5 stars.

Al Capone Does My Shirts Gennifer Choldenko

Moose Flagan' s  family relocated  to Alcatraz because  his father got a job as an electrician  at the Alcatraz  prison. Like many people at first he hates most  things about the island. While he tries to fit in at school he also makes many visits to the prison where he meets the wardens daughter Piper. Piper was one of Mooses first friends on the island. She one time she tells everyone in school that if you give 5 cents you’ll have  your  laundry done  by the prison.  Moose decides its to risky to be working for Piper  so he quits . Sure enough  Warden Williams catches Piper and even though Piper sells  Moose out he manages not to  get into much trouble . Soon he realizes that he’s  far from los Angeles but it will be all right here on Alcatraz.

William Hubbard

4 out of 5 stars

What've you been reading?

Hi Falcon Readers!

A couple of you have already posted summaries, and I'd love to see some more!  Perhaps you have been reading so many books you don't want to take time out to post?  I can understand that feeling!  However, I'd love to hear more of what you've been reading, so please take a moment to catch us all up on the wonderful books you've begun.

Click on the "comments" button below and summarize away!

What's your favorite book of all time?

Greetings 5th, 6th, and 7th graders!

Click on the "Comment" button and post your favorite book of all time.  Make sure to sign your name at the bottom!

Happy Posting!

Greetings, Falcon Readers!

I hope your summer is off to a great start. This is the spot for you to post summaries of the Newberry Books you've been reading. In your summary, be sure to include the WHERE/WHEN (setting) of your story, the WHO (characters) and the WHAT (conflict). If someone has already posted a summary for the book you read, then make a specific comment in response to their post. You should also give the book a rating out of 5 stars and explain why you rated it as you did. Below is an example summary of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman:

Somewhere in contemporary Britain, "the man Jack" uses his razor-sharp knife to murder a family, but the youngest, a toddler, slips away.  The boy ends up in a graveyard where the ghostly inhabitants adopt him to keep him safe. Nobody Owens, so named because he "looks like nobody but himself," grows up among a multigenerational cast of characters from different historical periods that includes matronly Mistress Owens; ancient Roman Caius Pompeius; an opinionated young witch; a melodramatic hack poet; and Bod's beloved mentor and guardian, Silas, who is neither living nor dead and has secrets of his own. As he grows up, Bod has a series of adventures, both in and out of the graveyard, and the threat of the man Jack who continues to hunt for him is ever present. Bod's love for his graveyard family and vice versa provide the emotional center, amid suspense, spot-on humor, and delightful scene-setting. The child Bod's behavior is occasionally too precocious to be believed, and a series of puns on the name Jack render the villain a bit less frightening than he should be, though only momentarily. Aside from these small flaws, however, Gaiman has created a rich, surprising, and sometimes disturbing tale of dreams, ghouls, murderers, trickery, and family.—Megan Honig, New York Public Library

HAPPY POSTING!