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!
TOBY-In Al Capone Does My Shirts-A girl named Piper starts a business to get clothes washed by notorious criminals such as Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly. Her friends Annie Jimmie and Moose help with the job, but they get caught; could this be the end of their stay on Alcatraz?
ReplyDeleteP.S.I am on chapter twenty and I am enjoying the book so far.
I read the book AL Capone Does My Shirts. The book is about "Moose" a boy who moves to Alcatraz with his family to live there.
ReplyDeleteI found the book hard to follow at some parts because it was written in first person. There seemed to be several of stories going on at once.
To me the most interesting part of the story focused on Moose's sister Natalie. Who had some form of disability that made her act like a five year old even thou she was sixteen. Moose had a very good relationship with Natalie and he under stood her better than anybody else in his family.
Also in the book a girl named Piper started a very small and unsuccessful business that let you get your clothes washed by criminals on Alcatraz.
I didn't enjoy the book very much because I prefer more exciting stories it was just kind of mellow. That's why give this book only three out of five stars.
-Forest
in the book number the stars annamarie and her best friend ellen are trapped in their home town because the Nazis invaded copenhagen. every time annamarie, ellan, and kristi walk to school they are always watched by every german soldier that was placed on every street corner when nazis invaded. On jewish new year the germanls siezed a paper that had the names and adresses of all the jewish residents in copenhagen. ellen "joins" anna's family to escape the germans. then ellens family tries to escape denmark but anna is put on a mission to save ellens family.
ReplyDelete5 stars -chandler
Hatchet: This book was great! Brian the main character was going to stay with his dad in the Canadian wilderness. But as he was riding in a two man bush plane the pilot had a heart attack. Barley knowing how to fly he had to crash the plane in a lake. Then he was alone. He taught himself to care for himself in the wilderness. He finally got out because he got the survival kit out of the plane. I give this book five stars because it was very exiting and well written. -Forest
ReplyDeleteIn the book “My Side Of The Mountain” Sam Gribly ran away from New York City to the Catskills in search of his great great grandfather's land. When he found it he needed a house to live in, so he scraped, chopped, cut and burned out a home in a giant Hemlock tree. He also needed food so he lived off berries nuts, bulbs, roots, rabbits, deer and even the occasional turtle. But to get some of these things he needed help. So when he saw a Duck Hawk (Peregrine Falcon) he looked for the nest that he found it on a sheer cliff and began to climb. That night he sat in his tree stroking a falcon chick and nursing a shoulder wound. He named the falcon frightful. He also met a number of friends on his adventure. He met an English teacher that he called Bando, he also found a kid reporter named Matt, not to mention his dad. He also acquired in his little tree home, a fire place made out of clay, a bed, a door, and a deerskin suit. In one of the last chapters Sam says to Matt “I don’t recommend trying to live off the land unless you like oysters and spinach.”
ReplyDelete--Sebastian Cave
My favorite part of the book, Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko was when Moose caught that line drive at second base. Moose lived with his mom, dad, and Natalie on prison grounds at Alcatraz. The characters of the story are Moose, Annie, Piper, Jimmie, and Natalie Moose’s "little sister" who always turns ten every year even though she is sixteen. Moose’s dad is an electrician and prison guard who barley gets any sleep.
ReplyDeleteI rate this book a two because of its slow plot.
Owen
ReplyDeleteManiac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
4/5 stars
Jeffery Lionel Magee lives a normal life and is a normal kid, until one day his parents are killed on a trolley accident. He moves to Hollidaysburg to live with his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan for eight years. He leaves and he goes to a town called Two Mills which is is separated by a river which divides the black and the white people. He goes into the East end, where the black people live, where Whites are abolished. Jeffery meets a black girl named Amanda on the way to school. There are books in her bag, which she calls her personal library. He begs her to lend him a book, and eventually he ends up with one. Amanda and Jeffery become friends, and he starts to live with Amanda’s family. He leaves because he was threatened by bullies, runs all day and he spends the night at the zoo. He eats with the old man named Grayson, and helps him work at the zoo. Come Christmas, they are great friends. They both trade presents. Five days later, Grayson is dead. He goes to Grayson’s sorrow-filled funeral. Jeffery is running for the next few days, and then returns to the zoo. One night, he finds the leader of the neighborhood bullies waking him up, and offers him to spend the night at his completely disgusting house. He says no and hurries back to the lean-to in the zoo exhibit. He leaves and as if like magic, Amanda appears and after much arguing, He is on his way to Amanda’s house, his future home.
Jay
ReplyDeleteWhen Maniac Magee was little his parents died in a trolley accident. So he went to his aunt and uncle's house. They argued a lot, so he ran away. So he went to Two Mills, PA.There are two ends of town, the east end and the west end. The east end is were the whites live and the blacks live on the west end of town. he met a girl on the west end of town on her way to school, with a suit case. Magee asked whats in there, books. He asked can I borrow one. She said yes, she told him her address of her house so he could return it. So that night he returned it to her house. So her dad drove him home, but he did not have a home. So he lived with them. There was an old man how told Magee to go back to his own kind. So he ran away to the est end of town he went to spend the night at the zoo. There was an old man how worked at the zoo. So he lived with him for a wile, he died a short time later. One day he was walking along and the first family found him.
JAY
ReplyDeleteMy Side of The Mountain is about a boy how runs away when he is about 12 years old. He runs away to the Catskills Mountains. His grandparents used to have a farm up there. So he starts to live up there. One day he sees a nest of Peregrine Falcon, so he decides to go and get one of the birds. He trains frightful to hunt. One day he is walking home and he finds a man sleeping on the ground, so he awakes the man. The mans name is Bambo, he spends a lot of time whit Mat. One day Bambo leaves, one day Mat is training Frightful and a boy is walking around up there, he and Mat become friends. At the end in winter his parents come to see him.
In the book “mockingbird” ten year old Catlin is searching for closure. Her mother had already died some time before, but now her older brother Devon was killed in a school shooting. Finding a way to forget about the death of her brother could also be hard because she happens to have Asperger's Syndrome. Catlin tries to find closure by looking up the definition in her dictionary and trying to make friends. Finally she comes up with a solution. Before Devon died he was working on his Eagle Scout project witch he was unable to finish. Catlin thinks that finishing his project along with her father will help them to get over her brother's death.
ReplyDeleteIn The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin, Sam Westing gets killed in the beginning, but his "dead" body is just a piece of wax. Sam then sends his 16 Nieces and Nephews on a wild adventure within Sunset Towers (The apartment building they live in). Each pair of nieces and Nephews get a pack of clues. The relatives learn that Sam is living a triple life, but one of the relatives, Turtle, finds the fourth Sam Westing and secretly wins 200 million dollars.
ReplyDeleteDarren
I give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars because it had a slow beginning, but later in the book it got really interesting.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle was one of the best books I've ever read. I'd give it 5 out of 5 stars. This story happens in modern times. The main characters are a teenager girl named Meg, her younger brother Charles Wallace, and Calvin her friend. Meg is is not exactly the leader but she is not a passenger either. She is very very smart and uses her intelligence to keep "it" out of her mind. "It" is a brain that pretty much possesses people. Charles Wallace is also very smart but "It" was eventually able to get to him. Charles Wallace is about 5 and he thought that if he let "It" into his mind they would be able to find their father. The father figured out how to Tesser or to wrinkle through the universe. The father was being held prisoner by 'It". Calvin was important in the story because he helped Meg and Charles Wallace to find and rescue their father.
ReplyDeleteThe book Heart of a Samurai was excellent, probably one of the best books I have ever read. Its about a teenager named Manjirio who was out on a fishing boat in japan when a storm hit and got shipwrecked on a island. Soon to be rescued by some american whalers. Not knowing how to speak much English he couldn't tell them his name the called him John Mung. The captain of the ship named Mr Whitlefield was very friendly and taught John how speak english. he also took john to america to be his son he will also be the first Japanese person in America. In America he became a farm boy and attended school. Once he turned 21 he left his town to look for gold in California during the gold rush. Which he used to purchase a boat to use to sail back to Japan to see his family. But once he got there he got thrown in prison being called a outcast. But once he got let out he got to se the emperor who crowned him a samurai. This book is based on a true story and I enjoyed it very much, five stars.
ReplyDelete-Forest
In Hatchet, by Gary Paulson, Brian is an individual who is friendly and likes things organized. The problem is the pilot has a heart attack and dies so Brian is forced to land the plane on a lake after the fuel has run out and lands on an L shaped lake has to survive two months in the Canadian forest. The things that help Brian survive the wilderness: he makes two bows and many arrows, he learns how to spear fish, he builds a shelter on a rock, and he builds a fire that never runs out because of the wood he collects. After about two months he collects the survival kit from the downed plane which helps him because it has an emergency transmitter inside of it. About one hour after the survival kit is retrieved from the lake someone finds him and brings him home on a plane. He finally is able to see his dad. My favorite part of the book is when the mosquito’s got to him after he retrieves the survival kit.
ReplyDeleteI would rate this book a 4 ½ because of the action in it.
Jeffery Lionel “Maniac” Magee was very small when his parents died in a trolley crash, so as soon as that happened he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle. For eight years they argued and had a very difficult life. Then Jeffery ran away from his aunt and uncle’s house to a small town called Two Mills. The town was divided into two ends for the black and the white people. Maniac goes into the east end where the black people live and meets a girl named Amanda who was on her way to school. Maniac asked her if he could have a book from her bag so many times that she gives in and lends him a book. They become friends and eventually he starts living with her family including her two younger siblings Hector and Lester. After a while people got bothered about him being in the east end, especially one kid. His name was Mars Bar. Mars Bar drove him out of town and into the west end. Maniac starts sleeping in the buffalo pen at the zoo and eating carrots. But then he met an old man named Grayson who bought him some butterscotch crumpets and told him he could sleep in the baseball equipment room. After a couple of months went by, Grayson was living in the baseball equipment room with Maniac. But five days after Christmas Grayson dies. After mourning, Maniac started running again but then winds back up at the zoo sleeping in the buffalo pen, but in a few nights Amanda turns up and told Maniac to come back to her home to stay for good.
ReplyDeleteManiac Magee by Jerry Spinelli was a great book. It was about a boy named Maniac previously named Jeffery Lionel Magee. When he was three his parents died in a trolly crash. He was sent to live with his Aunt and Uncle who hated each other. They didn't want to share anything even Maniac. When he was 11 he ran away. He found himself in Two Mills. In this town there are two sides of town. East side has African Americans and West side has white Americans. In Two Mills he met an African American girl named Amanda. How he met her was, she was carrying a big suitcase full of books and he thought she was running away. So he asked her, "Are you running away?" She answered "No I'm just carrying my books." They became very good friends after Maniac asked to be leant a book eventually Amanda allowed him to borrow one of her books. He then moved in with Amanda and her family. Eventually the East side got annoyed that Maniac was staying. Especially one boy named Mars Bar. He got Maniac out of East Side. Maniac slept in a zoo for a little while. Then he met a man named Grayson. Grayson set up a baseball equipment room like a little apartment. Grayson let Maniac sleep there. Eventually Grayson moved in but he died a couple of days after Christmas. Then Maniac left and ran, he eventually ended up in the Buffalo Pen at the Zoo. Amanda came by and told him to move back in with her family, this time for good.
ReplyDeleteJulia of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George is about a lost teenage Eskimo girl who was out on the Tundra living with wolves. The wolves realized that she wasn't going to hurt them and so the wolves took care of her. She saved one of the wolves lives after it was injured by a bullet. She controlled the bleeding by sewing a piece of caribou skin over the wound. She developed friendships with some of the wolves. They accepted her as part of the wolf pack. When they killed some sort of animal she also got a share of the meat. She made the food edible by smoking it or preserved it by putting it in a special area that she made out of snow to keep it cold. Eventually she got back to civilization but had to choose between living in civilization or living out on the Tundra with the wolves. She choose to live with her Eskimo village in the end. But she kept her experience with her. I would give it a three of of five stars. It was interesting but I used to more fast paced books.
ReplyDeleteoh and I give Maniac Magee five out of five stars.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of MRS. FRISBY and the rats of NIMH is when they escaped from a lab where humans were testing rats.
ReplyDeleteAfter four months, Justin figured a way to escape. He and the other rats and mice went to the air ducts. Justin found a screw driver and a spool of thread in the lab. He planed to use them in his escape
As they approached the air fan, they realized it would be there biggest worry. When the air fan was on low, they pried the bars apart. Once out side, they climbed down the wall and were free.
THE END
JAY
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh is when they escape from a lab where humans were testing rats and mice.
After four months Justin figured out a way to escape. First Justin found a screwdriver and a spool of thread in the lab to use as tools in the escape. He and the other rats and mice went to the air ducts. As they approached air fan at the outside grate they realized that their biggest obstacle was the air from the fan. When the air fan was on low they were able to make their way to the outside grate on the other side of the air fan. When the air was blowing hard they could not proceed toward the grate and several mice were blown back down the air duct tunnels. After a long time, all the rats and one mouse Jonah made it to the outside grate. Once there they used the screwdriver to pry a hole into the mesh of the grate and squeezed out. They climbed down the wall to the ground and were free from the lab.
The House of the Scorpion is a great book. It is set in the distant future in a country between America and Mexico. Their a 140 year-old drug lord rules with an iron fist. He has farms tolled and worked by ejeets, humans with a computer chip implanted in their skull, and riches beyond belief. How has he stayed alive so long? Cloning. He has scientists create clones of himself when he was younger. The scientists then give the clones shots to repress all mental capacity, reducing them to screaming beasts, their only purpose is to have young, strong organs for harvesting. Matteo Alacran is one such clone, butt the scientists refrain from giving the shot, not out of any remorse or pity the boy would become, but of what the real Matteo Alcran would do to them. Clones, intelligent or not, are shunned by everyone and a room full of chicken litter rotting food and insects seems to be what people insist on giving him. All except Tam Lin, the original Matteo Alacran, his step mother Alicia and a little girl named Maria ever sense he was six. Matt is convinced he has a better future then being harvested, that the original Matteo actually cares for him, but he is not sure.
ReplyDeleteSounder
ReplyDeleteBy
William H. Armstrong
Sounder is about a black family, a boy his Mother, Father and their coonhound named Sounder. The boy sometimes goes hunting with his Father they hunt for animals to turn into food to eat and they also go into the woods to find wood. The boy likes to go outside a lot, he has a huge jacket that goes down to his knees with lots and lots of holes. It was his father’s jacket, and its not very warm because of the holes. The boy and Sounder sit on the porch together a lot during the week. One day the boy’s father was taken by the sheriff, Sounder chased the sheriff’s car and he was hit by a shotgun, and died and the boy’s dad was off to jail and there was nothing they could do about it. The boy and his mom visited his dad a lot during the week. Once they got home from the jail, the boy’s Mother talked about Sounder and how much they miss him. They talked about what the boy used to do with Sounder every day. Then later that week the boy’s father died and the boy and his mother were very sad. After a few days the boy felt a whole lot better. The boy was still thinking about Sounder. Later, at night the boy heard the deep voice of the great coonhound Sounder.
I give this book a four and a half stars because it was better then all of the classic books I have read.
Owen
ReplyDeleteHatchet
By Gary Paulson
Four of Five Stars because of a slow beginning but great book
In the beginning of Hatchet, the main character Brian is on his way to the to his dad’s house in Canada. The pilot of his two-seated plane has a heart-attack and Brian, not knowing how to fly, crashes the plane into a lake. In the fist few days he is busy making his making weapons, fire, collecting food, and building a strong fort. He hunts fish with a handmade bow and arrows. He picks berries and and eats fish with them. Brian has many encounters with the wild, some not good encounters. The story keeps telling about mistakes and how he recovers from them. A big tornado comes and sends the tail of the wrecked plane up to the surface of the water, when the tail contains the survival pack. He builds a raft and goes out to the plane. Brian cuts a hole in the plane with his hatchet, and get the survival pack. He brings it back to shore and has a feast with the freeze-dried food. He uses the emergency transmitter that’s in the pack, and as soon as he finish making his feast, a plane lands to come save him.
I Am Number Four is a very good book. It is about one of the nine remaining lorics a race that was destroyed by the magorians another extra terrestrial race that is trying to take over earth. The last nine lorics are members of the loric garde who have "powers". It is definitely a good book and I give it full stars
ReplyDeleteThe Power Of Six was written by Pittimus Lore. It has to be one of my favorite books yet. It is the sequel to I Am Number Four. It is about how John Smith, "Number Four " is trying to find the other five members of the Loric Garde. In the book there are two intertwining stories. One story is about "Number Seven" who is trying to find John Smith and another girl referred to as "Number Six". The other story is about "Number Seven". She is conflicted about leaving her current home because her protecter, who is like her mother, is a Nun and will not leave the church. It is a nail biter and I could of stayed up all night reading it. I easily can rate this book 5 stars. Can't wait for the next book!
ReplyDeleteLucas I read Holes. Holes was a book about a boy named Stanley. Stanley is an over weight, poor teenager. Every thing that goes wrong in Stanley family, they jokingly blame on his great great grand father who stole a pig from a gypsy and got cursed. One day when he is walking home from school a pair of shoes fall on his head, he is bewildered and he starts running. It turns out that they are a famous baseball players and Stanley is arrested. He is found guilty of stealing them. As his punishment he is sent to a camp in the middle of the desert. He makes a friend at camp named Zero. After a month or so Stanley and Zero get sick of it and run away. They take refuge on a mountain and recover. A week passes and they decide to go back to camp. On the way back they discover gold and become rich. 4 of 5
ReplyDeleteThe House of the Scorpion is a book by Nancy Farmer. It is a story set sometime in the future in a land we now know as Mexico. The Main character is Matt, who is the clone of El Patron, a powerful drug lord. Matt was created in a lab by a scientist. His main purpose for living is to provide organs for the aging El Patrone sometime in the near future.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning Matt is raised by a woman named Cecilia outside of the Alacran Estate, but eventually Matt becomes part of it. Once inside the household he finds that almost everyone dislikes him and treats him very poorly. He does manage to make a couple of friends though, Cecilia, a girl named Maria, and the bodyguard that El Patron assigned him, TamLin all help and protect him.
As the story continues, at an Alacran wedding, El Patron's heart fails and it is time for Matt to give up his heart to the drug lord. Of course he does not want to, so with the help of Maria, he tries to run away. Unfortunately, he is caught and taken to the hospital. As it turns out Cecilia has been feeding him small amounts of Monarch butterfly poison over the years. This makes his heart useless to El Patron.
Once El Patron finds out about this, Matt is useless to him and his life is in peril. To protect him from being killed TamLin sneaks Matt away from Alacran to modern day Mexico. Here Matt begins a new life, and new struggles as he tries to get to Marias house, and eventually take over El Patron's poppy fields, converting them to food crops.
Jonathan
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of A Wrinkle in Time, Meg Murry is having a hard time with school, people making fun of her youngest brother Charles Wallace, and most importantly her missing father. When Charles takes Meg to meet three mysterious women they bump into Calvin O'Keefe. Calvin joins them and meets Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Who. The strange ladies take the three children to rescue Mr.Murry, and travel through space by the fifth dimension. During their journey, Meg, Calvin, and Charles learn that a strange dark thing is trying to over take the universe. To rescue their father, they must travel to a planet called Camazotz. At Camazotz, Charles is taken over by a thing called IT. Under the influence of IT, Charles takes Meg and Calvin to Mr. Murry. They manage to free Mr. Murry from his prison with a pair of spectacles that Mrs. Who gave to Meg. They get lead to IT, which is a big, disembodied brain. To escape IT, Mr. Murry travels through the fifth dimension with Meg and Calvin. Mrs. Which takes Meg back to Camazotz to free Charles with the only thing that IT does not have, love. After freeing Charles, they all get set back to earth for a happy ending.
I rate A Wrinkle in Time five stars.
The Bronze Bow is a great book. I would rate it four out of five stars. The main character is a teenage boy named Daniel Bar Jamin who lives in a small town in the country Israel, witch at the time, is heavily occupied by Romans legions. Daniel is consumed by a vow he took when he was a boy to avenge the violent and cruel death of his father. He does not care that his black hate from the Romans drive his only friends away or that it drives his only remaining family, his sister, farther and farther into the darkness of her mind. He and his friend Joel gather a gang of boys to serve the thief Rosh in his battle against the Romans.
ReplyDeletePeak by Roland Smith
ReplyDeleteIn this book Peak Marcello, a fourteen year old boy from New York City attempts to climb Mount Everest. He would set the record of being the youngest to do it. The story mainly takes place on Mount Everest and takes you through the amazing adventure to the Peak of Mount Everest. He was climbing with Sun-jo a boy a few months older than him and three other people Zopa, Yash, and Yogi
Rating 4 out of five stars - George Tisdelle
Lucas I read the mixed up files of Basil E. Frankwiler. This book is about to siblings, in the 60s named Claudius and Jamie. Claudius and Jamie run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. they find a statue named angle discover being sick of ther parents inset the only reason they ran away. 4 of 5
ReplyDeleteThe Cat Who Went to Heaven
ReplyDeleteThe book is about an artist, a housekeeper and a cat. The artisit's housekeeper comes to him in great joy to tell him the high priest is here for him. the high priest wanted him to paint all of the animals that got blessed by Buddha. But the cat wasn't one of the animals that was blessed and was thought of as a devil. the artist feels bad for the cat because it was not blessed. So he paints a picture of the cat being blessed and when the cat sees it the cat dies of joy. The book was a very good book and I encourage others to read it. I give it 6 out of 5 stars by Vincent Wade
A Tree That Grows In Brooklyn
ReplyDeleteThis novel is a book written by a woman who grew up in the same time period as the main character in the story, so much of it feels very tangible and real. The main character, a young girl growing up in brooklyn at the turn of the century, lives in poverty and filth, with a drunken father, a mother that loves her brother more, and criminals that roam the streets of her neighborhood. Her mother, despite her being bias towards her, works day and night to make sure they can both stay in school as long as possible. The young girl is smart and can read and write very early when many in that time period could not at all. She has a goal to read one book a day in alphabetical order from her local library, though many times she takes a book for herself as well. The story follows the two children as they go through life and tells of there many adventures and misfortunes. This book is a excellent american classic, and I enjoyed the realistic, memoir like fiction style its written in.