I'm back!

Sorry I haven't been blogging for awhile.  I have been really busy, but I am hoping to get quite a few posts done over the summer.  My soccer season just ended.  We won our division in our regular season and finished second in a tournament.  I am still taking piano lessons and I start drum lessons this week. 

I have read a bunch of books recently so look for posts on:

• Finished through book 11 of the 39 Clues
• Eddie: The Lost Youth of Edgar Allen Poe
• Ella Enchanted
• Started the Lemony Snicket books - A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Judy Moody
• The Grimm Legacy
• Time Warp Trio
• and more!

39 Clues

Books Read:
Maze of Bones
One False Note
The Sword Thief

When Grace Cahill died, her grandchildren Amy and Dan Cahill were sad.  In Grace's will, she said there would be a competition for 39  clues.  If you wanted to be in the competition, you had to give away your $1 million inheritance.  Amy and Dan think about what they could buy with the money, but all the sudden they think of the contest and decide to join.  They race against six other teams, made up of distant relatives.  By following the clues, Amy and Dan can unlock a powerful secret.  Along the way they learn that their family is related to many famous people including Ben Franklin, Mozart, and even ninjas.  The other family members are all trying to get the Cahills.

I liked these books because they make you learn very interesting things while also making you think "Oh what's going to happen next, I hope I can keep reading."  Two of the characters are very funny - Nelly, their babysitter/Au pair, and Dan.  I am looking forward to reading the next book "Beyond the Grave".

Avalon: Web of Magic Book 1

 By Rachel Roberts
AR Book Level 3.9

This book is filled with magic and animals.  The first character that is introduced has a mother who is a veterinarian.  She's used to working with injured animals.  One day when she was walking some of the dogs who live at the kennel, a few of the dogs ran into Old Ravenswood Preserve.  There she finds a rock in a stream.  The next morning, she wakes up and in her pocket is the rock, but it is no longer rough, it's smooth.  She learns that the stone is magical and they find a bunch of cool creatures including a wolf made of mist and a talking ferret.  There is another girl who lives at Ravenswood Manor who found a different stone in a field.  She is friends with the wolf named Stormbringer.  They try to help the talking ferret, Ozzie find a portal back to his magical world.

I liked this book because it includes three different points of view of the three girls in the story.  If you like this book, I would try the Ivy and Bean series about two friends who you wouldn't think would go together but they do.

SOS files By Byars, Betsy

book read:   
SOS files  by Betsy Byars, Betsy Duffy, and Laurie Myers ( BL 3.8   1.0 pts. )


In this book, students are assigned to write about a time were they had a SOS (Save Our Ship!). Their teacher says that everyone got EXTRA CREDIT (YAY!), except 1. So, everyone  reads their stories again, and the teacher reads the last one that is not signed.  They figure out  who did not get extra credit.

This book is very short, although it's pretty funny. One of the students even recites a speech by ABE LINCOLN!                                                                                                                                                 

Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator

Book Read:
Gild Joyce, Psychic Investigator by Jennifer Allison (AR Book Level:  6.5)


Gilda Joyce is a smart, fashionable psychic investigator or so she thinks.  Really, Gilda Joyce is a psychic investigator in training with red hair and lots of freckles.  At the end of the last day of school, Gilda's teacher goes around and asks what everyone is going to do this summer.  Gilda who is planning on spying on plaid pants (the guy who works at the store) makes up a lie and says she is going to San Fransisco to write a novel.  There's only one way to make Gilda's "lie" not a lie - to actually do it.  Somehow Gilda manages to get her long lost relative to invite her to San Fransisco.  Her long lost relatives house is actually a mansion, and did I mention the mansion is haunted?  Gilda helps her cousin investigate her aunt's death that happened years ago.  And yes, in the end she manages to write a novel.

Gilda manages to get herself into a lot of trouble and she is pretty clumsy.  This book was very entertaining.  If someone reads to you and you close your eyes, you feel like you are watching a movie.  There are more books in this series and I would like to read them when I have more time.

Extra Credit by Andrew Clements

In December, I tried out for the Reading Classics team at my school.  I am on the team now.  We have to read books from a specific list and in March we compete by answering questions about the books.


Book Read:
Extra Credit (AR book level:  5.3)

I read this book for the Reading Classics team.  In the book, Abby Carson is not a very good student.  Well, she's good at it, but she doesn't get the point.  Her teacher tells her she has to repeat sixth grade.  So, she has to do an extra credit project.  She pulls a paper out of the project box and the assignment is that she has to write a letter to someone from any country she would want.  She picks Afghanistan because she loves the idea of climbing mountains, but in Illinois, where she lives, there are no mountains. 

I really liked this book because with every letter came a new surprise.    I liked learning about the similarities and differences between kids in the United States and kids in Afghanistan.

Spiderwick Chronicles

Books Read (AR book level: 4.0 - 4.4)
The Field Guide
The Seeing Stone
Lucinda's Secret
The Ironwood Tree
The Wrath of Mulgarath

I loved the Spiderwick books.  In these books, three kids and their mom move into their great aunt's house.  Everyone thought that their Great Aunt Lucinda was cookoo.  The kids, Jared, Mallory and Simon use the dumb waiter at their house to go upstairs and go to the old attic.  There Jared found a secret library and in it a clue.  He didn't know what the clue was for, but later in the book he finds "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You".   The book tells about magical creatures who live in the invisible world around you.  The creatures from the book are real and want to get the Field Guide because they don't want to be discovered.  With help from their house brownie Thimbletack, the three children will have to save the book and their family.

I liked these books because they had magic and fantasy.  I am reading the book that the series in based on "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You" now.  I think that the Spiderwick series and the Field Guide are great books for any one who likes fantasy.  There is even a second series of books based on the Field Guide too.