Bridge to Terabithia

Plot: this book is about a fifth grade boy named Jess Aarons. The books revolves around him and a tomboy named Leslie Burke, who moves next door to Jess and is in the same class. one day after school, they botth got off the bus and decided to go back to the woods together. while they were there, leslie wanted to make up a world of there own, she decided to call Terabithia. In this magical world, there were trolls, giants, and all sorts of magical creatures, but to get to this magical place, you need to jump through a rope over a big ditch. This magical pleace brought the 2 of them closer together until on big accident that seperates then forever. i recommend this book for both boys and girls.

Characters: the character i am choosing to describe is Leslie Burke.

• Leslie Burke- i chose to describe leslie because i liked the way the author made her different than everyone else, for example she showed that she was faster than all the boys, she didnt have a TV, her parents were stay-home artists, and she had a great imagination. i dont think i would change anything about leslie cause she was like the perfect character, i thought this because she was different.

Your thoughts: i really enjoyed reading this book because i liked the way most of the story took place in their imagination. Also i liked the way how Jess didnt become jealous of leslie when she beat him in the running race, but instead he became good friends with her. Since i saw the movie before i read the book, i saw the differences, which werent many. I didnt really like how the ending finshed because now they cant make a sequel.

Reading Strategies: the reading strategy i used the most was mental images. since the author used really good details, i could clearly see a movie in my head as i was reading the book. also, i could clearly see all the magical creatures in my head because even though they werent real the author described them really well. i also used a little bit of predicting in the end of the book.

Author information: the author of this book is Katherine Paterson, she was born in Qing Jiang, China. She later moved to Richmond, Virginia because of the Japanese Invasion. the genres she writes for are children and young adult novels, about 40 books including christmas stories, books translated into Russian and Japanese, non-fiction books, etc. she is a very good author cause she puts a lot of detail and creativity into her writing.

Lush

Plot: the main character in this book is an 8th grade girl name Samantha Gwynn. She lives with her mother, little brother, Luke, and alcoholic dad. She has 3 best friends; Angie, Vanessa, and Tracie. In beginning, Sam starts out by writing a letter to an unknown person, she slips it inside a book that hasnt been checked out in 13 years. The person who ends up receiving this letter is very unexpected, but helps her through a lot of things such as peer pressure, public humiliation, stress, family problems, and so on. I recommend this book for boys and girls, but mostly for girls.

Characters: the character i am going to describe is Samantha Gwynn.

• Samantha Gwynn- Sam is a young girl who is in middle school and deals with everyday problems and hears everyday gossip. I liked the way she tried to help her father by hiding the beer bottles and leaving inspirational messages. I dont like the way how she treated her father when she found him drunk, she used to yell at him and tell him that she wasnt ever going to forgive him even when he was begging his heart out. If i were in Sam's shoes, i dont think i would be able to survive one day at school or at home, but they only thing i would definitely like about her life would be being able to live with such a cute little brother.

Your Thoughts: i really liked this book a lot, i definitely liked it more than Perfect; which was the other novel written by this same author. I think that Sam has seen and lived through some things that she should never see at that age. I like the way the author described Samantha's feelings so clearly and showed what it was like to be in middle school and be stuck in the middle of lies and drama. this was a VERY good book, i cant wait to read the third novel Natasha F. has written.

Reading Strategies: In this book i definitely used mental images. the most vivid picture in my mind was when Luke spilled his grape and cranberry juice all of the Feingold blueprints and his dad cracked the empty bottle of Jim Beam on Luke's little face and blood & glass was everywhere. I had many other lively pictures and movies in my head, which helped me understand what Sam was going through in the setting of the book.

Author Information: the author of this great book is Natasha Friend, she lives in Boston with her husband and wo young kids. Before she became an amazing author she was a middle school teacher and a camp director. Her first novel, Perfect, was the winner of the Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature. She puts great detail into every single sentence.

Keeper of the Night

Plot: this book revolves around a very average family, but the only thing they are missing is the mother of the house. The main character, Isabel, is now in charge of her brother (Frank), her little sister (Olivia) and her father. They live in the small village of Guam, where everyone knows everyone, and no news is not heard. Isabel goes through a lot of problems, which she shouldnt ever have to go through. this book was very good and i recommend it for girls only. oh and also, this book is about suicide, pain/loss, and family struggles.

Characters: the character i am choosing to describe is Isabel.

~Isabel- she is very mature for her age of 12, she cares for her siblings almost as well as a full grown woman would. i love the way Isabel is so sweet and kind to her sister even though she wakes up every night with a nightmare and wets her bed. I also love the way how she comforts her father probably just like her mother would. i dont like the way how isabel acted when roman, her 12 year old neighbor came and asked her a question, but all she did was roll her eyes and walk away with a heaving sigh.

Your thoughts: this book was very good in many ways, the best way was because it showed me how families live when they are motherless. i like the way the author gave isabel so much responsibilty in the book, and she handled it so well. i also like how the author used Guam as the setting but made it seem as if she was living in the older times of the United States. the only question i have is if i wonder of Kimberely Willis Holt ever went to Guam herself or ever exeriences living without a mother.

Reading Strategies: in this book i used a lot of summarizing, such as like when isabel's friend was running for fiesta queen, so many things were happening. another reading strategy i used was using post-its, like i used a post-it when i didnt understand what the word or phrase meant. in this book i didnt use mental images as a reading strategy because the author didnt make the details to big so it was hard to imagine anything but what i thought of as dust.

Author Information: Kimberly Willis Holt is an American children's book writer, she had written many other nivels for kids besides this one. she won a National Book Award for her novel, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. Kimberly was born in Florida and currently lives in Texas.

Perfect

Plot: this book is about Isabelle Lee, a thirteen year old girl, in eighth grade. Isabelle's father died a few years ago, causing her mother not to pay much attention to what goes on with Isabelle or her younger sister April. One day, April (aka Ape Face) caught Isabelle forcing herself to throw up in the bathroom. As soon as Isabelle heard that she had to attend counseling, she hated it not to mention it was supposed to be a good “surprise”. One day, she was at Group and in walks Ashley Barnum, the most popular and prettiest girl in the whole entire eighth grade. Isabelle could not believe she actually came to therapy, she immediately thought, “why?” they are now really good friends, not to mention Isabelle finds out that Ashley is bulimic, just like her. After that day, Ashley has invited Isabelle to come and sit with her at lunch and sleepover once in a while.

Characters: the character i am choosing to describe is Isabelle Lee.

• Isabelle- isabelle is an 8th grade girl who lives with her motherand younger sister April. After her dad died, she thought that binging and purging was going to solve her depression. I dont like how Isabelle sees one person, and gets very judgemental and just starts critisizing. Also, Isabelle has a very low self-esteem towards herself, for example one of the games in Group was to describe yourself and seh said she had fat, chubby legs. if i were to change one thing about isabelle, it would be the way she turns to problems.

Your Thoughts: Perfect was a very good book for many reasons. the main reason is cause i could feel how Isabelle was feeling the whole time. the author made me feel as if i were Isabelle and that i was attending Group and i was friends with Ashley Barnum. I have realized that most of the books i have read, the authors have described the settings very well.

Reading Strategies: in this book i used mental images as the reading strategy. One of the pictures i imagined was when Isabelle was in the car with her mother and April, and her mother was trying to convince to get out of the vehicle and go to Group. I also imagined how she slumped and slouched out of the car and into the first avaliable chair in the room.

Author Information: the author of this book is Natasha Friend, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband Erik and baby, Jack. Perfect is her first novel, but she has also written two more novels; Lush and Bounce.

The Fortune Tellers

Plot: This book takes place in West Africa, near Cameroon, where a young, sorrowful carpenter is tired of hammering and sawing, and wants to find good advice to help him. One day, he hears that a grand fortune teller has come to the bordering town, which helps answer some very interesting questions he has. He asks a series of questions, in which the answers are so general that anyone could have answered. On his midway point home, he forgot to ask one question, but when he goes back the Fortune Teller is gone. He ends up making his own booth and answering peoples questions as his new career.


Characters: the character i am choosing to describe is the carpenter, who seems to not have a name.

• Carpenter- this young man has been carpenting his whole life and just now decided to become a fortune teller out of every job possible. i dont think that the answers the fortune teller gave him were very helpful, but they definitely helped him in life. The character, i found, was a bit strange because he asked very general questions.

Your thoughts: in my opinion, i didnt like this book at all. i thought it was pointless and it didnt make much sense to me. i thought this because the book was so short, that the author didn't get to put nuch detail into the book. I may not have liked the book, but i liked the way the illustrator drew the pictures in the background using great detail.

Reading Stratergies: in this book, i didnt use any reading strategies.

Author Information: the author of this book is Lloyd Alexander. He grew up in Pennsylvania, but he was raised in Dexel Hills. He has written over 40 books, most of which are under the genre of fantasy. He passed away last year in Pennsylvania.

Pink and Say

Plot: this book is about two 15 year old boys; Sheldon Russell Curtis, a white boy, and Pinkus Aylee, an african american boy. It takes place during the Civil War times. One day, Pinkus, otherwise known as "Pink", found Sheldon, otherwise known as "Say" wounded in the fields, he gives him some water and brings him home to his momma for "healing." This story is passed on from generation from generation, until it gets to the author herself. This book is a short picture book, which i reccommend for all ages.

Characters: the character i am choosing to describe is Sheldon Russell Curtis.

• Sheldon- i picked to describe Sheldon because i liked the way how he helped a fellow soldier in need. I also like how his mother, Moe Moe Bay, helped him also, and treated him as family. He was a very kind boy, and sadly at the end, gets seperated from Pink.

Your thoughts: this book was sort of boring until the end. I liked the end because the last picture was the two hands touching, which had a strong meaning. Even though the book was short, you could have probably kept writing about the hand touching lincoln for a whole chapter book. i also like how the illustrator used plain colors for the pictures, yet they were so eye-capturing.

Reading Strategies: in this book i used predicting as the main reading strategy. For example, i predicted that Pink and Say would eventually be seperated, but i didnt really know why. since the book was short, there wasnt much to predict about but otherwise i also used connections; text-to-text and text-to-world.

Author Information: The author of this book is Patricia Polacco, she was born in Lansing, Michigan. Patricia won about 18 awards during the course of her life as an author, and also wrote about 47 books. She spent most of her childhood in Union City, Michigan which is where she got told the story about Mr. President Lincoln. One of the books she has written called Thank You, Mr. Falker, is about the outcomes of her life because she had trouble reading until the age of 14 because of dyslexia.

Flawless

Plot: This book is about a group of 4 girls; Aria Montgomery, Hannah Marin, Spencer Hastings, and Emily Fields. They all live in the upper class town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania. This book is the sequel to Pretty Little Liars, which was a very good book also. In this hardcover, the girls get into a very dangerous situation, which has to do with the mysterious "A". This book wraps up and ends in one location, at a charity dinner party called Foxy. I recommend this book for girls only.

Characters: the character i am choosing to describe is Toby Cavanaugh.

• Toby Cavanaugh- Toby used to live in Rosewood and go to the very same school as Aria, Hannah, Spencer and Emily, except after the whole Jenna Thing, he was forced to go to Tate Boarding School. He now comes back to Rosewood for the charity dinner called Foxy, and takes Emily as his date. When they first introduced Toby to the book he seemed like a nice sweet boy, but by the end of the story he is a malicious person.

Your Thoughts: I really liked this book because it explained how gossip and karma hurts. This book definitely had more drama and mystery than the first book for many different reasons, one being that Toby came back to Rosewood for a few days. I thought that in this book it was going to revolve around The Jenna Thing and not "A" and his/her text messages, but instead it talked about both. I can't wait to read the last 2 books in the series.

Reading Strategies- While reading this book i used many strategies, one of then main ones i used was mental images. In every single book i read i always use mental images, but especially in these books. I love how Sara Shepard puts a whole lot of detail into every chapter, even though each chapter is about 8 pages. i also used summarizing and predictions.

Author Information- The author of this book is Sara Shepard. Sara is from tuscan, Arizona and graduated from colleges and universities in New York. This whole series was motivated byher upbringing in Philadelphia's Main Line. She is one of the best authors yet, except for Lemony Snicket.

Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush

Plot: the main characters of this book are siblings Megin and Greg. These two dont get along like brothers and sisters should, instead they fight and pull pranks on each other. They each have different goals in life, for example, Greg has committed his whole summer to make himself good enough for Jennifer Wade. meanwhile Megin, had to deal with showering before the first day of school without having the water change from hot to cold every two seconds. This books talks about the struggles of brothers and sisters.

Characters: the character i am choosing to describe is Greg Tofer.

• Greg Tofer- i chose to describe greg because i thought it was very manly of him to dedicate his whole summer trying to look good for one girl. for example he ordered a yearly subscription of body building magazines, he does about 100 sit ups everyday, and he went to the beach every sunny day to tan his skin. if there were one thing i would change about greg it would be the way he treats his sister because Megin is the only sister he has for the time.

Your Thoughts: i thought this book was funny because i didnt ever think that a brother could be so mean to his sister. i had one question going through my head the whole time i read this book, did the author have a brother like Greg? another thing i liked about this book was the cover and title of this book, the cover actually inspired me to read this book.

Reading Strategies: the reading strategy i used in this book is predicting. the first prediction i made was that something bad was going to Megin because the beginning line of the book was "it started while i was washing my hair: someone flushed the toilet and the shower turned scalding hot." i also predicted that greg was going to use another person to annoy Megin. sometimes i also used mental images.

Author Information: the author of this book is Jerry Spinelli, he was born in Pennsylvania. he has won two Newbery Awards. he first decided he wanted to become a writer at the age of 16, when his high school football team won a big game. he first started writing adult books but since they didnt get published he started writing childrens novels. I have read many of his books because they are very good.

Pretty Little Liars

Plot: the main characters in this book are 5 high school juniors; Alison DiLaurentis, Aria Montgomery, Emily Field, Hannah Marin, and Spencer Hastings. They were BFF's until one day at Spencer's house, Alison was being mean and was asked to leave the house and not come back again. About a week later, they realized that Alison had gone missing and had no idea of where she could be, even after the police had thoroughly interviewed each and every girl she knew. Three years later, the girls barely talk to one another, but are now all getting strange text messages/emails/letters from "A", an unknown person. I recommend this book mostly for girls and/or people who like gossip.



Characters: The character i am choosing to describe i Spencer Hastings and Emily Fields.

• Spencer Hastings- Spencer is very athletic and smart. In school, a boy named Andrew Campbell has always wanted to beat Spencer grade-wise, but hasn't yet won. When Spencer receives the text messages, she thinks that A stands for Andrew. If i were to change something about Spencer it would be the way she treats her family and the way she thinks about her older and smarter sister, Melissa.

Your thoughts: i really liked this book because the characters reminded me of people in my school. It made me think how they think of themselves: beautiful, well-known, and the best. I also liked the way the author made each characters situation different, but ended up bringing them together by one text message. I am so excited to read the next 3 books in the series.

Reading Strategies: I used summarizing a lot in this book for many reasons. One of the reasons is because each chapter goes in a pattern talking about a different character each chapter. When i read one chapter i try to summarize what i just read so when read the next chapter about that same person, i will know what happened before.I also made predictions, but only sometimes because it was ard to make predictions about the situation.

Author Information: the author of this book is Sara Shepard, who currently lives in Tuscan, Arizona. She graduated from New York University and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College. This series of books was inspired by her upbringing in Philadelphia's Main Line. I love the way Sara puts so much detail into each and every sentence, amking us feel as if we were there.

Private

Plot: this book is about a sophomore named Reed Brennan, who lives in the wonderful town of Easton. She just got a full scholarship to attend Easton Academy, a very high-class boarding school. While her stay here, she aims to become one of the Billings Girls, these girls are the most popular girl in school and usually succeed very well in life. Reed goes through a lot of stress in her regular home, especially with her mother who is a pill-addict. By the end of the book, Reed has a change in personality, appearance, and mentality. I recommend this book for teen girls.

Characters: I am choosing to describe Noelle Lange.

• Noelle Lange- Noelle is the "leader" of the Billings Girls, she is the most beautiful girl in her grade and the most well-known girl on campus. If i were to change about her it would be her attitude. I would change this because she has a VERY high self-esteem, and makes everyone feel bad thinking that they are not "cool" cause they are not her.

Your thoughts: i liked this book in the beginning, but then towards the end it got a bit choppy and i lost track of where we were. Also the chapters were long and didnt have cliffhangers, so it didnt make me want to finish the book, but i did anyway. i definitely recommend this book for girls and people who want to know what it is like to take risks for others.

Reading Strategies: in this book i didnt really use much reading strategies, but i did use a bit of predicting. Most of the predictions i made were wrong because the book was very unorganized. This book had 6 other books in this series, which i havent even tempted to read.

Author Information: the author of this book is Kate Brian, she lives with her husband in New Jersey. she was educated in Rutgers University. Kate has written many other young-adult books auch as Sweet 16, Fake Boyfriend, and The Princess and the Pauper. This is the first book of the Private series.

Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time

Plot: this book is about a 12 year old boy named Standford, who lives in Rancho Rosetta with his mother and father. Stanford is one of the best basketball players in his grade, he is on the Rancho Rosetta basketball team. He might be good at basketball, but he has just failed 6th grade english which means he has to go to summer school. Since summer school os for "losers/nerds" he decides on not telling his friends and acting like he has to work for his dad's office. His not-so-sociable father, actually made a study "date" with a very good friend named Millicent Min. Stanford ends up passing summer school, becoming really good friends with both Millicent and his Language Arts teacher. i recommend this book for boys and girls.

Characters: the character i am choosing to describe is Emily Ebers.

• Emily Ebers- Emily is one of Millicent's closest friend, and that one day she sees her in the library with Stanford changed his life forever. As Stanford described her, she has crystal brown eyes and silky brown hair. The one thing i didnt like about Emily is that one time she was getting ice cream with Stanford and when she went to go pay, instead of paying with cash she payed with her very own credit card. Even though she didnt brag about it, i found it uneccesary to have her show it off.

Your thoughts: i thought this book was for mostly boys in the beginning because all Stanford and his friends talked about was basketball and how they were gonna get muscular this summer. But towards the end when the author introduces Emily, it turns into a cute, true-love story, which is sorta girly. My favorite part of the book was when suddenly, the author made Stanford turn rebelious and he dyed the tips of his hair purple.

Reading Strategies: the reading strategy i used in this book was predictions. the first prediction i made was that in the beginning, i knew Stanford was going to become friends with Millicent and pass English. Also, i knew that Stanford was going to get caught in his own lie, when he didnt tell his friends about going to summer school.

Author Information: the author of this book is Lisa Yee. She was born and raised in Los Angeles. She was a student at University of South Carolina. She has written Millicent Min: Girl Genius, Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time, and So Totally Awesome Emily Ebers, all these books are part of a trilogy.