Book Report on Key to Rondo Part 1

This week I read the first half of Key to Rondo. The book is about a boy called Leo and his cousin, Mimi who have a ancient music box. The music box says only to wind the box three times but Mimi winds it four times and a queen comes out and takes Mutt, Mimi's dog. Mimi wants to get the dog back so they get sucked in the music box world. In the world, everyone is trying to get them because they started an earthquake. First they meet a guy but he turns out to be on the queen's side. Then they meet a guy who they really think will help them but he doesn't and now they are in the forest running away from their old “friends.” Even though I am only in the middle of the book, I think the main idea is not to trust anyone.

This is the main idea because in the beginning of the book when the queen came out, Mimi almost trusted her into going into her world. When she refused, the queen took her dog and went back to her world. If Mimi took her hand she would be stuck in the other world and be trapped forever. Even though the queen promised great things Mimi still didn't do it. Also, in the other world there was a suspicious man who said he would help but Leo didn't trust him and they escaped him. This is why you shouldn't trust anyone.

Another example of this is when the guy they met told them that he knew where they were from and told them that he would help them get her dog back from the queen. But as they began to trust them he kicked them into the forest. Now right where I am, the guy they trusted is hunting them down to turn them into the police. This is why I think that the main idea is that you shouldn't trust anyone.

In conclusion, I think that Key to Rondo tries to show you that you shouldn't trust anyone. There are three examples of this in the first half of the book. One was with the queen, the second was with the suspicious man and the last one is the one who knew they needed to get back the dog. They were different people but they had one thing in common: they all betrayed Leo and Mimi. This is why I think that the main idea is not to trust anyone.

Book Report on I am Number Four

   

This week I read an amazing book called I am Number Four. The book is about a alien from another planet called Lorien and he lives on earth because his planet was taken over by another alien race called Megadorian. They are trying to kill everyone from Lorien. When the planet was being invaded, the Lorien sent nine kids and nine adults to care for them. The kids could develop powers and could only be killed in order. The adults had to train them and change their ID's every time one was killed.

So far, the first three died and the main character is number four. In the book John Smith (number four) is in Paradise, Ohio. He just moved and is starting to develop his powers. He makes two new friends and a enemy. One of them becomes his girlfriend and the other is Sam Goode who is obsessed with alien stuff. John's first powers are lights that come out of his hands, the ability to resist fire and telekinesis. At the end of the book, he lets Sam and Sarah (his girlfriend) know he is an alien and saves their life. When the Megadorians come they are stuck in their school and number six comes and they fight the Megadorians. When they beat them John and number six leave with Sam Goode. I think that the main idea is that there is always hope and that you should always believe.

This is the main idea because John's adult, Henri keeps reminding that once you lose hope you lose the war or die. This is important because when John was outnumbered he remembered not to lose hope and he beat the Megadorians. I think that at that moment, hope kept him alive. Also in the Lorien/Megadorian war, even though the Lorien were outnumbered they still kept hope and fought until the last man standing. This is why I think that you should always stay hopeful.

Another example is that throughout the book, every Lorien was hoping that the kids would fight back against the Megadorians and bring back the Lorien population. Also the John and the other numbers were hoping to stay alive and not get killed by the Megadorians who are hunting them until they die. This is why I think that the main idea is hope alive.

In conclusion, I am Number Four is a great book and shows us that you should always believe in any situation. It was important to have hope in this book because every number had to hope that someday they could go back to Lorien. This is why I think that the main idea is hope and to always believe.

Book Report on Forest Gate

   

 This week I read a depressing book called Forest Gate by Peter Akinti. The book is about a brother and a sister who come from Somalia in Africa and now live in England because their parents were killed.  When they get there, they face a lot of racism but one kid named James doesn't tease them. Ashvin the brother makes friends with James. Suddenly Ashvin starts acting strangely and then James and Ashvin kill one of the kids who bullied them. After that Ashvin and James do a double suicide but James survives. When he is in the hospital Miena, Ashvin's sister ask if he wants to live with her and he says "yes" because his brothers at home are drug dealers and mean to him. At the end of the book, James learns that his oldest brother killed all his brothers and then killed himself. In the book everything goes wrong for James.

    One example of this is when James attempts suicide with Ashvin but Ashvin dies and James doesn't. James knows he can't attempt suicide again. Another example is when James is a suspect for killing the Ethiopian kid (which he did) just as they are trying to start a new life. This is a problem because now he has an inspector on his tail. This shows that everything goes wrong for James.

    More examples of this are when James is in his new life and everything is good until he learns about his brothers' deaths and suicide. Another example is that all of his brothers are addicted to drugs and they are drug dealers. This is important because this is what shaped his personality and he is respected from most of the gangs because of his brothers.

    All in all, Forest Gate was a great book showing how racism is still alive today and that being poor is really tough. In the book it shows me the poverty in James's familyand how the brothers get money from selling drugs. It also shows the teasing and bullying towards Ashvin's family. I've learned from this book that racism and poverty still exist and what they can cause harm to people.

Book Report on Silverfin

 

   This week I read a young James Bond book called Silverfin. In the beginning, James Bond enters a race called the Hellebore race. In the race you have to swim, shoot and run. The competition's sports were swimming, shooting and racing because Lord Hellebore's son was in the competition and those were his three best sports. During the races, George Hellebore took white pills. But at the end of the story, George doesn't win even after he cheats in the running race.

     On vaction, Bond goes away to his home in Scotland and coincidentally, so does George. Bond meets a boy called Red who snuck onto the trian to Scotland. Bond and Red go find the Hellebore castle to see what was there. While James snuck in the house he was captured and Lord Hellebore tells him that he is trying to make a perfect fighting human. The pills to make the perfect fighting human are the white ones George took. In the end, James escapes and Lord Hellebore is eaten by the killer eels who are really powerful because they ate the leftover pills. It seems that the main idea of this book is that if you cheat you might not get what you want.

    An example of not getting what you want when you cheat is when it was the race in the Hellebore competition, James saw George take short cuts to get in first. Still James kept to the road and caught up to George. George tried to trip James but James avoided it and George fell. In the end of the race, James got first and George got third place. He lost at his own race, even after cheating. This  shows that if you cheat you might not always get what you want.

    Another example of this is when Lord Hellebore is trying to make the perfect human and tries his pills on his brother but it doesn't work and his brother turned into a monster. Later, after James escapes from Lord Hellebore, Lord Hellebore was about to kill James right by the river for destroying his lab. Then his brother Algar comes in and tackles Lord Hellebore and they fall into the water. When they come back out they are covered in blood and the eels start to come to eat them. When they go under, there are a lot of eels around them and when they come out again they are covered in eels. Then they go under for the last time and the eels eat them. This again shows that if you cheat you might not always get what you want.

    All in all, Silverfin was a great book and showed me that if you cheat you might not always get what you want. It showed us this in the race when George got third after he cheated, and at the end of the book when Lord Hellebore was killed by his brother who he made a monster after he made him take the pills that make you a perfect killing machine. These two pieces of evidence demonstrate that if you cheat you might not get what you want.

Book Report on Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie

  

  This week my class read an amazing book called Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie. The book was about an eighth grader named Steven whose brother Jeffrey gets leukemia, a type of blood cancer. At first, he thinks that it is only a joke and it was just a mistake. But as time passes he realizes that it's not fake and that he should spend time with him and sometimes Steven should make personal sacrifices for him big and small. 

    Steven made personal sacrifices such as when he had to kick Renee out of his house because he didn't want Jeffrey to get sick and have a greater chance of dying. This is a personal sacrifice because he had a crush on Renee and he had to get better grades in math and she was his tutor. She had a little cold and Steven didn't want to risk Jeffrey's health so he kicked her out and she had to walk through the snow back to her house. This proves that Steven has matured and made personal sacrifices.

    Steven also made more important sacrifices for Jeffrey, one example of that is when he was in the middle of his big concert he was practicing for all year. In the intermission his brother threw up, before the concert the doctor had said that if he threw up, he had to go to the hospital. Steven promised that he would stay at his brother's side. He had to skip his big drum solo to stay with his brother. He knew that his brother needed him to be him. This shows that Steven matured throughout the book and  he made big personal sacrifices for Jeffrey.

    Throughout the book Steven has changed. At the begining of the book he thought that his brother didn't have cancer and that it was just a mistake. Now, by the end of the book Steven had matured by having made big and small personal sacrifices for Jeffrey. The examples I used were just some of the many sacrifices Steven made for Jeffrey. I wonder would have happened to Jeffrey if Steven haven't made personal sacrifices.

Memoir

          The turf and air seemed moist and wet after the night rain. It was foggy and I could smell the air. It was Saturday and was about to play the undefeated soccer team in our league, Barboncito and as they were all big and tall, except one kid who was really small. They all were Latinos and seemed older than we did. But we weren't scared of them and we believed that we could easily beat them. When the game started there was only one surprise before the game, the one and only small kid was goalie and couldn't reach the top of the goal. When the game started we started off with the ball and we just passed around until I got the ball and passed to Tabo who instead of passing to Nico, who was wide open near the goal he tried to shoot. Luckily the goalie tried to hit it away and Nico jumped over the keeper (because the keeper was small) and scored a header. Then, just minutes later on of the players on their team out muscled our biggest defender and scored. We were a little shocked and scared of the kid because he was huge.

            Near the end of the first half the huge kid fouled me, and my coach told me not to go into the penalty box because if Tabo (who was taking the free-kick) tried to cross it Barboncito would probably get it because they are bigger than we are. So I walked over to the edge of the penalty area and faced towards our goal in case Barboncito got it. I really don't know what or why Tabo tried to cross to me but he did, and as the ball traveled through the air for what seemed for a long time, I decided to do an over head kick, so when the ball finally reached me I didn't have to move because I already was facing toward my goal. I kicked the ball over my head and fell backwards looking at the ball traveling toward the goal.

            Do you still remember how I said that the only small player on their team was the goalie, and how he couldn't reach the top of the goal? Well I guess that that day was my lucky day because the ball floated high and teased the goalie by going right over his out stretched hand and into the very top of the goal. At first I didn't really know what happened, then all at once I realized I scored a bicycle (over head) kick, also I  was surrounded by my teammates. Then and now I still think that I did the impossible.

Book Report on Shadow of the Wind Part 1

  This week I have been reading a great book called The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The book is about a boy who is brought to his father's bookshop which is called the "cemetery of forgotten books." He picks out a book and loves it so much he wants to find the other books by the same author. But barely anyone knows who the author (Julian Carax) is. He tries to find out who the author is but as he is looking he meets a man who says that he will buy the book from Daniel (main character). Daniel asked the man what he would do with the book, and the man replies that he will burn it. Then Daniel got a glimpse of his face and it was all burned. Later in the book Daniel finds out that all of Julian Carax's books were burned. I think that the book is about how Daniel's quest is similar to the book that Daniel is reading.
    Daniel is living the life of the main character in the book because in the book the main character was trying to find his lost father. Daniel is trying to find the lost Julian and his books. Another example is when the person who is trying to burn the book goes any the exact name as the devil in the book. Also he was stalking Daniel at his balcony with his face covered by the darkness. It was the same in the book, but the man was the devil. Right now in the book Daniel is trying to find more evidence of where Julian went. He is also is finding out what happened in Julian's life and where he might have gone. This is what I have found out so far in the book.
   Next week, I will cover part two of the book in my blog. Until then...