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Knee-Knock Rise

30 Jun

Knee-Knock Rise

By Natalie Babbitt

Ages 9-12 – 144 pages

Published in 2007 by Square Fish (originally published in 1970)

Egan was visiting his Aunt, Uncle and cousin (Ada) in the town of Instep. Instep is the closest town to Knee-Knock rise, a mountain where the people of Instep say a monster (the Megrimum) lives. When Ada teased Egan and dared him to climb to the top on Knee-Knock mountain. which no on had EVER done, Egan got mad and he and his Uncle’s dog started to climb. Egan was afraid of what they would find at the top…..the Megrimum! Egan discovers the secret of the Megrimum and tells the townspeople but they think he is lying.

Knee-Knock rise won the Newberry Honor book award in 1971. My teacher gave everyone in our third grade class a copy of this book as an end of year present. When I first started reading this book, I really didn’t like it (it was very creepy and I didn’t like the characters at first) but kept reading to give it a chance. I am happy I read the whole story because it turned out to be pretty good. It is an easy book to read. Michelle Isenhoff of the Bookworm Blather blog told me that Tuck Everlasting is one of her favorite books and I just realized it is by the same author so I think I’ll try that book too!

I give Knee-Knock Rise 3 out of 5 book worms.

The BFG

13 Jun

The BFG

By Roald Dahl

Illustrated by Quentin Blake  

Published in 1998 by Puffin

208 pages -Ages 9-12

Sophie was an orphan with a pretty boring life. That is until she was kidnapped by the B.F.G. (the Big Friendly Giant)! “A big friendly giant?!?”, you may be asking yourself! Well, yes! He is different from all the other giants. First of all the other giants re much bigger than the BFG and secondly the BFG doesn’t eat people like the other giants. Sophie ends up living with the BFG and she convinces the BFG they have to stop the other -GIANT- giants from eating people and this starts an exciting adventure!

The BFG is exciting, amazing and rocks (E.A.R.)! (OH- the BFG also has HUGE ears).

I recommend the book to everyone. It is good for advanced young readers because it isn’t too scary and it is a great story. Kids of all ages and adults will like the story.

I give The BFG four out of five book worms!

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

15 May

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood  -(Kindle book)

by Howard Pyle

Published in 2008 by A.C. Bryan

330 pages – ages 12+

Did you realize there is much more to the story of Robin Hood other than him being a guy who stole from the rich to give to the poor? How did Robin Hood get his name? Did you know Robin Hood was an Uncle? How did he get his band of Merry men? This book explains how Robin Hood got to be Robin Hood. In 1883 Howard Pyle (who happens to be from Delaware!) put together many traditional Robin Hood stories and made them into this complete book about Robin Hood.

I think the best part of the book is when Robin Hood had a feast with the Bishop of Hereford and the 5 friars and Howard Pyle wrote that “ it was a glorious feast but since he (Mr. Pyle) wasn’t invited” he couldn’t tell us what happened there -I think this was a funny joke the author played on the readers!

The book was a challenge for me to read because it was written in old English so many of the words (thou, ye) were unfamiliar to me and it is written on a harder level -that’s why I gave the age as 12+. BUT -it shouldn’t keep you from reading it. I am happy I did because now think I know the language better AND I really liked the story of Robin Hood Mr. Pyle told. Some of the stories were funny, and all of them were interesting with some action and adventure!

I give this classic book 5 out of 5 book worms!

The Wind In The Willows

17 Apr

The Wind in The Willows

By Kenneth Grahame illustrated by Tasha Tudor

Pages 255    Ages  9+

Published in by 1960 by The World Publishing Company

This story is about a mole and a water-rat living together by the river. They meet a toad and a badger when they were living there. The toad mostly got into a lot of trouble from crashing his wagon to stealing motor cars. The badger was friendly, but didn’t really like society too much. Over time the badger, water-rat, and mole tried to tell the toad to stop wasting his money because he was buying motor cars and kept crashing them so he’d have to pay the hospital fees. The other animals tried to keep an eye on Toad but when he escaped unnoticed, he got into a whole lot of trouble. When Toad returned he found out that there was even more trouble at his house, Toad Hall.

This book is excellent, exciting, and adventurous. The book shows how great it is to have good friends. The book has older language (it was originally written in 1908!) so if you are a young kid who is advanced in reading the book is challenging because of the language  and there is no real scary parts.

Now I see why so many people recommended this book to me!

I give this book 5 out of 5 book worms!

THE BOXCAR CHILDREN SERIES

27 Feb

THE BOXCAR CHILDREN SERIES

By Gertrude Chandler Warner

Ages 9+

Published Originally published in 1924 by Rand McNally. The copy I have was published by Albert Whitman & Company in 1989.

The boxcar children series is HUGE, so I’m going to tell you about the first book. It’ll probably make you want to read the rest. But first, I’m going to tell you a little about the series:

  1. They are not violent.
  2. They are not really scary books, they are more adventure books.

There are over 100 books in this series(I don’t have all of them, but I have 103). The first 16 books are by Gertrude Chandler Warner and the rest are by different authors but they are written similarly.

BOOK #1: THE BOXCAR CHILDREN

Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny were orphans. They were running from their grandfather who they thought was mean. When they slept in a bakery they heard that the baker’s wife was going to give them to an orphanage. You would think that they would like that, but they didn’t. They ran away that night while the baker and his wife were asleep. Now the children were running not only from their grandfather, but the baker and his wife, too. Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny found an abandoned boxcar to live in. They were close to a dump, town, and a doctor. Henry found a job in the town, while Jessie took care of Violet and Benny at the boxcar. One day while Henry was working they heard a rustling noise. A hurt dog came out of the bushes. The kids adopted the dog and cured him and he became their protector. The story is about their life in a box car and how they managed to live there. In the end, the kids grandfather really isn’t a mean guy and they end up living with him, but their adventures continue for many more books. They are interesting and pretty easy to read.

 This is a great series (from my opinion)! The first book is good, but as they get further into the series, they get even better! I would recommend this series to anyone!

I give this series 5 out of 5 book worms!

CHARLOTTE’S WEB

18 Feb

CHARLOTTE’S WEB

By E.B. White Illustrated by Garth Williams

This version was Published in 2006 by Harper Collins

184 pages -ages 9+

Fern was an 8-year-old girl who had stopped her father from killing a pig that was a runt. Then she was told that she was going to raise the pig she named Wilbur. When Wilbur got bigger, he was moved to the Zuckerman’s farm. The Zuckerman’s were Fern’s uncle and aunt. Wilbur was lonely there, even though Fern came to see him about every day. He also wanted a friend at the barn, too. One night Wilbur heard a voice that said “I’ll be your friend Wilbur”. The next morning he found out the voice was from a spider named Charlotte. They were really good friends to each other. One day Wilbur heard Mr. Zuckerman say “That pig will make some fine bacon”, Wilbur was shocked! Charlotte said she would help him somehow. So she stayed upside down thinking of how to help Wilbur. She then said she was going to write words on her web that made Wilbur look really special. The Zuckerman’s were surprised and thought the web was a miracle. When more words in webs showed up they decided to take Wilbur to the County Fair. Charlotte’s plan was working! Charlotte went along with Wilbur to make a web for him. She was sure that if she made a web with a word in it, Wilbur will definetly win.

This story is excellent book for anyone. I liked it a lot! I checked this book out of my school library and when I started to read it I couldn’t put it down because it was so good! I think you would like it a lot too! This book teaches lessons too. Some of them are good friendship, being loyal, and helping others!

I give this book 4 out of 5 book worms.

The Trumpet of the Swan

2 Feb

The Trumpet of the Swan

By E.B. White

Published in 1970 by Scholastic Inc.

210 pages – ages 7+

The Trumpet of the Swan is about a swan who grows up within the story and a boy, whose name was Sam, was the first human to see the swan, whose name was Louis, at the beginning of his life. The swan was mute, or in other words he couldn’t make a sound. To have Louis make a sound, his father went through a lot of trouble to get him a trumpet. Later, when Louis was probably, in human years at least, eighteen, he went to Sam to learn to read and write at Sam’s school. After that, he wanted to actually play the trumpet, which he had never been able to do because of his webbed feet. Soon enough, he was getting  jobs for playing the trumpet, which included waking up a group of boy scouts. This swan had a very interesting life from the start of his life being mute and the ending happy. All goes well except that Louis was still mute.

I think kids and adults will like this book. I also recommend  ‘Charlotte’s Web’ or ‘Stuart Little’ also by E.B. White. This is an excellent book for anyone to read. I like the story because it shows it’s OK to be different.

I rate this story five out of five book worms!

Ginger Pye

18 Jan

Ginger Pye

By Eleanor Estes

Originally published in 1951 – published in 2000 by Harcourt Inc.

306 pages -ages 9+

Ginger Pye is a mystery book, but it is not real scary. It is about a dog named Ginger Pye and his family: Mr. Pye, Mrs. Pye, Rachel Pye, Jerry Pye, and Uncle Benny (the Pye children’s 3-year-old uncle). Ginger Pye is a very smart and loyal dog who knows a ton of tricks, he even brought a pencil to Jerry Pye when Jerry needed it at school. The trouble started when Ginger Pye was stolen. Most of the book is about the Pye family trying to find him. I won’t say who stole the dog because it will give away part of the book. I liked the Pye family characters and especially the cat (Gracie) who could open doors. Eleanor Estes won a Newbery Award for this book.

The story wasn’t too interesting when it started. Before I got deep into the book, I stopped reading it but my mom encouraged me to keep reading and then it got better. It turned about to be a pretty good story. The reading level was not too hard for me but the story had way too many details that it really didn’t need.

I give this book 3 book worms out of five.

Around the World in Eighty Days

17 Jan

Around the World in Eighty Days

By Jules Verne

Originally Published in 1873 Published in 2010 by Dalmatian Press

210 pages – ages 12+

Phileas Fogg bet half of all of his money that he could travel around the world in 80 days -he kept the other half of his money to spend as he traveled. So  Phileas and his servant, Passepartout, take off on their journey. Along the way they meet interesting people and travel in many ways including by boat, trains and even ELEPHANT! Remember this was a time before airplanes so traveling the world in 80 days was a challenge. They also run into a lot of trouble, like when Passepartout misses a boat that Phileas was on so he has to join a travelling circus to meet back up with Phileas.

This is an excellent book. The book had some really exciting moments that kept the story going (like when Indians raid one of the trains Phileas is on). I found that the book was challenging to read because the book was written so long ago I wasn’t familiar with a lot of words -like promenading -that was a new word for me. One thing I didn’t like was that Phileas and Aouda (Phileas saved Aouda’s life in India) fell in love….romance -BLECK! 

I give the book four out of five book worms.

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