The Wager By Donna Jo Napoli

Don Giovanni isn’t a beggar. Only a few months ago he was the hadsomest and richest young man in Messina, but then a tidal wave changed everything.

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When a well dressed stranger, that could only be the devil, offers Don Giovanni a magic purse in exchange for a wager he knows he shouldn’t listen, but Don Giovanni is desperate and excepts. The deal was that he cannot change his clothes or bathe for three years, three months, and three days. Sounds simple right? Not so much because if Don Giovanni loses the wager he also loses his soul.

I would rate this book an 8/ 10 because at times the storyline kind of stopped or made me a little bored, but over all I really liked the story. I would say that this book would be for 6th grade and up because they do use some curse words and it is a little bit intense and sometimes gross, but over all I liked it.

The Dragon of Trelian By Michelle Knudsen

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The Dragon of Trelian was a book that I read and loved!! This book was a fantasy book and I would rate it a 9 1/2 out of 10.

This book is about a princess named Meg, and a mage’s apprentice Calen. The story is of their adventure when Meg finds a baby dragon, which she names Jakl, and begins to take care of it. Then Meg and Calen finds out that their is a traitor among the guests at Meg’s sister’s wedding, that is plotting to kill Meg’s sister, Maerlie to get revenge on the kingdom of Trelian. So Calen, Meg, and Jakl have to combine their strength and magic to defeat the traitor and restore peace throughout the kingdom of Trelian.

I would say that this book is for maybe 4th or 5th grade and up because there is some violence in this book.

David Macaulay

David Macaulay is about to start talking about his book called CASTLE. At the beginning of the school year the school gave all of the kids in the school sketch books. David Macaulay has been coming to our school during assemblies and talking to us about all of his drawings. Sometimes we use the sketch books for school purposes or just for free drawing. Just wanted you to know that before we started.

David is actually really funny! It turns out that he didn’t want to turn the books into color in the first place, because it was so expensive to print it in color. All of his books were originally in black and white, he had to re-draw all of the books in color!! I would definitely not have had the patience to do that. He colored the drawings with felted markers!! Fah-mazing!! There are four books in the series, CASTLE, CATHEDRAL, MOSQUE, and CITY. But he only has to re-draw CASTLE, CATHEDRAL, and CITY in color. In one of his drawings he had to draw hundreds and hundreds of lines to make his drawings look like castle walls. David is such an amazing artist! When he re-drew these books in color he modified them so that there were more things to look at. Like really modifies them, he made one from nothing into like a gate with towers and it was a snow scene. The way that he draws is so amazing , and he usually uses tracing paper instead of regular paper.It has began to occur to me that David really likes architecture and medieval times. Most of his books in the series are about what might have happened back then, and all the stuff about it.

I’m sorry guys I have to go, but here is a link to David Macaulay’s website.

http://www.davidmacaulay.com/

FANTASTIC MR. FOX

I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY MADE A MOVIE OUT OF THE BOOK!!!

I loved the movie. Even though I would only give it an 8/10 because there was a TON of violence. There were these farmers who wanted to kill this fox. And I felt really bad for poor Mr. Fox. But anyway, this was such a cool movie because it was a stop animation movie. Even though the characters looked kind of twitchy at times. The voices of the characters were great though, I mean Meryl Streep, and George Clooney.

It was really good. But also really violent. But you will have to see the movie to find out the rest.

Incarceron By Catherine Fisher

This was an AMAZING book!!!!

Incarceron is a prison like no other. The inmates live in not only cells but in dilapidated cities and unbound wilderness, and metal forests.The prison has been sealed forever and, legend says only one man has ever Escaped. There are two main characters in this book, Finn and Claudia. Finn is a prisoner in Incarceron, and Claudia claims to come from Outside.

When Finn and his oath-brother decide that it is time to Escape from the prison, they meet Claudia. As Finn’s journey continues Claudia begins to recognize Finn from someone she had known when she was a child. Then Claudia’s father, the Warden of Incarceron, finds Claudia contacting Finn through a crystal key, things turn bad. But as Claudia’s father begins to understand why Claudia needs to help this boy Escape the prison.

If I was to rate this book, I would rate it a 9 1/2 out of 10. I wouldn’t recommend this book for children under the age of 11, because there is some bad language in this book. Incarceron is a fantasy book.

School of Fear By Gitty Daneshvari

SPOILER ALERT!!!

I would say this book was a mystery and suspense story. Whenever I finished a chapter I would just want to read into the next. I would rate this book a 9/10. I would say this book was more of a book for maybe 4th grade and up because it was a bit sad at times. Overall I thought this book was great though!!!

School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari was an amazing book!!! When I was reading it, I just couldn’t stop! This book is about 4 kids. Lulu, Theodore, Garrison, and Madeline. All 4 of these kids has a fear of something. Lulu has the fear of confined spaces, and Theo has the fear of dying or death in general. School of Fear is about their journey to the school itself and overcoming their fear. When all four of them arrive they immediately want to leave. And that’s before they met their teacher, Ms. Wellington. Ms. Wellington is a very old lady with a bit too much makeup. Ms. Wellington also has a dog and four cats. The dog is Macaroni, and the cats are Fiona, Errol, Annabelle, and Ratty. Macaroni plays a very big part in the story more towards the end of the book. But you will have to read the book to find out what happens.

Player’s Ruse By Hilari Bell

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!! Player’s Ruse by Hilari Bell is the second book in the Knight and Rogue Novel series. The genre of this book was most likely fantasy.  The characters in this book were very different in tons of different ways. The ‘main’ characters were a knight errant, Michael Sevenson and his squire Fisk. The book is about how they go on a journey to find Micheal’s cousin’s , lover, and they get caught up in murders and sea pirates. I think Hilari Bell did an amazing job writing this book from the point of view from both characters. I think this book is more for 5th grade and older because of the language in the book. The book is about 380 pages long, and in the beginning it was kind of boring but then once the tale starts to unfold it is extremely suspenseful and makes you want to just keep on reading it. IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!! EVERYONE WHO LOVES FANTASY SHOULD READ IT!!!!!!!!!!

Where the Wild Things Are

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!

After you see this movie give the person next to you a BIG Hug. Where The Wild Things Are was a very touching and exciting movie. While watching this I felt like the actor who played Max was amazing. The way he portrayed the emotions of Max was great. But this movie is not for kids under the age of 9. But that’s just my opinion. If you have a child who is under the age of 9, the book is great and maybe when the kid gets older you can rent the movie. In this adventurous tale Max a young boy who has HUGE anger issues, who goes on a journey to a world where he pretends to be a king. He makes great friends there. And the end was just a big WHAPOW!!!!!! I was kind of surprised by the ending. How when he gets home it is still the night when he left. But it had been months since he went to the other world.