Family Reunion

by Caroline Cooney

Family reunion is about a family people know as unstable. Shelley's parents are divorced, her mom in Paris whom is going to remarry. Shelly lives with her 12 year old little brother who embarreses her and has a fake leg. She lives with her father who married about four times. She has one more sister who is in Paris, visiting their mom. Every year they get together at their aunt's house in Barrington and have a family reunion. But now she has to go there with her new stepmom and annoying little brother because her dad had to skip it for business things. But actually her dad is coming to suprise people. She discovers a secret. Her dad's first wife maybe had a son called Toby. She doesn't believe it. But when she goes to the pool with her cousins she has a huge crush on this guy. And wierdly enough, his name was Toby. They later meet each other again in the ice cream shop and later confirms that he was the son of the first wife. But they are not really considered family. They fall in love and rides home in Toby's car. But something unexpected happen. They kissed. 

My favourite part was the talk when Shelly finally finds out that Toby was really her father's first son because it was akward and unexpected.

The sister switch

by Jane B Mason and Sarah Hines Stephen

Caitlin and Andie are identical twins and they are just starting junior high. Altough they look the same on the outside, they are totally different on the inside. Caitlin is a smart math student and is hoping to be in the Jazz ensemble. Andie is a sporty person, always fit and  always playing on the soccer pitch. But one day, Caitlin has to take a physical fitness test. So they thought, why not trade each other's places for a day. Caitlin passes the fitness test and Andie is finally good and liked by the math teacher. Everything was perfect until they got tangled in a mess. Starting it was easy, but stopping it is harder! How will they stop by not hurting other's feelings?

My favourite part was when they were trying to trade back places. There were so many distractions. Their friends, crush and teacher trying to hang out with them or having a chat with them. It was exciting to see them trying to get out of the mess.

Chocolate fever

Chocolate fever is a about a boy called Henry Green who loves chocolate. He eats it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The chocolate doesn't cause him any pains, so his parents let him eat as many as he wants. One day, he went to school and had brown spots all over his body. The teacher sends him off to the nurse but the nurse says that there is no such sickness like this. So they send him off to the doctor. The doctor says he has to go through things and injections to get better, but Henry is too scared so he runs away. The whole town is looking for him and chasing him, but no one can find him. Henry hides into a  truck and meets a nice guy called Big Mac. They can relate to each other because Big Mac has had the chocolate fever before. Henry returns back home and doesn't eat any chocolate anymore. But oh-no he starts a new addiction, cinnamon.

My favourite part was the big chase. When everyone was chasing after himm, scouring the city for him. My other favourite part was the ending. Just when you thought he learnt his lesson, he starts a new one.

The Story Of Tracy Beaker

****

By: Jacqueline Wilson

The story of Tracy Beaker is a comedy, heart- warming story. It's about a girl called Tracy Beaker who first lives in a Chidren's Home but might get adopted by Cam Lawson. Cam is a famous, adult author who visited the orphanage. She then spots Tracy and talks to her. Cam picked her because one of the carer's said that Tracy wanted to become an author and showed her work. Both of them start bonding and going out to MacDonalds. I say that I think Cam is going to adopt her because Tracy used to hate everyone and didn't want to get adopted. But with Cam it's different, because she keeps begging her to adopt her and is attaching to her. Tracy says that her real mom is a superstar and is really pretty. She thinks that she is going to come sooner or later. In my opinion I think she's lieing that her mom is famous. The Children's Home seem to agree with me too. Her enemies Louise and Justine don't beleive her because she's known for making up lies. Tracy is a very lazy, pestimestic, doesn't-care-about-anything-sort-of-person. If you're wondering in the interview video, why I'm so messy as Tracy Beaker, it's because she's not well-groomed and doesn't care about her looks.

Later on in the story, Cam is wondering of publishing one of Tracy's storie's. So she might become a famous author, like what I hope to be. I enjoy Jacqueline Wilson's books and so might you!

Series of unfortunate events #12 The Penultimate Peril

By: Lemony Snicket
****

This second to last book is when the Baudelaires meet Kit Snicket, Jacques Snicket's sister. They feel like their lives might feel happy again. Kit gives them a job at the hotel Donuement. They have to disguise as concierge and flanuers. The hotel is the last safe place for V.F.D and they have to meet on Thursday. But on their trip as concierges, they found out that the notorious villian, Count Olaf is in the hotel, planning a cocktail party. They have to be seperate to do the jobs. The people they help are villians that Count Olaf invited to his cocktail party, and people they've met throughout their miserable lives. But there are volunteers from V.F.D in the Hotel. They met Dewey Donuement, the good volunteer spy who followed the Baudelaires, but could never get hold and save them. But later sadly, he got killed. And now the Baudelaires are sailing away with Count Olaf, after setting the hotel on fire.

Series of unfortunate events #11 The Grim Grotto

By: Lemony Snicket

****

This fascinating book is continued when the Baudelaires are being founded by 2 people in the stricken stream. The people are Captain Widdershins who is a good friend of the Baudelaires' parents and the other person is Fiona, the captian's stepdaughter who is now their friend. They go into caverns to find the sugar bowl, a very special, secret item to save themselves, but at the end they didn't find it. Fiona betrayed the Baudelaires by joining Count Olaf and his evil troupe. At the very end of the book, they met Kit Snicket, another one of the Baudelaires parnet's friend. And for the first time they felt that their lives are finally going to change out of the unfortunate events.

Definately check this book out because when you start reading this, you'll never want to put it down! Or might as well read the whole series!

Elvis lives! and other anagrams

By: Jon Agee

This funny book is about anagrams like Southern California-hot sun or life in a car. An anagram is when you take a sentence or word and jumble it to create new sentences and words like punishment?-nine thumps. It has the same amount of letter and the same letters.

Jon Agee is an author and illustrator for children's books. He writes creative, funny books about words. One of his many books is Smart Fellar, Fart smeller when he introduces spoonerisms which is when you switch the first letters of each word in the sentence. One of the examples is well oiled bycicle-well boiled icycle.

Check out his books at the library and get your mind thinking about what you can do with words.

The series of unfortunate events #10 The slippery slope

by

Lemony Snicket

****

This wonderful book is about three orphans whose parents died in a fire done by the evil Count Olaf. He tries to get his hands on the Baudelaires rich fortune inherited from their parents. They keep getting sent to guardians their parents friends with, but Count Olaf murders them all one at a time, until he kidnapps the orphans. Count Olaf finds them annoying when they are the ones who are well-behaved and polite. So he thinks he should just take one Baudelaire which is the youngest, Sunny and leave the other two behind. Because in order to take the fortune, one Baudelaire has to be alive. Count Olaf and his evil troupe head to the Mortmain mountains on the highest peak and finds the V.F.D headquarters. The V.F.D headqaurters is a place where the Baudelaires parents and other friends, secretly meet. Later on they burn down the headquarters. Violet and Klaus some how found Sunny again and someone they would never expect to meet, Quigley Quiqmire. Their friend's triplet who was claimed dead. But that wasn't true. They find the burned down head quarters, and tries to find more clues to their parent's past.

I reccomend this book to anyone who is in for an adventure, or likes complicated, miserable books. This book is a bit challenging and has many series linked with more mysteries after another. There are 13 books in all, and I'm on 11. Almost there!!

Facts about Lemony Snicket

This amaing author's real name is Daniel Handler. He uses Lemony Snicket as a pen name, becasue he's known for being mysterious. For example, if you see all his pictures, it's in black and white, but they're recent pictures. And also he wears a hat and his back to the camera. Rarely you will see his face in pictures. He beleived that some children didn't have a happy begginings and that was true. Daniel's father fled from germany as a young boy because of the Holocaust. "I learned about the Holocaust at a very young age than everyone else", said Daniel Handler. The information affected him in his writing and politics. His famous series: a series of unfortunate events is about three miserable orphans, Violet, Klaus and Sunny who's parents died because of a fire done by the evil villian Count Olaf. He tries to steal the Baudelaire's rich fortune, so every guardian who takes care of the orphans, he murders them all until he kidnapps them. It's about the miserable journey of orphans. That's why all he's book are not happy. He also plays the accordion because his mom and dad are opera singers.

The books that I read from him are the sereis of unfortunate events from book 1 to book 10. Here are the list of titles starting from 1. The bad beggining, The reptile room, The wide window, The miserable mill, The austere academy, The ersatz elavator, The vile village, The hostile hospital, The carnivorous carnival, and the book that I'm reading right now is The slippery slope.

Links

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ff=/c/a/2003/10/13/DD138106.DTL

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/06/23/daniel_narrowweb__300x336,0.jpg

http://www.lemonysnicket.com/