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The Thief and the Beanstalk
In the book The Thief and the Beanstalk by P.W. Catanese, the main character Nick goes and tries to steal from the ogres, but before all that he has to get the beans. When he first found the beans, he planted them and the beanstalk grew. He climbs up the beanstalk with such energy that he was barely tired when he reached the top. He was as energized as when he started. Then he went to go find the castle. When he got to the castle he found the treasure room. When Nick was about to leave the castle, he heard crying. It was a giant. At the beginning of the story Nick was starving and a penniless orphan. Although he puts himself in a lot of danger, he wants to see who is crying. He also faces spider heads and a boar. The ogres followed him down the beanstalk. He had to do something to the beanstalk before the ogres take over the human world!
Nick is the main character. He started the whole adventure without trying too. He only wanted some treasure. He faced death and he changed from being a thief to a hero. Jack is another important character because he led Nick to the beans without knowing it and now he’s trying to get Nick back to earth in a safe way.
The author uses imagery, metaphors and personification. One quote from the story on page 272 is “A tiny vine poke through the charred soil and wriggled in the moonlight.” A vine can’t wriggle or even grow in one night. This sentence means that the plant must be magical. It also describes how the plant got out of the ground. When the author uses metaphors it makes the book a lot more interesting because if he just said it popped out of the ground it doesn’t seem so exciting or fascinating. The author also put on page 88 “And a matching shiver ran down Nick’s spine.” It’s very descriptive and it shows that Nick had the chills even though he was sweating because he is so nervous.
The story excited me because there’s always something Nick has to do to survive or something he has to kill. One bad thing in this book is that at the beginning it is slow. On page 1 “Nick opened his eyes and blinked.” It doesn’t tell you where he is or what he’s doing. He needs to find a new home without getting caught. “Nick got up, rubbing his head, and turned in time to see Finch step back off the table’s edge, just before the first of the spider-heads reached him.” Nick had just gotten out of his cage and he’s about to get attacked by spiders that roughly about his size. This part really excited me because he had to escape without their venom touching him and also before the ogres get back to find that he had escaped with Finch.
I give this book a solid 5 stars out of 5 stars. The author used literary devices. P.W Catanese also is very descriptive. The author is good at making me believe that I am there with Nick. I highly recommend this book.
The title of the book was The Last Olympian and it was written by Rick Riordan. The book takes place in New York. Percy and the half-bloods need to defend Olympus. The gods can’t help them because they’re busy defending against Typhon. Lots of people have already lost their lives in the war. There are only 40 half-loods against Kronos’ army of 800 in total of titans, hellhounds and monsters. It’s going to take a miracle to defeat Kronos.
The main characters in the book are Percy and Luke. Luke gave up his life for Kronos and Percy fought Kronos. They both changed by becoming more selfless. They were not believable or predictable because Luke used to work for Kronos but then he gave up his life in order to stop him. Percy was supposed to be the hero and stop Kronos, but instead it was Luke.
An example of a literary device used in the story is “A cold fist closed around my heart.” The author uses personification and it was effective because the person was shocked. A fist can’t close around someone’s heart but the author gave the character’s heart human characteristics.
The story excited me and surprised me. Some quotes that did that were “Silena opened her hand. In her palm was a silver bracelet with a scythe charm, the mark of Kronos.” That surprised me because that meant that she was the spy at camp half blood working for Kronos. Another one was “Perceus you are not the hero.” That surprised me because everybody thought that he was the child of Prophecy and the hero when he actually wasn’t.
I would give the book four stars out of five because it was boring at first but then it became more exciting.
In the book Eyes of the Emperor, by Graham Salisbury, a stuck-up 15 year-old Hawaiian boy of Japanese heritage lies about his age and joins the U.S. Army. Eddy does this to get girls. Unfortunately when President Roosevelt is convinced that Japanese people have a unique smell, he starts a program on Cat Island. The program tests Eddy’s and his Japanese unit’s loyalty when there is no fighting; they are simply used as bate to train U.S. K9 units to find Japanese soldiers and kill them. The training on Cat Island proves a cruel, inhospitable assignment. However, Eddy refuses to surrender to the vices that have claimed so many of his friends. Instead he realizes the true meaning of honor, selflessness, loyalty. These lessons will guide him through this racist journey and help him to gain the respect of his superiors in the U.S. Army.
Eddy and his father both face the same problems in the book: racial discrimination. People attack them for being Japanese, and assume they might be spies for the Japanese army. Graham Salisbury’s primary literary device throughout the book is imagery. An example of this effective technique that Salisbury uses is, “The orange fire glow flickered on the black water and glowed on grim faces.” I like how the author used imagery to make the writing more effective. And, “a huge explosion shook the earth, somewhere down past Honolulu harbor, then another, and another, and after each blast ugly black smoke boiled up over the rooftops.”
overall, I’d give this book four out of five stars. The author created believable characters, but it didn’t have enough action in it for me. I recommend this book for anybody who is interested in WWII history.
The book Imani All Mine by Connie Porter is a book about a teenage girl named Tasha who is 15 years old and pregnant. She is dealing with personal problems like not communicating with her mother. Also, she has to figure out how she’s going to tell her mother that she is pregnant and how she is going to raise the baby. Along the way of her raising this baby, things seems to get in her way.
Tasha is the protagonist in the book. She has a baby and also trying to balance school; it doesn’t go well. In addition Tasha also has a boy problem; she tries to figure out why boys don’t like her. Another major character in the book is Tasha’s mom is going through rough times too. On top of having a daughter that is pregnant and 15 years old, she is looking to be in a relationship with someone.
One of the literary devices to describe the situation that Tasha encounters is a simile. On page 85, “The organ music I heard when I was outside come rolling soft to me under the sounds of the preacher voice, like a wave.”The atmosphere that the creates is sad and show how she is down about her life right now.
I like this book; I like that is very real. I felt like I was living in their household and I can feel their emotions. This book excited me, and made me wonder what was going to happen next. It kind of confused me a little, but at the end I put all the pieces together and figured it out. This one quote show you that Tasha is strong minded. “I don’t care what mama say about this baby and me. I’m having this baby. This baby being in me is bringing me back to Imani a step at a time. A minute at a time.”
I give this book five stars out of five. I would recommend to anyone who is thinking that teen pregnancy is going to be easy; this book will make you think twice!
Ike Udeh Rucker Park Setup
1. Summary:
Rucker Park Setup by Paul Valponi, the book takes place in New York City, mainly in Rucker Park. The story is about two boys named Mackey and J.R.; the boys have been playing basketball for as long as they can remember. They want to play in the Rucker Park tournament and to win the championship. When the time came for them to be able to play, J.R. is killed by a stabbing in the park. Mackey is astonished, and knows who killed J.R. Mackey still wants to play in the championship and knows that his friend would have wanted him to as well. Mackey is faced with many obstacles like J.R.’s father, Stove. J.R’s father knows that Mackey knew who had killed his son and is very determined to prove it. At the championship game Mackey plays as hard as he can to win the game. When all is said and done, Mackey knows his best friend J.R. will always be with him.
Two characters from this book are Stove and Mackey. In the story Mackey faces multiple problems. He has to deal with the death of his best friend and trying to persevere and win his championship even while he is thinking about his best friend’s killer. Stove faced many problems because he had to deal with the death of his own son and tries to find out who the murderer is.
Paul Valponi likes to imprint pictures of scenes in readers’ heads. “We called him Stove because back in the day, J.R.’s dad’s shot was hot like a Stove!” This is a simile. Similes are when humans are compared to non-living or non-human objects. This simile is comparing J.R’s father to a heated stove.
I liked many things about this story. For example one of the main things I liked most was that I never knew who J.R’s killer was. The story never gave me any actual hints on who it was and it always left me hanging. I suggest the best way to read the book is to not read the prologue until the last chapter of the book. If read this way, the book will always leave you thinking and you can enjoy it much more.
The author is very believable, even to the point where I tricked myself into thinking I was read a nonfiction book. I give this book a rating of 5 out of 5 stars.
In Slide or Die by Todd Strasser, the main character Kennin was faced with a choice, does he drive the stolen car to save his and his friend’s life or die? Kennin is 17 and he goes out with his friend and his friend’s cousin; he gets in the car so they can go see a race. When he gets in the car after a while he realizes that it is a stolen car. He tries not to worry about it, but they drive to a race in the mountains and his friend’s cousins Raoul gets really drunk and can’t drive the car back. The cops show up at the race and they start going after the stolen car that they are in and no one knows how to drive standard besides Kennin.
Two main characters in the book are Kennin and Tito. Tito is Kennin’s best friend; Kennin is new to the school so Tito is showing him the ropes. Due to an event in the story, Kennin goes from loser to popular and Tito goes from a wana-be popular kid to a little more popular in his grade.
The authors used different literary devices in the book. For example on page 26, “Though the windshield he could see the SX’s driver wearing black driving gloves and a helmet trying to unclasp his four point harness.” Another literary device is that the author used a simile this is demonstrated on page 25. The engine rattling like a coffee can full of loose bolts.”
The part in the story that I like the best was when Kennin was at a race with Raoul and Tito. A guy gets caught in a car fire because his car overheats and he couldn’t get out. Kennin runs into the flames and pulls the man out. I really enjoyed this part because of the way the author describes the scene, I felt like I was right there on the side on the road watching it happen. The thing that I wasn’t too happy about with the story was how Kennin was always quiet and didn’t tell anyone anything, like where he lived and who he lived with. I guess it’s a good thing though because it keeps you constantly guessing about how Kennin will react.
I would give this book a rating of 4 out of 5 stars because it was a great book. I highly recommend this book to others that love cars and racing.
The book Night by Elie Wiesel is about the concentration camps, and how the people survived the camps. The most important problem that happens in this book is how Elie and his father survive the concentration camps; they survive and see human beings being spilt up every day for no reason.
One of the major characters in the book is Elie who is separated from his mom and his sister at the beginning. He also faces tiredness, beatings, and starvation. Another major character is Elie’s dad who is separated from his wife and his daughter and he is also tired of dealing with his old age.
One of the literary devices used is a metaphor ; which describes how Elie is in trouble. “He threw himself on me like a wild best, beating me in the chest on my head, throwing me to the ground and picking me up again crushing me with ever move violent punches, until I was covered in blood.” Elie was getting beaten by this man at the camp.
I liked the story because it related a day to day experience. It made you think about what was going to happen next. It excited me as they traveled and met other people.
I give this book four out of five stars I liked it bout I thought it could have been a little bit exciting.
Night, by Eli Wiesel, takes place in Germany. This story is written in the first person and is a true story about the Holocaust. First, the Jews go to the concentration camps. Then Eli’s sisters go to the crematorium. Then, winter comes and Eli’s foot gets an infection and finally Eli’s dad dies. At the end of the story, the camp gets liberated by the American Army.
Eli and His dad faced the concentration camps and different kinds of sickness. One dies, but the other lives. Eli gets a foot infection, and Eli’s dad gets water poisoning. Eli became more responsible and his dad became less responsible after he gets sick. Eli uses imagery. A quote that shows he was effective with this literary device is “from the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as gazed at me has never left.”
The book bore me because there were some parts of it that dragged on. For example, “I spent my days in total isolation. With only one desire: to eat. I no longer thought of my father, or my mother. From time to time, I would dream. But only about soup, an extra ration of soup.” And the last paragraph on
page#112, “I did not weep, and it made me mad that I could not weep, but I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the remains of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: free at last.”
I’d give the book three out of five stars, because it dragged. If Eli didn’t explain everything in such detail that one scene went on for a couple paragraphs, the story would have progressed. I’d only recommend this to people who are interested in World War II history, specifically the Holocaust.
The title of the book is Night and it is written by Elie Wiesel. The book takes place in Germany. In the book, the Jews go to the concentration camps. Then Elie’s sisters go to the crematorium. Winter comes and it was horrible for the Jews. Elie’s foot gets an infection. Later on in the book, Elie’s dad dies.
The main characters in the book are Elie and his dad. The conflict that they face are the concentration camps. Elie becomes more responsible and his dad less responsible. They were believable and predictable because the story is true. It is a nonfiction book.
The author used imagery. A quote that he wrote using imagery was “The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me”. That quote makes you picture a dark stare that scares people. That shows how the stare made Elie feel in the book.
The story excited me. Some quotes were “Poor devils you are heading for the crematorium.” Another quote was “I nodded once, ten times, endlessly as if my head had decided to say yes for all eternity” the first one surprised me because the Jews were lining up for the crematorium where they get burned and murdered. The second one excited me because Elie nodded after when he got punished and agreed to never do what he did again.
I would give the book 3 out of 5 stars. The book had exiting parts but the plot was slow. The story didn’t move that fast. It could’ve been better if the plot moved faster. The author was effective in creating believable characters and plot.
Night
Elie Wiesel
Night by Elie Wiesel is about how Elie survives the concentration camps during the Holocaust. He has to go into labor camp and he doesn’t get a lot to eat. He also tries to take care of his father. They have to run a lot to get to another camp. If they stop they will get shot. They have to go non-stop because if they don’t they might get killed. Elie’s dad gets really weak and he keeps saying he can’t go on but Elie helps him to keep going.
The main characters are Elie and also his dad. Elie changes by being scared at the beginning of the book to being brave and he can’t cry because he “wasted” all of them already and he also doesn’t have the strength. His father is another important character in the book. His dad also changes from being scared to brave and he cares about Elie’s life then his own.
The author uses a metaphor on page 60, “We breathed in air filled with fire and smoke, and our eyes shone with hope.” Their eyes can’t really shine with hope but they were so hopeful and cheerful that they might be free. The author also uses a simile on page 78, “It was like an injection of morphine.” They were saying that they were so shocked and they were so numb from the air.
This story made me think of anger. It made me think of this because the characters felt anger against the Germans. I like this book because I learned about history and it wasn’t boring and didn’t make me want go to sleep. On page 103 the author also writes “On the third night of our journey, I woke up with a start when I felt two hands on my throat, trying to strangle me.” Everyone wants more people to die so then they can have more space and food on the train. On page 85 the author states “Faster, you tramps, you flea-ridden dogs.” The Germans are angry at the Jews because they hate them.
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. The author uses some literary terms and is descriptive. Elie Wiesel describes the book mostly from his point of view, but also writes about his father and what other people are feeling in specific situations.
The Batboy by Mike Lupica takes place Bloomfield Hills, a suburb of Detroit. Brian, the main character, loves baseball more than anything. For his whole life, his dream has been to be the batboy for the Detroit Tigers for the summer. He finally gets the job at age 14.
A conflict in the story develops when is mom is unsure as to whether she will let him play because baseball had ruined her marriage and she didn’t want to see it ruin their relationship as well. Brian’s dad was a pitcher in the MLB. This meant he was only home for a small portion of the year. When he was home he would always act like he would rather be on the baseball field. Once the time came for him to retire, he left Brian and his mom and moved to Japan to be a pitching coach. Brian was only eight when this happened and he hasn’t spoken to his father since. All he knows in he is working in Japan as a pitching coach.
The job as batboy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Brain’s “hero” Hank Bishop is on the Tigers and he isn’t as great as Brian expects. He is often mean to Brian, for example he yelled at Brian for putting his bat in the bat rack. Bats belong in the bat rack! Occasionally Hank is nice to Brian. For example; Brian was in a huge hitting slump. He was in the cages trying to fix his swing, when out of nowhere Hank came and gave him some pointers. It really helped and Brian started hitting great in his games. Hank was in a bit of a slump himself at the time. In fact in wasn’t a bit of a slump; it was a huge slump!
Two major characters in The Batboy are Brian and Hank. They both share the same problem of being in a hitting slump throughout the book. Both the characters are very realistic. Hank changed by becoming a lot nicer especially to Brian. Brian changed by starting to not like Hank as much because he was being such a jerk. Then once Hank to changed he began to like him more.
“Brian stood silent, like the bat rack.” I think that is a great use of a simile because Hank had just yelled at Brian for putting his bat in the bat rack. That shocked Brian. He didn’t do anything wrong and he was being screamed at.
The book was very interesting and exciting. I like how it wasn’t just about baseball. The author also mixes family problems into the book too. My favorite part was when Brian’s dad came to town. I say that because it made him really happy even though he only saw him for a day.
I would give this book four out of five stars. I strongly recommend this book to any baseball lovers.
Ike Udeh Night Book Review
Night by Elie Wiesel is about a Jewish boy from Sighet who is forced to move from his village in Hungry, to concentration camps in Poland and Germany by the German SS Army. His father, mother and one of his sisters were all killed from the vigorous and dreadful ordeal. He and his other sister were able to survive. The boy, Elie Wiesel is the author and this is his real story of the events that took place and how he survived.
Two major characters are Elie Wiesel and his father. Elie dealt with many conflicts. Elie not only went through all the concentration camps and fought his way out, but he was one of the people to keep fighting and survive the camps. What I think made it hardest for Elie is that he had to watch so many people die right in front of him, including his own father. Elie’s father is also a major character because without him Elie most likely would have been killed as well. In the story his father was his main motivation, `to survive after his father dies when his father dies Elie even plans on giving in himself. Elie shows an amazing amount of perseverance.
“It is in his name that I speak to you and that I express to you my deepest gratitude as one who has emerged from the Kingdom of Night.” This is a metaphor because Wiesel is comparing the concentration camps to the Kingdom of Night. This is an effective metaphor because it describes the camps very well.
I didn’t actually like the events in the book because many people died for absolutely nothing. However I did like how Elie and her sister were able to make it out of the concentration camps alive. The story did scare me because if I were in their place, I would be scared of having those horrible things happen to me.
I rate this book a 5, the text was very believable.
“Night” by Elie Wiesel takes place in Sighet and multiple concentration camps. Elie was forced to move from his home to a Jewish ghetto. After that he was forced to get on a train and go to Auschwitz. When he got there he was separated from his mother and sisters. He was still happy because he was with his dad. They were in line and a SS officer asked them for their age. They both lied. Elie said he was 18 when he was only 14 and his father said he was 40 when he was 50. They said they were both farmers. The line they were in kept moving and soon they found out they were on their ways to the crematorium. Lucky because of their lies they did not burn a slow fiery death. They went back to the barracks and were forced to work. Soon they were transferred to a different camp called Buna. They were there for a while. They were fed little food, beaten often, and were worked almost to death. Once that camp was invaded by the Russians they were forced to run in the freezing winter to another camp. A large portion of the camp died. They were at that camp for a few days. Then they were put on a train. When they got on there were over 100 men. When they got of there were 12. They arrived at a camp called Buchenwald. That is where Elie’s dad started to become very ill. Things just kept getting worse for Elie.
The two main characters are Elie and his dad. They both face the same problems, and there are a lot! Constant beatings from SS officers, Starvation, freezing during the winter, and the fear of losing each other. But their biggest problem is not being able to do anything about it. The characters changed throughout the book because at the beginning Elie’s father took care of him, but by the end of the book Elie was taking care of his father. I think both the characters are believable because everything in the book actually happened.
“There. There it was now, very close to us, the pit and its flames. I gathered all that remained of my strength in order to break rank and throw myself onto the barbed wire. Deep down, I was saying good-bye to my father, to the whole universe, and,
The novel “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini is a phenomenal book. Normally, I don’t like reading non-fiction books but I soon learned that I was wrong. My favorite part of the story was when the character Amir talked about his struggles through his late teen years. For example, in the story, Amir, his father, and many others were smuggled into Pakistan because they were trying to escape the Russian army that had invaded the city of Kabul. Amir and his father made it to Pakistan and then traveled to America in search of starting a new life.
Another great part of the story is when Amir is in his 20′s because he talks about being an adult, the struggles he experiences, and the problems in his life. Amir also talks about being married, living life after experiencing his father’s death, and living far away from his home in Kabul and childhood friends.
This story relates to the real world because everyday people have to live with poverty and struggle everyday just like Amir and his father did when they arrived in America.