Monday, February 3, 2014

Travel Team

Travel Team
Mike Lupica

Danny Walker the smallest kid on the basketball team and on the court, but he loves the sport so much that his height doesn’t bother him. He is a perfect passer, always finding a way to get the ball out of any sticky situation he is put into. When his height gets him kicked off the local travel team, the world is shocked.
            Being the smallest kid and the best passer is what Danny has always been recognized for. Getting the ball to the taller person that could make a basket, or getting out of any sticky situation with precision accuracy. He is the one person you want to give the ball to because you know he will make a play happen. 
Danny is more shocked then anyone; the travel team he had been kicked from was the same team that his father had played on. His father is Richie Walker famous NBA star, who has just recently washed out of the NBA. Once his dad finds out about his son being kicked from the team for the wrong reasons, Richie decides to make his own travel team.

            I really enjoyed this book. It has great details and a lot of basketball related things that keep sports readers wanting more and more.

The Darkest Path by Jeff Hirsch

15 year old Callum Roe was captured by the Glorious Path when he was 9 along with his little brother James, who was 7. Forced to live and serve the Path, Callum wants out. He wants to get out of the little town he has been living in for the past 6 years. He wants to get out of Nevada, and back home to New York. But he knows he could never do that. So when the chance arises to become a citizen, he jumps on it. His little brother James, has asthma, and needs medicine because he has trouble breathing sometimes. But only citizens get medicines.

Callum would do anything for his brother. Including infiltrating a base in California and tricking hundreds of people into leaving the safety of their camp. Later they are captured and given the choice. They could choose to go on Path, or die a painful death. But in order to infiltrate, Callum has to look helpless, so his arm is smashed, and he is beaten by the same man who is promising citizenship. When Callum returns to his little settlement, he finds a container with MREs, Meals Ready to Eat, and three inhalers for his brother. Excited, Callum told his brother the news, and James became excited. Captain Monroe, who promised Callum and his brother citizenship, called a meeting with Callum. Only to tell him that he would not get the citizenship, instead he got a pin of honor, which meant nothing to Callum.

Angrily, Callum went to his job. He helped Quarles with the dogs. Quarles was a balding fat man, but he was good for one thing, and that was to train attack dogs. He could do it quick and cheap. Callum was sent to look for a stray spotted in the old abandoned town up the road a ways. That’s when everything goes rye.

Forced to go on the run, Callum takes what he can just to survive. Many try to help him, and many are killed for doing so. It isn't until Callum meets Nat that anything really goes off track. But as time goes on, Cal gets closer and closer to Bear, and even Nat. And when trying to flee the country, Cal and his new friends are stopped, Cal must make a choice. He can either take Bear, or leave him. And he won’t make it far.

When Cal is recaptured by the Path, he is joined back with his brother, and Nat. James wants nothing to do with his brother, and Nat wants nothing more than to see everyone in the camp die. Including President Hill, the very one who started the Glorious Path. With the war almost over, Hill is coming to talk to the troops. Nat, the irrational person she is, decides that she will kill Hill. But Callum can’t let her do that. He knows what happens to traders of the Path. And he can’t let that happen to Nat.


With the war nearly ended, Cal takes James and heads back home. There real home. Back in New York with their parents. But after six years, who can tell what has happened. So James goes back to the Path to become a Barren. And Cal goes back. Back to a place he thought he would never want to see again. But he can’t resist. He can’t leave Bear. 
Code Orange
Caroline B. Cooney
Code orange is about a kid named Mitty that doesn't care about school and gets bad grades and his family is rich. His science teacher Mr. Lynch tells Mitty to go to the public library to find a book on diseases. He finds a book on smallpox. Smallpox is an infectious disease caused by two variants, Variola major and Variola minor. He opens the book and finds an envelope. He opens its and finds scabs. He takes them out and looks and smells them. Then he accidentally inhales the scabs.
Mitty runs home scared out of his mind and gets on his computer and starts sending emails to doctors and random people. He gets and email from foreigners that are gonna go kidnap him to spread the virus. Mitty is crapping his pants at these points. Hours later there’s a knock on Mitty’s door. He opens and he is crabbed and put in the car.  What would you have done differently than Mitty’s choices like not caring about school. I personally would have never sent an email.  He should have told an adult.

Please leave your thoughts on what you would do differently in the comments. Thank you.

THE LAST TRAIN



The last train a Holocaust story by Rona Arato
                The last train is about a family that goes through the Holocaust. The family is the Auslander. They life in Hungary with their mother father and brothers But then there father gets taken away by the Germans. So they have to live on there with their mother and there aunt. Then when they think it can’t get worst they have to go on this train that takes them to a camp for Jews. The camp is very bad they work all day and they don’t have a lot to eat then there mother gets very sick. But there is one good thing that comes out of it they find their uncle. Then one day the guards wake them up the guards said “you will be going to another cap” so then they get on another train and they are riding to their new home but the trains stop and there are American soldiers they have stopped  the train and they are free.
            So they go to the nearest town and live there for a little bit. Then the little boy named Paul finds his father so then they get to go home. But there house is gone. They live in another home. Then there life gets back to normal but they will still always remember what happen to their religion.
 

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Diary of a wimpy kid

The last straw

By: Jeff Kinney
           
 
        This book is about a middle school boy named Greg Hefley. Greg is all about trying to be in the "popular" group and getting the girl of his dreams Holly Hills. The only problem is he thinks his family and his best friend Rowley are going to mess everything up with his plans.
 
           Greg starts his story out by starting a new years resolution for him and his family. The only problem with that is no one can keep there resolution even his little brother Manny. After a while Greg realized there was no point in trying to help his family with there resolutions because they never started them so he moved on to bigger and better things.
 
           Greg's new plan is to get Holly to go to the valentines dance with him. The only thing is he doesn't know how to dance. So when they all go to the dance they all got to the dance all of them sate on the bleachers.
           Greg faces one more issue his dad keeps pushing Greg to play sports but, Greg rather stay home and play video games. The question is does Greg get the girl and does he fool his dad so he doesn't have to play sports and does he help the rest of his family and friends?
 

The Time Capsule

The Time Capsule
By; Lurlene McDaniel 
Review by: Hannah Sawaya

Adam and Alexis are twins. They had a happy childhood, that is until Adam got sick. With Cancer. When Adam got sick it tore his family apart, ripped them in half. But for how long?

Now its Alexis (Ally) and Adam's senior year, they are invited back to the school where they went. As the go back to their First-grade reunion they get to see what they wanted to be when the grew up. Ally wanted to help people. And Adam wanted to be a fireman. Little did Ally know hers would come true.

Adam has a relapse. He has cancer again. But how did they miss it? All the busing and sickness? Adam knew that cancer was back before the world did, he just didn't want to face it. But once they find out it rips their world in half..again.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Kingdom Keepers

Kingdom Keepers V
Shell Game
By Ridley Pearson

One again, the five Disney Host Interactive, also known as DHI, are forced to overtake the Overtakers. The Overtakers are all the enemies Walt Disney created. This time the DHIs get to become a hologram on the Disney cruise ship, the Dream. Before they are sent to get on the ship, they are to find the Overtakers and try to stop them from trying to take over the Disney parks.

Wayne, the Imagineer who created the DHIs, sends Finn to Typhoon Lagoon. While Finn is there, he meets King Triton. King Triton knows they will be on the Dream, so he tells Finn, "When the flying fish are near, I am not far away. The code is simple: 'Starfish wise, starfish cries.' " While Triton is talking to Finn, his mother turns sides and becomes one of the Overtaker's helpers.

The next day, everyone boards the Dream. The DHIs HAVE to have their parent with them, but Finn doesn't want to share a room with the enemy, so he asks Wayne if he could override the system so his parent will be Philby's mother. On the second day of the Cruise they dock at Castaway Cay. They soon run into the Overtakers. Will they defeat the Overtakers? What about Finn's mother, will she come out of the curse? Does King Triton help the DHIs?