Found

I just read the book Found by Margaret Peterson. Chip is one of the main characters. I think Chip would be a type of student where he would ask a lot of questions  and also be very intelligent. Because in the story so far he has broken into his parents safe by figuring out the code with the help of Jonah. Which is also a main character.  But still he did it and Chip did it because he wanted answers so bad about his adoption  he would do that for them. Chip just figured out he was adopted. He even looked through the papers that had house stuff in it and a little bit of adoption stuff  and he dropped them no thanks to Jonah, and he found a yellow sticky note that showed him ( 513) 555-0192. Which is a phone number. So he called it obviously because he is ambitious . What type of person calls a  number that  just found in a safe that your not even supposed to be in? Then Chip, Katherine, and Jonah went to this adopted convention. Kathrine is Jonah's sister. They went with Jonah’s parents of course. Then they went to a cave for a meditation of the heart …..

I would recommend this book to people who likes intense mind working mystery

Surviving The Applewhites

Captain Nobody

By: Dean Pitchford
        Have you ever felt so useless when your help is needed the most? 10 year old  Newt Newman's  big brother Chris is knocked into a coma  during the big game and is recovering in the General Appleton Hospital. In his Halloween costume, Newt feels like a... a... different person. And this different person seems to boost his confidence. Can he save the people of Appleton but also save his brother Chris?
         It all happened so fast. He lost his ticket. Was thrown in the parking lot. And then it happened. The stadium went silent. You could hear a pin drop, let alone the ambulance sirens. Football star Chris Newman was knocked into a coma. But to keep his little brother Newt's mind off the accident, friends Cecil and JJ help Newt make the perfect costume for trick or treating. Introducing, Captain Nobody!  Even after Halloween, he wears his costume. But Newt just happens to be in the right place at the right time. At the jewelry store robbery, the highway, and even the water tower. But when things start getting serious with  Chris's coma, Newt just has to help. Can he catch a robber, fall,off a water tower, have a sleepover with ferocious the ferret, and save Chris before the 6th day? To find out, read Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford.

Clue In The Castle Tower

     Samantha and her sister Nellie are thrilled to be staying at the Lockston Manor House. But they're having second thoughts about sleeping alone at the end of the dark hallway when there could be a ghost lurking around the castle grounds. And with a thief in the library that might be living in the castle, Samantha isn't sure what to think. With a prize of  100 pounds ( pounds is a British word for dollars or money) Samantha has to find the stolen treasures before they are lost forever. With the help from clues, Nellie, and the troublemaker twins Ian and Henry, Samantha may be able to catch the thief.

 Samantha, Nellie, Grandmary, and the Admiral are on a tour of  England and France. After they receive an invitation from relatives to stay at an ancient castle, they just can't  resist. But when they are looking around the manor house and notice that Lady Stallsworth's most prized books are missing, Sir Charles offers 100 pounds to anyone who catches the thief. Samantha and her family are leaving in a few days, and because Ian and Henry are known for their pranks, they are the first to be blamed. And the boys could be sent back to Bristwell, a reform school for the troublemakers.

     Anybody is a suspect in the Lockston Manor House. So if you're ready to uncover the clues and secrets that lead the kids to the thief, then read Clue in the Castle Tower, by Sarah Masters Buckey.

The Genius Files: From Texas With Love

If Coke and Pepsi McDonald could turn back time, they would turn it back to the day when they accepted the be in The Genius Files program. The Genius Files per say is run by Dr. Herman Warsaw; a man who experienced 9/11, the tragic event, and decided on that day that America should have kids solve their world problems. After his idea was put onto the table for reserved others to see, he turned into a self-centered lunatic and cancelled his idea, which had been going fine. His idea was the Genius Files. And once he cancelled the program which seldom any humans knew about, he had to cancel all the kids with it. Two of those kids are Coke and Pepsi McDonald.
Dr. Warsaw has already tried to defeat the two children, but he can't. Probably because the brother & sister duo are twins, each with an ability to help each other get through the problems they are facing. Coke has a photographic memory. Pepsi, or Pep as she prefers can crack ciphers like a lion can smash an ant. It's summer and the twins are returning from their Aunt Judy's wedding in Washington D.C., where they stopped a terrorist attack for The Genius Files sake, and defeated Dr. Warsaw's assistant, Archie Clone. Now as the twins go through Texas, Arkansas, and some of New Mexico on the trip back home from their cross-country trip they run into Dr. Warsaw and his henchman who are hungry for revenge. Also they receive multiple ciphers for Pep to crack that determine fate. Will they be killed by Dr. Warsaw like he did with the other Genius Files participants?

Written by Dan Gutman, 4th in the series The Genius Files, From Texas With Love gives you a great perspective of a book. If you like a little bit of crazy adventure in weird destinations, you'll like The Genius Files: From Texas With Love.

Counting By 7's

                           Counting By 7's
                               By Holly Goldberg Sloan



           Have you ever lost something that your whole life revolves around? After an accident that changed Willow Chance's life, nothing will ever be the same again. She can't even count by 7's anymore.Willow is about to leave her friends Mai,Quang-Ha,and Pattie Nguyen's garage to live in Jamison Foster Home.can willow pull her life together before she leaves for good? Find out in Counting By 7's, by Holly Goldberg Sloan.
          Willow Chance loves plants, medical stuff, and the number 7. At school when she is accused of cheating,she visits counselor Dell Duke. Mr. Duke has his own way of sorting through messed up kids.Introducing Dell Duke's System of The Strange!

• Misfits
• Oddballs
• Lone Wolves
• Weirdos

Willow didn't seem to fit into any of these groups. She was clearly different.That night as Willow approached her driveway, police cars were everywhere. She heard the officer whisper to Mr. Duke."There's been an accident." The people Willow loved most in the world were gone.
          Until Willow could find a permanent home, she stayed with Pattie, Mai, and Quang-Ha Nguyen in a garage behind Happy Polish Nail Salon, that they called home. As month passed Willow got used to the crowded garage. But she still didn't go back to school. It hurt too much. But when Jamison, the foster care company called, requesting that Willow stay there. they can't let her go.
           Walk with Willow Chance and uncover her adventures that will soften your heart. So if your ready to weep, laugh, and keep up with Willow, then read Counting By 7's, By Holly Goldberg Sloan.

Book Scavenger

Life is a game for Emily. Example, see how many states Emily's family can live in, maybe all 50? Another example, Book Scavenger , the site that has it all. In Book Scavenger you hide books, give a clue to where they are found, and let others solve the clue and accomplish a book hide-and-seek. Also after you find the book, you get the chance to read the book that you found.
When Emily's parents or 'rents' as her exotic, "Flush" addicted brother would call them have decided to move to another state... California. In California Emily receives the "great"pleasure to move to San Francisco, home of Book Scavenger and it's creator, Garrison Griswold. This part of the move is good, but as always Emily's life of games has some negative gifts included in the moving process. Her #1 dislike is the fact that her family never settles in one place for long, only enough time to have proof to the family' s career, a 50 Homes in 50 States blog. This time in Emily's new adventure she discovers a friend very much like herself, and not far away. James. Though, as fate happens, as Emily meets a friend, her celebrity, Garrison Griswold meets a foe. Somebody out to steal his popularity, and maybe his life. When Emily and James find out, they try to piece together the clues before it's too late. With a life at stake, and a game to play, other Book Scavenger users to avoid, Emily and James might not be able to solve the last puzzle, hopefully not the last puzzle. The duet will need all the help they can get. In a battle of greatness and glory, books and ciphers, Book Scavenger has it all. Written by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, Book Scavenger holds secrets and answers to all the questions. If you like Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein, or a realistic fiction book with some crazy characters, you will definitely like Book Scavenger, "Where life is a game and books are the tokens!"Book Scavenger Cover

A-Z Favorite Books

For Gifted University I wrote an A-Z book of all my favorite books!


Click HERE to see my recommendations!
                                                                          

Jinx

You don't grow up in the Urwald. Jinx doesn't like leaving the path of these horrible woods. His father tries to lose him in the woods, but it ends up Jinx finds Simon Magnus, a wizard. As much as Jinx knows wizards are evil, he doesn't find staying with Simon bad at all. Jinx has a curiosity of what kind of magic Simon has and to find out he has to stray off the path.....

What We Found In The Sofa And How It Saved The World

Do you believe in magic? Do you believe in the power of crayons? Do you believe in the power of the sofa? Well if you do or even if you don't then you should read this book. It is really funny. In the book River, Fiona, and Freak find a mysterious sofa sitting at their bus stop one day. They decide to search for loose change but instead what they find is a rare zucchini colored crayon. How are they supposed to know that this treasure will send them on a crazy journey. What are they supposed to do when a crazy billionaire comes searching for the crayon? This billionaire is trying to open a secret portal and they have to stop it, it is going to be hard but with help of a a crazy neighbor, a cat named Mucus, and a domino and painting that can think for itself they just might be able to save the world. This book by Henry Clark really is a thriller. I recommend this book to anyone what likes a crazy book filled with crazy people and crazy places.

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

Join Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesqe, and Frank Zhang in another epic adventure! In this trilogy of the Heroes of Olympus series Percy, Frank, and Hazel travel north to Alaska, the land beyond the gods, to defeat Alcyoneus, the giant son of Gaea born to oppose Hades {or Pluto. Whichever one you want to call him.} and to free Thanatos, the god of death, Hades' lieutenant who keeps all the souls from escaping through the wall of death. They must also try to stop Polybotes from destroying Camp Jupiter, home of the Roman demigods.

Al Capone Does My Homework

This book is by Gennifer Choldenoko. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a little bit of everything. There's a whole lot of mystery and comedy even a little bit romance… uh for the nasty folks. My favorite part was when I found out a clasel twist in the book. It was  about  one of the so called bad guy .  He might not be as tough and mean as you thought! He may even be nice.Also Lizard may be a little weird  let's just say  Lizard  should be called cockroach. If you think Nat is totally dumb  and can’t make her one choice’s you are totally wrong. Even though Piper may be a pain she just might help in the big pitcher. Moose is a good aim but only when it comes to baseballs:). Will Moose's family survive before they find the culprit that set fire to their house. Why did the person do it, who did it and how did  they do it.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

This novel by Chris Grabenstien is hilarious. Kyle Keely is just a normal 12 year old boy. Goes to the normal school. He even has normal freinds. But when Kyle and his best friend Akimi get chosen to stay at the new public library built by no other than the brilliant game maker Mr. Lemmoncello, they are thrilled. Little did they know that they would have to figure out a puzzle that involved the whole library. Will Kyle's team of brain's win? Or will greedy Charlie Chillington win? Find out in Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library!

Michael Vey: Storm of Lightning

In Richard Paul Evans fifth novel of Michael Vey, the resistance has been blown up, everyone's parents have died except Taylor's and now the electroclan are flying from Taiwan to look for any surivors. When they get there the whole ranch is blown up except a windmill. Then when they stay in the haunted room at a hotel in mexico a mysterious man in all black is hacking into their doors. Meanwhile the prime minister and other important people in the Tuvaluan government are taking a tour of the starxource plant with Admiral-General Hatch in Tuvalu while their precious Tuvalu is being turned into Hatch islands. Will the electroclan find refuge to recover to face Hatch? Or will Hatch take over the world with his greed? Find out in Michael Vey: Storm of Lightning! I would recommend this series to anyone.

The House Of Hades

In Rick Riordan's fourth novel of the Heroes of Olympus series, Percy and Annabeth journey through tartarus and encounter many trials including a room too evil to look at, an attack by Empousi and Tartarus himself. Meanwhile Leo, Hazel, Frank, Jason, and Piper are being pounded on the boat, The Argo II, By rock monsters. After that they have to fly half-way across the world to stop Gaea's forces from leaking out of the doors of death. Will the Argo II's crew pull through and get to the doors of death in time to save Percy and Annabeth and survive? Or will Percy and Annabeth disintegrate into nothingness? Find out in The House Of Hades! Awesome recommendation.

Rump: The true story of Rumpelstiltskin

This novel by Leisel Shurtliff is an explosively funny book. I personally felt bad for Rump. He had to go through many hard trials to get to his true name. He had to encounter falling out a window, ogres, his strange aunts and, pixies that followed him his whole adventure from "The village in the mountain" (That's actually what it's called) to Yonder and beyond. Join Rump, his freind, Red and Rump's stupid donkey, Nothing, as they go to to the castle to spin gold and rescue the miller's daughter, Opal. Find out Rump's adventures in Rump: The true story of Rumpelstiltskin! I would recommend this to anybody who is in search of a good book.

The Lost Hero

Join Jason, Piper, and Leo as they go on a quest to save the queen of the gods and to stop Gaea and the giants from rising to take over the earth. (Which is ironic because Gaea is the goddess of the earth. Why can't she just take it over herself?). Many delays keep them from reaching the wolf house where the king of the Giants, Porphyrion, is rising. Will they make it? Find out in The Lost Hero.      
(By the way, I really recommend this book)

A Tale Dark and Grimm

In this book Hansel and Gretel travel together and find themselves in very bad situations as they run away from the kingdom of Grimm thinking that their mother and father cut their heads off on purpose. Later they figure out that their parents actually cut their heads off because they had a servant named faithful Johannes that was turned to stone and his spirit asked Hansel and Gretel's father to cut their heads off so faithful Johannes could come back to life. Hansel and Gretel return to their home and find out that there's a dragon attacking the kingdom and it's possessing one of the townspeople. They devise a plan to defend the kingdom and defeat the dragon so they can live in peace. THERE IS ONE MORE SUPRISE I WILL NOT TELL YOU ABOUT!!!!!! Mwahahahahaha! (P.S. THE KING IS THE DRAGON!!)

Chomp

Carl Hiaasen's book Chomp is a hit!

Mickey Cray's life is turned upside down all because of a dead Iguana. It falls on his head. All of a sudden Wahoo, Mickey's son is put into the fact that he has to find a job or else he won't survive. Mickey's wife is a foreign language teacher in China, so she is little use to the family. Derek Badger, a phony TV survivalist shows up to the two lonesome's door. Derek DEMANDS use of the Cray's "property". Mickey had always had a love for animals ever since he was little. Because of this hobby Mickey adopted to his family, wait for it.... A zoo. This what Mickey even loves more than his son sometimes. But when Derek hands up some cash to the two boys, they accept the offer. Wait did I mention that Derek is cuckoo! Derek starts acting weird around the animals... Like they are his own property. Derek's phony TV relationship with Mickey might break up a lot of fans and their likes and dislikes when they hit the swamp.

This book is great for people with a great sense of humor and who can piece together connections throughout the story.

The Genius Files

Coke and Pepsi McDonald never wanted to be a spy or top secret undercover twins. They wanted to live the free life like any other kid.
Their dream failed when the twin's school was burnt down. The psycho health teacher Mrs. Higgins was in charge of detention that day and failed to cover up her secret. Bones the quiet/deaf janitor was forced to unleash his secret-TGF. TGF, also known as The Genius Files is a top-secret society for the smartest kids in America. Kids from all over America were recruited to solve America's problems.
Coke and Pepsi met Bones during the fire. The real Bones. Bones was actually a skinny talkative grown-up.
The Twins had been recruited to be in TGF which led to falling off a cliff, getting attacked by "bowler dudes", and saving a giant ball of twine.
Will the McDonald twins ever get their dream or will they die along with the "others".

This book is great for people who can connect to Coke and Pepsi in someway. It is a great cliffhanger that makes you want to read the rest of the stories!

Guided Reading With First Graders

1st day of guided reading.
I have started a book called "Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia!" with a high level reading group in my Mom's classroom. This book has a lot of homophones in it, I taught them about homophones and what they are. After we read together I told them to respond about what we had read. I think that they are amazing kids and they're all very powerful readers.

2nd day of guided reading
I went over to meet with that group again and we were getting ready to go into the hallway when all of a sudden one of the kids threw up right in front of me onto the floor. By the way, did you know I have a phobia of vomit!

When we finally got to work we started to talk about what we had read last and then we started reading the next section I had marked off in the book. This time we were focusing on idioms. I told them some examples to write in their readers notebook, then after they wrote an example on their own.


3rd day of guided reading
We finished reading the book, so it was time for the final activity! The kids really enjoyed doing this part, they got to make a poster which was like a big response that included a picture and there opinion. I recommend this to everyone who wants to be a teacher some day. They got to present this poster to the class!

Vocabulary-
Idioms- a phrase that has a different meaning than the literal meaning.
Homophones- two words that are spelled differently but sound the same and have a different meaning.

My Creative Writing Piece

Here are 2 stories I wrote for Gifted U. I hope you like them!
Crazy Taxi Driver & Wishing Star

My top 3 picks of the twain 21

     My top 3 favorite books from the

Twain 21 Challenge

1.Counting by 7's

2.In search of Goliath Hercules

3. The 14 Fibs of Gregory K.

I chose these three books as my 3 favorite books off the Twain 21 Challenge because some were intense and meaningful and that just made me really love them. 

I liked Counting by 7's.  It was really intense what happened to Willow because it seem like everything was right but then that car crash with Willow's parents and it seems like her whole life was gone but she made some nice new friends and they helped her through the hard times and then they adopted her along with the taxi driver and it all worked out in the end even though Willow didn't have her parents.

I thought that In Search of Goliath was kind of boring in the beginning because nothing interesting really happened but then Onri/Henri (the main character) found a bug circus and then it got pretty interesting because it was weird ,have you ever heard of bug circus and Henri could speak to bugs well insects so he could talk to the boss and tell them what to do so ringmaster for the bugs well technically he was sidekick and then he went out n search of the Goliath Hercules he found them but they were quite vicious and even though he could talk to them they didn't really want to listen or talk to him or even be friendly so this one Goliath Hercules the one the rest of them called the new one said he could go and then when Mrs. black who disguises herself as a bunch of different people start seeing that Henri is turning into a bug she seeks to expose him but she can't yet cuz he's so popular and Mrs. black tries to kill Henri she doesn't she accidentally killed the Goliath Hercules because it flies in front of the hair clip Mrs black was trying to use to kill Henri and she accidentally stabbed the Goliath Hercules and she's all no no because she wanted to capture the Goliath Hercules but Henri found it first and got it to come back with him and she kills him well the Goliath Hercules and the Goliath Hercules last words were Henri "I'm your father " which I thought was pretty ironic because Darth Vader says that to Luke before he dies so I thought that was kinda funny.

I liked The 14 Fibs of Gregory K because he used math well the Fibonacci sequence in a way I would have never thought of, I love writing and like math so both of them combined was a really good combination for me it was really cool to me how the author thought of how to make Gregory think of that so that was cool . That's why I loved these 3 books and I'm so glad that I read these books .