The Penderwicks, Jeoanne Birdsall, 262 pages

Forty-fourth grade...

I mean, fourth grade.

This was the second time I read The Penderwicks, and again I thought it was awesome. What's The Penderwicks? It is a very exciting "summer tale of four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy," as it says on the cover, and I must agree. The author did an excellent job making pictures in my mind as well as using good descriptive words. I like many of them, but I don't remember to use them often... Here are the ones I liked best: fate, glare, discussion, cozy, exhausted, dwelling, swampy, creamiest, glorious. I like them because all of them have a synonym, but they are all better at describing than their synonyms. An example is discussion: you could say conversation, but a discussion is more of a lively, interactive, exciting conversation then just.. a conversation. I hope you get the idea. And of course, if you want to see more, you can read it yourself!

The Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White, 252 pages, WARNING: this also spoils a tiny bit

Fourth grade (but it could be anywhere between third and fifth grade)...

The Trumpet of the Swan is truly a different book than you might expect. It involves way more than you would think from the cover and title. It also involves a problem and a solution. The problem is that a trumpeter swan, Lois, is born dumb, not being able to speak. When he and his family migrate, he falls in love with a young swam, and his heart is broken when she ignores him because he is unable to call to her. The cob, Lois' father, decides he must find one of the "brass things that is called a trumpet and teach Lois how to play it so he can be able to call to that good-for-nothing young swan!" And so he sets out and manages to steal a trumpet from an instrument shop for Lois. So after having a visit with Sam, his friend, and learning how to read and write and acquires a chalkboard and chalk to communicate with humans, Lois sets out to earn some money. Sam says his camp is in need of a bugler. Lois finds his first job, which leads him to more. Once he has earned over $5000, Lois returns to his home, meets the swan he loves, and manages to catch her attention. Then Lois gives the money to his father, who returns it to the store, and comes home safely again. Lois is overjoyed and thanks his father.

I know, I know. It's long. Sorry. And it spoils some parts. Sorry. But it's a summary. And you can't exactly summarize without either spoiling or cliffhanging. Sorry.

The Year of Mrs. Agnes, Kirkpatrick Hill, 113 pages

Again, fourth grade (though it's more like a third grade level)...

This book, The Year of Mrs. Agnes, is told by Frederika (Fred for short) and how their fish-smelling village never holds more one teacher for long. That's until Mrs. Agnes comes. Maybe it's because she can't smell, but for whatever reason, she stays.She goes away, and Fred is afraid that she is just like the other teachers, but in the end, she comes back to teach for another school year.

At the end, it kind of leaves me hanging, wanting to know more about what happens the next school year. Does she change at all? Does the school change at all? Do the pupils change at all? Does anything change? I suggest the author write a sequel, and tell about how this year was different from the first, or make the book longer, as it's just a little more than 100 pages or so. However, overall, I liked this book and (I know you know what I'm going to say:) I recommend it!

The Witches, Roald Dahl, 208 pages; WARNING: This slightly spoils the book!

From fourth grade as well...

Our entire fourth grade recently (not so recent not that I am almost in sixth grade) just read one of Roald Dahl's best books, The Witches. It is about a boy whose parents dies and his adventures with his grandmamma in the Hotel Magnificent, where they are staying for the summer. The boy's grandmamma prepares him for any encounter with a witch, but he isn't ready when he comes face-to-face with the Grand High Witch of All the World. Along with this encounter, he overhears the witches' masterplan (how do rid the world of children) and gets turned into a mouse by the Grand High Witch herself. The boy finds Grandmamma and together they think of a plan to stop the witches' plan in several ways, all to be able to complete in eight years time, when the boy, now a mouse with a short life, and his grandmamma, at an old age, will die together knowing that they have done a good deed.


I modified this because the actual version ruined the entire plot and excitement of the whole book, so it would actually be four sentences longer, but I changed it to one...

Boy -- Tales of a Childhood, Roald Dahl, I've decided not to rate anymore, 176 pages

This is from fourth grade…

Roal Dahl is one of my favorite authors, and I just read another one his books. The book is called Boy, and tells about Roald Dahl’s life, starting before he was born. It tells a little about his father's life, how he married, and how they found a good home. Then Roald Dahl was born, thus starting his adventures. There are about five sections, the first starting with his life at home, and then his various schools, and finally, his job selling Shell oil/gasoline, and other jobs. My favorite paragraph happens to be the last.

The last paragraph is, "...But that is another story. It has nothing to do with childhood or school or Gobstoppers or dead mice or Boazers or summer holidays among the islands of Norway. It is a different tale altogether, and if all goes well, I may have I shot at telling it one of these days." I like it because it tells almost a summary of the story; not about the schools, but about weird/funny/sad/all-of-that-kind-of-asdjectives events that Roald Dahl remembers from his childhood. NOt necessarily the important ones, or the funny ones, but a mixture of everything:funny, sad, painful... you get the idea. And (like I always say) I recommend this book to you!!!

Hello! Reading Responses...

Hi again! I'm soooooooooo sorry I haven't been blogging for almost a year, but honestly, I've either forgotten or else been too busy :-(. However, at my school we have to read 25 books each year (I always read more like 250). But in order to actually prove that we have read those books, we have to write reading responses. I wrote quite a few in third grade (the requirement was a short summary), a lot in fourth grade (first quarter requirements were one paragraph answering one question from a list of questions, second quarter requirements were one paragraph answering one question from a list of questions and one paragraph summary, third quarter requirements were one paragraph answering one question from a list of questions and one paragraph summary, and so on), and more in fifth grade (requirements were choosing five questions from a list of questions and answering them). I've decided to just copy them (or as many as I can find) more or less how I wrote them, and I'll say what books were from which grade so you get the idea of what grade-level they are.