Maniac Magee

Maniac Magee is a 184 page story by Jerry Spinelli. Maniac Magee is an orphaned boy who became an orphan when his parents were killed in a trolley accident. Maniac was then sent to live with his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan who are very mean to each other. Maniac decides he can't stand it and runs away. One day he meets Amanda, who says he should come to live with her family. He gladly agrees and stays there for a few months, until Amanda and Maniac have a fight and Maniac runs away. Maniac stays with the buffaloes in the zoo. He is then spotted by an elderly zookeeper who takes him to his house and treats him like a grandson. They are very happy together until Greyson, the zookeeper, passes away, leaving Maniac once again homeless. He struggles to survive until someone else offers to have him live at his house. This offer lasts only for a few days, after a huge fight. Then Amanda goes over to him and demands that he come back and stay at her house. Maniac makes this his permanent place and Amanda's family officially adopts him. This is a great story that anyone will enjoy. 

Xtranormal Videos

Click on the link to watch my ancient egypt xtranormal video.
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7896879/
p.s.   Ignore the thing that says it is ratred R. (restrictred) Somehow that got there.

Here is a G rated one I made on the pyramids.   http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7998689/

Here is one titled Robots and Fried Chicken. http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7835425/

My Side of the Mountain

Jean Craighead George wrote the great 177 page book, My Side of the Mountain. Sam Gribley has a huge family that lives in a tiny apartment in New York City. He gets fed up with it and runs away to live in the Catskill Mountains. He starts out having nowhere to live and just sleeping in the bushes at night. Then he decides to carve out the center of a giant hemlock tree and use it as his home. He becomes very good at catching food to eat and ends up eating very well. He starts to realize that it is kind of lonely up in the mountains. Just then he finds an abandoned baby falcon and names her Frightful. She is great company and helps him catch food when she gets a little older. Then he hears a familiar voice- his dad's. He comes and stays through Christmas. When Sam asks how he found him he said that he left some things behind and a lady saw him while picking strawberries. He is now living in the dead of winter and his dad must go. Sam copes with all the challenges that are brought with winter and works to keep him and Frightful healthy until spring arrives. He soon meets a reporter searching for the "Wild Boy". He doesn't want to be well known, so he denies being him.. After more time of surviving the wilderness, he hears his dad's voice again. But this time he has the entire family and they have materials to build an actual house. Sam doesn't want this because it will spoil his life in the wilderness. His mom says that she still makes his decisions until he is 18 even if he lives in the mountains. This was a great book and I think anyone would enjoy reading it.

On The Far Side of the Mountain

On the Far Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George, is 170 pages long. It is about Sam Gribbley, a boy who lives alone in the forest. He has a peregrine falcon named Frightful who he uses  to keep him company  and help him hunt. A conservation officer confiscates her because he is harboring an endangered species without a licence. Sam is visited by his parents, 5 brothers, and 7 sisters. Alice decides to stay with Sam. A few weeks later she leaves a note saying that she has left and will be back. Sam gets worried and looks for clues to find her. He meets various people along the way who give him clues about Alice's whereabouts. After days and days of walking, he finally finds her in a different mountain in a shelter she made. He sees that she got a baby hawk to help him get over the loss of Frightful. As he is telling her that she must let the baby go, Frightful is seen overhead. It turns out that it was a fake officer who took her. Alice, Sam, and Frightful then go back to their home in the mountain. I recommend this book to all nature lovers who enjoy a good read.

Frightful's Mountain (NOTE- all books starting with this are 2nd qtr books)



Frightful's Mountain is a 259 page story by Jean Craighead George. It is about a boy who lives alone in the woods with a semi-domesticated peregrine falcon named Frightful. Frightful must migrate south in order to survive the winter. However she goes the wrong way and ends up flying towards New York City. Two falconers see that she is going the wrong way and keep her at the falconry place until it is time for Frightful to live wildly in the woods again. When she goes back to Sam, he notices that she is more wild than she had been in the past. Frightful mates with another bird.  They nest and have babies on a bridge that is being repaired. Two kids protest the bridge work, telling the workers to wait until they are done raising the babies. The protest is a success, but two of the three babies are stolen by fake falconers. Sam and the police get the babies back to Frightful. Although Frightful is not as attached to Sam anymore, she still has a bond with him that can never be broken no matter how wild she gets. This is the third and final book in a series. I recommend it to anyone who loves books about nature.

My Camp Experience!!

Wow, camp was GREAT! The food was much better than I expected. All of the classes were lots of fun, but also educational. The bobcats found a Garter snake while on the Miwok trail. Free time and the loggers jamboree were both great! I just wish that lights out was a little bit later. I never got tired of stepping outside the cabin and seeing the wilderness and the rest of Calvin Crest!
THANKS CALVIN CREST!!!

Magicians Nephew Project

For my MN project, I did the timeline. You can leave comments on this post about my project and presentation

Flush

        Flush, by Carl Hiaasen, is 262 pages long. The main character, Noah, has a dad who sunk a casino boat because they are dumping bathroom waste directly into the ocean instead of getting rid of it properly. He is arrested but his wife bails him out. Noah and his sister, Abbey, work with Shelly who is a bartender on the boat, to plan a way to get him arrested. They decide that they are going to buy lots of fuchsia food coloring, Shelly would make a sign saying that the restroom is out of order, Noah would be in the restroom pouring food coloring into the toilet bowl, and it would end up all over the beach to get the ship's owner busted. They do this without telling their parents, so when they announce that they are going on an anniversary date, it makes their plan a lot better because they can stay out until midnight without getting caught. Their plan works until Noah is seen on the boat and he jumps down into the water and swims to shore. Abbey is waiting for him. Then they see a lunatic named Luno chasing after them. They avoid him and don't see him again. They get back home safely. The next day Noah's family takes a trip to the beach and sees the food coloring in the water. Noah secretly calls the coast guard who find the boat's owner guilty and fine him 10,000 dollars. In the middle of the night that night, police show up at Noah's home saying that they are arresting his father for arson. When he asks what he did, they say he burned down the casino boat. His wife shows hospital bill evidence that proves that he wasn't there when the fire started. He was in the hospital for breaking both his hands and fingers when he hit a door extremely hard. It turns out that it was the owner's kids started the fire when they were playing with sparklers. Noah and his family then go on to live a happy, normal life. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read an adventure.

Milkweed

           Milkweed, by Jerry Spinelli, is 208 pages long. It starts out with a orphaned boy who steals food to survive. An older boy finds him and brings him to live where he lives, which is an abandoned horse stable. They must keep hidden because the Nazis are patrolling the town and trying to capture the Jews and take them away. The boy, who is named Misha, wants to be a Nazi because of the way they look. But when he hears what their actions are, he changes his mind. He and Uri move to the ghetto of the town to avoid contact with the Nazis longer, but when they are forcing Jews onto trains, they must hide even better. Uri gets caught and must go on the train to the camp for Jews. Misha can't handle being alone and follows the train tracks to the Jewish camp. The book ends when he is seen outside the camp and is brought inside. I recommend this book to anyone who understands the Holocaust era and enjoys a good read. 

Smiles to Go

Smiles to Go, by Jerry Spinelli, is 248 pages long. The main character, Will Tuppence, is shocked when he hears that a proton has died. He keeps thinking about how eventually everything will be gone since everything in the universe is made of protons.  He also plays chess with his dad to practice for a big chess tournament each year. He insists that his sister Tabby stays home with a babysitter because she distracts him at the games. He gets his way, but Tabby escapes out of the house and gets his brother's skateboard to skateboard down Dead Mans Hill. No one has ever done this before. She ends up in the intensive care unit at the hospital for 2 months. Will is pretty upset that he had to leave the chess tournament until he sees the condition his sister is in. She gets better in the end and Will walks her down the aisle at her kindergarten graduation ceremony. I recommend this book to readers of all ages who can take pretty nervewraking stuff.

Scat

      Scat is a 371 page novel by Carl Hiaasen. In the story, a teacher, Mrs. Starch, goes missing on a field trip to the forest. Two students named Nick and Marta find her and help her with a baby panther rescue. In the end, the panther is returned to its mother and Mrs Starch returns to school.

       Scat has character vs. character conflict and character vs. self conflict. Nick debates with himself on whether or not he should go out to look for Mrs. Starch. Another example is when Mrs. Starch was deciding if she should stay with a friend and help the panther. Scat had character vs. character conflict too. The Truman school principal and the police officer were having conflict on whether Duane Scrod Jr. should be arrested for being suspected of starting a wildfire near a dry forest. Scat presents both character vs. character conflict and character vs. self conflict.

My Song

I chose "Star Spangled Banner" as my song because it makes me proud to be an American citizen. It reminds me of the summer  I went to Washington D.C. and saw the Independence Day concert in front of the Capitol building. This was the first song they played. It also reminds me of going to baseball games because they play this song before every game. Use the link above to listen to the "Star Spangled Banner".

My First Post!

       This is my very first blogger post!  I cant wait to blog on my books.