Meet young reader Gwyneth Schuler.
Gwyneth is a recent member of Watermark's Young
Reader's Advisory Group. She attends Maize Central Elementary and is looking
forward to Maize Middle School next year. She loves to read historical fiction
while eating M & Ms. (Okay, we made that up.)
Currently reading:
August 2008
Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls
by Lynne Jonell.
Emmy
can talk to rodents. They are always causing her trouble. Now, an evil
"lady" rat is holding miniature girls hostage, and Emmy and her friends are
determined to save the girls. This is the sequel to Emmy and the
Incredible Shrinking Rat. I really didn't like much of the book. I
thought that the characters were fine, but the story was just not quite
right. Three words: Weird, odd, and off-beat.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.
This
book was about Isabel, an African slave who is promised her freedom by her
dying master, but then is sold to a cruel Loyalist couple. The story follows
Isabel's life from then until she escapes to her freedom. It's an incredible
story of compassion, love, and cruelty, a must-read for anyone who loves
history! I enjoyed the whole book!
July 2008
Gully's Travels by Tor Seidler.
Gully
is spoiled. His professor becomes engaged to a lady who is allergic to
long-haired dogs, so Gully gets sent to the doorman's home, which has
screaming kids and other dogs. Gully doesn't like it, so he escapes to
Paris, where a man recognizes him. He ends up going back to NYC, where he
finally decides to stay with the doorman. I liked it all okay.
The Last Cowboys by Harry Horse.
Roo
the dog and Grandfather the person go to America to find Roo's doggie
Grandfather. Roo is easily distracted. They journey across the US and
eventually find Roo's Grandfather when they are lost in the wilderness. I
liked all of it.
Pretty
Like Us by Carol Lynch Williams.
Beauty McElwrath has no friends. She meets the new girl, Alane, who has
Progeria. Progeria is a rapid aging disease. They become friends and when
Alane is drowning in the river, Beauty is able to save her. I liked the
whole book.
June 2008
Lost and Found by Andrew Clements.
This
book was about twins. One of their files was lost, so the boys secretly only
went to school every other day. This was a great book!
Lost in the Snow by Holly Web.
This
book was about a kitten who gets lost in the snow. It was very cute!
A Dog Named Christmas by Greg Kincaid.
This is a great family book for the holidays. Set in Cherokee
County Kansas, it's about
boy who raises awareness for the Humane Society's
Adopt a Dog for Christmas program and
who then gets the whole town to give a dog a home for the holiday week.
June 2008
Cicada Summer by Andrea Beaty.
This book was about a girl who has a
secret...she hasn't spoken to anyone in two years because of it. This was a
great book with a good ending
Mousehunter by Alex Milway.
This book is about a girl who takes care of
over 150 mice and wants to become a famous mouse hunter. It was great! I
enjoyed the whole book!
My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath.
Wow! This book was totally weird. Actually, I
didn't finish the book. It went weird when the old ladies had sleepovers and
the main character dropped bibles out of hot air balloons. Nothing really
made sense in this book. I was actually super-excited about reading it, too.
I would NOT recommend this book to anyone.
Mr. Gum and the Gingerbread Millionare by
Andy Stanton.
This book was about this really rich
gingerbread man who gave his money to people to be his friend. Then this
other evil guy came and stole the gingerbread man's money (he kept it all in
one cookie jar). Then these two good kids went and stole the money back and
gave it to the gingerbread man. The End. I thought that the book was for 7
year olds, not 12 year olds (the ages were 8-12). It was just okay.
Confessions from the Principal's Chair by
Anna Myers.
This book was about a girl who was mistaken
for the substitute principal. I really liked the book and I actually thought
it was believable.
Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass.
Three kids (Alley Bree and Jack) meet up at a
campground during a total eclipse. Alley's family owns and manages Moon
Shadow Campground, that is, until Bree's family comes and takes it over.
Jack failed science class. His science teacher is leading an eclipse tour
and gives Jack two options: go on the tour, or, do summer school. The rest
of the book is about how the kids' lives change and the friendships they
form together. I really liked this book.
A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck.
This book was about a girl who goes to live
with her grandmother while her family gets back on its feet. The grandmother
is a tomboy and helps the girl become a stronger individual. This book was
very good. It takes place in 1937. It is the sequel to A Long Way From
Chicago.
May 2008
Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech.
This was the sequel to Love that Dog. Jack thinks
that he hates cats because of the fat, black cat that scratched him. But
then for Christmas, his parents get him a kitten. He falls in love with it.
Then it runs away. His family and he try to find the kitten, Skitter
McKitter, but he won't come. Then one day, he comes to the back door bruised
and hurt. The other cat is there too. The other cat helps Skitter McKitter
recover. It was a book in poetry. I thought some parts weren't need in the
book, but it was very good.
Love that Dog by Sharon Creech.
I just got this book not to long ago and I decided
to read it when I got the sequel. The book is all in poetry. Jack doesn't
like poetry at the beginning. Through the book he opens up to poetry. He
writes about his old dog Sky. Sky got hit by a car.
Return of the Indian by Lynn Reid Banks.
If you've read Indian in the Cupboard, you
would find that this book has about the same idea. Patrick and Omri bring
Bright Stars, Little Bear, and Boone back through the cupboard. There is a
battle and Little Bear is hurt. Then he must go back with more soldiers and
fight again. Robbers break into Omri's while Patrick and him are there
alone. They bring up an army of men and fight the robbers off. The book was
good. This was a book for school. It is not new.
The Great Race by Gary Blackwood.
The Great Race was about 'The Round the World Auto
Race of 1908'. There were six entrants, only three made the New York to
Paris trip (one was disqualified, one didn't make it out of New York, and
the other, well, he got in trouble for borrowing money and lots of stuff...
his car didn't make it out of the U.S.). The American car, the Thomas Flyer,
had an extra 15-days because they got to California first, went to Alaska
first, saw the snow was too high, and told the race officials, who changed
the course. Only one team (the German Protos) got to Paris before the Flyer.
The Protos had an extra 15-day penalty for using a train in America. The
Flyer finished 4-days after them, so the Flyer won. The Italian car, the
Zust, finished about one month after... their car had lots of problems. The
Zust still got a celebration when it reached Paris. This book was okay. I
wouldn't have picked it out, but it had some interesting information. It
would be the perfect book for a report. There were some parts that were kind
of confusing.
April 2008
Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park.
This was an awesome book! I loved the characters,
and the plot. It is about a girl who loves baseball (the Brooklyn Dodgers)
and who has a friend in the Korean War. Whatever she does, doesn't seem to
make a difference. Her friend is hurt. The Dodgers loss the World Series
again and again.
Twice Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris.
This book was okay. It was just like all other fairy
tales: there's a bad queen, the people rebel against her, the wizard turns
her into a good person...the end.
Julia Gillian (and the Art of Knowing) by Alison
McGhee.
This is about Julia Gillian and her dog. Julia's
parents are taking summer school classes and they don't have time to take
Julia to the water park or on picnics. Julia is trying to get a stuffed
meerkat from the claw machine. She's been at it for three years and wins...a
bat. She doesn't want the bat. Her dog falls in love with the stuffed toy
and carries it everywhere. Eventually, Julia likes the bat. Julia doesn't
like reading. So when she finds a book she begins to like she is excited.
Then, she realizes that the dog in the book is going to die at the end. She
gets scared of the book and hides it. But then she realizes that if she just
finished the book it would be easier. Her prediction is true; the dog dies.
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowrey.
This book was great! It is about four kids that have
bad parents that they hate. The parents sometimes even forget that they have
kids!
Nurk by Ursala Vernon.
I loved this book. It was very cute. It is about a
Shrew that receives a letter meant for his warrior-shrew grandmother. He
travels on the river, in search of the sender. Turns out that the sender is
a dragonfly princess. Her brother has been taken prisoner by the evil mole.
Nurk is sent on a quest to save the prince.
Just Grace Walks the Dog by Charise Mercile
Harper.
This book was okay. It was about a girl who is
trying to get her parents to buy her a dog. There are some parts of this
book that are really strange. The illustrations weren't very good at all.
Savvy by Ingrid Law.
This book was great! I liked it a lot. It was about
a girl who gets on a bus that she thinks is heading to Topeka. It is really
going in another direction. She, her brothers Fish and Samson, the bus
driver and a preacher's kids Bobbi and Will Jr. are the only ones on the
bus. The book is about how she tries to get back to Topeka.
