8th Grade Books from an 8th Grade Girl August 31, 2016

I did not read very much this year because I was really busy with club soccer, club rowing, Chinese, flute, boxing, and other stuff. I am trying to read five books this summer but I have two to go and just a week left before my school starts.

 

8th Grade Books from an 8th Grade Girl

Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

This was my favorite book on the list and it was very good. I chose it by the cover at the bookstore; the cover is translucent which caught my attention. The next book, Perfection, is coming out next year and I plan to read it. [young adult, ages 12 and up]

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This was a very good book. The beginning was a little slow but the end was a lot better and it was very meaningful. [essay book, ages 14 and up]

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

This was a good book. I read this book because when I was at the bookstore, a girl who I do not know was talking about it with her dad and raving about it so I took it and it was very good. I am planning to read the next book in this series and the novellas as well. [young adult, ages 14 and up]

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This was also an assigned reading book at school and it was fine. [classic, ages 12 and up]

Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling by Lucy Frank

This is a novel in verse and really short. It was pretty good. [young adult novel in verse, ages 12 and up]

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

I had to read an independent reading book and it was the shortest one so I chose this one. It was fine and it won a lot of awards. [young adult, ages 12 and up]

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

This was an assigned reading book. The first three chapters were the most dreadful thing that I ever had to read and take notes on but after that, the rest was fine. [classic mystery, ages 12 and up]

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

This was really, really boring. It was also an assigned reading book. If I could have chosen one assigned book not to read, this would be it. [classic novel, ages 14 and up]

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

This was slightly better than I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings but I didn’t enjoy reading it because I thought Anne Frank was annoying. [diary, ages 10 and up]

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

I really like Marie Lu’s Legend series but I didn’t like The Young Elites because I didn’t like the characters so I had to stop reading it but I read most of the book. [young adult, ages 12 and up]

 

YA Books I Started but Abandoned

X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon

I only read fifty pages so far and I might finish it. [young adult, ages 14 and up]

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman, illustrated by Brendan Shusterman

It was fine. I didn’t finish it but I might finish it later. [young adult, age 14 and up]

Disclaimer: These reviews are all mine. I was not paid in any way to review these books nor did I receive any books free from authors or publishers.

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7th Grade Books from a 7th Grader July 4, 2015

This year I was supposed to read 40 books for my English class but I wasn’t able to read that many. I still like realistic fiction and dystopian. I’ve never really liked fantasy/action adventure either. I lost one page of my reading log because I think I read a few more books. When I remember them, I’ll add them. Most of these books came from my school librarian and from friends. My mom recommended a few books to me but most of them I abandoned. My sister also gave me a few good book recommendations.

Fish In a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

An easy read about a girl who is dyslexic and gets help from a teacher.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

A dystopian novel about a boy who is going to die because it’s their culture to “unwind” some kids who are bad and reuse their body parts for others. Instead he escapes and meets a girl and together they must figure out how to survive.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

I thought this book was really funny but towards the end, it got boring.

Please Donate! January 3, 2015

As you may know I play soccer. This year my club team, Celtic Bolts is raising money to support the Special Olympics. Please help the Special Olympics by donating to my page.

6th Grade Chapter Books from a 6th Grade Girl September 6, 2014

In 6th grade, I didn’t have a lot of time to read because I was playing a lot of soccer. The only time I read was when I had to so these are the only books I read and I didn’t finish all of them.

Catch Rider by Jennifer H. Lyne

Catch Rider was about a girl who loves to ride horses but she was very poor and it was hard for her to competitively ride horses. I thought this book was very well written and I enjoyed reading it.

The Center of Everything by Linda Urban

The Center of Everything started out slow but then it became more interesting as it went on.

My Almost Epic Summer by Adele Griffin

This was a really strange book. It was a little inappropriate. It was also a really short book that I read during the summer.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Appleton

I didn’t want to read The One and Only Ivan at first because I thought it was a little kids’ book but once I started reading it, I really liked it.

5th Grade Book Recomendations from a 5th Grader May 16, 2013

I read these books in 5th grade and highly recommend them to rising 5th graders or even 4th graders or 6th graders. Some of these chapter books were assigned as classroom reading but most of the books were for free choice reading. If you have summer reading homework as a rising fifth grader, I would recommend any of these books.

5th Grade Realistic Fiction

See You at Harry’s by Jo Knowles

Even though this book is sad, I still really liked it.

One for the Murphys by Lynda Hunt

The main character, Carly, had a difficult childhood but in the end, she finds out that she can be anything she wants to be. My older sister met the author at her middle school and she says she is amazing. Carly is like the author.

Schooled by Gordon Korman

It’s about a kid with an unusual childhood and he has to go into the real world without even being in the real world.

Back To School Shopping for School Supplies August 5, 2012

The list for back to school for 5th grade arrived when I was away at sleep away camp. My mom waited for me to come home because she knew that shopping for office supplies at Staples is my favorite thing to do in the world.

PERSONAL SCHOOL SUPPLIES:

* 2 bound lined composition notebook (not spiral) for reading journals

 Leaf Composition Notebook, $5

* Post-Its – Medium Sized

Star Shaped, $6

4th Grade Books I Liked When I Was in Fourth Grade July 18, 2012

The Bell Bandit from the series The Lemonade War and The Lemonade Crime by Jacqueline Davies

This is the most recent book that has come out in this series. This was an easy book for me because I did read this at the end of fourth grade. I am an advanced reader so this may be just right for some other kids. This could also be an easy read like I did.  You could also read this in the beginning of fourth grade for future fourth graders.

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games is a book that many people say is inappropriate for young people, but let someone who is a young fourth grader tell you. Let me tell you this if you can separate the difference from real and from imaginary your okay. If you will have nightmares from a scary movie then you are in trouble. It might be okay if you talk about to your adult but it might be hard for you to get the sad image out of your head. I am a fourth grader going into fifth grade and read the whole series and my friends did to and it was perfectly okay for all of us. I also watched the movie I read the book okay. There was a younger girl my friend how was only in third grade and I felt uncomfortable for her to see the movie also having her not reading the book. So I would recommend this book to fourth graders no younger than that but maybe better if you were older but fourth grade is okay too. Read the book first then watch the movie. Like always the book better but the movie was really good. You have to read the books in order because they will not make any sense if you read them out-of-order.

On education blog Cooperative Catalyst June 17, 2012

I posted on No Tests for Kids at the education group blog, Cooperative Catalyst. Please check out my open response essay on why taking standardized tests is a waste of time for kids and teachers here.

The Hunger Games Books and Movie March 31, 2012

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the best chapter book series ever! I read the whole series and watched the movie with my two friends. I am in fourth grade and I know that everyone says that I’m too young for it but it’s really not that scary. Parts of the movie are scary but they are not that scary even though it’s rated PG-13. They don’t use bad language (unless you call hell bad language). Some people say it’s too violent because of the fighting to the death of 12-to-18-year-old kids but in the movie, it doesn’t show people dying in a very scary way. And when you read the books, you have a mental picture in your mind so it doesn’t have to be that scary.

I wasn’t supposed to read it at first, but my friend in 4th grade read it and said it was really good. My dad and my older sister also read it. My mom said to wait but I read it anyway. I will never regret reading The Hunger Games because I think its the best book/series I have ever read.

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p.s. The official trailer is here.

Sports I Tried January 17, 2012

These are the sports that I’ve done and what I think about them:

Soccer: This sport is my favorite sport that I’ve ever done in my whole life because you get to work with other people and meet new kids. In the beginning, I did NOT want to do soccer at ALL but my parents and my friends convinced me so I ended up loving soccer and doing it constantly.

Snowboarding: I hate being out in the cold winter but I love snowboarding. It’s fun because you get to glide across the snow.

Surfing: If you like snowboarding, you’ll definitely like surfing because you get to be out in the water on a hot day and glide across the water in a fun way.

Gymnastics: I did lots of gymnastics up until I was in second grade. I did regular gymnatics and Rhythm gymnastics. It makes you really flexible but if you don’t do it for one year, you lose all your flexibility. I stopped doing gymnastics because I did too much of it and now I don’t like it anymore.*

Lacrosse: This is my first year of doing lacrosse and it’s just a training session but so far I like it. All my friends are doing it too so it’s really fun because of them too.

Tennis: I did tennis on my vacation in Bermuda and it’s was really fun so I started doing tennis with my two friends and it’s fine but not my favorite.

Skiing: I did skiing before I did snowboarding and it was fun but it wasn’t that much fun. I switched to snowboarding because my friends did it too and one of my friends was going to learn it too so we decided to do it together.

Kickboxing: I just started to do kickboxing with my older sister and my mom and it’s really fun to learn new ways to beat up a bag. I did a little karate before but I wasn’t really good at it and it didn’t really interest me that much so I decided to stop.

Ice Skating: I don’t really like ice skating because I’m not good at it and I don’t like being on blades and going across the ice.

Swimming: I can swim but I don’t want to be on a swim team.

I think kids should try new sports because you can end up liking them like me and soccer.

* Picky Kid Pix’s mom says that she did gymnastics once a week for 1.5 hours. Her Rhythm gymnastics was 2 hours once a week. She only did Rhythm for one year.