Action and Adventure that Teaches and Inspires: A Page Turners Review of “Chasing Vermeer” by Blue Balliett

By Sophia

12,12,12,12,12,12,12,12,12,12,12,12. The number 12 plays a big role in Chasing Vermeer. It appears in many of the clues in the mystery.

Chasing Vermeer is about a girl named Perta and a boy named Calder. They are in the same class but don’t really know each other. Calder always has his pentominoes and Perta her notebook. Pentominoes are different letters that you can make into shapes. They have a very strange teacher who loves art. Perta and Calder get in trouble, and develop a friendship. Then an art piece goes missing, an art piece that Perta and Calder were going to see for its opening. Perta and Calder know secret information about the missing art, and from this they form theories about thief’s identity. They get tangled in a twisting, exciting art mystery involving many interesting characters.

I really liked this book. It is very well written, and as you read it you can’t stop, you get sucked up in the book. It is full of description and it makes you feel like you know the characters. The book is full of action, adventure, but also teaches you, and can inspire you. My only criticism is it sometimes gets confusing and the next thing you know they solved something. Also some characters are introduced but not explained. But overall it is a great book and I would recommend it.

A Fragile Girl with a Secret: A Page Turners Review of “The Mark of the Dragonfly” by Jaleigh Johnson

By Isa

The Mark of the Dragonfly is about a girl from a town where only scrappers live. There are meteor storms often, and things from the other worlds come down with them. Scrappers live on these objects, selling them to get food.

One day Piper is out in a meteor storm, looking for her friend, braving the poisonous green dust in the air. As Piper wanders around after the meteor storm, she finds more than just objects. She finds an unconscious girl who cannot survive without her. They find themselves on a train, running from a man who would stop at nothing to get that girl. Will she stay with Piper and live, or will she end up with the man she calls a wolf? Why can’t she survive without Piper? Is it because she is so fragile, or because she is hiding a deep dark secret that she doesn’t even remember?

I really loved this book, because it has many details, some that could be possible, and some that are just fantasy. It makes a very good mix. The characters are well made, and very interesting. All of them started out in a bad place, and by the end of the book are in the best place that they could dream of. All of them have become better people, and their personalities are totally different by the end of the book.

When I finished this book, I was laughing because it was a happy ending, and crying because I had finished it, and the story was over.

I hope everybody who reads this book loves it too.

January 29, 2015 0

Real Life in 1960s Mississippi: A Page Turners Review of “Glory Be” by Augusta Scattergood

By Zoe

I chose Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood because it is a mixture of two of my favorite genres, history and fiction. The cover caught my eye and I read the back. It is about a girl named Glory, who is living her life in Hanging Moss, Mississippi, in 1964. She has her ups and her downs, and this book has a lot of real life situations that happened in the 1960’s, like racism. My favorite part is when Glory explains what “Junk Poker” is to her friend, Laura.

So in summary, I think that Glory be is fantastic. Augusta Scattergood did a really good job describing the characters. I really like this book and you might like it too.

The Page Turners is a 5th Grade Review Club hosted by the BCS-BNS Library.

January 16, 2015 0

Realistically Unrealistic: A Page Tuners Review of “Navigating Early” by Clare Vanderpool

By Talya

First, before go into the review, here is a brief summary of the book so you know what’s going on…

Jack Baker is now stuck at Morton Hill Academy, a boarding school for boys, since his mother passed away and there was no one to take care of him. He was left with his father, an army general who spends most of his time away at war. They, father and son, don’t have much of a relationship because they never spent time together and Jack is used to being around his mother. At Morton Hill Academy, Jack meets one of the most peculiar boys he has ever met in his life. His name is Early Auden. The two boys befriend each other and soon they find themselves alone at school during a school vacation break. Early persuades Jack to come along, and together, the two energetic school-aged boys trek the Appalachian Trail, unraveling the story of the number pi, looking for a giant female black bear, and trying to find Early’s brother who was lost in the war. It all ties up with the present day happenings and the boys get caught up in the theory of pi in which the digits of pi never end.

I liked the way the author described the atmosphere and the thoughts and feelings of the two characters on a quest. The author, Clare Vanderpool, beautifully described the setting, making you feel like you were personally seeing the characters in real life. The feats in the story were realistically unrealistic in a really awesome way. The characters were caught up in magically unrealistic situations, and they seemed to deal with them in a realistic way appropriate for the dilemma. I also appreciated how the author tells the story from Jack’s point of view, but how she also tells the story so that it seems almost as if Jack is watching himself and Early from the sidelines. I liked Early because I thought that he wasn’t an everyday character. He had interesting idiosyncrasies like listening to Billie Holliday only when it was raining, sorting jellybeans when he was angry, and many more that defined his personality. I never got bored in the book because some exciting and intriguing adventure seemed always to be underway.

I think that Navigating Early would appeal to someone who is interested in wildlife and puzzles. You would also have to be interested in how the characters and events meet up. That means you have to be a ‘deep reader,’ being into the book to uncover comparisons that practically tell the story.

The Page Turners is a 5th Grade Review Club hosted by the BCS-BNS Library.

January 15, 2015 1

Lots of Emotion: A Page Turners Review of “Paint the Wind” by Pam Munoz Ryan

By Gigi

Paint the Wind, by Pam Munoz Ryan is about a girl named Maya who lives with her very strict grandmother. Her parents died and all she has left of her mother are some plastic horses. Meanwhile very far away near canyons in Wyoming there is a mother horse who is giving birth to a newborn foal. Maya hates her grandmother’s rules and the mare is hoping that her baby will survive. Somehow their paths will cross.

I really liked this book because there was lots of emotion like when Maya was describing how much she doesn’t like her grandmother’s rules, and adventure, but I can’t tell you what it is. I really liked how the point of view switched between the horse and Maya. Each chapter left you wondering what would happen next. I loved this book.

The Page Turners is a 5th Grade Book Review Club.

January 15, 2015 0

Sixth Grade Book Club Talks About Wonder Part 2

The sixth grade book club met again today to finish up our discussion of R.J. Palacio’s Wonder. In our previous meeting, we’d focused on the main character, August, a boy with a deformed face going to a mainstream school for the first time.

This time, our discussion focused on the characters around August: how they feel about him, and how their lives are impacted by his circumstances. We noticed how humor helps alleviate tension for all concerned, and how things that may seem unfair–such as August’s sister never getting the same quality of attention from their parents–become the reality for the characters in this story.

In the end of the meeting, we had our most fun and spirited exchange, where we all got to reflect on whether we’d want to have August in the 6th grade at BCS (we would!) and how getting to know him in this book gave us insight into ways that we ourselves feel different and gives us fresh perspective on the differences of the people around us.

The meeting was attended by superstar readers Asante, Barrington, Kyah, Briana, Angellus, and Mel-Asia!

Next up: A Tale Dark and Grimm by Brooklyn author Adam Gidwitz. We’ll meet once before the winter break, and then finish up our discussion early in January!

December 6, 2013 0

6th Grade Book Club: R.J. Palacio’s “Wonder,” Cookies, More “Wonder”

The sixth grade book club got underway today with our first ever book meeting. We’d all read about half of R.J. Palacio’s Wonder and met to talk about it over lunch and chocolate chip cookies in the library.

This story of August, a disfigured boy leaving the safety of a home schooling environment to attend “real” middle school gave us lots to think and talk about. Should someone in that position go to school? What does school offer? Friends, connections, real teachers. What are the fears? Bullying. And what happens? You’ll have to read the book with us to find out!

The story also made us think about what makes a person lucky, what makes August lucky, and what makes each one of us lucky in our own lives.

Fun fact: Although the story is set in a fictionalized Hudson Heights, a Brooklyn-like community in northern Manhattan, R.J. Palacio lives in Brooklyn and is widely believed to have modeled the neighborhood of Wonder on Park Slope, with Beecher Prep a thinly veiled reincarnation of Berkeley-Carroll.

We’re going to stick with this story and meet again to talk about the conclusion on Friday Dec. 6th.

November 22, 2013 0

Calling All 6th Graders…New Book Club Forming!

Like to read?

Join the…

BCS 6th Grade Book Club

Friday Nov. 1st

In the LIBRARY!

What’s a book club? A small group that reads a book together and meets to talk about it.

When will it meet? Every 2-3 weeks in the library during lunch. Bring a home lunch or quickly pick up a lunch in the cafeteria first.

What will we read? Books you like! Our first selection will be Wonder by R.J. Palacio. (You’ll get a copy at the first meeting.) Part of each meeting will be deciding what to read next.

Questions? Email school parent, author, and book club leader Cathleen Bell at CathleenDavittBell@gmail.com.

October 21, 2013 0

Fresh research confirms homeschoolers outperform public schoolers and unschoolers

The very best 10 best-seller textbooks for ladies listing makes a good information to see in a look which of the newest books will be the hottest. This makes it easier to as being a gift for birthdays, Holiday or any appropriate celebration. Women’s publications are not all and that is girly. Some are of that has probably been composed from the womanis perception which females may connect with, significant items. Continue reading “Fresh research confirms homeschoolers outperform public schoolers and unschoolers” →

July 6, 2005 0