The Firework-Maker's Daughter (Thing 2)

We read The Firework-Maker's Daughter by Philip Pullman. It is a book where a firework maker is taking care of his daughter. When the daughter grew up she wanted to be a firework-maker, too, but her dad just laughed. She had made lots of fireworks but not very big ones. Her friend Chulak went over to ask how to make the good fireworks. Then her father told him that he has to go to the mountain to get the sulfur from Rasvani the Fire Fiend. Then Chulak told Lila, but what he didn't know is that she needed to get the emerald water or else she would perish in the flames. Will he get there in time to give it to Lila or is it too late?

I would give this book

. It was exciting, and it had good humor.

The Firework-Maker's Daughter (Thing 1)

We read The Firework-Maker's Daughter by Phillip Pullman. It was about a girl named Lila who, being a firework-maker's daughter, loves to create fireworks. One day, she gets mad at her father, Lalchand, for not telling her the secret to being a true firework-maker, so she gets her friend, Chulak, to trick Lalchand into telling him the secret. Lalchand does, but does not tell him the whole secret. Since Chulak thinks he has the secret, he tells Lila what it is and she sets off immediately on a dangerous journey to Mount Merapi to get some royal sulfur from the Fire-Fiend, Razvani, in exchange for the three gifts. What she doesn't know is that she needs some special water to protect herself from the flames. So Chulak and the talking white elephant, Hamlet, set off after Lila. But will they make it in time?

I would give this book

. It was exciting, had interesting characters, and funny parts. I especially liked the description of all of the fireworks.

The King's Speech (Thing 1)

We watched "The King's Speech." It's about a prince named Bertie, who has a bad stutter. He often has to give speeches and has a hard time. Bertie's wife is always trying to find doctors that will help him get over his stutter, but it never works. One day, she finds an odd speech therapist that she thinks will help him. Bertie tries it and hates it at first, but then he continues to work with him and gets better over time. The movie is all about the friendship between Bertie and the speech therapist, Lionel.

I would rate this movie


. It was sweet, simple, and had funny parts. I love British movies, too, so that made it even better.

"The King's Speech" (Thing 2)

We watched "The King's Speech." The movie is set in England during World War 2. The main character Bertie is the son of a king, but the king is dying and Bertie is scared to become king because he has a speech problem. His brother likes to party and is not going to take care of the people during the war.

I would give this movie:

 because you don't know what is going to happen, it's based on a true story, and also I like stories set in England. I really like the friendship between Bertie and Lionel, his speech therapist.

The Name of This Book Is Secret (Thing 2)

We read The Name of This Book Is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch.

It is a book about a girl named Cass and nobody believes her EVER because she is always saying things that aren't true (kind of like the boy who cried wolf). But when a boy named Benjamin Blake is kidnapped, Cass and her friend Max-Ernest have to save him.

I would give this book

.

This is an exciting book that includes: smells, brains, spas, monkey blood, and alchemy.

The Name of This Book Is Secret (Thing 1)

We read The Name of This Book Is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch. It's about a girl named Cass who is always prepared and a boy named Max-Ernest who talks too much. Together they discover a secret involving a dead magician's notebook and a box with strange vials called "The Symphony of Smells."

When Cass realizes that her classmate, Benjamin Blake, has been taken hostage, her only clue is the name of a spa- "The Midnight Sun." She finds out that the only way to get in the Midnight Sun is to be someone important or famous, so she pretends to be Amber, a member of a pop band called the Skelton Sisters. Once she arrives at The Midnight Sun, she continues her search for Benjamin and begins to unravel many other secrets along with Max-Ernest, who shows up to help Cass. Cass realizes that their situation is even more dire than she thought. If they fail their mission, Benjamin could end up dead.

I would give this book

.


The beginning was a little slow, but it gets more exciting the more you read. And just when you think you have everything figured out, you realize you don't. There are lots of logic puzzles and codes, too, which I thought was fun. It makes you feel like you're right in the middle of all the action.

Holes (Thing 2)

We read Holes by Louis Sachar. It's about a boy named Stanley Yelnats, who people think stole a pair of shoes, but Stanley says they just fell out of the sky. The judge said he had to go to either Camp Green Lake or JAIL, so Stanley picked Camp Green Lake. Camp Green Lake is a place where bad people go. They dig holes every day, 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide. They say it is for building character, but Stanley thinks that they are looking for something.


I would give this book

because it has mystery, and adventure. We also watched "Holes" the movie and I enjoyed it very much.

Holes (Thing 1)

We read Holes by Louis Sachar. It's about a boy named Stanley Yelnats (Yelnats being Stanley spelled backwards). Stanley's family has a curse, thanks to his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. When Stanley is accused of stealing a famous pair of shoes, he's sent to Camp Green Lake, which is a juvenile detention center. As he arrives there, he's surprised to see that there is no lake. Instead, he's forced to dig holes where the dried up lake used to be with other kids who committed some sort of crime. At Camp Green Lake there's only one rule: do not upset the Warden. Soon, Stanley realizes that the Warden is looking for something. And he wants to find out what it is that the Warden is looking for.

I would give this book

.

It keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time and has plenty of mystery.

For our activity we watched the movie of Holes.

The Return of the King (Thing 2)

We read The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien, which is the final book in The Lord of the Rings series.

In the book, Frodo and Sam destroy the ring but the quest wasn't easy. First, they found Golem. Then they walked into a cave to go to Mount Doom, but they meet a giant spider that tries to eat them. Then, Frodo gets taken by some orcs and later Sam saves him. After that, they go to Mount Doom and Golem tries to steal the ring. He bit Frodo's finger off and Golem started walking around saying, "My precious." Then Golem falls in to the Fires of Mordor.

I would give this book because it's crazy and has adventure. I only gave it three stars because I like the other Lord of the Rings books better.

P.S. My favorite Lord of the Rings book is The Fellowship of the Ring.

The Return of the King (Thing 1)

We read The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien. It's the final book in the Lord of the Rings series.

This book was probably my least favorite out of all of them. It was the most confusing and the others were better in my opinion. There are lots of battles with Gandolf and the others and Frodo and Sam are still following Golem to destroy the ring. There are bits of humor near the end of the book and it has a surprising finish.

I would give this book. It was the most confusing but it was a good wrap up story.

For our activity we watched the animated Lord of the Rings movie. It had all three books in one movie and it was good but it was very strange. They left out tons of stuff and the ending wasn't at all like the book.

After reading all of the books, my favorite book in the series would have to be either The Hobbit (which technically isn't part of The Lord of the Rings) or The Two Towers.

Three Interviews - Maria, Eliza, and Mary (Thing 1)

An Interview with Maria (Sound of Music):

What is your name?

Maria.

Where do you live?

I live in beautiful Austria. I love the mountains here.

What is your favorite thing to do?

I love to sing.

What big dreams do you have for yourself?

Hmm. I guess I would say becoming a professional singer.

What annoys you?

Very few things annoy me, but the things that annoy me most are cobwebs and singing off key.

What do you do when you’re upset?

I think of my favorite things! That always helps me feel better.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome?

Becoming friends with the children and the captain.

What is the name of your best male friend?

Captain von Trapp.

What do you think of him?

I didn't know what to think of him at first. I thought he was awfully strict with the children. All of that whistle blowing gave me a headache! But over time I fell in love with him.

Who, outside of him, are the best people you’ve ever met?

The other nuns at the Abbey and the children, of course.

Do you have a favorite song?

I can't pick just one!

Are you happier now than you were at the beginning? If so, why?

Yes, I am. I'm married to a wonderful man and have lovely children.


An Interview with Eliza Doolittle (My Fair Lady):

What is your name?

Eliza Doolittle.

Where do you live?

I live in England.

What is your favorite thing to do?

I love dancing and eating chocolate.

What big dreams do you have for yourself?

Getting a lifetime supply of chocolate.

What annoys you?

Henry Higgins. Ohh, does he get on my nerves!

What do you do when you’re upset?

Cry. And I sometimes eat chocolate.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome?

I can talk and act all prim and proper now.

What is the name of your best male friend?

I don't have one, and if you were expecting me to say Henry Higgins, guess again!

What do you think of him?

Henry? Oh he's awful. He made me work for hours into the night and then by the time I went to bed it was only a few hours before it was time to get up again! He did turn me into a lady, though. But that's about the only good thing he did.

Who, outside of him, are the best people you’ve ever met?

Well, Colonel Pickering's nice, and I love my dad. I also like Freddy.

Do you have a favorite song?

"Just You Wait, Henry Higgins."

Are you happier now than you were at the beginning? If so, why?

Yes. People take me more seriously now that I'm a lady.


An Interview with Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins):

What is your name?

Mary Poppins.

Where do you live?

I live in England for the most part, but I'm always traveling around with my umbrella.

What is your favorite thing to do?

I love meeting different children, and hopping into chalk drawings, and cleaning up by magic, but my absolute favorite thing to do is pull things out of my magical bag.

What big dreams do you have for yourself?

I'm already living my dream. I get to travel around to all sorts of different places and meet different people.

What annoys you?

What annoys me most is when I find Uncle Albert laughing so hard that he floats up to the ceiling. It's especially annoying when whoever I'm traveling with decides to float up to the ceiling, too.

What do you do when you’re upset?

I rarely get upset, but when I do I might cry a little bit and then think about happy things, like riding on a magical carousel and singing with penguins.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome?

My biggest challenge was getting Uncle Albert down from the ceiling. But now all I have to do is tell him something sad and he'll start to cry and come back down. Then once he touches the ground he turns the sad thing into a joke and goes right back up again! It's very annoying.

What is the name of your best male friend?

Bert.

What do you think of him?

Oh, he's wonderful! He's a great artist and I love hopping into his chalk drawing and singing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"

Who, outside of him, are the best people you’ve ever met?

Oh, I can't name them all! There are so many people I've met over the years of my traveling.

Do you have a favorite song?

I don't have a favorite. There are so many to choose from. There's "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," "A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down," "Chim Chim Cheree," I could go on and on. Oh, and then there's "Feed the Birds," "Let's go fly a kite," . . .

Are you happier now than you were at the beginning? If so, why?

I'm almost always happy and each time I meet somebody new I just get happier so yes, I'm happier than I was at the beginning.

I would rate "The Sound of Music" . It has great music and a good story.

I would rate "My Fair Lady" . I love the music in it and it has some funny parts.

I would rate "Mary Poppins" . It's a cute movie with fun music.

If I had to put the three movies in order from best to least this would be my list:

1. "The Sound of Music"
2. "My Fair Lady"
3. "Mary Poppins"

Three Interviews - Maria, Eliza, and Mary (Thing 2)

An Interview with Maria (Sound of Music):

What is your name?

"Maria."

Where do you live?

"Why do you want this private information?"

What is your favorite thing to do?

"Sing! Can I sing for you?"

Uh, not right now. What big dreams do you have for yourself?

"Being the 2nd best singer in the world."

Well, who do you think is the first?

"One of the seven of course."

What do you mean by seven?

"The kids."

What annoys you?

"Nothing."

Okay. What do you do when you’re upset?

"Sing."

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome?

"I don't know?"

What is the name of your best male friend?

"Georg."

What do you think of him?

"Well he's my husband, soooooo . . ."

Who, outside of him, are the best people you’ve ever met?

"The nuns."

Do you have a favorite song?

"Oh, yes I do! It's called 'My Favorite Things.'"

Are you happier now than you were at the beginning? If so, why?

"Yes, because I have a husband and kids."


An Interview with Eliza Doolittle (My Fair Lady):

What is your name?

"Elia Doolittle!"

Where do you live?

"London!"

What is your favorite thing to do?

"Walk!"

What big dreams do you have for yourself?

"Nothing!"

What annoys you?

"Enry Iggins!"

What do you do when you’re upset?

"Cry!"

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome?

"Enry Iggins!"

What is the name of your best male friend?

"I don't have one!"

What do you think of him?

"Of whom?!"

Who, outside of him, are the best people you’ve ever met?

"No one!"

Do you have a favorite song?

"'Just You Wait, Enry Iggins!'"

Are you happier now than you were at the beginning? If so, why?

"NO!"


An Interview with Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins):

What is your name?

"Mary Poppins."

Where do you live?

"London."

What is your favorite thing to do?

"I love to dance with penguins."

What big dreams do you have for yourself?

"I never really thought about it."

What annoys you?

"When Bert accidentally flies up the chimney."

What do you do when you’re upset?

"Pull things out of my bag."

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome?

"I don't know."

What is the name of your best male friend?

"Bert."

What do you think of him?

"He's nice. He usually gets into trouble like laughing until you float to the ceiling."

Who, outside of him, are the best people you’ve ever met?

"The kids - Jane and Michael."

Do you have a favorite song?

"'A Spoonful of Sugar.'"

Are you happier now than you were at the beginning? If so, why?

"Oh yes! I met the kids and they had a wonderful time."

I would give Mary Poppins because it's funny and has good songs.
I would give My Fair Lady because it's funny and has good music.
I would give The Sound of Music because it has a good story and good songs.

The Phantom Tollbooth (Thing 1)

We read The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. It's about a boy named Milo who thinks everything is boring. One day he receives a strange package containing a tollbooth. He hops into his toy car and drives through the tollbooth and he is suddenly in "The Lands Beyond." He drives to Dictionopolis where he meets a watchdog named Tock, the Humbug, King Azaz, and many others. He learns that King Azaz and the Math Magician are quarreling and the only way to fix everything is to free the princesses Rhyme and Reason. And so, they set off on a long, hilarious, and dangerous journey.
I would give this book. It has all sorts of funny plays on words and if you're a grammar nerd, or any nerd, and even if you're not a nerd, you'll love this book. :D

The Phantom Tollbooth (Thing 2)

We read The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. It's about a boy named Milo who thinks his life is boring, but one day a tollbooth shows up to Milo's house and . . .

Milo steps into his car, inserts 1 coin in the tollbooth, and drives through it. He ends up in "The Lands Beyond" where he meets Tock, a watch dog with a clock on his body. Then Milo meets the Spelling Bee, the Humbug, and many more things in this mysterious world. My favorite character was the Dirty Bird who always takes things literally.


I would give this book because it's funny and well written.

The Two Towers (Thing 1)

We read The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's the second book in the Lord of the Rings series. I personally thought he could've come up with a better name for the book, like, The Main Character in This Book Doesn't Show Up Until the Middle or Golem is Crazy.

In this book, Merry and Pippin get dragged off by some orcs; Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn get into a huge battle; Sam and Frodo are who knows where, and you don't find out about them until the second half of the book. The book is a little confusing at first since there are three different groups of people to read about, but then you get used to it.

One of my favorite parts of the book is when Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn are in a huge battle and Legolas and Gimli are having a competition to see who can kill the most creatures. My other favorite part is getting to see how insane Golem is. After reading the first two books, I've seen multiple Lord of the Rings spoofs in movies and TV shows. Most of the spoofs are people pretending to be Golem.

I would give this book. If you like adventure and battles, this is a good book for you. If you don't like crazy humans/creatures/things that are obsessed over a piece of jewelry, this is not a good book for you. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to read the next one! :D

The Two Towers (Thing 2)

We read The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is the second book in the Lord Of The Rings series. My favorite character is Gimli the dwarf. Tolkien left us hanging at the end of the first book, but now that we've read this book I can tell you more about it. It's about 3 groups. One group has Legolas the elf, Gimli the dwarf, and Aragorn, a human. In another are Frodo and Sam, the hobbits. And in the last group there are Merry and Pippin, who are also hobbits. Frodo and Sam are going to the fires of Mordor and the other groups go on other adventures.

I would give this book because it was funny and it had action. I would have given it a 5, but I gave it a 4 because it has confusing names.

Pollyanna (Thing 2)

We watched "Pollyanna." It's about a girl who moves into a big house with her rich aunt. Pollyanna is a nice girl who helps people.

She moved to a town FULL of grumpy people, but when she comes she makes lot of the people happy. Soon, there are more happy people than grumpy people.

I would give this movie because it's funny and a good movie. I only gave it three stars because I like action movies.

Pollyanna (Thing 1)

We watched "Pollyanna" not too long ago. It's about a girl named Pollyanna (hence the title) who goes to live with her rich aunt. While she is there, she meets lots of people including a grumpy maid, a crotchety old woman who is convinced she's dying, a mischievous orphan, a lonely old man, and many others. Pollyanna helps to spread cheer to every single stuffy or grumpy person in town, including her aunt.

My favorite parts in the movie are when she shows everyone how to hang crystals to make rainbows and the end of the movie, but I won't give away what happens at the end.

I would give this movie. It's fun and sweet and if you haven't already watched it, I recommend watching it.

Cheaper By The Dozen (Thing 2)

We watched the movie "Cheaper By The Dozen." It is about a family with 12 kids who move to a different house so their dad and mom could follow their dreams for the dad to be a football coach and for the mom to get her book published.

When they move, they have a next door neighbor who is rich and thinks their family is crazy . When the kids go to school, they get picked on. The kids names are: Nora, Charlie, Lorraine, Henry, Sarah, Jake, Jessica, Kim, Mark, Mike, Kyle, and Nigel.

My favorite part of the movie was when the kids think of a plan to get their teenage sister's boyfriend away from their house.

I would rate this movie because it's funny and goofy. :D

Cheaper by the Dozen (Thing 1)

Our family watched "Cheaper by the Dozen" recently. It's about a family of four, er, fourteen. The mom wants to be a writer and the dad wants to be the coach of a football team, but they find that taking care of twelve kids and doing their dream jobs is too much to balance.

When the dad gets an offer to coach a football team, the whole family moves to a town four hours away, much to the displeasure of the kids.

Later, the mom gets a call telling her that the book she sent in (Cheaper by the Dozen) is getting published and she needs to go to New York for her book tour.

After she leaves, things get even crazier. Managing twelve kids and a football team all by yourself is tough. The kids are having trouble at school and at home but they can't talk to their dad about any of their problems with him being so busy.

As time goes on, the dad has even more trouble with his job. His boss gets worried that he can't pay attention to his team very well when he's also taking care of twelve kids. Can he be a good coach and a good father at the same time?

This movie is hilarious and crazy. I would give it. It's a great family movie and may seem a little confusing at first, but in no time you'll know each and every character inside and out.

The Three Amigos (Thing 2)

We watched "The Three Amigos." It's about three silent movie stars in Hollywood. One person sees their movie and doesn't know that it's just a movie. She writes a letter to them to ask for help to save her village in Mexico. She thinks they're going to save them and the three amigos think they're doing a movie.

I would give this movie, because it's funny and has adventure. My favorite part was the part in the bar with the three amigos.

The Three Amigos (Thing 1)

We watched "The Three Amigos." It's about three silent movie actors who get fired from their job and are trying to find other work.

Meanwhile, a girl in Mexico sees one of their movies where the Three Amigos are pretending to be cowboys who stop villains. The girl doesn't understand that they're not really cowboys but just actors, so she sends them a telegram asking if they will come help stop "El Guapo" who is threatening her village. The Three Amigos get the telegram and think they're being offered a job to put on a show. That's when things get really funny. :D

I would rate this movie. It was goofy, funny, exciting, and had lots of action with just enough calmness in between. One of my favorite parts is near the beginning when one of the Three Amigos pretends to be a bird. Another one of my favorite parts is farther into the movie when they go see "The Singing Bush."

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure/It's a Wonderful Life (Thing 2)

I am going to compare two movies: "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" and "It's a Wonderful Life." They are two very different movies.

In "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," Pee-Wee had an adventure. In "It's a Wonderful Life," George wanted to have an adventure but didn't. "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" was basically a crazy movie. "It's a Wonderful Life" was very calm. In "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," he just wanted his bike. In "It's a Wonderful Life," George helped people who were hurting.

The things that make the two movies similar are:

They're both movies.
The main characters were both male.
They both had happy endings.

I would rate "It's a wonderful Life".

I would rate "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" . If I could, I would rate "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" four-and-a-half stars because I like adventure movies.

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure/It's a Wonderful Life (Thing 1)

Our family recently watched the movies "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" and "It's a Wonderful Life." After watching both of them, Thing 2 and I made Venn diagrams to compare the two.

Here are words I used to describe how "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" is different from "It's a Wonderful Life":
Fun
Silly
Goofy
Random
Weird
Crazy
Color
Funny
Pee-Wee wanted his bike.
Pee-Wee had a weird laugh.

Here are words I used to describe how "It's a Wonderful Life" is different from "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure":
Angels
Black and white
Feel-good movie
George wanted to travel but never did.
George had a normal laugh.

Here are some similarities between the two movies:
Both movies are movies. (Duh!)
They're both fictional.
Both main characters had a big goal.
Both main characters helped people.

I would rate each of the movies . "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" was a really goofy movie, but it was a little too crazy, in my opinion. I still thought it was really funny. :D "It's a Wonderful Life" was good and inspirational, but in some parts what was happening was a little confusing. If it were possible, I would rate it four-and-a-half stars, but we have to rate it with a whole number. :D

For our activity . . . we watched the movies! :D