"Evita" (Thing 2)

We watched "Evita." It is a musical about Eva Perón. She goes to Buenos Aires and goes through jobs to get to the top. In the end, she became the first lady. She helped the poor and didn't like the rich. At the end of the movie you don't know if she is good or bad. I think she was doing it for herself to get revenge on the rich for when she was a kid going to her father's funeral.


I would give this movie




 because it was exciting and had good music.

Evita (Thing 1)

We watched "Evita" as a family. It is a musical made in 1996 about Eva Peron. Eva Peron was married to Juan Peron who was the leader of Argentina. Eva was often called Evita and was a very good speaker. She supported the lower class and most everyone in Argentina loved her. Almost the entire movie is music telling the story of Evita. It shows her good side and her bad side, which leaves you to decide for yourself whether or not Evita was a good or bad person. My favorite character in the movie was the devil's advocate played by Antonio Banderas.

I would give this movie
It had awesome music and told a very good story. There could have been some more dialogue, in my opinion, but overall it was a good movie. By the end of the movie I thought that Evita was a good person that made some mistakes.

Bridge To Terabithia (Thing 2)

We read Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. It is about a boy named Jess who wants to be the fastest runner in fifth grade. He gets all ready to be the best, but when he raced he was beaten by a girl named Leslie Burke. He makes friends with her and they invent a world called Terabithia. The only way to get there is to swing on a rope to the other side of the creek. Terabithia is a world where they pretend to be the king and queen. The world has villagers and giants.

I would give this book

because it was funny and simple.

Bridge to Terabithia (Thing 1)

We read Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. It is about a boy named Jess who wants to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. Then a girl named Leslie moves into his town and beats him in a race. They become good friends after that and Leslie introduces Jess to a magical, imaginary land called Terabithia. Jess and Leslie are the king and queen of Terabithia and go on adventures to protect their kingdom. Together they become good friends through Terabithia.

I would give this book

. It was sweet, funny, and very sad. It had great characters and I loved all of the imagination in the story.

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.