Hi-Lo Book Reviews #3: “MP3 Mind Control”

(Book Review #3 written by Kostya, Aaron and Harry from Ms. George’s 6th grade class):

“MP3 Mind Control” by Jonny Zucker

The main setting: The main settings are Keisha’s house, and the school.

Other settings: Some other settings are the desert, Zzone building and the Zzone store.

Genre: The genre of the book is sci fiction.

Situation: Keisha has just bought the newest version of an MP3 Player. She is so happy. She has saved her money for months and can’t wait to use it. But then she finds something weird about it. It reads her mind and other people’s too. She tries to tell her friends about it but they don’t believe her. They get into many fights in the book. The MP3 creators are up to something and Keisha wants to get to the bottom of it. But how will she do it without her friends?

Characters: Keisha is a girl who has the MP3 mind controller. She is the main character. Keisha has a best friend named Shelly. Shelly does not believe Keisha about the mind controller. Dr. Grey is the inventor of the MP3 mind controller. She wants to know everything about teenagers.

After the Book: After I read the book I did not think the book was over. Dr. Grey still had the chip and it wasn’t destroyed. I think that Dr. Grey will be back and make another piece of evil technology that reads minds and the girls will stop Dr. Grey again.

My favorite character is Keisha because she is the main character of the story and at the end she saves the country from being under the control of a mad woman!!!!!!!

My favorite part in the story is when the factory blows up because it is the only action part and that caught my eyes when I read that part.

My favorite quote in the story is when Shelly said “I wish I hadn’t finished the cornflakes yesterday” at page 18, because it was funny and interesting that she felt badly just for eating cornflakes.

I would recommend this book to people that have any system that has music on it. I wouldn’t recommend this book to people that get scared too easily. And I would recommend this story to people that are fast readers and want to read a book quickly.

Hi-Lo Book Reviews #2: “Biker City”

(Book Review #2 written by Kathlin, Sam and April from Ms. George’s 6th grade class):

The title of our book is “Biker City.” The author of the book is Anthony Masters. The genre of this book is mystery. This book is a mystery book because Todd’s dad is missing and Todd has to find him.

Todd is our buddy group’s favorite character. Todd is 13 and also an only child. He is very brave to go against The Bikers to find his dad. Todd takes lots of risks to find his dad by putting his life on the line to save himself and his father.

Characters: The main character in the book “Biker City” is Todd. He is a little boy who is brave and takes lots of risks. He is also a kid who really loves his dad and would fight for him. Another main character is Todd’s dad who is a nice nice guy and who loves his son. He got stolen by the mean Bikers who pushed Todd’s dad down a mine and cut half of the ladder off. A main character is the mom. She is a loving mother who cares about her son.

Situation: The situation is that Todd and his mom were waiting for dad at home. He did not come home so they went to look for him. Todd found out that his dad got stolen by the mean bad BIKERS and decided to go and look for him.

Setting: The story takes place in a house near the beach where there’s hardly any water. The next location is Biker City. Biker City is a bad place because there are mean people who ride bikes in the city. In the middle of the book the action also takes place in a mine. The book might take place in the future because earth doesn’t have any water and the people have to find the water.

Recommendations: I recommend this book to people who like action and mysteries. The story takes place in a house near the beach where there’s little water. The book takes you on an adventure that makes you want to read on.

Hi-Lo Book Reviews: #1 “The Thing in the Woods”

Ms. George’s 6th grade class at High Rock wrote three reviews of Hi-Lo books they had read. They ran out of time for this school year (tomorrow is the last day of school), and I was asked to post it for them today. Enjoy!

(Book Review #1 is written by Chase, John and Mike):

The title of our book is “The Thing in the Woods.” It is written by Steve Brezenoff. The setting takes place in the woods and the desert. My favorite chapter in the book is called Rich! because they find gold.

I would recommend this book to people that like mysteries.

Characters: Brave Jason and the missing dad and the giant spider.

The setting is in the woods. It takes place in modern times.

The dad went missing when they were camping in the woods. When Jason woke up he looked for his dad in the woods. Then he saw a cave and went in it. He saw rooms on the side of the cave and when he got to the end he saw a giant spider. It went away and Jason found gold.

Blogging with Books and Buddies

Last year, I instituted a new way to write about favorite books with a program called “Blogging with Books & Buddies.” I applied for, and received, a $2500 NEF (Needham Education Foundation) Grant to purchase Hi-Lo (High Interest-Low Level) books for students who are struggling readers. The purpose of this grant was to give them books that they could actually read, that they would find interesting, and to improve their reading skills. I also purchased some audiobooks so students could listen to stories.

I not only wanted students to read the books, I wanted them to Blog about what they’d read on the Library Blog. I felt that by Blogging about their books, they’d develop an ownership in what they’d read and have a better feeling of success – knowing that their writings would be on the Internet for everyone “out there” to read.

To accomplish this, I created a special username and password for students. As a result, they would be able to log in either on their own or with their teachers’ help. For safety purposes, their work wouldn’t go “live” until the administrator (me) sees it first. Also, students would have been told to post using their first names and not their last names. Internet safety is very important.

Last year, I worked extensively with 6th grade ELA teacher Ms. George to get the “Blogging with Books and Buddies” program rolling along. Ms. George’s students listened to booktalks, browsed through the books picking interesting ones for their groups to read, and spent class time reading and discussing their choices. I “popped” in to listen to them read, helped them blog when they were done, and celebrated their accomplishments with Ms. George’s “Lit & Lemonade” session at the end of their book reading times.

When the High Rock school for 6th graders was opened in Sept., Ms. George went there to teach. Last month, I was happy to hear that she wanted her new group of 6th graders to have a chance to work with the Hi-Lo books. After the students searched online for their choices, I received their requests and sent Hi-Lo books over to them via interoffice mail. Since it was close to the end of the year, the students didn’t have a chance to blog about their books themselves so Ms. George sent me their notes so I could do it for them.

Thus, on behalf of Ms. George’s 6th grade class, please read the Book Review section to find several Hi-Lo book reviews from her 6th grade students. Enjoy.

Thank you Ms. George for helping your students to learn that reading is alot of fun.

Eggs by Jerry Spinelli

Genre: Fiction

Characters: Primrose and David. David is a 9-year-old kid whose mom died last year, Primrose is a 13-year-old kid whose dad left her.

Setting: Suburb of Philadelphia

Situation: Two kids who found each other and have similar problems.

Favorite part: When David shows off his yo-yo tricks to a policeman. I liked this part because it was funny to show off to a policeman.

I would recommend it because it was an interesting and funny book. It was funny because they fought all the time. It was interesting because they traveled and had fun.

Jay and Chris C.

Ms. George’s 6th grade class

Backup Goalie by Jake Maddox

Genre: Realistic fiction

There are three main characters Jamie, Brett, and Jill. Jamie, Brett and Jill are all best friends and on the same hockey team. Jamie is a boy who is the captain on the team. Jill is a girl on the team who couldn’t play in the league because she’s a girl. Brett is the goalie but he got injured and couldn’t play.

The setting is in modern time. It takes place at the hockey rink and at Jamie’s house. It also takes place in the locker room.

The situation in the book is that Jill and Brett can’t play on the team. Jill can’t play because the coach on the other team said she couldn’t play in the league because she’s a girl, and girls can’t play in the league. Brett can’t play, because in the first game of the season he got injured. If you want to find out what happens next you will have to read the book.

My favorite character in the book is Jamie. Jamie is the main character in the book. He is also the captain of the team. Jamie normally plays offense but when he has to play goal he has a bad attitude. He is my favorite character because he has heart and wants to win. Also he never gives up and tries his hardest. Jamie is a true captain of the Comments.

I would recommend the Backup Goalie by Jake Maddox. This is a good book about hockey. It is not too hard to understand the book. The Backup Goalie is not too long, and it has some pictures. There is a lot of action and excitement in the book. Also in some parts of the book it’s predictable and in other parts its not too predictable. You are going to read the book and like it.

Chrisco and Raekwon

Ms. George’s 6th grade class

The Book that Dripped Blood by Michael Dahl

Genre: Mystery, Fantasy

Characters: The bookstore owner, crazy guy, woman, landlord

Setting: In a bookstore, apartment

The Situation: There is a book named Claws and it eats people.

My favorite character is the crazy guy because he sells the book to the bookstore owner. I think that the guy should have just let the book eat him because then the book couldn’t eat anyone else. Then the librarian doesn’t get stronger.

I will not recommend this book because at the ending it is so weird that the book eats people. Then a librarian spills out of the book then he attacks Claws for biting other people. The librarian is fighting Claws then the Collector comes and takes Claws away.

Jeff and Dominique

Ms. George’s 6th grade class

Quarterback Sneak by Jake Maddox

Genre: Sports Fiction

The characters in the book are: Malik, Anton, and Coach Bensen. Malik has black curly hair, is average height (not tall), is a young boy and plays on the team the giants. Anton has long hair, average height, straight black hair and is a fast runner.

The setting is at a football field and it is in modern times.

The situation is when the guy in the sunglasses keeps going to the games and they keep losing because Malik is not sharing the ball during their games.

Anton is my favorite character because he is a good team player. He makes plays happen. He is also a good athlete, especially a good runner. He is usually well-mannered and likeable except when he becomes too competitive.

My group would recommend this book for anyone who likes sports books. We also encourage people who don’t like sports to read this!!! This is why we like this book so much!! This book is a really good lesson to teach people not to get jealous when playing sports!! Another lesson is that don’t be selfish!!! The reading level is perfect for 6th graders and that’s a reason why we chose it. All in all this book was awesome!!!

Justin, Chris M. and Corey

Ms. George’s 6th grade class

Literature & Lemonade with Ms. George

Ms. George’s 6th grade students descended upon the library again today for their Literature & Lemonade book talks. They had finished their second set of Hi-Lo books, and had prepared to present to their classmates. The students worked in groups of 2 or 3 to talk about their books, then presented some extra credit projects. Jeff, Chrisco and Raekwon prepared short skits for their extra credit, while Justin and Chris created a sports board game based on “Deal or No Deal,” and Corey made a Giants vs. Dolphins poster. Chris C. and Jay told us about the original title for their book “Eggs.”

Afterwards, Ms. George and Mrs. Neale gave out lemonade and snacks. I congratulated the students on their hard work this year and talked them through how to do a “Quick Pick” subject search on the catalog to find the Hi-Lo books next year.

You can read their book reviews on the Book Review page.

Thank you Ms. George and Mrs. Neale for a great year. It was wonderful working with you and your students on the Hi-Lo books. I will miss you when you go to High Rock.

Reaching out with Hi-Lo

I spent most of the day today visiting Special Education teachers in all of the grades, showing them various levels of the Hi-Lo (High Interest-Low Level) books that I purchased earlier this year with a Needam Education Foundation grant. I had printed out a list of all of these books (both fiction and nonfiction) and called them “Quick Picks.”

With my visits, I wanted the teachers to see how interesting the books look on the outside, as well as see how they meet the needs of their students on the inside. I also discussed items that we will soon have in the collection that will help these students better learn the curriculum, such as audio CD’s of required reading books and dvd’s of these books when available.