The One and Only Ivan

By Katherine Applegate

Ivan is a silverback gorilla who lives in a cage at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall. Ivan is kept company by Bob, a tiny dog, and Stella, a giant elephant. Ivan loves art! He spends his time drawing pictures of banana peels, candy wrappers, and bugs. One day a baby elephant named Ruby is added to Stella's cage. Ruby came to them from a circus where she had been treated very badly. Ivan promises to take good care of Ruby, and to help her find a better home. The tiny elephant and the big gorilla become best friends.

I think this book kind of reminds me of Charlotte's Web, where Charlotte tries to save Wilbur's life. You will like this book if you like Charlotte's Web, and fictional books with animal characters.

If you are friends with me and you have a Nook, I can lend it to you!

To find out more about this book you can visit the author's book site at http://theoneandonlyivan.com.

Rating: 5 worms

Interest Level: Grades 3 to 6
Reading Level: 3.6
Pages:  320

Animals: A Visual Encyclopedia

By DK Publishing

Did you ever want to know the definition of a reptile, or the lifespan of a five-lined skink? Well, then this is the book for you! If you like animal facts and pictures of animals, then you totally have to read this book! This encyclopedia has information on the entire animal kingdom, including vertebrates and invertebrates, and each of the categories within those (like mammals, birds, reptiles, etc.). My mom gave this to me for Christmas last year, and I read it all the time! For each animal there is information on its life span, where it lives, if it is endangered, what it eats, its size, and more. For example, the musk-ox lives in polar regions, including tundra and icebergs. Its lifespan is 12 years or more, it is not endangered, it is 4 to 5 feet tall, and it weighs 440 to 900 pounds. In addition to the facts, there is also a picture and a small paragraph of information for each animal.

Rating: 5 out of 5 worms

Interest Level: Ages 5 and up
Reading Level: Ages 10 and up
Pages: 304

Draw About It Day

These are the very first draw about it day pictures. I think they are really nice drawings. I hope you like them, too. If you want to draw a picture of a part of a book you liked, or of a character from one of your most favorite books, you can draw one and send it to bookwormkate8@gmail.com. I will post yours, too!

"Bad Kitty"

from Bady Kitty Vs Uncle Murray by Nick Bruel

Drawing by Carter McD in Florida

Carter says "This book is like a comic book and easy to read. It's very funny and makes me laugh. I like all the Bad Kitty books that I have read. I keep one in the car for when I forget my DS."

"Hattie and the Fox"

from Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox

Drawing by my cousin Sara F in Connecticut

Thank you Carter and Sara! You guys rock! :)

Coraline

By Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by Dave McKean

Coraline and her parents move to a really old house when Coraline’s dad gets a new job.  After they move Coraline is really bored with her toys and her parents are too busy working to play with her. She goes exploring around the house and finds a secret door hidden in the wall. Coraline asks her mom to open it, but when she does it is just a brick wall. Coraline opens it again later on, and it isn’t a brick wall anymore. It is another world that looks exactly like her world, except it has an “other mother” and an “other dad” who look just like her real mom and dad, but they have button eyes and are much nicer to Coraline. There is a black cat in both worlds. In the real world he acts like a regular cat. In the other world he can talk! Strange things begin to happen, and Coraline finds out that everything isn’t what it seems.

This book is a mystery, and it is a little bit creepy. You will like this book if you like surprise endings and scary stories. Most little kids probably shouldn’t read this book. I was a little scared, but I thought it was a super duper awesome book, and I loved reading it!

To learn more about this book you can visit the author's website at http://www.mousecircus.com/. I just visited the website and found out that there is a section of videos where you can listen to the author and other famous people reading the story. So cool!

Rating: 5 out of 5 worms

Pages: 176 (paperback), 192 (hardcover)
Interest Level: Grades 6 to 8
Reading Level: 5.2

The Wolves in the Walls

By Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by Dave McKean

Lucy lives in a nice house, but one day she hears a scratching and clawing noise and nobody believes her when she tells them that it’s a bunch of wolves living in the walls! She tries to warn everybody, but everybody just says " if the wolves come out it’s all over." Lucy doesn’t understand what that means. That is (gulp) until the wolves come out!

I picked this book because I was browsing the shelves at the town library and this cover looked interesting. When I read it I thought it sounded exciting, and the pictures reminded me of Coraline. It is written and illustrated by the same people as Coraline (which I also borrowed while I was there, and will review tomorrow. I didn't even know it was a book! Did you?).

You will like this book if you like stories that are a little spooky and weird. It is a quick and easy book to read.

To learn more about this book, you can visit the author's website at http://www.mousecircus.com/.


Rating: 4 out of 5 worms

Pages: 56
Interest Level: Grades 3 to 5
Reading Level: 4.5

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Book 1

By J.K. Rowling

 

This book is about a boy named Harry Potter. Harry has no parents and lives with his mean aunt, uncle, and cousin who all yell at him for no reason. Normally Harry does not get invited to do anything fun with the family, but one day he got to go to his cousin’s birthday party at the zoo because his baby sitter broke her leg. While they were at the zoo strange things started happening. Harry was staring at a snake when the glass of the snake’s tank disappeared. Then, a couple days later, a guy named Hagrid broke through Harry’s door and told him that he (Harry) is actually a wizard and has been his whole life. Hagrid takes Harry on a train to Hogwart’s, a school for witchcraft and wizardry. While at Hogwarts, Harry makes lots of friends and has exciting adventures while trying to defeat a bad wizard named Voldamort.

This book is super cool! I liked it better than the movie because it has more details about Harry’s life and adventures. You will like this book if you like fantasy and mystery books.

For more information you can visit the authors website at http://www.jkrowling.com/.

Rating: 5 out of 5 worms

Pages: 320

Interest Level: Ages 9 and up

Reading Level: 5.3

The Jungle Book

By Rudyard Kipling

The Jungle Book is a collection of stories and poems that all feature talking animals. The first three stories are about the adventures of Mowgli the man-cub. He is a boy that was raised by wolves. The Disney movie is based on these stories, but is a little bit different. The first three stories that make up the Jungle Book are:

• Mowgli's Brothers
• Kaa's Hunting
• Tiger! Tiger!

I really enjoyed these three stories and the talking animals. My favorite part was in "Tiger Tiger!" but I can't tell you what happens because it gives away the ending! You will have to read it to find out.

I am going to rate these three stories together.

Rating: 4 out of 5 worms


The White Seal
"The White Seal" is about a baby seal named Kotick that is born white instead of gray. He goes on an adventure to try and find a safe place where no men will come to hunt for seals.

I liked this story, but it was a little boring.

Rating: 3 out of 5 worms.


Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
This story was sooooooooo good! It was my favorite story in the whole book. "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" is about a boy finding an almost dead mongoose named Rikki-Tikki. The boy nurses Rikki-Tikki back to health, and convinces his mom and dad to let him keep him. Rikki-Tikki fights dangerous creatures (duh, duh, duhn...) to save the family.

If you don't want to read all of the jungle book stories, this story also comes as a separate book.

Rating: 5 out of 5 worms


Toomai of the Elephants
This story is about a 10-year old boy named Little Toomai. His dad is in charge of driving India's greatest elephant, but one day the elephant takes off with Little Toomai on his back.

This was a bit of a humdrum read (that means boring).

Rating: 3 out of 5 worms


Servants of the Queen
In a crowded camp full of people and their animals, a bunch of talking animals discuss their different war fighting strategies. For example, the horse talks about his owner riding around on his back, shooting guns and slashing people with knives. The bullock, on the other hand, just relaxes and eats grass while waiting for his owner to come back and take him home.

It was pretty interesting to hear about the different ways the animals fight, but I still thought this story was a little boring.

Rating: 3 out of 5 worms

Pages: 280
Interest Level: Grades 9 - 12
Reading Level: 5.9

The Hallo-wiener

By Dav Pilkey

This is a very funny Halloween story about a Daschund named Oscar. Other dogs make fun of him and call him a wiener dog. The teasing gets worse when his mom makes him a hotdog costume for Halloween. At the end of the story the other dogs learn a lesson--not to judge a book by its cover.

This story made me laugh a lot!

To learn more about this book, visit the author's website at:
www.pilkey.com.

Rating: 4 out of 5 worms

Pages: 32
Interest Level: K to 2
Reading Level: 2.8

Extra, Extra, Draw All About It!

Hey Everybody,

I was thinking that once a week we could have a day called Draw About It Day. Draw About It Day is when you draw a picture from a book you liked or read, and I will share the pictures on the blog. You could either email it to me at bookwormkate8@gmail.com or give it to me in person.

Here are a couple examples my brother and I made:

"Spider-Man Shoots a Web"

from the book The Amazing Spider-Man

by Liam, age 6

"Hugo and the Automan"

from the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret

by Kate, age 8

Do you think that is a good idea?

I would also like it if you could tell me any other ideas you think would be fun for this blog!

Thank you!!

Kate

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

By Brian Selznick

This book is about a 12-year old boy named Hugo who has no family and secretly lives in the walls of a Paris train station. He is really good at fixing things. Every morning he wakes up and sneaks to the station cafe to steal food, and then winds and fixes all of the clocks in the train station. Hugo has to be very cautious going about his day because if he gets caught by the mean station inspector, he will go to an orphanage!

Before Hugo became an orphan, he had a dad who liked fixing things, too. Throughout the story Hugo tries to fix a robot that he had worked on with his dad before his dad died. The robot looks like a man that writes, and it is called an automan.

One of the coolest things about this book is all of the pictures! There are lots and lots of detailed pictures that help tell the story. I really enjoyed seeing pictures of the automan.

You will like this book if you like adventures, mysteries, and picture clues!

This book is tied as one of my top 3 all-time favorite books. You HAVE to read it. It is super duper awesome!

To learn more about this book, you can visit the author's website at:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Rating: 5 out of 5 worms

Pages: 533
Interest Level: Ages 9 to 12
Reading Level: Grades 4 to 7

Welcome to my blog, blog, BLOG

(read with an echo voice)

This is my first blog post, so I hope you like it.

I ultimate supremo love to read and I am going to use this blog to write reviews of all the books I read. I will try to make my reviews interesting, but also FUNNY! I hope it will get other kids excited about reading, too. I also hope other kids will write in to tell me about all the good books they read.

What do I like to read?
Pretty much everything! I read a lot of non-fiction books to learn about different animals and science. I also love fiction books.

What is the best book I ever read?
Ooooh, hard question. I will say The Tale of Despereaux.

How does an 8-year old have her own blog?
My mom manages the blog account, and I am not allowed to access the blog without my mom. All comments will be screened to ensure they are appropriate for kids. My mom will (slightly) copy-edit what I write, but no changes will be made to my writing without my approval.