Poem Slideshow

Check out these original poems that show poetry tools.

Poem

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Camouflage Poetry

Where in the Wild?: Camouflaged Creatures Concealed... and Revealed  is a beautiful poetry book where you get to find animals that are hiding.

My favorite poem was Vagabond.  It’s about a newt that is hiding in the leaves.  The book also gives you information about the Red-Spotted Newt.

I recommend this book for kids who’d lift a finger for poetry, and who like animals.

Review of the Gregor the Overlander Series

Book One - Gregor the Overlander

Gregor The Overlander (Underland Chronicles): Suzanne Collins: Books

This is a good book about a person that goes underground through a hole in the laundry room and finds himself in the Underworld where he must rescue his dad.  He must overcome giant rats, giant cockroaches, and giant bats. 

It is full of exciting adventures, and I was on the edge of my seat reading this thrilling story.

I highly recommend this book to anybody at all!

Book Two - Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane (The Underland Chronicles, Book 2): Suzanne Collins: Books

You can see my review of the second book in this series in an earlier blog post at, About Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane.

Book Three - Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

Gregor And The Curse Of The Warmbloods (Underland Chronicles): Suzanne Collins: Books

In this book, Gregor helps find a cure for a very dangerous plague, called the Curse of the Warmbloods, that only affect warmblooded creatures such as giant rats, people, and the giant flying bats. The rats and the bats are sworn enemies, but the bats work with the humans to find a cure.

This was one of my favorite books in the series because it introduces a new character who is a giant, talking lizard.  He can spit poison and he has very sharp claws, but he helps them find the cure.

I recommend this book to anybody at all because it's an exciting, action-packed thrill ride.

Book Four - Gregor and the Marks of Secret

Gregor And The Marks Of Secret (Underland Chronicles): Suzanne Collins: Books

In this book, Luxa and Gregor have to find out what's killing the nibblers, or mice, and save them.  Somehow, they start a big war with the rats.

I got bored reading this book, and didn't finish.

Book Five - Gregor and the Code of the Claw

Gregor and the Code of Claw (Underland Chronicles, Book 5): Suzanne Collins: Books

This is the final book of the series where there is a big war between the humans and the bats against the rats.  In the end, the war subsides and they make peace with their enemies.

I think it's one of the best in the series because it is the most action-packed and thrilling.

My Fun Trip

I went on an awesome trip. We climbed rrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllleeeee high. I went all the way to the silver course. But I could not do the rest because I'm not tall enough. It had:

1. log jumps
2. zip lines
   
3. swing ropes

It was a possums of a time. Get it? Possums climb trees. I seriously recommend it. It was called ADK extreme adventure 2009. Here are some pictures.

A Review Of The Awesome Book Swindle

Swindle, by Gordan Korman, is a really awesome mystery book about a boy named Griffin who finds a million dollar Babe Ruth baseball card in a condemned building.  When he takes it to a mean collector, whose name happens to be Swindle,  to find out how much it's worth to sell it, the collector rips him off and buys it for a hundred dollars.  This book is really fun to read because it is exciting.

One way it is exciting is that Griffin and his friends have to steal the baseball card back from a house with a really high-tech security system.  Another is that guarding the card are two really big attack guard dogs. Griffin comes up with a plan, and bribes his friends to help him with the money they'll get from the baseball card.

Not all goes as planned or expected, and that's what helps make this story interesting and exciting.

The author writes very humorously, and made me laugh a lot.

I highly, supremely recommend this book to everyone.  Kids and adults will love this adventure filled book, or my name isn't Chewbaka!

 

Here is a link to The Official Gordan Korman Website.  He wrote his first book when he was 12-years-old.  That's gotta say something!

 

Swindle (Apple (Scholastic)): Gordon Korman: Books ISBN: 0439903459 ISBN-13: 9780439903455

More Animal Science Books

If you're interested in how animals communicate, Animals Exposed! The Truth About Animal Communication is a good book for you.  Did you know that the baboon shows that it is ready to mate by growing a big, pink butt?  The rattlesnake warns enemies to stay away by rattling the rattle on its tail.  Also, the skunk sprays a smelly liquid on enemies to warn them to stay away.

Did you know that there are hundreds of different animal communications?  There are animals saying: hi, go away, leave me along, get out of my territory, help me kill prey so we can share it for dinner, and be my friend.

I learned that stuff and more from reading this book.  It has very good illustrations that almost look like photos because they are so realistic.  It even has sidebars with more details and examples of animal communication.

I recommend this book to anyone who want to learn more about animals.  It has interesting facts, and is a fun read.

Animals Exposed! The Truth About Animal Builders is a great book explaining how animals build their homes.  Did you know that one weaver bird builds its nest with spider webs?   Some mice build balls of straw with holes in them for a nest.  Beavers build dams in rivers to live in.  Animal homes can be found in very different places and habitats.

Amazingly, there are many different kinds of animal homes, just as many as there are different kinds of animals.  There are bejillions of different kinds of animals.  There are animal homes: in water, on tree branches and trunks, in underground burrows, in tiny slots, and even some in ice caves.  Animals have found ways to adapt to different habitats with different kinds of homes.

This book has sidebars describing specific animal homes.  For example, in one sidebar, you can find horned eggs where baby dogfish grow, and spiders wrapping bugs in silk hanging from a web.  Each of the animal builders mentioned in the sidebar also have an illustration.  The drawings are awesome, they are very well drawn and very colorful.

I recommend this book to kids who want to grow up to save animal habitats.

A Collection Of Animal Science Books

The Egg (First Discovery Books): Gallimard Jeunesse, Pascale De Bourgoing, Rene Mettler: Books ISBN: 0590452665 ISBN-13: 9780590452663

This is an informative book about eggs that has a whole bunch of pictures of really cute baby chickens.  It tells you about the different kinds of animals that lay eggs.  It shows you the inside of a chicken egg before it hatches at two different stages of development.  This is a good book for littler kids, who don't already know that chickens have to sit on their eggs to keep them warm.

All About Frogs (All About...): Jim Arnosky: Books ISBN: 0590481649 ISBN-13: 9780590481649

This book tells you all about frogs, like how they're born and how they change from tadpole to frog in a process called metamorphosis.  It also tells you the difference between a frog and a toad, frogs have longer legs.  It's a well written and illustrated book, but it's for younger kids.

Where Did The Butterfly Get Its Name?: Melvin Berger, Gilda Berger, Barbara Higgins Bond: Books ISBN: 0439266750 ISBN-13: 9780439266758

This book isn't the best, but it's very informative. It's just a fact book, but it has very gross and gruesome pictures of moths and butterflies. Have you ever seen moth larvae eating each other? Well, if you read this book, you'll see it. It has close-up pictures of butterfly eyes and proboscis. I would recommend this book for younger kids.

Review of Bed-Knob and Broomstick

Bed-Knob and Broomstick, by Mary Norton, is about three kids who have an awesome adventure on a flying bed.  They move to a town to live with their aunt.  In this town, they discover that one of the women is a witch in training.  She gives them a magic bed that can fly so that they don't snitch that she is training to be a witch.

There is also a movie about this book that is very similar.  One difference is that in the book, they fly on the bed to an island that turns out to be populated by cannibals.  They barely get away with the flesh on their bones.  In the movie, they go to an island, but instead of there being cannibals, there are animals.

I'd recommend this book to people who like witches, wizards, magic, and that sort of stuff.  It wasn't my favorite book because it was sort of dry, not really juicy.  It has excitement, but it didn't excite me too much.  There wasn't enough action in it for me.

This is a really good book, just not for me.

Bed-Knob and Broomstick (A Combined Edition of: "The Magic Bed-Knob" and "Bonfires and Broomsticks"): Mary Norton, Erik Blegvad: Books ISBN: 0152024565 ISBN-13: 9780152024567

A Book Review of the Lightening Thief Book - The Last Olympian

The Last Olympian, by Rick Riordan, concludes the Lightening Thief series.  It is about Percy, a demigod, who has to fight Kronos and his army to save the world while all the mortals are sleeping.

Kronos is the Titan Lord.  The Titans are gods that existed before the current Greek gods.  Kronos is super, super powerful.  He is the Titan of Time, so he can control time to pause, play, fast forward or rewind it.  In other words, he is very powerful.

Percy is the son of Poseidon, the ocean god.  He can control water, like making waves and stuff.  He can make bubbles in water, and he can go in water without getting wet.

Around the beginning of this story, Percy bathed in the River Styx, the underground river that goes through the Underworld, Hades' domain or kingdom.  This made him invincible.

Kronos attacks the world so he can destroy Olympus, the city of the gods where Zeus lives above the Empire State building in New York City.  He wants to take over the world.

In the end, it isn't Percy who saves the world.  It's Luke, Kronos' spy who used to go to Camp Halfblood with Percy.  After he finished spying, he bathed in the River Styx like Percy and Kronos took over his body.  Like Achilles, Luke had a weak spot where he stabbed himself so that Kronos would be destroyed.  Luke was going to die anyway, so he killed himself to save the world from Kronos.

I think the main idea of the book is that even if you've done things the same way for thousands of years, you can change for the better. Also, you should always accept others even if they're a bit of an oddball or different. I think this because at the very end, when Kronos had been defeated, the gods were granting the demigods who helped defeat them wishes.  Percy's wish was that all the demigods be accepted and claimed by their god parents. 

I recommend this book to anybody because it's really good.  I think it is the best one in the Lightening Thief series.  I liked this book because there's tons of action in it, it's got a bunch of cool twists, there's a cool dragon and also a flying pig.

If you want to learn more about Percy and the other books in the Lightening Thief series, read my other reviews:

A Kid's Review of the Lightening Thief Series

The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 5): Rick Riordan: Books ISBN: 1423101472 ISBN-13: 9781423101475

A Reading of Jellyfish Stew

YouTube - A Reading of Jellyfish Stew

 

A reading of Jellyfish Stew, by Jack Prelutsky, in The New Kid on the Block.

 

The New Kid on the Block: Jack Prelutsky, James Stevenson: Books ISBN: 0688022715 ISBN-13: 9780688022716

I made a cool poll !!!!!!

I made a cool poll !!!!!! The poll is on the right, in the sidebar. It's about what people like to do for fun as a pastime. My dad's favorite thing to do is watching movies, and my favorite thing to do is to read a good book like The Lightening Thief series. I want to see what's most popular on earth.

Please answer the poll.

Ancient Rome Travel Brochure

Here is a brochure for Ancient Rome if you're ever thinking about going there, ha ha!

To see it better, you can click on the picture, or you can click on Visit Roma.

 

More Links:

Google Earth Ancient Rome In 3D

How to Make a Travel Brochure on the Computer - In Microsoft Word or Works.

Design A Travel Brochure - online on Read Write Think

Create a Travel Brochure - Lesson plan on Ancient Rome and history links.

The Three Million Book Reviews

How Much Is a Million? is a great book by David Schwartz for explaining big numbers.  It shows how big the numbers are.  For example, it showed it would take someone 23 days to count to a million and 95 years to count to a trillion, and that's without taking a break and counting pretty fast.  Or, a bowl would have to be as big as a stadium to fit a trillion goldfish!  And, if a trillion kids stood on each other's shoulders, they would almost reach Saturn's rings.

It has awesome illustrations because it was done by one of the greatest illustrators, Steven Kellogg.  The illustrations are cartoony, but really good.  The reason that I cannot explain these pictures is that my mom can't accept that some things just are what they are, even when they are.  These illustrations are colorful and detailific.  Looking at the size of the stadium goldfish bowl in the illustration really helped my understanding of how much space a trillion goldfish would take.

I recommend this book to people who want to learn about big numbers like a million, a billion, and a trillion.

How Much Is a Million? 20th Anniversary Edition (Reading Rainbow Book): David M. Schwartz, Steven Kellogg: Books ISBN: 0688099335 ISBN-13: 9780688099336

Millions to Measure is a measuriffic book by David Schwartz that I am measuring to tell you about.  I am reviewing it in Measuria, a place where measuring is measical.  Get it, magical measical?

Oh, whatever!

Let's get down to measuring how great this measuring book is!

Whenever I give an excellent review on one of the parts of this book, give it 5 points.  Whenever I give it a good review, give it 3 points.  When I give it an OK review, give it 1 point.

This book has magnificent hand-drawn and colored pencil drawings.  One of the great illustrations is of Hercules The Huggable Hippo.  It's a really funny picture to explain weight!  Give this 5 points.  I hope you're keeping track (I'm not!)

Next part of this book is its excellent explanations.  It helps you measure by showing the different ways people measured back in time compared to now.  It even has a sidebar showing fluid ounces on one of the pages, and it helped me with my homework since I'm learning about capacity. 

I recommend this book to people who are learning about measuring,or who want to.

Millions to Measure: David M. Schwartz, Steven Kellogg: Books ISBN: 0688129161 ISBN-13: 9780688129163

 

If You Made a Million is another great book by David Schwartz that shows just how rich you would be if you made a million dollars.  It also explains the bank system.

Did you know that if you put one million dollars in the bank, you could live off the interest?  It could earn 10 cents a minute, if it has a good interest rate.  On the other hand, if you borrow money you should pay if off right away before the bank earns interest on what you've borrowed.  You can lose a lot of money that way.  If you borrowed one million dollars, you could LOSE ten cents a minute.

Steven Kellogg also illustrated this book.  I'd describe this book's illustrations the exact same way that I described them in How Much Is A Million?  They're drawn the same way, just of different things.  It has a good illustration of a fish where you could feed a fish and earn one cent.  I also enjoyed the picture of a kid unclogging a fountain with frogs jumping out.

I would sure like to make a million dollars.  If I had a million dollars, I would take a taxi to the Andes Mountains.  Then I would bank my money there!

If You Made a Million: David M. Schwartz, Steven Kellogg: Books ISBN: 0688136346 ISBN-13: 9780688136345

 

Another Book Review:

David Schwartz and the Power of Ten - Book Review of On Beyond a Million, and an Author Visit!