Monthly Archives: January 2010


Horrible Histories: Edinburgh

Edinburgh

by Terry Deary

*The three questions are from the back of the book.

Summary

Want to know:

  • Whose pickled skin became a sought-after souvenir?
  • Why it’s alright to spit on the High Street?
  • How the pupils of Edinburgh High School got away with murder?

Want to know these gruesome answers? Then this is the book for you. It tells you all these gruesome facts and tales that will make your blood run cold. Even some stuff that you might not have wanted to know. In the Horrible History of…..

Edinburgh

Review

I am not kidding about your blood running cold. The first time I read it, I felt sick. There are some gruesome details in it. There are also some very vivid pictures, but they are all drawing but it is still very…………gross. If you are a person who has an uneasy stomach, this might not be the book for you. It might just make you that little bit worse. I personally loved it because I love learning about this type of stuff, but I am sure there are a lot of people out there who are not like me. This book is not  only learning like you would in history class but this is fun history (though it is not fun to the people that it happened to.) I have read every page but I find this is not the type of book that you start at the beginning and work your way through. I just read the pages that interest me at the very moment. It is not a story in a sense but it is still very good and I am still reading it with enthusiasm.

This book has many others in the series. Just a few are…..

The Savage Stone Age

The Groovy Greeks

Loathsome London

The USA

Rotton Rulers

and

France.

Some of these books will be reviewed later (once I have read them.)
Hope you enjoy the book.

Happy Reading!!!!!!


Word(s) of the Week – Guest Blogger M.O.M.

With so much of the country experiencing wild and wet weather  here are a few weather related words and phraes to help with understanding what the weather person is talking about.

Blizzard – An intense winter storm with winds of 35 m.p.h. or higher with falling and/or blowing snow that reduces visibility below 1/4 mile for at least three hours.

Flash Flood – Sudden flooding that occurs when floodwaters rise swiftly with no warning within several hours of an intense rain. They often occur after intense rainfall from slow moving thunderstorms. In narrow canyons and valleys, floodwaters flow faster than on flatter ground and can be quite destructive.

Lake Effect Snow – Localized snow that forms on the downwind side of large lakes. It’s common in the late fall and winter in the Great Lakes region when cold, dry air picks up moisture from the unfrozen lake surfaces.

Nor’easter – A powerful low-pressure system that moves north along the Atlantic Coast. It’s called a Nor’easter because the coastal winds are from the northeast. Heavy rain, snow and high surf often occur.

*All of this information came from Crystal Wicker at WeatherWizKids.com. To see her website click here.


Great Backyard Bird Count

I know I am a book blogger but I also love birds. Next month there is something called The Great Backyard Bird Count and I wanted to share it with you. It is a combined project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society. The website has lots of information and a special kids area. It is a lot of  fun and easy to do. Here is the link so you can get birding.

To go to the Great Backyard Bird Count Website click here.


Odd and the Frost Giants

by Neil Gaiman

With Illustrations by Brett Helquist

Summary

In a village in the Ancient Norway there is a boy named Odd, though there is nothing odd about him. His mother loves him, his father is dead, and his step-father is just there. His leg had gotten crushed some time earlier and so his step-father knew that he was of no use to him. So he just accepted him as a person. Then Odd decides to go on a little adventure with only his fathers ax, his crutch, and some food. He decides he wants to go to his father hut which is way out in the woods. When he arrives he makes a nice big fire and dozes off. He is woken up by a rustling at the door and when he opens it he finds a little red fox. The fox seems to want him to follow him. He does and he sees that the fox is leading him to a bear. He helps the bear (because the bears paw was stuck in the tree) and then says for the bear not to eat him. Weirdly, the bear picks him up, puts him on his back and takes him back to the hut he was at. Odd decides to let the animals in and they eat and go to sleep. In his dream, he hears people talking and he wakes up, but there is no on in the room with him except the animals. Then he says to the animals that it must have been them talking. They just look at him puzzled.  Then the bear says dumbly, “Animals do not talk.” All of the animals tell then tell him how they can talk, (which I cannot tell you) and they set off on an adventure. It is about the adventure that Odd, a bear, a fox, and an eagle make.

Review

Very cute. I really like how Neil Gaiman describes Odd, that he is small and has a gimpy leg. He is kind of described of as a runt. I also really like how the animals are described. You can picture the animals very clearly. This is not a particularly large book, 117 pages to be exact, but every page has a new twist and turn.

When I first looked at the book I did not think it was going to be any good. Then once I opened it, about two nights ago, I realized how wrong I was. This book is an easy read, I think it is about 3rd or 4th grade level but I am higher than that and I thought that it was pretty good. Hopefully you will too.

Happy Reading!!!!!!


Spy High

Mission 1

by A. J. Butcher

Summary

****Deveraux Academy is not what it seems. The football team practicing beside the ivy-covered dormitory is merely a hologram, and the elderly receptionist could break your neck in three seconds flat. Deveraux’s students rarely call the school by its proper name. They call it spy high.

Ordinarily, the students had-picked by Senior Tutor Elemore Grant are flawless, but his latest creation, Bond Team, is falling short of expectations. When personally clashes between elected leader Benjamin T. Stanton Jr. and farmer’s son Jake Daly threaten to torpedo the group’s changes at completing the academy’s rigorous virtual reality training program. Grant decides Bond Team need a bonding experience. Suddenly, there’s nothing virtual about the danger that Ben, jake, and the rest of the Bond Team find themselves facing. This time failure won’t simply result in expulsion from school and the purging of their memories. This time, failure will result in death.

****This summary is the summary from the book.

Review

This book was ok because it was annoying. In about the middle of the book, it was kind of like an old person was talking on for a really long time. I actually think I skimmed that part of the book. The other complaint about that book that I have are the people. The descriptions of the characters are not very good. They are vague. They were so vague that in the beginning of the book I thought the characters were little children. In 5 or 6th grade. I know that the title is Spy High but since the descriptions were so obscure, I just kept thinking they were these little kids fighting these really mean and big people. Even at the end of the book there was a sense of uncertainty because they did not drill the descriptions of the characters into your head. They gave their personality and what they did in the school of Spy High and what they were good at and why they were chosen to go to the school but not enough about what they looked like and were. For all I know they could be aliens from outer space with tentacles were their eyes should be. I felt that the book had a sense of confusion to it. The people were one thing but they were imaged as something else.  This was an ok book but I am going to read the whole series because I want to read it and find out what happens in the end. I personally thought it was an average book. Kind of like any other book you would find on a shelf.