Helen MacInnes

While poking through Grandma Luke's book shelves this summer, I came across The Salzburg Connection by Helen MacInnes.  I didn't have time to read it while in Boise, but I stumbled across it again via Kindle and decided to give it a try.  I really enjoyed it! 

It's a Cold War story and very fast-paced and suspenseful.  Being a Cold War story written from a western European perspective, it's also very black-and-white about who the bad guys are and who the good guys are.  But I liked the main character who stumbled into espionage and was feeling his way in the dark.  I liked the honesty the author showed in talking about the consequences of the war.  I liked that the story was imagined from real events.  And I liked that there was a little romantic subplot to keep the story from being too, too plot driven.  :) 

My Side of the Mountain

My book is about Sam living in the Catskill Mountains. First, he leaves New York with a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, some flint and steel, and an ax. He goes around and settles near the Gribley farm.  In a large tree he chops a space. To finish it faster Sam used fire to make his home. He put the fire out with dirt. He used deerskin for a door. One day he met Bando, a college teacher. Bando showed Sam how to make willow whistles. Bando also made blueberry jam in clay containers he made himself. I like this story because it's adventurous and detailed.


Ian

Ralph S. Mouse

by Beverly Cleary

      The main characters are Ryan and Ralph. Ryan is a person and Ralph is a mouse. The problem is Ralph's cousins are jealous he has a motorcycle, but Ralph just wants his own thing. Because of this, Ryan took Ralph to school. Ryan showed Ralph to his class. The next Friday, there was a mouse exibit. The class read poems and stories about Ralph. Then, Ralph ran a maze. He jumped on top and ran across. I like this book because it is adventurous.

Ian

The Giraffe and the Pelly and I

I really like this book because it doesn't have that many pages but it's not super short.  My favorite part of the book was at the very end when the duke gave all of them a wish and the boy wished to own a sweet shop and so the duke built a sweet shop for the boy, Billy, to own, and he got all the money.  I think that owning a candy shop would be cool.  I really like this series by Roald Dahl because he always has good books for smaller kids to read.  At school, my teacher always like Roald Dahl and she always read Roald Dahl to us after lunch.  My favorite book that my teacher read to us was The Witches.  It's about witches that try to get rid of all the children in the world, and it's really funny.

~Hadyn Luke

The Popcorn Dragon

by Jane Thayer
illustrated by Lisa McGue

Dexter is a drgon with a scaly body. One day Dexter blow smoke. He show off. I like this book becuse Dexter make poprn. He makes pogorn with his brefe.

Levi

The Mark Of Athena-Percy Jackson

I just finished The Mark Of Athena by Rick Riordan. If I had to say a bad thing about this would be it: WORST. ENDING. EVER! So if you want to read it I would suggest waiting until October to read it, that's when the next book comes out, The House Of Hades.  It's about Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel, and Leo. The Greeks and Romans are enemy camps. Annabeth gets sent on a quest by her mom, Athena. No other Athena child has completed before. Hazel is trying to fin her brother, Nico, who is the son of Hades. Leo has a fortune read saying he will be the 7th wheel. An enemy goddess is awaking. Overall it is an awesome book! :)

-Regan 

The House in the Night

by Susan Marie Swanson
pictures by Beth Krommes

This book is abaot a litte gril that gits to do lot of things. The litte gril unlook the door. I like this book bcuse the bird cume out of the book.

Caleb

Walk Two Moons

by Sharon Creech

I just finished this a couple of weeks ago and have told so many people to read it.  I loved it.  It won the Newbery in 1995.  It is about a girl trying to come to terms with her mom leaving.  This is done under the guise of telling her grandparents a long story while they are on a cross country road trip to Lewiston, ID (shout out to Idaho, woohoo!).  It's kind of a story in a story, and both are so interesting.  I can't tell too much without giving too much away, but I promise reading it will be worth it.  I know Cathy has already read it since I already tried to tell her about it.  It is a really good book about strength and loss and family.  I will be buying it for our family library, for sure.