New Book!

I just finished reading one of the many new books at our school library, Tangled Treads: A Hmong Girl's Story by Pegi Deitz Shea. This novel tells the story of Mai, a Hmong girl, who immigrates to America with her grandmother after years of living in a refugee camp in Thailand. The two settle in with family already living in the U.S. Mai experiences "American life" at school while trying to maintain Hmong traditions at home. Soon she discovers how challenging it is trying to carve a life from these two very different cultures.

This is an excellent story, and a good book to read if you'd like to learn about Hmong history, culture and traditions!

Mrs. Bunting

Games by Carol Gorman

I just finished reading the book Games by Carol Gorman. Two 8th graders, Mick and Boot, can't stand each other and have been in lots of fights over the last two years. Things start to change, however, when the new principal decides to make the boys meet daily in his office to play board games until they can work things out. Great book! Check out the author's site here. Reading counts reading level of 4.3 but the interest level is 7th and 8th grade. Worth 16 Reading Counts points.

Book Review by Patrick Elkins

Title and Author
Lunch Money by Andrew Clements

Plot Summary
The plot of Lunch Money is Greg and Marena are rivals until 6th grade when they make a industry together. Then they get it got banned by the school,so then they try to get it back.

Plot High Point
The main point is when Greg and Marena try and succeed.

Main Characters
The important characters are Greg, Marena, and Mr.Z.

Setting
The story's back drop is Greg's house, school, on the road,and in the conference room.

Personal Opinion
My personal opinion is that this is a really good book that really pulls you in at the beginning and continues through the story.

Book Review by Sara Lewis - Green Angel

This is the first of our student written book reviews. Hope you enjoy!

Title and Author
Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Plot Summary
The plot of the story Green Angel is a story of a fifteen year old girl, and how she lost her family when the city that they lived next to burned down, and how she supports herself afterwords. The story is based on 9/11.

Plot High Point
The part of the story that I think is most important is the chapter, Rain, when she lost everything but let go.

Main Characters
The most important character in this story is Green,the fifteen year old girl that lost her family.

Setting
The setting of the story is the girl's house outside of the city, but they didn't say the name of the city.

Personal Opinion
What I seriously thought of this book was it was melancholy and shadowed, and it was not a very happy ending to me, but I still liked it.