Julia's Book Review

Title: The gifted

Author: Terri Blackstock

Publisher: W Publishing Group

Place& year of publication: United States & year of 2002

Number of pages: 137

Where you found the book: the public library

Story Review

       Tiffany Kramer, Josh Canfield, and Mo are three normal high-school sophomores. They don’t have the best friendship, but they knew little about each other from a youth group. It was in the summer, when they were taking pictures for their school’s year book, and there was an earthquake. They tried to escape, but it was too late and they got stuck under the ground. Tiffany hurt her eyes from the glasses of the windows, Josh injured his leg and Mo hurt his lungs and his voice from the smoke of the fire. Yet they were all hurt, and weren’t able to see each other, they found each other’s hands and prayed to God. They were all scared, but they relied on God and each other. At first they were afraid that they’ll never see their families and friends again, but they trusted God, and kept praying. They waited for many hours until they finally heard a voice. God answered their prayers and they got rescued! They immediately moved to a hospital, but there were too many patients waiting that they couldn’t get their surgeries done. Tiffany was so worried that she’ll never be able to see, Josh was afraid that he’ll never be able to use his left leg, and Mo was scared that he’ll never be able to speak. All they got was an IV shot from a nurse to give them less pain, and they all fell asleep in the hospital. The next day God performed miracles on all three of them. Tiffany who couldn’t see a thing, was able to see better than without her glasses, Josh, whose leg was crushed, could run faster than before, and Mo, who couldn’t speak a word, could shout so loud that the people in the hospital started to get annoyed with him. They were so thankful to God, and they promised to God that they’ll use their lives to serve others and to spread His words, but not only God healed them, but he gave them gifts and this is why the title of this book is called “The gifted”. God gave them gifts so that they could do His works and use their gifts to show others who Jesus is. Tiffany could see other people’s pasts through visions with her eyes, Josh could run and find those who needed healings in their lives and Mo could speak like a preacher and knew the scriptures that he didn’t even read before. They all realized that this was all God’s plan and that they now are a team to spread God’s word. Josh would find people that need healings in their lives, and Tiffany would find out what was wrong with their lives through her visions and tell Mo, and Mo would go up to them and speak to them about Jesus. Sometimes they got scared to go up to the people, but they gave courage to each other. And one day they lost their gifts and their gifts suddenly stopped. Tiffany wasn’t able to visions anymore, Josh couldn’t run and find those who needed healings, and Mo who spoke all the time about Jesus, didn’t speak a lot. They all wondered why the gifts suddenly stopped. Did God take away their gifts? Did they sin against God?

Christian Perspective

         In my opinion, this book is written in a Christian perspective. God defiantly had plans for all three of them, and he wanted them to spread his word through Tiffany, Josh, and Mo. When they got stuck under the ground, they prayed and relied on each other even though they weren’t able to see each other from the darkness and were all badly hurt and wounded. At first, they thought no one would rescue them, but God and they gave strength and courage to each other. By rescuing them, God showed them that he didn’t forsake them but had amazing plans in their lives. As Christians, we should learn that even if it feels like the end of the world, God has amazing plans for our lives and that he’ll never forsake us. Tiffany, Josh, and Mo kept praying and kept trusting God, so in the end, not only He saved them but He healed them and gave them the privilege to share their experiences with God.

Your Thoughts

   I enjoyed this book, because each end of the chapter was convincing to the next chapter. This book not only had adventures but I liked how the book was written by a Christian author. I also enjoyed it because there were events that I wasn’t expecting, and you could picture the scenes in the book. I choose this book because the story sounded engaging and I like realistic fiction. In this book, I learned that God has bigger plans than what we expect, and that He’ll never leave us. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventures, and to anyone who is interested in Christian books because you can learn a lot from this book and gain knowledge about God and friendships.

"How to steal a dog"

Title: How to steal a dog
Author: Barbara O'connor Publisher: Square fish
Place&Year of Publication: New York, year of 2007
Number of pages: 170 W
here you found the book: School library

Story Review:

   Georgina is desperate to find a house. Georgina and her family live in a car ever since her father had left her family and they got evicted from their apartment. Her mom works at two different places to earn as much as money so her and her family can get a place to live in and Georgina is stuck looking after her little brother, Toby for after school. Even though Georgina’s mom works at two different places, they still can’t afford enough money to move to a house. Georgina wants to help her mom to get some money, but she can’t get it from anywhere and one day Georgina sees a missing dog poster that says reward of $500 dollars. With the $500 dollars, her and her family will have enough money to move to a house, but of course, she thinks that she won’t be able to find the missing dog, but she thinks that if she “steals” a dog from one of her rich neighborhood and waits until the owner puts a reward sign poster for his or her “missing” dog, and this is why the title is called “How to steal a dog”. She plans everything and how she will steal the dog and finally, Georgina finds the perfect dog, Willy, with his rich and friendly owner. She waits for the reward poster to come up, but the owner doesn’t put the poster up, so she goes to the owner’s house and pretending that she doesn’t know anything about the missing dog, and she figures out that the owner isn’t rich. The owner, Carmella is a very nice person, but only if she has $500 dollars, Georgina would take Willy to her house. Georgina’s mom is so close of getting a house, but Georgina can’t wait any longer and everything seem to be so slow and not working. Finally, Carmella’s uncle says that he is able to lend some money to Carmella. And there is only one more step for Georgina, it is either taking Willy to Carmella’s and receive the money, or tell everything truth to Carmella. Georgina thinks that this is all wrong, so she tells everything to Carmella what had happened. After telling the truth, she waits for Carmella to hate her, but she doesn’t. She is disappointed in Georgina, but she decides to forgive her. After two days later, her mom tells Georgina and Toby that she earned enough money to move to a house! They are no longer living in the car now. The house isn’t very big, but Georgina loves it and she decides and promises that she will never ever steal a dog again!

Christian perspective:

        This book is not written in a Christian perspective, but in the end Georgina deals her problem well. Even though she steals the dog, which isn’t the right thing, in the end she tells the truth to Carmella. Even if we do something wrong, we shouldn’t be afraid to do the right thing, or to tell the truth. When Georgina tells Carmella the truth, Carmella forgives her, and that’s like between us and God. If we ask God for forgiveness, He will always forgive us and in the end, good things will come. We as Christians, we shouldn’t rely on money or worldly things, but we should rely on God. Even if we don’t have something that we need, or want, we can always ask God and He will answer our prayers!

My thoughts:

    I choose this book, because the title was interesting and the story sounded engaging. I enjoyed this book, because it engaged me to the next chapters and I like realistic fictions. It felt like I was there in the book, and it made me want to help her and her family with their problems. It made me realized that there are so many homeless people in the world, and we should be thankful for what we have and not complain. I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t usually enjoy reading, because it has shorter amount of pages and the author writes it easy to read and understand.

Julia's Book Review

Title: Life without limits
Author: Nick Vujicic
Publisher: A division of Random House
Place & year of publication: At home
Number of pages: 229
Where you found the book: At home

Story review
Born without arms or legs, Nick felt lonely, worthless, depressed, and resentful to God. The title of this book “Life without limits” represents that even though you seem to be worthless; you can still make changes in other people’s lives and give them hope.

Nick was born on December 4, 1982 and everyone was expecting Nick to be a healthy fine baby. Nick was his parents’ first born child, so his mother was very careful with him, but when Nick was born, everyone was shocked, disappointed, and could not except the truth. Instead of celebrating his birth, everyone was sad, in tears and thinking if God is a God of love, why would He let this happen.

Nick wasn’t depressed until the age of 8, when he realized he wasn’t “normal”. His parents kept encouraging him that God has a plan for him one day, and God didn’t make a mistake on him, but he was hopeless whenever anyone made fun of him. Nick believed that God could do miracles, and he had seen lots of miracles, but he didn’t understand why God wouldn’t perform miracles on him. Many nights, Nick would pray to God to give him at least one arm. He would go to sleep crying and dreaming that the next day God would show him a miracle. But it never happened.

It was when Nick was 15 years old, when he started to ask God for his guidance and his direction. One day he went to a church in California, and as he entered in his wheelchair, someone was calling him. He didn’t recognize the voice, but when he turned around he saw a young man holding a baby. When Nick came closer, he saw a shining brown hair and a big gap-toothed baby smiling. That baby was just like Nick. He had no arms or legs and had a little foot on his left just like Nick. Just by looking at the baby, Nick was amazed.

Nick realized that God didn’t do miracles on Nick, so that he can be a miracle to others and give them hope. God’s plan for Nick wasn’t to harm him; it was so that he could encourage others who are like Nick and to show that God has a plan for everyone. Nick realized that his career was to be a missionary by traveling around the world to encourage others and to make difference in other people’s lives.

Christian perspective

In my opinion, this book definitely reflects Christianity. This book talks about that even though you have struggles in your lives; God will help you and will not forsake you. It also talks about that God has a purpose for everyone and has bigger plans than we think, even though we might not understand at first. Even though Nick didn’t have arms or legs, he started to thank God for what he had already had, and not being angry for what he didn’t have. At first, Nick didn’t understand why he was on earth, but God showed him by step by step and kept him safe, because God knew that Nick could handle it.

Your thoughts

I enjoyed this book very much, because it taught you a lot. It gave stories, examples, and other great life lessons that I learned. It made me think about my life, and how I should be thankful for the things that I already have. It also made me think about God, how He has plans in my life and He only gives me what I can handle. I chose this book, because I love autobiography, and reading other people’s lives to see what experience they had. I would recommend this to anyone who feels like they’re worthless; want to give up their life, because there are greater plans in the future!

ELA convincing paragraph

ELA Convincing paragraph

Imagine, if you got lost in the middle of nowhere, what would be one component that would help you survive? To survive alone, you need wisdom. Wisdom is more important than food, water, phones, or any other survival tools. Even if you have all the tools, food, or any the other things, without wisdom, you will not know how to use it in the way that will benefit you and help you survive. For example, in the book Hatchet, Brian had a hatchet, but he didn’t know how to make a fire at first, but he used his wisdom to make a fire. At first, Brian couldn’t find any food, so he used his wisdom to catch living things, so that he can cook and eat and not starve to death. Wisdom can also lead to perseverance, companionship, making the right choice and even hope. Even if you have perseverance, you need hope, and if you have companionship, you need to make the right choice, but wisdom leads to all the components of survival. Like Chuck in the movie Cast away, he really wanted to be rescued and go back to his home, so he used his wisdom to build a boat by using things that he found on the island and using his Fed- Ex boxes to build his boat. He also used his time wisely so that he wouldn’t run into a weather problem. Wisdom doesn’t make you survive just in the wilderness or in the middle of nowhere, but it will make you survive everywhere and every way.

Kidnapped

Title: Kidnapped, the abduction
Author: Gordon Korman
Publisher: Scholastic
Place & year of publication: May 2006
Number of pages: 137
Where you found the book: school library


Story Review

This title of this book is called “Kidnapped”, because Margaret, who’s 11 years old, gets kidnapped, and the Falconers gets involved with FBI, the police, and all the other criminologists.

Doctor John and Louise Falconer are the parents of Aiden who’s 15 years old and Margaret whose 11 years old and everyone thinks that the Falconers are the worst traitor because the Falconers helped the Horus global group which was the citizen’s “enemy”. The Falconers try to get back to normal, but it doesn’t go as smooth as the Falconers think.

One day Aiden and Meg were walking down an old downtown street, but suddenly there is a van that lurches toward Aiden and Meg. The sliding door opens, and a man who was wearing a spider Man mask tries to kidnap Aiden and Margaret. Aiden defends himself and gets out of the situation but his sister, Margaret gets kidnapped.

As soon as he realizes that his sister had been kidnapped, the Falconers get involved with FBI, the police, and all the other criminologists again. The Falconer’s closest friend, Agent Emmanuel Harris, also help the Falconers to find Margaret. Aiden tries to get involved as much as possible but his dad doesn’t let him.

While Aiden is still looking for his sister, Margaret tries to get out by trying many different ways, but doesn’t find the right way. Margaret remembers that Aiden talked about how people get “crazy” about flags, so she leaves a clue by trying to cut the rope, that holds the flag, with a broken piece of brick so that the flag will fly and give a clue to Aiden. On the flag it says “Commonwealth of Virginia”.

Aiden finds out now where Margaret is by finding the flag, but something goes wrong and the kidnappers tell the Falconers to place two million dollars in order to get Margaret back by 2 o’clock tomorrow.

Will the Falconers be able to get two million dollars by tomorrow at 2 o’ clock and get Margaret back, or will they ever see Margaret again?


Christian perspective

In my opinion, I don’t think this is a book that’s written from Christian perspective, because it’s about kidnapping for money and in the ten commandments it says “you shall have no others gods before me” and the gods represents money in this situation and it also says “Do not murder” and in the book, the kidnappers were going to kill Margaret by running over her if they did not get the two million dollars. Another thing is, the Falconers were in Juvenile and they became fugitives for eight weeks and it doesn’t have or say anything that has Christianity or other religions.


My thoughts

I choose this book, because it had lots of action, and adventures. I would have to figure out the clues and I would have to think about the next chapter. In my opinion, I enjoyed this book, and didn’t enjoy it at the same time, because it made you think about the next chapter and made you wanted to keep reading more, but I didn’t like how the endings were not detailed enough and how the ending was a little short. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes action, adventures, clues and all the mysteries that you have to search for.

It only looks easy

title: It only looks easy
Author: Pamela Curtis Swallow
Publisher: Scholastic
Place and year of publication: New York, 2003
Number of pages: 167 pages
Where I found the book: Christian Heritage School’s library

Story review:
The title of this book shows that life can’t always be easy and it might not look complicated as it is. Kat Randall lives with her beloved dog, Cheddar, her sister Hannah, and her parents. Kat is going into 7th grade and she’s feeling that this is going to be her best year. Kat comes before the school day and she finds out that Cheddar gets into a car accident. Cheddar goes to the veteran hospital before Kat’s first day of school that she’s been very excited for. She tries not to worry for her school day, but she gets impatient and “borrows” a bike to go to the veteran hospital. When she’s done, she finds out that the bike got stolen. Kat tells her parents about it and they tell her, to tell the bike owner (which is Melody Whiezersky), what had exactly happened to the bike.

Mrs. Lawrence is the one who gets Cheddar into a car accident and Mr. Lawrence invites Kat to go fishing together. While they’re fishing, Mr. Lawrence tells about his wife, about the Alzheimer’s disease that she has which makes you so confused that you can’t be left alone in the house and can’t remember things very well.

When Kat gets home, she finds out that Cheddar gets to come home soon. She gets excited but she remembers that she still got the bike problem. Kat’s school year is not going great as she expected and she tries to solve the problem as fast as she can, but doesn’t go smooth as she expects. Kat calls her two best friends; Abby and Matthew to see if they want help Kat to look for the bike. They look all over the place, but still can’t find it.

When she gets back, she gets a call from Mr. Lawrence and he asks if he can take care of Mrs. Lawrence. Kat says she will, because she still needs to earn more money for the bike. Kat helps Mrs. Lawrence with the gardening and when they are done, Kat gets some drinks and when she goes outside, she can’t find Mrs. Lawrence. Kat looks everywhere in the garden and the other side of the house and she’s not there, so Kat calls 911 and tell them what had happened. After she hangs up, she finds Mrs. Lawrence, coming out of the Bathroom. A moment later, a police car screeches at Mrs. Lawrence’s house and Kat tells that they lost a track of each other for a little bit.

About a half an hour later, Mr. Lawrence arrives and when Kat is about to leave, she sees a police officer, stretching something in the water and it was a bike. Kat tells the officer about the missing bike. He kept reaching the bikes out of the river and the fourth bike that he found was Melody’s bike. Even though the bike was missing some pieces; at least she found the bike. When Kat goes to the school the next day, she gets called in the principle office and she finds out that, her classmate, Dennis Boyle and his brother was the bike crime. They found the missing pieces in their shed. Dennis and his brother apologize to Kat and she is so happy that the bike crime is over. Kat realizes that everything is over now, and everything is now back to normal again.

Christian perspective:
This book doesn’t specifically talk about Christianity, but there are some actions and believes that Christians also believe and act in. The family kept praying when their dog got into a car accident. They also prayed when the bike got stolen. The main characters shows some Christianity perspective, when her classmate asked for help, she helped her classmate even though she didn’t wanted to and had lots of other things that she had to deal with.

My thoughts:
In my perspective, I think this is a great book, especially to those who like dogs. I enjoyed the book, because this book taught me some lessons about being patient and looking at the positive perspective. I like how this book makes you curious and makes you wonder about the next chapter. I like how this book isn’t just focused on one main idea, but focused on school, friendships, family, and lots of other things that are happening around you. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to talk about their friendships, communities, school and who likes animals.