All students on the Belmont Hills Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl Team are required to comment once a week on the books their reading. Comments need to be substantial. You may talk about what you like or dislike about the book, list the characters and some details about them, describe the setting and main events in the story, and make or modify predictions you have about the story. You may also compare the book to other Reading Bowl books you have read.
When you submit a comment about your book, make sure you use your FIRST NAME ONLY. For your security, do not include any other information that could be used to identify you. No comment that belittles another commentator, uses inappropriate language, reveals personal information, or is off topic will be approved to remain on the site. The books are listed in alphabetical order by title. To make a comment on a book, click on the comment hypertext (by the pencil at bottom of the post). Enter your first name in the “Name” box and type the “Anti-spam” word; then you may write your comment. When you finish writing, click “Submit comment.”
Carbone, Elisa (2007)
Samuel Collier came from nothing. A street urchin, an orphan, and even a thief, he seems headed for a life in the alleys of London. So when he becomes the page of Captain John Smith and boards the ship the Susan Constant, bound for the New World, he can’t believe his good fortune. He’s heard that gold washes ashore with every tide. But beginning with the stormy journey and his first contact with the native people, he realizes that the New World is nothing like he had ever imagined. The lush Virginia shore where they settle is both beautiful and forbidding, and it’s hard to know who is friend or foe. Based on the true story of the settlement of Jamestown, Blood on the River brings to life a significant time in American history. (Viking)
Lombard, Jenny (2006)
Drita and her family come to New York as refugees from war-torn Kosovo. Even though she barely speaks English, Drita can’t wait to start school and make a new best friend. But her new classmates don’t make it easy, teasing her about virtually everything.The worst is Maxie, a tough African-American girl whose sassy attitude hides a painful secret. When Maxie takes things too far, their teacher assigns Maxie a paper on Drita and her journey to America from Kosovo. Suddenly, Maxie realizes she and Drita have more in common than she thought. And when Drita’s mother gets sick, there’s only one person who can help—Drita’s new homegirl. (Penguin Group)
Lupica, Mike (2006)
Twelve-year-old Michael Arroyo lives in the shadows of Yankee Stadium, home of his heroes, but a place that might as well be on a different continent since he can’t afford to see the inside. He also lives in the shadows of his Bronx neighborhood, hiding from the bill collectors and the officials who would separate him from his seventeen-year-old brother if they knew the two boys were living on their own. Baseball is Michael’s only salvation, along with his dream of playing in the Little League World Series—until a rival accuses Michael of being older than the league limit. With no parents and a birth certificate that is stuck in his native Cuba, the shadows in Michael’s life grow darker. But that is when heroes emerge, and for Michael, heroes don’t come any bigger than the Yankees. (Penguin)
Rubb, Rebecca (2006)
Choose time or lose time. The inscription on his grandfather’s pocket watch has always confused Alex. But now that Alex has lost the heirloom, time is all he can think about — time slipping through his fingers. That’s when an encounter with a strange lady clues him in to the Blue Moon, a place where earthlings search for what they’ve lost. Soon Alex is in a rickety spaceship hurtling toward a topsy-turvy world of eccentric characters — from Miss Mumsley, who lost her heart to a prospector, to a medieval scholar who lost his way while calculating pi. It’s a perilous journey, plagued by Time Eaters, who suck up their prey’s time. How will Alex ever find the watch — and the sense of direction — he’s lost? From Rebecca Rupp comes a fast-paced fantasy honoring friendship and courage. (Candlewick)
Holmes, Sara Lewis (2007)
Once upon a time, there was a girl. Let’s call her Rapunzel. A modern-day version. Abandoned. Alone. Waiting for her hair to grow and dreaming of a way to escape from her tower. She was trapped, you see. Not in the conventional fairy-tale way—this was the dreaded after-school Homework Club. A desolate place, where no gum could be chewed, and where Rapunzel sat day after day, cursing the evil spell that had been cast over her father. The doctors called it something else, but a true heroine can smell an evil spell a mile away. So when a mysterious letter addressed to P.O. Box #5667 falls into her hands, she knows she’s found the pea under her mattress. But since when is finding happily ever after as simple as Just Writing Back?
Dowell, Frances O’Roark (2006)
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PHINEAS L. MACGUIRE, BOY-SCIENTIST EXTRAORDINAIRE, AKA MAC: 1. He’s allergic to purple, telephone calls, and girls, and can prove it. 2. He’s probably the world’s expert on mold, including which has the highest stink potential. 3. He does not have a best friend. He does, however, have an un-best friend, who he does not — repeat, not — want to upgrade to best-friend status. But disaster strikes when his teacher pairs Mac and his un-best friend together for the upcoming science fair. Worse, this un-best friend wants the project to be on dinosaurs, which is so third grade. Worse still, it seems as though everyone else in his class finds the un-best friend as unlikable as Mac does. But, being a boy-scientist, once Mac notices this, he just might have to do some investigating. (Simon & Schuster)
Lord, Cynthia (2006)
Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She’s spent years trying to teach David the rules-from “a peach is not a funny-looking apple” to “keep your pants on in public”-in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kristi, the next-door friend she’s always wished for, it’s her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal? (Scholastic)
Bell, Hilari (2007)
Weasel fumbled the cloth aside. It was a shield, steel plate over dark wood, with rotting leather straps. It looked old, and battered, and real. A former pickpocket, Weasel is the type of boy most people would avoid. Certainly, no one would ever trust him — except for one man. Justice Holis took Weasel off the streets, gave him a home, a job as his clerk, and a key to his house. Weasel’s new life may be a bit boring, but for the first time someone actually cares about him. Now Justice Holis is the one in trouble. Arrested for treason, he will surely hang unless someone saves him — and that someone can only be Weasel. But what can one boy do? Not much without help. So with a mysterious girl named Arisa by his side, Weasel goes in search of the Falcon, the most dangerous bandit in Deorthas, but also the one person who would be able — and possibly willing — to stage a prison break. But Weasel’s fate changes when he stumbles upon a shield. Could this be the one said to have been lost for centuries, the one that bestows power on whoever holds it? If so, Weasel, once a lowly pickpocket, could be the most powerful person in the land. (Simon & Schuster
Weeks, Sarah (2004)
When she is an infant, Heidi and her mentally disabled mother arrive rain drenched at the doorstep of Bernadette, who suffers from agoraphobia. Throughout Heidi’s childhood, Bernadette takes good care of Heidi and her mother, but eventually Heidi begins to question her past and the mysterious word her mother constantly repeats: “Soof.” Each time Heidi asks Bernadette where she and Mama came from, Bernadette simply answers that the day they walked into her life was the best thing that ever happened to her. When Heidi finds an old camera and develops the film, she sees glimpses of her family’s past in the pictures. Twelve-year-old Heidi then sets out on a cross-country bus trip to find answers to her many questions. What she discovers will not only change the way she lives, but forever change how she views life. (HarperCollins)
Harley, Bill (2006)
Life is an adventure for ten-year-old Darius Frobisher. His eccentric father Rudy sells insurance four days a week. The other three days he goes on exotic journeys. Then there is Darius’s scatterbrained, much-loved babysitter Miss Hastings, who throws water balloons with him and makes delicious burned toast. But when his father flies off in a hot air balloon and doesn’t come back, Darius’s happy, carefree life suddenly comes to an end. He is torn away from Miss Hastings and sent to live with his notoriously nasty Aunt Ida., where he has to sleep alone in a cold, damp basement. Most of his waking time is spent trying to dodge the teenage boy next door, who is home from military school and hungry to do horrible things to someone younger than himself. Darius sees a ray of hope when he finds a rusty old bicycle in the basement and begins to repair it in secret. Could this be the first step toward a reunion with Miss Hasting? Then one day he is startled to see an old man with long flowing hair riding a bicycle across the sky! That gives Darius a strange and wonderful idea. Now he knows what he has to do to get away from his miserable life. (Peachtree Publishers)
Riordan, Rick (2006)
What if the gods of Olympus were alive in the 21st Century? What if they still fell in love with mortals and had children who might become great heroes — like Theseus, Jason and Hercules? What if you were one of those children? Such is the discovery that launches twelve-year-old Percy Jackson on the most dangerous quest of his life. With the help of a satyr and a daughter of Athena, Percy must journey across the United States to catch a thief who has stolen the original weapon of mass destruction – Zeus’ master bolt. Along the way, he must face a host of mythological enemies determined to stop him. Most of all, he must come to terms with a father he has never known, and an Oracle that has warned him of betrayal by a friend. (Miramax)
Coombs, Kate (2006)
“A dragon darkens our dells. A witch haunts our woods. Bandits roam our moors” . . . King Stromgard swept on. “In the tradition of so many monarchs, I offer my daughter’s hand in marriage and half my kingdom to the prince who can rid us of these evils, restoring peace and prosperity to our realm.” And so the contest in the Kingdom of Greeve begins. But Princess Margaret is not your traditional princess. Meg firmly objects to her parents’ giving her away, and she certainly has no intention of remaining in the tower where she is sequestered. Instead, she sets out to win the contest herself by enlisting the help of her good friend, her loyal maid, an eager guardsman, a young wizard, and a tenacious witch. Does Meg find her distinct place in the kingdom, or is she doomed to fulfill her royal duties? Kate Coombs weaves a magical tale full of pesky princes, enchanted frogs, a beady-eyed scarf, and invisibility juice – a tale of wonder, but a story familiar to all who struggle to find their own place in the world. (Macmillan)
Dahlberg, Maurine F. (2007)
Jonas has lived all of his thirteen years on a farm in Missouri, and even though he hears whispers about freedom, he thinks he’ll never try to escape. He knows what happens to slaves who attempt to run away. Besides, Master William has promised to make Jonas his personal manservant, and Jonas thinks fine suits and special privileges sound like a dream. But this dream is put on hold when, in 1859, Master William’s good-for-nothing son, Percy, decides to seek his fortune in the Kansas Territory gold fields, taking Jonas along as his cook and caretaker. Although Percy is a brutal master, Jonas is surprised to find that the other members of the wagon train don’t hold his views about slavery. Jonas even befriends a doctor’s daughter, who teaches him how to read. And with each word Jonas learns, he discovers that there are much bigger dreams a boy can have than being another man’s servant. In this unforgettable novel, Maurine F. Dahlberg tells the story of a slave coming to understand his own worth. (Macmillan)
Graff, Lisa (2006)
The thing about poodles is that Georgie Bishop hates to walk them. The thing about Jeanie the Meanie is that she would rather write on her shoe than help Georgie with their Abraham Lincoln project. The thing about Georgie’s mom is that she’s having a baby—a baby who will probably be taller than Georgie very, very soon. The thing about Georgie . . . well, what is the thing about Georgie? (Harper Collins)
Lowery, Linda (2006)
Mexico is a long way from Kalamazoo — and not just in terms of miles. No one knows that better than almost-thirteen-year-old Hayley Flynn whose introduction to San Miguel de Allende includes fiestas, butterflies, ghosts,fireworks and even a glamorous role as a movie extra. But there are also difficult lessons to be learned when her friend Lili’s father is stranded north of the border without pay.
