The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Book review by Nina

I read ThePrincess Academy. The whole book is told through Miri’s point of view. She lives on Mt. Eskel, a city in the country of Danlan. When the priests of Danlan announce that Mt. Eskel is the home of the future princess all girls under the age of 18 are forced to go to the academy. But when competition is fierce, it is up to Miri to save them all.

I thought this was an awesome book. There were a lot of similes. I liked it because there were so many cliff hangers that I just couldn’t stop reading. I thought it was surprising when everything was perfect. Then a twist came in the story and the girls got captured. I would recommend this book to everyone in our class.

Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

Book review by Enya


In Once Upon a Marigold the main characters are Christian, Marigold and an Elf, Christian’s foster parent. It takes place in a far away city. In the book Christian goes on a great adventure to find a job at the castle. He is in love with a princess there and he needs to knock it off when he gets a job on the patio. The patio is where the princess likes to go. She is either out there playing with her pet dogs or writing letters to her best friend who lives across the river. She doesn’t even know this person. This mysterious person ends up being Christian.

I thought that this book was a great page turner. I liked it because I thought it was a great read and I liked the content of it. I usually don’t like books with fairy tales or princesses. I thought this book was great! My favorite part is the end because it is probably the most predictable part. Probably the most happy too! I don’t think that this book wasn’t like any other because it was happy, sad, funny, and all around just a great book. I would recommend this book to everybody because the main characters are a boy and a girl.

Eragon by Christopher Paulini

Book review by Ella

In the book Eragon the main characters are Eragon, the boy, Broom, Eragon's helper, Saphiria, the dragon, Durza, the evil shade, and the Varden, the dissenters. In this book Eragon finds a dragon egg but thinks it’s really a stone. The stone hatches while he is sleeping and he raises the dragon to be big and strong. The only problem was that the evil king Galibox banned dragons in fear that they will hatch, find there rider and take away his power. When the king finds out he sends the rasac to kill Eragon, but instead they kill his uncle. Eventually Broom finds him and tells him he is going to take him to the Varden so he can trane Eragon and defeat the king. When they get to the Varden they find out that Durza the evil shade and the king have ordered an attack against the Varden to destroy them. When they come there is a great battle. I can not tell you anything else except the ending is good.

I thought this book was great because the detail the author gave was good and I enjoyed the book. I also thought it was too long because it takes forever to read and the character Eragon went way too many places. Over all I rate this books 8 out of 10. I think this book would be good for grades 5-8.

Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell

Book Review by Bella

I read the book Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell. The main characters are Nikki, Mackenzie, Chloe, Zoe and Nikki's mom and dad. The story takes place in the current time. It is about a girl named Kikki who wants two things - a cell phone, and to fit in at her new school. First, she bought a phone off eBay, but it was a pay phone. Later, she got a present and she thought it was an iPhone, but it was a journal. When she moves she gets a locker next to a girl named Mackenzie who is the most popular girl in school. She is in the PPC Club, which stands for the Pretty, Popular, Cute Club. Everyone crowds around Mackenzie's locker, and Nikki can never get to her locker, so she starts to write in her journal. She writes about her life and what it is like to be the new girl at school.

If I could rate this book 1 to 10 I'd rate it a 1,000,000,000,000,000! It was the BEST BOOK EVER! The story was funny, and it reminded me of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. My favorite part was when Mackenzie passed a party invitation and Nikki thought it was for her, but it wasn't. I would recommend this book to every girl in our class because it was a good story for girls. The most surprising thing was how important Nikki's journal became to her when she really didn't want it in the beginning of the book.

Dispatch from Vancouver

It was so exciting to see Lindsey win her Gold Medal in the Downhill! We were all screaming and jumping up and down, and after the race she climbed over 4 fences to get to us so she could give us all hugs. We went to two celebrations after the race and also went to the Medals Ceremony where they awarded her the Gold Medal. I was very proud to see her on the top step of the podium and hear our national anthem. My uncle took my picture with Lindsey (and her Gold Medal!) but I won't be able to share it until we get home.

Today was the Super Combined which has one shortened Downhill run and one Slalom run (with lots more gates). Lindsey was in the lead after the Downhill run, but near the bottom of the Slalom run, she was trying very hard to ski fast and caught a tip of her ski on the wrong side of the gate and fell. Hopefully she'll have a great race on Saturday in the Super G and bring home another medal!