Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

Book review by Grace

I read Esperanza Rising and it was a fabulous book. The main characters are Esperanza, Mama, Isabel, Miguel and Abulea. The story takes place in Mexico at a grape vineyard and California at a camp out. The story is about how Esperanza and her family have a perfect life. They live in a beautiful house with lovely clothes, a maid and employees. Then Esperanza’s dad goes on a trip and never comes back. Soon her life gets flipped upside down. The family needs to move to their employee’s cousin’s house in California. The story has a twist because usually when Esperanza and her family go on trains they get nothing but royalty but when they go on the train they get on a full and filthy train car. When the family gets there she needs to change her life completely.

I like this book because Esperanza goes from riches to rags. My favorite part was when Esperanza tells about her royalty in the beginning of the book, when Miguel, family employee, came to camp with Abuela, Esperanza’s grandma. Another favorite part was the last sentence Esperanza said “never be afraid to start over”. I would recommend this book to everyone! I give the book nine stars out of ten stars. Esperanza Rising shows all the ICCCAR values an example is she was responsible when Esperanza took care of the house and did her part. I hope you read this book because it paints a picture in your head every time and is a perfect read!

Extra Credit by Andrew Clements

Book review by Luke


I read the book Extra Credit. The main characters are Abby, Sadeed Bayat, Amira and Abby’s parents. Abby does very poorly in school, and has to do an extra credit project, or else she will fail the sixth grade. Abby lives in Illinois. Sadeed lives Pakistan, with his sister and mom. Some people in Pakistan hear about the letters being passed between countries and people don’t like it. Sadeed is threatened, and is frightened.

I think this is a great book, because this sounds like something that would happen in real life and I am interested in that. Also, I liked this book because of the suspense, and I couldn’t stop reading. My favorite part was when Sadeed runs into the mysterious man with a turban. The man does not like Americans and rips up Sadeed’s letter. The surprising part is when Sadeed disobeyed his teacher and sent two notes at once to tell Abby that is really was him sending the letters, not his younger sister. I would recommend this book to the whole class because this book is for boys and girls, and I think everyone likes exciting stories.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Book review by Hayden


The Lightning Thief is about a kid named Percy Jackson. Who lives in Manhattan New York. Percy doesn’t have many friends until he figures out his dad was a god. When he goes to Camp-Half Blood he finally gets some friends like Grover, Annabeth, and other campers. He thought it was kind of fun till Zeus, the god of the sky, accused him of taking his master lightning bolt. Percy wasn’t too thrilled to have to go all the way across the country either.

This book is very adventuress, and exiting. It’s the best book I ever read. My favorite part is when he has a little disagreement with a god! The main character kind of reminds me of Harry Potter. The Lightning Thief is 10 times better than Harry Potter. I would recommend this to anybody who likes to read a delicious book.

The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Book review by Sam


The book The Boy Who Dared was a great book. The main character is Helmuth Hubener. He has older brothers named Hans and Gerhardt. It takes place in Germany. The time is was 1930-1950. Chansler Hitler is elected. Helmuth’s brother Gerhardt brings back from war a shortwave radio, and Helmuth listens to it even though it is against the law. Helmuth finds out all kinds of stuff that Germany is not telling them. So Helmuth rights papers, and his friends help him put them in mail boxes and phone booths. He gets caught and is sentenced to death!!!!!!!
This is what I thought of the book, The Boy Who Dared. My favorite part was when Helmuth and his friends put the flyers in the mail boxes/telephone booths. It was an exiting book because it was filled with thrilling scenes, and it did not end with a happy ending. I would recommend it to anyone I know. My opinion was that it was an awesome book.

Mystery at Lake Placid by Roy MacGregor

Book review by Alek


I read the book Mystery at Lake Placid by Roy MacGregor. This book is about a hockey team, the Screech Owls, going to Lake Placid, New York witch is an international hockey tournament. Excitement builds in the team van on the way to New York. In Lake Placid there is more mysterious stuff happens in the hotel like lack of sleep, someone’s tampering with there equipment and Travis, screech owls strongest player, gets knocked down in the street. And there’s someone sabotaging the Screech Owls.


I liked it because I like mysterious books, I like hockey books, and because Nish, the grossest team player, has some funny stuff to share. My favorite part was when Screech Owls were in the Championship game because they played terrific. In other books I have read there has been a person like Nish who’s very sick and gross. I would recommend this book because there has been some funny parts and is very mysterious.