September 14, 2007
Mr. Butler's Book Reviews
3 Comments
Can you imagine having a name like Doughnuthead? Franklin Delano Doughnuthead is the main character in this interesting book titled Doughnuthead written by Sue Stauffacher.
In this story Franklin is paranoid about germs and obsessive about eating a healthy diet. His mom tries to tempt him with Ho-Hos, Twinkies, and other goodies but he’d rather eat organic fruit and hypo-allergenic soy products. His life is moving along in an orderly, bacteria free manner until the day that he meets and becomes “friends” with Sarah Kervick. She’s rough, she’s tough, and she’s the only thing keeping Doughnuthead from receiving a regular pounding from the town bullies.
Doughnuthead is a delightful book about friends, being different, and reaching your true potential. Check it out today in the LRC!
July 11, 2007
Mr. Butler's Book Reviews
3 Comments
The book I’d like to tell you about is a new book titled Gossamer by the Newbery Award winning author, Lois Lowry. In this story dream givers visit people while they’re sleeping. They search their homes for good memories such as delightful colors, hints of pleasing smells, appealing sounds, and happy events. They then “bestow” these pleasant memories on the sleeping humans and they experience wonderful dreams. Littlest One, a dream giver in training, helps a lonely elderly woman and the troubled foster child that lives with her, by bestowing beautiful dreams that help them to fight the terrible nightmares delivered by Sinisteens, dream givers that have gone bad.
During the story, Littlest One is amazing as she learns how to find even the tiniest fragment of good memories in the woman’s home. The story builds to an exciting conclusion as a horde of Sinisteens targets the foster child (boy) with many terrible nightmares related to his father who hurt him as a young child.
I would recommend this story to the 5th grade students at Central.
Mr. B
July 11, 2007
Mr. Butler's Book Reviews
1 Comment
Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm was awarded the Newbery Honor book medal in 2007. This fantastic book tells about 12 year old Penny, who lives with her hard working mother and quirky, loving grandparents, Me-me and Pop-pop. The story takes place in a small town in New Jersey in the early 1950s.
In a nutshell, this story is about Penny and the two sides of her very interesting family. Because Penny’s mother does not speak to her father’s very large, very Italian family Penny spends much of the book going back and forth between the two families, hoping to learn more about her father, who passed away when she was very young.
This book is filled with many wonderfully different characters. There is her constant companion, Cousin Frankie, who never misses an opportunity to look for fun, but often finds trouble instead. Penny loves her Uncle Dominic, who everyone says looks just like her dad, who chooses to live in his car. Her grandmother or Nonny on her father’s side of the family, always wears black, doesn’t speak English, and is constantly cooking fabulous Italian meals for Penny and the rest of the family.
These characters, along with many more, make this book a great choice for someone looking for a story about family, fun, and growing up. I highly recommend this book for 5th grade students, especially girls.
