Book+Reports

=== **Every month, we do a book report. We give the students a form to work from, giving them ideas for their paragraphs. Each report should have a brief introductory paragraph and three body paragraphs. Here are several examples of reports that we thought were very well done.** ===

Click the link below to download the Book Report Plan.


Mandy by Liliana

I read a book called __Mandy__ by Julie Edwards. I really enjoyed this book because at the beginning of the book it was quiet. Then towards the end of the book there was a lot of adventure and excitement. I also liked the book because there were seven vocabulary words that I could get for challenge points.

__Mandy__ takes place in the country in the olden times. The book didn’t say specifically what year the book was set in. I figured out Mandy was set in the olden times because there were butlers, shears, grooms, and lots of people on horseback instead of in cars. Also everything in the shops was very inexpensive. Mandy was poor, but was able to buy things like a dust pan, flower seeds, and a broom with only her left over money.

In the book Mandy is the main character. She has lived in an orphanage all of her life. She is quiet, trustworthy, and polite. But, not for long! After Mandy finds a cottage, she starts stealing items for her cottage like silverware, and dishwasher soap until she gets enough money to buy the items. Mandy even lies to the owner of the orphanage. She lies because she doesn’t want anybody to know about her precious cottage. Mandy hates doing this, but she really wants to keep her cottage a secret.

I thought the ending of __Mandy__ was supreme. This was because everything ended out like a happily ever after, only better. Mandy gets saved by a nice man when she is terribly sick with pneumonia in her cottage and can’t get out. Mandy even gets adopted by the man and his wife. Mandy says that she is a lot happier in this home than in the orphanage. So I thought this was the best ending that I’ve ever heard for a very long time!!! The End

Swamp fox book report By Aidan Brooks I read __The Swamp Fox__ by Noel B. Gerson. __The Swamp Fox__ is about Francis Marion, a man living in the New World during the American Revolution. His father owns a big mansion and an inn. He is a prosperous man. Later, during the Revolutionary War, Francis creates guerrilla tactics to weaken the British using the swamps, which gave him the name Swamp Fox.

My favorite character is Francis Marion (a.k.a. The Swamp Fox) because he is inventive. Francis invented guerrilla tactics in warfare. He made life terrible for the British using guerrilla tactics. Guerrilla tactics are when an army is facing an overwhelming opposing force, and it acts like a mosquito. It strikes swiftly, then leaves swiftly. Francis Marion is French. Francis is smart because he figured out how to harvest and plant indigo in South Carolina. During that time, indigo was a cash plant. A cash plant is a plant that sells for a lot of money. Francis is a brigadier general, and he created an invincible fort. The invincible fort is a fort of palmetto wood that swallowed cannon balls. The soft wood absorbed the shock. Francis is stubborn when he will marry no one but Esther (his sister’s friend). Francis likes to hunt in the swamps.

The place this all happens is in colonial America during the Revolutionary war, between 1752 and 1795. Most takes place in Charleston, South Carolina, the capital and a big port city. The colonists shipped a lot of goods to England from Charleston. One of the main Charleston exports was tobacco. Charleston is really important because it was Lord Cornwallis’s headquarters at the time. Lord Cornwallis is the commander of the British troops in the New World. Using the forces available, Lord Cornwallis occupies Charleston, which Francis has to fight to recapture the city.

Francis faces a problem in this book: how to make the overwhelming British get off of the American’s territory in the Revolutionary war. To solve the problem he has to do a couple of things, like attacking small squads of British, raiding supplies wagons, burning ships and saving American soldiers. But the real problem solving happens when Nathaniel Green (Washington’s most trusted general) arrives and starts having Francis destroy outposts such as forts and military outposts. In the end Francis succeeded with guerrilla tactics. I liked this book because it was very entertaining, and I could barely stop reading.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins, book report Sarah Brock October 2008

__Mr. Popper’s Penguins__, by Richard and Florence Atwater, was a great book but is more for people around the age of seven or eight. It was a little too easy, short and young for me. The story, though, is funny, light and entertaining. A man and his wife end up with 14 penguins living in a small town. The penguins become like children to the Poppers and make the whole town very proud to have such unusual creatures living there.

Mr. Popper is obsessed with the South Pole. He especially admires one man named Admiral Jake. Jake is a scientist who works in Antarctica. Mr. Popper has sent many letters to him asking about his work and the penguins that live there. In the beginning of the book, Mr. Popper is sent a penguin from Admiral Jake. Then the penguin gets lonely, so Jake sends Mr. Popper another penguin. Mr. Popper is a housepainter, so the Popper family doesn’t do very well financially. It’s very expensive to take care of two penguins, and before you know it, the penguins have hade babies. Penguins also need cold, and once in a while fresh fish which all ends up being very expensive.

The first half of the book is about how the Poppers have to learn to cope with the penguins both in general, and financially. The Poppers have to drill holes in their icebox so that the penguins have a place to live. When the babies come and the icebox is too small, a man has to come and flood their basement then freeze it to make the entire room into a place where the penguins can live. The challenges the Poppers face make the book realistic. If someone who didn’t have a lot of money really did get sent penguins, they wouldn’t just be happy and play with the penguins all day and not worry about anything, some bad things would happen.

__Mr. Popper’s Penguins__ is set in the early 1900‘s, which is important to the book because it makes most of what happens even funnier. Most people didn’t know what penguins were, and so everyone was always amazed if they saw Mr. Popper taking his penguins for a walk. Because the Poppers didn’t have very much money, and they had almost nothing within almost a year of having the penguins, Mrs. Popper suggests eating the penguins. Fortunately, Mr. Popper says no, though he is not nearly as upset as I would have been if Mrs. Popper had suggested it to me. Mr. Popper decides he has to do something about their money. Mrs. Popper plays the piano and the penguins have always been very lively, so Mr. Popper decides to make the penguins into a circus act with Mrs. Popper playing their background music. They travel around the country making Popper’s Performing Penguins very famous. But then, after about a year or so of performing, very kindly, and smartly, Mr. Popper decides the penguins shouldn’t be forced to stay in the circus forever, and they would be happier back in Antarctica. This is very hard for the Poppers, especially for Mr. Popper, but to make it easier for himself, Mr. Popper decides to go and meet up with Admiral Jake in the South Pole to be with his penguins for one more year.

Arianna Sanson

The book I chose is called __Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go__ written by Dale E. Basye. My opinion on this book is that it is a really good story with lots of humor. If you like dark humor, then I think you would like this book. I also really like this book because it shows the perspective of not just one but four beings, such as Milton; his ferret Lucky; and the demon, Principal of Darkness, Bea ‘Elsa’ Bubb. In conclusion, it is a really good book, and I am going to read it over again sometime.

The book is mainly set in the afterlife world of Heck, one of the levels of limbo. It is important to the story because Milton and his sister Marlo die and get sent to Heck for their crimes. As Principal Bubb explains, “Heck is where the souls of the darned toil for all eternity-or until they turn eighteen, whichever comes first.” It is a place that is hot and dry. The food is horrible, and you get embarrassed in every way imaginable.

A problem Milton is faced with is that he is sent to Heck for being tricked into stealing some perfume and lipstick by his sister. Milton’s being miserable is doubled by the principal of Heck, Bea Elsa Bubb, having a personal disliking for him and extending his punishment past the limits of Heck. Milton tries to escape Heck and fails miserably. He finally succeeds but losses his sister and only friend in the proses.

Milton changes because of all his experience in Heck. He really appreciates his sister more and actually connects to her more than he had ever before. Before he had went to Heck he was very aloof. Now he is more active in life, I guess is the right way to put it. I guess Heck was good for him if you look at it right.