My Response!

For my R+E, I read the book 'Things Not Seen' 

Have you ever wished you were invisible? Most people have. Well, one day a boy named Robert, or Bobby, wakes up one morning to find that he is gone! As in not there. Invisible. Naturally, the first thing to cross his mind is, "Cool! I'm invisible!" But soon he realizes this this is not fun, and definitely not a joke. He can't talk to anyone, make friends, go outside normally, or go to school until he is fixed. His dad (the obsessive scientist) tries his best, but it has him stumped. But, despite his problem, Bobby finds a way to go outside without being noticed -- to wear no clothes at all. So, fully invisible, and fully naked, he goes outside and goes to the library, where he meets a girl named Alicia. The good thing about her is that she is blind, so she doesn't even know he's invisible until he tells her. Then, when the school and government get suspicious and the law threatens to tear his family apart, he has to think up some quick solutions and takes some daring chances. Can an invisible boy, a blind girl, some compulsive scientist fathers, and their conservative wives save Bobby -- and themselves? Read the book to find out!

My Exploration

For my E, I read the sequel, called Things Hoped For. I also asked my friend who also read the book some questions. 

1. How are Things Not Seen and Things Hoped For alike or different? 

Maddy: Well, in both of them, there is some sort of sienc-y mystery, involved, and they are both kind of paranormal in a way. Also, there are some of the same characters.

Me: Both of them have a science-fiction sort of mystery going on, and also the main character in the first one, Robert, is a secondary character in the second book. I don't think they are actually a series but they have very similar plots. 

2. What did you like about this book? 

Maddy: I liked the plot because it was interesting and there was always something happening.

Me: I liked that it was kind of a science/mystery thing, and it was like a clean, kids version of CSI, almost.

3. What was something you didn't like about the book?

Maddy: Well, it was kind of bland for me, and also it was a pretty short novel considering the story line. It could be a longer book if it was re-written. I've never really like Andrew Clements. 

Me: I didn't like that the author used repetitive words sometimes, and a lot of the sentences started the same. He also had a lot of choppy sentences.

4. What would you rate this book, and why?

Maddy: I would give it a 7.5/10 because the author didn't really go into detail in some of parts, but it was still a good story.

Me: I would give it a 6/10, because there wasn't enough description to really soak in the book.

Ratings!

I rate this book (Things Not Seen) a 4/10.

PErsonally, this was not a good book. It started out pretty slow and was a little lacking description. The plot could be interesting, but the author did not do a very good job with it. The only thing that kept me the least bit into it was the story, but I did not like the way the author wrote it. 

Flush!

This book is a gripping book about a boy named Noah Underwood, his dad and sister, a woman named Shelly, a nasty man named Dusty Muleman, and a mysterious pirate man. 

Noah Underwood is in an unusual situation; his dad is locked up in prison for Father's Day,  because he burned down a man's boat. His dad, Paine Underwood, thinks this man is pumping raw sewage into the basin. In other words, his dad is pretty sure that Dusty Muleman is dumping poop into the sea. So now Noah is off on a mission to find the (possibly very disgusting) truth. They realize this is true, but they have no way to prove it! Now everything is up to Noah. But he knows he can't do it by himself... So he gets help from his sister, Abbey. After several failed attempts to prove the truth, they finally consult the help of a (very tough) woman named Shelly, and come up with a good, but risky plan. Of course, there are always a few obstacles, which in this case, could get Noah and his helpers into serious doo-doo. Literally.

Read this amazing book by Carl Haaisen to find out if there plan works... 

Scat

Ratings!

I gave Scat a 9/10. It has a very gripping plot with a lot of detail. It's hard to say if it was the best out of the series, they were all so good!

My Exploration!

For my E, I read the 1st and 3rd book that Carl Haissan wrote, Hoot and Flush. They were all really good, and one thing I noticed is that they all have a similar plot! Hoot is about a kid named Roy Eberhardt, who somehow gets involved in a plan of a juvenile delinquent, who is trying to save a near extinct species of owls called the Burrowing Owl. But this boy who is getting in trouble with the law really has good intentions. After all, the only reason he's breaking the law is to try to stop someone else from doing something very criminal. Flush, well, I just told you about that. As for Scat, the plot is basically about some kids who's teacher disappears, and they think it might have something to do with the ANOTHER delinquent, named Smoke. After all, it seems kind of fishy, i mean, being that the teacher disappeared in a wildfire, that was created by an arsonist, and that Smoke (just his name makes it sound suspicious) had been very angry with the teacher just the day before and kind of threatened her. The kids will try to prove this, and find out that the whole thing might have something to do with a baby panther, some illegal, scheming oil drillers and some animal lovers. See why I think they are all similar?

Exploration!

For my exploration, I read the second, third, and fourth book, and I saw the movie. The movie was good, and the following books were very good.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

I give this book a 9/10

"Once upon a time there was a pair of pants. They were an essential kind of pants - jeans, naturally blue, but not that stiff, new blue you saw so often on the first day of school. They were the soft, changeable bkue with a little extra fading at the knees and the seat, and little white wavelets at the cuffs.

They's had a good life befor us. You could just tell. I guess a thrift shop is like the pound in some ways. Whatever you got owes a lot to its previous owners. Our pants weren't like the neurotic puppy whose parents had left it alone, barking itself hoarse from morning till night. They were more the grown up dog whose family loved it but had to move to an apartment in Korea (is it Korea?), where they sometimes eat dogs.

I could tell the pants hadn't come to our lives because of trajedy. They'd just witnessed on of those regular but painful life transitions. That, it turns out, is the Way of the Pants. They were noble pants, but unassuming. You could glance over at them and just think, "Okay, pants," or you could stop and really look at the beautiful complexity of the colors and seams. They don't force you to admire them. They are just happy doing their basic job of covering your butt without making it look fatter than it actually is."

This story is about four best friends, named Bridget, Lena, Tibby and Carmen. They are inseperable and have spent every summer together for their whole lives, but this summer, they are being seperated. Lena is going to Greece, Bridget is going to Baja, Mexico, Carmen in going to Couth CArolina to visit her dad, and Tibby is left at home to work at the local grocery store. But when a dying girl, a fiancee, and two boys change their summer, things just aren't the same.Will The Pants keep them together, or is the distance too much to handle? Read the Sitisterhood of the Traveling PAnts to find out.

My Exploration

For my Exploration, I read the next books-- Pretties and Specials. I give Pretties a 9/10, and Specials a 9.5/10!

The riddle

This is the riddle that Shay leaves Tally:

"Take the coaster straight past the gap,

until you find one that's long and flat,

Cold is the sea and watch for breaks,

At the second make the worst mistake.

Four days later take the side you despise,

and look in the flowers for the fire-bug eyes.

Once they're found, enjoy the flight,

then wait on the bald head until it's light."

Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld

For my R, I read the book Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld. It's a very good book (which I rated 10/10).

It takes place in the distant future, with a 15-year-old girl named Tally. She lives in a world where everyone under the age of sixteen, who hasn't gotten this special operation, is considered Ugly. On your sixteenth birthday, you get an operation that makes you supermodel gorgeous. Of course, no one see any problem with that-- and there isn't, right? 

Maybe not. Once  her best friend, Peris, turns pretty three months before her and moves to New Pretty Town, she is very lonely. He said he would visit, but he never does. No pretty ever does. 

Finally she meets a girl named Shay, and they become friends fast. Luckily, they have the same birthday! Tally's glad that she'll have someone to explore New Pretty Town with-- until a week before their birthday, when Shay tells Tally that she's leaving, that she's going to a place called the Smoke, where some runaways go when they don't want to turn pretty. The problem is, Tally wants to go with Shay, but she doesn't want to be ugly her whole life. She wants to join Peris in New Pretty Town. 

So Shay packs up a survival pack, takes a hoverboard, and goes. She leaves Shay special directions, in a riddle so in case anyone else finds it, they won't be able to follow it. 

But there's another problem. 

Special Circumstances. These are Pretties who are a little like the FBI, or so people say. At first, Tally doesn't even believe they exist, and really, no one does. 

Until the day of her operation, when Tally comes face-to-face with them, and they are super scary. They blackmail her, saying that she must go to the Smoke with a tracking device-- which she must activate when she gets there, or she won't become Pretty at all. Tally can't think of not becoming Pretty, but she doesn't want to betray her friend. 

 But she ends up going to the Smoke. 

When she's there, she meets a boy named David, Shay's friend. David grew up in the Smoke. He was born in the Smoke. 

David can see that Tally's not sure about the Smoke, and her feels he can trust her, so he takes her to meet his parents.

His Parents-- Maddy and Az-- are doctors, and while they were studying, they discovered something. They noticed these tiny lesions (like a cancer, or a wound) in people's brains. 

After studying them, they figured out that normal Pretties had the lesions, but Doctors, Police Officers, Specials people like that, didn't have them.

 Then they figured out that becoming Pretty changes you looks-- but it also changes the way you think. 

Tally knows she can't betray the Smoke now, so she tries to destroy the tracker. She throws it into a fire, not knowing that the tracker self-activates when damaged. 

The next morning, the Special come. They tear up the Smoke, completely destroying it. They take everyone there back to where they came from. But Tally and David manage to escape. Then, they sneak into Special Circumstance headquarters and rescue everyone. But then Tally discovers something horrible-- they have made Shay pretty. 

Then Maddy discovers this pill to make Shay's lesions go away, but Shay refuses to take it. 

So Tally decides that to save her friend, she must become Pretty, take the pill, (testing it out), and then, if it works, they can give it to Shay.