Horns and Wrinkles

Horns and Wrinkles
By Joseph Helgerson
Reviewed by Claire



This is an interesting book about a 12-year-old girl named Claire and her adventure along the magical Mississippi River in order to save her cousin Duke and her family

The story starts when Claire’s cousin Duke stole her pet turtle and dangle her over a bridge over the Mississippi River. Duke is a bully, no one likes a bully. What happened to Duke was unexpected. An old lady sitting on a boat saved Claire when Duke dropped her over the bridge by sprinkling some powder on her which Claire started to float and landed safely on the old lady’s boat. At the same time, something horrible happened to Duke that his nose turned into a rhino’s horn.

 The old lady tells Claire that the river is actually a spell that bullies will be turned into rhinos. The only way to fix the spell is going through an act of true kindness. Claire tried to fix Duke, but Duke won’t listen to her furthermore. Duke run away from her with three river trolls telling “why are his parents turned to stone?” Claire is determined to save her cousin and her family.

Claire finds out that the only way to change her family back to normal is to find the rock feather that belongs to the river trolls. On the other hand, the river trolls need her help to find the shooting star to trade for the talking crickets to bring backs the missing fathers. Claire took the adventure with Duke and the river trolls to the mines of the rock troll named Bodacious Deepthink in the underground mines. Claire find out not only with the help of the old lady and her brother, she finds 28 rhinos in the fight with the rock trolls. All the rhinos showed their courage and unselfishness to the rock trolls and turned back to kids. Claire has her family back including her lost relatives. Who would have known that Duke was a river troll instead of a kid?

 This book is full of wild imagination and unexpected terms. This is also a book that can teach us life lessons of being truly kind to your friends and family. I really enjoyed reading about all the adventures of naughty kid, river and rock trolls, and fairies.

As Brave As You

As Brave As You
By Jason Reynolds
Reviewed by Anaiya



A boy named Genie and his brother, Ernie, are going to go visit their grandparents for a month in West Virginia. Their parents were taking a trip to Jamaica. Genie thought maybe it was because his mom and dad were having problems. Ernie already knew what to expect but Genie didn’t. He was still a baby when he first met them.

 When they got there, Genie was wondering why his Grandpop was wearing sunglasses inside the house.Grandpa told him that he was blind. Ernie of course, already knew that.Grandma was perfectly ok,she wasn’t ill or anything . But Genie realized that his dad and Grandpa were having issues.Dad had barely talked to Grandpa. His mom said hello and went upstairs and started unpacking the boys clothes.

The next morning his mom and dad were going back to Brooklyn (which is where they live) to get to pack up for Jamacia.Everyone said their goodbyes and they left. Genie then wanted to get to know Grandpa so he started asking questions. The others questions, he wrote down because he wanted to look them up online. Time flew by fast because it was time to go to bed.

 The next day, Grandma woke them up bright and early. Breakfast was already ready because she wakes up with the sun. After they ate, they went outside to help Grandma pick some peas.Around lunch, they went back outside to play with the dog, Samantha. They saw a girl down the hill and went to go talk to her. Her name was Tess and she knew their grandparents. Tess became friends with Genie and Ernie. Genie knew that Ernie liked Tess and Tess liked him.

A few days later, it was Ernie’s birthday.Grandpa said that Ernie was going to become a man (which meant Ernie was about to learn how to shoot). Ernie didn’t want to learn how to shoot. He didn’t think needed to learn how to shoot. He thought he was letting Grandpa down so he decided to lean anyway. Genie was excited for Ernie but Ernie wasn’t excited at all. Grandpa told Ernie the rules and showed him how to shoot it. When Ernie pulled the trigger and the kickback hit him in the mouth. It knocked two of his teeth out and chipped the third one.

Grandma had rushed him right to the hospital. They put the two teeth right in, but the third one had to be fixed by a dentist. Will Ernie and Genie’s parents be happy about this when they come back from their trip? Who do you think will fix Ernie’s fixed tooth? Will Ernie forgive Grandpa for asking him to shoot a gun? You have to read the story.

Drama

Drama
By Raina Telgemeier
Reviewed by Mirainda


                                                         
Drama is a fantastic graphic novel written about a girl named Callie. It is written very nicely and the illustrator is amazing.

The book starts out with Matt, Callie, and Greg. When Greg takes Callie to the park they kiss and it changes everything, because she’s liked him for forever. When they’re at school Greg acts like it never happened, and won’t even really talk to her.

Callie is a part of stage crew at her school and they are producing a show, The Moon Over the Mississippi. While she’s putting up posters she meets Justin and Jesse. Justin wants to be in the show, and Jesse is his twin brother, he does his homework and tries to blend in with the crowd. 

Callie loves hanging out with Jesse, they like all the same things they even go to bookstores together. After all this Callie and Jesse have to watch the tryouts for the show and Callie wants Jesse to audition, so she auditions terribly to let Jesse know it’s okay, and not to be scared.

Then the cast lists came up. Justin got a part, but it wasn’t the lead so he was sad. Then there were rehearsals, dress rehearsals, fittings, learning songs and lines. Then, Finally the shows! Over the past few days Callie realized that she liked Jesse, and she wanted him to ask her to the dance that was being held after the last show.

The shows went very good, but the last one was the most memorable. West and Bonnie are a couple inside and outside of the show, but after act 1 West broke up with Bonnie, therefore she wouldn’t go out on the stage. Jesse knew all the lines of the show because he’s known it since he was small, so he put on that dress and went out as Bonnie and did amazing.

Then, Jesse comes to the after party and asks Callie to go to the dance with him. The dance went well until Jesse went to the bathroom and never came back. Callie eventually caught him outside talking to West. Then Jesse had to explain to Callie that he’s gay.

After all of this Callie bumped into Greg, and he took her to the park, Again. And leans in to try to kiss her. Will she kiss him back? Will she fix things with Jesse? Read the book to find out!

Stephen Curry

Stephen Curry
By Eric Braun
Reviewed by Ethan



Stephen Curry is an All-Time Star basketball player. He struggles a lot during his high-school and youth years. He improved on a lot of his challenges by working hard over the years. Now he is rising above to the top. No one took Stephen serious. He never gave up even when he wanted to.

 Stephen Curry had a lot of challenges. Colleges were not giving Stephen a chance. Colleges were saying he was too skinny and tiny. Stephen couldn’t shoot or dribble. He practiced and practiced and still was getting challenges.

Practicing every day with his dad helped. Stephen gets better at a lot of things. He was still to short. He got accepted to a team eventually. Stephen was the leader of the team and was known for 3-pointers.

Stephen got to the NBA and was very excited. He was the NBA’s most valuable player. He was the second highest basketball player. He couldn’t defeat Lebron James. He’s a very popular and hard-working player. Stephen was known for making his three-pointers for the Warriors.

 Stephen is a very unflagging person that never gave up when he wanted to. He loves what he does and now he is something big. He got mad when he didn’t get accepted but he kept striving for the big spot. He came a very long way from youth to adulthood. What I liked about this book is that it encourages people not to give up in life. Even when you are going through hard times giving up isn’t going to get you anywhere but failure. That’s the unique thing about the story. That’s what life’s all about it sets us up for mistakes so we can learn and improve on those things. That’s what I got out of this story about Stephen Curry.