UglyFish Bookclub

Reviewed by: Shark

Peter and the Starcatchers is about a boy named Peter (it’s kind of the beginning of Peter Pan) who becomes a…Hey!  Why should I tell you?  You should read about it yourself!  I think you’ve already guessed what he becomes but I’m still not going to tell you.

In the book, Peter is in England and he is a leader of a small group of boys, because he is the oldest (even though he doesn’t really know how old he is).  He claims himself to be the leader also because he can spit the furthest.  He and his group are a bunch of orphans (orphans means kids that don’t have parents) and they are put on a ship called the ‘Never Land,’ on their way to Rundoon, to serve the terrible King Zarboff the Third.  On their way, Peter discovers a mysterious trunk and tries to find out what is in it.  At the same time, a girl named Molly is trying to stop him and his friend Alf from finding out (even though Molly is sort of Peter’s friend).  Also, Black Stache, a PIRATE, is after a trunk.  Once Black Stache finds out that the trunk he wants is on the ‘Never Land,’ a bad storm is already coming, the worst he’s seen in his years sailing the seven seas.This book is written in a funny way, and there is a lot of action–almost too much!  I can see in my head like I am right there in the middle of the action because the descriptions are so good.  Some parts of the book are scary, like when Peter gets thrown overboard by the first mate.  I took this book to school for silent reading and read it four or five times.  The first time I read it, it took me like two weeks.

Seema’s note to parents:  This is a terrific book, I love Dave Barry.  Buy it and then wrestle it out of their little hands and read it yourself!

Reviewed by: Seema and Shark

 Seema: I LOVE these books.  So, so, so funny.  I read them when I was a kid, and I was so glad to introduce Shark to them (and have the chance to read them again).  They’re all about this wild school that is supposed to have 1 level with 30 classrooms, but instead has 30 levels with 1 classroom on each. They have a series of crazy teachers (good and bad) and none of it makes any logical sense. My favorite is when one of the kids discovers the classroom where all the lies kids have been making up have come to life.  Oh–and the sock song: “I’ve got one sock, looking for the other/One sock, looking for it’s brother/When I find that sock, I’ll tell you what I’ll do/I’ll put it on my foot, and I’ll stick it in my shoe!”  Unfortunately, we sing this song a lot, because either our dryer or our baby eats socks.   Our copies of these books are nearly falling apart–a sign that they are truly loved.

Shark: I like Wayside School because everything is mixed up and funny and I am sometimes funny (even though my parents don’t always think so) in class.  I have read them so many times I can’t remember.  Once Allison found out that there was a 19th story (even though it might be a dream) while she got sad and started shouting “fish for sale!”  That was an example of how funny the books were.  I really like the Wayside School series and I really think you should read them.

Reviewed by: Seema and Curly

Something about this book really cracks us up.  It’s about a gang of babies heading out on their own and getting into mischief while their parents are busy with a pie-eating contest.  The illustrations (pictures) are beautiful silhouettes (like shadows) of the babies and the trees, birds, butterflies and frogs they see.  It may not make a baby laugh–our two year old Thunder didn’t really get it–but the rest of us loved it.
Shark, who was absorbed in a book of his own, had to put his book down and see what those babies had gotten up to.

Curly’s note: I think the pictures are a little spooky. But I liked it anyway.

by Mary Pope Osborne
Reviewed by: Shark

I like Magic Tree House because after I read the first one (even though I felt like not reading them at first until my mom read to me) I started liking them. My favorites are: Knight Before Dawn, Tigers Before Twilight, Buffalo Before Breakfast, Viking Ships Before Sunrise, Dolphins Before Daybreak, Ghost Town Before Sundown, Night Of The Ninjas, Afternoon On the Amazon, Hour Of The Olympics, Sunset Of The Sabertooth, Midnight On The Moon, Revolutionary War On Wednesday, Civil War On Sunday,Polar Bears Past Bedtime, and Dingos Before Dinnertime.
The main characters are Jack and Annie, brother and sister, who find the Magic Tree House, which takes them to different times and places they see in a book, and have missions on their adventures. When you read these books, the series are in sets of 4 books that go together. I always learn something new and true when I read these books, and I’ve read them all so now I know a lot of stuff.Shark