UglyFish Bookclub

Reviewed by: Jordan

What do a little Chinese girl and a big league baseball player have in common? NOTHING!

In the story a little girl from a clan in China moves to Broklyn, New York with her mom. There she has some trouble with her English. But guess what? In one chapter she has trouble with her Chinese. In the story, she finds a good sport, a hero and herself all in the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson.

I never knew that it was so hard to move from one country to another. Like how she had to present a poem to the class and she got one of the words wrong and then the class laughed at her. Then she felt embarrassed.

Will the little girl ever meet Jackie Robinson? Will they ever cross paths? Find out in the year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson.

Thank you to Jordan for a wonderful review and a great point of view.

Reviewed by: Lauren

What happens when a ten year old girl writes a novel? Her best friend thinks it should be published! Only one problem: her mother works in the publishing company. Natalie doesn’t want her mom to know she wrote the book.

Natalie has always been a writer and now she writes a novel. She doesn’t want to get it published until her best friend, Zoe reads it and convinces her to. Since Natalie’s mom works in the publishing company, they use code names. Natalie’s name is Cassandra Day.

This story relates to me because I like to write stories sometimes like Natalie and I sometimes don’t show my parents something if I don’t like it or am scared. I relate to Zoe some also because I like to read like Zoe and sometimes I am sneaky too.

My favorite part of this story is when Zoe throws a surprise party for Cassandra Day (Natalie) and everybody learns who Cassandra Day really is while her mom is crying and it is all on TV. What happens? You can find out when you read this book!

Thank you, Lauren for your wonderful review! We can’t wait to check this book out!

by Tedd Arnold

Reviewed by Marya and B.W.

This book is hilarious. It takes the everyday events of your bodily functions and talks about them from the perspective of a neurotic (nervous) toddler. The boy begins questioning what is going on when (GASP) his hair falls out as he is brushing it and his fears of going bald early in toddler-hood begin to surface. But it doesn’t stop there. He continues to get nervous when belly lint makes him think the stuffing inside his body is coming out. Naturally he questions his parents about all these concerns including the fact that his brain is coming out of his nose (also known as snot!!)

B.W. thought it was the funniest book ever. He loved the part where the little boy tries to solve all his problems by wrapping himself up in masking tape. Of course in the end after all his drama, his parents inform him of the realities of snot, belly lint, wrinkled skin and hair loss. Although, he still questions what the “stuff coming out of his ears” is!! If you’re curious about all the things going on in your body, you should pick up a copy of this book!!

Seema’s note: this book is unfortunately no longer available on Amazon. It sounds great, though and we’ll be checking for it at our local library–you should too!

Reviewed by: Shark

Frindle is about a kid named Nick who decides to make a new word, because his grammar teacher tells him that anyone can make a difference in the world. Nick thinks School is the perfect place to launch his new word. ‘Frindle’!!! It means PEN. But then chaos happens. Everyone who uses the word has to stay after school! But no one cares. They just keep on using it. What will happen next?

I borrowed Frindle from my aunt and read it and I liked it so much that I decided to read more of Andrew Clements books and I am going to review more books by Andrew Clements. The books all start off really good and make me want to keep reading. They are mostly about kids in school, teachers, principals and sometimes reporters and newspapers. It’s good to read these books in the summer because it makes you even more happy that school is over!

Reviewed by: Hurricane, Seema and Shark

This was a terrific alphabet book that we all enjoyed, although Shark is WAY past the alphabet. Each letter of the alphabet is presented opposite of an object that begins with that letter–standard fare, right? Wrong.

The illustration facing the text comes from a portion of a painting in the Getty Museum’s collection. Every page shows a beautiful close-up of a painting by a master, some familiar and some new to us. In tiny text beneath the illustrations are the artists’ names, birthplaces, birth and death years and the year the painting was completed. Hurricane, being two, was not interested in any of that information, but Shark was really amazed by how old these paintings are.

At the end of the book is a gallery that shows the entire painting. We loved seeing the paintings and trying to remember and identify the part that had been featured and enlarged in the book. Our complaint, however, was that the images in the gallery were really small, and we weren’t able to see them as well as we would have liked. I guess we’ll have to check out the Getty Museum when we’re in Los Angeles this summer to really get a look.

      

Reviewed by Shark and Seema

Oh, this book.  I had it when I was little, and I am sure a lot of parents out there are familiar with Frances.  I had forgotten how clever and downright hilarious this little badger is! Her little songs are such fun. We tried to figure out what tune she was singing to, which was pretty funny.

In this book, Frances only wants to eat bread and jam, while her family (even the baby) eat an interesting variety. Finally, her parents decide that bread and jam is all Frances will be offered, and poor Frances starts to feel ‘like a jam jar, full-of-jam.’  Imagine if your parents gave in and gave YOU just your favorite food! How long do you think it would take you to get tired of it?

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Reviewed by: Seema

Every week, Shark and I try to learn about a new religion or culture–we have read comic books on mythology, looked up religions on-line and read from religious texts.  This week, we found this book in the library and decided that we’d study the Amish.

What we love about this book is that the author is incredibly respectful and pointed out the similarities as well as the differences between the modern lifestyle we are used to and the Amish lifestyle. As the Amish people prefer not to be photographed, he included wonderful photographs of their things–clotheslines hung with their clothes, their buildings and their artwork. While it was a little unusual not to see photographs of people, it did make it easier for us to imagine ourselves living in their world. We’re not sure we’d like to give up the comforts we’re used to, we do like the idea of a community that relies on teamwork to such a great extent–every structure is built by hand by the entire community–and where impromptu visiting the norm.

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Reviewed by: Seema and Hurricane

 If you don’t want your toddler learning the word ‘yuck,’ this is NOT the book for you.  Hurricane already knew it and takes great pleasure in saying it, so this book was right up his alley.  It’s all about what animals would eat for supper–”What’s for supper?  This baby eats a worm.  A wriggly worm, tugged out of the lawn?  That’s not our baby’s supper. YUCK!”

It goes on and on with a spider, a rotten egg, a rat and more until we get to warm milk–YUM!  But what would all those animals say to warm milk for supper?  YUCK! The drawings are huge and emotive–they make you feel what the words say.  The gross looks gross and the baby drinking milk out of a sippy cup looks so content with milk spilling down her cheeks that Hurricane got a craving and went running off looking for milk.  When he couldn’t open the fridge, he came back to where we had been reading and said, “Yuck!  Again?  Pleeeese?”  So I guess he liked it too!