Weekly Reading Entry-The Mysterious Benedict Society

What is The Mysterious Benedict Society? Is it just a few children randomly selected out of two hundred others who are to help a strange old man save the world? No. The Mysterious Benedict Society consists of three unusually bright children, along with a silly little girl. These children are named Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance. They have completed a test-the test-to determine who shall go undercover to help a smart elderly man, Mr. Benedict, to save the entire world from his evil twin-unknown-who were separated at birth. To complete their task, many obstacles stand in their way. Messengers, Executives and the Whisperer must stop them. And they will likely be put to end. Luckily for Reynie and Sticky, they have been made Messengers, and gained trust with Mr. Curtain, Mr. Benedict's twin. Hopefully, their privileges will help them more and more throughout the book, perhaps even the series.

I have been wondering for a while, Why does Kate wear a bucket around on her belt? She keeps many things in it, but won't things fall out? Like when she was snooping around looking for a way to deactivate the Whisperer, she lost her slingshot and marble and nearly got caught for it.
I am astonished about how Reynie is so smart. I am of his age, and he knows much more than I do. I think adults cannot picture children correctly. They are too different, have more knowledge, and don't seem to think about the difference of knowledge or theirs and ours.

15 Random Tops and Bottoms in Order

Top

1.Manga
2.Anime
3.Japanese Food
4.Bubble Tea
5.Spirited Away
6.Younha
7.French Bread
8.Kitties
9.Cats
10.Baseball
11.My Birthday
12.All holidays but Thanksgiving
13.Nitrome
14.P!nk
15.Get Smart

Bottom

1.My Brother
2.Mom wanting to move
3.NOT HAVING A KIMONO!!! WAHHH!!!
4.Turkey
5.Dry Turkey
6.Edible Leaves
7.Homework
8.When people give the dollars first with the change on top
9.When mom says "TIME TO GET OFF THE COMPUTER!"
10.Being a picky eater
11.Annoying People
12.People who say I'm stupid. I MAY BE DUMB BUT I'M NOT STUPID!
13.Missing The Simpsons and/or The Office
14.How every slug I've seen gets pointed and yelled at, "EW!"
15.Not having Cable or anything like that

Weekly Reading Entry-The Wanderer

I am not terribly far into The Wanderer by Newbery Honor winning author Sharon Creech, also author of Walk Two Moons, but I already have an inference. The Wanderer is about thirteen-year-old Sophie, adopted at ten, who love the sea. While she keeps a journal on her sea trip to England with her three uncles and two cousins, so does one of her cousins, Cody. Cody wants to know what happened to Sophie's real parents, and his father and uncles won't tell him. When he wrote once in his journal, he said something that really struck me.
I am starting to think something else, too. I think Sophie's afraid of the water. It's just a feeling I have.
Then I began to think that maybe, if Cody was right about Sophie being afraid of the water, that the death of her real parents had something to do with the ocean or water, like they drowned or something.
Cody's father, to Sophie "Uncle Mo", is really mean to Cody and his mother. Cody also says in his journal that he sometimes wishes he was an orphan because his father's a "big crab" and "my mother is afraid of him and always hiding in the corner looking pitiful."
Sophie talks and tells stories about her grandfather, "Bompie", a lot, which shows she really loves him. And the reason she and her uncles and cousins are going to England is to see him. I just hope that the ending to The Wanderer isn't as sad as the ending to Walk Two Moons.

Weekly Reading Entry-Wednesday Wars

Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt takes place in America in 1967 during the war in Vietnam. Holling Hoodhood just started 7th grade, and already knows that his teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates his guts. Of course, his parents and his "flower child" sister who supports in Bobby Kennedy don't believe him.
Mrs. Baker made Holling see her every Wednesday after school to read Shakespeare. And that has a lot to do with the story.
Mrs. Baker and Holling changed by the end of the story because Holling didn't think Mrs. Baker hated him anymore. It turned out that Mrs. Baker was really nice, and she brought him to baseball games and introduced him to Joe Pepitone and Horace Clarke.
I think the ending to Wednesday War was really good. You see, Mrs. Baker's husband was in Vietnam, lost in a jungle. Mrs. Baker had gotten a telegram saying the army was sending a helicopter to look for him. Then near the end of the book Mrs. Baker got a telegram from him. It said-
SWEET EYES STOP OUT OF JUNGLE STOP OK STOP HOME IN TIME FOR STRAWBERRIES STOP LOVE TY STOP
Holling said Shakespeare couldn't write better. Then, on the very last page, Mrs. Baker and Lieutenant Baker saw each other again. I can't say what happened, though. But, as Holling said, toads, beetles, bats. If you can't figure that out for yourself, then a southwest blow on ye and blister you all o'er. Because let me tell you, it was a happy ending.

Weekly Reading Entry- Dark Dude

Dark Dude, by Oscar Hijuelos, is about a Cuban boy, Rico, with white skin who leaves his family in Manhatan to live with his friend in Wisconsin. Dark Dude previews some race-based issues, like in the book Hurricane Song (Paul Volponi). Before Rico leaves New York City, he goes to a school which he feels very uncomfortable in. That's because there are lots of African-American and Hispanic kids there, with only a few white kids. I like how Rico describes it as a "bowl filled with about five thousand black beans and brown beans, and then sort through it, to find a few white ones here and there." And then it goes on about how the African-American and Hispanic beans go out of their way to hassle the white beans, and one of those few white beans is him. Another issue in Dark Dude is that Rico's friend, Jimmy, shoots heroine and has been smoking for seven years, since he was ten. Jimmy's father beat him, so he started to do heroine. He said it makes him feel good, like the best person on Earth, compared to the crummy life he really leads. A lot of people do drugs in Dark Dude, like the manager of this restuarant, or kids at school. Oscar Hijuelos really brings out the issues in Dark Dude.