mgarvin's Blog

I read the book Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. This book is a tale of two very different teens living in very different worlds. Lily is a cheerful, optimistic, good girl who always follows the rules. Dash is a cheerless, negative, bad boy who loves to break rules. Lily wanted to find a boyfriend so she thought if she put her “status” in the bookstore, she would find someone just like her. When Dash finds a red notebook on the shelves of his favorite bookstore, of course he’s curious! He opens it up to find a bunch of qualifications from a girl, Lily. He doesn’t know Lily, but he sure will. He does things she asks and puts the notebook back on the shelf with some instructions for Lily. When Lily went back to check for any results, she was surprised because she hadn’t asked for a response question. For a good five weeks, this note-passing went back and forth between Dash and Lily. Then, a shock came. Dash wanted Lily to make him something. Not just anything though. He wanted her to go to the children’s store/activity center, “Make-a-Muppet.” In case you are wondering  what on Earth that is (trust me, that was me) “Make-a-Muppet” is a place like “Build-a-Bear” except you get to put together random Muppet parts to create an original Muppet. Lily wanted to make her Muppet to remind her of Dash. So, she made something that resembled Animal. She named it Snarl. She gave it to a man named Boomer who then gave it to Dash. Thats when things got a little wild. The next thing Dash told Lily to do was go to a Jewish nightclub and meet two guys named Yohonny and Dov. She got a little too caught up in the party scene and decided to try a peppermint martini and well, I think you can figure it out from there. I hate to give things away so I won’t say too much more but Dash ends up on a specific wanted list nobody wants to be on and Dash and Lily finally meet! 

I loved this book because it had romance, it was funny, and it also got a little mysterious. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the book Nick and Norah’s Ultimate Playlist. That was my review of Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares. :)

I recently read the book, Dear America, I Walk In Dread by Lisa Rowe Fraustino. The book takes place in the  Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s. That was the time of the Salem witches. The book is in the form of a diary of a young girl named Deliverance “Liv” Trembley. Back then, most girls didn’t know how write, so Liv had to hide the diary. In the beginning, Liv was just like a normal 12 year old. Well, a normal 12 year old who lived in the 1600s. She farmed, prayed, cooked, prayed, cleaned, prayed, had to fetch water, oh and did I mention PRAYED! Back then, they were very religious and had to pray a whole lot. She tended to her sick sister Remembrance, or Mem for short. Throughout the book, Liv mentions her uncle away on a very long fishing trip. Liv lived a very normal, colonial life until the witch trial started. That’s because Liv’s best friends, Betty and Abagail were the first two to be afflicted. Mem, to sick to attend any of the Sabbaths, was lucky she couldn’t go, Liv stated, because of those two girls screaming and kicking. Then, the rumors started flying about which woman had put a spell on these girls to make them behave like that. Most everyone believed it was the creepy woman who always went up to people’s doorsteps, asking for some chicken eggs. That woman was named Sarah Goode. She had always been called a witch, but before it wasn’t taken literally. then people started saying she only came looking for chicken eggs so she could make her “witch potion”. How ridiculous! As sick as she was, Mem was never sick of gossip. Every rumor around town somehow got to her. She loved hearing it! Worst of all, she actually believed it unlike her sensible sister, Liv.  One day, as Liv was writing in her diary, she heard a knock at the door. An old woman named Goody Goode had come to visit. Goody Goode was a very religious person. She took Christianity to the next level. Goody Goode ( I just love saying her name!) was much to old to attend the sermons on Sunday. She had come to ask Liv to read her the bible after every Sunday meeting! It would be tough for Liv but she agreed. Liv also (not willingly) attended the court services to see if the accused witches were guilty or innocent. Sarah Goode was proven… oops! Not giving that away! The next day, there was another accused witch. This one, Liv couldn’t believe at all. It was her old friend Goody Goode! How could she be an accused witch when she doesn’t even go out of her own home? There is much more crazy witch drama in this book. So on’t just sit there, go find a copy and read it!

                                                   I enjoyed this book because of the way it was written. I like the way it was in a diary and not just seperated by chapters. You will enjoy this book if you like historical fiction novels. 

Peace! Maddi

                        If you like suspense and mystery, then this is the book for you! The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart is a adventure story about four kids who set out on a dangerous mission that may threaten their lives. It is a book that’s hard to put down and I’m always wondering what’s going to happen next.

                        Reynie, Sticky, and Kate are three of the smartest kids in the world. Reynie is a quiet orphan from a city called Stonetown. Sticky is a runaway from Holland who is very shy and fearful. Kate is a daring and peculiar  girl who doesn’t remember a thing about her mother who died when Kate was young or her father who abandoned her. they all saw an ad in the paper for “very intelligent children.” They went through a series of tests and quizzes that include things like going through a maze of identical doors, crossing a room stepping on certain colored rectangles, and seeing if chess move is possible or not. They all passed. They thought they were the only ones, until they met Constance. Constance is rude, sarcastic, and lazy. So, how could she have passed? That’s what Reynie, Sticky, and Kate tried to figure out. The children then meet Mr. Benedict. He tells the children why they are there and that there is a mission that they need to go on. Kate was very, VERY excited to be a spy. The other ones, not as much! 

                         The children are taken to a school called Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, or L.I.V.E. It’s a school for children who are way beyond the normal intelligence level for their age. They are given a tour and then shown to their rooms. The rooms were separated boys and girls, therefore it was Kate and Constance and Reynie and Sticky. Kate wasn’t very happy about sharing a room with Constance. Who would be?

                         The next morning, the children were sent to class. They learned about something I do not think humanly possible to understand. There are four types of students, normal students, messengers, sanctuaries, and the executive. Normal students are just the kids that go to class live a normal life. Messengers get to have special messages to send from person to person. Sanctuaries are people who make plans for the school. The executive is head of the school. 

                        Reynie and Sticky are especially smart. They get 100% on every test they have. Did I mention they have a test every day in every subject? The executive (a girl named Martina) was very angry at them. She wanted to get 100% on every test. So, they found a way to cheat. One day, Sticky got caught. He was sent to the waiting room. The waiting room is what that school calls detention. Only in this detention, you have to crawl through a mud covered, very spiky obstacle course. When he came back, Sticky was like a zombie. He was covered in mud and his eyes were very red. EEK!

                        I’m going to skip over a huge part so I won’t give away too much information. Ha! Kate decided to go by herself down an elevator shaft and overheared a very important conversation with a man named  Mr. Curtain and S.Q. Then, the elevator started to move and Kate dived down to the freezing water. She satrted to swim very fast when she saw a shark! When she got back she slept and slept and slept.

                         Do you really think I’m going to give away the ending? Absolutly not! I like this book because it keeps you interested and in a way, it is sort of a riddle. That’s my blog. Hope you liked it!

                                                                                                                                                                    -Maddie