Al Capone Does My Homework by Gennifer Choldenko a lot of prisoners...

On to Al Capone.... Reading is in process...  8.5/10

Gennifer Choldenko Site 

Alcatraz Island Prison...   

Stays with our Mark Twain Theme and is based on real situation and time period.

Just a note of how much this author makes the character really seems to be talking to the reader.  It really struck me.

On Gennifer's site she talks about writing what you want to know and understand as well as what you know...I liked it.  She also has a page http://www.alcaponedoesmyshirts.com/interviews/ (VERY, VERY, VERY INTERESTING!) where she researched by interviewing actual Alcatraz residents and workers.  So she learned it to write about what she knows...

Great story.  A very enjoyable read!!

Lead---"Today is my dad's first official day as an associate warden on Alcatraz Island, home to anyone who is anyone in the criminal world."

Conclusion---"This is why he is the warden, and Trixle is not."

SIMILE:

“My head begins to throw like someone is digging my brain out with a trowel.”

“…berfore it crumbles, like the house made of sticks in the story the Three Little Pigs.”

ONOMATOPOEIA:

“The swing continued to make a vreek-vrok-vreek-vrok  sound.”

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool...

Mrs. Zuber is reading...has read...

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool...website

Okay, I will also have to read her 2011 Newberry Award winner, Moon Over Manifest.  There is a reason they are award winning!

Navigating Early

9/10

What a great story!  I so enjoyed reading this adventure.  I am all about connections in life!  This book is about connections.  I love that this story has a connection to math!  I can't wait to read her Newbery Award winner!  I love that her title has more and more meaning as you read the story.  As a writer she tells how she came up with her ideas and gives a little more information on π.   It joins back into our Mark Twain theme relating to events...π and WWII.  It is written in 1st person.

On to figurative language…you know it is in there!!!

Personification:…obviously π. throughout the entire story

     “Because the dog tags contradicted everything in my head that said Fisher could not be Early’s brother.”

Idiom: “…and we packed our stuff without a word.”

            “Don’t pour salt in the wound, or you’ll never get the taste out of your mouth.”

Onomatopoeia: '"What is hat stuff?" I grumbled.'
     '"Shh." Eustasia Johannsn help up a hand, her attention..'

What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World by Henry Clark...A lot of imagination and world saving.

What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World
8/10

Henry Clark Website

Totally has nothing to do with anything historical.  It is as far from it as a book could be.  After reading the interview with the author at the end of the book, I can understand why!  He is pretty imaginative a cooky.

This book is very entertaining.  It has a lot of twists in it.  Very few books surprise me.  This one does.  Party because there is no way you would have seen that coming!  The main character actually (SPOILER).  I think his writer's craft was to just "Go for it!"  Definitely not realistic either, but you probably guessed that already.  It is written in 1st person.  

A lot of Figurative Language?  Yes.

Personification?  One word...FURNITURE.  Of course, I am not sure if it counts as personification when the furniture is actually a character in the book???  Figure that one out.

Onomatopoeia: "It was followed by a disapproving tch-tch, and then a muffled cry from Freak."

Simile:   " 'You look," said Freak, "like a camera lens.'"
               "'Like Santa Claus at the mall?'"

This story also had an incredible amount of advanced vocabulary all over the place.  Examples...renaissance, quintessential, charred, etc. (Granted, it also has a lot of neologisms, or made up words...)

The Water Castle by Megan Frazer Blakemore...A lot of science and history

  The Water Castle   8/10

Megan Frazer Blakemore's Website

     There seems to be a trend of topics starting here.  We will see if it follows through with the rest of the nominees.  The first three have all included information about historical events and people.  Cholera and a doctor who discovered the source, Robin Hood's Legend, and this book contains it also.

    The Water Castle is about the legend of the Fountain of Youth, The search for the North Pole and Peary, Edison, Tesla, and several other historical figures.  It is written in 3rd person in two different time periods.  This story would be a good debate for realistic vs. science fiction.  Depending on how you view the events, it could be either.  A lot about the open ending of the story will determine which genre a reader thinks this book exemplifies.  After finishing, the author left me with ideas about the characters of Nora, Harry, and Orlando.  I wonder if you have the same inferences and predictions.

Figurative Language Time!

Onomatopoeia and alliteration: "She clicked off the television and navigated around the piles of books, up the stairs, and into her bedroom, where she side-stepped more books and picked up a picture of her parents."

"He heard the humming."

Idioms and Cliches:   Okay first what is the difference?  Idioms are considered great ways to put things and are often metaphors also, like "Yellow-bellied..." They would make know sense if you had not heard them before. Cliches are phrases that have become overused to the point where they lose their original meaning like "Where's the Beef?" or "Show me the money."  A good place to see the difference is at BrainPop.

Will In Scarlet by Matthew Cody...A lot of Legend and history

Will In Scarlet by Matthew Cody

8/10

     If you like Robin Hood Legends, you will like this book.  Great story...but on to reading like a writer...

     I am going to stick with Figurative Language!  That is what you struggle with.  :-)

Idiom:  "Lords weather the passing storms,..."
Cliche:  "...she said, hoping to change the subject." (had to change this, see why in previous blog about The Water Castle.
Personification: "Much followed him into the cell and was at once assaulted by the smell."
           "...his knife catching the sunlight as he brought it down towards Much's exposed chest."
Metaphor: "...he'd come to represent something else, a branch of a much larger rotten tree."
Simile:  "...looked like they'd been fletched by a blind man."

Matthew Cody lets you know why he wrote the story the way he wrote the story.  He gives you insight to himself as a writer.  He did surprise me with the twist in the perspective of this Robin Hood Tale. He let you see the characters as will saw them.  It is written in 3rd person with two different viewpoints from two different characters.

Matthew Cody's Website

The Great Trouble by Deborah Hopkinson...A lot of sickness and history

Welcome to the 2015 Mark Twain Blog!!

First book...

Deborah Hopkinson's Site

Rating of 9/10

I really enjoyed this work of historical fiction.  I especially appreciate that the author told me a the end which characters were real and which were fictional.  She also went through her process for ideas, planning and writing.  

This summer I am going to specifically look at some of the writers craft that the authors use in their pieces.  It did have a great lead and conclusion.  She tied the beginning and ending together nicely…

Beginning:  “What we now call The Great Trouble began one thick, hot, foul-smelling morning in August.”

Ending: “But then again, so had all of us that summer when The Great Trouble had come to Broad Street.

And somehow, we had survived.

This particular book had figurative language out the wazoo!  I have chosen just a few to give you a taste. 

Alliteration:  “So when he spied me snatchin’ up something shiny from the murky water…”