Archive for December 2011
- In: Humor
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Liberty Porter, First Daughter – New Girl in Town … by Julia Devillers was another one of her outrageously humorous books and the sequel to Liberty Porter, First Daughter. I enjoyed this book because it had the same qualities as the first book, which include how Ms. DeVillers took certain scenes and made it so that a positive, negative or and in between kind of person could enjoy it for different reasons. Now, for the story!
Once again we join Liberty Porter. The book opens with her one morning before school and she is regretting eating way to many cookies before bed (I may have actually done that once or twice) because now she feels sick. All she wants to do is lay in bed. She is also thinking about how she recently got in trouble for waking up her parents too early. Soon her father (the President of the United States) comes into her room already dressed and ready to start his day and he states he knew Liberty would be up. Liberty then puts on her clothes and heads downstairs to the chocolate shop to get a hot coco for her and her Father. As soon as the Porter family finish their breakfast, they head to the children’s garden to take pictures of Liberty’s first day of school. This year the pictures will be great because they are being taking by the official White House Photographer, President Porter is not best photographer (usually the pictures were blurry or Liberty’s eyes were closed or half of her face wasn’t in the picture)! Next stop, school.
Liberty meets her teacher Mr. Santo and Principal Tingley. As soon as she gets situated, she was introd
uced to their class pets (Clementine and Stink). Later in the day at recess, Liberty plays tag and the entire 4th grade ends up playing tag including Sam (her personal Secret Service Agent). Liberty finds out that the next day their class is going on a field trip to the Smithsonian Museum. [There are three museums, the museum of Air and Space, the museum of American History, and the museum of Natural History.] On the field trip, Liberty hears a group call her “Spazzy”. After talking to her Father, she sets the record straight she brings all the kids to her house. The kids have a blast and get to meet Liberty’s Mother and father!
Some reasons I liked this book were … I enjoyed the way Ms. Devillers made the story so that if you put yourself in Liberty’s shoes you could come up with mixed feelings about Liberty’s situation which made you really think about what would happen next. Another reason was that Liberty and I are the same age and I could relate to her more than I could with other books or characters. Last, but not least, I enjoyed the book because the time between the first and the second book wasn’t that big so the narrator didn’t have to fill in that much information that could confuse the reader that was an important thing in the book because the time in between could change the path of the story completely.
The moral of the story is that you need to be friends with everyone. Life could change quickly and when Liberty was nice and friendly to everyone she gained a lot of things such as happiness, trust, hope, and assistance. Many people forget or don’t know how important friendship is – somtimes I even forget that.
- In: Humor
- 2 Comments
Liberty Porter – First Daughter by Julia Devillers was a humorous book. As a recipe, the book was a mixture that consisted of a spoonful of humiliation, 6 ounces of humor and one pound of reality. Ms. Devillers made one scene, at least to me, quite amazing – she made it so that a negative person could find it funny about Liberty’s humiliation but a positive person could funny about Liberty’s actions and some one, who was a little bit of both, would get a little bit of both. Now let’s get to the story!
We enter the story by joining Liberty with her father - but he is not an ordinary dad, he is the future president of the United States of America! She has made her father a card with huge glitter happy faces on it. She placed it on the seat of the limo that they would be riding in to take the Oath of Office. During all of the excitement, Liberty forgets about the card and her father sits on it! Liberty notices and tells her father. When he moves they realize that the glitter happy faces are stuck to his behind. Luckily, when the jacket of his suit is pulled down, it covers the happy faces. After the Oath of Office ceremony, the Porter family heads to their new home – the White House!
As soon as Liberty enters her new home, she meets Sam, the new secret service agent who will be near her most of the time. Later she meets Mrs. Crum the President’s Assistant, who Liberty soon finds very boring. The next day Liberty meets the new guide of the White House, James, who shows her around the White House . The next day, while the group is touring their new home, Franklin (Liberty’s dog) ends up having to go outside, so Sam takes him outside. While Sam is outside Liberty and James decide to pretend they are “regular people.” Soon Liberty and James run into a pair of “tourists” who are lost looking for the library . They assist them and go on their way. As soon as James and Liberty spot Sam again they unveil their disguises. When the trio reach the bowling ally, Sam receives a message on his Walkie-Talkie saying that Liberty must meet her parents. Liberty realizes they have guests. Their guests are actually leaders from another country. Liberty is very excited and hopes to learn about others countries.
Some reasons I enjoyed this book are … I enjoyed the humor and how Ms. Devillers used a storyline that is realistic. Last but not least, I enjoyed how Ms. Devillers used events that may happen nowadays.
The moral is that if you are embarrassed you need to laugh and don’t be ashamed. Because Liberty did do some embarrassing things in the story but instead of being ashamed and saying she was a bad fist daughter she laugh at herself and went on with the story
- In: Adventure | Fairy Tale | Mystery
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I thought this was a spectacular book caught somewhere between “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Twelve Darling Princesses”. The Princess Curse was full of mystery and tricks which left me taking the book anywhere my parents allowed (and also getting up in the middle of the night to read)!
The book is about Reveka, a herbalist apprentice. It is her dream to become a kingdom known as herbalists but she is very poor. Once day, she gets an idea…she hears that the princesses in her kingdom are suffering from a puzzling curse and there is a HUGE reward…if she can solve/cure the princesses she would have enough money to become a master herbalist. 
While on her mission, Reveka meets Dindina, a worker at the palace who givers her a paper holding the ingredients that create invisibility to anyone wo wears the cape (so you know, of course, Reveka creates this cape).
One night, Reveka follows the princesses in the land of Thonos where they dance with a zema (a dragon). It is there and then that her father is taken prisoner and Reveka knows that she would do anything asked of her to make sure he was safe. She is told she has to eat five pomegranate seeds and say that she will return to Thonos to stay.
I really enjoyed this book. I admit it, I LOVE fairy tales because anything can happen. I also happen to really enjoy reading about mythology and this book had a bit of that (Thonos is part of the underworld). The origin of myths date back to the Greeks and Romans who assumed dead souls are guided by Hermes, God of Trickery)…and that is where the princess go. I believe the moral of The Princess Curse is that we need to be able to sacrifice yourself for the good of the greater others. Here Reveka sacrified herself to save the princesses and her father. Makes you wonder … what it would take for you to do that?!?
Well, this book was not my favorite but I am glad I kept reading (or actually, that my Mother would not let me quit). I felt as if Ms. Winston brought it all together in the last couple of chapters of President of the Whole Fifth Grade.
In this book we have Brianna…a smart, spunky fifth grader (hey, just like me). She dreams of becoming a cupcake extraordinaire. Typically, at Brianna’s school, each fifth grade class elects a class president BUT not this year. This year, the entire grade is going to elect one class president. 
Most of the grade are voting for Brianna and just as she is about to agree to be the class president, the new girl (Jasmine Moon) nominates herself (which is actually kinda rude)! During recess a boy named Weasel says that he will help Brianna become president but that does not last long because she sees Weasel telling Jasmine Brianna’s strategy. Although Brianna is upset about what is going on around her she is determined to win…she puts her mind to it and WINS!
There were a couple of good points in the book. The author used a lot of humor in the worst parts in the plot which lightened up the mood. The author also used a wide vocabulary words which kept it interesting. Unfortunately, I also had a dislike. There were actually spots in the book where NOTHING was going on…and I was bored. I guess I tend to like more adventure and mystery type books. I believe the moral of this book is that even when people are being less than nice and trying to bring you down, don’t quit. If you give up, then the other person wins!
This book was tale of twists and heart breaks. Each heartbreak keeps you reading for more…hoping for something happy. The twists had the same effect on me…wanting more smiles and happiness…and that kept me reading. To me, every word was a sweet little morsel.
Willa Havisham is a 12-year-old. She loves cherry cordials (cherries dipped in chocolate), reading ”classics” and is probably the world’s worst wisher. She lost hope in making wishes and is sad. She is bothered because she feels inadequate in comparison to the other girls in her life – her mother (Stella) is a very successful wedding planner and her grandmother is very popular candy maker. For a VERY long time, Willa has dreamed of having a normal family – one with a mother and a father. But after a while she gave up on that dream. 
One day, Willa was getting ready for the 4th of July picnic and see runs into her English teacher (Sam). She invites him to join her family at the beach for a holiday celebration. It was not long before Willa realized that her mother and Sam were falling in love. Soon, Willa realized that her wishes were coming true…she had a family that she always wanted…with a mother and a father.
What I liked about this book was that everything fit in place and you did not have to ask yourself what was happening. I completely understood the what was going on. I also enjoyed how I could relate to Willa (I live with both of my parents, I also like chocolate/candy and I LOVE reading). A dislike I had was that it had these little quotes from famous books and people and I did not know anything about that reference. The moral of The Wedding Planner’s Daughter is that everything and everyone makes a difference and to never give up dreaming!
