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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Book reports 1&2


Book report #1
Elise Broach
Masterpiece
There are 292 pages
Description: https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ1uUmXGNDC6PhpX3DmxySyS6UnBf1Y-IUP7R2MiH70WId5v1FkKQ
Summary: This book is about two families that live in a brownstone apartment in New York. One family is a family of beetles. In that family the characters are Marvin, Mom, Dad, Uncle Albert, Aunt Edith, Uncle Ted and Grandmother and Elaine. The other family is a family of humans. In that family there is a boy named James, his little brother William, their mother, Mrs.Pompaday and her husband Mr.Pompaday.
In the beginning of the story Mrs. Pompaday drops her contact lense down the drain and wants to call a plumber to get it out.  However, Marvin’s family lives in the rotting wall underneath the sink and if the plumber comes to the house he will tell the Pompadays that the wall is rotten and the beetle family would be exposed.  They decide to have Marvin swim in the drain to get the contact lense out.  Marvin manages to do this and the family leaves the lense by the faucet where James finds it just in time. 
At first I thought this book was a bit hard to follow because I read it a bit too quickly and got confused about who was who.  When I read it over again it began to make more sense.  I think the book would be good for boys ages 10-13 because of the reading level and because of the content.  I don’t think girls would be as interested in reading about bugs and boys.

Book report #2
The main characters of the book are Marvin and James.  They are both boys around the same age but Marvin is a black beetle the size of a raisin whereas James is an eleven year old boy. Marvin lives in a burrowed out room in the cupboard under the sink with his mother and father and a large extended family.  Marvin’s family admires him and encourages him to do things like swim and draw.   They are kind and loving to Marvin. 
James lives in the brownstone apartment in New York city with his mother, stepfather and new baby brother, William.  They don’t seem to really care about James.  For example, during his birthday party James’s mother was more concerned with her clients that she invited to the party than if James was having a good time.  She invited only the children of her clients or potential clients rather than any of James’s friends.  James’s father is an artist and seems to care about James but doesn’t really understand him.  For example, for James’s 11th birthday he received a pen and ink set for his present. 
Marvin is adventurous and is intrigued by the human world even though his family thinks it is dangerous.  James is quiet, shy and careful.  The two become friends when Marvin draws a tiny picture for James’s birthday with the ink from James’s set.  When James wondered who drew the picture Marvin took a risk and showed James how he did it.  James thought the detail in the picture was really cool and that it was the best present ever.  I think I would be friends with both Marvin and James.  Marvin is a risk taker like me and James sounds like he would be easy to get along with: he is calm and kind and doesn’t complain.  

1 comment:

  1. Well done Tomas this was a supper. I see you have improved a whole lot from last year. Both of the summaries. Just one thing I disagree with is that i don't go along the best with calm people :D. Keep the good work up!

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