Fourth Grade Reviews

School is officially out for the year. One of my great end of the year surprises was the gift of a collection of book reviews by Mrs. B.'s fourth grade class (2009-2010). I have gained their permission to post them with no further credit to the authors of these thoughtful reviews. I will be posting them here a few at a time over the summer. Thanks, kids.

This first group of reviews is for historical fiction. The reviews end with a rating based on five stars with five being the highest possible rating. (Please note that typos are mine as I am typing these in to make sure that they are readable.)

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
This book is about three musketeers and boy named D'Artagnan. The three musketeers are Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. D'Artagnan wants to be a musketeer so he goes to Paris. These four people try to save the beautiful queen. They do this when the cardinal sets a trap for the queen who loves the Duke and pretends to love the king. The queen only married the king to stop the war between Spain and Paris.

Here is the trap: One day the king gave the queen a wedding gift that had fourteen rubies. The cardinal told someone to steal two of the rubies. Will Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan be able to save the queen?

Rating: I rate this book **** because it had a lot of action and details, but I don't like books that have a lot of killing. This book was very interesting in some parts.

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Bud is an orphan in Flint, Michigan. His mother died when he was only eight years old. Now he is all by himself in an orphanage doing nothing all day. He found a flier one day of a band. It looked a lot like his father was in the flier that he had found. That is impossible because Bud had never known his father. So Bud will no go on a journey to find the band and possibly his father. But there is one problem. How can Bud get to where his father is with no transportation and having to travel across the state of Michigan? Will he make it? Read to find out.

Rating: I give this book 4 stars because you never know what's going to happen in the next chapter. It gets more hair raising as the book goes on.

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
My historical fiction is about a dog named Old Yeller and about a boy named Travis. Old Yeller is an ugly, hungry, and yellow dog who comes to steal Travis's meat. Travis's little brother, Little Arliss, says he likes the dog and decides to keep it. Travis has hated Old Yeller but now he's family so Travis watches him like he watches Little Arliss. He grows up to like Old Yeller and soon Old Yeller likes him. Their father was away and will come home soon. What will he think of Old Yeller? Will he treat him like Travis did?

Rating: I gave this book *** stars because I have read better books before.

The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
Matt is a 13 year old boy who built a cabin with his dad. One day his dad goes to get his family from their other home far away. It's the first time Matt stays home alone for at least a week. During that time, Matt meets an Indian tribe. The leader of the tribe wants his grandson (who is is 15) to learn American words and how to read. For that, the Indian boy teaches him how to set traps and fish with spears. One day Matt loses track of what day it is but it's been a month since his dad left. Matt now is really worried that his dad isn't home. Is Matt's dad okay? If he's alive, where is he and will he come back or abandon him?

Rating: I give this book *** stars because it was a good book and wanted to keep me reading, but the title didn't match the book. There was only a little part about the sign of the beaver.

Fearless by Elvira Woodruff
Fearless is about a boy named Digory who lives in a village called Mousehole. One day a man comes to Mousehole and says that Digory's dad's ship, the Flying Cloud, had sunk on the rocks of the Eddystone Reef--a reef so notorious for sinking ships that every sailor's motto was to curse the Eddystone Reef. After two seconds, his family decides to send him up to the city of Plymouth to see if his dad survived. It looked like he didn't. Digory couldn't stand losing his father, so he gave it a chance. By the time he got up there, he had gotten kidnapped, saved and met his little brother; that's a day! The next day he learned that no one had survived the sinking of the Flying Cloud. On that same day he met a man of great taste, Master Henry, who invites them to be his servants. Soon they arrive at their destination, Littlebury. After one hour of being his servants Digory becomes Henry's apprentice and Cubby (Digory's brother) is moved to a higher rank of servant. While this is happening the big storm is stirring. One day Master Henry travels to the Eddystone Reef to make repairs on the lighthouse. Digory wants to help but that took a lot of convincing. His job was to bring candles to power the light, but finding a boatman to cross the storm of the century will be tough...

Rating: I would give it 4 out of 5 stars because I loved the book.

Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
The book Fever, 1793, is about a 14 year old girl named Mattie who lives in Philadelphia. One hot, sunny day Mattie found out their maid, Polly, had gotten sick and died from the yellow fever. After Polly passed away, many other people started getting sick. Then, in the next week, 100 people had died. Then Mattie's mom gets the yellow fever so Mattie has to go into the country with her grandfather. The next morning, the grandfather got a carriage and they set off on their trip. On the way there, Mattie's grandfather had a real bad cough. When they reached the borders of the country, two doctors were there to check if they were sick. When the doctors said grandfather was sick, grandfather and Mattie are kicked out of the carriage and are on there own. What will happen to Mattie and will her mother survive?

Rating: I will rate this book 4 out of 5 stars because it was interesting but it was hard to read.

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
This is a book about an adventurous eleven year old girl named Anne. Her adventures are action packed and exciting. Anne was a girl who didn't have that much but made the best of what she had. She always got in trouble even when she was trying to do the right thing. Lots of times words slipped out of her mouth that she should not have said.

Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert wanted to adopt an eleven year old boy from the orphanage to help out on the farm. Even though they asked for a boy they are sent an eleven year old girl. When Anne comes to Green Gables she is impressed with all of the beautiful scenery and is always thinking about enjoyable things. they want to keep her because they think she will bring joy to their life, but Matthew and Marilla don't know whether it is what they should do.

Anne meets a girl her age named Diana. They always enjoy every moment of their life with each other because they didn't always have a good friend. Will Diana's mom allow Anne to stay Diana's friend?

Rating: I give this book 4 stars. Most of the time it had adventure and action.