Star Wars Before the Awakening By Greg Rucka

The Star Wars movies are more well known than the books. Though the Star Wars movies cover the basic storyline they leave a lot of questions, most of which can be answered through the books. The book I am reviewing today is called Star Wars Before the Awakening. It highlights the backstory of Poe Dameron, Finn, and Rey. The book is split into 3 parts, one for each character. For Finn’s part it gives us insight on Finn’s inner battle (whether he likes being a storm topper or not.) Finn is the best trooper in his squadron so much so that he doesn’t have a nickname like the others. Eventually when he gets deployed he feels left out from the group, a defect. He feels like he is not like the others, he’s too scared to ask for help because he is afraid that no one else feels the same way. Rey’s part highlights her scavenging through the desert, and also finding the Millennium Falcon. Her part shines a light on her bravery and independence even before she joined the resistance. Poe’s part shows us a little bit more about his childhood, his parents, and how he joined the resistance. Poe’s parents fought in the battle of Endor against the empire. His mother died when Poe became older. That left him and his dad alone on their farm. He joined the New republic army, who didn’t believe that the First order was a threat. Poe disobeys orders and light cruises right into a First order space settlement. He is then recruited by Leia to join the resistance as a Captain. Instead of just one squadron under his control he has 2. He is given a special mission from leia to abduct a senator’s ship because he is suspected of working with the first order. The book ends when Leia asks Poe to help find her brother, Luke Skywalker. I would definitely recommend this read if you like Star Wars like me!

The Fourteenth Goldfish By Jennifer L. Holmes – Book Review

The Fourteenth Goldfish is a book about a girl whose life gets turned upside down when her grandfather comes to her house. Her name is Ellie, her grandfather’s name is Melvin. But, Melvin is not a normal grandfather, he isn’t wrinkly, he doesn’t tell back in my day stories. No, Ellie’s grandfather is a scientist, a scientist who discovered the cure for aging. When Melvin walks into the house he is a 13 year old. Ellie, Melvin, and their friend Raj attempt to get T. Melvinus the jellyfish whose sting can cure aging. The book shows Ellie’s journey to figure out that even things that seem good are not always good. It also shows to believe in the impossibly possible. I would suggest this book for anyone with a wild imagination, a person who believes in the impossible.

Holes – Book Review

Holes by Louis Sachar

Holes is a Newberry award winning book. Newberry award is the yearly award given to the best children’s book. The plot is that a middle school boy named Stanley Yelnats gets sent to a correctional facility because he was wrongly accused of stealing. His job at the facility is to dig holes to possibly “build” character. Stanley soons learns that the warden has another motive behind the hole digging. I really enjoyed this book. It is a nice chill book that reads like a mystery novel. If you are ever feeling bored on a rainy day or something, this book is perfect read. The book has many different layers and morals and I suggest reading it 4-5 chapters at a time to really see and appreciate the connections the author makes. I hope you have fun reading this book.

The Falcon has landed

  “ Red 3 this is yellow 5 we are preparing for landing of the mother ship, copy.” 

“I have a visual copy.”

————-In the mother ship————

“This is Captain Poe Dameron, everyone please sit down because we are landing in a field of tall grasses,” Poe Darmeron reported.

“Man, Poe is really taking this seriously,” Rey told Finn.

“Yeah, I mean he’s never piloted anything except a x-wing you’d expect him to be excited,” Finn replied

The spacecraft slowly lowered to the ground on the planet of Backyard. There were grasses all around so it made it hard to tell where to land. There was a Thump then the Captain notified the passengers that they had landed.

“The Falcon has landed, I repeat the falcon has landed. Prepare for unloading.”

————————————————————————————————

 That small moment is what happened when my newly finished lego Millenium Falcon landed in my backyard. It took me a couple of days to finish this project, it had 10 sections to it. It comes with a Finn, a chewbacca, a lando, a D-0, a BB-8, a R-2 D-2, and an alien. It is guaranteed to keep you busy for a while. 

I have also built a lego baby Yoda also known as Grogu from the Mandalorian

Summer of 2021- Day 11

Day 11:

    Today was the last day of my minecraft camp. I finished up what I was building, and then we got to do Pie day Friday. Pie day Friday happens every Friday when a camper chooses a teacher to get pied. After camp I did some Singapore math. The math was interrupted by my dad watching this tennis match at the French Open which he could not stop raving about. This match was so good that the French open organizers even relaxed a covid curfew until the match finished. I was more worried about why the players kept changing their clothes. I also played minecraft with my friends. After that I finished my Nancy Drew book. Here is the review:

   The newer Nancy Crew book that I just read was the second one. The story starts in the first book where Nancy and her friends are called to investigate a mystery on a cruise ship called the Arctic Star. Nancy’s friend Becca asks them to investigate a series of odd events that happen before the cruise because she is worried that something will happen on the cruise’s maiden voyage.  They have to do it undercover though because the CEO of the company that owns the cruise doesn’t want to attract attention to the problems. When Nancy and her friends get on the ship more mysterious things happen. At the end of that book Nancy thinks that she found the culprit. Before they depart from their stop the jewelry ship on board is robbed. It turns out that there were some other criminals aboard. In the second book Nancy and her friends head to Denali national park, some weird things follow Nancy on her land trip. Is the trouble following her? To find out and read the mystery in length read Nancy Drew Curse on the Arctic Star and Strangers on a Train. 

Later I watched some basketball with my dad and I started reading my Star Wars book. I am ready to see what tomorrow will hold!

Curse of the Arctic Star (1) (Nancy Drew Diaries)

Summer of 2021 – Day 10

It started off with minecraft camp in the morning from 9:30 to 12, then I watched a little bit of this show on Netflix called My Perfect Landing. I really liked it and have binged on it. Then I finished my Nancy Drew comics.

Here is the Review:

     I recently started reading mystery novels. I really enjoyed the Nancy Drew Christmas special my dad got me. So when we went to the bookstore I got some more Nancy Drew books. I tried out the graphic novel version. All the Nancy Drew books that I am reading are by Carolyn Keene. There are 3 different Nancy Drew books that she published. An old kind of Nancy Drew where all the books have a bright yellow cover. There are around 40 of those. A newer kind of Nancy Drew that varies in size and color. Lastly, there is the graphic novel Nancy Drew which is a few centimeters wide. I have read both the graphic novel version and the newer version of Nancy Drew. I would recommend it for children 9 and older. Each graphic Novel has 2 mysteries in it. They are all pretty small but it is a very good book. I read books 6 and 7 and they were both action packed. I will give a review on the newer Nancy Drew books in a little bit when I finish the one I am reading now. 

After reading the Nancy Drew comic, I started on my Nancy Drew book. After finishing these books I have to dig into some other books that I have chosen. I also did some Singapore math in the evening after dinner. I am ready to see what Friday brings.

The Summer of 2021 – Day 9

I walked my dog cocoa this morning. Right after that I went to my virtual minecraft camp where I worked on the cliff that led into a hillside cave. After camp, I worked on some math problems . I went to buy and trade in books at half price books with my dad. We traded in a box of books that we already read. I estimate it will probably take me 10 weeks to read all of the books. I started the Nancy Drew comics today. I am planning to add book reviews for all these books in the coming weeks.

Links:

Half Price Books: New & Used Books, Textbooks, Music & Movies

The Minecraft Camp I went to: EDMO -STEAM Summer Camps in SF Bay Area, San Diego, Austin

The Demon of River Heights (Nancy Drew Graphic Novels: Girl Detective #1)

Summer of 2021- Day 3

Mammoth Lakes is a good place to go if you like hiking. There are many lakes you can hike to and there are also a lot of hotels, campgrounds, and cabins to stay. At certain hotels you can even buy a room so you can have a place to stay. In the winter Mammoth Lakes is a good skiing location because there is a lot of snow. The Mammoth Main lodge is next to a ski lift. In the summer the lodge has rope courses, rock climbing, and gold panning (More on that later). Because there is a lot of snow lots of lakes develop in the Mammoth area, these lakes vary in height. So, if you want to relax lakeside Lake Mary and George are the places to picnic. They are both down the road from the village, just take Lake Mary road and you can find a cluster of lakes known as Lakes Basin. Lakes basin consists of many lakes, most of which you can access from Lake Mary road. There are around 25 lakes(maybe more, I don’t know)  in the area near Mammoth Lakes. We chose Heart Lake for our first hike and coincidentally the trail was connected to the Mammoth Consolidated mine. I had been learning about the gold rush in school so I was interested to learn about mining in Mammoth Lakes. Once we got there we started hiking, the hike takes about 1 hour 30 minutes up because it is very uphill and 45 minutes down. The uphill climb flattens closer to the lake. The lake is about 50 yards wide and 70 yards long -these are fourth grader’s rough dimensions. The views when we were climbing up were worth the climb. After we finished the hike we went into the village and got Pitas from the Pita Pit. I would definitely suggest it if you need a quick lunch to recharge. You can customize a pita to your liking. After eating a quick lunch I went to the pool. That ended the day and I am ready for tomorrow. 

Summer of 2021- Day 2

   Today we drove to Mammoth Lakes. It was a really long drive. I am really looking forward to this trip because it is our first trip in 2 years. We drove straight through Yosemite, it was beautiful because we were there in between summer and spring. Tioga pass opened up this past weekend so it took less time to get to Mammoth. Once we got there we settled into our room and then went out to explore the village. The village is structured so you walk into a plaza and all the shop fronts are facing you. There are fireplaces, and a stage in the plaza. The main shopping area has restaurants and clothing shops. If you go down a level next to the Pita Pit there is a General store called Busy Bees General Store. Our Hotel is the Westin Monache Resort. We chose a resort because we need a kitchen to cook food for my 2 year old sister. I am ready to go on an adventure at Mammoth Lakes.

Links:

Resort in Mammoth Lake, CA | The Westin Monache Resort, Mammoth

The Village at Mammoth