Today we read “Weekend: The Perfect Pet” by Fiona Roberton. There was a boy named Henry who only wanted one thing in the whole entire world. He wanted a dog, and only a dog. Henry wants a dog more than anything in the world? more than a cowboy costume, even more than an all-expenses-paid trip to the moon. So he puts an ad in the newspaper to find the perfect pet. Far away, a lonely duck who desperately wants a friend reads the ad. He has the clever idea to disguise himself as a dog and apply for the job of Henry’s best friend. But his cover is quickly blown when he isn’t very good at catching balls and his floppy ears and tail fall off. Henry is disappointed for a moment, until he thinks of all the amazing things this duck can do, and realizes he’s found the perfect pet after all.  I have always wanted a pet dog when I got older, so when I move out I’m gonna shiba inu.

“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” was written by: William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer and illustrated by: Elizabeth Zunon. The book is about a boy named William Kamkwamba who lives in Malawi. Malawi is a place where there isn’t much food and water for everyone. People were starving and running low in food because there wasn’t water to grow food. William Kamkwamba decided to do something about this, so he went to the local library and found a book on wind mills. He realized all the great things a windmill could do and he made it his goal to make one. People teased and laughed while they watch William Kamkwamba fiddle with junk. His family wanted to help so they got wood and helped pull up the windmill. In the end William Kamkwamba had made light and everyone cheered at the sight of light. I connected to this book because I used to make cool things out of little pieces of wood. I created somewhat of an elephant and attempted to make the eiffel tower. This book reminded me how the other book we read “Wangari’s Tree of Peace: A True Story from Africa”. She made a big difference in Kenya and she ended up going to university just like William Kamkwamba did.

“After The Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again” was written and illustrated by Dan Santat.  It’s about the famous Humpty Dumpty and his great fall. We all know the nursery rhyme, he climbs a wall and falls and he gets patched up by all the kings men. In this story Humpty Dumpty developed a fear of heights. He missed out all the fun stuff like the good cereal on the top shelf and the beautiful bird on top of the big wall. Humpty Dumpty created his own birds to replace the birds he used to see on the top of the wall. One day one of the birds he made got stuck on top of the big wall. So he started to climb, and he climbed and climbed and got more and more nervous. Until he reached the top and got  over his fear of heights. In grade two I went mountain biking with family friends, and just at the end of the trail I fell of a root went to my skin. So I was rushed to the hospital and was given six stitching. I didn’t bike for two years until I brought up the courage and biked with my family again.

“The Noisy Paint Box: The colors and Sound of Kandinsky’s Abstract” was written by Barb Rosenstock and illustrated by  Mary Grandpre. It was about Kandinsky and his noisy paint box his aunt gave him. He lived a boring life before his aunt gave him his paint box. He painted what he heard and listened to the different noises the colours made. He heard high notes from yellow and low notes from green. No one knew what he was painting so they sent him to art school to teach him how to paint like everyone else. He grew older and ignored the sounds the colours around him made. One day he attended an opera performance, and he heard all the colours and it reminded him of painting and the noisy paint box.  After that he continued painting, but people said it wasn’t right and that Kandinsky artwork should have people and flowers in it. So he made what the people wanted but not what he wanted. All of Kandinsky’s art friends understood him and that they were bored of painting pretty ladies and flowers. In the end Kandinsky painted what he wanted to paint and not what other people told him to, he called it: Abstract Art. I connected to this book because I like to paint and instead of painting people of flowers I like to splat colour onto a canvas. It’s more enjoyable to paint something in my head then something I saw online or in person.  In the book “Cerulean” one of the characters doesn’t like doing what all the other girls do. She wants to be a scientist and not marry a boy when she was only seventeen. She loved girls and wanted to marry a women. She was different and she liked being unique instead of all the other girls, pretending to be objects boys look at for pleasure.

“There” is a interesting book written and illustrated by Marie- Louise Fitzpatrick. It’s about a little kid who’s very curious about the world, wondering about everything and questions “There”. “There” is referring to the future and what it holds, growing up and understanding the people and things around you. The kid asks about what’s “there” like, the kids asks are blueberries blue and sunflowers yellow “there”. I liked how creative the child was and how it looked at the future. I connected to this book because as a child I was curious to and I always wanted to do and know everything. My brother would play with his toys and I would be curious about what they were so I would come over to him and destroy everything. The book “Cerulean” was all about curiosity and the main character was trying to figure out her future and questioned everything she could see.

Wangari’s Tree of Peace: A True Story from Africa was written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter. Wangari was a girl who lived in kenya. She helped her mom and planted trees. Wangari was very good in school and got a scholarship in america. She was schooled for six more years then came back to Kenya. She saw how plain the land had become. There were no trees, no plants, no greenery. So she decided to plant her own trees. She planted nine trees and then the woman of Kenya joined in. They all planted tree and Kenya became green like it once was. At school we watched a video were lots of young girls got the opportunity to go to highschool and university. Oprah took the girls to the school and interview them on why they should go to her school, some of them had really sad back stories. I like the illustrations in the book and how she turned the problem into an organization for planting plants.

“The Fantastic Undersea life of Jacques Cousteau” was written and illustrated by Dan Yaccarino.  Jacques Cousteau was a week boy who didn’t eat much so the doctors told him to swim to bring up his strength. He learned to love the sea and swam all the time. When he was young he got in a car accident and hurt his arm. He swam to give it strength instead of wearing a cast. He created a gadget so he could breathe underwater. He created a team and they went on boat around the world, he made a TV show and showed the world the Fantastic life under the sea. When I went to maui we went snorkeling in the sea. We saw coral, turtles, fish, and other sea plants. There was lots to explore and see like Jacques Cousteau did in the book.  Jacques Cousteau went on lots of adventures around the world and was very curious, this reminded me of the book “Cerulean”. The main character is very curious and wants to know everything about the world below her. She ends up going down and finding everything she wanted to know, but most things she found were scary.  This book is about the sea and right now there is a lot of population around the world, mostly in the sea. Animal are being hurt and dying because of all the garbage. Everyone around the world is using social media and online websites to aware everyone about this crisis.

Enemy Pie was written by Derek Munson and illustrated by Tara Calahan King. Enemy Pie is about a boy who loses his first enemy by becoming friends with him. I can connect to the book Enemy Pie in four different ways. My first connection is from my own experience. I have judged people and heard things about people who are now some of my best friends. Other people have told me things about people that can cloud my judgement about who they really are. After I got closer to them I realize they weren’t as bad as other people had told me.

My second connection is from something I’ve read from a book. The book “Best Friends Next Door” is about two girls named Emme and Hannah with different points of view. They both judge each other but then realize that they are very similar, they become best friends. Till on day one of the Hannahs old friends came to visit but Emme and Hannah’s old friend become really close. Hannah tries to connect with them and they end but all being really good friends together.

My third connection to Enemy Pie is from the really world. Most people around the world celebrate anti-bullying day. A day where everyone wears pink. The story behind it was that a boy wore pink to school and got bullied. The next day a group of boys and girls wore pink to school in support of the boy who wore pink the day before. They stood up to the bullies and after that it became a annual things. My Fourth and final connection is to media. Online I have made a ton of friends. I connect with a lot of people online and I play with my friends friends. A lot of the people I’ve made friends with online are now some of my best friends.

The Fish who could Wish was written by John Bush and illustrated by Korky Paul. In the deep blue sea, there was a fish who could wish and it would all come true. He wished for everything and he sang through the sea. He wished to fly and become a shark f. He wished for guitars and big trench coats.  He never wish to be wise though. One day in the deep blue sea the fish wished to be just like all the other fish, but one thing all the other fish couldn’t was wish. That was his last wish he ever made. The theme for this book was irony, how the fish made a foolish mistake after abusing his wishing power.  The message of this book was to think about what you wish for because the outcome may not be how you expected. I’ve read this book before when I was younger and I love the aquatic theme and how foolish the fish was in the end.

When we started of Africa non-fiction books Elena wasn’t there. She texted me late at night asking me about the homework. I told her every step and let her use my book as a guide. I answered her questions and stayed up till she totally understood what to do. She appreciated me staying up and helping her and even though it was late I did my best in explaining. She got it all done and thanked me for telling her what to do. I love helping my friends and helping them with homework since they help me so much as well. I felt great helping her and I went to bed knowing that I helped someone who needed it.