How To Eat Fried Worms

Blech. I read this book in second grade and enjoyed it immensely.

Date Published: 1973
Author: Thomas Rockwell
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Age Group: 7-11 years.

Plot/Summary

A boy named Alan makes a bet with a boy named Billy - to eat worms. Risk - taker Billy has to eat fifteen worms in fifteen days. If Billy wins, he gets a hundred bucks to buy a used road bike. But worms aren't necessarily your most delectable food. So Billy, and his best friend Tom have to prepare the worms with ketchup, bread crumbs, etc. But when Billy fills his mom in on his little challenge, she turns "worms!" into "worms!" by combining them in different food and desserts. Whether it's sticking worms into jello or cooking worms in burgers, worms are what Billy must eat! But Alan and his best friend, Joe, are plotting. Waiting, and trying to make sure Billy doesn't reach his goal. Because Alan doesn't have that type of money. But Alan is knows Billy can't do it, or can he?

My Rating

I loved this book because of the funny characters. Billy is a "tough guy" who is often dared to do crazy things. When he accepts the challenge to eat worms, readers may think Billy has gone too far.


I'm just doing a review now because Christian Radio Kids didn't exist when I was in second grade!

A Saint Patrick's Day Surprise

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Like most cities ours had a celebration and streets were blocked off making it hard to get from one side of the city to another. Everyone wore green. My mother said that she wondered if most of these people knew the real story of St. Patrick? 

She's told me the story before but I listened again today as she told it while we were stuck in the St. Patrick's Day traffic.

After dinner my dad took me to the grocery store down the street. We bought chips and candy bars. While walking through the parking lot, I saw this.

At first I thought it was an old can than had been run over and the red juice spilled out, or an oddly-shaped napkin. But when I took a closer look, I found that it was indeed not an old can, or a dirty napkin. And that the red stuff around it was NOT juice. This, my friend is road kill. I think it's a mouse, but I'm not really sure. I'm not used to seeing roadkill. Once, while riding in our car with my parents I saw this deer that was hit and laying on the side of the road. It's legs were going the wrong way, and its eyes were wide open.

Oh, and another time I saw a flat groundhog on the road, once again, while riding in the car with my parents.

Again, I'm asking, is this a mouse? It's body is really long. It has a tail, but it's basically old flesh and bones. I also saw tire marks on it.

When I was in second grade, my friend told me about these kits you can get. They contain animal bones, like mouse bones, and you can play around with them. That sounds horrible, but it's probably not as bad as it seems.

 

Happy scouting!

PIE Book Review

Date Published: October 2011


Title: PIE


Author: Sarah Weeks


Genre: Fiction






Plot


1941, in Ipswitch, Pennsylvania, a woman named Polly with a gift for making pies opens up her own pie shop. As soon as she opened up, she was almost instantly famous. Her pies were so good, people from all over the world came to try them. In 1945, her niece Alice Anderson was born. Alice helped Polly bake pies, and spent a lot of time with her in the pie shop, which was also Polly's home. Alice loved her aunt very much. So when in 1955 her aunt Polly died unexpectedly, Alice was devastated. Especially after she hears that her aunt Polly left her world-famous piecrust recipe to her enormously fat and mean cat, Lardo, who was to be left in the care of Alice.


Now, with Polly gone, the whole town of Ipswitch is rushing to bake pies, hoping that theirs will win the Blueberry Award, including Alice's jealous mother Ruth. But the Alice's mother's chocolate cream pie is stolen, the pie shop is ransacked, and Lardo goes missing! Ten-year-old Alice and her friend Charlie must try to find Polly's pie recipe, and figure out what in the world is going on!


Main Characters


Alice Anderson: A clever and imaginative young girl with a gift for songwriting, and a love for peach pie. When her aunt Polly dies, Alice feels like she will never be happy again. Alice thinks that everything she does disappoints her mother. She is best friends with Charlie.


Charlie Erdling: Alice's tall, red-headed best friend. Charlie is a delivery boy. He helps Alice find ways to get over her aunt Polly, and he assists her on her case. Charlie is shown to be a horrible speller when Alice reads his shopping list for his deliveries. Throughout the story he frequently says; "Good Gravy!" when something excites him.


Polly Portman: Polly was The Pie Queen of Ipswitch. She owns a pie shop, and has a wonderful gift for making pies. She gives away pies for free, stating that the happiness and pleasure she gets from making the pies is enough. She loves her cat named Lardo, she won thirteen Blueberry awards in a row. When Polly died, the whole town of Ipswitch was devastated. It is not clear why she died.


Ruth Anderson: Alice's jealous mother who has a beautiful voice and is terrible at making pies. She envies her sister Polly Portman greatly. Ruth is constantly annoyed with Alice, and thinks that Alice loved Polly more than she loves her. She does not like Lardo.


George Anderson: Alice's newspaper-addict father. He is allergic to Lardo, always sneezing when he walks (or rather drags) by. He is always listening to his wife's complaining, and he is constantly saying to Alice; "Don't sass your mother." Although, George does agrees with Alice on a lot of subjects, such as her mother's poor baking skills.


Lardo: The white, obese, and mean cat given to Alice in Polly Portman's will. He doesn't like anybody but Polly, and will screech at them if they get too close. When he walks, his belly drags on the ground, slowing him down a bit. When Polly first found him, he was a hungry, dirty stray. After a diet of cream and other "unhealthy" baking ingredients, Lardo became fat. At first Polly thought he was a tabby cat, but after risking her life to wash him, she soon realized he was white, and named him after the only white thing a pie-maker could think of. Lard. 


Lard is pig fat.




Conclusion


I LOVED this book. YOU HAVE TO READ THIS! This book was a mixture of drama, mystery, and just plain old humor! I'd recommend this book for kids aged 9-12. (Just so you know, I'm eleven.)


 

Birthday

March 16th, 2012

Today is my Birthday!  Yay!!!  This looks like a cake but it's really 30 cup cakes that my mother had made and she brought it up to my school for my class. The cupcakes were so good !!


Here is a puzzle for you. There will still be an end-of-the-month puzzle.

8:40 PM, March 16th 2012

I just went to a hibachi restaurant with my family! I loved it! I was born on a Friday and at 8:48 PM.



At the restaurant, a skilled chef performed a show for us while cooking our food. At the end they sang happy birthday to me and they gave me ice cream. Me and my family took a picture. It was fun.


8:48 PM, March 16th 2012

I'M ELEVEN YEARS OLD!

Eleven

It's almost my birthday, and here's what I want from my parents.


Priya's Birthday List

• Marbles 

• Pie, by Sarah Weeks

• Eragon, by Christopher Paolini

• Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke

• The Secret Of Shadow Ranch App

(Oh, and I forgot to mention to you that the app is 5 bucks for the iPad.) 

There is actually a book called Eleven by Lauren Myracle. It's about a girl named Winnie who just turned eleven and is going to sixth grade. I'd recommend it for kids 9-13.

I wish I had that kitten.

Almond Joy

In my Halloween Candy bowl, there is more Reese's and Snickers than any other candy. I'm allergic to peanuts.


Now, I actually dislike REAL candy. Not chocolate, that's different. I mean confectionery. Like Jolly Ranchers, and WarHeads. BLECH!


One day, I was going through my candy when I saw a mini Almond Joy bar. I looked at the wrapper. It said that it was processed NEAR peanuts, but they weren't an ingredient. I asked my mom, who said it was okay, and I asked my dad, who didn't even hesitate to say yes, and "get me a coke."


I don't usually like almonds in my chocolate, but this was really tasty! I loved the chocolaty almonds and the coconut insides!

Apple Juice And Pee..Oops I Mean Apple Juice And Urine

Also, I have a question.


Q: Why does pee look like apple juice?

A: If it does, it probably means you aren't drinking enough water. All pee is yellow, but if it is dark yellow or brown there may be a sign of blood or infection in the urine.


Urine's color comes from something called 
Urobilin. 


Here's how it works.  Click here.

Left Over Pizza

 Yesterday we ordered pizza . It was good. But today my mom was sick so she just gave me leftover pizza for lunch. 

Mom, I HATE LEFTOVER PIZZA! The cheese taste weird, like card board with stale cheese and the bread is all limp and soggy. Just GROSS!

My New Nancy Drew Books.

In this video I will show you all of my NEW Nancy Drew Mystery Stories.  I love Nancy Drew because she is such a strong role model because she is not afraid of anything.  She's a girl detective/ amateur sleuth. On each cover Nancy Drew's appearance changes.

I forgot to mention another book I had already read in the collection until the end of the video. OH! And if I sound kind of funny in the video it's because of my bite plate. Refer to my old post for more info on the bite plate. Just go to the search box and type in "bite plate" or "dentist."

 

One day, when I was on the computer in my room, my dad came in a looked at  some of my new Nancy Drew books. He took one look at one book's inside cover and said that either "Marissa" was very neat and didn't bend the books, or she had never read them in the first place. 

You see, these books are from a second hand bookstore and it seems the books were given to "Marissa" from her grandparents (I know because in each book's inside cover there is a message from the grandmother.) She signs it, "Grandma and Pap Pap".  I think that they first started giving her the books in 2002 because that's what the grandmother dates them from.  But the last book in the collection does not have a message from the grandparents and isn't dated.  I wonder why.  What would Nancy Drew do to figure this out.  It's a mystery.

Just Wondering

I found this picture online and wondered if it would scare you. Scroll down to see it.


No, further.






Further.





Your getting warmer.







Your hot!



This is how my brother used to glare at us when me made fun of him as a baby.


Just a little further.










Ta-da!






This freaked me out when I first saw it. Look at his eyes! He looks so... weird.

Nancy Drew Hits The Toilet Paper

If you like the Nancy Drew PC Games, then you've probably heard of the new game called Tomb Of The Lost Queen. I think it sounds interesting. I really do!




I can't wait until May 8. Even though I can.

March 13th, 2012


I found this screenshot of the game on HER Interactive's Nancy Drew Facebook page.

Book Review: The Secret of Shadow Ranch

1965 Revision


Title: The Secret of Shadow Ranch

Author: Carolyn Keene

Date Released: 1931, Revised in 1965

Type of Book: Fiction

Age Group: Everyone

Plot/Summary

After getting invited to a ranch in Phoenix, Arizona owned by Bess and George's aunt and uncle, Nancy yet again stumbles upon another mystery when she learns about the terrible and mysterious accidents that have been happening at the ranch. Each event happened right after a mystical, phantom horse appears at night. Not only that, but Bess and George's fourteen-year-old cousin, Alice, who is visiting as well, has a missing father, whom she hopes will be found by Nancy. 

Nancy suspects that the both incidents have to do with Dirk Valentine, a romantic outlaw that was in love with the sheriff's daughter Frances Humber, and his treasure. Now, Nancy must figure out who or what is behind the phantom scheme and the disasters, along with the disappearance of Alice’s father.

Main Characters

Nancy Drew: Nancy Drew is a smart and clever 18-year-old amateur detective. She is fearless and constantly getting herself (and sometimes others around her) into a pickle.

Elizabeth "Bess" Marvin: The funny, smart, and food-loving friend of Nancy. She and her cousin George often apprentice for Nancy with her mysteries.

Georgina "George" Fayne: Bess's clever and smart cousin, Nancy's friend. She, just like Bess, sometimes help Nancy with her cases.

Alice Regor: Bess and George's fourteen-year-old cousin whose father went into a bank for some papers and never came back out. She asks Nancy to look for her father who loves to draw pastels for a hobby.

Bet Rawley: Bess and George's worried aunt, the wife of Ed Rawley.

Ed Rawley: Bess and George's uncle whose ranch is failing from damage. He is Bet Rawley's husband.

Dave Gregory: A cowboy working at the ranch. He is snotty to Nancy.

Shorty: A ranch cowboy. He seems to appear right after an accident occurs.

"Minor" Important Characters


Apache Chief: The black German Shepard ranch dog who followed the phantom horse and didn't come back until Nancy and her friends found him alive in the mountains.

Mrs. Thurmond: The ranch's cook. At the time she is scared silly, and threatens to leave unless Nancy can prove the phantom horse is a real horse.

Bud: A ranch cowboy who can play the guitar.

Tex: A nice ranch cowboy.

Mary: The young Native-American shop owner of an antique store in Tumbleweed, a little town near the ranch. 

Phantom Horse: A ghostly horse that appears before something bad happens. The creature was said to be Dirk Valentine's horse, which came to a strange whistle.

Conclusion

The Secret of Shadow Ranch was a fast-moving and short novel. I liked the western theme. Okay for all ages. I give it 5/5 stars.

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess

MARCH 2nd

It's Dr. Suess's birthday! We didn't do anything special today. Although, I have always wanted to eat green eggs and ham.

Are you going to see Dr. Suess's: The Lorax?

I'm not sure if I will, but it sure looks interesting!

Today, we had something strange happen.


There seems to be something wrong with our electricity, because about once every month, a giant noise; "BLEHH!", blows through the house from the living room. (I think.)

My room is the at the end of the hall, right above the living room. Whenever something happens down there, my floor buzzes. Sometimes it's like an earthquake in my room. So you can imagine what happens when a huge noise is born. Just a few minutes ago it happened, and here I was, typing this to you. When it did, the ground buzzed, and my feet were vibrated.