Ethan

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt Ethan Sager September 2010

__The Wednesday Wars__  by Gary D. Schmidt was not one of my favorite books to read. The theme of this book is that someone can seem to be angry but in this case Mrs. Baker seemed to be angry with Hollings but she was really upset that her husband was fighting in the Viet Nam War. “That’s when I knew that she hated me. This look came over her face like the sun had winked out and was not going to shine again until next June.” The book takes place in 1967, during the Viet Nam War. Holling lived in a small town, split down the middle with the Jews living on one side and the Catholics on the other. Holling lives in the exact center of the town and he is neither Catholic nor Jewish, making him different from everyone else. He had to stay behind at school when all of his classmates went to CCD or Hebrew School. I would give this book three out of five stars. I didn’t care for the way Holling was always complaining about the same things. It seemed very repetitive to me. I think people who are interested in the Viet Nam War might be interested in this book as well as 13 to 14 year old students. []  Heart of a Champion by Carl Deuker Ethan Sager September 2010

The book I chose to read this summer was __Heart of a Champion__  by Carl Deuker. This is an exciting action novel with a lot of baseball. The main theme of the book is that one needs to be one’s own person and not always follow the crowd. Sometimes it can get you into trouble that might affect your future. “And I think that sun should be shining on the ball field, and on Jimmy and on my father and on me.” Jimmy, and Seth’s father should still be alive. This book was a very interesting read. The author keeps you hooked throughout the novel. You want to keep reading so that you can find out what happens to the team and to Jimmy. The book takes place in Redwood, California in the current time. The setting is not important to the novel, it could take place anywhere there are kids and baseball. I think this book was memorable because I won’t make those kinds of bad decisions. I was surprised at the end of the book when Jimmy was at a party and drove home and crashed into a tree because he was drunk. The author really made the characters talk to other characters like real people would. The characters were normal, just like the kids I know. Some of the characters learned from their mistakes while other characters did not. I really identified with Seth because he was dedicated to becoming a great baseball player and I want to be a baseball player, too. I would give this book five stars out of five. You really get hooked and don’t want to put it down. I think middle and high school boys would enjoy this book, especially those who like sports. The book is similar to <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">__Heat__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Mike Lupica, which I also really enjoyed. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[] <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> __Crash__ By Jerry Spinelli Ethan Sager



__Crash__ by Jerry Spinelli is a story of a boy named John Coogan aka Crash. This is a sports book, mainly about football. Crash is a typical jock; he’s popular with the boys and gets girls. Crash’s family life is not good; there are a lot of problems in his home. As the story progresses, Crash becomes further and further from his friends. The story takes place in a small town cul-de-sac in Pennsylvania. Some of the story takes place in a local arcade. Crash’s problem is with his family. His great-grandfather moves in with them and has a stroke. Crash’s parents spend a lot of time working and don’t spend time with Crash. I would give this novel a rating of four out of five stars. It was an enjoyable book to read because it is about sports and I enjoy reading books about all sports. I liked how Jerry Spinelli put the setting of the book in Pennsylvania because that is where he is from.

[]  <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> __The Hunger Games__

By Suzanne Collins

In the book __The Hunger Games__ by Suzanne Collins the theme is about danger and survival. The genre of the Hunger Games is science fiction. The main character is Katniss and the book is about how Katniss lives in a messed up community. She lives in the worst of all the twelve distracts and find a way to supply food to her mom and her sister Brim. The book takes place in North America after a war. After the war a Capital was made to rule over the once thirteen distracts now twelve. The setting did not make an impact on the story because they don’t talk about the location a lot. The setting made the book more exciting because there is different distracts doing something different. The book taught me that not all countries are perfect. In the book the problem is that the capital made it so that every distract has to give a boy and a girl for a fight to the death. I would give this book five stars because it was a great book and I could not put down the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who would think it looks interesting. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[]

By Ethan Sager  <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> Lou Gehrig - Iron Horse of Baseball By James Buckley Jr. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">

Lou Gehrig was one of the most famous athletes in the United States. Most people called him the Iron Horse of Baseball. They called him this because he never gave up and always played his hardest until June 1939 when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a serious nerve disease. July 4th, 1939, Lou Gehrig gave a speech at Yankee Stadium, although he was still ill he called himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” On June 2nd, 1941 he passed away from the effects of ALS, which later became known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Lou Gehrig was born June 19th, 1903, as Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig in Yorkville, New York on Sauerkraut Avenue. He had three other siblings, Anna, Sophie, and another boy, who died before he could be named. Anna died before Lou was born and Sophie only lived a year and a half. His mother Christina was the most important person to Lou. As a young boy, Lou liked to play games, sports and be active. He enjoyed watching the New York Giants and collected baseball cards, in other words he was just like any other boy then or now. In 1923 he began to play baseball for the Yankees. He played his first major league baseball game for them June 15th, 1923. He was subbed in for the first baseman, Wally Pipp. Three days later, Lou got his first at bat where he promptly struck out. Two years later, June 2nd, 1925 he replaced Wally Pipp as the starting first baseman for the Yankees. This was the first game in a streak of 2130 consecutive games played by Lou Gehrig a record that stood for over fifty years. Unfortunately something was wrong with him. He was weak and unable to play baseball. After seeing many specialists, he was diagnosed with ALS, the disease that would eventually kill him. On December 7h, 1939 he was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame, five years before he could have been inducted, voters waived the waiting period. The Yankees have retired his uniform number 4. Little did he know that less than two years later he would die from the disease. This biography was a very informational book about Lou Gehrig, The Iron Horse of Baseball. I really enjoyed ready all of the different facts about this amazing baseball players. Fans of baseball or any sport would enjoy reading this book.

By: Ethan Sager  <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> []  <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">