BOOK REPORT : THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY

This book is called THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY, written by Betty G.Birney. It is about a hamster called Humphrey who is narrating his story. He is a class pet who has many adventures. The title of the book is called “The World According To Humphrey" because it is about how he sees the world as a giant place where everyone needs help. The story starts when he is brought to class by Ms.Mac, a replacement teacher. The kids love Humphrey. But, when Ms.Brisbane (the actual teacher) comes back, Humphrey thinks that Ms.Mac is taking him with her but when she explains to Ms.Brisbane how he teaches the kids responsibility, she has to keep him! Ms.Brisbane does not like rodents at all so unlike Ms Mac who used to take Humphrey home on weekends, she leaves him behind in school alone. On the first weekend, when Humphrey is left in the classroom, he is terrified but he meets the new cleaner Arron and becomes close friends with him. From then on, Arron comes every night, cleans the classroom and then eats his dinner with Humphrey and in this way, Humphrey too helps the lonely Arron by becoming his friend. Oh uh! The summer holidays are coming and so the class mothers decide that every weekend, a different student takes Humphrey home. Humphrey is excited and he has new adventures each week with the children (one of his scariest ones is when he faces Clef the dog). Thanksgiving comes and nobody can take Humphrey home. So Ms.Brisbane takes Humphrey home and Humphrey helps grumpy old Mr.Brisbane and makes him cheery and happy again. Ms.Brisbane starts liking Humphrey and then the last surprise of the year is … Ms.Mac! She comes for a visit and yes, Humphrey is excited but now knows that he is in the right place because if Ms Mac had taken him, he wouldn’t have helped the people that he did!

What I like about the book:

▪     Is the way it is funny in some parts like when Humphrey also does a spelling test and gets 73%! A hamster doing spelling tests? Seriously?! J

▪     The way Humphrey finds a way to help everybody when he goes to their houses! For example, Sayeh doesn’t speak up but Humphrey makes Sayeh and her family talk more and encourages them to start to speak to each other in English

▪     I think the lesson in this book is that whoever you are, you can do anything! Because, Humphrey always helps people in need even though he was just a hamster!

▪     I like that Betty G.Birney made this a first person book in which Humphrey is writing this all.

What I think my reader friends will find interesting are:

       1) The way a Hamster saves the day. If you were a hamster would you think that you could help so many people as well as communicate with them ?

       2) The way the story is funny and unbelievable at the same time. Like, I told you before about the spelling test.

       3) Finally, I also think that the lesson in this book is quite important because it teaches you to believe in yourself!

But there are parts in the story where I think something is missing like when Humphrey and Mrs.Brisbane like each other and get back to school from Thanksgiving, she doesn’t share with the children that she and Humphrey are friends now.  

I WOULD GIVE IT A 8 OUT OF 10 RATING! 

FIND OUT WHAT I MEAN BY READING ‘THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY!’

You can buy it here on kindle for $4.62

Book Report : MATILDA

This book is called MATILDA and it is written by Roald Dahl.

The book is about a girl named Matilda who loves reading (like me!). But her parents think her a ‘spoiled brat’ and don’t take much notice of her (not at all like mine!). Its weird though why Matilda’s parents hate her because at the age of four she read ‘Great Expectations’, by Charles Dickens! (Charles Dickens is a great English writer and ‘Great Expectations’ is one of his most popular books!). Matilda’s dad is so mean that Matilda  has to teach him a few basic lessons like she puts super glue on his hat, which was funny, and she makes his hair blonde, which was weird. When Matilda joins school, the horrible headmistress, Ms.Trunchbull, gives her even more trouble but Ms.Honey, her teacher, is amazed with Matilda for knowing so much math and for reading and writing so well!  

Ms.Honey and Matilda become close friends and every day after school, Matilda would walk to Ms.Honey’s home, and, Ms.Honey would tell Matilda about her life. One day, Matilda questions Ms.Honey about why she is so poor and so scared of The Trunchbull. Turns out that, The Trunchbull is Ms.Honey’s mean aunt who, after Ms.Honey’s dad died, had ruled over Ms.Honey in such a way that Ms.Honey was terrified to leave. Matilda then decided to teach The Trunchbull a lesson and focusing all of her attention on lifting the chalk, she writes on the board ‘AGATHA TRUNCHBULL LET MS.HONEY GO!!’ I was really happy to read this part because Matilda defeated The Trunchbull and she did it with her EYES only! Can you imagine that?! Meanwhile, Matilda’s parents are moving countries. Matilda doesn’t want to join them. Instead, she starts living with Ms.Honey! And it all ends happily ever after!

This is one of my favourite books of all times. I love to read all of Roald Dahl’s books. I really like :

• The way he makes the funny terms he uses to describe a person or situation. Even my mum laughed when she heard the term ‘spoiled brat’ and ‘digusting little blister’
• Chapter 3-The Hat And The Superglue. It is my favorite chapter in this book because it is  super funny and the way Roald Dahl describes it is just LOL!

Did you know that Roald Dahl lived in Aylesbury,UK, and in there is ‘The Story Centre’ where you can explore Roald Dahl's books and life in a fun way. Down the road from here, there is a public library that has a corner called ‘Matilda’s Corner’! I recommend to go there if you visit the UK!

I would give it a 10 out of 10 rating ! 

FIND OUT WHAT I MEAN BY READING MATILDA!

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE. 

Book Report : THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX

This book is called THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX, written by an author named Kate DiCamillo! It is about a small mouse named Despereaux and he lives in the walls of the castle with his family. But, he is different from every other mouse because he has big ears and was born with his eyes open, which, is not common for a mouse. The elderly mice thought it was a very dangerous sign. He also started reading human books and one of his favourite books had a knight and a maiden and the story was all about how the knight saves the maiden. Despereaux is destined to do human activities (in spite of being a mouse) like saving people and being brave. The plot thickens, when, sitting in the hole of the princess’ bedroom one night, he falls in love with her! Isn’t that totally bizarre? The princess sees Despereaux and touches him and he starts to feel a mix of intense happiness and love. (I learnt the word ‘intense’ from this book in the part where the author says “He felt an intense pain in the hind quarters :)). Despereaux starts to break rule by rule of the mouse community (like he talked to a human and a human touched him) and is ordered to go to the dungeon by ‘The Most Very Honored Head (Mouse) Person’. Despereaux felt desparate and betrayed when he realised that his entire family had let him down. His father beat the drum that led him to his fate, his mum just said farewell - “adios” instead of trying to save him and his brother, Furlough, delivered him to the dungeon! Deep in the dungeon, the little mouse gets caught by Gregory the jailer and to save his life Despereaux is asked to tell a story. Do you remember Despereaux’s favourite story I mentioned before in the book report? That’s the story he told! Meanwhile, upstairs in castle, the Queen dies because of an evil rat, Roscuro, who accidentally fell into her soup! After the incident of the queen dying, Roscuro wants to take revenge because of the way the Princess Pea looks at him with disgust and the way she calls him “RAT!” which makes him feel like he is a horribly, disgusting animal (which is probably true!). Beyond the walls of the castle, in a little hut is Miggery Sow (with ‘cauliflower ears’) who is tortured by her uncle and taken to the castle to be a helper. Roscuro puts his revenge in action when he plants an evil plan in Mig’s mind and Mig and Roscuro set off to imprison the princess in the dungeon. When Despereaux comes out and hears about the princess missing, he remembers the knight in the story, and goes with a spool of thread and a needle and saves the princess. In the end, in spite of what the rat, Roscuro, did to the princess, she forgives him and they become friends! And it all ends happily ever after.

What I like about this book is:

v Not only is this an adventurous story, but there are also quite a few lessons to be learnt in it:

Ø  Like it doesn’t matter who you are, you can do anything

Ø  If you have made a mistake, you should undo it when you can

Ø  I also like the way Kate DiCamillo got the idea of the princess, the mouse and the rat and the way the princess forgave the rat in the end and they all became friends (another lesson!)

v The way the author writes:

Ø  She tells the story while writing it. I like the way she speaks directly to the reader as part of the story.

Ø  She really sucks me into the story and I feel like I am witnessing it all.

Ø  I like that she has lessons in her story and now I think I might also want to write some things about lessons in my stories!!! :) 

v I also like some of the feelings she puts in like bravery, despair, perseverance and forgiveness:

Ø  Bravery – For example, Despereaux has the courage to go back to the dungeon in order to save the Princess Pea whom he loves very deeply

Ø  Despair – because of how desperate he feels when his family lets him down

Ø  Perseverance - because Despereaux never stopped trying even though he failed at first (By the way, I like the word ‘perseverance’ because it’s a long word and feels soothing to me)

Ø  Forgiveness – because even though Despereaux’s father sends him to the dungeon, he forgives him and when Despereaux saves the princess, she too forgives Roscuro the rat who captured her. I noticed that the people who had been forgiven in both parts were crying when they were forgiven.

This book has some difficult words like Perfidy and some others. So it can be difficult to understand but I also learnt some new words.

I would give it a 9 out of 10 rating because it is a very nice and emotional book. I think it is a good book that you can discuss with your friends and even if you don’t write a book report like me, you can keep it in your mind. 

FIND OUT WHAT I MEAN BY READING THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX! 

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE ( only $6 on Kindle)