Book Review: The Great Wall of Lucy Wu

Date finished: Aug 20, 2017
Pages read: 312
Rating: 9 out of 10

Today I finished a book called "The Great Wall of Lucy Wu". It was an awesome book. the main reason why I give it a 9 out of 10 star rating is because some things (and by "things" I mean food) in the book is/are gross. Anyway, the book is about a Chinese American girl named Lucy Wu who has a sister (Regina) and a brother (Kenny), and when her sister finally moves out of her room forever because of college, Lucy is sooo exited that she is finally going to get her room to herself forever. But, when a Chinese relative named Yi Po comes to see her sister's family, Lucy is NOT happy. Not only does her room disappear, but her entire year collapses. Lucy encounters many things, including decisions between basketball and Chinese school, a little piece of Regina, and especially Sloane Conners. Lucy's year is ruined. Or is it? Read this totally AWESOME book to find out what happens to Lucy's year, and Lucy.🏀

This is the food we ate at the book club meeting: spring rolls, chocolate graham crackers, tea, potstickers, general tsos tofu, white rice, and glazed lemon cupcakes. Yum! 🍘🍵🍚

Book Review: Queen of Likes

Date finished:  Aug. 7, 2017
Pages read: 255 pages
Rating: 10 out of 10

Today I finished a book called Queen of Likes. It was really, REALLY good. I would give it a 10 star rating. I got the book from PJ Library. It was a PJ Our Way selection. Anyway, it was about a teenage girl in 7th grade, and her name is Karma Cooper. She is OBSESSED with her phone, and would do almost anything to keep it from getting it taken away, even lie. So when her mom finds out that she has broken the rules again and goes on her phone during a bar mitzvah, she loses her privilege of being on it at all: so her mom takes her phone away. For a while, she thinks she will die without her phone. She even borrows her best friend, Ella's, phone. But slowly Karma realizes that she can live without her phone. She takes a photography class, and then she gets very interested in photography. She snaps about everything she sees. One day, Karma gets caught using Ella's phone. Ella's phone gets locked away, until her parents sign a note saying that she can have her phone back (and Ella's mom, being a very strict person, gets very mad at Ella), Karma gets in school suspension, and Ella becomes so mad at Karma that she isn't her friend anymore. Karma gets so upset, she then feels as if she were the thing in life that everybody hated and avoided. But she soon finds out many more things, and she gets to talk to Ella, too. What will happen to Karma? What will happen to her friendship with Ella? Will Karma get her phone back? Read the book to find out!

A Poem by ZoeCreates: Colors and Lights

Colors and Lights, not different, nor the same. 🔦
They are splendid, scattered, and also bright.💡
They can be twisted, shaped, stretched, and flat;💥
Long, small, large, but there's no doubt about that.💚
Colors come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. 🔶
Big and little, lights are the same.🔵
Lights are beautiful, and who likes them? Kitty.🚥
Colors are dreamy, and also pretty.🚦
Melt them if you want to; colors will spread.🔺
Lights will burn, and set on fire if they melt.💛
Lights are very, very bright.💜
Colors on the other hand...they are just tight.🖍
You can look at them, smell them, touch them, those colors and lights.👛
But whatever you do, don't eat them... they are not meant for that.✏
Colors and Lights are awesome indeed,🖋
Yes, what or whoever gave them to us did a very good deed.🕯

Road Trip North

This summer my family and I went on a road trip up to New Hampshire. It was a long drive! We went up there to see my Grandfather for his 85th birthday, he had a Pig Roast. Here are some pictures of the trip, and what and where they are:

This is a picture of some of my cousins, my Grandfather, and my siblings and I in New Hampshire after the roast (I was horrified by the pig being roasted, so I just tried to stay away from it).   Their (my cousins') names are: Emma, Linnea, Sierra, and Max. 👫👭👬👴👧👦

This is me having dessert on my Grandfather's deck in New Hampshire. I am looking out at the mountains. Up north, there sure are some pretty views! ⛰🍨🍧🍦🏔🗻🌄

Here I am picking blueberries with my Aunt Kristin in New Hampshire. My Grandfather has a farm, he grows flowers, vegetables, blueberries, and all kinds of things. I have waffles, not pancakes (once or twice I've had pancakes), so I decided to have some blueberry pancakes for breakfast there. They turned out perfect, and yummy! 🥞🔵🌳

Stephanie and Veronica are some of my cousins, too. Here we are at their Grandma and Grandpa's house in New Hampshire. They were at the roast, too! We usually have a roast every 5 years. But this year I made new friends, and now I'm even greater friends with Veronica and Stephanie, so I can't wait a whole other 5 years! That's way too long, let alone one year when you are missing and far away from friends.👧👯👭👩🚺🚺🏠

This is my siblings and I at Lake Winnipesaukee. It is the largest lake in New Hampshire. I went Kayaking for the first time there. Did you know that  there is lots of islands in Lake Winnipesaukee, and on some of the islands there are sleep-away camps? I surely didn't! There are different places in Lake Winnipesaukee, I was in Meridith. So if you go to New Hampshire and are thinking of going to a lake or pond, Lake Winnipesaukee is a good choice!🌊🛥🛶🤽🏊

 When we headed back south on our trip, we stopped in NYC to  stay with one of my mom's friends, Rachel. She has a son named Liam. We stayed there for about two days. We went to Central Park and saw the Statue of Liberty from far away. It was really fun!👦🗽🌇🏘🏢👩

This is my family and I in the very busy part of NYC. It looks really cool, and it is really cool, but to me it is really, really overwhelming. There too many people, so many things, over 100 buildings squished together, cars, signs, flashing lights, and lots of other crazy things. I decided that I liked it way better in quiet Brooklyn. 🏗🏛🏢🏡

Our Road Trip North was fun. Even though it was a long drive, but it was worth it in the end. Comment and tell me about a road trip you went on, or your opinion on this post. Thanks!🙋

Book review: Papa's Promise

I finished a book called Papa's Promise.
I'm not used to reading historical fiction, so this book was a little different from other books I've read.
I was satisfied at the end of the story, because it isn't so simple but it isn't confusing or hard either.

The characters were believable throughout the whole story, except for when mama forgot to take her pouch out of her clothes before hanging them to dry because she was so serious and cautious and unforgetful about everything.

I definitely got pictures in my head as I read.  Some pictures I remember are:  Mama, Sarah, and Esther boarding the boat to America, Sarah getting a chalk mark and getting double checked by another doctor; lots of Jell-o, Esther's friends, Esther jump roping with Gisela, and Mama, Sarah, and Esther finally getting to see Papa and stay with him in America forever.  But really, the whole story was a flowing picture as I read.

I did learn some interesting things.  I learned that when the Russians decided to travel to America it wasn't at all a so-called "easy" process.  I mean, they had to ride by horse wagon and then stop at a place, then keep going, stop again, encounter soldiers, get on a  train, get inspected by doctors, get on a boat, get inspected again by doctors, stay on Ellis Island for awhile, and finally get to America.  Huge and extremely hard process!

The whole story moved at a good pace except for when Papa was in America for two years while the rest of his family was in Russia.  Nothing really happens in those two years until they leave.

When Esther told her cousin Karina and her friend Baka that she and Mama and Sarah were traveling to America to live with her papa, I was thinking, "Why would you do that, Esther!?".

The main reason why I like this book is because Papa kept his promise, even though it was a long time til he could truly fulfill it.  I also liked it because I think I can relate to Esther because I'm a big sister, too, and I do almost all the work while my little sister lounges around.  Mama was a really strong woman because she kept note of everything, she was careful, and she planned far ahead.

I would recommend this book because it tells you a lot about Hebrew/Russian history, and also because it is a good book, and who doesn't love a good book?

The Beach: A Poem by ZoeCreates

 I love the beach. Cool breeze, crashing waves, pretty textured seashells, squishy sand, crabs. Water! You can dig shapes in the sand, or just dig a deep hole you can have a spa in, and, if you dig deep enough, water appears! As you explore the sand and crashing ocean waves, you may hear a seagull, or a child that plays. Sometimes you find shark teeth with luck, and sometimes the sand can look like muck. Seagulls fly in the sky high, "C'mon, C'mon!" they say. But when we leave, that's okay, we will go to the beach another day; We will collect shells, ride the waves, and walk among all the bays. Squish our feet in the wet sand, dig by hand, yes, we will do all of that when we go to the beach again.

                                                             🏖🐚🦀🌊🤽🐦̼̼̼🐠🐟

Shopping with Grammy

On Thursday I shopped with my Grammy. It was super fun, but after I was soooooooooo tired. First, me, my mom, sister, brother, my aunt Nancy and Grammy shopped at Target. We got rompers, dresses, and tons of other cool clothes. We tried almost all of them on, but we only got our favorites.
Then we went shopping at TJ Maxx. I got another dress there, and some notebooks and pens, too. My brother and sister got clothes. After that, we were hungry! It was after 12:00, so we went to Chipotle for lunch. We filled our stomachs full. We went shopping again at Marshalls after we had lunch. There we got shoes. My brother, sister, and I got sandals, and only sandals. It was almost time to leave after that, but before saying goodbye we went to Whit's Frozen Custard and got ice cream. while we were eating it, Grammy gave us presents. They were so awesome! We got a sketch pad, books on how to draw things, books, an arts and crafts kit, and many more things. We had to go after that, but we had a great time.
I was very grateful.  I also got to hear some stories about when my Grammy and aunt were little.  They shared a room and my Grammy got mad and taped the room down the middle!  Me and my sister did that once, but it didn't work out well, so we took the tape off.
 Shopping was fun. Especially with my Grammy and Aunt Nancy. I hope to do it again.
Shopping Rocks!

(My Grammy doesn't like having her picture taken).