A Summer Secret by Kathleen Fuller

I was given a copy of A Summer Secret (The Mysteries of Middlefield Series) from BookSneeze in exchange for writing a review. First of all I am going to say that this is a young adult book and is an easier reading level.

The book starts out with thirteen-year-old Mary Beth, who is the main character. She is Amish and lives in a small Amish community with her family. She spends her time in a neighboring abandoned barn, where she gets away from her chores and taking care of siblings. After a while she finds a couple things in the barn that she did not leave. In-between her chores she finds time to look for more clues about the mystery.

After a few chapters she meets Sawyer, who is a run away who has been living in the barn. Through out the story Mary Beth and her brother, Johnny, make friends with Sawyer and try to figure out what they should do.

A Summer Secret is great for a 12-14 year-old, adults might like it, but it is not written for an older audience. I felt like it just barely kept you hanging on. It didn’t draw you in as much that you couldn’t stop reading it, but just enough to keep reading. It is a mystery but some things were really easy to guess and not many things surprised you, I really like suspenseful books and this wasn’t one of them. Overall this book was fine as a very light read but it would definitely not be one of my favorites.

Surfer Girls

"You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf". -Jon Kabat-Zinn

 
So... that's what we did! After seeing Soul Surfer my number one goal was to learn to surf. Not just to ride the waves in on my knees, ( I had already done that), but to stand up on the board and ride the wave in. Now last Saturday was not a good day for surfers, most of them anyways... but for us kids, it was perfect...


Claire even went out...



 



Maddie and Jolie riding " Tandem"...

Here is a video my dad made...



Catching Up- July

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything so here's what we've been up to...

 We've been to the beach quite a few times....

Celebrated the 4th of July...

Went to the Midnight Premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2...

My dad turned forty four and I got to make the cake...

And we just got back from Utah.... More to come about that later.

I also got to go to girl’s camp in July and it was a lot of fun. If you haven't already seen it, scroll down I have a post about that.

Girl's Camp 2011

This year I got to go to Girl's Camp at Camp Josepho. It was a lot of fun and I made a bunch of new friends. It was from July 5- July 9 and at first I was a little nervous about going but after I got there I love it. This year’s theme was W.O.W, Warriors of Worth. Here are some pictures from the week...

 My bunk bed….

On our three mile hike we saw a rattle snake…

An old World War II bunker we hiked to…

My friends and I found this creepy old car just close to camp…

 

A cool  old tree…

At the Rifle Range…

 

 

 

During the week we also swam at the pool, went on another hike, cooked, did archery, and just hung out. I had so much fun and on the last night we had a testimony meeting. I can't wait for next year.

Another Slice of Lemon Meringue?

Everyone has heard of Pride and Prejudice, but have you heard about Pies & Prejudice (Mother Daughter Book Club)by Heather Vogel Frederick. My mom chose this book for me, and I had my doubts at first, but upon finishing it, I really liked it. I found out after I finished it that there was a first, second, and third book in the series before this, but I could figure out what was happening in the book without reading the other 3.

Pies and Prejudice is about a group of teenagers who participate in a mother daughter book club. But when Emma, a girl in the book club, finds out she is participating in a house swap and is moving to England, everyone thinks this is the end of their book club. But no worries, they figure out a way to continue their book club even when they are over 1,000 miles away. The girls plan to bring Emma home for Spring Break, and that's how their pie business Pies and Prejudice begins.

This book was really cute. I thought it was well written and drew you in, making you want to find out what happens next. I love the title of the book too. After finishing this book I wanted to start my own mother daughter book club. Luckily my teacher already does mother-daughter teas for my class and she thought it was a great idea.

A great to read with this would be Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland. Both of these are quick reads (I finished mine within 3 days), but great ones at that.

Rereading a 'Classic'

Some may argue, but I think of Harry Potter as a classic. When people ask you what your favorite book is you don't have to say Harry Potter because everyone knows it has to be one of your favorites. Recently, I got a copy of the first book of Harry Potter, so having not read it for at least four years, I decided to reread it. Upon finishing the first, I continued to reread the rest of the series and I must admit, I forgot how great these books are.

So here is my attempt at a quick summary of the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerors Stone, but with books like these almost everyone knows what they are about...

Harry Potter is just an average eleven year old boy, well almost. He lives with his aunt and uncle and has a lightning shaped scar on his forehead which supposedly came from when his parents died in a car crash. Sometimes Harry can make stuff happen without even trying to though. And on his eleventh birthday he finds out that he is a wizard and that his parents were killed by the most famous dark wizard of all who tried to kill him and failed. Soon after that Harry goes to Hogwarts, a school for witchraft and wizarding, where he is "famous". He is swept into the world of Quidditch, magic, and so much more.

Anyways, these books are great and if anyone has not read these, I highly suggest you do, and trust me, the books are so much better than the movies. Speaking of movies, I am so excited for to see the Deathly Hallows part 2. I am pretty sure it comes out in July 15.