Read this summer - and get rewarded!

Hey everyone! I recently was looking at Green Apple Bookstore's website and guess what - they're offering a reward for kids who read twenty books this summer!

Their blog (http://thegreenapplecore.blogspot.com/2010/07/hey-kids-read-and-be-rewarded.html) have more info.

Start reading, get rewarded, and have fun!

What Famous Author Do You Write Like?

The web-based "I Write Like" game compares your writing to famous authors. Find out who you — supposedly — write like. Created by Coding Robots and the journal-writing software Memoires, the program measures your prose against famous writers through a set of algorithms.

You just cut and paste a sample piece of text to play the game. According to the program, The Hillwood Herald staff writes like — oh, horror — Stephen King and local magazine The Believer, which is associated with 826 Valencia, a writing center for kids and a pirate store.

Who do you write like? Share your reactions in the comments section.

Fifty Years On: To Kill a Mockingbird

The author Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird fifty years ago, and the book -- now a classic -- was published on July 11, 1960. The book, still read by Hillwood upper-graders, became a bestseller and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1962.

On NPR, you can read more about the book's history. You can also read excerpts from the novel, as well as watch movie clips from the 1962 Academy Award-winning film based on the book.

Do you have a story about or a review highlighting To Kill a Mockingbird? How does the story strike people today, all these years later? What does it mean to you? Did your parents read the book when they were kids?

Post a comment or write a post.

Review of the book The Pigman

The Pigman is a story about a boy name John and a girl named Lorraine. John and Lorraine were once with other teenagers named Norton and Dennis and make prank calls. But the game was to call a random person and try to keep the person on the phone the longest. When it was Lorraine's turn, she picked Angelo Pignati. When she was on the phone with Angelo Pignati, she said she was from a fundraiser called the L&J fund. When they came to Mr. Pignati's house they say they came to collect money from the L&J fund. Mr. Pignati welcomed them in and wrote a check for 10 dollars. When they left Lorraine felt sorry for stealing from the old man. Lorraine and John started coming back to Mr. Pignati's house and spent more time with him. The reason Mr. Pignati is called the Pigman because his wife collected fake pigs.

I didn't really like this book, but it was okay. I would recommend it to people from the ages ten to fourteen or if you like pigs.

You can read this story on Google Books. Google Books is a website that allows you to read books. It is useful for students in high school or college because you can find different books for reading and research, especially when getting information for footnotes.