The Year My Parents Ruined My Life

Kate and her family are getting ready to move from sunny California to snowy Pennsylvania. It is the worst idea her parents have ever had. They flew out to Pennsylvania to look at houses, and every house they looked at was terrible! It was not her home in California. It was no where near her friends house, or walking distance from the beach and gramma was on the other side of the country. 

Her parents found a house, and back to California they went. Her dad stayed behind to start work at his new job, and mom and her sister went back to sell the house. They would stay in California until their house sold. The house sold quickly, and the last few days they stayed at gramma's. Josh her, hot surfer boyfriend, came by to kiss her goodbye, and Megan and Kate came up with a plan for her to move back. The plan was that she would save enough money and buy a one way ticket back to sunny California. She would live with Megan and her family, but that will take a lot of convincing of both of their parents. 

The flight to their new home, was filled with tears. When they arrived in Pennsylvania and to their new home. Dad said it was going to snow tonight, and today was Thanksgiving. The girls stayed at their new home, empty of everything and mom and dad went to find a grocery store that was open. The only one that was open was an Asian Market. So they had stir-fry for Thanksgiving meal. The Douglass family, who was their Realtor, invited them over to eat dessert. They loved all of Mrs. Douglass' cooking. 

The next day the snow had fallen and the moving truck had arrived with all their contents. Slowly the house began to fill, and become a home. The moving truck was all empty and the movers were ready to leave, but the semi was stuck from all the snow and ice. They invited the driver in for dinner, but all of a sudden they heard a loud crash! They all ran outside, to see a few cars wrecked at the corner from the snow and ice. The police had a tow-truck help free the semi, and off they went. 

The next morning, the family got a quick lesson in shoveling, they shoveling so much snow (10 inches to be exact). There was no school today because it was the first day of deer season. They thought that was weird, no school for deer season. The following day was their first day of school, they all got bundled up and off to school they went. 

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Having to read and write has really helped me as a reader. I feel like I can quickly write down what I wrote, and it helps me with my comprehension. There was a book that had a lot of details in it, so I would write down details as I read to help keep everything straight, to limit confusion. 

Tornado by Betsy Byars

The book starts off by everyone in the family having to seek shelter in the cellar. Dad was in the cornfield and had to hide in the ditch, a tornado was coming. The rest of the book takes place in the cellar, with Uncle Pete telling stories about a dog named, Tornado.

The first story he tells is how they found Tornado. Uncle Pete was a young boy, and right after a tornado hit their farm, they found a dog house. In that dog house was a dog, shaking and trembling for days. When Pete's dad said "dinner/." The dog perked up and was back to normal. He obviously knew the word, dinner. They asked around town, but no one knew of anyone missing a dog. They decided to keep the dog, but the kids were told not to grow attached.

The next story was about how Pete taught Tornado a card trick. Everyday after dinner, Pete and his brother would play cards. They would play war, but mom did not like that game, because the game always ended in a lot of fighting. Him and his brother were playing cards, and Tornado came up to him like he wanted to also play cards. He faced the cards towards Tornado, and told him to pick a card. He picked the three of hearts. Tornado refused to drop the card when Pete asked him to. Pete told his dad that Tornado knew half of a card trick, and he wanted to show him, but told him Tornado would not drop the card. His dad told him to drop the card and he did. He put the car back into the deck of cards and told Tornado to pick a card, he picked the SAME card! He was excited about this.

Another story was about how a stray cat would come to their house every night at five-thirty to eat dinner. After awhile, they decided to name the cat Five-Thirty. Tornado went to the pine trees and dug himself a hole in the shade, so he could lay in. A few days later, Five-Thirty found the hole and laid in it. This made Tornado so mad, he refused to leave until the cat got out of his hole. At five-thirty, it was time for dinner so the cat made its way to the house for dinner. Tornado dug, and dug trying to get the cats scent out of his sleeping spot. Pete's mom saw what was going on, and ordered Pete to fill the hole back in with dirt. From that day on Tornado refused to even look at Five-Thirty and never went back to the pine trees to lay down again. 

One day Pete and his dad went to town and Tornado was in the back of the truck. They came out of the store and there was a girl screaming "It's Buddy! It's Buddy!" Buddy turned out to be their Tornado. Pete was shocked, so shocked he couldn't move. He didn't know what to do or say. His dad couldn't do much, because Tornado was theirs. A few days later, Tornado found their way back to the farm! He was so excited! They never could find their owners, because the family never left them their name. They had Tornado for seven more years.

The book was super cute and sweet. It tells the story of man's best friend. I never thought by reading the title, that the book was going to be about a boy and his dog. I would recommend this book to people who love animals.