( 6 reviews )
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( 2 of 2 found this review helpful ) Posted: May 13 2007
Quake! by Gail Langer Karwoski was one of the worst books I have ever read! It is really cheesy and I would recommend it for grades 1-3 more than 4-6. I had to read this for middle school summer reading. It was so bad that I wouldn't read it by choice at any moment. I didn't want to give it 1 star because I liked a couple parts of it. It starts off with a boy named Jacob Kauffman. The earthquake happens within the first thirty pages of the book. I would think that it should happen in the middle of the book and explain more of Jacob's life before than the disaster. Jacob finds a dog he names Quake after the earthquake, which I thought was really dumb. He finds his family at the end, they were seperated throughout the book. I didn't like it, and I would only recommend it to a 6-year-old.
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Posted: Mar 31 2007
The plot of this story is a earthquake.When Jacob and his family are asleep the dog his Uncle Avi gave him woke them.Jacobs dad told him to give it back.When Jacob was returning the the dog the quake struck.Afterthe quake there was buildings fallen down and building blocks on the sidewalk.Fires where every where,water pipes wheredown and people where trapped under buildings.With no no water the army had to blow blow up buildings tostop the fire ,after the fire stoped ,the next day it rained.
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( 3 of 5 found this review helpful ) Posted: Aug 24 2006
With stereotypical characters and obvious plotting, QUAKE! seems to warrant a lower score, but, in fact, this is a historical fiction novel that works well for the lower-level reader. I don't think this really belongs on the 6-8 grade Sunshine State reading list at all, but only on the 3-5 grade list. Full of ethnic working-class characters in olde time San Francisco, QUAKE! tells the story of a boy (and his newly acquired stray dog) as he does what he can to survive and find his family after the devastating disaster of a century ago. Necessarily fast-paced to keep the interest of the younger reader, the story does rely extremely heavily on interspersing actual facts and characters of the disaster to maintain its integrity. My 8th grade students would probaby be interested in this story more for the historical perspective than the story being told. My daughter (3rd grade) enjoyed it thoroughly. I would give this 3.5 stars if the Amazon rating system allowed half-points.
