Catiereader is back in --with some good/bad news. I did read the second Mysterious Benedict Society book, however my mother believes that I should write about a different book. So, here I am explaining a totally new book that its genre is -- drum roll please -- NON-FICTION !!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Thank you! Thank you!) I never read non-fiction books! Anyone who really knows me can tell you that I, Catherine Dey Shultz absolutely loathe the genre non-fiction. So boring and not at all fun, I mean who likes books without a bit of magic or exciting adventure? (Lord spare me from those boorish books) You are probably are wondering if I'm just going to rant and rave about non-fiction (uggg) or if I'm actually going to tell you what the book I'm talking about is ... soooooooooooo, here I go. It's called A Girl Named Faithful Plum by Richard Bernstein and it is probably one of the very few non-fiction books that I have really enjoyed. (and finished completely on my very own :)

  A Girl Named Faithful Plum is about a very famous Chinese dancer and her struggles to fit in with the others at the most important, prestigious dance school in all of China. After all Li Zhongmei came from nothing, literally. She came from a very, very small place, so small that no one had ever heard of it and her family was very poor. So poor that all they got for their birthdays (which by the way mine is very soon, like, only 4 days away:) was one hard boiled egg and everyone else that was an amazing gift. Anyway she heard about this dance school in Beijing that was holding open auditions for anyone who wanted to participate in this dance school. (she was a very good dancer) So she begs her parents to let her go and when she did go, she realized that she was only 1 girl out of 6000 girls who was auditioning to be one of the lucky 12 and she didn't even have any "connections" to big or famous people. Plus, the dance academy was only accepting 7 girls because they had already chosen the other 5 girls. But then she goes and passes the first stage and the second stage and so on and then she manages to get picked to be one of the lucky 7 !!!

  The whole year she struggles to fit in. Her mean teacher only picks on her and never lets her dance, ever!! Just so that she won't pass exams! So Li Zhongmei takes to waking up at 4:00 in the morning and practices what the other girls learned the day before. All of the others picked on her because teachers didn't like her so there was no one to protect her. She was a very good dancer; however, because she kept practicing even though it was against the rules and ... (okay I'm going to stop now because you'll just have to read the book to actually find out what happens to her)

  I hope that you have enjoyed reading my blog for this week and I also hope that you will attempt to read A Girl Named Faithful Plum and like it just like I did. (I say "attempt" because if you're like me, then it will most definitely be a challenge to read it:) Bye!!!

P.S. (for Mrs. Ryan) I’m sorry this book isn't one off the list but I really wanted to use it and I can't access my e-mail account or I would have asked if was okay to use it and I forgot to ask you at church but I'm almost positive you would deem it a challenge book so pretty please with sugar on top allow me to use it as a challenge book and if you really feel that it isn't a challenge book please reply and tell me. Thank you!