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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels
Walter Dean Myers
309 pages

1. “All you had to do is be careful and you would be fine. Jenkins hadn’t been careful.”

2. The year is 1967. Richard Perry has just signed up for the army and shipped off to Vietnam. There he meets an assortment of guys who care about everyone and everything and the most important, about surviving.

3. Will Richard Perry survive Vietnam and all its hazards and return back to his home in Harlem?

4. I like this book because it is very descriptive in all the right places. “Sweat dripped down his face and into his palms”.  I don’t like how it takes so long to get to the real point of the story. It takes 3 to 4 chapters to get to the main story but in chapter 5 it really gets good. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction books with lots of action and suspense. There are many colorful characters but the two main characters are Richard and “Peewee.” Richard is new and is very emotional, but that does not affect how his service does to the U.S., which is protecting South Vietnam and all there inhabitants. Peewee is willing to do anything possible to defeat the Communists from the north of Vietnam, or “Congs” as they call them. Then there’s Brunner, the big muscular man in the squad, Lobel, the movie star, Brew, who tragically dies and Walowick, the polish kid. They may not have much significance in the book, but the story would not be the same without them.

5. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars!

Anthony J.
8/10/09

The End

The End
Lemony Snicket
Pages: 337

If you enjoy books that happen to include unfortunate events and a happy ending then this book is for you. In this 13th and last book in the series of unfortunate events; Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are stuck on a boat with Count Olaf (the man who tried to steal the Baudelaire’s fortune after their parents died in a tragic fire) in the middle of an ocean. Out of nowhere a terrible storm comes along and washes them onto a coastal shelf.  There, they meet a girl named Friday who leads everyone except Olaf because of his unkindness to a colony on the island for castaways. She introduces them to an old man named Ishmael the island’s facilitator. He explains all the rules and tells them not to rock the boat and tells Friday to give them the traditional clothing, a robe; and give them a tent to live in for the night since they switch tents every night. After they arrive, they learn many secrets about the people who lived on the island and it’s past. Will the Baudelaire’s bring peace, mutiny or death among the colony?
There are many things that I like about this book like: the adventure, mystery, and suspense. The adventure is jam- packed from the very beginning of the book. The Baudelaire’s travels among the island turn out to be amazing and phenomenal. The mystery in this book is what makes the book so long. Sunny, Klaus and Violet find out a truly haunting secret about their parents that may change their ways forever.  The cliff – hanging suspense makes you stay up all night to finish the last book of the sad saga. There are few things I dislike about this book like: the unfortunate conclusion which is unfortunate for all the wrong reasons, the unsolved mysteries, and the feeling that The End was not meant to be the end but a marketing tool. The conclusion is very sad. The villagers take off on a boat hoping to find horseradish and/or wasabi within an hour so they won’t die, Kit Snicket dies after labor and the Baudelaire’s are left to take care of an infant they named after their parent. The unsolved mysteries make you want there to be another last book to explain the last few untied strings. Seems like in the end, Snicket, wanted us to be the ultimate unfortunate ones.
I recommend this book to people who love adventure and mystery and have read the previous books because otherwise they will rather confused and will think it’s boring. On a scale of 1 – 10 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, I would give the book an 8, or; I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars because of its unusual and the way it’s written is remarkable. This book is truly worth reading.

Karen D.

City of Bones

Book:  “City of Bones”
Author:  Cassandra Clare
485 pages

Book Report
What if there was a another world living amoungst us, but only certain people know about and could see it, and those certain people are called Shadowhunters?  Clary was a 15 year old girl who thought her life was just as normal as almost everyone else’s, until one night when she and her friend Simon go to a dance club called “Pandemonuim” when Clary thought she spotted four people going into a janitor’s closet.  When she tried to point them out to Simon, he claimed he couldn’t see them and she decided to investigate and see what is going on.  Although she didn’t know it at the time, Clary’s life was about to change forever.  Who are these people and why does it seem as if only she can see them? 
What I liked about this book was the personalities of the different characters.  The story gave you hints about what is going on, so you can think about it and after you think something is going to happen, another thing does, which gives the book its own twist.  Although, there were some down sides to the book, there were too many characters and it was easy to get mixed up.  A lot of parts of the book, could have been alittle more descriptive but weren’t.  The book had a lot of action but it seemed almost as if the author was rushing through a lot of it when she should have slowed down and written alittle more.  I would recommend this book to people who like adventure with a little mystery, surprise, and humor.  On a scale of 1- 10, I would give this book a 7.

Brittany, C

Bloom

Bloom
Elizabeth Scott
231

    If you like dramatic love stories that will keep you hooked until you finish reading, then you’ll enjoy Bloom.  Bloom was about a high school girl, Lauren, who had the “perfect” boyfriend, Dave.  Almost every girl in school was in awe of Dave’s perfection, but Lauren was bored with him.  On the first day of school, the son of Lauren’s dad’s ex-girlfriend moves back into town, which means now he goes to Lauren’s high school.  She hasn’t seen the boy, Evan, since they were eight years old, and now he’s captured her attention once again.  Led by her intense fascination with Evan, Lauren starts to spend extra time with him behind the backs of her best friend, Katie, and Dave, her “bland” boyfriend.  Will Lauren choose her boyfriend Dave, or her childhood friend Evan?  This book had so many things that I loved, and barely any that I didn’t.  I liked how the author compared Lauren’s life before she met Evan, to after she did.  I also enjoyed how the book clearly showed and described how Lauren felt about the two boys in her life.  Elizabeth Scott also painted a clear image in my mind of the intimate moments that Evan and Lauren shared with each other.  I felt that as I was reading the book, I was Lauren for that moment, and I could imagine everything that she felt.  After I read Bloom I still had to think about the story plot in order to fully understand why Lauren made the choice that she did, and it’s books that make you think after you read them that I think are the best.  Even though overall I liked Bloom a lot, there were only a few things I didn’t like as much about the book.  First of all, I couldn’t fully understand how Lauren exactly felt about Dave when they first started dating.  The author told more than she showed in this particular part of the story.  The only other thing I didn’t like as much about Bloom was that at the end of the story, I felt as though the book ended abruptly, and that it needed an epilogue.  I’d probably recommend this book to other teenage girls because they could easily relate to Lauren’s character.  Lauren seemed to be the everyday high school girl, which is a character that most girls would want to read about.  Overall I’d give Bloom a 9 out of 10 rating.  Megan, M   

New Moon

New Moon
Stephanie Meyer
563
 
1. If you like Vampires and Love Stories that are very exiting from the beginning to the end, you will love New Moon, the following book of Twilight.
 
2. After she was hunted by James, everything seemed to be perfect. She could be with Edward all the time and she was happy. But then suddenly, Edward just left her and Nightmares started. Jacob Black was the only person who could help her. He became her best friend. But when Jacob joined the group of Sam Uley, Bella was afraid. What happened with her friend? Why isn’t he happy anymore? Something weird must be going on…

3. Will Bella discover the secret about Jacob and will Edward come back to her?
 
4. In this book I liked most of the parts.
I liked how Bella found somebody she could trust and how that Jacob Black could help her be happy again. It was really good how she showed true love to Edward because she still didn’t want to go out with anybody else. I also liked the description of everything. Stephanie Meyer showed how Bella felt about everything. How her heart beat faster with every kiss from Edward. It showed how sad and lost she was after Edward left. It showed how she felt about Jacob. It just showed everything. The book New Moon also described a lot about the outsides. It described how Edward looked. How he is so pretty with golden hair and mostly golden liquid eyes. Then when he is thursty his eyes are black and solid. It also showed how things felt. Edward felt cold, and hard like a stone. Jacob felt very warm. I liked this book so much because it just showed everything like a movie.
In this book I disliked some parts.
I didn’t like the part when Edward told Bella, he had to leave because it was too sad. I don’t like sad things and stories.
I would recommend this book to my mum  because she likes Twilight, my two friends in Germany because they love Magical stuff like I do, and all the other Teenagers in the world who like Vampire and Love stories.
 
5. On a scale of 1-10 I would give this book a 9.
 
6.  Melina R

Hope Was Here

Hope Was Here
Joan Bauer
186 pages

If you like books that make you believe in life and give you inspirational hope you’ll love Hope Was Here. Hope is a strong and independent high school girl that has to live with her aunt, and they often have to move. Somehow, the move to a small town in Wisconsin isn’t the same as countless others. The owner of the restaurant they both work at, G.T., decides to run for mayor, but because of his severe medical condition: leukemia, many people don’t want to vote for him. His opponent, the current mayor and a tax swindler, will do anything just to win the election. G.T. is up against terrifying odds, but he envisions such a brilliant future that Hope and her aunt can’t help but be compelled to see what the town could be like. Barely getting enough signatures to put G.T.’s name on the voting ballot, they struggle to win the election. His opponent stoops to hurting those that support G.T., but G.T. has his own flaws. Because of his leukemia, people decide that a man—who could die at any point—is not worth voting for. Will G.T. win the election against the odds?
I loved this book because it’s very inspiring. I especially liked the part when G.T. gave speeches as to why people should vote for him. Another important part was when G.T. got enough signatures to put his name on the ballot after a lot of struggle. Hope (the girl) helps everyone to realize that even if there’s a huge disadvantage, there is always hope to overcome whatever obstacles appear. I disliked G.T.’s opponent, Eli Millstone, because he was the antagonist. However, the part I disliked the most was when Braverman, Hope’s best friend in their new home, gets beat up by Eli’s sympathizers. Many people eventually join G.T.’s cause: to forge a community free from corruption. Even though Hope has many problems, least of all her dysfunctional family, she is a smart and individualistic girl. This book is one filled with hope and brings new meaning to the word freedom. It is an amazing book to read for anyone, especially for those that need help to overcome difficult obstacles. On a scale of 1-10 I would give this book a 10 because it is so good.

Madeline W.

Reincarnation

Reincarnation
Suzanne Weyn
293
 
Two people are born enemies, but fate draws them together over decades, centuries, even millenniums.
May and Kye live in prehistoric times. May is in trouble. Lenar, the clan’s next leader, has chosen May as his mate. She doesn’t want to be his mate. No matter how high her rank will be in the clan. She wants a high ranking in the clan though. She goes to The Great Mother for help who grants her a precious green rock. Kye lives in a separate clan. He has lost a battle, therefore, ashamed. He tries to take May’s rock so he can gain his pride again. As they fight over the rock, they end up at the edge of the cliff. Will they fall and meet their fate for the next life?
I enjoyed this novel very much because you never know what is going to happen or what life they’ll lead next. I like how it doesn’t give any hints on what is coming for them and their unsuspecting love. It holds you in a deep ocean of suspense. Some things I disliked are how their lives together ended so quickly. It goes too fast. Like a racecar on the last lap of a speedway. The life they start together ends in a blink of an eye and poof, they are on to the next life of mystery and unknown love.  I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a mysterious romance, or at least a tragic affection between two completely different people with completely different lives. Or even someone who curious about the past and how people lived long before them. A person who likes a book with a different plot never created before. Because I have never read, seen, or even heard about a book like this. It is one of a kind.
 
Rating (1-10 (10 being the best)): I would give it 9 out of 10.
 
Lauren S.

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You

Ally Carter

284 Pages

Imagine being in love with a normal boy who thinks you are just a normal girl, but you are really a spy in training.

Cammie Morgan was on a mission for a cover-ops class when she met Josh, an ordinary boy who thinks Cammie is an ordinary girl who is home schooled and owns a cat named Suzie.  From that night until winter break, Cammie hacked into his computer, tracked him through town using her skill as a “pavement artist”, tapped in on his phone, and went on numerous dates with a boy who thinks she is someone else.

Will Cammie Morgan be able to maneuver a relationship with Josh without him discovering her true identity?

I enjoyed how the author, Ally Carter, described how Cammie was feeling at that very moment. For example, when her cover-ops class teacher had them take a test on what they had learned in that semester, Ally Carter was great at telling the reader what and why Cammie was feeling at that very instant. I also felt like I was almost there with Cammie when she was at school and when she was trying to find out information about Josh.  For instance, when Cammie and her friends went and took Josh’s family garbage, Ally Carter put in so much detail about what it looked like, how it felt, and what it smelled like.  What I disliked about this book is that there was way too much romance for me. For example, when she was on the date with Josh,  I didn’t like how much she explained about how she felt about being with him, and when she had to go meet his family. The details about how happy the parents felt about their son and this home schooled girl he met included a little too much romance for me.  I am a person who likes books with a lot action or that are very scary.  I would recommend this book to a person who likes books with a lot of action, intensity, humor, and a hint of romance. This book would be perfect for them. 

On a scale of 1-10 I would give this book a 9 because the book was scary, funny, and had the just right mix of romance.

Hannah L.

Skeleton Key

Skeleton Key
Anthony Horowitz
327 pgs.

If you absolutely love to devour books that are thrilling, action-packed, and contain pure insanity, you will not be able to put down Skeleton Key, the best Alex Rider adventure yet. In this novel, a fourteen-year-old boy named Alex Rider is invited to serve as a ball boy at Wimbledon, the grandest tennis tournament in all of England. However, Alex is not really there to enjoy the game of tennis. He is actually working as an inside agent for the MI6. His task is to squeeze information out of a member of the Big Circle Triad who was sent all the way from China to sabotage the annual tournament. After narrowly escaping death, Alex is able to capture his enemy and take him back to Liverpool for interrogation. Without giving Alex a chance to recover from his latest mission, the MI6 immediately deports the young boy to an island know as “Cayo Esqueleto,” or Skeleton Key. As a disguised tourist, Alex is sent to investigate Alexei Sarov, a man who used to serve as an army general in Russia during its old Communist days. Rider’s job is to figure out why Sarov wants to meet with the current Russian president, when he prefers the old Communist Russia over the new weak one.
Since this is such a dangerous assignment, Alex is teamed up with two CIA agents, Glen Carver and Belinda Troy, to help protect him. Unfortunately, after spending only a couple of days on the island of Skeleton Key, Carver and Troy are killed when they set off one of Sarov’s deadly booby traps in an underwater cave, leaving Alex to fend for himself. Not too long after, Rider is captured and taken prisoner by Sarov, who almost has him slaughtered until he realizes how well of a bargaining token he would be with the MI6 if he were a hostage. Using his natural persuasive skills, Alex is able to convince Sarov to tell him why he wants to meet with the existing Russian president. While Sarov is explaining to Alex, he accidentally lets slip a crucial piece of information that reveals the bigger and more important plan to Alex: Sarov has a nuclear bomb, and he plans to use it to destroy half of Russia and some of the other countries that surround it. Alex was taken by surprise and could not believe what he was hearing! The CIA agents that had accompanied him to the island had mentioned that Sarov might be hiding a nuclear bomb in his mansion, but Alex had put the idea out of his mind, thinking that it was not possible. Now that the truth had been revealed to him, he was afraid for his own life as well as the lives of the thousands of Russians that would be incinerated by the bomb when it detonates. Will Alex Rider be a hero once again and save Russia from this ruthless lunatic’s devastating plan?
Out of all of the Alex Rider books I have ever read, this is possibly the most captivating and entertaining one of them all. I liked how none of the events were predictable, and how they all flowed together throughout the whole length of the book. The only thing I was not too fond of was the repetitiveness of some of the character descriptions in the novel. They seemed to be repeated every time the character was named or even simply mentioned in the book. I would definitely recommend this book to kids and even adults who love fast-paced, suspenseful novels. James Bond fanatics would obsess over this book because Bond and Rider are so similar that the only thing that separates them is their age. They both have extraordinary spy skills and use gadgets to get themselves out of perilous situations. The plot of Skeleton Key is very unique because it is very difficult to understand until the end of the story, the point in the novel where everything is revealed and becomes crystal clear. Overall, if you love to read about warfare, hostility, and adventure, this book is definitely for you. On a scale of 1-10, I would give this book a total of 8.5 out of 10 because it has a lot of amazing parts that make your heart race, but it also has a few sequences when the story becomes a little dull or boring. That is my review of the book Skeleton Key, and why it is a must read for pretty much all teenagers and middle school students.

Rushil P. 

Friday, December 05, 2008

Speak

Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson
240
 
 
 
 
If you love funny and sad books then youll love Speak.
 
This book is about a girl that has just started high school with no friends. She used to have a lot of friends in middle school but all of that changed last summer. She tryes to make new friends but its hard with her reputation. Last summer she was at a big party with her best friend, but something happend that made her call the police, and from that day all of her friends started hateing her. At the end she gains a lot of self confidence and stands up to her friends and they realize why she called the police during the party.
 
I really liked this book, becuase i think a lot of teenage girls can relate to the main character. I really liked how the author made the main character the narrator, because when you read you can understand what she was feeling at that moment.
 
On a scale of 1-10 i would give this book a 10!
Karolina M

Charlie and the chocolate factory

Charlie and the chocolate factory
Quentin Blake
155pages

Charlie was living in the poor family, his house was small, his clothes were dirty…..
Long time ago, Charlie Bucket was live in the poor family, but his luck changes for the better when he wins a lifetime supply of candy--and a chance to visit Willy Wonka’s fabulous, top-secret chocolate factory. This charming, irreverent tale, one of Roald Dahl’s best, has captivated children for more than thirty years. Five lucky people who find a Golden Ticket wrapped in one of Willy Wonka’s wonderful candy bars win a visit to his chocolate factory. In the first room of the factory, it is very special, because you can eat every single thing in that room, like grass, trees, or something like that. And there are lots of different and special things in every different room in the factory.
Would Charlie Bucket be reach after he goes out of the factory? What present would he get when he goes out the factory?

I give this book 4 and a half out of 5 stars

Kevin Y.

Eclipse

Eclipse
Stephanie Meyer
620 pages

If you like mysteries, love stories, or adventures then you would like Eclipse. This book is the third book of the Twilight series. The main character Isabella (Bella) Swan falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen. From the previous book, the Volturi is out to change Bella into a vampire and from Twilight, Victoria is still out to kill Bella. Everyday Bella gets the newspaper and one day on the front cover was the heading, Death Toll On The Rise, Police Fear Gang Activity. She didn’t really pay any attention to until Edward told her that it was a group of newborn vampires. Newborn vampires can’t control their thirst for blood so they go around killing things. Bella came home one day to find her room spotless and she just thought maybe Alice or somebody decided to be nice and clean it up for her, but when she asked Alice if she cleaned up her room Alice didn’t know what she was talking about. As the days kept passing they finally figured
out that the group of newborns wanted Bella as their next victim so they went in her room and got her clothes with Bella’s scent on it so they could kill her. Will the Cullen’s and Bella’s werewolf friends help stop the newborn’s to save Bella?

Some things I don’t like about this book is that Bella can’t choose between Jacob and Edward. Of course she is going to pick Edward, but she has this feeling that she has to choose between them and doesn’t have to. One thing I like about this book is that Bella faces so many problems and Edward is always there for her telling her that everything is going to be okay. The book shows how passionately Edward is in love with Bella and I like that a lot. Stephanie Meyer’s writing style has a different touch to it each time I read another one of her books. I think this book was more about Bella’s family and friend’s. If I could rate this book on a scale of 1-10 I would rate a 9 because it’s a wonderful book and new things came up in the story, but sometimes I would set the book down for awhile and wouldn’t pick it back up so that’s why I rated it a 9. This book was great and now I can’t wait to read the fourth book of the series Breaking
Dawn. 

Turnabout

Turnabout

Margaret Peterson Haddix

Pages 220

     If you enjoy very unike and creative stories that never leave out a single detail then you would love the book, Turnabout. It is about a group of deceased people who had donated their bodies to a science foundation to allow for many experiments and tests to be taken on them after they had passed away. After, Amelia, one of the people who agreed to this foundation, had passed away a lot of tests were taken on her. The scientists goal was to bring her back to life. After many trials, the scientists achieved their goal. They brought 100 year old, Amelia Hazelwood, back to life. However, there is more to the story. Its not just about a woman that is living twice. This story is about Amelia’s struggle to fit back into the world, because she “legally” does not exist anymore. The scientists did not report Amelia as a citizen again, in fear that they would be punished because the “test” that they did on Amelia was not FDA approved. Meaning that they were not suppose to conduct that experiment. But they did. So there could be extreme punishments and consequences for it.

     And one of the consequences of not getting this FDA approved was the effects on Amelia. Later on, she and the scientists realized that not only will she live forever, but she gets a year younger every year, rather then older. Now this is a consequences because she does not know how to handle the loss of her memory, because every year when she gets younger, she also loses that year of memory. So what will happen to Amelia when she enters the ages of childhood and no longer can take care of herself? And will her family and everyone else in the world find out what had happened to her? Read, Turnabout, to find out.

     I really enjoyed this book because the author did not leave one detail out. While I was reading the book the whole time I could visualize it inside my mind. My favorite part of the story, was in the beginning when the author describes the process of how the scientists brought Amelia back to life. Also I liked how the author formatted the book. Every chapter was about a certain time of her life, so she switched back from her teenage years, and then to her elderly years, so it always kept you wondering what was going to happen next. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 9.2. I really, really enjoyed this book, and its one of my new favorites.

Marissa R.

Breaking Dawn

Breaking Dawn
Stephenie Meyer
756 pages

Bella Swan was like no other teenage girl. She was in love with the man of her dreams. The only problem was that he was a vampire. Bella knew that the only hope of them staying together was to get married and then turn into a vampire herself. But she knew she had her whole life ahead of her. She could go to college, get a job, and stay close with her family. Edward was more important then anything in the world to her and she therefore had to stay with him and transform herself. But for her that was the hardest decision to make. After many long days she and Edward did get married. Bella had a beautiful ceremony that was designed by her new sisters. After the ceremony was over off the newlywed couple drove off into the darkness. Bella had no idea where Edward was taking her on their honeymoon. After some time in the car they boarded a plane and then a boat. Their final destination was a beautiful island that Carlisle had bought for Esme. It was a place all to themselves and they didn’t have to worry about any exposure. After a few days Bella started to fell a little weird. She was gorging on food and eventually started vomiting. Did Edward transform her in her sleep? Or did something else even more hazardous to her health happen?
I thought this book was very good. One thing I liked about it was that there were a lot of moments that kept you on the edge of your seat. For example when you find out what is wrong with Bella you get very surprised. Secondly I liked the fact that it was a romance book. I always love a good love story with a happy ending. Thirdly I liked that there was a lot of action. Almost every part of the story had some sort of action. But the author did keep the romance in there which I liked. My fourth reason for liking the story was that the author had a good way of making everything come together in one way or another. Everything was very relatable and I didn’t get confused on anything. Another thing I like was that the characters were very well described. The author didn’t just do a quick little book because everyone wanted another book she took the time and made every character so well described that you could practically see them in your head. Also none of the details from the first book were forgotten or changed. All of the vampires still had there pale skin and lovely facial features, almost like goddesses. Bella on the other hand still was the delicate and timid person she was since the beginning. One other thing I liked was that the author’s writing style stayed consistent from the first book to the last. I love the way she writes and hopefully she will make many more wonderful books. Like the first book, I hated absolutely nothing about this book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes romance, action, or fantasy. People who like romance books would like this book because Bella and Edward were truly in love with each other. If someone likes action they should read this book because there is always something going on with a vampire around. Lastly anyone who likes fantasy books should read this book because anything is possible with a vampire husband.
On a scale of one to ten I would give this book a ten because it had the perfect blend of action and romance.

Alex B.

Half Moon

Half Moon

Eoin Colfer

Pages 290

“The force of the blow lifted me six inches off the ground, sending me sailing into a rock garden”. Fletcher Moon, given the nickname Half Moon based on his size, is a young detective who has been charged with a serious crime. After coming home from the hospital he went to check on his client and was hit with a bat. He woke up in the backyard surrounded by fire and a burning torch in his hand. His worst enemies the Sharkey’s are also framed for assaulting Half Moon and they decide to team up and find out who the real criminal is.

Half Moon is an interesting, yet comical book. Fletcher Moon was a very good character. He helped when he could and made sure he helped the right people. I most enjoyed reading who the real criminal was and why he did what he did. I didn’t like the book having so many characters because it confused me and I was sometimes thinking of the wrong character when I saw the name. I would recommend this book to everyone because there is not “inappropriate” parts. On a scale of 1-10, I would give this book a 9 due to the number of characters.

Derek L.

Starlight

Starlight
Erin Hunter
327 pg.

4 Clans of feral cats from a faraway forest have completed a trek from their previous forest home (which was destroyed by humans). Now, they must divide once again to four Clans and settle in their new home around a lake.
Sorting out territory boundaries, establishing Clan camps, and adjusting to the new surroundings are only some of the challenges the Clans face. WindClan’s Clan leader, Tallstar, is close to losing his ninth (and last life, because Clan leaders are said to have nine lives) life. After the Clans separate permanently, Tallstar beckons Firestar, the ThunderClan leader (and the protagonist in the first Warriors series), and Brambleclaw (the protagonist in this series) to come to him. Tallstar explains that his deputy, Mudclaw, is not the right future leader for WindClan once Tallstar dies and (under rushed circumstances) changes the deputy to Onewhisker, another WindClan cat. After saying these words, Tallstar dies, and Firestar tells all of the other Clans while Onewhisker informs his fellow Clan members of the change. Mudclaw, who already has been showing signs of leadership since the trek to the lake, is obviously a bit angry at the change, but can do nothing about it.
Meanwhile, Brambleclaw (who is the protagonist) is also adjusting. He has always had trouble in his Clan for being the son of Tigerstar (a too-ambitious cat who betrayed ThunderClan in the original series and tried to take over all 4 Clans but failed). His sister joined another clan because of “peer pressure”, and he has a half-brother in RiverClan. During this book, he starts connecting with Hawkfrost, his half-brother. This upsets Squirrelflight (his “girlfriend” although these things don’t really happen with cats), and a rift develops between them. The rift only intensifies as the book goes on, and it eventually brings to a head at the climax.
Mudclaw is not the only cat unhappy about Onewhisker’s botched deputy ceremony. Hawkfrost (Brambleclaw’s half-brother) is also unpleased about this. Together, they plot to overthrow Onewhisker one night. Mistyfoot, the RiverClan deputy finds out and alerts ThunderClan. Firestar decides to send two patrols (with Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight) to stop the upheaval. During the battle (which is between WindClan cats loyal to Onewhisker, and Mudclaw and Hawkfrost), a tree falls on Mudclaw, killing him. This is seen as a sign from the cats’ ancestors that they have sanctioned Onewhisker being the Clan leader. All of the other Clan cats then go home.
All of the books in all of the mini-series are written by Erin Hunter (a pseudonym). Each series represents a different generation of young cats. The original series (1st 6 books), is about a house cat called Rusty, who eventually rises to become Firestar. The main antagonist is Tigerstar, another cat who dislikes Firestar due to his house cat origins. Firestar repeatedly thwarts Tigerstar’s attempts to take over any part of the forest. Eventually, Firestar triumphs, and right after the end of this series, he fathers two kittens, Leafpool and Squirrelflight. The series Starlight is in the next series (also 6 books), and it is about Firestar’s children and Brambleclaw. Some key events are the destruction of the cats’ original home, their trek to their new lake home, and Tigerstar’s mysterious ability to visit his sons in their dreams (which is discovered in Starlight). What happens in those dreams is something I won’t say (so I won’t give away the plot), and whether or not Brambleclaw will fall to Tigerstar’s evil influence is another uncertainty. Cat-lovers and people who love reading about prophecies as well as Warriors readers waiting for new books would certainly love Starlight. On a scale of 1-10 I would give Starlight a 7.5.

James B.

“Ranger’s Apprentice: Battle for Skandia”

"Ranger’s Apprentice: Battle for Skandia”

John Flanagan

327

Do you enjoy stories that are a cross-mix-blend of the “Harry Potter” series and the “Lord of the Rings” books? Then the “Ranger’s Apprentice: The Battle for Skandia” is the book for you (although you might want to read the first three books before jumping to this one). This book is the fourth installment in the “Ranger’s Apprentice” series and continues where the third book, “Ranger’s Apprentice: The Icebound Land” left off. It tells the story of Will (the main protagonist of the story) and his friend (and princess) Evanlyn, who, in the previous book had been captured by a race called Skandians and sold as slaves. Greatly weakened by the amount of work they had been assigned to do, Will and Evanlyn had escaped to a small hut in the mountains. This book starts off with Evanlyn being recaptured a man traveling on a horse. Will then sets out to find her by following the rider’s horse’s tracks. Meanwhile, Halt and Horace are trying to find Will and Evanlyn. Halt is a legendary ranger and is the mentor of Will; Horace is an apprentice knight who joins Halt to rescue Will and Evanlyn from their life of slavery.

Will successfully tracks down Evanlyn by using the horse’s tracks as a guide. There, his path crosses with Halt and Horace, and together, they defeat the people who kidnapped Evanlyn, warriors called the Temujai. Then, when riding back to their homeland, Will, Halt, Horace, and Evanlyn encounter the Skandians. With some deduction, they realize that the Temujai are planning to conquer Skandia. With Halt’s help, the Skandians prepare for war. They have mastered certain tactics to ensure that they win the war. Can the Skandians defeat the Temujai or will they lose their land to these merciless warriors?

I thought that this book was one of the best I’ve read in a long time. It had the right amount of action, mystery, and suspense. Two of my favorite series are the “Harry Potter” books and the “Lord of the Rings” books. This book combined both of those worlds and yet maintained originality. There were never any drags in the book and most of it was fast-paced, though it was slow enough to understand what was going on. This, again, is a fantasy title like most books that I like to read and is very fun from the start to the end. Most of all, there are never any parts where I’ve gotten so bored that I’ve had to read it just to move on in the story. Although admittedly the whole book wasn’t nonstop action, the dialogue wasn’t presented in a way that made it boring or tedious to read. At the end however, the whole last chapter was a little dense; there were too many things that were going on at the same time and the story was being told by numerous characters’ point of view. However, this was only one chapter out of the twenty or thirty so it wasn’t a great flaw. Overall, this is a book (and series) fantasy-lovers should definitely read. Rating: 9.5 / 10

Bharat K.

Summer Ball

Summer Ball
Mike Lupica
244

If you read Mike Lupica’s previous book which is Travel Team or even if you didn’t read it, Summer Ball is an awesome book. If you like sequels and attention-getting basketball stories you will absolutely love Summer Ball. This book is about a boy named Danny Walker that led his travel basketball team to the championship last season. But when he gets into a basketball camp for the best kids his age in the east coast. He faces many problems. One problem is that he is on a team with a guy that hates his guts. Danny also gets stuck in the younger kids’ cabins and starts a rivalry with a kid named Lamar. He has a coach that hates him because his dad refused to be on his coaches team when his dad was younger and lastly Danny has girl problems. Will Danny get over his problems with his coach and Lamar? Will he lead his team to the championship like he did with his travel basketball team? Will he get the girl back? I liked Danny in this story because he always works hard for what he wants and doesn’t give up. I disliked Lamar because he is a jerk towards Danny and his friends. I would recommend this book to anybody who likes basketball. On a scale from 1-10, I would give this book an 8.

- Adam J.

The Boy in the Burning House

Title: The Boy in the Burning House
Author: Tim Wynne Jones
Number of Pages: 214
“You don’t want to face the fact that your daddy is dead. D-E-A-D.” Two years ago
Tim Hawkins dad disappeared, they sent dogs, C.S.I., and search parties they found no
sign of fowl play, it just looked like Hub Hawkins vanished. Hub left behind a son Tim
and a wife Iris. When Hub died Tim picked up the slack, doing all of his fathers chores
on top of his own. One day Tim got home from school and got to work on his chores.
While he was clearing a stream of a beaver dam he spotted a dark figure in the woods.
Tim took off after the figure; it stayed just close enough for Tim to fallow. When Tim got
to the rail road tracks the object disappeared. He yelled and yelled until his throat
throbbed, “This is private property! You are trespassing!” In the distance Tim herd a dog
barking. The barking came closer and closer until he saw a large yellow lab. Tim yelled
“Show your self! Or I will sic this ferocious dog on you!” Tim stuck his hand out to pet
the dog and it took off. He circled a near by tree and barked up at a low branch. Tim
yelled up “Aha… I got you! Now come down!” When the figure landed Tim recognized
the black hair, black clothes, and brown eyes. She was a girl from church. Her name was
Ruth Rose. Ruth Rose also lost her father. Only hers was dead. She says she knows all
about him and his family. How is dad is missing, how his mom was struggling with the
bills, and how he wants to know what happened to his dad. Ruth says that she can help,
she knows who killed his father and needs his help to prove it. Does Tim find what
happened to his dad? Who does Ruth think was the culprit was?
I love this book! I had a picture of what was happening through the whole book. It
was like watching a movie. It was descriptive but at some points it was hard to under
stand. There where a lot of names and nicknames. Any one who likes mysteries and
thrillers should read this book. I give The Boy in the Burning House an eight out of ten.
Myka A.

Flush

Flush
Carl Hiassen
263
 
“If you like a comedy style mystery that will frustrate you to the point of insanity, then you’ll love Flush.”
 
Noah is just the everyday average ordinary kid living in the Florida Keys. Everything is average and ordinary about him except that his father is in jail. Noah’s father, Paine, isn’t in jail because of not paying a parking ticket, taxes, or speeding. No, Noah’s father is in Jail because he sunk the Coral Queen. The Coral Queen is a Gambling boat owned by Dusty Muleman. Paine sunk the boat because he believed that Dusty was not using a sewage tank (an illegal action), but just practically dumping poo into the Keys and by doing so, killing innocent animals. Paine was sent to jail because nobody believed him, and even if he was right, There would be almost no way to prove that it was Dusty because of the large amount of boats in the Keys.
 
“Will Noah be able to prove is father innocent?”
 
What I liked most of all about Flush was the mystery type feel that it had. This wasn’t like hard core mystery, but just any type of maybe frustrating story where you know he’s innocent but nobody believes you. That is definitely my favorite type of book. What I also liked about the book is that it was very clear, explanatory, thorough, and on topic. The book didn’t wander from here to there which made it fairly easy to read. One thing that I didn’t like about the book was that the author didn’t explain the characters ages, so I couldn’t picture the characters in my head very well. Another thing that I disliked was that while everything was on topic, the sections felt slightly short. It felt as if as soon as I got the hang of one part, we were moving on to the next. I would recommend this book to anybody who is in the mood for a comedy or light mystery.
 
On a scale of 1-10 I would give this book a 9.
 
Millie W.

Savvy

Savvy
Ingrid Law
342 Pages
            Brothers who can create electricity and change the weather, a mother who can do everything perfectly, and an absolutely wonderful dad have Mibs wondering if she will get an absolutely amazing savvy like her family. In this book, Savvy, Mibs learns what it is like to be growing up in a family that is not as normal as the others who live around her. Her father gets everyone worried, gets on a bus with her friends, and gets into mischief along the way.
            Mibs, or Mississippi, is getting ready to have her 13th birthday. This is the most special birthday of all the birthdays in her family. Finally, she gets to have her very own Savvy, or special power. She dreams a wonderful power like her brothers and mother. But, as her birthday arrives, her father gets caught in a car accident! This makes her birthday become miserable. She knows that she will never know when she will get her Savvy, but she hopes it comes before anything else goes wrong. So, she hops aboard on a bus that says it will take her to the hospital with her two brothers, Will, and his sister.
            Once they are on the bus, it starts to drive. The bus driver, Lester, catches them, and they have to take their adventure along from there. Mibs slowly finds that she can make animated things on someone (tattoos) speak the person’s mind! She draws a sun on Will’s hand and she finds out that he really likes her. Then, they meet an unexpected person who joins their journey on the bus. She is like an angel from heaven to Mibs. They slowly come to where her dad is in the hospital.
            Then, she finds out that everyone thinks he is slowly dying. But, he did have a faded mermaid tattoo on his shoulder. Will Mibs bring her father alive? Or, will she hear his last dying words?
            This book was mind-boggling! Savvy is not like any of the every-day books where you can expect what to happen next. Each time Mibs did something wrong, there was always an uncanny solution. There were many appealing things in the book and some parts I did not like.
            I really liked how the author chose the word “savvy” to mean the special power that her family had. Also, the character had a very sweet personality. Mibs resembles me a bit, but not the extremely daring part of her. The author made sure this book had a very good and balanced amount of vocabulary for teens my age.
            I disliked, once again, the romance bit in this novel. The problem was that these teens are about 12 years old and they are already kissing. But, that part was a bit funny because Mibs brother poured water all over Will once he did that. Also, I really didn’t like Will’s sister’s character. She was way too moody and uptight.
            On a scale of 1-10, I would give this book an 8. This book is for any teen 13 an over who love to read exciting and unpredictable adventures.
                                                                                                            ~Priyoshi.K

What if… You Broke all the Rules

What if… You Broke all the Rules
By: Liz Ruckdescheland Sara James
291 pgs.
            What if…your parents forget about your birthday because they have been working to much?This is exactly what happened to Haley Miller. Haley’s grandma always comes tovisit around the holidays. Haley’s family, which consists of her, her dad, hermom, and her younger brother Matt, were having a great time on Christmasmorning until Haley’s mom gets a call from one of her colleagues at work sayingthat they got a new lead on the case they have been working on. As Haley’s momrushes off to work, everybody else is upset that she is working on Christmasmorning. Haley’s mom seems to spend more and more time at work and is neveraround anymore.. Haley’s dad also seems to be stressed and starts to spend lotsof his time at work too. Haley and Matt are left alone with their grandma mostof the time. As it gets closer to Haley’s birthday, her grandma wants to stay,but is worried that if she is always there then Haley’s parents will never comehome. She leaves a few days before Haley’s birthday. However, her departuredoesn’t change anything in the Miller household. Haley’s mom and dad are stillworking too much, and on top of that Haley’s brother Matt is overdue with hismeeting with his therapist but there is no parent to schedule an appointmentfor him. Haley’s birthday passes and the only person who remembers is Matt. Inschool one of Haley’s friends is going to Spain over Spring Break and isasking her to come. Haley really wants to go, but there is no parent at home toask. Will Haley’s parents pull it together and figure out that they are neededat home or will they ignore Matt and Haley and forget their own daughter’sbirthday? If you want to find out you’ll have to read What if…You Broke all theRules by Liz Ruckdeschel and Sara James.
             This book was very good! I really liked howthe author wrote the book, it was really descriptive and entertaining. Icouldn’t put the book down because it was so catchy. I didn’t like how at timesthe book was a little confusing. I would recommend this book to girls ages12-14. On a scale of one to ten, one meaning horrible and ten being excellent,I would give this book a ten. I had a great time reading this book! Shilpa N.

Devilish

Devilish
Maureen Johnson                                                                                        
263
 
 
Ever wonder what it was like if the world had to sides? Some of the people good and some people bad? Well that’s what happens in this book. It starts off with the main character and her best friend. They are happily living life when one day here best friend is acting very unusual. She asks what happened. She replies that she won a contest and got all the new designer clothes. It sounds very hard to believe. Then she starts hanging out with people the friends used to never like. Things start to get very fishy. Then the friend finds out she the devils helper. The girl’s makes a deal with the devil to switch places wither best friend. This can either make things normal or kill her. What will happen, will she die or go on with her life? I disliked the book, because of the sentence structure. I also don’t really like fantasy books very much. It was a very negative book. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone I know. The book went on and on with no interesting information. There wasn’t much of a punch line or moral, it was just kind of out there. On a scale of 1-10 I would give this book a 2.
 
 
Ann T.

Twilight

Twilight
Stephanie Meyer
498 pages

“About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him- and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be- that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.”
When Bella leaves sunny Arizona to live with her dad in the small, gloomy town of Forks, Washington, she is almost certain she will hate everything about it. Her mom has re-married and Bella decides she is in safe hands, but nothing could stop Bella from hating everything about her new home. At least she thought so. To her surprise she makes friends, and guys are practically throwing themselves at her, and Bella notices one in particular. From a distance Bella sees a certain guy, one she can’t take her eyes off of. Edward Cullen and his family are the town outsiders. There is something strange about them. From their pale white skin, to their breath-taking looks no one could be more perfect. Yet everyone seems to stay away. Bella doesn’t get Edward. On her first day he tries everything in his power to stay away from her, but the next is kind and friendly. Bella knows some things up, but has no idea.
One day, while spending time with her friends, one tells a legend of the ‘cold ones’. They were pale white, beautiful monsters that drank the blood of humans; Vampires. Bella immediately suspects Edward is a blood-sucking monster (and she is right), yet she isn’t bothered by it. Bella and Edward grow closer, more than just friends, but Edward warns her that being with him could harm her. Bella knows she could never be without him; She loves him. Could Bella and Edwards’ relationship some how prove to dangerous? Or can they get past all their struggles to be with each other?
Usually, any book purely about romance would not be on my bookshelf, but when reading this book you’ll soon find out it is impossible to put down. It grabs a hold and doesn’t let go. There was absolutely nothing I didn’t like about his book. The characters’ personalities fascinate you and the plot’s twists and turns are exciting. Bella is a hopeless klutz, which provides for the entire series, and her countless incidents and afflictions add to the books endless humor. The author’s use of description is spot on. You can visualize the characters and settings down to the last lock of hair or blade of grass. Many suspect it is some mushy tale of teenage love, but it’s more than that. It shows you what people are willing to do to save the ones they love and are ready sacrifice everything just for that one person. I would recommend this book (and movie!) to ANYONE. It’s got humor, action, romance, mystery...pretty much any genre you can think of. I give this book… 10 out of 10. It is a true pop-culture phenomenon
Drew N.

Stormbreaker

Stormbreaker
Author: Anthony Horowitz
pg: 234

Are you a child who had lost your parent due to some sort of accident? Do you know what it feels like to lose all of your love ones? In Stormbreaker, Alex is a 14 year old boy who lost both his parents in a tragic car accident. His uncle, Ian Rider, took him in and raised him up teaching him how to be safe. Alex later discovers that his uncle also died in a car crash due to not wearing his seat belt. He thinks that it is not possible for his uncle to not wear his seat belt because his uncle wouldn’t start driving somewhere without yelling at him to pit on his seat belt. Alex finds his uncle’s shiny car sitting in an old junkyard still looking new and fresh from far away. As he walks up to the car, the entire driver side of the car is covered in bullet holes. When Alex goes back home, he gets a call from the Head person at the bank his uncle used to work at to discuss about his uncle. When he arrives there, he was tricked. Instead, the head of MI6 (a secret organization that works under the British government investigate a man named Herod Sayle) Alan Blunt blackmails Alex into helping the MI6.
Alex visits Sayle’s house and finds a diagram made by his uncle. After investigating, Alex discovers a large computer manufacturing facility, where the Stormbreaker computers are being filled with biological weapons Sayle’s assistant Nadia Vole pretends to help Alex but instead drops him into a jellyfish tank. Alex uses a metal disintegrating cream to escape. He then orders Sayle’s other assistant Mr. Grin to fly him to where Sayle will be doing the ceremony. Once in London, Alex parachutes out of the plane and fires six times. The first shot hits the information desk while the second hits the minister’s hand and the third destroys the trigger to activate the Stormbreakers, stopping him from releasing the smallpox. The fourth hit the electrical connection, which destroyed the plug and short-circuited it. What do you think the fifth and the sixth shot will hit? Does Sayle end up died?
When reading this book, I realized that Anthony Horowitz is a very good author. His writing is very descriptive; it puts an image in your mind about what is going on. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mystery and likes to be able to picture what is going on in your mind. If I were to rate this book from 1-10, 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest, I would give it an 8.

Victoria H.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
J. K Rowling
435 Page
This is Harry’s third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Harry better watch his back because the criminal mass-murderer Sirius Black is on the loose, he escaped from Azkaban prison, the most heavily guarded prison in the wizard world.  They say that Sirius Black was a supporter of Lord Voldemort and he murdered Harry’s parents and killed his parents’ good friend Peter Petegrew in cold blood.  If Black comes for Harry, he knows he will be ready, unlike before.  Harry will also need a lot of help from his two best friends, Ron and Hermione.  This will be Harry’s most dangerous year yet, where Harry will have to make life or death decisions.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban showed a lot of great foreshadowing like professor Trianni’s predictions.  This book combined mystery and adventure in the beautiful setting of a medieval castle in modern England.  It has a great storyline even though it is a little creepy.
            I would Give this book 3 out of 5 stars.
Trevor L.
 

Fire Star

Fire Star   
Chris D’Lacey   core 1 12/2/08
352 Pages

There is a Fire Star coming, signaling a time of new beginnings. A time for Dragons to rise again. Life can’t get much better for David Rain, until he finds himself in the icy climates. He starts writing a story. This story is about bears, dragons and mysterious Fire Star. But soon after he finds out that his legend is becoming mirror real life, and also that an old enemy is on her way to meet David, and has terrible plan; destroy the world. Can David stop her terrible plan, or will the world be destroyed forever?
This book to me was wonderful. One of the reasons was that the author always made an ending of a chapter leaves you hanging. It is one of those books that you want to read more when you get to the last page of a chapter. The other reason was that this book doesn’t rush everything; it includes every little details needed. If I were to recommend this book to someone, I would recommend this book to a person who would love legends/ fantasies. On the other hand, I would not recommend this book to a person who loves one of those girly books or romantic kinds of books. On a scale of 1‾10, I will choose 9.

 Emma R.


Thursday, December 04, 2008

Eclipse

Eclipse
Stephanie Meyer
620 pages

If you like mysteries, love stories, or adventures then you would like Eclipse. This book is the third book of the Twilight series. The main character Isabella (Bella) Swan falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen. From the previous book, the Volturi is out to change Bella into a vampire and from Twilight, Victoria is still out to kill Bella. Everyday Bella gets the newspaper and one day on the front cover was the heading, Death Toll On The Rise, Police Fear Gang Activity. She didn’t really pay any attention to until Edward told her that it was a group of newborn vampires. Newborn vampires can’t control their thirst for blood so they go around killing things. Bella came home one day to find her room spotless and she just thought maybe Alice or somebody decided to be nice and clean it up for her, but when she asked Alice if she cleaned up her room Alice didn’t know what she was talking about. As the days kept passing they finally figured
out that the group of newborns wanted Bella as their next victim so they went in her room and got her clothes with Bella’s scent on it so they could kill her. Will the Cullen’s and Bella’s werewolf friends help stop the newborn’s to save Bella?

Some things I don’t like about this book is that Bella can’t choose between Jacob and Edward. Of course she is going to pick Edward, but she has this feeling that she has to choose between them and doesn’t have to. One thing I like about this book is that Bella faces so many problems and Edward is always there for her telling her that everything is going to be okay. The book shows how passionately Edward is in love with Bella and I like that a lot. Stephanie Meyer’s writing style has a different touch to it each time I read another one of her books. I think this book was more about Bella’s family and friend’s. If I could rate this book on a scale of 1-10 I would rate a 9 because it’s a wonderful book and new things came up in the story, but sometimes I would set the book down for awhile and wouldn’t pick it back up so that’s why I rated it a 9. This book was great and now I can’t wait to read the fourth book of the series Breaking
Dawn. 

Delanie P.

Friday, September 19, 2008

The Host

The Host
Stephenie Meyer
624 pages
 
What happens when you stick a soul in a human’s mind who refuses to leave?  A sorry little love triangle.  "The Host” takes place in a futuristic worl where “souls"  are taking over the planet.  They’re injected into your head, where they gain control of your body.  If you’re strong enough, your thoughts can take place along side the souls.  Which is exactly what Melanie Stryder does.  She’s one of the last “free” humans, and when she’s captured by the souls, and taken control of by the soul called Wanderer, she refuses to let her take complete control.  When Wanderer tries to get information from Melanie, she keeps her secrets to herself, defending those who she loves with whatever she has.  But Wanderer is overcome with Melanie’s emotions, and that proves to be a problem.  Will Wanderer get the information she needs? Can Melanie protect her family?  Will they both go crazy trying to overcome the other’s strength?
This book is the sci-fi novel for people who don’t particularly like sci-fi.  I never have, but I fell in love with this book, and everyone that I’ve met who has read it has loved it as well.  Stephenie Meyer is capable of hooking you from the start, she’s an in credible author.  This book deserves 9 of ten little gold stars!
 
Becca K.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
Le Ly Hayslip with Jay Wurts
367 Pages

What if you could see the view of the Vietnam War from a Vietnamese girl’s prospective?

Growing up, Le Ly was a regular teenage girl in her tiny Vietnamese community. But there was something no one knew about her.  She was a trained Viet-Cong operative who carried out operations against the South Vietnamese and the Americans.  During her life, Le Ly endured rape, imprisonment, and the loss of two of her family members.  Will she make it to safety?  Will she go to America?  And, will she ever return to see her beloved family in Vietnam?

I enjoyed this book because it was constantly coming up with a new plot.  There was always something interesting going on in Le Ly’s life.  The downside is that is has some adult content.

I would like to give this book a 4 out of 5 stars for a good storyline.

Trevor L.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Storm Breaker

Storm Breaker

Anthony Horowitz

Pgs. 240

Stormbreaker is an action packed book about a 14 year old teenager who goes through the most exciting adventure. Alex Rider lost his father and mother when he was just a baby. His Uncle adopted him then was killed in a car accident, as Alex was told. He decided to go to the wrecking yard to investigate his uncle’s car. Instead of finding a wrecked car Alex finds bullet holes. After the investigation, Alex was asked to go to his uncle’s employer at a bank that his uncle worked at. When Alex gets there he was actually recruited by MI6. They tell him about Herod Sayle, a twisted man who is trying to kill many innocent children. Sayle was giving away lots of upgraded computers to kids all over the world and MI6 found that suspicious so they sent Alex to spy on Herod Sayle. Sayle picked one boy to test his new computer, Storm Breaker, and Alex was chosen. Day after day Alex tested the computer and he occasionally spied on Sayle. He finds out what Sayle was planning. When Storm Breaker is activated, by every child in the United States, a small amount of small pox releases infecting everyonebody. As soon as Alex heard of Sayle’s plan, Alex was caught listening. He was handcuffed so that he could not release the information to MI6. What will happen to Alex Rider, will he be killed or be a national hero?

I would recommend Storm Breaker to action loving teenagers. There are lots of fighting, suspense, and cool unique gadgets. Although, when MI6 and Alex Rider talk about their target, they take a long time to talk and share everything and the gadgets are a little silly. There were only a few characters which makes it easier to remember who is who and each character had a simple description. Such as, what they looked like and a little bit of their personality. There were no big, long background story for every character that was in Storm Breaker. Anthony Horowitz left off every chapter at cliffhanging point making every reader wanting more of the book. He also gave very detailed descriptions about what was happening throughout the whole book. For Example, when Alex was in a battle against a guard that he needed to pass, the characters hand motions when they talked, etc. The author also takes the readers into a whole different world. On a scale of 1-10 I would give this book a 9 because the action in this book was intense and exciting.

Derek L.

Loser

Loser
Jerry Spinelli
218

Loser? No just a kid a little different than the others. In this journey through the tough life of Donald Zinkoff he encounters mean fourth graders, a new neighbor who, let’s face it doesn’t like him very much, he also races against the fastest kid on the block. Throughout this book, Donald goes from his first to 1,080 day of school. Or from first grade to sixth grade. Although Donald is much different to other kids he doesn’t care, he doesn’t notice. There is one select part in the book where things change. In this part Donald for the fist time isn’t last. For the first time Donald can feel as if he is the best. What has Donald been picked for? Read to find out. This is a good book because it shows the journey through grade school and reveals the diversity that some kids have to face. I would recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a fun and easy read. I thought the plot of the book could have been a little less lengthy at some parts. The
characters in this book were thought out very well. After the book I felt as if I knew most all of the characters as if they were my best friend. The diologue was great, I could have pictured myself in all of the arguments, and conversations. I have always liked the way that Jerry Spinelli writes. He makes the situation very easy to visualize. I would rate this book at an 8 out of 10 because of the simple read.
Kyle H

Zoo

Zoo
Graham Marks
266 pages

(1.) This was not the time, he figured, to sit around and wait to see what happened next. (p.18, Zoo)

(2.) Cam is 17 and escaping from the kidnappers and the police, he is on the run to Los Angeles, with no idea why the armed agents are after him.Cam just wants to go back home—until he realises something.
“Home’’ might be the scariest and the dangerous place of all.

(3.) Will Cam run away from the kidnappers, police, and the mysterious armed agents?

(4.) The best part of this book was the most part.... the middle to the ending. I can feel how Cam couldn’t trust anyone, feeling lonely, afraid, and guilty.
The part that I didn’t like was the first 2-3 chapters. When I was reading these chapters The story didn’t really move on… and it wasn’t very interesting.
If I were to recommend this book to someone, I would recommend this book to someone who likes all these mystery stories.
During the story, I liked the main character, Cam. He was my favourite because he is trying his best to escape from a lot of people.

(5.)On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give this a book a 8.

(6.)Emma R.


A Corner of the Universe

A Corner of the Universe
Ann M. Martin
189 Pages

“My Uncle Adam was called a freak” I say. “He was called a lot of names; and that was one of the things that made it hard to be Adam.” p.177 (A Corner of the Universe)

Hattie Owens is an eleven year old who lives in the small town called Millerton.  She has never really been outside her town, and her families boarding house is where she feels most at home. 
There are things in Hattie’s past that are too big for her to know, and the biggest secret is her twenty-one year old Uncle Adam.  Hattie doesn’t even know that Adam exists until he has to live again with her Nana and Papa.  Everybody in the town of Millerton isn’t ready to deal with Adam’s mental problems...so Hattie gets caught in the middle, and winds up spending most of her summer with him.  Adam teaches Hattie that she can lift up her own corners of the universe, and everything seems to be going well, until one night something upsets Adam and tears him apart, making him run away.
Will Hattie and her family find Adam before it’s too late?

In the book A Corner of the Universe I liked how even though most people didn’t understand Adam, Hattie felt like she did and she treated him well.  I also liked how Leila’s family from the carnival, and Miss Haggerty treated him really well.  I didn’t like how people in the town knew that Adam had problems, but some people chose not to be nice and caring to him and called him a freak and a jerk.  Hattie’s Nana and Papa were two people who I didn’t like the most because they didn’t listen to what Adam was trying to say, they just got mad at him, yelled at him, and sent him upstairs to go to his room.  They didn’t understand Adam, and they should’ve listened and not just punished.  Two other people who are mean and caddy are girls that are Hattie’s age, Nancy and Janet.  They constantly call Adam a freak in the book, and it makes him cry, because he know he has problems, he just can’t help it, and they know that.  Despite some mean and rude people, this book is really good, and I would recommend it to maybe my sister, my cousins, or my friends.  The plot of the book, A Corner of the Universe, was really good, because Adam came into the story very quickly, so there was a lot to tell with him in the story.  I thought that if the characters were all nice to Adam then maybe he wouldn’t have run away.  The dialogue between Hattie and her Nana and Papa was unfair, because it was mostly never Hattie’s fault when her and Adam got into trouble, and her Nana and Papa and mom and dad don’t listen to what she is trying to explain.  I liked the authors style, and I felt like I could understand it better because it didn’t say “Hattie and Adam”, it said “Adam and me”.  Through the whole time I read this book, I kept thinking, if Adam was my uncle or was my friends uncle, would I treat him nicely?  I would, because I know two people who are like that, and I would be really upset to see them getting treated so badly, and getting called names.  I liked in this book how Hattie was like that to Adam. She was nice, patient, and was one of his best friends.

To rate this book, it’s hard, but I would give it a nine out of ten.  One being the worst, and ten being the best, I gave it a nine because the only reason I didn’t like it was because of the way some people treated him, but I loved the rest of the book, and someday I will probably read it again.

Taylor L.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
by: Ann Brashares
294 pages
 
            A pair of everyday jeans made a precious bond between four friends during their summer vacation. In the book, “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”, Carmen, Tibby, Lena, and Bridget spend their first summer apart from each other. The pants that locked their friendship together was first found as an amazement, and from then on, the four girls had remarkable stories to share.
            The pair of pants was originally bought by Carmen at Wallmans, because she said it was on a sale for only $3.49 including tax. She didn’t even try them on; she just knew that that pair of pants were the one for her. But, on the four friends’ departure, all the girls tried the pants on and looked marvelous in them. They then decided to share the pants, and created rules for it. The girl who has the pants must send it to the next person with a letter or note attached.
            Lena was sent to Greece with her sister, Effie, to stay with her grandparents for the summer. She was the more beautiful girl of the two, but never had a boyfriend. Her sister, on the other hand, was a happy girl always finding a nice guy. Soon her grandmother invites a handsome young man, Kostos, for dinner. Her grandmother tells Lena how much everyone in the neighborhood dearly loves Kostos’s kindness and generosity to others. When Kostos see’s Lena he falls in love with her, but Lena thinks otherwise.
            Carmen’s parents had divorced a long time ago, and this summer was the one that she was able to stay with her father. When she landed at his house, she met a woman with two snobbish teen children. Her father was sorry for not telling her before she flew to his house. What was he sorry for? The woman at his house was to become his new wife! Then she realized these two irritating teens were about to become her stepbrother and stepsister.
            Tibby didn’t really have anyplace to go to this summer, so she decided to stay home. The only good thing that kept her busy was her job at the grocery store, and her old kitty, Mimi. She was going to work one day, and she saw a little girl fall under a perfectly made pyramid of cans of soup. She collapsed and didn’t break her fall, but Tibby made sure she was fine. She first looked at the girl’s wallet to find her name, which was Bailey. Tibby slowly became close friends with Bailey. Later, Bailey became suddenly ill and was sent to the hospital. Bailey’s mom told Tibby that Bailey had Leukemia.
            Bridget was having a good old time teaching soccer camp this summer. She had decided to play against people her same age for fun, and teach little kids the basic game. Bridget (or Bee) was one of the most energized person in camp who always scored the best goals. This was true until she met a gorgeous guy who seemed to be the leader of the camp. She had a lot of guts to ask him out, but he was five years older than her.
            Will Lena ever like Kostos? Could Carmen ever face her father getting married again? Would Tibby ever see Bridget after knowing that she has Leukemia? How would Bridget ever ask her dream man out?
            The Sisterhood of the Traveling pants is the kind of book a girl above 13 would want to read to see what people’s lives are like when things don’t turn out right. The four characters were well created by the author. She decided to give the four girls different types of chararistics (gothic, sweet as apple pie, dedicated, and shy). The way she wrote how their lives were turned upside down and back around was amazing.
            I really liked how the book had funny rules on what-to-do and not-to-do when you were wearing the pants. It really shows how dedicated the girls were on having the pants be their peculiar way of “staying in touch” over the summer. The book also had a quote at the end of each chapter that has an inspirational touch of “girl power”, and it also shows how you should take a stand for what is right.
            What I didn’t like, was the fact that the author mixed the story with a little bit of inappropriate romance. It wasn’t too pleasant, but I know a lot of other books have some inappropriate parts too. Also, in my opinion, I think she could have used a larger vocabulary. For someone that was 12, the vocabulary would be perfect. It was also hard to understand the girls’ dialogue in the beginning of the book, since they were just about to leave each other for the summer.
            I could say this book is not for girls or boys under the age of 13, because it has some inappropriate scenes. On a scale of 1-10 (1 being bad and 10 being good), I would rate this book an 8. It was fun to read, but sometimes it didn’t make sense.
                                                                                                                                              -Priyoshi.K

Haunting At Home Plate

  Haunting At Home Plate
  David Patneaude
  181
 
       If you love listening and watching ghost stories and have a passion for baseball, you will definitely enjoy the book Haunting AT Home Plate. This is a story about a baseball team that loses their star pitcher and their coach. They still have a chance of making the playoffs, but they need a coach. When the team starts practicing for the playoffs they start seeing messages before every practice and they assume that one of the players on their team is writing them. But some of the kids think it is the ghost of Andy Kirk (a kid that died at the park.) The writer helps the team by supporting them and giving helpful tips. Will the team make the playoffs? Can they also win the championship? I liked most of the story, but I didn’t like the old coach. He was a huge jerk. I recommend this book to anyone who likes baseball or who likes mysteries. I liked the characters a lot because of their personalities and the characters’ dialogue was very specific. The plot of the story interested me a lot. The author’s style of writing made it really easy to tell what was going on. I would give this book an 8 out of 10.
 
                                                                                                                                   -Adam J 
 

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass
Philip Pullman
399 Pages

What if your best friend never left your side? That is exactly what the book The Golden Compass is about. First of all The Golden Compass has three parts to it. The first is Oxford, the second Bolvangar, and the third Svalbard. In most fantasy books there’s a villain. In this one the villains are called Gobblers. No one truly knew what the gobblers did. One thing they did know was that they stole children. Why no one knew. The main characters in this book are Lira and Pan. Pan is what I was talking about with your best friend never leaving your side. The thing is Pan is an animal or what they call in the book a daemon. The daemons are like the humans souls. In the beginning of the book Lira meets a beautiful woman, her name is Mrs. Culter. Mrs. Culter tells Lira of an expedition she will be taking to the north. Seeing how Lira was so intrigued by the north she invited her. Before they left Oxford the head master gave Lira a golden compass or the Alethiometer telling her not to show or tell anyone about it. Day after day Lira waited to go to the north. Finally in one of the parties Mrs. Culter hosted Lira figured out that Mrs. Culter was actually in alliance with the Gobblers. Scared she ran away, and ended up running into the Egyptians. Knowing they were good she left with them. She them figured out that they are making a resistance against the gobblers to save the children in the north. On there journey farther north Lira found an armored bear named Iorek Byrinson who made a debt to Lira for getting his armor. Farther on to Bolvangar Lira gets captured by the Tartars. The Tartars them take her to Bolvangar where the children are being kept prisoners. As Lira helps free the children they come across a problem. The problem was the army surrounding Bolvagar. Luckily the children are saved by a clan of witches. Now that they saved the children Lira had to go to Svalbard to give the Alethiometer to Lord Asriel. On her way there though she gets captured by armored bears. Knowing that Iorek Byrinson is coming she convinces the king to fight him in single combat to the death. So the two bears go thorough an intense fight, but Iorek prevails and becomes king. Lira then continues her journey to Lord Asriel, but when see gets there she is not welcomed and learns that he is trying to build a bridge to other dimensions. Will Lord Asriel be able to build a bridge between the other worlds?
I liked this book a lot, for example I liked how everyone had a daemon. On the other hand I didn’t like how when you reach puberty your daemon doesn’t change anymore. I would recommend this book to someone that dreams of a world more magical then our own, that has no problem reading more than one book to find the ending or would be inspired to write a book of their own based off this one. I think the plot was to broad in the beginning and was made even bigger because of having three parts. From the three parts it felt like each one had a plot of its own. By the end though it was clear what the true plot was. The characters where okay, but what made me read on where the daemons. I fell in love with the concept of having your best friend be and animal that can talk. I normally don’t pay much attention to the dialogue because I really can’t tell the difference between authors. What caught my eye was the actual story. I think I feel most comfortable and enjoy reading fantasy books more than anything because if I were to picture my perfect world it would probably be one based off a book. His style is unique, none the less, it’s kind of like he’s fulfilling a wish that I am sure everyone’s had. That is, of wishing we could go into an alternate dimension, so if something bad happens that bad become a good.
I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

Cole S.

Goalkeeper in Charge

Title: Goalkeeper in Charge

Author: Matt Christopher

Number of Pages: 144

“If you love books about sports and when people overcome their fears by believing in their self’s then you’ll love Goalkeeper in Charge.”

“It isn’t just now, either. Today, when Ms. Gould asked you about the poem we read in class, about what it meant, remember? You just sat there like she was speaking some weird language you didn’t understand. I know you’re smart. I know you could’ve come up with an answer, but you just sat there. How come?” p.2

“It’s just that when she asked the question the other kids turned and looked at me…and I…couldn’t talk. My brain wouldn’t work, my mouth wouldn’t work, and I, well, you know. It’s not like it’s the first time.”

Tina is a 12 year old girl that hates to be the center of attention she even gets bright red when someone gives her a compliment. She’s not really the type of girl who loves to meet new people. She loves to play soccer, especially the fact that it’s a team sport and she won’t stand out. When Tina joins her schools soccer team everything is great, she doesn’t stand out, no one is really paying attention to her, she loves it, but when her coach notices that she is pretty good at playing keeper and they didn’t have one on the team she asked Tina to play one for the team. This is the one thing Tina hated about soccer, playing keeper. The Goalkeeper stands out from the team not only because the color of the jersey is different but when she saves a shot all of the people in the stands will be looking at her and cheering for her, she hated it. When she came home to deliver the news to her parents they thought it will be good way to gain some confidence, but Tina strongly disagreed with her parents. 

“Will Tina overcome her fear of being the center of attention and help her team out by being the new Goalkeeper?”  

I liked this book because I can relate to Tina, because my favorite sport is soccer and when I joined a new soccer team I was a little bit scared finding out what position I would end up playing, but I have made new friends and I enjoy playing soccer more than any sport. I also liked how the author put a lot of dialog between the characters it made it easier to understand what the girls were thinking. I also liked how each chapter would end. It makes you want to keep on reading to find out what is going to happen next. This book made me realize that you can do anything when you decide that it doesn’t matter what people think it only matters what you think of yourself.

I would give this book an 8.

-Karolina M.

Ark Angel

Ark Angel
Anthony Horowitz
326 pg.

14 year old Alex should have been dead after the sniper bullet that was intended to go straight through his heart, but he wasn’t. Miraculously, the bullet misfired and ricocheted off of one of his ribs, instead penetra- ting his left arm. Recuperating in an exclusive hospital in London, he meets another teenage patient and befriends him. However, when kidnappers attempt to snatch his new friend, Alex knows he must fake his identity and help him. (Fortunately, Alex survives the ordeal.) The boy he helps is actually the son of Nikolai Vladmir Drevin, one of the richest men in the world and the director of Ark Angel, the first hotel in space. To thank Alex, Drevin invites him to go on a vacation with him and his son to the launch site of Ark Angel, an island in the Caribbean. Drevin’s son’s kidnappers, Force Three, are a group of eco-terrorists who claim that Drevin’s project, Ark Angel, is a danger to the environment. Soon Alex realizes that Force Three will stop at nothing to destroy Ark Angel, even if it means sending vast amounts of debris zooming back down to Earth and killing hundreds of millions of people… unless Alex can stop them. Will Alex stop Force Three in time? Read the book to find out!
The book Ark Angel is the last in the Alex Rider Chronicles. In the series, Alex Rider, a spy for M16, repeatedly saves the world from terrorists and madmen, and Ark Angel is no exception. The book is written in third person form, which connects the reader to more than if the book was simply written from Alex’s perspective. The plot changes rapidly and has some unexpected turns, keeping the reader hooked on. Andrew Horowitz describes the characters quite well (e.g. “Drevin was a serious-looking man in his forties with watery gray eyes and hair that had once been fair but was now fading to gray. He had bad skin; there was a rash around his chin and neck as if he’d had trouble shaving. All his clothes- his suit, his shirt with its buttoned-down collar, the plain silk tie- looked brand-new and expensive.”) Alex’s calm, quick-thinking personality also contributes greatly to the book’s quality. The book certainly has no lack of characters, suspense, or excitement, and I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good mystery, spy aficionados, or anyone looking for a great way to kill time. On a scale of 1-10 I would give Ark Angel, by Anthony Horowitz, an 8.

James B.

“Blood Fever: A Young James Bond Adventure”

“Blood Fever: A Young James Bond Adventure”
Charlie Higson
347 pages

If you enjoy a non-stop action thriller with new twists and turns on every page, you will find Blood Fever a great read.
James is an ordinary student at Eton Boarding School in London.  He joins a secret Eton club with the name of The Danger Society.  While racing through the city to avoid being discovered, he stumbles across a conversation between two men involving a secret gang.  The only clue to the name is a double “m” tattooed onto one of the man’s arms. 
During the holiday break he joins fellow students and teachers on a mission trip to Italy to help plant crops and help the locals.  While working, he can’t help but notice that one of the teachers is acting strange.  James wants to know more.  While in Italy he planned to pay his cousin Victor a visit. He lives on an island, which is home to some of the most ruthless smugglers, gangsters and pirates.  Victor lives in a mansion along with an artist.  James enjoys vacationing there until Count Ugo Carnifix comes for dinner.  Ugo is power thirsty and is trying to build an empire to rule the world. This means trouble.  When Victor’s house is raided and art is stolen, James knows only one person to blame.  Does the thief have something to do with the secret gang James stumbled upon in London?  Will James destroy the rising empire or will he fall into its clutches?
The action kept me interested throughout the whole book.  Every chapter was filled with some sort of mystery or chase.  It made me never want to put it down. 
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a page turning, action-filled, suspenseful read. 
The plot of this book was perfect for the James Bond theme.  The characters played their roles in a way that really distinguished them from good or evil.  Their personality traits made them fit right into the action.  I enjoyed how the author kept introducing new characters and I never knew which old characters would betray or join James. Whenever I thought the given problem was solved, a new character or problem was introduced, which caused James to be put into even more danger.  This would lead into a whole new aspect of the adventure with all new friends and enemies.  I liked how all of the little quests had something to do with the ultimate task of bringing down the rising empire.  During the book James had so many things to accomplish before even going to face the empire.  I liked how the author did this to add to the thrill and adventure.  It shows that all the little things add up to defeat something huge.  This really stood out to me. 
I would rate this book a 9 on a scale of 1-10.  It seemed like there were endless adventures constantly coming throughout the book.  It felt as if you were right alongside James with every obstacle in his path.

Alex G.

Because Of Winn-Dixie

Because Of Winn-Dixie
Kate Dicamillo
182 Pages

“There never was a town in greater need of a change, or a dog in greater need of a town.”

Because of Winn-Dixie is about a dog named Winn-Dixie and a girl named Opal. Winn-Dixie was a stray until Opal found him in the Winn Dixie grocery store causing a disruption. She named the dog after the store. W.D. (Winn-dixie) always loved to smile at people. Through out the book Opal and W.D. meet lots of new people and friends. But one night during a party with their friends there was a thunder storm, and W.D. panics and runs off from the party and gets lost.

Will Opal and friends find W.D. in time, or will it be too late? Find out happens when you read “Because of Winn-Dixie”.

What I liked about the book is that when W.D. smiles really hard that he would sneeze. What I disliked about the book was that Opal doesn’t have a mother. I would recommend this book to a person who loves dogs or likes to read about animals. I think this is a great book to read because it’s very realistic. It actually sounds like it would happen to you. This is a very interesting book for young minds alike.

From a scale of 1-10 I would give this book a 9 because its a very friendly, caring, and a loving story.

By: Spencer C

A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Slippery Slope

A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Slippery Slope
Lemony Snicket
337 pages

If you love to read books about children with mysteries and how they solve them then this is the book for you. In this book you will read about the lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. Violet is the inventor in the family and Klaus is the reader in the family. You can tell this about Klaus because he always has his reading glasses on. Last and the littlest is Sunny, she is about 2 years old and has four sharp teeth that have gotten her out of countless situations. You will also find out where the Baudelaire’s have to go and what they must do to find the answers to all of their questions like what does V.F.D. stand for, very funny dogs or something more important like an organization or something. Also, could one of their parents really have survived the fire that destroyed their home and tore the Baudelaire family apart? Or the question that needs to be answered, what are Violet and Klaus going to do to get their baby sister back from the evil clutches of the greedy Count Olaf.
There were a lot of things that I liked about this book. The author would explain in great detail on one subject so that you can picture that subject in you mind. I also liked how this book had a cliffhanger on the end of each chapter, which makes you want to read page after page. I would tell a boy or girl in my school about this book, because this book I think would be a little to easy for someone in high school to read but it might be a little challenging for a 4th grader and under to read. I would give this book 8 out of 10 in a scale of 1 to 10.

Kevin S.

Twilight

Twilight
Stephenie Meyer
480 pages

Can you fall in love with a vampire? Well seven-teen year old Isabella “Bella” Swan can. She moved from Phoenix, Arizona where her mom, Renee, lives with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, who is a minor league baseball player, to the rainy Forks, Washington. She concluded that if she moved in with her Dad, Charlie, then her Mom and Phil could travel and spend more time together. The first day in Forks was depressing for her because she hated the rain, but her Dad did buy her a truck. The next day she went to her new school, and a handful of guys were competing for her attention and she met this girl named Jessica who she seemed to get along with. That night all she could think about was her desk partner, Edward Cullen, in biology class. He was the only person in the school, who was trying to avoid her, and he was always staring at her with his big black eyes and pale skin, but he never talked to her. After tricking a family friend, Jacob Black, into
telling her town legends, she was positive Edward was a vampire. Although she was pretty horrified, she was insanely attracted to him. The next week he said he was sorry for his misbehavior. After a while they both fell in love with each other. Edward did admit he was a vampire, and he told her he was dangerous to her because Bella’s scent was a hundred times more potent than any other human’s. It was very hard for Edward not to kill her, but he was only allowed to hunt animals and not human’s. Right when things were going well, a tracker vampire, James, sweeps into town and smells her scent and right away he starts a hunt for her. His vampire friends say he won’t stop at anything. Will she live?
This book to me was absolutely wonderful. I think the reason for this is because the author always made you want to read more, and she always made it so exciting and intense. I liked her style of writing because there was almost an event in every chapter, like in the beginning of the chapter it would lead up to the climax then it would settle, and by the end of the chapter it would leave you hanging so you would have to read the next chapter. The only thing I dislike about the book is that, I wish the author would tell the reader what Edward hears, since he can read people’s minds. (Not Bella’s though.) I think the main character, Bella, is very nice, pretty and she doesn’t let her emotions show to Edward. Edward has non-human abilities like lightning fast speed, incredible strength, can read people’s minds and he can’t sleep. Aside from all of that he is very nice, he’s usually mellow and has gorgeous eyes (his eyes change when he’s
thirsty for blood or not). For a book like this, people who love romance, drama, adventures and things that surprise you would love this book.  For example, Edward and Bella fall in love with each other, that goes in the category of romance. On a scale of 1-10 I would give this book a 10 because the whole plot was just intense and mysterious and every character had a personality. It’s also a great book because even though Edward and his family are vampires and it’s non-realistic (unless you believe in vampires) it still has a plot where it relates to reality. For example, Edward and his sisters, brothers and parents are all a family so they love and care for each other like a normal family would today. I found this book to be so intriguing that I cannot wait to read the next book in the series “eclipse”.

Delanie P.

The Spiderwick Chronicles, Lucinda’s Secret.

The Spiderwick Chronicles, Lucinda’s Secret.
Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black
108 pages

If you like magical creatures and unsolved mysteries that are based on true events, you will love The Spiderwick Chronicles. When the Grace children moved into there uncle Spiderwick’s house they knew something was not right. When Jared snoops around in the attic, He find a mysterious book that talks about goblins and giants, He could not help but to read it. The next day after reading the book he finds his brother in the yard swinging wildly in the air. Jared watched until he saw his brother being dragged into the woods. Read the book to find out what happens to Jared, Simon, and Mallory.
I felt this book was a little to rushed for me but when I think back it makes the book unique. I felt it was different how they described everything. The author had his own way to use descriptive word. I would recommend this book to ages 6 and up because it would be difficult for inexperienced readers but would still be enjoyable to an older person. The author made me feel like I could connect with the characters. I have had the same experience in other books but I could not connect individually like this book. I felt that the dialogue was very short and was not descriptive enough for me. What drew me to the book was that it was based off of true events. That’s what I thought was the most interesting about the story. On a 1-10 scale I would rate this book about an 8.

Kyle A.

The boy who saved baseball

Title: The boy who saved baseball

Author: John H. Ritter

Number of Pages: 216

What if the baseball field that you loved was about to be torn down by developers?  In the book “The Boy Who Saved Baseball”, a boy named Tom Gallagher wants to save the field that was made by legends.  Tom’s grandfather owns the field but can not afford to maintain anymore.  He is about to give the field up to the developers but his grandson can’t bear the fact that the field he loves is going away. 
Tom is trying to come up with a plan to save the field. The challenge to the town is to win a game and keep the field or loose and the field will be gone forever.  Just when the whole town has run out of ideas to save the field, a boy named Cruz de la Cruz strolls into town and claims he knows the secret to hitting.
Tom has an idea that they can play them in a baseball game if Dillontown’s baseball team wins they keep the field if not the developers get the field. Unfortunately, the town does not have very good baseball players; Tom comes up with an idea to convince Dante Del Gato the world’s best hitter to coach the town’s team. The people in the town think it is a crazy idea but it will be the only way to win. “Will the Tom’s team win and keep the field of will they lose it for ever”?
I like how this book is not very predictable you never know what is going to happen next. I dislike how the book takes for ever to get to the point the keep going on and on about stuff that is not very important. I would recommend this to people who like baseball and like very detailed books. I did not really like the author’s style of going so detailed about stuff that did not need a lot of information because it made it a little boring. I liked only a few characters in the book since most of them disagreed with each other and they never got along. The dialog was interesting, good and there was a lot of it. I thought the plot was good.  I think the book was long enough but they should have added more events to make it more interesting.  On a scale of one to ten I would give this book a 7.
Zach G.

Skeleton Key

Skeleton Key
Anthony Horowitz
264 pages

If you love thrilling, fast-paced action novels, then Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz is the perfect book for you.

Fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is required by MI6 once again. Trained specially by the British Intelligence, Alex Rider has been turned into a teenage spy and sent to Wimbledon, the annual English Tennis Tournament, on a mission involving drugs and criminals. Upon completing MI6’s request he is given yet another, much more intimidating task. Alex is informed of a Russian man named Alexie Sarov, an ex-general in the army, who still dreams of the old days of Communist Russia. Alex is also told that Sarov is meeting with the Current Russian President on a small Cuban island called “Cayo Esqueleto”, which is Spanish for Skeleton Key.

However, MI6 is concerned for the safety of the Russian President; why would a man like Sarov, who hated the new Russia and preferred the old Communist one, be meeting with the current President of Russia? It didn’t quite fit. So, Alex is equipped with certain gadgets and is sent to Miami where he meets two CIA agents he is going to be working with, Glen Carver and Belinda Troy. When the threesome (Rider, Carver, and Troy) slip past the highly tight security into Skeleton Key disguised as a family, Alex learns that there mission is not just to investigate Alexie Sarov. The CIA agents had kept from him the assumption that Sarov might be armed with a nuclear bomb! Their real mission was to sneak into Sarov’s house (which was more like a palace) and check to make sure that he really does have the highly destructive nuclear bomb.

Carver and Troy plan to sneak into an underwater cave into Sarov’s house but are killed by a trap set by Sarov. Then, Alex is kidnapped and taken hostage where he witnesses the process in which Sarov drugs the Russian President. Sarov then reveals that his intention is to use the nuclear bomb to blow up all the people and major cities of Russia and to create a new, more powerful Communist Russia just like the olden days. From Skeleton Key, Sarov, Alex, and his men travel to Murmansk, Russia where Sarov plants the bomb. He also leaves Alex, chained and unable to move, to die in the blast along with all of Russia. Can Alex Rider save Russia and possibly the whole world from this madman?

The book was fantastic and was very fast-paced. I would recommend this book to people who like speedy-spy novels because this book is very fast at all times. It is also very realistic and offers an obscure plot that unfolds as the story progresses and would capture anyone who is a mystery lover. The novel also has a solid amount of action and high-tech gadgetry, something that wouldn’t be felt out of place in a James Bond movie. I would recommend this book for people who love action and adventure. If I were to rate this book on a scale of 1-10, I’d give it 9/10 stars. Although the book was very interesting, it was a little boring at times when the author explained too much. Other than that, this book was really good.

 Bharat K.

Flush

Flush
Carl Hiaasen
263 pages

Noah knew the truth and it was up to him, his sister Abbey, and Shelly to save the ocean. This book is about a boy whose father sunk the Coral Queen, a casino boat. He sunk it because he believed that the person who owned the Coral Queen was dumping waste into the ocean. Since he sunk the boat he was put in jail, but now his son and daughter, Noah and Abbey, want to know the truth. So, they made a deal with one of their dad’s friends, Lice Peaking, and his girlfriend Shelly. They both agreed to help with the plan that was “so crazy it might actually work”. In return, Lice would get the family’s boat and Shelly was just in it to help. Will Noah, Abbey, Lice and Shelly prove to everyone that the owner of the Coral Queen is dumping waste before he ruins the ocean?

I liked how the book made me want to keep reading, because there was never a dull moment. Also, it was easy to follow and at some points I didn’t know what to expect. I liked how I felt scared when the characters were or excited when the characters were. I thought it was interesting that they mentioned a story, which was thought to be a legend, in the beginning and then tied it into the ending. I disliked the part when the cops assumed that Pain Underwood had burned down the Coral Queen. But later, I realized that made me want to keep reading. The plot was connected making it easy to follow. There wasn’t anything that didn’t fit. The characters were easy to understand and figure out their personality. You could tell why each character did certain things. Also you could connect to them easily. Overall, it was a very enjoyable book. I would recommend this book to anyone in 5th to 8th grade who likes books where kids are the heroes.
On a scale of 1-10, I would give this book a 9.

Hayley L.

Beautiful Boy

Beautiful Boy
By: David Sheff
315 pages.
The expectance of drugs leading to death may seem severe, but the reality of drugs causing your own death is a whole different concept.  In this intriguing story, a young boy by the name of Nick suffers through a painful divorce of his own parents. Nick, a very talented boy, was very good at both sports and school.  One day Nick’s dad David finds a baggy containing Marijuana, Nick’s whole life is turned into different direction.
Will Nick get back on track forgetting about drugs, and maintain a sporting and educated life?  The answer is for you to find out.
In Beautiful Boy There’s not much to dislike except for the painful truth; drugs can and will destroy your life.  I’d recommend this book to pre-teens around the world, because at that point in their life is where they have to make their toughest decisions.  The author has a great style of writing, as he keeps you guessing throughout the book.  On a scale from 1-10, 10 being the highest, I give this book a 9 because it shows what drugs can do, how they change your life, and how the author shows this.

-Chris C.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Dead To Me

Dead To Me
Anton Strout
354 pgs.
 
      Imagine, for as long as you could possibly remember, you possessed a paranormal force at the very tips of your fingers. Something uncontrollable was taking place in your body, and, even after years of experience with it, you still had no idea had to use it. Simon Canderous, a New Yorker, had found a use for it as a teenager, but it certainly wasn’t the best of all choices. He was capable of touching an object and recapping its history. For example, he could pick up a guitar and identify the previous owners of it. If he sensed it was a former music artist that had once owned it, then he could steal it and resell it for money. That was his idea for using his powers. But somehow, he managed to turn around and use his uncontrollable powers for the nature of the public’s needs. He became a paranormal investigator. He worked side-by-side with someone named Conner. Conner was somewhat of a know-it-all, but that’s what made him the way he was. With further research of Simon and his powers, he came to a conclusion that he could perform something known as psychometry. It’s the power to touch an object and divine information about its history. For Simon though, its not as cool as you think. It made relationships hard, and he never could keep a steady life. He was always getting into mischief and couldnt help it.
      Simon and Conner were sitting in a cafe, doing their usual day-to-day coffee break. Simon noticed a very attractive woman looking at him from across the room. Conner spotted her and had realized that she was infact, dead. Simon didnt believe him quite at first, until that is, he accidently spilled coffee right through her. They try to figure out how and when she died, as she is not capable of remembering her life. Somehow, some way, Conner and Simon get mixed up with cultists, who rob the dead woman’s apartment. It’s up to Conner and Simon to find out how and who killed the woman, and how the cultists are related to her unknown death.
      Will they find a relation between the woman and the cultists? If so, how will they handle this entire investigation?
      This book seems to be very well written and full of creepy and exciting moments. I have to say, this book was intended for adult minds, rather than teens, but it is still an easy reader and teens can make relations and the likes with the characters. There is a little bit of language, which is definitely something I would change in the book. It could be made into a perfect teen reader if the ‘F’ word was removed, but it is still a remarkable novel. The way the character’s think and the setup of the plot and how it all fell into one story is absolutely incredible. It definitely took lots of time and hard thinking to make such a remarkable and creative story.
      On a scale of 1-10, I would have to give it an 8.
 
Zach A.

Tangerine

Tangerine
Edward Bloom
294 pages
 
            “Erik’s arrival is going to change the football season at Lake Windsor High School. Dad’s arrival is going to change how things are done in the Civil Engineering Department in Tangerine County. Mom’s arrival will change the Homeowners’ Association in Lake Windsor Downs. So what about me? Will I make the difference between winning and losing for the middle school’s soccer team?”
                                                                        -Paul Fisher’s Journal
 
            Paul Fisher had never really been noticed by or fit in with anyone. His family doesn’t have the time to pay attention to him, and because of his weird eye condition and dorky glasses he is a bit of an outcast at school. His parents say that he got this life changing eye problem when he was a little boy and stared at the solar eclipse for an entire hour, strange thing is he doesn’t remember any of it, and is starting to doubt the reality of it. In the beginning of the book Paul is in the midst of moving to a development in Tangerine Florida. Everything starts out fine, Paul landed himself a decent school, Lake Windsor Middle School. He made the soccer team and even got a few friends. Things were finally looking up for Paul when the impossible happened; he got kicked off of the soccer team! The sad part is it wasn’t because he wasn’t good enough, he happened to be a terrific goalie, but because of the medical seriousness of his eye condition! The coach informed him that by keeping him he would be jeopardizing the team’s insurance policy! As devastated as Paul was he had no choice but to let go of soccer, and it wasn’t going to be easy! 
Then miraculously Paul is given another chance. While Paul was talking to a teacher in the main building a sinkhole began to swallow the seventh and eighth grade portables! Thankfully all of the students and teachers were saved, but the portables were not. This gave all of the students the option of either choosing to take night classes till the end of the year in the main building, or transfer to Tangerine Middle School. This was exactly what Paul had needed, a fresh start and the chance of joining a new soccer team. Tangerine Middle was nothing like Lake Windsor, everyone there was so much tougher, but with the help of his guide Theresa Cruz he made some crucial connections. Theresa’s brother Tino was on the soccer team, the War Eagles, so she was able to help Paul get acquainted with the team. After talking to the coach he was able to even get the position of backup goalie. After getting to know all of the kids Paul learned that the kids on the Tangerine Middle School soccer team were more than just tough kids, they were a like family and no matter what they had each others back, and slowly but surely Paul was getting to become a member of that family.
Paul was beginning to like Tangerine Middle so much that he even convinced one of his old friends from Lake Windsor, Joey to come and join his new school. Unfortunately Joey didn’t fit in and he left the school for good. Paul learned to move on, and began to put a lot of his energy into his latest science project. His group consisted of the twins Theresa and Tino, himself, and a boy named Henry D., they were researching a new “variety of citrus” that Theresa and Tino’s older brother Luis created. Paul was very interested in the topic, and enjoyed helping around the farm. Life was as good as ever for Paul not only was he loving his new science project, the War Eagles had also won the game for the county title, in which Paul had playing time!
One day Henry D., Tino, and Theresa had come over to work on the science project at Paul’s house. After they had finished the group decided to play a little soccer in the back yard, when Erik and his little sidekick joined them in the yard. Just like when Joey’s older brother had been electrocuted and died in the beginning of the year Erik and Arthur began to make fun of Paul’s friends. They called them farm kids and pushed every single one of Tino’s buttons till a point where he couldn’t take it any longer; he retaliated with some witty comments, and got himself smacked clear across the face. When he came to his senses he got up and left without saying a word, but that wasn’t all Mr. Erick Fisher would see of the Cruz family. The next day Paul was hiding under the bleachers watching football practice when all of a sudden Luis Cruz, Theresa’s and Tino’s beloved older brother, walked onto the field limp, from a farming accident, and all. He walked up to Erik and gave him quite the challenge, if he could smack a kid in the face Luis said that he should come over and hit him, Erik accepted Luis’s offer without blinking an eye, and under his command Arthur walked over to him and struck the side of Luis’s head with a blackjack. Luis collapsed immediately to the ground. Two football players who witnessed the act helped him up and off the field, but a few days later he was found dead in the field. Police claim that the bump on his head that caused his death was received by a tree branch hitting it, but Paul knows otherwise.
Not only did Paul have this on his mind to deal with, but ever since he got to Florida he has been having all sorts of weird flashbacks, spray paint, the garage, his grandmother’s voice. He doesn’t know what the meaning of all of this is, but he is determined to find out just that. He also now more than ever needs to know the truth about his eyes. Questions need to be answered and it is Paul’s duty to do just that. Will the flashbacks ever make sense? Will Paul figure out the mystery of his eyes? Will justice be served and will Erik get what he deserved?
 
Evaluation:
 
This was an original story that I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys page turning suspense. In my opinion the author, Edward Bloor, made a very wise choice in writing the book in a journal format, because of this you could really feel the emotions Paul was experiencing, the neglect of his father, the fear of his brother, the love of soccer, and the closeness of his new soccer team. Due to the sense of emotion you would find your self relating to Paul. The book also had a wide range of characters, the Fisher kids alone sit on two very opposite ends of the character spectrum. I found it hard to believe that Paul, who is complex, interesting and likeable, is related to Erik who is harsh, mean, almost to the point where he would be considered 2-dimentional. I also found it interesting the personalities of the kids at the two different schools were so different, Lake Windsor Middle School was more structured so the kids were more laid back and carefree; on the other hand the students at Tangerine Middle School were less protected, so to thrive, or even survive they needed to be opinionated and tough.  At the end of the day the character that I found the most infuriating and the best written was Paul and Erik’s father Mr. Fisher. Mr. Fisher knew every single statistic of Erik’s football journey; he was present at every practice and watched all the games with pride, but it wasn’t until he saw Paul cutting a picture of the War Eagles out of the newspaper did he even learn that he was on a team, let alone that it was best in the county. Edward Bloor really knows how to get a reader’s blood boiling, and for that I commend him.
On the other hand, there were parts of the book that I didn’t like so much. For example look at the plot line, the author had great complexity, so there were many key parts of the story that it got confusing and very heavy at parts. There was the fact that Paul was moving, he didn’t fit in with his family, he got on and kicked off the soccer team, a sinkhole swallowed up his classrooms, and he got transferred to a new school. When he arrived there more life changing events took place, he met really tough kids, got on a new soccer team, started a science project he really got into. Then Paul also had to deal with Erik in his life, he made fun of his friends, and then killed their brother.  All the while trying to figure out what really happened to his eyes! Although all of these sections are very interesting, I would much rather read three or four books with a few of these main events each rather than one with all ten. With all of these blows coming at Paul in less than a year I began to find the main character’s life a little less believe able. All things considered Edward Bloor did a remarkable job on the ending of the book and brought Paul back into reality as much as he possibly could. In conclusion, on a scale of 1-10 I would give this page turning book a 7.

Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver’s Travels
Jonathan Swift
320

Traveling across the world and discovering vast new lands is only part of the legendary adventures of Gulliver. While his travels are themselves are exciting and fun to read, the author Jonathan Swift has underlying tones mocking the faults in human nature and politics of the time. Gulliver is ship wrecked, forgotten on shore, marooned, and captured by pirates and with each time he finds himself on uncharted lands and ends up leaving better than he was before he got there.
Gulliver starts out fresh out of college and apprenticeship as a surgeon, aspiring to go to sea. After several voyages he sets out as the surgeon for the Antelope which was sailing to the South Sea. When the ship hits a violent storm Gulliver is shipwrecked on Lilliput. He wakes up tied to the ground and surrounded by extremely small people that were about six inches tall. After being attacked by an army of them he lays still to insure them that he doesn’t want to hurt them. Their king later comes and attempts to communicate with him. Gulliver makes motions for food and drink which they amass large amounts of their food which is quite small to Gulliver. The king has him brought to their capital and they let him use an ancient temple which is about five feet tall for his home. He soon learns the language of the Lilliput and is asked by the king to help with their struggle against the neighboring islanders the Blefuscu. The author uses these islands as examples of France and England at the time. Eventually Gulliver is able to make small boat to leave the island and find other people his size so that he can return to his home. However after arriving at his home he again signs on with other voyages that include, being left by his crew on an island populated by giants that are about as tall as European cathedrals, selected to be the captain of a sloop that is captured by pirates and he is marooned on unknown land where he meets strange people the govern through a flying island ( the author compares them to England’s colony regulations), and being shipwrecked on an island populated by horses called Houyhnhnms where he see many human flaws in himself. The reader is left thinking will Gulliver ever be able to retire at his estate?
Overall I think “Gulliver’s Travels” is an excellent book that is exciting to read, and has an underlying tone of critique towards human nature and politics. Throughout the whole book I enjoyed his adventures how they where, and furthermore thinking about them deeper finding hidden criticism. However a few chapters in which Gulliver discusses politics with an inhabitant of his current location become repetitive. How the author wrote his book as a parody of such books such as “The Travels of Marco Polo”. Swift has multiple comments in the book displaying his dissatisfaction with authors who write books about exploration, even though they have never been there and are just spreading lies or copying from other author’s work. The character Gulliver in the book never existed but was used to further mock authors who made up their adventures at the time. Swift’s way of describing and explaining things made it easy to perfectly picture what he meant, especially with the Lilliput, and Brobdingnag (the giants). Through out the whole book Gulliver has had multiple personality changes depending on what his situation is, showing how he adapts to each position of authority. For example in Lilliput he is careful not to hurt anyone do to his size and is used to using smaller objects and feels strange when he returns home with everything his size. Compared to Brobdingnag where he is almost a servant, he relies heavily on others and feels like he truly extremely small. Then with the Houyhnhnms he starts to despise humans for all of their faults. For the whole book I would give it a rating between one and ten, a 9 since it is exciting and fun to read, but also makes you contemplate human nature. I would recommend “Gulliver’s Travels” to anyone wanting to read an engaging adventure, with more depth into it than what it may seem. “Gulliver’s Travels” was a superb book, written with the enthusiastic and dual meaning style of Jonathan Swift.

Cameron S.

Peaches

Title: Peaches
Author: Jodi Anderson
Number of Pages: 311

        Birdie looked out her window at her father’s failing peach farm and saw two girls walking toward her small house.  This story is about three very different girls who are forced to live together over the summer working on a peach farm.  The first girl, Birdie, is a very shy girl who has only known the people and workers that come to her fathers peach farm. The next girl, Leada, is Birdie’s rich cousin who never felt at home in the posh world she lives in.  Leada is forced to live with Birdie and her father for the summer to help them cope with the pain of Birdie’s mother leaving.  Lastly there is Murphy, a girl with a “I live by my own rules” attitude.  Murphy must work at the peach farm to pay back the damages she made when she broke into Birdie’s house to get liquor.  The book Peaches  is about Birdie, Leada, and Murphy finding their true selves and finding out who they trust the most.  These three girls, as you can tell, are the complete opposite, but can they become friends or with they just start to heat each other?
      If you like a feel good book that makes you laugh and even makes you cry, Peaches  is definitely a great choice for you.  In this book I enjoyed seeing how much stronger Birdie became throughout the book.  It was also interesting to see how Murphy became kinder and startes to let people in.  One thing I didn’t like in this book was the way Birdie’s father acted about her mom leaving.  Through the entire book he was always wallowing in self pity and let the sadness get in the way of his and Birdie’s relationship.  All together I would give the book Peaches  a nine out of ten. I would give it a nine because I had so much fun reading it and it just made me feel good.

Meaghan B

Maximum Ride - The Angel Experiment

Maximum Ride - The Angel Experiment

 by: James Patterson

432 pages

If you enjoy good suspenseful adventuresome novels, then you’ll absolutely love Maximum Ride - The Angel Experiment, a book written by James Patterson.  In this book, the main character, Max, who is 14, and her adopted family- Fang and Iggy both of which are 13, Nudge 11, Gazzy 8, and Angel 6- were all created as experiments in a lab called the School.  They were saved by a sympathetic scientist, named Jeb, and since then have been living on their own.  This group of genetically enhanced kids who can fly and have other unique talents are on the run from part-human, part-wolf predators called Erasers.  The Erasers have been ordered to kill them before the world can ever find out that they exist.  The sad part is that one of Max’s old childhood friend, Ari, now tracks them down being the leader of the Erasers.  He ends up kidnapping Angel and transports her back to the School to be used as a lab rat once more.  The rest of the flock is now forced to use their special abilities to rescue Angel as they try to uncover their true identities along with their pasts, but will they succeed with rescuing Angel?  And, will they learn the truth about their past lives?  The book ends with the guarantee that the adventure will continue in the sequel, Maximum Ride - Schools Out - Forever.  I enjoyed this book because it always kept me begging for more.  The only thing that was a minor setback, was that the children sounded like they were adults, like they weren’t acting their age.  I would recommend this book to all of my friends.  I thought the book was very well written.  The characters were painted extremely well inside my head, it usually felt as if you were right there watching everything unfold itself.  The dialogue was pretty realistic to what a normal person might say, though sometimes I thought that some of the things that they would say were too well said.  I also thought the authors style was very creative.  On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give this book a 9.

Elsa H.

For Freedom, The Story of a French Spy

For Freedom, The Story of a French Spy
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
181 pages
 
     The thrill and adventure in the book For Freedom will keep your mind spinning until you reach the end of the story. On a day when Suzanne, a brave thirteen year old French girl, would least expect it, she and her best friend witness a bombing on the beach, the explosion resulting in the horrific death of a family friend and her unborn baby. This is the start of a series of tragic events that make it clear that World War II has launched. Soon after, Suzanne and her family get thrown out of their home by a group of German soldiers, while her friend refuses to speak after the occurrence on the beach. Thankfully Papa gets to keep his salary working on the train, so the family is relieved to have found a small apartment to move into. Suzanne later notices that several of her neighbors have been disappearing. When Suzanne accidentally cuts a gash in part of her shoulder with a knife, she is forced to go to the community doctor. The doctor takes notice of her tough mentality, seeing as she will not cry. He presents Suzanne with an opportunity that, for the sake of the French people, she couldn’t refuse. In order to help save France from the Germans, she was willing to become a spy. One of her many rules was that she was not allowed to let anyone know. Not even her family. With Suzanne delivering increasing amounts of coded messages per day, her family got irritated with her and her work got more and more stressful and dangerous. If she were to get caught, Suzanne would undoubtedly be killed. When someone learned her secret, Suzanne was held at gunpoint being questioned by the German officer. Will Suzanne rat out all of the others in the French Resistance, or will she keep quiet and face her fate?
 
    This book was an intense, fast-paced read for me. What I liked most about it was that the main character, Suzanne, acted similar to me in certain parts. One is that she refused to cry even when the going got tough. She also never displayed that she was afraid or worried. She accepted the offer to be a spy, when she knew that if she got caught she could be killed then and there, and I thought that was extremely brave. I’m pretty sure I would not be able to do that if I were in her shoes. The author did a great job of displaying this bravery. I was amazed that this book is based on a true story, because it was so well written that I would think the character was made up. The style of writing sounded very straight-forward at first, but when I got used to it, the author’s style seemed to fit the plot of the story well because of how persistently eventful it is. When the characters spoke, their language was French, but after the dialogue, the author put the words into English to tell what they said. That gave me a better sense of where all of this was going on, and it made me try to actually hear the character saying the words in a French accent. All of the characters in the book were very well illustrated and Kimberly Brubaker Bradley did a good job of describing them because I felt like I knew them personally. The author was talented with making tension in the book. The first time Suzanne ran into one of the German soldiers, I was worried something would happen to her, and when they finally let her go home, I realized I was holding my breath. One part of the book that I didn’t particularly like was how Suzanne’s best friend faded out of the story. After farther than halfway through the book, the friend wasn’t mentioned anymore. It was disappointing that she never recovered from her muteness. Another thing I didn’t like was that the title said she was a spy, but she didn’t actually become a spy till about halfway through the book. I suppose that keeps people reading though, to find out when she would become one, because it sure kept me reading. On a scale from one to ten, I would give this fantastic book a nine. I would recommend this book to people that enjoy action, and readers with time on their hands, because this book is impossible to put down.
 
Hannah (Moriah) M.

One of those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies

      One of those Hideous Books Where the MotherDies

Author:Sonya Sones
268pgs.
 
            Imagine having a father but not once in fifteen yearshave you ever met him. Imagine having a mother who is always complaining aboutyour father. When Ruby Milliken was little she would always wonder who herfather was. When Ruby turned four her Aunt Duffy told her that she would giveher a special birthday present if she didn’t tell her mom. Aunt Duffy was goingto show Ruby her father. They drove to the movie theater where Ruby assumed wasthe place where they were going to meet her father. Ruby scanned the lobby withher eyes hoping to recognize her father. As the lights dimmed and the movie wasabout to start Ruby was still confused about her father. “Where is my dad?” Rubyquestioned Aunt Duffy. “That is your father” Aunt Duffy said as she pointed tothe man in the movie. After Ruby had found out her father was a famous actor,Aunt Duffy had started a tradition of taking Ruby to see one of her father’slatest movies every year.
WhenRuby was 15 her mom got sick and passed away, Aunt Duffy sent Ruby to LosAngeles­ to go live with her father. Ruby traveled 3000 miles to L.A., this time not asexcited to see her dad as she was when she was four, in fact she wasn’t excitedat all. As she arrived at the L.A.airport there were paparazzi everywhere trying to get her picture and as shespotted the man in the movies, her father, he was surrounded by cameras tryingto get pictures of him, and microphones trying to get quotes. When her fatherspots her he smiles so wide and rushes over. Although he is delighted to seeher, she isn’t the slightest bit happy to see him. As Ruby spends more and moretime at her dad’s huge house the more annoyed she gets at him. He’s always soworried about her and won’t let her walk home from school because he thinkssomeone is going to hurt her during the short distance. One day Ruby gets sofed up with her dad, she screams “How come you care about me so much now whenyou didn’t even come to visit me once in fifteen years?” To find out why Ruby’sfather didn’t come to visit and the secret behind it you’ll have to read, Oneof those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones.
Thisbook was pretty good but at times I felt as if the author exaggerated a lot,for example she would say “Ruby saw Johnny Depp behind the wheel of that silverPorsche” .Although Ruby’s dad is a movie star and they do live in L.A. it seemeda little unrealistic for movie stars to be everywhere. This book also seemed alittle unrealistic in other ways, such as every day Ruby’s dad drives adifferent antique car, because he so many. Although I may be droning on abouthow unrealistic this book was there were things I liked about this book is theauthor portrayed the characters feeling very well so you could almost relate tohow the character was feeling. The author also did a good job explaining thecharacters images so you could have a clear picture in your head of howeveryone looked. The author also did a good job on explaining every littlething that was happening so there was no need to go back and read a sectionagain because you got confused. The author wrote this book so it was neverboring, there was something to make you want to keep reading. I would recommendthis book to teens because the main character is a teen who has to move awayand has to leave her old friends and make new ones and she also has to livewith her dad who she has never seen in fifteen years. A lot of people move tonew places and have to deal with making new friends. On a scale of 1-10 I wouldgive this book a 7.5 because although this was a good book it wasn’t the bestbook I have read, however I did have a fun time reading it this summer!
By:Shilpa N.
           
 

A Company of Swans

A Company of Swans
Eva Ibbotson
374 pages
 
 
What if you lived in Cambridge, England in 1912 with an exceedingly strict aunt, a father that works at a university 24/7, had an arranged marriage to a man you would never love, and got offered your dream job? What would you have done? Would you have just sat around? How would you solve that problem?
Well 19 year old Harriet Morton did all of those. Harriet lives in Cambridge, England. Her mother died when she was about 4 years old, now, Harriet lives with her mother’s sister Louisa and her stuffy father, Professor Morton. As you probably would have guessed, Harriet’s life is about as exciting as a blank sheet of paper. The only thing that keeps her afloat in her dreary life is ballet lessons. Harriet, unlike most people, likes to strain herself. She pushes to exceed her current limit, so she constantly urges herself in ballet. Because of her hard work and effort, she does exceptionally well in ballet class, and that is how she got chosen to be the “eighteenth swan” in a corps in a Russian masters ballet company. The only thing stopping Harriet from signing her name on the contract the minute he asked her was her father, and the fact that she’s not Russian. Luckily, Harriet devises the perfect plan to escape, but, what will she find in the Amazon? Is she prepared to face the consequences when she returns home?
One of the parts that I liked was when she first met one of her roommates, Marie Claude, and Karina, and how different they both were. But, when I read this other part it the book, I really felt like strangling one of the characters, it was when Aunt Louisa and Professor Morton find out that she tricked them and decided to trick her “future husband” into finding Harriet and brining her back, and what they’ll do to her. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure with a splash of romance, and anyone who likes books about ballet. I thought this book was pretty good, but I thought that the climax and plot where a little runny. This book is basically about a girl who goes to follow her dreams as a ballet dancer and travels to the Amazon with a Russian ballet company, and how she does, what she finds in the Amazon, and about what is happening with her guardians, along with her “future” husband. Some of the characters in this book are very detailed; I could really imagine actually meeting them in person. But not all the characters, the author left out some really important information while writing the book (but I wouldn’t want to spoil the book for you, so, I won’t tell you them). The basic printing was like a regular book, but when the characters spoke they had an old English way to the way they talked, it was really cool! The author’s style was pretty ok, nothing really incredible, and nothing really terrible. On a scale of 1-10, I give this book a 8.
 
Athena T.

All American Girl

All American Girl

Meg Cabot
247
 
 
Imagine being world famous then becoming teen ambassador of the UN. Well that’s what Samantha’s life is like. When her older sister Lucy, finds a wonderful drawing in Samantha’s room she shows the drawing to their parents. Nobody knew she had been selling portraits for money. When Samantha’s parents find out they are not happy, and sign Sam up for art class. The first time she goes to the class she absolutely hates it. Her teacher doesn’t like the piece she has made. So the next week, she decides to skip the class. Instead she goes to a record store right across the street. When it’s time to get picked up she goes and stands in front of the art studio. When she is waiting for her ride she notices the president of the United States going into a donut shop next to the record shop, and standing right next to her is a guy with a gun aiming at the president. Without a doubt she tackles the gunman who luckily misses his target. After that Samantha is a national hero. Everyone wants to be friends with her. Even Kris, a rude girl from school wants her to come to her party. After that, the president invites Sam and her family over for dinner. At the dinner she recognizes the president’s son, David, from art class. Later on that night Sam finds out she is teen ambassador of the UN. Her job is to judge an art competition held in New York. While Samantha likes a girl named Sarah’s piece, the president likes another picture. It is Samantha’s job to choose, but the president doesn’t like the picture as much as the one he has chosen himself. What will Samantha do? Who will win the art competition? I really enjoyed this piece by Meg Cabot. It is an idea I’ve never read about before. It was a very unique idea. Although it probably wouldn’t happen it was a fun book. I would recommend this book to a girl who likes to read about other people’s daily life. All American Girl is a book kind of written in a diary form. If you enjoyed other books by the author you will love this book. Meg Cabot’s other books are written in the same style. In this book I liked how there was a wide range of characters with different personalities. Some of the dialogues in the book were hilarious with Samantha and her sister Lucy. Lucy is a beauty queen who wants to teach her wisdom to Samantha, who does not seem to have any interest in the subject. Samantha’s younger sister is also fun she is extremely smart, and often says things no one understands. It’s pretty funny how Sam pretends like she understands every single work her younger sister is saying. Overall I would definitely recommend this book to a friend. On a scale from 1to 10, I would give this book an 8.
 
 
 
Ann T.
 
 

Until Tomorrow

Until Tomorrow
Robin Jones Gunn
286 pages
 
            “Todd, do you want to break up?” Christy asked. Todd didn’t answer… “I think I’d like to talk about this later, if that’s okay with you.” P 81 Christy Miller is a nineteen- year old girl from Wisconsin. She moved to southern California just five years ago which is when she became a Christian. On that same morning she met Todd Spencer, a seventeen-year old surfer who just happened to be a Christian. Ever since they met, Christy had a crush on Todd and after three years of being “just friends” they were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. During that summer Todd got accepted to go on a missionary in Papua New Guinea for a few years. Todd turned down the offer because he didn’t want to leave Christy knowing that he might never come back. After Christy thought about his decision for a while she knew that she had to let him go. When months had passed since Todd left, Christy was sure she wouldn’t see him again until one day she saw him waiting for her at a train station in Barcelona, Spain. Now after a year and a half later, Christy gets a three-week long visit from her close friends Todd and Katie. When their trip gets off to a rocky start, Christy wonders if her close connection with Todd is still there. Her jealousy of the time Todd spends with Katie has her second- guessing of where Todd and her stand in their relationship. With no time to have a one on one talk with Todd, Christy’s jealousy blinds her from seeing the truth. Will Christy find out that Todd still cares about her before its too late?
 
            The book, Until Tomorrow, by Robin Jones Gunn was in my opinion a good book. This book is the first of the series Christy and Todd: The College Years. What I liked most about this book is that the characters are teenagers so I could mostly relate to them. Also since the characters traveled around Europe Robin Jones Gunn added little descriptions of each place which made me really want to visit Europe someday. Something I didn’t like about the book was that it was kind of too predictable and not a lot of things happened throughout the book. I would recommend this book to people who like characters that they can relate too, or want to know a little bit more about Christianity. I think the plot was decent but not really good. The characters were just like normal people except with different personalities from each other. The dialogue was easy to follow and there weren’t any “big” words so it was easy to understand. Robin Gunn’s style was to have Christy as the main character and everything was based from her point of view. Most of the time there was a lot of talking and every once in a while there would be a section of the page in a different font that would indicate that it was Christy’s thoughts or that she was writing in her diary that day. In all, on a scale from 1-10 I would give this book a 7.
 
Zina P.

No More Dead Dogs

No More Dead Dogs
Gordan Korman
180
Football hero Wallace Wallace has always told the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Little does he know that always giving his honest opinion will sooner or later land him in some trouble. So when his teacher Mr. Fogelman assigns the class to read his all time favorite book, Old Shep, My Pal, and write a book report on it, Wallace decides to give Fogelman what he really thinks.
Old Shep, My Pal, by Zach Martin is the most boring book I’ve read in my entire life. I did not have a favorite character. I hated everyone equally. The most interesting part came on the last page where it said “The End.” This book couldn’t be any lousier if it came with a letter bomb. I wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy.
Fogelman wonders how anyone could hate the book. Wallace says he knew that the dog was going to kick the bucket before he even read the first page.
“Go to the library and pick up a book with an award sticker and a dog on the cover. Trust me, the dog is going down.”-Wallace Wallace.
Fogelman, outraged and confused, tells him he’ll be rewriting his book report in detention. While serving his punishment, Wallace is appointed to help with the school’s upcoming play, which Fogelman is directing. Ironically, the play just happens to be the school-adapted version of Old Shep, My Pal. And it just keeps getting worse: Wallace is banned from the football team until he writes his essay and the whole team seems to be suffering. Wallace knows this isn’t true because he only made one lucky touchdown last season, but each absence from practices and games make the team wonder if he really cares about them. On top of that, it looks as though someone is trying to sabotage the play, and all fingers point to Wallace.
Still Wallace doesn’t let all the stress get to him, but he does start to change the whole play. It starts with his suggestion to add in a line, then rollerblades and a moped, until it grows into a rock and roll musical rendition of the out-dated classic. Will Wallace write his review and get back on the team or will his friends continue to hate him? And will the culprit behind the attacks get caught or will the play be ruined?
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was full of comedy, suspense and it was easily relatable. I thought the author’s use of different points of view was smart, giving the reader the full idea of what everyone was feeling. I would give this book a 9/10. I would without a doubt recommend this book to anyone that enjoys humor, but can still relate to the characters, someone who is middle school-aged.
Throughout reading the book I DID have a favorite character - Wallace. The one thing I most liked about Wallace was his bluntness and how funny he is when telling the truth. He isn’t afraid of expressing his opinion and I admire that (and only wish I could do the same.) His name, however sort of bugged me. I didn’t understand the point of the same first and last name. I thought Wallace was an unusual name seeing as the story takes place in 2000. I kept thinking of Wallace and Gromit. 
In addition some things about the book were predictable. When everyone starts blaming Wallace for the bad things happening on set, I had a guess who was behind it and in the end I was correct. Also, I won’t give away anything, but I predicted the outcome of certain characters’ relationships and I came to the right conclusions (of course!).

Drew N.

The Terminal Man

The Terminal Man
Michael Chrichton
210 Pages
“It’s a kind of surgery we call a stage-three procedure,” Morris Said. He did not bother to explain further. The Policeman wouldn’t understand and if he did he wouldn’t believe it.

Harry Benson was an average man till he was hit by a car.  He was not disfigured in any way but began to have “blackouts”.  These “blackouts” after many times seemed to get longer and he could not remember anything. Soon he was getting blamed for beatings and other crimes. The Police soon asked the doctors at the Neuropschiatric Research Center about these “blackouts”.  The N.R.S. found out that he would go into these “blackouts” whenever he was angry and had no control over himself.  They then decided to try a surgery which would end his “blackouts”.  Soon though things are out of control Benson now has an unstoppable three minutes were he goes on a murderous rampage.  Will the doctors and the police find Benson before it’s too late?

I really enjoyed this book because the plot was full of surprises.  It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time since it had a story that’s plot was a mystery type.  It also had an excellent selection of characters who were Dr.Ross, Harry Benson, Dr.Morris, and Dr.Ellis.  It never went in the same direction and always had a surprise.  It also was the perfect length of a book not too long but not like a half a hour read.  The author’s style also gave it a feel that it could happen now, but it is not likely to happen because I don’t think we have a medical procedure like the one in this book.  The dialogue was interesting because it has some advanced medical and scientific terms which were a little confusing but I was able to find out what most of the words and terms meant.  I would recommend this book to anyone who likes science fiction and thriller books.  On a scale of 1-10 I would give this a 10.
Braden M.

Th1rteen R3asons Why

Th1rteen R3asons Why
Jay Asher
288 pages

What if the person you really liked killed herself and you were one of the thirteen reasons why.
Clay Jensen was just like any other teenage boy, until he received a package. This one little package would change his life forever. Only he didn’t know that. The package was from Hannah Baker, who just a few weeks earlier had committed suicide. She took an overdose of pills on purpose. Throughout the entire night Clay stayed awake listening to all of the thirteen reasons why Hannah decided to kill herself. Clay was in a coma-like state while listening to all the horrific events. Each of the events had a place marked on a map that was also given with the tapes, Clay made his way to all of those places. But he couldn’t bring himself to one of the places marked on the map, but it was for a good reason. Clay might eventually go to that place or he might not. But what if someone had been there to comfort Hannah and help her work things out, maybe the ending would be different. She could have gotten together with the one she loved. Things could have gone back to the old times when she was normal, and she was close with her family. Maybe if someone had cared about her enough to help her. They could help her get her life back together step by step. All she really needed was someone that cared. What did Clay ever do to be a part of Hannah Baker’s decision to commit suicide?
In the book Th1rteen R3asons Why I really liked the fact that the author kept the book very fast pace. In each of the individual chapters there was never a dull moment. It had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I had no idea what was coming up next and that made me want to keep reading. When I did continue reading everything was extremely surprising and nothing ever ended up the way I would have thought. Another thing I liked was that each reason why Hannah killed herself had its own chapter. Even though each reason was in different chapters they all ended up tying together. One other thing I liked about the book was the authors writing style. He made everything seem so life like. All of the situations could actually happen. Also he put so much detail into everything. It made me get a clear picture of each of the characters and what they were like. The author also made everything so mysterious. For example some things were never completely explained and that really made me wonder what had actually happened. All of the characters in this book were so unique. They all had completely different personalities and it showed in the way they acted. Hannah Baker kept all of her emotions bottled up and eventually she just couldn’t take it anymore. She finally made the only decision she thought she had and that was to end her life. This really made me realize that maybe if she hadn’t of kept her emotions bottled up she would still be alive. Her character really made me think and that is something I really liked about this book. There was nothing I really disliked about Th1rteen R3asons Why. It was the best book that I have read in a really long time. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery, action, and or realistic fiction. People who like mystery books would like this book because everything is very mysterious and there were a multitude of surprises. If you like action then read Th1rteen R3asons Why because there is always a lot of stuff going on. Realistic fiction lovers should read this book because everything is life like and the situations could have actually happened. Overall Th1rteen R3asons Why is for anyone who likes to just sit down, relax, and read a really good book.
On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give this book a 10 because it has the perfect blend of mystery, suspense, and thrill.

Alex B.

Out Standing In My Field

Out Standing In My Field

Patrick Jennings

165 pages

     If you enjoy true baseball classics, that keep you hooked on every page, than you’ll love the book, Out Standing In My Field. Ty Cutter is a lousy right fielder, who can’t catch, hit, throw, run, or simply do anything. His dad is the coach of his pee-wee baseball team which makes it very hard for Ty to quit the team, and leads to Ty never missing a second of action, out in the field. In result, Ty is placed in right field every game, even when there are other players who are much better than him; who end up on the bench. This leads to the team’s decision to hate him. Ty wants to stand up to his dad and tell him that he is no good at the sport and is not enjoying playing. However, deep down he is too afraid. So, will Ty Cutter tell the truth about his feelings toward baseball, or back down and continue to do something he does not enjoy just to please his career struck father?

     While I read this book, I really liked how the author wrote about every play that was happening during a game; that way you really connect with the characters and are able to judge whether that character was good at the sport, or needed more practice. What I disliked was that the author, in some cases, tried too hard to be funny or make a scene more comical. I highly recommend this book to people who know a little about baseball, or you may get lost. This is because the plot mostly takes place at Ty Cutter’s championship game, and the author writes about the whole game, every play, and both teams competing. Other characters in the book, that help make up the story are: Daisy Cutter, the Professor, and Jesus Salcido. Daisy Cutter is his brainy sister who is brave, courageous, and very loud spoken. Daisy is a young genius who is great at baseball, but simply hates to play it. So, whenever her dad tells her to play she simply says “no”. Ty is extremely confused how she can say no, so easily, and why he is too afraid to stand up to him. The Professor, his dad, was once a major league baseball player, but unfortunately blew his career at his one and only game by making three consecutive errors and striking out twice. Now he has high dreams in his son. These are the reasons why Ty is too scared to quit his baseball team. Jesus Salcido is just a player on his team that gives him some trouble. No one likes Ty, but this center fielder hates him the most. This is just some of the names he calls him, Cutie Pie, Mud Pie, Apple Pie, and Pie Head. Although these names all sound, not so hurtful, an incident involving pie always is brought up to tease him. Together all these character are what makes this book good, because they play the perfect roll, and have the perfect personality. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this book a 7.

By: Marissa R.
 

Twilight

Twilight
Stephenie Meyer
498

“Imagine Bella’s confusion when she discovers that the one she loves is a vampire who has a near irresistible thirst for her blood.”

Bella Swan, a 17-year-old girl lived with her mother in Phoenix, Arizona until her mother re-married. Bella then chose to go and live with her father to give her mother some time to spend with her knew husband. Bella now lives in the rainy, little town of Forks, Washington where everybody knew everybody. In Forks Bella attended a very small high school. In this extremely small school, Bella meets the mysterious and dazzling Edward Cullen; but Edward isn’t like other boys. Edward is different. For example, he can run faster that a mountain lion. Next, he can stop a moving car with is bare hands (And not to mention leave a dent in it); and finally let’s not forget he hasn’t aged a day since 1918. All this information, and a little help from Jacob leads Bella to believe that Edward truly is a vampire. With Edward putting Bella in danger by spending more time with her, and the Cullen’s mortal enemy, James, coming to town looking for Bella; Now managing their love will be harder than ever.

“Will James find Bella?; Will Bella and Edward’s love succeed?”

What I like about Twilight is that it’s really easy to read in the sense that it stays on one subject time. The book doesn’t rush things; it includes every tiny little last detail, and explains everything completely and fully. One other thing that I enjoyed about Twilight is there’s always surprises around the corner that you would never have even thought about. The only thing I don’t like about Twilight is that between the interesting and surprising sections of the book, there are a few boring parts that make you wonder if anything interesting will happen again.
I would recommend this book to anybody who likes a love story with a twist.
I thought that the plot was very interesting because at first you think that the book is all about how Edward and Bella will manage their love, but then the book takes a wild turn when James comes looking for Bella. I think that the characters were perfect for the story, after I was able to figure out what the author was trying to say when she was describing them; because the first time I read all of the descriptions, I didn’t quite understand her style, but after reading them a few times I started to understand what she was saying. Also, another thing that was slightly confusing about her style was that after a few of Bella’s descriptions of Edward it was pretty obvious that he was a vampire. I’m not sure if that’s what the author was going for but that’s definitely what it felt like. It’s kind of the same thing with the dialogue. The way that I had to read it a few times to actually understand the moods of everybody, and the emotions going on in the room.
Overall I think the book was written very well and I really enjoyed it.

On a scale of 1-10 I give this book a 9.

Millie W.

Ranger’s Apprentice

Title: Ranger’s Apprentice
Author: John Flanagan
Number of Pages: 294
 
 
‘Before she could move, she felt an iron grip around her throat, and as she gasped in fright, a fur-gloved hand, smelling vilely of smoke, sweat, and dirt, clapped over her mouth and nose, cutting off her cry for help.’ p.7 (The Battle For Skandia)
That was the beginning of a new war, a war with Temujai, the best light cavalry and tactician, that has been long forgotten; against the world stupidest but strongest warriors, the Skandians. Will bronze ever beat brains? What I liked about this book is how descriptive it is. Also it has a huge war always with many twist and turns of events. What I dislike about this book is how confusing it is. I sometimes read this book three or four times to understand the whole book. I would recommend this book the people who like wars with sneaky fast archers. I think the plot was well done and organized. The dialogue sometimes might have been too much. If I were to rate this book, I would give it a 7.
 
Michael P.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Lush

Lush
Natasha Friend
178 pages

If you like a short read that will hook you until the very end, you’ll love “Lush”.

It’s hard enough surviving 8th grade, but Samantha also has to keep her family’s life on the down low. Samantha’s dad can’t stop drinking, and her mom is obsessed with yoga. Because of her fear of her dad coming home drunk, Sam can’t even have her friends sleep over. All the while she’s getting harassed by the boys a school . In a desperate attempt for advice, Sam randomly choses a high-school girl to write notes to. As their note writing friendship blossoms, Sam begins to wonder, ‘Who is A.J.K?’ and ‘Will her advice really help Sam get through the tough times?’

Will Samantha really be able to help get her family though her dad’s drinking problem? Who is the mysterious A.J.K? And how will she deal with the stress of everything going on in her life? Find all this out and more when you read, “Lush”.

I really love Natasha Friend’s style in “Lush”. As always, the way she captivates an adolescent girl’s life is fantastic. She thoroughly describes the trials and tribulations that every 8th grade girl goes through, all the while intricately tying in the problems of having an alcoholic as a father. I really admire the humor, and insight Friend puts into the book. And I love the descriptions put forth that make this book such a big success in my eyes. I definitely recommend this book to 8th grade girls.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give this book an 8.

Emma O.

The New Adventures of Ellery Queen

The New Adventures of Ellery Queen
By Ellery Queen alias Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee
311 pages

What do you get when two cousins, both with multiple names, decide to write detective stories? The answer can be summed up in two words, Ellery Queen. Mr. Queen is a sharp, keen, and well-known detective who has been known to inspire awe and wonder due to his extraordinary skills. The New Adventures of Ellery Queen includes nine breathtaking and sometimes strange mysteries including sports, supernatural, and Hollywood adventures.

The Lamp of God is the most bizarre and lengthy of Queen’s escapades in this collection of novels. Alice Mayhew is the long-lost daughter of the deranged Sylvester Mayhew. Alice has lived in England up until her last relative there passed away and then travels to see her twice-divorced father. Unfortunately, Sylvester abruptly dies before Alice arrives to meet him. Ellery Queen poses as the omniscient colleague of his attorney friend Thorne who intends to assist Alice in the shroud of darkness surrounding her family. Dr. Reinach, Alice’s indifferent and chilling uncle, assembles with Thorne and Ellery to collect Alice from her long journey. The group arrives at Sylvester’s old English property to become acquainted with the alarming Black house and modern White house. Reinach’s frightened wife, Ann, the brooding manservant, Nick, and the disturbed Aunt Sarah create the somber welcoming crowd. These factors add up to a quite unsettling night that cumulates in a morning discovery. The Black House has disappeared into thin air! As the order of everything sane is flipped upside down, Ellery must discover the source of all Alice Mayhew’s troubles. Are the devious forces at work merely human or otherworldly?

I loved this intriguing and suspenseful mystery along with other more cheerful or sinister adventures. In fact, I took more pleasure in reading Ellery Queen than my favorite Sherlock Holmes! Although Ellery likewise has an air of omniscience, his personality is more human and likeable. Also, there is an element of romance in each of the selections which always helps with the appeal of the book for girls. I would recommend this book of collected works to boys and girls in eighth grade and up. While these short novels are fascinating, they make for a slow read because they are a little wordy and complicated. The New Adventures of Ellery Queen deserves five stars.

Camille A.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Twilight

Twilight
Stephenie Meyer
498 pages

His[Edward] eyebrows rose “Is that what you dream about?  Being a monster?"(p. 498)
When Bella Swan decides to move to her dad’s from her mom’s house (Arizona to Washington), at first it seems like the worst decision she could have made.  Everyone in the town knows everybody else in the town, everything is green, it rains way too much, and her dad bought her an ancient truck.  Well the last one wasn’t really bad, it was a cool car.  But when she notices a crazy beautiful group of kids- the Cullens and the Hales- one day at school, it changes everything.  They all had the same pale, perfect skin, and the same dark eyes.  One of them, Edward Cullen, can’t seem to figure out how he feels about Bella.  At first he can’t bear being around her, and then he tries to become her friend.  Will Bella be able to discover their dark secret?
Basically, if you like both a horror story and a romance, this book is amazing.  I love it and say it deserves way over 10/10(yep, 1,000%).  Vampires have always interested me (I’m a Van Helsing fan) and that was why I originally decided why I would read this book.  Well, that and my friend really wanted me to read it.  However it is a tad bit in the chick flick category, so guys don’t have the biggest chance in liking it.  But, they could still try it!

Becca K.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Speaker For The Dead

Title: Speaker For The Dead
Author: Orson Scott Card                                                                                                      # of pages: 382

If you loved Ender’s Game, you’ll love Speaker For the Dead. In this great sequel to Ender’s Game, you start off at the life of a colony called Lusitania with its humans and alien creatures called Pequino’s. These Pequino’s, called piggies, are the only alien race discovered since the Buggers, a species of alien wiped out by the humans 3000 years ago. The story starts off with a man and his son named Pipo and Libo. Pipo and Libo both study the piggies with a friend named Novinha. During study, these piggies kill Both Pipo and his son at different times. Here enters Ender, now what is called a Speaker for the Dead. Novinha calls for Ender to speak of Pipo’s death, which would take 22 years to get to from the nearest planet, where his sister, Violet, is staying. When he leaves Violet behind, he travels for 10 days and Violet is alone for 22 years. While Ender is traveling, Pipo’s speaking is cancelled and a new request arrives. This request is for a man named Marcao, Novhina’s legal husband. Novinha’s children call for the speaking of this man. During the Speaking, Ender reveals many secrets that hurt people and heal people. Afterwards, he goes to see the piggies with the Bugger Hive Queen with him. The Piggies, with no technology or tools, just holy trees to sing to for items, request that Ender, though nobody but the piggies know it is Ender, revive the Hive Queen at Lusitania and revive the buggers. Will Ender decide to help the piggies and the buggers with this planet? Find out in Speaker for the Dead!

This is an awesome book that I would recommend to anyone who has read Ender’s game.

On a scale of 1-10 I would give it an 8.

Daniel Y.

--
“Weird is good but too much weird is bad!” *thumbs up*

Raven’s Gate

Raven’s Gate
Anthony Horowitz
254 Pages

    If you like un-predictable fiction that keeps you wondering through the whole book. Well then Raven’s Gate is a book for you. Matt was an accomplice in a suppose to be harmless shoplifting heist. But things did not go as the way they were planned. The cops arrested him and gave him the choice of either got to jail or go live with a woman named Mrs. Deverill in a small town called Lesser Malling, as a government project called LEAF. He would soon find out he had made the wrong choice, he should have chosen jail.
    He is in the middle of an evil plan going on in the remote town, Lesser Malling. People try to help him disappear from the old woman, Mrs. Deverill, others try to kill him. Matt can sense something wasn’t right and for a while he has been wanting to get away but all efforts seem helpless. When finally he meets a man in the woods who said he will help, a spark of hope hit Matt’s heart. Can this man help Matt or is it just another helpless effort to escape from Mrs. Deverill and the town?
    In the book, Raven’s Gate, the author described the surroundings, he keeps you thinking about the next chapter and makes you want to continue reading. However there were some parts that were confusing and hard to understand. I would recommend this book to people who like mystery books and fiction books. I give this book a seven out of ten because it kept me enjoying it and made me wonder what was going to happen next.
        -Nick Y.

Holes

Holes
Louis Sachar
233

If you like mysteries, crime, punishment, and redemptions you will love Holes. Stanley Yalnates seems to be a very unlucky boy thanks to his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great grandfather. On a normal, unlucky day for Stanley, a pair of famous shoes falls from the sky into Stanley’s hands. The police said they were stolen from a homeless shelter. He had a choice of jail or Camp Green Lake. So, he said good buy to his father (an inventor who wants to find a cure for stinky feet), his mother and is grandfather, and headed off to Camp. Camp Greene Lake is neither a camp nor a lake. It is a dried up lake where juvenile delinquents dig holes for character (five feet wide and five feet deep.) When Stanley got to camp he was greeted by the face of a man in a cowboy hat with a huge bag of sunflower seeds next to him. The man introduces himself as Mr. Sir. He then meets the camp counselor named Pendanski who shoes him to his cabin. The next day Stanley starts digging holes
in the
hot wasteland of camp. He meets the warden who is a curl, greedy lady. He starts to become specious of the reasoning of why there are kids digging holes, but does not say anything. The book then splits into three separate stories.
The first is the story of Stanley’s family curse. When Stanleys great-great-grandfather, Elya Yelnates, was a young man he promised something to a gypsy named Madame Zeroni. She gave him a pig which he took up and down the mountain singing a song to make the pig strong so he could give it to the women he loved. But the women did not love him, so Elya left to America with forgetting to take Madame Zeroni up the mountain so she could get strong to, but if he did not bring Madame Zeroni up the mountain than his family would be cursed for all eternity. 
The second story is about the infamous Katherine Barlow. 110 years before Stanley arrives at Camp Greene Lake, the town was beautiful. There was no desert, just a lake, onions and peaches. A school teacher named Katherine Barlow falls in love with an African American Man named Sam. In a small town in Texas which a black man can’t kiss white women is a law. Well Katherine kissed Sam and Trout Walker, the richest man in the town saw. He gathers townspeople to burn down the newly fixed school. Katherine goes to the sheriff, but he is drunk and wants Sam to die. Katherine and Sam try their best to escape, but their boat is destroyed while only half way across the lake and Sam is shot and killed. The lake then dried up soon after Sam died. Crazy with grief she goes to the sheriff and shoots and kills him.  She becomes an outlaw named kissin’ Kate Barlow named after the fact that she kills her victims and leaves her kiss of lipstick on them. Oddly enough she robs Stanley’s great-gr
andfat
her and buries the money somewhere unknown. Trout Walker and his wife Linda try to threaten her into giving its location to them, but Kate dies from a yellow-spotted lizard before anyone can find out where the money is hidden.
Stanley new that there was something deeper than digging holes, he just did’t know what. Digging through one of many holes Stanley dug he found what looked like a bullit but had the initials KB on it. Before Stanley could look over it, it was snatched up by a boy at camp named X-Ray who got the day off because “he” found it. Stanley made a friend at camp named Hector Zeroni or as everyone called him zero. He never new his dad and lost his mom at a playground, all he has is Stanley. With the stress of camp on his shoulders he ran away. All in what the eye could see was dessert. Stanley scarred for Zero ran away to try and find him. He found Zero in a boat full of jars of extremely gone off peaches. Stanley tried to convince Zero to go back to camp, but Zero would not budge. Stanley’s great-grandfather said when he got robbed by Kate Barlow; he found refuge in gods thumb. Stanley and Zero saw a mountain that looked like gods thumb and headed up. Will Zero and Stanley solve the
Camp G
reene Lake mystery before it’s too late? I truly loved the book; it kept my attention at all times. I always wanted to know more and kept me guessing to the very end. It was a very easy read and I probably next month should challenge my self more. I like the way the author came in and out of the three different stories, you can really relate to the characters because they have very distinct personalities and the mystery is not one mystery, it’s several!!! If I could recommend this book to someone it would be a 6th grader because I think it is more of their reading level and I would like a person who enjoys quirky fun, mysteries. The author in his language and the characters he created make this book fun and want to read more. Mr. Sir is probably one of my favorites in his actions and his words. On a scale from 1-10 I would give it a 7.5 because of its youth vocabulary (I need a greater challenge) and because it kept my intention (fun and enjoyable.)
Rebecca J.

Stargirl

Stargirl
Jerry Spinelli
186
If you like stories will keep you interested, yet make you wonder why you keep reading this book then you’ll love stargirl.
Mica High has always had the same kind of people, with the same routine, and the same well....EVERY THING. That is until Stargirl Caraway enters as a new student. Nobody knows who she is or where she comes from but one thing is apparent, things are starting to change. Soon stargril has enchanted the entire school and everybody seems to have a new attitude. But all that glitters is not gold. During one of the basketball people start noticing the annoying aspects about Stargirl and the whole attitude towards her starts to change. What will happen to stargirl? Find out in the enchanting novel, Stargirl. 

I liked this book, but I can’t really put my figure on why I actually like it. Stargirl is someone that anybody can relate to and she captivates the hearts of readers. The emotions and confusion Leo, the main character, goes through are relatable as well,  and I like the twist on a high school story with an out of the ordinary character. This book was very nice and the ending shocked me but it seemed necessary. 

I would give this book a 4 star rating

Emma O

Jumping the Scratch

Jumping the Scratch
Sarah Weeks
167 pages

If you’re a person that has troubles come in threes, then you’ll know just how Jamie Reardon feels. After his cat dies, and his dad runs off with a cashier from the MicroMart, Jaime thought that the old saying of troubles coming in threes, would defiantly be in his future.  And when about a month later, from when his dad left him and his mom on their own, they got a call that his aunt Sapphy, had been injured in an accident at work.  Jaime hoped that this would be the end to his troubles.  Having to move to Michigan so they could live with Sapphy and her short term memory, in Wondrous Acres trailer park, Jaime had to start a new school.  Getting in fights at school, and not making friends, Jamie gets abused by the manager of his aunt’s trailer home complex.  But later, Jaime finally manages to make a friend with his neighbor, Audrey Krouch, and they both try to find a cure fir Sapphy’s memory.  Will they find out how to fix Sapphy’s illness?

What I liked about this book is how it started off and how it was written.  What i didn’t like was in how some parts it was confusing.

I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars because I overall liked the book. Keirra B.

The second Bend in the River

 
The second Bend in the River
Ann Rinaldi
265 pages
 
            If you like factual and fictional information mixed together and pilgrim life and Indians then you’ll like this book. The second bend in the river is about a girl named Rebecca Galloweh. When she was eight she met a Indian named Tecumseh. And the book goes throughout her life until… Tecumseh proposes to her. Can Rebecca the pilgrim life she now knows to become Tecumseh’s wife?
 
            I really liked this book it was very different and it was a good story to read. At first I didn’t want to read it because I thought it was boring. But I was curious so I read it and it was a really good book. I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.
 
Trina R.
 

Camp Confidential- Grace’s Twist

Camp Confidential- Grace’s Twist
Pages
Melisa Morgan
 
     Grace Matthews is funny, silly, and could do anything for a smile. But underneath she isn’t as carefree as she would like everyone in bunk 3C to think she is. She is very annoyed with all the reading she has to do and she doesn’t get to enjoy camp as everyone else does. While she is everyones’ close friend, she doesn’t have any one best friend. Which is why she atarts hanging out with a girl from the rival bunk, Gaby. But Grace can’t always tell if Gaby is joking or being mean. Will Grace make it through the summer?
     What I like about this book is the way the characters are developed. But the story itself isn’t interesting. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give this book a 7.
 
Sonia I.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
J.K. Rowling
759 pages

“The Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, [and] the Cloak of Invisibility.  Together, the Deathly Hallows.”
- Xenophilius Lovegood

Harry Potter is waiting at the Dursleys’.  The Order of the Phoenix has arranged to pick him up away to a safe spot, because when he turns seventeen, the magical protection that his mother gave him will end, making him vulnerable to Voldemort, the infamous Dark Wizard that killed Harry’s parents.  However, the journey did not go smoothly – Voldemort was informed of the date of departure by Severus Snape, the ex-Potions Master at Harry’s school, who killed the headmaster of the school, Professor Dumbledore the last year.
Death Eaters, followers of Voldemort, waylaid the Order of the Phoenix in the air while they traveled on broomsticks and other flying objects.  The Order narrowly escaped, but Mad-Eye Moody, the famous Dark Wizard catcher, and Harry’s owl Hedwig were killed.
Harry arrived at the Burrow, the home of his best friend Ron Weasley, joined soon after by his other friend, Hermione Granger.  They stayed for the wedding of Ron’s elder brother, Bill Weasley and his French fiancée Fleur Delacour.  At the Burrow, the Minister of Magic arrived as well and presented Harry, Ron, and Hermione with the objects that Dumbledore had left them in his will – For Ron, his Deluminator, an object known to suck light out of nearby light sources and put them back with a click, commonly referred to as the Put-Outer.  For Hermione, an old book of children’s stories, The Tales of Beedle the Bard.  And for Harry, the Golden Snitch that he caught in his first Quidditch match.  Responding to Harry’s touch, it revealed writing on it: I open at the close.  Nobody could figure this out.  Dumbledore also wanted to leave Harry the sword of Godric Gryffindor, but the Minister refused to pass it on, because he said it was not Dumbledore’s property and therefore could not give it away.
Many people, mostly Weasleys, attended the wedding.  A few friends attended as well, including Luna Lovegood, an old school friend, and her father, Xenophillius.  Xenophillius was wearing a strange symbol on his neck, which was, according to one guest, the symbol of Dumbledore’s rival, Gellert Grindelwald.  This left the three, particularly Hermione, intrigued. 
Soon after the wedding, Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out for the seemingly impossible mission that was handed down to them when Dumbledore died: destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes (objects for a wizard to store a part of his soul, so he cannot die).  The trio headed to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, Number 12 at Grimmauld Place as their first stop to prepare for the journey ahead.
After a recollection of a golden locket in the house, which matches the description by Dumbledore of one Horcrux, Harry’s house-elf, Kreacher, reveals that a thief, Mundungus Fletcher, stole it.  Harry sends Kreacher to capture the thief, and Kreacher returned after a few days.  Fletcher said that Ministry of Magic witch took it from him.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to the Ministry headquarters in London.
Harry managed to steal the locket, but with a few drawbacks – one, a Death Eater at the Ministry managed to grab Hermione by the arm as she Disapparated (teleport) to Grimmauld place, therefore revealing the once hidden house to him and forcing all of them to go into the wilderness.  Two, they had no way of destroying the locket.  Three, they had brought no food, expecting to be home at night.  Now, they were faced with a serious predicament.
Hermione managed to forage some mushrooms and wild vegetables, but it was very scant and barely sufficient to support the three.  Furthermore, out of frustration at the situation, Ron left the others and traveled to a place unknown.  The next day, to look for a place Dumbledore might have left Harry the sword, they went to Godric’s Hollow, Harry’s birthplace.  Unfortunately, Voldemort anticipated Harry’s move and ambushed him there.  Harry and Hermione barely escaped, but Harry’s wand was snapped, leaving him seriously vulnerable.
A few days later, as he took the watch for danger as they camped, Harry saw a silver doe cast by magic.  He curiously followed it to a small pool, where he found Gryffindor’s sword.  The problem was, he had to dive into the pool to get it.  And as he dived, the locket Horcrux on his neck tried to strangle him, and was saved by Ron, who had returned.  With the sword, Ron stabbed the locket, destroying the Horcrux.  Back at their tent, Ron told his story: He had, in truth, wanted to come back the moment he Disapparated, but he ran straight into a band of people who wanted to capture him, believing (correctly) him to be a truant.  Ron managed to escape and headed to Bill and Fleur’s new home to stay for a few nights, then headed back to try and find the others.  It was when he saw the doe that he found Harry and saved him.
Hermione decided she wanted to talk to Xenophilius Lovegood and ask him about the sign he was wearing at the wedding.  He said that it was the sign of the Deathly Hallows.  Claiming to be calling Luna from the river, he headed outside and sent a letter to the Ministry of Magic.
Luna was not at the river at all.  Xenophilius had been printing things in his magazine encouraging the people to help Harry Potter, and to make him stop, the Death Eaters, who had infiltrated the Ministry, captured Luna and said to let her go only if he stopped printing and gave them Harry Potter.  Now that Harry was here, Xenophilius called the Death Eaters and told them to come get Harry.  By creating a diversion with an explosion in the house, Hermione got the three safely away.
After some discussion, Harry decided to believe that the invisibility cloak he owned was the Cloak of Invisibility, and the resurrection stone was in the Snitch, much to the disbelief of Hermione and Ron.  None of them believed what Harry did, and refused to talk about it, insisting on getting the rest of the Horcruxes.
Harry “accidentally let slip” Voldemort’s name, which was Tabooed by the Death Eaters, claiming it to be disrespectful to say the name out loud.  Death Eaters captured them and took them to where a band of Death Eaters was stationed, which was also where Luna and a few others were held, including Griphook the goblin.
Dobby the house elf found them and got them out safely, but not before Bellatrix Lestrange’s knife hit him fatally in the chest.  They all made it safely to Bill and Fleur’s, though.
Believing another Horcrux to be in the Lestranges’ bank vault, they used Griphook’s knowledge of the bank to break in.  Griphook, however, demanded the sword of Gryffindor as payment.  Harry decided to accept, but did not tell Griphook when he was going to give the sword, which was after they had destroyed the Horcruxes.  The break-in was successful, but Griphook stole the sword and ran off.  The three had to escape on a dragon, which was guarding the vault.  The managed to get the next Horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff’s cup, but again with no way of destroying it.
Harry saw a vision of Voldemort heading to Hogwarts, Harry’s school.  Harry’s fears were confirmed – the next Horcrux was at Hogwarts – the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to Hogwarts and began the search for the Horcrux.  The diadem was in the Room of Requirement – a place that supplied anyone with almost anything when they needed it.  But as Harry took it, Vincent Crabbe, a student and follower of Voldemort, cast Fiendfyre, a type of cursed fire to stop them.  Both he and the diadem were destroyed.
Ron and Hermione headed to the Chamber of Secrets, which once housed a basilisk, and tore a few fangs away to destroy the cup.
The last Horcrux was Nagini, Voldemort’s snake.  Harry walked in on Voldemort and Snape on accident while searching for Nagini, but the pair did not notice Harry.  Voldemort killed Snape with Nagini and left the room, and Harry rushed at Snape.  Snape sent a stream of memories out of his head for Harry to see in Dumbledore’s Pensieve, an object that allows a person to watch a memory.  Harry rushed to Dumbledore’s office and poured the memories in…

Read the book to finish the story.

Specials

Specials
Scott Westerfeld
372

The third installment of the Uglies trilogy keeps readers on their toes until the final word on the last page. 

Tally Young blood finds herself as icy as ever as a special  Special Circumstances Agent. Being part of the cutters was something that no one could take away from her. With her newly enhanced senses, Tally finds herself going on her first  mission with the cutters, roughing up some new Smokies and confiscating the cure for pretty-headedness from them. But when the chase goes into the forest, Tally and Shay figure something isn’t right. The Smokies didn’t have sneak suits before, and they had never purposefully  ambushed and attacked anyone. After Fautso, one of their fellow cutters, is captured by the New Smokies, Tally and Shay vow to find the new smoke and destroy it once and for all. 

Emma O.

Bad Girl

Bad Girl
Michelle Jaffe
453 pages
            Bad Girl is the book for you if you like murder mysteries with twists and turns that keep you guessing. This book is about a woman named Chicago Thomas and her daughter Cate. They move to Las Vegas, because Chicago is offered a job in criminalistics. She is put on a case right away. A family, excluding the father, is murdered. Chicago and her team believe they know who the killer is, after two more murders like the first one. Then they find some evidence that says otherwise. The man they believe is the killer gets surrounded by a SWAT team. He shoots at them, so of course, he gets shot back at. Now they believe the murderer is dead. Don’t forget, any good book has a love story, too. One of Chicago’s co-workers is in love with her, but Chicago’s engaged. Is the murder case finally over? Who will Chicago choose? Just read Bad Girl and find out!
            This book was written really well and kept giving you cliff hangers. The suspense almost killed me. Plus, it had several unexpected twists. However, it did have some mature content. I would give Bad Girl four out of five stars. It would’ve been five stars but because of the mature content I couldn’t give it a higher rating. It was borderline appropriate for teens our age. All in all it was a wonderful book, though.
 
Monica L.

Tuck everlasting

Tuck everlasting
Natalie Babbitt
139pgs

“Winifred stood pail and afraid as Jesse pulled her back from the spring which had the power to change the world forever”. Winifred has been longing to go outside the woods her whole life. Then she finally takes the risk to explore beyond the gates. Next to her house is a wood that held secrets she had no idea about. Then she comes across a spring and a family that will not let her go near it. She finds it very suspicious. This family had a secret that no one could no about. Would they tell her the secret?

This book was interesting from start to finish. It had action, scariness, and romance all in one. This book made you realize that there is more than the eye can see. I would recommend this book to people who like short stories that catch your attention, and people who like stories that have mystery, romance, and creepiness to it. I would rate this book an 8-9 because of the action pact fun that made the book interesting the whole entire time.

Kayla L.

Uglies

Uglies
Scott Westerfeld
425 Pages

What would it be like to live in a world of ultimate luxury, where your only obligation is to have fun, and you are surrounded by beautiful faces?  That’s what life is like in New Pretty Town, and soon Tally Youngblood will be there.  She just has to turn 16 to have the operation that will change her from an Ugly to a gorgeous Pretty.  Soon her life will be a paradise, filled with high-tech gadgets to make her life really great.  But Tally’s best friend, Shay, isn’t sure she wants to be pretty.  And when Shay runs away, Tally is offered a choice:  Betray her rebellious best friend, or never become pretty at all.  Tally is about to embark on an adventure that will change her life forever…but will she follow through with her plans to turn Shay in?
I think that this is the best book that I have read in a long time.  It’s full of suspense and shocking twists and will have you devouring the chapters!  There are a lot of things that you wouldn’t have expected.  As I turned each page, I found myself rooting for Tally and her friends, who are very likeable characters.  They are people who you can relate to, even in an unfamiliar environment.  They have their anxieties, but are full of determination.  However, this book was not without its flaws.  At times I had trouble keeping on top of what was going on, and some fairly boring parts of the story dragged on and on, while some of the interesting bits were gone in a heartbeat, leaving you hungry for more.  All in all, however, I loved this book and on a scale of 1-10, I would give it a 9.
Lilly P.

Camp Rules

Camp Rules
Jordan Roter
260 pgs.

If you like trying to break all the rules, then you’ll like the main characters in this book, who try to do just that.  Penny Moore has always wanted to go to camp since she was eight-years-old. Well now it’s different since she’s sixteen and is “too old” for camp.  But when she wook up on her sixteenth birthday she found her parents sitting in her room with her birthday gift. She opened it to find a shirt with the letters FLC printed on it.  So she asked her parents what it stood for.  Fern Lake Camp.  The first camp that Penny would ever go to, except to bad that she was sixteen now.  So Penny sucked it up and decided to finally go.  When she arrived at the airport she was surprised to see out of all people, the most popular girl at her school, Logan Worthe there.  According to Penny, Logan was the last person to see attending this all-girl-camp. 
When Penny arrived at camp the counselors announced the bunk assignments.  Penny’s bunk had six other girls in it, Jade, Willow, Tess, Gabby, Missy, and Logan.  They were assigned to Bunk One, the top bunk, the bunk that every girl wants to be in when their older, the best bunk in camp.  And Penny, the newbie, was assigned to it.  And this wasn’t making Logan very unhappy since she had to wait all the from when she was a little girl at camp to be in bunk one, and Penny at her first year, was there.  Later that night Logan and Penny got into a fight about the whole camp situation so far.  And Penny admitted to Logan, that she didn’t want to be here. Well Logan didn’t want her here either.  So Logan thought of an idea.  She and Penny would have to get Penny sent home, or even kicked out by visiting day.
Throughout the weeks before visiting day, Logan and Penny were trying to find as many ways as they could to get Penny in trouble, or as many rules they could break.  The did everything from hiding in the lake when it was time to be swimming, to making counselors drink nasty concoctions of different liquids, to even sneaking out at night and having food fights in the kitchen.  All one one mission to get Penny kicked out.  But throughout all the break-ins and food fights, Penny was kind of getting used to and even enjoying camp and her bunk mates more everyday.  Except Logan wasn’t on the same page as her, and still didn’t like her.
Before Visiting Day, Bunk One took their last annual trip to the Aquabogan.  A water park that they went to where the other all boy camps go to as well. When they got there Penny walked around with her bunk mates.  After a while Penny lost friends and decided to go on a water slide.  But little did she know Cameron, the camp owner’s son who had a bad history with some of the campers before, was there too.  But Penny just decided to go down the slide with him, because she met him before and thought he was nice.  When the ride was over Penny spotted her group sitting at a nearby table, with out Logan.  Penny, nor her group new that Logan snook off, and was taking pictures of Penny’s ride down the water slide with Cameron, which wasn’t acceptable at camp.  But Penny actually liked camp and didn’t want to leave.  But Logan insisted that she went because she and Penny had a deal, Penny was to leave before visiting day.  Would Penny be sent home for riding down a water slide with
a boy?
Will she be sent home for all the commotion she’s caused at camp? Or will she stay, and live with Logan hating her the whole summer?

On a scale from 1-10, I would give this book a 8.  I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Keirra B.

House on the Gulf

Title- House on the Gulf
Author- Margeret Peterson Haddix
Number of pages- 232
 
            If you like thrilling books with lots of twists, house on the gulf is a great book for you. It has lots of adventure.
 
            Britt is an ordinary child who lives in Pennsylvania with her mom, and her brother in a small apartment. She had a very good life until her brother Brandon, also known as Bran, convinced their mom to move them to Florida to go to the single mom’s college for her to finish school. He finally convinces her to move and they move into a very patchy apartment and she starts school. Bran confronts his mother about how he is house sitting a house and that they could move there. Little did Britt, none the less her mom, know that they were moving into Britt’s grandparents house. You’re probably thinking, so what it’s their grandparent’s house. What you don’t know is Britt’s grandparents haven’t talked to them since her mother eloped her father and then divorced after having Brittany. Does it end up really being her grandparents, will she find out about Bran’s plan, will everything turn out as planed?  If you want to know exactly what happens in the end read this book.
 
            My favorite part of the whole book was at the end when Britt was trying explain to her mom everything that happened.
 
This book is filled with exciting twists and turns and if I could give it a rating from 1-10 I would give it a 9.
 
 
 
 
~Justin M

Princess in Training

Princess in Training
Meg Cabot
268 pages

If you love to read books written in the form of Diaries you will love the Princess in Training volume 6 of the princess diaries series. In this chapter of Mias life she is starting 10th grade and discovering a little more about who she is. The whole boyfriend thing is still a little new to her because she has only had one boyfriend and she is still with him, Michael, who is in collage. This is adding on to Mia’s growing list of problems with her life. Oh, and did I mention she is the princess of Genovia? She is very new to this also because she just found out last year. I guess putting 10,000 snails in the Genovian harbor wasn’t a very princessy thing for her to do because her creepy grandmother has been nagging on her about that for the past month. To top the list off her best friend Lilly nominated her for student president without her consent and now she has to run, and win, against the most popular girl in school. I love this book but one thing that really bothers me about it is that the stress level is always so high and allot of the time things that are going on in the book seem like there going on in MY life. This can become very confusing when I realize that its only a book. I would recommend this book to someone who doesn’t get stressed to easily because there is just so many things going on in this book at one time that it can make your head spin right off. I would give this book a 4 and a half out of five stars because it dose a great job of making me not want to put it down until i have finished the whole thing.

Chelsea,A

The Call of The Wild

The Call of The Wild
Jack London
134 Pgs
 
If you like adventures that keep you guessing on every page then you’ll love “The Call of The Wild” by Jack London. Buck (an Alaskan Husky) was born into a normal life of being a house dog. When Buck thought all was well, he was sold to the Yukon sled dog teams. While being passed to several owners some good other not knowing how to take care of sled dogs, Buck learned to fight and survive by himself. On a trip to the Dawson Creek Bucks team stopped at a trading point to pick up more supplies. Buck was badly hurt at the time and could not go on. While his owner beat him with a club to go on, a bystander witnessed the incident and stopped the man. The man threatened to kill him if he didn’t move but the whole town help save Buck. He then healed and went with his new owner on his search for gold and then tragedy struck.
The most interesting thing to was when Buck was surviving by himself in the wild. I would recommend this book to whoever likes adventurous books. On ta scale from 1-10 I would give it an 8.
 
Coleton F

Friday, October 26, 2007

The A-List

 
The A-List
Zoey Dean
243 pages

    If you like reality books about the glamorous life, then you’ll love The A-List. This book is about a girl, Anna Percy, who was tired of her prim and proper perfectly boring life in upstate New York, so she heads off to LA to begin an internship. Her adventure begins before she even steps off the plane. In the course of a short 48 hour period, her life turns upside down! She meets Ben, a guy she might just love, hits an Oscar winner’s wedding, meets Cammie, Sam, and Dee, who lets her know that no one steals the spotlight from them, then hits an after hours back lot party. Will she get an a-list style happily ever after? In this book, the aspect I enjoyed the most was that it was fast paced, yet easy to follow. One thing always led to another, either if it was good or bad. There was lots of adventure, still it was really girlie. This book promised everything it said on the back cover and more. Person ally, I thought this book was exceptional and experienced no dislikes. I enjoyed that it talked about the “real” LA high school scene. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series, this book being the first one. I would recommend this book to 13-16 year old girls because it might get confusing for anyone younger than 13. On a scale of 1-10, I would give this book a 9.
        
 Brittany M.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Ark Angel

Ark Angel Book Review

Ark Angel
Anthony Horowitz
326 pages

What if you were given an I-Pod that could let you listen in on peoples’ conversations or an inhaler that can turn into an exploding hand grenade? If you love a heart-pounding, exhilarating, action-packed fantasy adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat, then Ark Angel is the book for you. It’ll leave you wanting more of the suspenseful action, and you will be addicted to the series, just as I have. This is the sixth installment of the gripping Alex Rider series, by author Anthony Horowitz. Alex is a teenage spy who has worked for M16 and the CIA numerous times in the past. He’s on a holiday with a Russian billionaire’s son, Paul Drevin, after saving him from being kidnapped while they were in hospital together. The CIA contacted him and told to start spying on Paul’s father; and Alex got caught up in another adventure unlike any else mission in the series. Paul’s father, Nikolei Drevin is basically single-handedly funding the first luxury hotel in outer space, the Ark Angel. Yet the project is millions of dollars over budget, Drevin will stop at nothing to get his money’s worth. When Alex Rider finds out about Drevin’s devious scheme, destroy Washington D.C. by planting a bomb into the Ark Angel, his next assignment was way beyond the heights of the tasks he’d had in the past. He has to disable the bomb. In space. Will Alex survive the operation, or will he disintegrate on his return to Earth’s atmosphere? More importantly, will Alex Rider save the U.S. capital from four hundred tons of molten glass ands steel hurling down and the lives of millions of D.C. residents?

Overall, I thought this was a very good novel. It has everything: Action, adventure, suspense. What makes it good is it’s unpredictably. You never know if Alex will survive another mission. I mean after book five, we all thought he was dead! The author has a gift for misleading you. That’s what makes the series so enjoyable. The only part about the book that I didn’t like was it’s so unrealistic, but then again I guess it is sort of a fantasy spy book. That’s what gave it its unpredictability and its excitement. It wasn’t just any old Hardy Boys book. You see, when I was reading this, all the brilliant details made me picture a James Bond movie in my head, with the exception of the spy being fourteen-years old. To sum it all up, I would recommend this book to anyone that is into action-packed spy adventures. I think anyone that’s into fantasy would love this book as much as I did.

I would give this book 4½ stars out of 5. This book was great and I would recommend reading the entire series.

-Ryan K.

Among the Hidden

Title: Among the Hidden
Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Pages: 153

Family is one of the greatest aspects in a human life. How would you feel if that right to have a family that you want was taken away from government interference? In the late future the population of the world has escalated into proportional heights, which will eventually create a law that states each family may only contain two children. The government did not know exactly whether or not our scarce resources would permanently decease. There was a young boy named Luke Garner. He was one of many that had to hide there faces from the retched government agency named the Population Police. This organization was created in order to maintain the law that only allowed two children. Every once in a while they go to pedestrian houses to search for any suspicion of shadow children. A shadow child was a nickname for the illegal children. Luke desperately snuck out of the house to meet another person that he saw in another house to see if they are also a shadow child like Luke. Luke becomes close friends with this girl named Jen. She is also a shadow child and Jen organized this plot to overthrow law of illegal children. Questions that are sent forth upon you are; Is Luke going to be caught? Is the plot to overthrow to the law going to be a success? Find out these questions and read the thriller book Among the Hidden. 
I think this book was exciting. Most of the time when I sat down and started to dig deep into this novel I could feel the spine tingling sensation that it gave me. I recommend this book to everyone and I rate it an 8 out of 10. Enjoy!

Alex U.

Camp Confidential, Jenna’s Dilemma

Camp Confidential, Jenna’s Dilemma

Melissa J. Morgan

159 pages

If you like fun books with a lot of crazy twists, then you’ll love “Camp Confidential, Jenna’s Dilemma”. This book describes a girl named Jenna who goes off to summer camp for the 4th year at Camp Lake View. All the campers look up to Jenna as a girl who knows her way around camp, and as the ultimate prankster. Most of her pranks over the summer have been fairly harmless, but lately her pranks have been more personal and mean. On top of that, her parents are going through a divorce. So she is super worried about her life when she leaves camp, and goes home. Jenna is deathly afraid to dive into the lake at camp during “free swim”, so all of her friends are in higher swim levels than her. She is also upset because she feels like she is not good enough to keep up with her super star sister, and her twin brother. Will Jenna’s family keep her from having a good summer? Will She face her fear of diving, before it’s to late?

Something I liked about this book is that it’s part of a series, so after reading the previous book, “Natalie’s Secret”, I feel like I know a lot about Natalie, in this book, when Jenna talks about her. Something that I didn’t like about this book was that since it takes place in a summer camp, there are a ton of characters. Sometimes it is hard to keep track of all of them. I would recommend this book to a girl under the age of 13, because the events that happen in this book that Jenna refers to as “Dilemmas”, are very unrealistic, and childish. This is a pretty good book. On a scale of one to ten, I would give it a six, because it got very boring in some parts, and it was not very interesting.

By: Chloe A

THE LORD OF THE RINGS PART THREE: THE RETURN OF THE KING

THE LORD OF THE RINGS PART THREE: THE RETURN OF THE KING
J.R.R. TOLKIEN
312 PAGES

Do you like action packed, pure excitement, mind holding enthralling writing with measureless depth that sweeps you up and makes you feel like your there? A book that makes you so nervous that sometimes you have to set it down? I book that makes you believe that this actually was history? A book that will challenge you and makes you wonder about your own integrity and courage? Then The Lord of The Rings is the PERFECT book for you.

“Then his wrath blazed in consuming flame, but his fear rose like a vast black smoke to choke him. For he knew his deadly peril and the thread upon which his doom now hung.”
p.223 (LOTL)

“He advanced down the passage, but slowly now, each step more reluctant. Terror was beginning to grip him again. There was no sound save the rap of his feet, which seemed to grow to an echoing noise, like the slapping of great hands upon the stones.” p.180 (LOTL)

One young hobbit named Frodo (the Ring Bearer) and eight companions set out to destroy the One Ring, an evil ring that, if the Dark Lord Sauron gets his hands on it, all of the lands, together making Middle Earth, shall be in darkness and despair forever. On there way to the only place that this magic ring can be destroyed in, Mount Doom the mountain of fire, the companions of the Ring split up and become involved in separate adventures. Aragorn, one of the companions, now known as the heir in a line of kings, and Legolas of the Woodland Elves as well as Gimli the Dwarf, has joined with the forces of Rohan to defeat the army of Isengard. Two other companions of the Ring, Merry and Pippin, are taken by orcs (evil creatures) but manage to escape into Fangorn forest, where they discover the Ents. Sam (another companion) took the ring and abandoned Frodo because he thought that he was dead after a perilous fight with Shelob, but Frodo was alive and now in the hands of the enemy. And through all this, the Dark Lord’s armies are growing and uniting as the One Ring gets closer to the Crack of Doom in the mountain of fire.
Will Frodo be rescued by Sam and destroy the Ring before all is lost?

I loved this book because it made me feel like I was apart of the story and was right there with the characters. I liked the fact that the author, J.R.R. Tolkien, made his sentences so precise so that you could hear the tinkling of water that he was describing and you could feel the parched mouth that wanted a drink. I enjoyed the growing suspense and mystery, the intricateness of the story, how many parts there were in the story, the depth and oldness behind the story that made it feel so realistic, and the feelings, personalities, and longings so clearly felt in the characters. What I disliked about the book is that there was more focus on some of the characters than others, when sometimes I wanted to hear more about the others (Watching the movie helps). I would recommend this book to someone who likes a serious yet thrilling and timeless book that brings out your feelings and makes you think and wonder if you could go through what the character is going through. On a scale of 1-10 I would rate this book a 10+, or 110%.

~Danica A.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

If you like fun, battles, magic, ghouls and elves, then you’ll love Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling. In this book, Harry Potter is a boy, who lives with his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and fat, spoiled cousin, Dudley Dursley, only because his parents died when he was a small baby. When young Harry grew to be eleven, he received a letter telling him that he was a wizard, who is to attend Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he meets his two best friends, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, who are eleven, too.
Now Harry, Ron, and Hermione at age seventeen, they decide that instead of attending their final year at Hogwarts, to set off to defeat Lord Voldemort. Lord Voldemort is an evil wizard, who mainly uses dark magic, to kill, on an almost daily basis. Little does he know that Harry, Ron, and Hermione know about his precious Horcruxes? A Horcrux is a special item, like a locket, or diadem or any object at all. Inside this object, a witch or wizard can bestow a bit of their soul, so if they get killed, they will have one more chance to live. Harry figures that he, Ron, and Hermione need to find these Horcruxes and destroy them, before lord Voldemort gets to them first. There is one hitch, though. They have no idea where any of the Horcruxes are hidden. They need to find five, because the sixth and seventh ones were already destroyed.
After Harry, Ron, and Hermione find the four out of five Horcruxes; they need to return to Hogwarts, because that is where the last Horcrux is hidden. But, the problem is- Voldemort got there first. Voldemort knows what they are after, and he wants to capture Harry Potter, and kill him. There is then a battle at Hogwarts, between some students with teachers, against Voldemort and his followers. Will Harry, Ron, and Hermione find the last Horcrux in time to defeat Lord Voldermort? Read the book to find out!
I liked this whole book, because I love fiction books. I also liked it because it kept me in suspense so much that I read this book almost non-stop! It would take some people a week to finish it, but it only took me about three days! I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fiction books. I would call this book more fantasy than fiction. To me fantasy isn’t just princes and princesses, but a dream world that you would like to live in.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would five this book a 50! That may not make sense, but this book met higher than my expectations!
Katie O.

Kick Me

Kick Me
Paul Feig
278 pages
Have you ever known a kid who through out his adolescence been picked on or teased? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be him? The kid people would laugh at or bully. Well this is the story of that kid who would be picked on all through adolescence. This book is a memoir about Paul Feig’s life through elementary school to high school about all the things he went through as a kid. You go through his life of mistakes and missed opportunities through his childhood from his first girl friend to his gym class horrors of dressing down and taking a shower. When he is beat up and when his teacher on the first day miss pronounces his name and calls him Paul “Fag”. This book is compiled full of short stories that trail through his years as a teenager. One thing that stood out to me was I really enjoyed his sense of humor in this book and how he retold his stories. On the other hand there was one thing I did not like in this book was the excessive amount of swearing but that is real life and people do swear in this day and age. Overall I loved this book it is hilarious and a real page turner. I would recommend this book to both boys and girls, it’s a great book. On a scale from 1 to 10, I would give it a perfect 10.

Jared M.

A Mouse Called Wolf

A Mouse Called Wolf
Dick King Smith
98 pages. 

If you like an amazing story about a singing mouse this book is defiantly for you. Wolf the youngest of 13 mice has the most wonderful singing voice. He makes friends with the owner of the house Ms. Honeybee. Ms. Honeybee is the pianist that teaches wolf all of his tunes. One day Ms. Honeybee did not come down stairs at noon like her regular schedule, Hours and Hours past but still no Ms. Honeybee wolf began to worry. Wolf heard moans and groans from up stairs where ms. honeybee was. Will wolf make it up the stairs before it is to late? This book is fantastic it has been my favorite book sense third grade. I love this book because it is different. How often do you read a book about a singing mouse named wolf? I would recommend this book to everyone, teaches, students, anyone looking for a good book to just sit down and read. This book is very easy to read but still very enjoyable. I would rate this book a eight out of ten. It was very interesting and made me want to not put it down. It was a very good book and I like it a lot.
Briana L

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Cassandra Clare
485 Pages

If you mixed demons, demon hunters (Shadowhunters),
and humans (mundanes) with a pinch of love, you’ll
produce The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by
Cassandra Clare.  While 15 year old Clary Fray was
partying at Pandemonium in New York, she stumbles upon
a murder scene.  2 boys and a gorgeous girl have
chained up a blue-haired boy, taunting him, asking him
questions, like if he was a demon.  Clary is convinced
that these people are mad and decides to save the
blue-haired demon.  Apparently, the blue-haired boy
turns out to be a demon, and the 2 other boys plus the
girl are supposed to kill him, as they are demon
hunters-- Shadowhunters.  Clary is now thrown into a
world that seemed so normal only moments ago into one
full of demons.  But how is she able to see the demons
if she isn’t a child of the Nephilim, a Shadowhunter?
The other Shadowhunters-- Jace, Alex, and Isabelle,
would like to know.  With her mother vanishing with a
strange message, Clary wants to know why would someone
want to kidnap her mother and how she got her sight.
Racing home, she faces a Ravener demon, a demon that’s
cross between an alligator and a centipede, that wants
to eat Clary.  Frightened, Clary kills it and is
brought to Hodge, Jace’s tutor, at the Institute.
There, she learns secrets, horrifying secrets, that
her mother held.  What will she do?  Avenge her mother
by killing a man that supposedly committed suicide
with demon fire?  Or will she try to find out more of
her mother’s secrets, secrets that are already in her
head but that keep slipping out of her grasp? 
This book has everything in it-- fantasy, mystery,
and love gone wrong.  You’ll laugh and cry, grieve and
feel joy for the characters.  The best part happens in
the Institute’s greenhouse at the stroke of midnight,
when Clary turns 16, and Jace celebrates her birthday
with a memorable gift.  A downside is that Valentine
escapes with a critical tool, a tool to create an army
of Shadowhunters to take down the Clave, his lifelong
ambition.  Teens and young adults should definitely
read this thriller, yet the dash of love enhances the
mystery behind Clary and her puzzling past.  On a
scale of 1-10, this book rates completely off the
charts, a 12.  With demons attacking left and right
and an epic tale of Clary further enhances this book’s
off the charts rating.  City of Bones is the book of
the century and should be on the shelf of every
household. 
~Dorothy Z.

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Phantom Tollbooth
Norton Juster
256 pgs

Book Review

If you’d like to get out of your boring everyday life and discover a new wild world, you’ll love to read The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Once you start reading, you’ll never want to put the book down! Go on an unbelievable adventure with Milo and some of the friends he makes on his journey.
Milo didn’t have a clue about what to do with himself. He didn’t see the point of going to school, learning, or coming back home. Nothing ever interested him and he was sick of his life. One day Milo came home to find a package in his room. He opened it up, read the instructions, put the pieces together, grabbed his miniature car and entered the tollbooth that seemed to be sent to him from nowhere. When he drove in, the little play place that he had built in his room had expanded into its own world. Driving along, he met many interesting people. Soon he came to Dictionopolis, the city of words. The place looked a little unhappy and weird. He soon learned from the King that real peace could only be restored if the sisters, Rhyme and Reason, return. Rhyme and Reason would only return if Milo could ask the king of Digitopolis, the brother and the enemy of the king of Dictionopolis, to rule his land with his brother. Milo had to solve a very complicated situation! Can he unite the brothers, and then find Rhyme and Reason? Will the two cites finally live in peace, or will they remain without Rhyme and Reason and harmony between each other? Read it to find out.
I really enjoyed reading this riveting book. It was interesting to see all the people he met and it never got me bored. Although, at first it was a little weird and I’ve read anything like it before, but soon I became very addicted to it! On a scale of 1-10 with ten being the highest, I would give it 8.5. This is because at some parts it was a little hard to understand, but I still loved reading it!

Mudra C.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Bloomability

Bloomability
Sharon Creech
273 pages

If you love a book with many thrills and the suspence of never knowing
what will happen next, than you would love Bloomability.

Dinnie lived a normal life until she was kidnapped by her Aunt and
Uncle. Well not exactly kidnapped to say, although she was sent
halfway across the world to Switzerland to live with them. It does not
seem to be the most exciting to Dinnie, she keeps on being told its an
‘opportunity’, but she doesnt see the thrill. Different people,
different land, foreign languages, way different from her past life.
Though Dinnie did not enter her great move so open mindedly she began
to see how beautiful and exciting Switzerland truely was. She had made
new friends and a new life. It was her new home, and she liked it
there, until her bestfriend moved away.  Will Dinnie stay settled for
long, what will happen next?

I enjoyed this book although it was not the most exciting to me. I
think if you enjoy books with conflicts of a everyday lifestyle,
dealing with friends and changes, you will especially enjoy this book.
Its a story of finding your true self, who are your really friends,
and who can you really trust. I would rate this book 7 out of 10 and
you should definatley read it if you love a thrill.

Lauren G.

The Cage

Title: The Cage
Author: Ruth Minsky Sender
Number of pages: 209
 
What if you were a Jew living in Poland when the Nazis rose to power?
When the Nazis rose to power, Riva and her family were living in Poland. Riva lived very happily with her family just until the September of 1939. The Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. Since then Riva’s life was turned upside down and torn. Since the Germans hated the Jews, all the Jews were put behind a barbed- wire cage. For two years, Riva and her family go through suffering from living under the hand of Nazi rule. When Riva hoped for things to get better, the Nazis takes her mother away from her. Riva and her younger brothers were devastated. But as the oldest, Riva, takes the responsibility to look out for her young brothers. With every effort, Riva tries to protect her young brothers from the dangerous conditions in the ghetto. She tries her best to stay all together. Unfortunately, her effort weren¡¯t enough. Soon Riva and her brothers were taken to a camp in Auschwitz and were separated. All alone now, Riva must now try to survive the camp’s horror and hardship. Will Riva be able to survive the deadly camp? Will she be able to meet her family again?
This book taught me so many things. It is a great book. I would recommend this book to all of my friends because they should know what the Jewish people went through. By reading this book, I learned how people could be so cruel and evil. It made me realized that this kind of thing should never happen again. This book made me look back at my life and to be thankful for everything I had. I really liked it when Riva didn’t give up her hope even though her environment was very difficult. The determination and love that Riva showed to protect her younger brothers was beautiful. She didn’t only think about herself even in that kind of hard situation. We should all learn from her.
On a scale of 1-10, I would give this book a 9.
 
Rachel S.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Revenge of the Wannabes

Revenge of the Wannabes
Lisi Harrison
249 pages
 
    For an on going cat fight and some backstabbing friends, the Revenge of the Wannabees is the book to read. It is about a group of friends that have some major jelousey problems. There are four people in this group but, only one that has to get some time in the spotlight. Massie is the most popular girl at OCD, and Alicia is her bff (best friend forever), until she has a huge problem with only being the second best at everything that she does. Although she was prettier than Massie, Alicia would do what ever it takes to get to the top, even if it means going behind Massies back. Will Massie and Alicia ever become friends again?Or will Massie fight back.
    This was the first book that I read this trimester and definetly not the last, this book made me want to read more. I liked everything about this book and there is nothing that I would have changed. I would recommend this book to any female old or young, any age at all. I say this because I know that anyone that is going into middle school or anyone that has already been there, can relate to this book in many ways.
         Cassidy G.

The Face on the Milk Carton

                                                    The Face on the Milk Carton
                                                                                                               
¡°The girl on the back of the carton¡¦it¡¯s me.¡± How could it be if an ordinary girl like Janie Johnson, who has loving parents, possibly be kidnapped? It was she who glanced at the face of the missing kid on the back of the milk carton and noticed that the girl was her. The missing girl, with her hair in pigtails, wearing a dress with a narrow white collar, had been kidnapped 12 years ago, in New Jersey at age 3. When Janie recognizes the picture of her when she was young, she is overwhelmed with shock. Janie tries to put everything together but nothing seems to make sense. She felt overcome with confusion. One thing she knew was that something is really wrong and she couldn¡¯t believe that Mr. And Mrs. Johnson kidnapped Janie. They loved Janie as much a real parent would do to their ¡°real¡± child.  If Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are not Janie¡¯s parents, then who is? What actually happened?
I really enjoyed reading this book because I liked the suspense that the author made which kept me reading to see what would happen next, but I did not have anything that I really disliked about this book. I would recommend this book to foster kids because this book shows that you can ¡°make¡± a blood related family even if you aren¡¯t and still be happy and loving as much as a kid with their real family.
On a scale of 1-10, I would give this book a 9.
 
 
                        Theresa K.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
 
          Do you think that J.K Rowling is possibly one of the best or maybe the best author in the world?  If so, why not read her best selling book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In this story, Harry Potter has finally set off on his adventure to find the 7 horcruxes and defeat he who must not be named (Voldemort). Along the way of his journey he comes across many obstacles and also loses many close friends. You also learn many interesting facts about Harry’s enemies like Professor Snape. Now it comes down to last couple of pages and here’s the big fight. Voldemort has been waiting 17 years to kill the boy who lived, but will it really happen? Will Harry survive or will Voldemort finally succeed?
 
          Overall, I really enjoyed this book and wished that J.K Rowling would have made at least 1 more. I liked the parts where the book made you want to keep on reading and also has you at the edge of your seat. I would recommend this book to anybody who loves adventure and somewhat understanding and good endings.
 
          I would give this book a 10 because it probably the best book I have ever read in my life. It is outstanding.
 
 
-Brodie N.

The Lightning Thief

The Lightning Thief
Rick Riordan
375 pgs
 
          If you like mythical creatures and if u like mythical gods then this book is probably going to be your favorite book. This book is about a boy named Percy Jackson, he was half god half human. He was considered a half-blood. His father was Poseidon so was the son of the sea god. He was Dyslexic and he could only read ancient Greek. After being a kid with a loving mother and a smelly old step dad, he leaves to a camp called camp Half-Blood for kids who were also half god half human but when his mom was bringing him there she was considered dead. But later Percy finds out that she isn’t dead. This camp was also for friendly creatures like satyrs and others. Zeus’ master bolt was stolen by another god or half god but he blamed it on Poseidon. If two gods get in a fight it is like a giant war. Percy embarks on a quest for master bolt to prevent world war III with to of his friends he has met at camp. Will Percy find the master bold and return it before WWIII happens and rescue his mom from Hades? I liked this book because I like books about mythical gods. I would recommend it to my friends because they like books with action. On a scale 1-10 I would give this book a 8.
 
Tanner B.

Dreams of Promise

Dreams of Promise
Melody Carlson
Pages 173
 
If you like books that you don’t like to put down you’ll love this book. It’s about a girl named Allison O’Brian, and she is adjusting to her life in Tamaqua Point, Oregon very well. She is going to start high school there too. She has joined the school newspaper and wrights all sorts of papers that are just terrific for it.  When Allison comes to school with the same story as Shirley Jenson, she is furious and plans revenge. But when Allison gets an unexpected letter from her movie star mother Marsha Madison and asks her to come and visit for Christmas because she’s all alone, Allison seems torn and indecisive. Will Allison spend Christmas at Marsha’s for Christmas or will she spend her first Christmas with her dad at Tamaqua Point for the first time? Well, you’ll just have to read this book to find out.

I liked the whole book, and it is one of my favorite series. Although, I have to admit the first and second books were a little bit better. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes the types of books that I like such as… mystery, adventure, and books that are usually about a girl and all that she went through. I would give this book probably a 4 out of 5 stars because the other books were a little better. This is the last book in this series, the other books are… #1- On Hopes Wings, #2- Cherished Wishes, and #3- Autumn Secrets.

Trina R.