Divergent

Divergent is in a three series book written by Veronica Roth. Divergent, insurgent, and allegiant are the three books in the series. Divergent is about a girl turning sixteen getting ready to choose what she will be in life. I fell the theme of this book is be yourself, or you don’t have to try and fit in with anyone.

Divergent is a book wrote in the future where when you turn the age of 16 you have to choose a faction that you would stay with for the rest of your life. You have a choice to stay in the faction that you were born in to or be claimed as a trader. This is the choice you had to make by yourself at the age of 16. Tris had made this extreme switch from abnegate the curious to dauntless the brave who fight. She then finds herself mixed up in a huge rebellion. Tris (Beatrice) has to make a decision that alters her world forever.

I would recommend this book to any reader who enjoys a futuristic book with twist and turns. If you enjoy a book that keeps you asking question or a jaw dropper this is for you. Veronica Roth capture the scene in so many parts especially the fighting she makes it so that it seems you are getting punched too. This is a sure read.

Book Review by Jesus P.

Bittersweet

Book Review: Bittersweet

From poets across the world, centrally in the United States, and primarily in the Midwest- comes a beautiful collection of rhymes and metaphors that leave the mind at ease.

Organized like a calendar, poems describe the changing world around their authors; what stays the same and completely alters itself put into the most beautiful words imaginable. As the seasons change, so do the lives and situations of poets across the world, and this book was a fabulous collection of their work. This book is pleasant to just pick up and let the words carry you along. You won’t realize how much you’ve read once it pulls you in! I am personally not a haiku fan, so I would’ve preferred for those to have been left out. I really enjoyed the poems that rambled on and described the senses of a situation, so I could feel like I was in the poetry!

If you’re looking for a leisurely and relaxing read, Bittersweet would definitely be my recommendation to you! Any fan of poetry about basically anything in the world will be a huge fan of this wide variety of styles and subjects!

Book Review by Maddie J.

Hush, Hush

Hush, Hush

This book is written by Becca Fitzpatrick she has written other books called “crescendo”. And she has written “finale”. And yes I have read this series these are very good books and they are cool.

I would recommend this book to anyone because it is a very good book to read the whole series is great to read I read the whole series in a month that’s how good it is and I don’t like to read books. 

Book Review by Cheyenne S.

Stolen Children

I read the book Stolen Children by Peg Kehret, she has also written the books Abduction, Earthquake Terror and Escaping: The Giant Wave.  Peg likes to write books that are very suspenseful; she is good at being able to create an image in your head. I personally love her books. Her books are also books that many different ages can read.

               

Amy is 14 years old and knows a lot about babysitting. She is babysitting a three year old named Kendra. The child always has to have her teddy bear named Tubby. Amy was forced to babysit Kendra because her nanny was on vacation. Two thugs named Hugh and Smokey kidnapped the girls while they were at the house and they had a gun. They first took Kendra then Amy. They took them to a remote cabin somewhere where nobody would find them.  Amy wrote a book earlier that year and her best friend who lived across the street proof read it. In the book the character always stretched her ear before giving a hint. When Amy got kidnapped she started to scratch her ears so it looks like she is allergic to the trees around them, but really she just was giving hints to her friend for the daily videos that they sent to the parents so they would eventually pay the ransom her friend would also come over to the house and watch the videos. In one of the videos Amy told her family that they should tell Aunt Cara and Uncle Van that she will miss them but that was code for the people are driving a Caravan. She also said that she will miss Mr. White. The car was a white caravan but this is just one of the many different hints that she gave the parents and the friend Amy tries to escape many times but fails, every time she fails she receives a death threat from Hugh and Smokey. They finally get saved but you will have to read the book to find out how.

               

Stolen Children is a very suspenseful book, you literally can put it down. I first read this book in the 5th grade and I loved it then and I love it now. I have read this book at least five times. I would defiantly recommend this book to readers ages 7 and higher, I think even adults would love this book.  

Book Review by Dallys B.

Mortal Instruments

Mortal instruments by Cassandra Clare Theme: Action/adventure fantasy theme

Mortal Instrument is about a young girl whose mother has been hiding her true family history from her for over 15 almost 15 years. When she finds out about her family being big Shadow hunters, she freaks out, but when she finds out who her real father is, she has no response. When her father steals the golden cup from her family, she realizes what she has to do to protect her mother and her immortal friends and family.

               

Clary Fray begins seeing strange things, worrying her mother and her mother's friend Luke. Later at a nightclub with Simon, Clary sees Jace killing to her, and innocent man. Soon after she realizes she’s the only one who could see Jace and the now deceased man. Meanwhile, Jocelyn is abducted by two men, Emil and Samuel, but she is able to call Clary and warn her about someone named Valentine. Jocelyn drinks a potion putting her in a coma. Returning home, Clary finds her mother missing and is attacked by a demon. Jace appears and kills it. Jocelyn was also Shadow hunter, a warrior that slays demons, and Clary has inherited her powers, shadow hunting.

               

I would recommend this book to others if they enjoy action filled fantasy books. The book has many unexpected twists in turn during the rising action and falling action which makes it very interesting and definitely a page turner. I think if you have a lot of free time to sit down and read the book you should. Its very detailed and creates a great portion of imagery as you are reading each page. There is also now a movie out but I would recommend the books first! I would give this book an eight out of ten because I don’t read a lot and this was a really long book. 

Book Review by Alex H.

Annie on My Mind

Annie on my mind

This book was written by Nancy garden. She also wrote books like “good moon rising”,” molly’s family” and many more. I don’t know if these books are alike or different because I haven’t read any other books that was written by Nancy Garden.

               

This book is about two girls name Annie and Liza who realized that being different isn’t at all that bad. Annie and Liza first met at a museum. Annie was practicing singing for a group that she’s in at school. While Liza was doing a research on architect because she wanted to be one ever since she knew how to spell it. Annie and Liza liked each other but Annie was afraid that Liza wouldn’t like her or her family because they were different from other people. Liza told Annie that being different isn’t a bad thing and that she didn’t care how different her family was that its what’s inside that counts.

               

I would recommend this book because it tell u that being different and doing different things doesn’t matter and don’t let people provoke you of who you are and what you do.       

      

Book Review by Hassatu D.

Think Big

The book that I have finished reading is Think Big by Ben Carson and it was an amazing book. This book is the sequel to Gifted Hands and it far surpasses its predecessor. Ben Carson grew up having a tough life and being at the bottom of his class didn’t help. But through sheer determination and hard work he rose to the top of his class and is now considered one of the best neurosurgeon in the world.

This book tells the story of famous neurosurgeon Ben Carson and how hard he worked to get where he is. This book doesn’t just focus on him but the people who helped him like William Jaek, Frank McCotter, Dr. James Taren, and many more. This also tells the reader that they should strive to succeed and work hard to be at the top in their field of work. This book has inspired me to work hard at getting the skills I need to be a marine and that is why I like his book so much.

This book was inspiring to me and so amazingly hand written that I couldn’t put it down. I think that everyone should read this book because it can even motivate people that think they cant do anything.

Book Review by Aaron M.

The Freedom Writers Diary

The Freedom Writers Diary

This book is about how young writers became successful and there own way this book is sad because some of them lost people that was gang related in these book. This book help the kids that where in the gang and that was selling drugs getting into fights with other gang members. In these book they had to be with there type of race and that they have to stick with the people who was there skin color like blacks have to stay with backs white people have to stay with white people Mexican had to stay with Mexican people they had to stay with there crew that is what this book was kind of about. Mrs.G was one of the teachers that had started working there and in a few weeks she started to get the hang of being a wit the class she was with an the movie she stared to teach them about how they need to get alone with each other and be successful an her class room.

In the book Mrs.G was one of the teachers that help her classmates get alone with each other and that they got really used to her in the movie and that they really liked her and in the middle of the book they came up on donations and stared going on filed trips and having all different type of people coming to see them.  When they was reading a book it was a book about girl that grew up in the ghetto and she was around a lot of  gang members and the book that the young readers read. In the book they was getting good at reading they started getting good grades and that stared to be successful and the book. Eva was brave when she went to court in stood up for the blacks and said that he the one who shot the guy that was at the gas station she over came her fear of being who she is. In this story people was not scared to speak not scared of anything but only the thing that was around them.

I think these book is for a lot of people to read because people need to get over there fears and that they been successful and they became a good class they been hard workers for there hard work they have been in and doing for there teacher Mrs.G threw out the book and became thr FREEDOMS WRITERS they are threw out the movie and the book they became successful for there work.

Book Review by Aalijah C.

Beastly

The book that I read was “Beastly” by Alex Flinn. I don’t know what other books she has written. This book is about a man named Kyle who was one of the most prettiest guy in the school. During the Spring Dance week, Kyle asks a girl who named was Kendra Hilferty to go to the Spring Dance with him. On the day of the Spring Dance, the girl was there and Kyle tried to humiliate the girl but instead finds out the she is a witch.

               

The witch puts a spell on Kyle. She turned him into a beast and said that if he doesn’t find true love’s first kiss by the end of summer, he’ll stay a beast for the rest of his life. Time flies by and he still hasn’t found true love. He meets this girl and falls for her but she doesn’t like him. He takes her in his home and makes her live with him. He buys her gifts and tries to make her fall in love with him so that the curse will go away and he’ll be normal Kyle again. Summer comes by quickly and he doesn’t have enough time. When the girl is sent off to another city, he gives her a goodbye kiss. The spell is broken and he is Kyle again, but not the old Kyle he was. He fell for the girl and went with her to the city.

               

I recommend this book because it tells about a love story. Kind of like a Cinderella and Ariel the Mermaid story. It’s like finding true love without force. Kyle tried to make the girl fall for him by giving her gifts. It doesn’t 

Book Review by Shiny V.

The Throne of Fire

Throne of fire is the book I read. The throne of fire is written by Rick Riordan. Throne of fire is the second book in the Kanechronicles. Rick Riordan is also the author of The Percy Jackson series. The book is related to Egyptian mythology. It is the life about two royal-blooded children Carter and Sadie.

The book is about their adventures to seek out and revive a dead god. Ever since the gods of Ancient Egypt were released upon the mortal world Carter and Sadie have been trying to restore the order. With their powers they are on a mission to capture a serpent, but first they need to revive a god. Oh yea did I mention that no one knows where that god is exactly?

Book Review by CJ W.

Hugo

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

This book is by Brain Selznick he wrote books like “The boy of a thousand of faces”. He has wrote the book called “wonderstruck”. I don’t know what if these books are good because I haven’t read it yet but I might read one of them next.

I think that everyone should read it because it is a good book. This book has so many adventures in it that you would enjoy. I enjoyed this book it was sad then it got every interesting. It has a lot of pictures so that you could act like your in the book with them and that you see what they see.

Book Review by Cheyenne S.

Dead Is A Battlefield

The book that I read was “Dead Is a Battlefield” by Marlene Perez.  She has also written the Dead Is Series. These books are similar because it has something to do with solving crimes in Nightshade.

               

This book is about a new student at Nightshade High and girls that are infected with creepy crushes. Then a mysterious tattoo shows up on her arm and finds out that she is a virago, a woman warrior who protects her hometown. She has to find out what’s going on and when there is trouble her tattoo gives her a sign that something is not right.

               

I recommend this book because it solves mysteries and it’s a series. If you like a book with mysteries, then you might want to read the “Dead Is” series. 

Book Review by Shiny V.

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies

"One of those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies"

By: Sonya Sones

Sonya Sones has also written other books like "What MyMother Doesn't Know" or "what my girlfriend doesn't know". All of them are teen-fiction and are written in first-person view. Of course they all have a problem's but some are similar too. All of those books have friendship, family, relationship, and emotional issues. Then all the books have characters around the same age.

The theme in “One of those hideous books where the mother dies” is death. Death is even in the title. If ruby’s mother would have never died, she wouldn’t have moved away from her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt-Duffy, and her mother. Then she wouldn’t have to move in with her father that is all the way on the other side of America. Then another death at the end, surprisingly changes a lot. Even though it doesn’t really affect them personally.

Ruby moves away from everything she loves and cares about in Boston like her best-friend (Lizzy), boyfriend (Ray), Aunt (Duffy), house, and mother. To move in with her movie star dad, Whip Logon that she never knew. She hates being there because she hates him and she hates the reminder of everything she left behind in Boston. She keeps people back home in touch though through E-mail, even her mother. She goes to a new school and she’s not quite that popular there but her “sister” there is Colette and her crush Wyatt. She barely has any friends in what she likes to call “Hell A”. She’s closest to one of her dad’s workers. His name is Max. She finds betrayal with people that she least expects it from and it throws her back a long ways but she manages to pick herself back up by the end with learning something about her father that will change her life.

I would personally recommend this book to others. Especially, teenage girls because the books Sonya Sones writes are books that girls around that age can relate to. I really can’t put the book down myself and I’m one of those people that don’t like to read and has to find the perfect book to even want to. Seriously, I only like a few authors. This book has humor, drama and loss. Then it’s not too inappropriate so parents should approve this too. I would give it five stars anytime.

Book Review by Hope F.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger games were written by Suzanne Collins. She has also written Catching fire and mocking jay, which are also books in the hungergames trilogy, she has also written the series the underground chronicles, and many more. This book is not too different to the other books she has written that I have read like catching fire. Since them both are written about the life of Katniss Everdeen and her district, District 12. She lives in a dystopia, where different types of jobs are specified by districts, like District 12 is for mining, and District 5 is power and electricity. Each district has there own special part in running Panem. Some of the districts want to rebel against the Capitol, who put on an event called the hunger games and they two tributes from each district. Then the tributes fight to be the last survivors of the games to win supplies and food for their districts.

               

The book is about Katniss Everdeen and her Mother, Ms. Everdeen and her younger sister, Primrose Everdeen, who have Katniss hunt for food although its illegal for people leave the district and to hunt but all the community members know about her hunting with her friend, Gale Hawthorne, both very skilled with their hunting weapon, Katniss’s preferred weapon is the bow and arrow, while Gale’s is some homemade traps. Many families in the district specialize in something like Katniss’s mom is a healer, and Gale’s dad mines, and another important character Peeta Mellark’s family makes baked goods. One day the capital calls for all the districts to gather in their town hall to have the tributes bee randomly chosen to fight. They all wait for the names to be called; one of the names is Peeta Mellark, the other tribute is Primrose Everdeen. But Katniss won’t allow for her sister to be killed in the Games, so she did something that no one has done in many years, she volunteers to take Prim’s place as tribute. If you want to know more you have to read the book for yourself.

               

I would definably recommend this book to anyone who likes action and adventure, and to someone who is new to the genre. This will keep you gripping on to this book so hard that you may lose you conception of time reading this book since you’ll be reading this book nonstop. I will give this book a 8/10 because in the beginning it does take a while to get to the action. But in over view I love this book and the other books in the trilogy. YOU MUST READ IT BY THE END OF THE MONTH!! This book is amazing. Just read it now! 

Book Review by Adam E.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

The book I read was “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Ransom Riggs has written travel essays. His first novel is “StrangeGeographies”. This book compares to his other books because it is a very different kind of story, it is nothing like any other authors stories. This story is about a boy’s family story. His grandfather is from a very distant island where he faced strange encounters. The boy goes to the island where his grandfather had been before his death. He finds things completely out of the ordinary.  He faces the same encounters as his grandfather. Will he face the same nightmares as his grandfather or accomplish what his grandfather did not. The theme of this story is greed; Greed plays a big role in the beginning of the book.  Emotions play a big role in the story too. Time periods also, characters use time periods often to understand something unexplainable.

               

This story is about unexplainable events of characters and the past of an ordinary family with a very unordinary family member’s past that are shockingly real. The main character realizes that he has to face the unexplainable encounters of his grandfather. Something intriguing in this story is that Jacob’s grandfather suffers from nightmares that take him back to his past; Jacob is faced with the conflict of the truth of his grandfather’s unforgettable past.   A book was given to Jacob from his grandfather giving him a hint of what was to come. On the inside of the book it said “To Jacob Magellan Portman, and the worlds he has yet to discover” Jacob is then faced with events that are unexplainable and unbelievable.

               

I recommend this book to others, because it is definitely different than any other books. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat wanting to know more, every page is filled with extremely unbelievable events that are surprisingly different to the human mind. You should read this if you like mystery and adventure. This book is great for you. 

Book Review by Kortney S.

Leviathan

Leviathan is the book I read. It is authored by Scott Westerfield. Leviathan is the first book in its series. Leviathan is a book about WWI but technologically advanced. Leviathan stars two main characters Alek and Deryn.

Alek is a prince without a throne. On the run from his own people. He only has a fighting machine and a small band of men.

Deryn is a girl disguised as a man in the British air force. She must fight for her cause – and protect her secret- at all costs.

Alek and Deryn are thrown together on the same aircraft, the Leviathan. Though fighting together, their lives are completely different. They are enemies with everything to lose, yet somehow drawn together by fate.             

Leviathan is an action packed, suspenseful thriller made for fantasy lovers. Most readers will enjoy this book. I would absolutely recommend it.

Book Review by CJ W.

The Fault in Our Stars

THE FAULT IN UR STARS

BY: JOHN GREEN

The Author of the book has written many books such as: Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, Will garyson and many more. These books all compare to the book the fault in our stars because they all tend to be young adult novels which are usually purchased by people 18 and up but also teens because John Green’s books tent to be relatable. There was once a young girl with the name of Hazel who suffered from cancer. Hazel had a strong positive mind about her sickness than the rest of her friends and family. She started going to support group which helped kids with cancer get through life as she started going to these meetings in the support group she met Augustus who quickly became the love of her life, who also suffered from cancer hazel saw that his positivity was as strong as hers so than its all turned to hazel, to make his mind positive and strong.

The story is mostly turned around on Hazel after she meets Augustus. She tries to find a a way to make Augustus Mind positive while she is fighting to stay positive herself. She makes many sacrifices to make Augustus once she sees him trying to give up. Somehow she still manages to get through life herself when she is constantly fighting to fit on and going to hospitals. After trying hard on keeping Augustus head up something tragic happens to him which makes Hazel’s life even harder.

This book is really helpful for the people who have someone in their family battling any diseases. They don’t even have to have a disease they could just be going through a hard time in life, yet this book makes them realize that there is way much to life than they can see.  I recommend reading this it will change how you think about many people or even change the way you think about life. 

Book Review by Geo A.

The Radleys

The book I read was called The Radleys by Matt Haig. Matt has also written books like The Humans. These books are the same by the author and they are both fictions. These books are both about creatures not from earth. He writes about not realistic things such as vampires and aliens.

The book The Radleys is about a family of vampires. There kids know nothing about the kids being vampires; the parents try to hide it from them. But then one day there daughter got a taste of what she had been craving her whole life. Then the son and now they all know, except the neighbors. The mother loves her husband’s brother and her husband craves the beautiful Laura across the street. The Radleys are a family everyone worries about. The son craves his sisters best friend. And as for the mother she might have kids buy two different dads. On page 292 Rowan finds a letter from his mom to his uncle? This makes you wonder. Rowan shocked leaves.

If you’re into stuff like vampires, mystery well this is the book for you. It has excitement and wondering and somewhat comic. If you don’t enjoy this type of stuff then this book isn’t for you. This book is a really enjoyable book that makes you want to keep on turning the page and keep reading. I could hardly put it down. But then again, like I said if you don’t enjoy that kind of thing this books not your “cup of tea”. I hope my report gave you a good idea of the book and makes you want to read it. Thank you!

Book Review by Kristan S.

Deep and Dark and Dangerous

Deep & Dark &Dangerous

Mary Downing Hagn

Right before school had ended and summer just started 13 year old Ali Finds an old Photo. She recognized 2 of the girls one was her mother and the other her aunt. She wondered who the other girl was and why she was torn out the picture. She had no idea that she would have all summer to find out because she was going to spend it in the cabins where the picture was taken. On the Trip Ali and her little sister Emma meet a rude little girl named sissy that was determined to ruin their summer. Sissy wasn’t any typical girl she had a secret that involved that photo and Ali was willing to find out.

The horror story novel reviles a old dark family secret that no knew about and how the past can come and effect the ones you love. It unfolds the truth with twists and turns bout sissy and who she really was and what she really wanted. How Loneness and sadness can get to the point to do crazy things to just have a friend.

Deep & Dark & Dangerous by Mary Downing is a page turner. You won’t want to set the book down until you find out the truth and what really happen. 

Book Review by Jacky L.

The Skin I'm In

The Skin I’m in is a book written by Sharon G. Flake. Sharon has written many other books such as: Money Hungry, Bang, Who am I without him, begging for change. All of her books teach young people the truth in life. This book is really explaining how a young African American girl named Maleeka, was teased and bullied for skin color! She soon meets a woman named Miss. Saunders and she tries to teach her to love herself as she is. Maleeka doesn’t want to listen and continues to be teased. A few other characters fall into the book like Maleeka’s new friend Charlese also known as Char. A boy in her class that is the main one who attempts to make fun of Maleeka is John-John. Then Maleeka’s crush is Caleb.

John-John teases Maleeka everywhere she goes. She can’t go into class without being teased about her skin color and how tall she is. John-John made up a rap about her talking about her skin color and how tall she is. Then Char is being a nice friend and helps Maleeka out by letting her borrow her clothes that she doesn’t wear anymore.  Miss. Saunders comes into the picture as Maleeka is walking around in the hall and stops Maleeka to ask her a question.  Maleeka is with Char as this happens and gets a little sassy with Miss. Saunders. She doesn’t like how she was talking to her, so she sent her back to class.

I recommend this book to everyone! This book is a good life lesson about how to love yourself for who you are and not what people say about you. It doesn’t matter what you look like because God made you that way for a reason.  If you don’t like yourself which  you should you should read this book and understand it as it is laid out for you.  It would not be a waste of time because no books are a waste. I think you should get this book as fast as you can because everyone needs a life lesson once in a while.

Book Review by Courtney B.

Taking Sides

“Taking Sides” is written by famous writer Gary Soto. Gary Soto also has other famous books such as "Baseball in April", and "Too Many Tamales”. Most of his books are very good and attention-grabbing. The book I’m reading which is “Taking Sides” is about a young Mexican boy who lived in the ghetto but now lives in the suburbs with rich people. This book is very exciting and may relate to other people.

               

This basketball themed book is about A young boy named Lincoln getting used to living in the suburbs and trying to get his friend to become his girlfriend. Lincoln hates the location he lives in, He wants to go back to the ghetto and reunite with his friends and especially Tony. Tony is Lincolns best friend but they cannot hangout since Lincoln had to move to the suburbs. Tony and Lincoln still communicate through the phone though. Lincoln is very great at basketball he loves the sport it’s his favorite! Lincoln joined the basketball team and looked forward to being the star on the team but his Coach doesn’t like him. One of Lincoln’s basketball game is against his old school. Lincoln couldn’t decide whether to beat his old school or lose on purpose to show how much he loves his old school. Lincoln will decide when the day comes.

               

There is much more to learn from the book, and much more characters that are involved in Lincoln’s life. Taking sides is a incredible and remarkable book. You’ll probably be very tacked to the book.

Book Review by Leeh M.

In the Middle of the Night

In The Middle Of the Night, this book was written by Robert Cormier. This author has written many other books those are The Chocolate War, IAm Cheese after the First Death, The Rag Bone and Shop. All these other books have a lot of suspense in them and they are supernatural. This book is about Denny’s father who is involved in a horrible accident.

In this book there is 1 “MAIN” character and his name is Denny Colbert and his father was involved in an accident which had killed 22 children and injured many others years after Denny turns 16 he decides that he wants to actually figure out what happened that night. Paul Colbert was his father, the man who owned the shop and who everyone blamed was John-Paul. “It’s your entire fault Denny you and your father killed those children”, but it wasn’t for him to blame.

I personally would recommend this book to people who like suspenseful, horror, and supernatural books. I think people should read this book because there are very spooky parts in the book and I think people would like that and when you start reading the book and you get into it you want to read more and more.

Book Review by Dylan O.

The Wave

The book I am doing this book review on is called The Wave by Todd Strasser. This is the first book that I have read by this author. The book is about a history class that is learning about World War II. The Teacher, Ben Ross, fells like the class doesn’t fully understand why the Germans followed Hitler. So, Mr. Ross comes up with a class experiment called The Wave.

               

The Wave starts off as a classroom experienced that turned the entire school crazy. The Wave was supposed to show the students how you were supposed to be disciplined, help others in your community, and use your actions. The Wave’s motto was Strength Through Discipline, Strength Through Community, Strength Through Action. There many conflicts throughout the story concerning the leaders of The Wave. Couple, Laurie and David broke up because of The Wave after being together their entire high school experience. The Wave drives almost the entire class where The Wave began Apart.

               

I would recommend this book whose looking for a quick read. The book is filled with conflicts within the characters.  The book is short and easy to read. The book is exciting and after you get into it you be able to put it down!

Book Review by Jacob S.

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

I read the book Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan. Darren Shan has written many books Cirque Du Freak is a twelve book series about a boy who becomes a vampire. Since the book Cirque Du Freak is a series they are all the same just with a little bit of a different twist to the story. The book is about a boy named Darren Shan who encounters a vampire who changes his life forever.

               

Darren Shan is just another boy running around having fun throwing air planes when he becomes dizzy.  He wakes and finds a ticket for an unknown cirques. Darren and his friends see the address and decide to go see what this place looks like and to see if they can buy some more tickets. The day of circus Darren arrives at the address again and there is a building there this time but there wasn’t before. He walks around to look and see what this was all about he walks into a room and finds a spider then he steals it little does he know who he stole it from.

               

This book was a great read it had adventure and it makes you want to keep reading because of the crazy things that happen on almost every page. It’s not a very long read but if you like vampires and weird cool creators this is a book for you. I would definitely say  to this is a book to read.

Book Review by Jesus P.

A Child Called It

The book I read is called “A Child Called It”. The Author is Dave Pelzer, he has written “The Lost Boy”, “A Man Named Dave”, and other books. They all relate the book “A Chilled Called It” because they all talk about the main character struggling in a situation. A young boy that goes through chilled abuse with his mother. His mother mistreats him and abuses him.

The book is about a boy trying to survive the abuse of his mother. His mother never really always abused him .It Started because his mother was abused as a child herself. She was a good mother and wasn’t always abusive. Dave the main character (little boy) strives to get away from his mother’s abuse by staying late after school .He would try to avoid his teachers so they wouldn’t ask about the scars and bruises on his body.

I liked the book because it is a real life story. I like real life stories. I also enjoyed this book because it shows that he was a strong boy. If you like Autobiographies then I would consider this book to you. If you like good endings I would suggest you read this book.  

Book Review by Tia F.

The City of Ember

The City of Ember, written by Jeanne DuPrau, is a modern dystopian with simple writing involved. The Ideal part about this book is that it takes over the end of the world and feels more helpless than ever for the city falling apart. The best theme to fit this story is to me in quotes “making a lie for more than one can make danger of millions of innocent lives” –Ben Mowitz.

This book is of course a dystopian fiction. Not only does it make a good atmosphere but makes a big problem to strive towards instead of just fixing the whole Dystopia. This takes place in the end of the world with only one city being left in the darkness of the world. The story is told in a third person omniscient and sort of limits it to two characters in the story and are mainly the protagonists. These two characters are Lina MayFleet and Doon Harrow, and they switch off around the story and take in their thoughts and feelings in the process. The city of ember is the setting and shows the main problem to the characters (almost all of them). The city of ember is flickering from the lights that are produced on lamps and light bulbs, and soon it gets blackouts. These blackouts occur more and more as the story goes on. Soon these two characters get suspicious of this activity and find out that they are both looking at the same thing. They go out and try to solve their many questions. Like, why are there so many blackouts? What’s out in the darkness? Will we soon lose supplies to the city? Is there and Exit? May I also note that there other problem is that there soon running out of supplies for them to live a healthy and needed lifestyle and soon things are getting scarcer for the city, and that’s where the climax kicks in. I couldn’t find as much powerful or inspiring quotes to go to this story so sorry.

To me this book earns a title of a good book, but it doesn’t be too powerful in its wording. More or less it takes up not that much time to read and sort of doesn’t feel like a good story at the end and may I note it was a sequel to begin where they left off. But in my opinion it didn’t feel so fulfilling to read it and felt more like it was meant for an 11 year old more than a Teen. Taking up a lot of my time to this book was fun but to me I still feel like I should have picked something better, also to note that I’ve read the hunger games before this. To me this is better for young readers because a reader of my age can easily suspect something to happen over the description it gives you instead of it saying it’s that item or that thing. Even though this sort of aspect made it show that the society that they lived in thought this particular item was strange. To me I suggest giving it to a kid with a good mental thought of reading to get into this. I feel like it’s more of a beginners Dystopia more than an intriguing Dystopia.

Book Review by Ben M.

Lawn Boy

The book i read was Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen.This book is book one out of the lawn boy series he has written.It starts off on a summer day just starting summer vacation wich is the scene for most of this story. It has to do with the difficulties of owning a business and what twist and turns you can go threw along the way. It also goes threw the challenges of what can happen if you try to hide things from people and the consequences of it all.

There are 3 main characters in this story they are lawn boy, Arnold and joey pow. Lawn Boy who is the most obvious main character who is left unnamed except for lawn boy because of his love for mowing lawns over the summer and because of his experiences in mowing them. Arnold who is lawn boys stockbroker that came into the story after Arnold had only been able to pay for his lawn to be mowed by paying in stock.Then finally theres joey pow who is a professional boxer that soon after becomes lawn boys bodyguard and gets into some harry situations with threats to his lawn mowing business and Arnold. The story is about a kid named lawn boy who lives in a very normal family, and lives a very normal life. His birthday just happened and his favorite present is his lawn mower from his grandma. Summer has just started and he decides to start a lawn mowing business which soon turns out to be more than he can handle. He meets tons of friends on the way and has many adult decisions that he has to answer and solve by himself at such a young age. One of the main conflicts in this story is when lawn boy has to make the biggest decision of his life that no one at his age should have to decide.

The book was very interesting and enjoyable. It left me with excitement after every chapter and there were cliffhangers at every turn. This book is one to check out if you like to be surprised and if you like to read a good solid book with a nice story to it. It was a very descriptive and thorough book that allowed me to be able to visualize the book as i was reading.If you like to read and you want a book that will keep you interested through the whole story, and won't just get your hopes up but will also fulfill your hopes than this is the book for you.

Book Review by Leighton H.

The Lost Hero

I read "The Lost Hero" by Rick Riordan. He has also written "The Son of Neptune" which both are in the Percy Jackson series. The theme of the story is that everything in life comes with a consequence. A boy and his friends go on a quest to save a godess. When they save the godess she reveals the truth about the boy.

               

Jason wakes up on a bus holding hands with this girl he doesnt know, Piper, not knowing where he is only that he shouldn't be there. Later that day Jason goes to Camp Half-blood, a camp for half human half god, demi gods. His friend named Leo got claimed by Hephestus, the god of fire and blacksmith. Piper got claimed by Aphrodite the godess of love and beauty. At the campfire its annoucnced that Jason, Piper, and Leo were going to have to go on a quest, to save Hera godess of marriage. Leo finds a bronze dragon and names it Fetus they use the dragon to go on their quest. Piper got turned into gold by King Midas, and turned back human in the river.  Leo's dragon got ruined going over the fence, and met up with the Hunters of Artemis, one of the hunters is his long lost sister, Thailia. "It is you, same scar above your lip and everything." That was the first thing that Thailia said to Jason. Leo has a crush on Thailia, his best friends sister, only to find that Thalia can't date him because Hunter's of Artemis have to swear off dating.

               

I think that people should read this book because it has a great hook and keeps your attention the entire time. It teaches a good lesson, it has a great mix of drama and action. If you like Greek or Roman Mythology then you will enjoy this series. 

Book Review by Dallys B.

The Mark of Athena

The book I read was The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan. Riordan is the author of the Percy Jackson series and the new Heroes of Olympusseries. The mark of Athena is the 3rd book of the series. The theme of this book is Greek mythology in modern days. The genre is fantasy fiction and action. This book compared to the other books is different because the story is told through 4 demigods on 3rd person omniscient. The mark of Athena will have readers wanting to read each page after page of plot twist and turns.

In the mark if Athena they are 7 demigods Leo, Jason, Percy, Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, Piper. However we only get to hear the story from Percy, Leo, Piper, and Annabeth. In the series the heroes of Olympus they were 2 books already out before the mark of Athena the Lost Hero and the Son ofNeptune. Those 2 books led up to the mark of Athena introducing each character and their background. Jason, Leo, and piper came from the lost hero. Hazel, Frank, and Percy came from the son of Neptune. However Percy was the main protagonist in the previous series Percy Jackson and the Olympians this series was told in 1st person through Percy Jackson. Also Annabeth was a main character in the series but not the protagonist. In this new series Percy Jackson of camp half-blood (a place where Greek demigods live and train to survive) and Jason grace of camp Jupiter (a place where roman demigods live and train) have their memories wiped and placed into different camps by Hera the goddess. After some time they both regain their memories and Leo builds a ship and goes to camp Jupiter to pick up the 3 heroes to fulfill the great prophecy. The great prophecy is 7 demigods of different camps must work together and stop the earth goddess Gaea from awakening from her sleep so by now they all know who is going. So when they pick up the 3 demigods the romans attack thinking the Greeks were going to attack them. However 3 demigods still make it to the ship. Now that the 7 demigods are together they must sail to Rome to defeat twin giant monsters sent by Gaea to kill the demigods but when the demigods arrive at Rome Annabeth has a solo mini quest on her own the mark of Athena. Since her mother is Athena the goddess of wisdom Annabeth has to do it alone this pains Percy Jackson because Annabeth is her girlfriend and does not want her to die because all the children of Athena have failed the quest to find their mothers statue. Annabeth finds her statue but it is being guarded by Athena’s enemy Arachne the mortal turned spider woman by Athena after she was talking bad stuff about Athena and all children of Athena have a terrible phobia of spiders due to that. So Annabeth is horribly terrified but she snaps out of it and think of a plan to stop her so she tricks arachne into making her own trap out of webbing so Annabeth gets the statue and her friends find her and take the statue but arachne shakes the place till the floor collapses opening up the pit to tarteres (a pit filled with horrible monsters) arachne falls in and Annabeth is hanging off the ledge and Percy helps her but they both fall into the pit leaving their friends behind. The book ends with the 5 demigods searching for the demigods the statue is in their possession now.

I recommend this book to others because it has something for everybody. Like, romance, drama, action/adventure, comedy, and fantasy. If you hadn’t the heroes of Olympus book 1 and 2 also if you hadn’t read the Percy Jackson series I would NOT read this book. You will be completely lost so I would take your time.

Fun facts

Percy and Annabeth are the only main characters to appear in both series. These 7 demigods have their own powers. Percy is the son Poseidon making him a very powerful demigod. He has multiple water powers he can breathe under water and swim faster than anybody. Also he can communicate with horses and sea creatures and he has all control over water but limited because he will get very drained out. Jason is the son of Jupiter also making him a very powerful demigod. He can control the winds making him fly and shoot blast of wind and lighting. Piper is the daughter of Aphrodite the goddess of love. Her powers are charmspeak meaning she can convince people to do whatever she wants. Leo is the son of Hephaestus making him good with machines. He can build anything and he has a rare power to control fire and shoot fire projectiles. Frank is the son of mars. Him moms side has a power to shape shift. He has no special demigod powers. Hazel is the daughter of Pluto. She died in the 1940’s but her father brought her back to life. Her powers are she can detect any type of special metal. Annabeth is the daughter of Athena making her very smart and crafty. She has no special powers but she can be very dangerous with her mind. Also her boyfriend is Percy Jackson. 

Book Review by Abdul S.

Stargirl

Title: Stargirl

Author: Jerry Spinelli

Introduction: She also wrote the book “Loser”. It is similar to “Stargirl” because it has the same type of bullying and effects on the character, and they both have the same theme, and that is “always be your self and don’t think what others say about you”.

Summary: Leo is an eleventh grader and is the narrator in the story. He is a person that follows everyone else, liking the same style of clothing, listening the same type of music, eat the same food, and always talk about the same things. One the first day of school, everybody is talking about a new student in tenth grade name Susan “Stargirl” Caraway, who wore a ruffled old fashioned dress and it was long enough that it covered her shoes. At first everybody avoided her, because of her weirdness of her choice of style, bringing her ukulele and her pet rat Cinnamon. Despite fitting in with everyone, Leo sparked an interest with Stargirl and he just observed her from afar, not having the courage to talk to her. Hillari is one of the “popular” kids that go to school with Stargirl and she is a bully towards Stargirl because she is not “normal” and like her. While everyone is paying more attention to Stargirl, Hillari becomes jealous and starts rumors that Stargirl is acting in a fake way, and putting a show for everyone to watch.

Analysis/Review: If I were to give this book a rating, I would give it a 10 out of 10, because the content is wonderful and it shows what some teenagers go through everyday and the readers get to experience one of the story that a teenager go through sometimes. I would recommend this book to anyone that is going through a hard time in they're life, because this book will show you that being your self is not a bad thing at all, let other people accept for who you are.

Book Review by Jenny T.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Title: From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Author: E. L. Konigsburg

Introduction: She also wrote the book called “The Viewfrom Saturday”. This book is similar to “From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” because  it has the same targeted audience and  has the same theme, and that is “being alone can always be your worst enemy”.

Summary:  This book is about a girl named, Claudia Kincaid and her brother, Jamie Kincaid. Claudia is a person that kind of wants attention, but never gets it because she has other siblings in her family like her little brother. Thinking that everything she does doesn’t get appreciated by her parents or anyone. Like cleaning the house looking after her brother, doing almost every chore in the book. She decides to run away, thinking that it would make everyone worry and think that they should pay attention to her. To carry out her plan she decides that bring her brother, Jamie was the greatest idea ever. There was a good thing and a bad thing to bring him with the runaway plan. The good thing is that he understands Claudia a little more than her parents, and the bad thing is that he doesn’t like being bossed around a lot. Claudia’s plan was how do you say? You can say it’s the oldest runaway plan ever. Like running away because you’re angry, and only carrying things that you need, like a knapsack. The thing with Claudia is that she is picking when coming to picking a place to stay. Even going to a picnic party is untidy and inconvenient for her. So when she planned to run away her home to the bustling city to New York, she decided that living in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City was perfect for her and her brother to stay. Later they meet a woman named Mrs. Frankweiler at an auction, and they later found out that Mrs. Frankweiler is a collector and lives in Connecticut.

Analysis/Review:  If I were to rate this book, I would give it a 7 out of 10, because it was kind of slow and not really my opinion of a great book. I say if you like to read books about teenagers learning a lesson and thinking about stuff they did in the past, I would recommend this book to you, but if you want a mystery with a bit of history in it, I wouldn't recommend really spend your time with this book

Book Review by Jenny T.

The Wizard of Oz

Title- The Wizard of Oz
Author- L. Frank Baum

Dorothy lived in the middle of great Kansas with her family and her dog Toto, when all of a sudden a giant cyclone swooped her house into the air and within minutes she was in a far away land with creatures she never seen before. Along the way she befriends a lion, tin man, and a scarecrow. And in order to get home she has to withdraw her courage, and do something she never imagined, kill the Wicked Witch of The West.

As Dorothy goes through all the adventure, you forget that the goal is to get home. As she walks the yellow bricked path she doesn't know wether or not she wants to stay with her new found friends or go back to how she used to be.

This is a child's favorite book filled with imagination and surprising adventures, ensuring that every kid will love it.

Book Review by Elizabeth P.

The Stand

With several interlocking story lines and dozens of fully developed characters, The Stand by Stephen King is a novel of truly epic proportions.

When an engineered disease named “Project Blue” and nicknamed “Captain Tripps” accidentally escapes from a government research lab, the world is thrown into turmoil. 99.4% of the world’s population perishes. The few survivors, including Nick Andros, Frannie Goldsmith, and Stuart Redman, dream of two distinct figures representing good and evil, the elderly mother Abigail, and the sinister Dark Man.

With five main characters and several interlacing subplots The Stand can sometimes be difficult to keep track of. This does not detract from the quality of the story however. The writing is superb and all characters involved are well developed.

Due to it’s excellent plot, characters, and setting, The Stand is a must read for anyone who enjoys horror or post-apocalyptic fiction. I highly recommend it.

Book Review by Maxwell J.

BZRK

The Title of the book is Bzrk and the author is Michael Grant. The story takes place all over the world and is mainly about a war happening under our very own skin. Saddie, a teen that had just become an orphan, is… drafted by Bzrk an organization that uses biots to help them defeat the Armstrong twins and their organization of twitchers that use nanobots.

 Saddie a.k.a Plath and Noah a.k.a Keats have been recently drafted by Bzrk because of their families’ relationship to Bzrk. Plath’s dad created biots, tiny biological creatures that were created with DNA from scorpions, spiders, and humans. Keats brother, a former agent of Bzrk who was very talented at nano warfare, had done great work before going mad. Bzrk figured that if one brother had talent than the other brother would have talent too.

This book had a great and unique idea and a very good story line. However, I never got attached to the characters and never fully understood why the war started, besides that the Armstrong twins wanted to take over every mind in the world but I mean why? Also how the nanobots/ biots were ever created in the first place. I wouldn’t recommend this book as it has many boring and pointless parts of the book. It’s a pretty good book in the sci-fi part but Grant tried to add to many characters too soon.  

Book Review by David C.