New Moon

If you haven't read the book but seen the movie, the movie is close enough to the book it doesn't matter if you've read it or not. If you haven't done either STOP READING RIGHT NOW!!! My short summary isn't so short.
Okay. It is time to catch up on my reviews. I'm way behind. Anyway..........
I read the second Twilight book the weekend after I finished the first one. I may have actually spoken too soon (see my original Twilight post if you wanna know what I said about it). Bella was waaaay more flaky in this book than she was in the first one. Edward left less than a hundred pages in (I think) because his dad was supposed to be ten years older than he looked. They didn't really want anyone to get suspicious of the fact that they are vampires so they moved to Italy. So Bella spent most of her time trying to get adrenaline rushes so she could hear Edward's voice. She heard his voice every time she did something dangerous. Some of these activities were crashing a motorcycle and jumping off a cliff. Oh and walking up to a guy she thought tried to attack her before (She's soo smart, isn't she?). The motorcycle thing is actually important, because she has her friend Jake help her rebuild them from complete and total scrap metal. Jake actually turns out to be a werewolf later, which is really cool. Werewolfs are cooler than vamps in my opinion. Speaking of vamps, did I mention Victoria is back? You know, the red headed vampire who was dating the vampire that tried to kill Bella last year? Yeah, she came back cause Edward killed her boyfriend, so she was trying to kill Edward's girlfriend, who also happens to be Bella. The werewolves tried to keep her in Canada and eventually we didn't hear from her for a while. She did show up when Bella jumped off the cliff, but that was the last time. After Bella jumped off the cliff, Alice (Edward's "sister") came back. Edward ended up thinking Bella was dead and tried to kill himself. This is where the Volturi comes in. He tries to reveal that he is a vampire so the Volturi will kill him so he doesn't have to live without Bella (aaaw so romantic. btw i'm being sarcastic). He ends up failing because Bella shows at the last minute and proves she isn't dead. Then the Volturi comes and takes Edward to Volturi HQ (as I will call it here). They have a long conversation, mostly about how Bella can resist their powers and how mad the Volturi are because Edward told Bella about vampires. It ends up that Bella has to turn into a vampire or be killed by the Volturi. Edward doesn't like this idea. The basic end of the book is the Cullens taking a vote on whether or not to turn her. They didn't even turn her (even though they voted to). Edward refuses to turn her, but he said he will if she marries him, which she says she will.
Now if you're still reading and you haven't read the book or seen the movie, didn't I tell you to stop??? I mean, if you're Ms. Kesler it's different, but seriously if you didn't want to know all of this, then you should have stopped. Anyway...............................................
I liked this one, but Bella was way more flaky this time around. Kristen Stewart did good for once! Edward wasn't even in most of the book, but that was cool. I like Jacob better anyway. Werewolves are waaaay better than vampires. They are like giant fluffy dogs. Of course, if you get one to go wolf you've probably really ticked him off. They only go wolf when they get mad. Jacob was definitely my favorite character this time around. I think I liked this book better anyway. Maybe it had something to do with Edward's absence. I don't know for sure.
I'm going with the same recommendations, but I'm adding werewolf fans. You can't ever forget werewolves. Same age recommendation too. This one wasn't even as violent as the first one. It just kind of tells kids that you can jump of cliffs recreationally, which isn't a good thing.
~Ashleigh

The Wednesday Wars

In “The Wednesday Wars”, Holling Hoodhood is in seventh grade, where everyone in his school is either Jewish or Catholic. Everyone except Holling gets out of class early to go to church, leaving him alone with Mrs. Baker, whom he is convinced, hates him. During the time when he is alone, Mrs. Baker has him read Shakespeare. Eventually, it comes of use because his classmates find out he ate a cream puff, so he must go and buy one for each person in the class. He gets all the money he can, but comes up short, so the baker of the cream puffs makes a deal with him. If Holling performs Shakespeare, which he was in need of someone who knew some, he could have the cream puffs. A lot of stuff happens afterward that doesn't connect with the other parts of the story and I really feel compelled to say this, this was a terrible book. It had no flow, very slow, the characters were hard to relate to.

First, the story was talking about how Mrs. Baker hated Holling, then it talked about him being the only Presbyterian, then it talked about rats. It was just very lacking, story-wise. It jumped around too much and I didn't enjoy it.

It was also very slow. It had so little action that I felt like I had to force myself to read it. It was unbelievably boring. I kept thinking to myself “Why is this taking so long?” It took way too long to get its point across, that I had almost forgotten what that point was.

And, another reason is that the characters are hard to relate to. They seem so unnatural around each other and within themselves. They were very static, flat, and, for lack of a better term, boring.

This book was extremely slow paced, poorly written, and I don't understand why anyone would give this an award.

Words of Wisdom: Contrary to my belief, this book is not about war, nor two people named Wednesday in a fist fight. Buy this if you hate yourself, or if you are an English teacher who hates your students. If neither of the two, don't buy it.

Similar titles: None that are this incredibly dry and drawn out. Might I suggest the dictionary?

Things Not Seen

In “Things Not Seen”, Bobby is turned invisible and he has to go about his normal life still being invisible, well, as normal as he can. He can't go to school, go to public places without being completely naked or being completely covered in clothes. After he shows his parents he is invisible, which takes some time, his dad tries to figure out why he is invisible.

All that changes after he meets Alicia, a blind girl, at the library. He can talk to her without being exposed as the “invisible child.” And, after she finds out he is invisible, she has her parents help Bobby's figure out why Bobby is invisible. They encounter many obstacles during their quest, including the school board, a truant officer, and the government. They don't actually discover the cure for invisibility, though. They stumble across it when Bobby goes to sleep one night and wakes up visible.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, but I would suggest reading it only once. I read it a second time and didn't think the book was as good as I did the first time. I thought the plot was a bit dumb, I didn't enjoy the characters, I really just did not enjoy reading it the second time. Throughout the book, I was thinking to myself, “Maybe this is the part where it gets good.”

It didn't.

I was very disappointed when I read it the second time, for two reasons, mainly. Reason one: I loved the book the first time. I couldn't wait to start the second book in the series. That one was even worse. The second reason: I thought the story was very poor. Poorly thought out, poorly written, just didn't think it was a very good book.

You can go out and buy the book and see for yourself.

Words of Wisdom: Don't read it a second time.

Similar titles: “Things Hoped For”, “Things That Are”

Suicide Notes

Let me start off by saying, this was a phenomenal book. It was funny, the characters were all likeable and believable, the description and actual writing was great, it was just an all around great book. Let me also say this has some very mature themes in it, such as sex, language, and creepy, morbid death/suicide, though it isn't depressing. It describes his graphic sexual encounters with the other patients, as well. SPOILERS! One of them is a dude.

In “Suicide Notes”, Jeff tried to kill himself and he wakes up in the Psych ward of a mental hospital. His 45 day program doesn't allow him to leave the ward until his “sentence”, as he calls it, is up. There he meets Sadie, Bone, Alice, and Juliet. Eventually, Bone leaves and Sadie kills herself, so two other patients move in. Before those things happen, he goes about his routines for about two-thirds of the book, and then the “juicy” stuff starts to happen. That's also when Rankin, Bone's replacement shows up. Coincidence? Rankin starts bringing back feelings of why he killed himself. Jeff has sex with Rankin, and it goes into detail about the “encounters” let's call them. During his third, Juliet freaks out. It's not because she walked in on them having sex, but she finds Sadie dead after she OD'ed on some pills. After Rankin is sent away for harassing Jeff, Jeff finally starts actually talking to his therapist. Then, he remembers why he tried to kill himself, because he found out he was gay. That was my main pet peeve with this, was that one cliché. “Oh, I'm gay so I have to kill myself. No one can know.” Yes, I know it happens, but that is the one thing that's in almost every story about a gay teenager.

I really enjoyed this book. It was just the way he told it, from Jeff's perspective. He told it with sarcasm and snarkiness. He just did it really well.

Words of Wisdom: Go and buy it. It's a phenomenal book and it's really funny. It only starts dealing with homosexuality about two-thirds in and gives no real indicators the Jeff is gay until he wakes up naked, with Rankin, naked as well, next to him.

Unbroken

Unbroken was an amazing book. This book was about a famous runner named Louie. He ran in the 1936-Olympic games and won many awards. But Pearl Harbor is bombed so he decides to join the Air Force. He and his friends fly a B-24 called the "Super Man" the plane is put out of service, so they get a new plane named the "Green Hornet". He and others members aboard get shot down by Japanese planes and crash in the Pacific Ocean. They have survived in the Pacific Ocean for many days. Then they hit land where they are captured and put in POW camps. Where Louie is usually beaten and abused. I would recommend this book to a person who is a retired veteran or still in the military and anyone who want to learn about POW camps. But I cannot compare this to other books because this was my first book I have read about POW camps.

Specials

I absolutely loved this book. It was my favorite out of the Uglies Series. It's about how a girl named Tally who is a special. A super-amped fighting machine engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties just plain stupid. But when she is offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the new smoke permanently. Now it is up to Tally to do what she is programmed to do. Her life will never be the same. That is pretty much what it is about. What I liked about this book was its details were a little better and it really got me interested into the book. I didn't like it because the more I read I began to realize that it wasn't a really challenge for me. I just wish that it had a little more detail and explained the book a little more. I would recommend this to a young adult or a girl because I think a girl can relate to it more than a boy would if he read the Uglies Series. I would compare this book to Extra’s even though it is written by the same author it sort of has the same content to it. I loved the Uglies Series.

Never Let Me Go

I finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro several weeks ago. Even though it has taken me a while to write the review, I really enjoyed the book. This book is technically an adult novel, so there are lots of mature themes throughout. The main people in this book are clones, which adds an interesting layer to the already fairly complex plot.

The plot centers around Kathy and her two best friends, Tommy and Ruth. They went to school together at what was apparently one of the better schools for clones. The book is divided into three parts, which are the three parts of clone life, childhood (their schooling), adulthood (life in the cottages, most freedom), and donors (where Kathy is a “carer” or nurse for both Ruth and Tommy). The Donor stage is the part of life for which clones were bred: to make donations to help the medical community.

I really liked that this book was complex. It’s not just Kathy’s story, it’s the story of Kathy uncovering the truth about clones, her school, and her future. The plot is never void of surprises, and it never really gets dull, even when the life being described was. It was a great “make you think” book.

The only problem I had with this book at all was some adult content. I mean, I was able to handle it just fine, but it was there. The book talks about things like sex and death quite frequently, plus some other things. Nothing very graphic, however.

I would recommend this book to any adult looking for a thought-provoking read and any mature teenager looking for the same. This is adult fiction, so the content is the only snag point, but with a certain level of maturity, it should be fine.

I would compare this book to books like Ender’s Game. The plots are nothing alike, but the “make you think,” the dark twists, and the skewed view of the future (even though this book was supposed to take place in the 90s). Both are very interesting to read and I would recommend both very highly.

Purple Heart

In Purple Heart the main character is a 19 year old named Matt. He is in the ARMY and his squad is located in Iraq. In the beginning of the story his squad meets this young Iraqi kid and they take care of him throughout the story. Matt starts in the hospital where he has recently been injured. He has suffered from a minor brain injury but eventually recovers. He isthen sent back out to his squad. They are hapy to see him back but when he returns they are in a ceize fire. Matt does have to deal with all the flashbacks from where he was hurt. But he can't seem to make any sence of it. I liked this book because it was about a current war and was very interesting because it felt like you were a current soldire while reading it. The only thing i didn't like was how the pages were organized, because there wasn't any chapters. It just went from scene to scene. I could sort of compare this book to "All the Broken Pieces" because of all the flashbacks that Matt had, and some of the characters in All the Broken Pieces had flashbacks. I would reccomend this book to anybody that enjoys war or has a military family.

Blood Red Horse

Blood Red Horse took place in the 12th century when King Richard was alive. Will and Gavin, brothers, are sent off to war along with their father, Sir Thomas. Meanwhile, their friend, Ellie, is left home since she is a girl and cannot fight.

Will isn’t very nervous because he has his trusty horse, Hosanna. Hosanna is very loyal, capable, and loving. When Hosanna falls into the enemies’ hands, Will is heartbroken.

Kamil, on the other side of the war, loves Hosanna as much as Will. Hosanna is happy in both places. But, when Hosanna has a severe, near-death injury, can Will, Gavin, and Kamil come together to save their horse?

This book shows both sides of the story- the Christian side and them trying to regain Jerusalem, and the Muslim side, trying to protect the land they currently inhabit.

It was okay. Slightly boring in some parts, but it kept me wanting to read to see what happened. I found myself really liking Hosanna, too. I also liked Ellie a lot. She was gutsy and quick to get her way, but still really nice.

This book compares well to the Heartland series. Heartland is about a girl (Amy) whose mom has devoted her life to caring for horses, without being harsh at all. Amy continues her mother’s job and brings many horses back to life, just as Brothers, Will, Hal, and Kamil help Hosanna.

I’d recommend this to any young adults that like war (in-battle) stories that don’t mind horses, or to those that really like horse stories.

Molly Fyde

This book is about a girl that gets expailed from a space academy. This book personally I didn't like. I didn't like because I don't like science fiction at all. I will reconize that the book did have things that I liked in it like it expressing detail and or doesn't go on and on about one topic. He makes the book interesting to gwt through I just didn't like the book. The types of people that I would recomend this book to are the people that actually like Sci-Fi. Books like these are strange to me and I dont't like that. I have not read anything to relate to this book.
****** ps. I am sorry Hugh that i didn't like your book =,(*********

Mockingbird

This book is about a girl thats' brother got shot in a school shooting. She has aspergers.
Somehtings that I liked in this book is that I could relate to it in someway. My little brother has aspergers. I saw in this book that their worlds are way differnt that an average persons. They think in a very differnt way than a average person. They also do things differnt like read the dictionary (which the main character does) for fun or reads bat books. (my brother reads them for fun) Something that I didn't like was that the author put the beginning of random words in big letters and the rest of the word in small letters. That really bugged me that the author did that. Something that I kind of liked and kind of didn't like was that the book had A LOT of dialog in it. I understund what the diolog was for but didn't get why she put that much of it in there. I would recomed this book to anyone. This is a book that anyone will enjoy. They will enjoy it because it is kind of relatible to everyone that has a sibling. If you have a sibling that has aspergers than you will understand what they are really like, what they do and why, and just plain understand what they go through on a daily basis. I could not relate this book to anything that I have read because I have not read anything like this.
****** I hope that you will enjoy thins book! =)*****

Pretties

Pretties is such a good book. It is mainly about how a girl named Tally is finally gets turned pretty and she goes from uglyville to prettyville. Everything she has ever wanted. She has a hot boyfriend, parties, and last but not least her pretty self. But in all of the cool stuff going on she realizes her ugly past and what is wrong with being pretty and now she is fighting to save what she knows. Then she becomes a special. I pretty much liked the whole book but I wish they would have given more detail. I loved this book and can't wait to read specials.

the Hate List

The Hate List is a book that shows what bullying can become. Valerie and her boyfriend Nick make a list of all the people they hate, but one day Nick goes crazy and shoots people who are on the list. He kills 6 people, and then himself. Now, Valerie must face her senior year with people "hating" her.

I really liked the way the author portrayed Nick. It was so different. I mean you CANT hatehim just what he has done. I mean he loves Shakespeare and Hamlet. He was more than what other people saw and thought of him. He had a side that only Valerie unlocked. The thing I didn't like was how they didn't really describe the main characters. Nick, was a skinny kid with baggy clothes, but I couldn't get a sense of how he looked, which I guess is good but I would have preferred a more set out description.

I would recommend this book for people 11+ because of the language and content. I believe boys and girls would like this book, but mostly girls.

I haven't really read a book like The Hate List but I look forward to reading Bitter End!!!

Mockingjay

The Final retaliation stage has come when Katniss takes the face of Mockingjay. She and her allies/friends try to gain control of the capitol. They go through many, many challenges, but Katniss has one goal in mind: to kill Pres. Snow.

I really liked this book, although I think too many people died. I feel like they either went insane or ended up dead.

The whole thing was very clever and like a true retaliation story. I really liked the parts with Katniss, Peeta (who is still recovering from shock of tracker jacker venom, and Finnick and how they tried to get around the city’s Capitol without being discovered. I got really sad because SPOILER:: Prim died, the one Katniss was trying to save from the very beginning, Finnick died and Annie had no one again, Boggs died, and everyone else she had come to know except her mom, Gale, Peeta, and Haymitch. But, her mom is too busy at the hospital, and Gale is far away, Haymitch is drunk and of no help, and Peeta ends up being her husband. I think Gale was way better for her, though. Not that I didn’t like Peeta. END OF SPOILER.

I recommend this book to anyone who read the first and second book and liked one or both of them. It’s worth reading, but kind of depressing.

Comparison: Molly Fyde. It is similar because they both deal with political issues and take-overs like the capitol in Mockingjay and planets like Glemot on Molly Fyde.

Catching Fire

It is hard to write a review without giving a lot away.

In Catching Fire, Katniss is entered in the seventy-fifth Hunger Games along with all of the other victors of the Hunger Games. She and Peeta have to keep each other alive once again.

This book was AMAZING! I loved it. I really like the writing of Suzanna Collins. It is so creative. I can’t explain how much I liked it :).

I would recommend this to anyone who has read the first Hunger Games and enjoyed them. I would also recommend the first Hunger Games to anyone who likes adventure and/or sci-fi.

Again, I can compare this book to Molly Fyde with the futuristic technology and the survival adventures.

Review for Ship Breaker

I read Ship Breaker for an English assignment. It was about a boy named Nailer who worked as a ship breaker, the job was very dangerous. He finds a broken hip for rich people and finds a girl in it. He has to make the choice whether to help her or taker her treasure.
I liked some parts of this book, and I think a lot of it was boring. It made me think of how I would act if I had to live like him. He had a hard life and a hard job. I felt bad for him a lot. I think it shows you that some people and kids really have to live like that and have jobs at young ages just so they can eat.
I would recommend this book to 7th grade and up, because of the language in it. I think boys and girls would like it (surprisingly), even though the main character is a boy and it is about his life.
This book is like Hunger Games is some ways, like how much action is in it and it has a lot of fighting and running away from your enemy’s. It is also like Hunger Games, because it’s about two people falling in love and choosing if you love someone or not.
~Emily :)

Shooting the Moon

This book was written at a lower level content wise it's more 12-15 year-olds.

Jamie Dexter and her brother TJ have grown up full-fledge army. With their father the Colonel being all about service to your country. TJ and Jamie have grown up knowing exactly what they want to do with their lives. When TJ enlists to join Veitnam Tensions and Emothions are high in the Dexter house, but when TJ's first letter reaches home, it's not even a letter at all. I'll it is, are rolls of film. With this film fallowed by more, Jamie slowly has to rethink her intire life plan.

This book is again for 12-15 year-olds because Jamie does describe some of the pictures in detail. This book is similar to Cracker and All the Broken Pieces since they all deal with the same war. It is more like All the Broken Pieces because they both show how the war affected families in America.

~Dana

"Book Thief"

I bluntly did not believe that the "The Book Thief" was not a even remotely decent book.

"The Book Thief," as the name implies, is about a thief, more specifically it is about a small girl in WWII Munich Germany. Who's name is Liesel, and lives with a poor family after her brother dies on the train headed to her new home, and her mother has been taken away for being a communist. I thought the story was pretty stale though, with little character development. The only thing that it had going for it was the narrator, who is Death, and that makes the story, but there is nothing else special about it at all.

I would not recommend this book to most people because it is so boring and slow, but if I had to, I had to I would recommend it to younger readers because if the main characters and the events that happen during the book.

Also if I were to compare it to a book, I would compare to almost any WWII book that is on any shelf because that is what this is, except for the narrorator.

"All but my Life" :))

Review on “All but my Life”. ((:

“All but my Life” was a really good book. Even though it’s not usually the type of book I would pick out, I found it very interesting. It really shows how living around World War II wasn’t the best time to be. They usually were forced to go to concentration camps, and they had to spend their life there, being tortured to work until they die. The main character, Gerda doesn’t have an easy life. Her brother Authur goes off to war, and has to leave the family. Then, soon enough her dad, Julius, was sent off by a train to a concentration camp. Next, her mom and her were separated, and they both headed to different concentration camp. Gerda had to adjust to not having a family, not having her home and all her things, and mostly learning to live in such as a concentration camp. She started to adjust and actually made some friends, which soon enough later she had to basically watch the die. She had to do a lot of work, and sometimes she would sleep in a cabin with her bunkmates, and other times in a cold barn. It shows how life was a lot different around World War II. I really enjoyed this book, and think others would too. It expresses a great story, and brings you along into it! I liked it because of her detail with some things, the way she would talk about the camps she had to go too, and the mood in the book. I didn’t like how some of the time, it would be really good, then it would turn not as good, and would take a while to get interest. I would recommend this book to probably a girl, and 12+. I’m sure a guy would enjoy it, but since you kind of have to feel bad for Gerda in the story, it wouldn’t hit them as hard. I would compare this book to Number the Stars, which is also about the Nazis, and around German World War II. Overall, this was a very good book that I never thought I would like!


~ Bailey ! hahahahahaha. :)

Uglies

This book was really good. It was alo really different so I'm not quite sure how to describe it.

In this book you are 'ugly' until you're 16th birthday; where you under go surgery to make yourself 'super-model pretty' after that all you have to do is party in a new city until you're given your job. Seems great right? Well Tally thought so too, until her new friend Shay shows her a world she never knew about. Suddenly Tally has to make a decision (or two, or three) that will change her life forever.

I really enjoyed this book. I'd recommed it for kids most teens. The government control in this book is similar to the Giver, MATCHED, and The Other Side of the Island although Uglies is the best then MATCHED, then The Other Side of the Island, then the Giver.

~Dana

Out of my Mind

*spoiler-ish alert*
Out of my Mind is an amazing book. Melody is 11 years old with photographic memory. She has Cebral Palsy and has never spoken a day in her life, even though she has so much to say.
I really liked this book because of the story it tells, Melody overcomes her disability and proves everybody wrong. The only thing I didnt like is the ending. It could have ended SO much better. I would almost say dont waste your time because I hated it SO much! They just left her because she had a disability. I was so angry because of it.
I sugest this book to all people who frequently use the word "retard". I for one have stopped saying it as much because it is so wrong. I also found this book touching because of my word I do with the Special Olympics.
I have been told that this book is similar to Mockingbird which I look forward to reading.

weedflower review

I read the book weedflower. It’s about a Japanese-American family that lives in California. There life is peaceful until Japan bombs Hawaii (starting ww2) causing chaos for all Japanese Americans. The main character Sumiko and her family have to move to a relocation center/ Internment camp until they are releases. Sumiko learns to have friends of different cultures while this is happening.
This book teaches a lot about racism. I like how you get to see life in America from a Japanese girl’s prospective. I enjoyed reading it because it is funny at some times and you learn how hard Japanese or other cultures life’s are.
I would recommend this book to 5th graders and up. I think girls would enjoy it a little bit more, but boys can enjoy it too. Older kids might understand it better and get more from it but younger kids can still learn things.
I can’t think of any books that are like weedflower.
~~~Emily

Uglies

Uglies is a very good book. it was a very different read for me because the grammar and it is not a very high reading level compared to most of the books I read.Uglies is manly about how a Tally and Shay were going to be pretty at sixteen. She has longed for one dream ever since she was a little girl and that was to be pretty. I liked the book because it was different not like other books I have read before. In some way's I didn't like the book because it was a very low reading level. Also it keep going from place to place. Which was a little hard to understand but half way threw it got better. I would reccomened this book to girls who think they have flaws with them because it kinda of shows how you don't have to be perfect to be happy. I love this book!!!!!!!!

Twilight

Yes, I know Ms. Kesler said something or other about Twilight in the letter she sent home at the beginning of the trimester but I didn't get it from Ms. Kesler. I bought it myself because honestly I had a gift card and needed to buy something. Twilight isn't as bad as the movie portrays. The book is actually quite interesting. Everybody knows what the book is about so it feels weird to have to write a summary, but I guess I have to.
This book is about seventeen year old Bella Swan, who moves in with her dad when her mom moves to Florida with her new Phil (I'm saying Phil because I can't remember if he was a boyfriend or husband. All I remember is the name and that he is a baseball player). Bella falls in love with Edward Cullen, who is a vampire. For an extremely long time, Bella doesn't know Edward is a vampire and most of Edward's adopted family does not approve of Bella being told that they are vampires (Rosalie in particular). Oh and did I mention Edward and his family don't drink human blood? Well, I did now. They actually spend most of the end of the book saving Bella from vampires who do drink human blood.
The movie and the book are two very different things. We find out Edward is a vampire earlier in the movie than in the book. Edward Cullen actually has a sense of humor in the book. He is very sarcastic unlike Robert Pattinson and his extreme seriousness. I like book Edward more than movie Edward. I have also found out that the entire reason the movie is awful is because of Kristen Stewart. Bella Swan is an interesting character and is completely ruined by Kristen Stewart, who happens to be a horrible actress (I know this because she was also in another movie I've seen, Zathura). Bella isn't as delicate as she seems in the movie. It is actually kind of funny: She isn't afraid to run off to face a lethal vampire, yet she is highly afraid of needles (I can't say much because I am too but if you think about it, it is kind of funny). This is my comparison because I haven't read any other vampire or romance novels.
I would recommend this book for anyone who hates the Twilight movies because just by watching the movies, you are missing out (At least there isn't a fail of an actress in the book). I would also recommend it to those who love vampires and romance novels. At least I would as long as they are in sixth grade and up anyway. This was a quick read for me (2 days), but there is quite a bit of violence so sixth and up is good.
~Ashleigh

Hunger Games

Katniss lives in District 12. She is soon to be known as the Girl of Fire.
Every year, the Capital puts on the Hunger Games. It is basically a way to punish people for rebelling. Kids 12-18 have their name entered in a drawing, and if their name is picked, they go into an arena and fight the other kids until death from hunger, murder, or other. Katniss ends up in the Hunger Games. Katniss misses her friends, Gale, while she has to put up with Peeta, who she doesn’t know how she feels about him. Her hunting and plant skills come in handy to keep her alive, as they did in District 12, a very poor district.

I thought the Hunger Games was very good. I loved the way the author made up a complete political system and portrayed different feelings among the characters. I liked how she created the events in the Hunger Games in Hunger Games and the other character’s personalities.

I would recommend this to young adults that like survival/adventure stories.

I think I can compare this book to Molly Fyde because they are both in the future and so different than many books. They are both great sci-fi adventures (although Hunger Games is more adventurous and less sci-fi).

The Healing Spell

This book was really sad. It was definetively a low reading level, but I still enjoyed it.

This book is about a young girl whose mother is in a coma. The girl "knows" she's the reason behind it. Can she reunited her family, and save her mother, before the guil eats her alive?

This book I'd say are for 3rd-maybe 7th graders. It's not really like anytihng else I can think of

~Dana

All the Broken Pieces

I'm not a huge poem fan but I really enjoyed this book. It had good content, was eay to understand, and really showed emotions.

"My name is Matt Pin
and her name, I remember,
is Phang My.
His name
I will never say....."
~All the Broken Pieces

This book is about a young boy who was airlifted away from is home in Vietnam during the Vietnam war, by American soilders. When he reached his new family in America he sees a different side of life, but being Vietnamess leads to lots of challenges for Matt. Matt attends a group of veterans who are talking about experinces in the war, but once he faces the memories there is no going back.

Through out the book Matt deals with racism and more then his share of blame

"...Because of you, Matt-the-rat,
there's no place for me.

Becayse of you, my wife left.

Because of you, my brother died.

Because of you, I have stumpps instead of legs...."

~Dana

Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets

Harry Potter is an orphaned boy. He is taken in by his mean Aunt and Uncle, the Dursleys. When he turns eleven a giant man knocks down the door ands states, "Yer a wizard 'Arry,''. Harry goes to Hogwarts, a school which teaches magic. His two best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger go on a fantastic adventure.

I really enjoyed the way the book was written. It flows so well. Also I love the way J.K. Rowling doesnt give you exact detail of each character. It lets you imagine some. The only thing I don't like is Hermione's name because I couldn't pronounce it till a year ago.

I would recommend this book to all young readers, boys and girls because it tells a great story. I compare it to Lord Of The Rings because its both World Stories. They both have a different world within their book.

The Gardener

SPOLIER WARNING!

The Gardener is about the shady experiments of a company called TroDyn. The company plans on making a new type of human that can produce energy from the sun. These people are called autrophs.
A boy called Mason ends up involved in the less than moral dealings of TroDyn. He and a girl invlved in the experiment, Laila, run away together. As they get farther away from the rest of the subjects in the experiment, Laila becomes ill.
They meet up with a former TroDyn employee. Dr. Emerson, the ex-employee, informs them that Laila has to be near other autotrophs to stay alive. This is because of the fact that the experiment is not yet complete and the kinks in the system haven't been worked out yet.
Mason takes Laila back to TroDyn, and gets a tour of the buliding from a woman named Eve. The woman says that he will ba able to meet the head of the experiment, who is known as the Gardener.
When Mason meets the Gardener, he is shocked. The Gardener is his father, who he thought had just left his family or died.
Eve trys to kill Soloman, the Gardener, because she wants to sell the autotrophs to the government, but Mason stops her. Laila and the other autotrophs have to be moved to a new holding facility, but Soloman promises Mason that he will see her again.
The story picks up again, and Mason is going to Stanford. He sees Laila, and the book ends.

In my opinion, this is not a worthwhile read. Not only is the plot decidedly unoriginal, NOTHING happens until page 120 of 230. 130 pages is not enough space to create an nteresting and deep plot. I would not recommend this book to anyone, seeing as it was a huge disappiontment. I would compare this book to the first Molly Fyde book. Both books took forever to pick up, but Molly Fyde actually managed to capture my attention, unlike the Gardener.

The Surrender Tree

I know a lot of people who really enjoyed this book but I HATED it. It might be beacuse I'm not a big poem person.

This book is about a nurse in the battle for Cuban independence. It was all poems, and had different points of view.

This book is simialr in style to All the Broken Pieces, but it was way, way, way, worse. It'd say it's for kids 10-14

~Dana

Impossible

This book is extremly weird. I think it was good, although all the riddles made it confusing. There was alos some adult content in the book. I'd recommend it for mature middle schoolers and high schoolers, maybe a lower reading level collage student, due to the rape in the book.

This book is about a girl Lucy, she has everything she's ever wanted. She lives with her foster parents, as nobody knows who her real father is and her mother went crazy after having Lucy, due to rape. Lucy is excited for her school prom, although at points leading up to prom, including the actual, it looks like her crazy real mother, Miranda is going to ruin it. Sadly Lucy's prom date rapes her then dies in a car crash! *SPOILER ALERT* They later find out that Lucy's date was being controled by an evil spirt, elf, thingy, who has cursed Lucy's family, to be raped, have a little girl, then go crazy *END SPOILER ALERT* In order to break the curse Lucy must complete three impossible tasks - To make a shirt with no seams, or needlework, to find an acre of land between salt water and sea strand, which she has to plow with just a goats horn, and to sow it all over again with just a grain of corn. Will she succeed or will she fail?

This book is similar to the Hugh Howey books with the levels of weirdness, similar to Speak in the rape content, but it's really not similar to anything.

~ Dana

Wings

The book WINGS was very good. It did take a little wait to get to the good part but over all it was very good. It's definitively for more mature reads as there was a lot of language and some sexual content.

This book is a realistic fiction book about a girl flying for WASP,Sally, in WWII. Over the course of the book she faces lots ofchallenges from the men hoping to disband WASP. In the end these
people with all their power and sextets ideas manage to shut down WASP before Sally has a chance to prove herself as more then a trainee witha lot of potential.

This book was luckily way better then the book FLYGIRL though theywere about the same to topic. Where FLYGIRL was dry, confusing, andboring, WINGS was exciting, suspenseful, and for the most part easy to understand.

~Dana

The Dreamer

The Dreamer was a really strange book. It was about Neftali and his “journey.” Neftali’s dad was very stern. He didn’t like it when Neftali wrote or collected cool things like leaves, rocks, or anything else. When Neftali’s family takes a trip to the beach, his father abuses him and his sister. Back home, he takes a job with his uncle where he wrote articles.

There wasn’t much to The Dreamer. It was interesting, but I felt like it didn’t have much of a plot. It also doesn’t match the description. It says that he hears voices and “cannot ignore the call,” but he only hears a voice once in the beginning and once very briefly in the end. It has nothing to do with it.

Honestly, I don’t recommend this book to anyone.

I don’t think I can compare it to anything. It’s just so weird.

Matched review

I read the book Matched by Ally Condie. I’m excited for the book Crossed to come out, and the movie Matched to come out!
The book was about a city/place in the future that has a society that pretty much controls everything, from who you marry, to when you die. Cassia (the main character) was matched with one of her best guy friends, but one night when she was looking for her match on a screen, another face pops up. She has to choose between Xander(The original match), or Ky.
I really liked how this book was romantic but not cheesy, like most romance books. The book really made me appreciate that we can choose who we marry, what job we have, and how we live. There were many parts of the book that made me think hard about if I was in Cassia’s place what I would do. It would be hard to choose to live your life that’s controlled by the society, or not listening to what they say, but risking loosing your life. I didn’t like the end of the book.
I think this book is similar to the Hunger Games, because its about someone choosing between loving their best friend, or a charming stranger they don’t know very well. It’s also like twilight, because the girl main character has to choose if she loves one person, or another. I would recommend this book to 7th grade- high school. I think you have to have a certain aount of maturity to understand events in this book and to learn something from it.
Overall I loved this book, and it’s the best romantic book I’ve ever read. I enjoyed everything about it.J

Ps. I wish I had the dress Cassia wore to the matching banquet!!

~Emily

Someone Named Eva

Milada lives in Lidice, a town in Czechoslovakia. Suddenly, Hitler’s soldiers come and raid the town of all of the people. Men are sent to a “work camp.” Women and girls are taken to a gym and moved around. When Milada fits the description Ayran, she is taken a camp with other girls that had blond hair and light eyes. They learned German, got new German names (Eva), and were trained to be a German. Many were upset. Milada had trouble remembering who she was before and sometimes even forgets her name: Milada. Milada/Eva was sent to a German household where they would reside. After Hitler was killed, Milada/Eva is ready to find her family and go back to who she was.

I loved this book! It is amazing! It has become one of my favorites. It is about something that few people know about. Plus, I like reading about history.

The only thing I can compare this book to is The Rock and the River because they are both about something that isn’t often written about. It is also similar to Anne Frank because it was also about Hitler’s rule, just in a different perspective.

I’d recommend it to any young-adults who like to read about history. Although, it is told from a girl’s perspective and I don’t really think boys would enjoy this.

The dream of Night

This book was very good since I am not a very big horse person. This book is mainly about how a little girl and how she finds this abused horse and calls it her own. Through out the book it talks about how she trains it to be a race horse and maybe a chance for both to find hope. I liked the book but it was a little confusing at the begginning because of the way the writer wrote her book, but i think it has a very good story behind it. I would recommened this book to someone who likes horses or animals. This book reminds me of Secret of Night Ponies. Which I read the first 8 chapters and gave up on it.

A Little Piece of Ground

Karim lives in Palestine while in the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s when it’s under the Israeli rule. There are strict curfews and weeks at a time where the citizens are not allowed outside. All Karim wants is to play soccer with his friend, Joni. He wants to escape the cramped apartment where he lives with his brother, his parents, and his two little sisters who annoy him greatly. When he meets brave Hopper, a Palestinian refugee, things change. Karim, Hopper, and Joni clear an area for a soccer field during the times they are allowed outside. When Karim gets stuck outside when the curfew is called, he cannot go out of hiding to get home because he might get shot by a gun or even a tank. Can his brother, that he doesn’t get along with, save him?

A Little Piece of Ground was well-written. I liked it. The author portrayed the fear of the people at the time well. It gave you a look at someone’s (fictional) story of what that time was like. Although, I thought it focused too much on soccer. I feel like that was the only thing that made Karim want to do anything.

This book compares to Time of the Angels only in the way that the main characters both felt trapped at home. For Karim, it was the curfew and the Israeli tanks. For Hannah, it was the threat of influenza.

I would recommend this book to young-adults who like sports or survival stories.

The Other Side of the Island

The Other Side of the Island is extremley different. While I thought it was good it was confusing at many points. This book is definetivley a lesson based book, if you read it the way I did. I think though depending on the person, and what they know or have read it could be taken way different then I did.

In this book, the world is contorlled by Earth Mother, who has protected the world with enclousure, and has taken away all freedom. When Honor and her family are forced away from there home in the north to island 365. School fills her head with fake ideas and memories. As life changes, danger approches and nothing will ever be the same again.

This book is similar to MATCHED and The Giver as they all deal with controling governments. I think this book is better The Giver but not as good as MATCHED.

~Dana

Review of “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”

The book, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” is an extremely well done book, even though, even though it is limited in words.

The story is about a Timekeeper named Hugo Cabret, who steals and fixes clocks for a living, and the only thing that he ever wants to accomplish in life is fix an old automaton that belonged to his now deceased father. Everyday he steals from an old toy shop owner, but one day he gets caught, and it changes his life forever. This is only the beginning, but the story is one of the best that I have seen this year so far.

Along with an excellent story, Brian Selznick has an extraordinary way of telling the story. Along with his text, in the book there are 284 original drawing that help the story, pushing the line between book and graphic novel. The images help show the surroundings, the words show you sound, touch, and everything else, it is a truly amazing experience. Though the images help the story in so many ways, they also take away the amount of time it will take you to read it, for me it took right at three hours, but this was with many stops, and being away from it. Also with less text you might expect a less detailed story, but the images and text combo for fill this very well. I can not really compare this to ant other books, because the fact that this book is written and told so differently. Also there is the fact that it has a brand new type of story.

So over all I very much enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to teenagers, or even adults, because it is such a well rounded story that I think anyone will enjoy.

MATCHED

The book MATCHED is very good. I'm extermly excited for the release of CROSSED on November 1st and for the movie in 2012 by Disney, who will be making movies on the whole trilogy.

In this book, in a world where the government controls everything 17 year Cassia loves her life, she has great friends, a great life, and a great family. Cassia has everything under control,well the government has everything under control for her, and is on track to being a sorter. Suddenly at her Match ceromony her best friends Xander is chosen to be her Match. While most girls don't even know there new finace Cassia knows her's better then anyone. Cassia and Xander go through a different courtship then everyone else. While everything seems perfect, something unexpected happens leaving Cassia with a choose, Xander, her Match, and best Friend, or smart, smooth talking Ky.

This book is similar to The Giver, and The Other Side of the Island, due to the fact they are all about controling governments. I think MATCHED is the best then The Other Side of the Island, then The Giver. This book is also Similar to Twilight and The Hunger Games with the, best friend or handsome and sweet stranger lover triangle. While this book is approprite and easy, I think in order to really get anything out of the conflicts in the book, and you need to be a middle school - high school student.

~ Dana

The Dead and The Gone

***************************SPOILER ALERT*****************************
I finished The Dead and The Gone by Susan Pfeffer a couple days ago. It is the second book in the Life As We Knew It series. It is following Alex Morales and his sisters instead of Miranda. He lives in New York, which got hit a lot harder because it is closer to the ocean. Alex has to take care of himself and both of his sisters because his parents may have both died during the tsunamis. He has absolutely no idea what happened to his parents. Basically all the same natural disasters happen in both books. Where Miranda's family had more food for longer, Alex's family runs out of food fast. Eventually they have to leave New York. I think I liked the first book better. This book was a little more gory than the first one. At one point, Alex has to go through Yankee Stadium to look at dead people trying to find his mom. It is really disgusting. Alex also searches dead bodies for items like shoes and watches to trade for food for his sister. It was slightly disgusting. I compared this to the first book in the series. If you liked the first one, I recommend reading the second book as well. I would only recommend this book for middle schoolers or fifth graders who are more mature than the average fifth grader.

The White Darkness Review

Just like in parts of the book where someone was teetering on the edge of oblivion, I am teetering on the edge between loving this book and hating it. The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean was very interesting and unique in some ways, yet a cookie cutter teen novel in others. Some parts were perfectly paced, others seemed to drag, and some went by too quickly. I honestly can’t decide.

This book is about a teenager, Sym, who goes on a surprise expedition to Antarctica with her Uncle Victor. The goal of the expedition is to find Symmone’s Hole, supposedly located in Antarctica at coordinates that Uncle Victor got from a man he met on the internet, which will open to the “underworld, like described by Jules Verne in Journey to the Center of the Earth.

I really liked the overall plot of this book. I thought a young girl going on an Antarctic expedition and having the amount of responsibility put on her that she did was very cool and something not a lot of books today deal with. It is unique because it weaves in lots of different plots into one very masterfully. However, since we now have this woven masterpiece, some of the threads sill look like other blankets, and some of the subplots, little romances, and “twists” were similar to many other books.

The plot also changed paces very frequently. There’s a time where on one page you were in Paris and the next in Antarctica, then another where you stayed on the ice shelf for what seemed like ages. Then there were some that were paced out perfectly. It was almost tiring to read at times because of the constant pace changes, or so it felt to me.

The age of people to which I would recommend this book are teenagers. It does deal with small bits of more mature romance, so it’s not ideal for younger readers. People that might enjoy this book would probably be people that like adventure stories, mixed with a little romance, and possibly even science.

The White Darkness, while cookie cutter in some parts, is very unique on the whole. I come up a little empty when trying to make a comparison. If you liked books like Life as we Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer or The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, you might enjoy The White Darkness.

Overall, I would say I enjoyed this book.

A long way home

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In my opinion this was a very good book. Basically what it was about was a young teen who loses his family during a rebel attack on his village in the country of Sierra Leone. The story is about his hunt for his family and, in the end, being pulled into the fighting himself. This is very moving and powerful and I would recommend it to any one who likes a book with a lot of action that is a real life experience. I will say that this book is very graphic and is not for the faint of heart. In the beginning its rebels killing villagers, throughout most of the middle of the book its scared villagers attacking the main group of innocent boys, and near the end its the main character himself killing rebels and villagers. Even when he is put in "rehab" there is much violence going on. All in all it is a very good, powerful book made for mature readers.

The Scorch Trials

I've recently finished reading the Scorch Trials the sequal to Maze Runner. This book was very, very, very, very, very, very, very, good, and very, very, very, very, very,very, very, VERY, suspenceful. *There will be a spoiler in this review but it will be marked*

In this book Thomas and the Gladers are thrown into yet another test, and this time it's the complete opposite. Last time they where trapped in a world with everything they possible could need, now they are free but have practivally nothing. Not to mention if they don't get to the Safe Haven in time they'll all be come Cranks due to the Flare. *SPOILER ALERT* Again Thomas is forced into the reliaztion that he is important to WICKED when they choose to break their own "rules" to take him out of the trial after he was injuerd by a bullet. *END SPOILER ALERT* With Teresa still missing Thomas is only able to talk in his head to new boy Aris. *ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT* When Aris first arrived, showing up mysteriously where Teresa had been, he brings new of another Group. Another group of kids going through the same tests the Gladers are, only difference until Aris and Teresa had switched places Aris was the only guy in his group. The group of all girls had; like the Gladers recived one girl every 30 days for around 2 years. Until one day a girl Rachel arrived, the next day Aris arrived in a coma. Rachel and Aris could talk in their heads just like Teresa and Thomas. The only difference between the groups (besides gender) is that the girl escaped two days eariler with less lives lost and Rachel died. This lead Thomas to believe that he was supposed to die not Chuck. After Aris shows up so do tattos on all the gladers, Minho is "The leader" and Thomas is "To be killed by group B"!! *END SPOILER ALERT* As the group contiues on in the Trials more things have Thomas questioning everything. When a new 'crank' girl Brenda (whose helping them get to Safe Haven) admits she has feelings for Thomas he can't help just wishing she'd be Teresa. *SPOILER ALERT AGAIN I KNOW* Speaking of Teresa she does terrible things to Thomas when they reunite, but she's under the impresion that if she doesn't he will die!!! Thomas has a hard time forgiving her and their relationship will never be the same again *END SPOILER ALERT*

I'd recommend this book to anyone ages 5th to 10th depending on the reading choices of a kid. In ways it's adventurous like the Hunger Games but the Maze Runner books are WAY better.

Finally - GRRR Ashleigh Gilbert for reccmending me the series when the 2nd book ends with a cliff hanger, and the 3rd and final book isn't out yet!!! GRRRR you Ashleigh GRRRR you!!!!!!

~Dana

Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions

***ALERT!! DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE READ MOLLY FYDE AND THE BLOOD OF BILLIONS. THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***

Hey, it’s me again. I recently read Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions.

Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions- Confusing, magnificent, a wonderfully well written story with an amazing plot, Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions can be called all of these things. Molly and Walter are in Lok looking for someone in the Drenard Underground so Molly can try to save her father and Cole. Walter, Molly, Cat the alien in the Drenard Underground, and some other aliens are on the Parsona when suddenly, a navy starship comes crashing down. They investigate and find many people dead. Some people were very lucky and survived the dreadful mishap. Meanwhile, Cole is stuck in hyperspace and is talking to one of the Bern. Then, when the Bern, Byrne, finishes his story he orders Cole to be killed. Thankfully Cole escaped but lost his arm in a fall. Then he met Molly’s dad, who gave him a mechanical arm. This is basically the story of Molly and Cole’s daring journeys to save the universe, and to be reunited with their loved ones.

One thing that I absolutely did not like was that this book was so confusing. I didn’t like how many characters it focused on and how it alternated between those characters for each chapter. I also didn’t like how much blood there was in it, but other than that I loved this book.

I would definitely recommend this to no one younger than a middle-schooler because of the content. This has way too much blood, guts, and gore for anyone younger than this. Like when Riggs’ leg was cut off. It illustrated this with vivid words that made it so bloody and horrible for young kids. Also the words they use are not appropriate for young kids. There are so many bad words it is not funny. So, I would definitely recommend kids older than elementary school to steer away from this book.

This book doesn’t really remind me of any books that I have read. Although, it kind of reminds me of the Hunger Games because of all the blood in these books because when someone dies they usually have a horribly gruesome death. Another similarity is like when the people die in both books they usually die from bombs, guns, and other miscellaneous weapons.