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.

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.

Speak Review

I recently finished reading Speak by Laura Halse Anderson. I liked this book a lot, but I don’t really understand all the fanfare it got. While it is a good book about an important topic that affects many teens, I’m not sure why it is used in so many schools to teach the topic. PLEASE READ BOTTOM PARAGRAH FOR FURTHER EXPLANATION, SPOILER ALERT

This book is about Miranda, a girl who is raped at a party where most of her peers from high school are partying, complete with beer, drugs, the whole nine yards. She tries to call the cops to report the rape, but can’t speak. Because the line was left open, police track it and come to the party, breaking it up and arresting several people for underage drinking. Back at school, she is now ostracized from all the groups she used to hang out with for calling the cops and ending the party. Miranda doesn’t speak when it isn’t absolutely necessary because of trauma from the rape, and still hasn’t confided in anyone the fact that she was raped, not even the police.

I liked the characters in this book. I was able to relate some of them even to people I know. It was fairly easy to identify with Miranda, because, even though hers was much more severe, everyone has felt left out at one time or another. The characters were fairly well developed and you got to know most of them, even if once you got to know them, you were made to hate them.

I would recommend this book to teens age 13 and up. It does deal with a very mature issue, rape, and there are some disturbing parts that might disturb younger readers. In parts of the book, Miranda contemplates suicide, she cuts her wrists, and other things along those lines happen. While younger readers have heard of these, I would not recommend dwelling on them that young.

This book is very similar to Hate List by Jennifer Brown. They are both about high school girls now outcast due to a crime committed that involved them as main characters.

Overall, Speak by Laura Halse Anderson is a good book.

SPIOLER ALERT!!!
While eventually Miranda does stop the boy who raped her from doing it again and finds out many people at her school hate him, she still never really tells the cops or even her parents. The only person she actually says that she was raped to was her art teacher, in the very last line of the book. I think if schools are going to use a book to teach people to speak out about rape and other crimes, they should use a book that has the main character tell the authorities promptly, not wait for nearly a year.

Locomotion Book Review

Let me begin by saying the the book Locomotion by: Jacqueline Woodson, is not a very well written book, nor do I view it as a book with a good story.

The main character of this book is a young boy, named Lonnie, who's parent's died in a fire before the book. Though this is really as far as the story went, only developing in some small segments. Also the way the story is told is done with poor execution, never feeling all that great. What I mean by the story being told poorly is the fact that it is done through poems, I like this concept, but it has been done much better in books such as The Surrender Tree, or All The Broken Pieces. Also there is never really any character development throughout the entire story.

I would not recommend this book to many people, but if I had to I would recommend it to people looking for a short, cheap, story.

So over all I thought the book had bland story, underdeveloped characters, no real emotions, and overall was very poor in execution and writing.

Elephant Run

****************************Warning spoiler Alert!!!!!!!!!!!***********************
Elephant Run by Roland Smith, This book is about a boy that goes to Burma during WWII. Somethings that I liked was that it kept you wondering in some places. I also liked was that most of the characters were around the age of middle schoolers. somethings that I didn't like was that in some places it was it was really slow and boring. Another thing that I did like was that they wold discribe things in deatil to a point where you thought you were in the story itself. Some of the people that I would recomend this book to are people that like history and people that like war and camps of differnt sorts. I would recomend this to someone that likes history is because it has a lot of historicial events that they talk about. The people that like war because of the POW camps. POW camps are camps that they kept people that were captured by the enimy during time of war. I could not relate this book to anything because I personally have not read many history books, or books that have to do with WWII.
*This book is a really good book I would recomend it to anyone that has not read it.*
~Kaitlin=)

Trouble by Gary Schmidt

When Henry’s brother gets hit by a car, driven by a Cambodian immigrant, he if furious. He doesn’t know how to cope with his anger and sadness. His sister and father have shut themselves in their rooms. The only thing that keeps Henry going is his dog, Black Dog, and his goal to climb the mountain that his brother, Franklin, said he never could. It was an amazing journey for Henry, the main character. He realized how harsh people can be, racism, and he learned to trust himself. It had some unexpected twists.

This was a very good book. I expected I would dislike it because I don’t like the author that much.

The only thing I didn’t like about this book was that it didn’t really talk about the war in Vietnam even though that was the time period and context.

I really can’t compare this book to any other book I’ve read. I haven’t read books in the Vietnam War era.

I’d recommend this to anyone who has enjoyed books by the author, Gary Schmidt.

The Final Touch

~~~~~~~~SPOILERS~~~~~~~~~~~~This book was amazingg!!I absolutely loved it. It is by a Christian author,and it is mind blowing. There is this girl maned Shaley and her mom is a rock star. Minutes before her mom and Greg were supposed to be married, Shaley was kiddnapped. All of this happened in 2 chapters. Again, every other chapter is from Shaleys point of view, and others from her parents. Later in the book when the SWAT team gets involved, there is another point of view that jumps into the story. Its from Reynolds, a SWAT team member. This story was VERY high paced, and I loved it. In the midst of all this tragedies, Shaley discovers that this monster that has kidnapped her, was her stalker from 2 years ago. This man was arrested, but he escaped. Unfortunately, when Shaley is delivered to a cabin in Nevada with this man, she learns about him. He is doing all of this in the name of God. He claims to be a "prophet" and has named himself "Joshua"after the man in the Bible. "Joshua" informs Shaley that later in the week, she would be marring him. (Let me inform you that Shaley is 14 and "Joshua" is 55). She was scared out of her wits, and in the middle of all of these horrific happenings, Shaley calls apon God to save her. She parents are praying and worrying for her and asking God why he did this. Shaley, (being the 14 year old she is) called 9-1-1 when Joshua was in the bathroom. Sadly, she didnt get to finish her call before he was done. The operator got enough info to come after her. Joshua discovers that Shaley called, and beats her and drags her somewhere else. They break into a car maroon SUV, Shaley crawls into the back seat floorboard, and they ride to Peace Montana close to the Canadian border. (Notice they traveled from Georgia to Montana). They break into another cabin, and turn on the radio. They hear on the news that people have seen her in a Montanan gas station and are coming for her. But after hearing this Joshua is furious. They hear a bullhorn, sirens, and copters up ahead. I am not going to give away anything else. You need to read the book!!! I would recomend this to anyone who isnt easy to scare or shake. My sister (11) started reading this and she had to stop because it gave her night mares.

~~Abs :)

Hate List Review

A few weeks ago, I finished Hate List by Jennifer Brown. I really enjoyed the book and thought the story was wonderfully evoked, but it wasn’t really all that challenging of a read. However, the book was great! I finished it in about a day and a half, and have thought about the issues in it lots since.

In the story, Valerie was the victim of a mass shooting carried out by her boyfriend. Nick, the boyfriend, targeted people on the “hate list” of people that annoyed Valerie and him. Valerie has to go back to school and face people who think that the shooting was her fault, deal with her family’s problems, and try to sort out her own feelings about the incident.

I really liked the plot and how the author related to things that are important to teenagers today. The plot moved at a good pace and there were always twists that kept you reading, like when Valerie discovers an art studio or befriends a former enemy. Brown mentions mp3 players and cell phones, things synonymous today with being a teenager. This book is reminiscent of the Columbine shooting, so it is relates to things that really have happened, and to me this makes it a much more interesting read.

I didn’t really like the level at which this book was written. It was a pretty easy read, so even though the topics in the book were fairly profound, I didn’t feel extremely challenged while reading it. The vocabulary was decent in most of the book, but not of the caliber that I think should be expected of young adults.

I would recommend this book to any age teenager. There is some language and under-age drinking, but this is something most teens know about already. The book, I don’t believe, contains anything that teens haven’t heard about before.

This book reminded me a lot of Speak by Laura Halse Anderson. They are both about teenage girls struggling to cope with a traumatic incident that has alienated them from their peers. Both are good reads.

Code Orange

Code Orange was about a student named Mitty who slacks off on all of his school work. In science, they were given a project to choose and research a disease. Mitty chose Smallpox. Olivia, his crush, persuades him to do research and to take his time. Mitty finds smallpox scabs in an old book of his parents’. He touches the scabs and becomes convinced the he is going to get smallpox. After sending out many emails about the scabs, he runs away, only to be kidnapped by terrorists. They want to release the disease on all of New York, where he lives. He uses his knowledge, that he didn’t know he had, to outsmart them. Pretending to have smallpox, he gains control of his captors.

I thought Code Orange was interesting. The plot wasn’t like anything else I’d ever read (although, I don’t read a lot of books about diseases…), but I didn’t like it.

I didn’t think it was realistic in any way. The scabs were a stretch to believe, but when Mitty gets kidnapped, it lost all realism it had. It also lacked depth. I didn’t get to know any of the characters.

I would compare Code Orange to The Rock and the River because I both, the main character does things behind their parents’ backs. In The Rock and the River, Sam helps the Black Panthers without telling his father, while in Code Orange, Mitty doesn’t tell his parents about the scabs until he writes a letter telling them he is contemplating committing suicide then runs away. And, in each, the main character’s crush persuades them to do the right thing.

I would recommend this to anyone who isn’t a big reader but is into science.

The Rock and the River

The Rock and the River:

During the time of Martin Luther King Jr. protests, Sam wants to follow his famous father, Roland Childs, another leader in the peaceful protest world. But, whenever he sees a police officer beating a black person for nothing or other unfair racial treatment, he finds it hard to peacefully protest. When his brother, Stick, joins the Black Panthers, a group that takes action (non-violent and sometimes violent) to help victims of these crimes, Sam feels torn. His brother tells him, “You can’t be the rock and the river,” meaning that you can’t stay still like the rock and move ahead like the river. Will he ever understand what the Black Panthers is about?

I liked this book; it was really well written. I haven’t read something about the Martin Luther King Jr. speeches before. I think it’s a good first-hand look at what it was like during the 1960’s. It shows the two sides of wanting to get somewhere but not knowing how to get there. Although
I could tell the emotion in this book, it didn’t hit me as hard as it could have. But I still didn’t want to put down The Rock and the River, but it also took motivation to pick it back up.

My book comparison might be a bit strange. I think it is like Someone Named Eva because both books are about something that is not often written about. Plus, the main character each don’t know which path to take; for Sam, it’s peaceful or joining the Black Panthers, and for Milada it’s going along with what is happening or fighting back and trying to keep her identity.
I really liked it though. I wanted to urge Sam to do something.
I recommend this to young adults who like to read things about history or that like to read things about indecision and growing up.

Code Orange

Mitty is a teenage boy who likes to enjoy life. He doesn't care about homework at all, but he is pressured to finish an assignment because his crush is in his class. His assignment is about deadly diseases. He chooses smallpox because he found some smallpox scabs in a book he read. He touches the scabs and inhales the dust. Little does he know that when the scab was fresh it had Virola Major- a deadly virus. It has no personality. It's only task is to take over the cells of the other creatures and spread. It has the power to kill everyone. Mitty's life becomes at risk along with everybody he is in contact with.
I really liked the information in the book. It entertained me and taught me about smallpox. The only thing I didn't like is that it was very easy to read. I would have enjoyed more of a challenge.
I would recommend this book to people who don't usually read. This book would capture all their attention. I would also recommend this book to people like me. Drama with a little bit of romance, but not to crazy.
I would compare Code Orange to the book any book that includes diseases. I personally haven't read a book that I can compare this to.

The Surrender Tree

The Surrender Tree was such a good book. It was a book with a lot of little short stories made into poems. It was so neat how they made a little poem into a story about Rosa and her life. I liked it but it was a little confusing at the beginning but the more I got into it the more I understood. I would reccomend this book to a person who likes poetry. I am not a big fan of poetry but I liked this book. It reminds me of either Locomotion or All the Broken Peices. This book is awesome.