End Game

Before I tell you about the story I would like to tell you about some background information about the Net Force. Net Force is a group of people who solve mysteries in and out of the virtual world. Net Force contain lots of people but have a hard time solving the mystery. People also go into the virtual world to find clues, but just like in the real world, you can die. This is the background information about the Net Force.

The story starts out with Megan, person from the books before this, lying in bed until Captain Winter’s, leader of the Net Force. telling her that he is going on vacation and will be gone for a while. Right after Winter’s stops talking, Megan asks if she can go with to the Xauda which is a beautiful resort. Her and her father argue with each other and her father says she can go. When they get there she notices that there have been strange things going around and person said, Megan says that she will find what is going on. She later finds out that there is technology that is way out of this world. She calls Mark, Another Net Force Explorer, to help her out. Megan then finds out from the clues she gathered from the place and finds out that a person named Len is responsible for the high-tech, Now it is up to Mark, Megan, and Megan’s Father to solve the crime.

I like this book because it has a lot of detail in it. This book that this author made, made sense. You could understand how the next part will happen and have fun reading it to. I enjoy reading the novels of the Net Force because I have fun reading these books since the beginning of the school year. I hope I get to read the rest of them in the summer. This is a book I liked.

By Nick C.

Pretty Little Liars

This story was so good I could not put it down. I would not recomend this to guys because it is more based around things that girls would talk about. This book is part of the series, Pretty Little Liars. I am on the second book right now, and cant put that one down either. This book is about five best friends that said they would be friends forever, untill Ali went missing, and their lives took a turn for the worst.

First off you should know that all five, Ali, Spencer, Emily, Hannah, and Aria, ere not friends since they were little. Untill Ali changed all of them, they were all quiet and unnoticed. Ali came into their lives and they all liked having her around. They felt that they were important. On the last day of school of 7th grade all five girls were going to have a sleepover untill Ali got angry and ran away. She went missing and didnt come back. The est of the four friedns drifted apart and found that it was hard to talk to eachother. they all had secerets that Ali knew. And only Ali. Even though they were best friends, they couldnt tell eachother these secrets.

Spencer coveted her sisters boyfriend, Hannah was bulemic, Aria’s father was cheating on her mother, and he knew that Aria knew and had her promise not to tell her mother, and Emily kissed Ali, and liked it! Ali knew all of these secrets.

All of a sudden all of the girls keep getting messages from someone called “A” and it was about there secerets, and “A” was threatening to tell! Spencer stole her sister’s boyfriend for a second time. Even though her sister and him were about to move in with eachother! Aria liked her new english teacher and he liked her back. Hannah still sometimes threw up so she could stay one of the “it” girls of the school. Emily got a new friend named Maya and she likes her more than a friend! So now, “A” is giving them messages about these new secerets.

They are all afraid that Ali is back and is going to tell there secerets! For all they know, “A” is going to ruin there perfect little lives!

This story is truley amazing. It had me hooked just by reading the back of the book. Once i started it, i couldn’t stop! I love this book. I would definently recommend it to friends. I think this is a great book and it is a book that will keep you hooked and make you read the next one!
~Maggie, Hour 7

Candy

The book Candy was about a boy that was going into London to get as bump removed from his arm. When he got off of the bus he didn’t know where he was so he started walking around town. And then he seen this girl that he thought that she was absolutely amazing. He decided that before he went to the doctors he had sometime to get something to eat because he was hungry. So he went to a near Mcdonalds and then all of a sudden he was standing in line and and he seen that girl again they started talking and her name turned out to be, Candy. He asked her if she wanted to get something to eat and she said, “I thought you would of never asked.” So once they started sitting down and eating, Candy all of a sudden seen this guy named Iggy that she knew. He came over and sat by them, he started talking to Iggy and then he turned to who she was sitting with and said, “If I see you around here again I’m going to have to do something to you.” So that scared the boy(the main character) off and he went to the doctors, he was running late. That left him thinking that Candy was a “prostitute.” Later that night he was sitting in his room and he didn’t know what to do. So he started playing his guitar. His sister heard what he was sining and came up and asked, “Are you alright do you want to talk.” Later that night he was sitting there wondering what to do then he felt something in his pocket and it was a card that was called Candy and her number on it. It took him a week just to call her. Then he was sitting there wondering what to do so he finally called her and was talking and then she wanted to meet him at the zoo. Therefore it made him have to skip school. His sister called in the school and said that he was sick. But he lied to his sister and then later on that night his Dad found out and he got in trouble. Then the story goes on and talks about how he got in trouble and what he did. Then it goes on to the end of the story and keeps on going.

Kallee
Hour 7

The Pretty Committee Strikes Back

This book is about five girls named Massie, Alicia, Dylan, Kristen, and Clare. They are all in seventh grade and go to the Octavian Country Day School. All of the seventh graders are going on a over night field trip to Lake Placid. Kristen’s parents are having money problems and aren’t letting Kristen go to Lake Placid. Since Massie, Alicia, and Dylan are rich they are all saying let us pay for you but Kristen won’t let them. So Massie come up with this learning how to kiss club even though Massie has never had her first kiss. She was having the girls pay $20 to join. That would go to Kristen’s Lake Placid fund. Since the Briarwood boys (seventh graders from Briarwood all boys school) are going to Lake Placid some of the girls are wanting to learn how to kiss. Kristen ended up never going to Lake Placid but Massie, Alicia, Dylan, and Clare still went.

Kaitlin

Hoot

The book that I am reviewing today is called, “Hoot,” by Carl Hiaasen. This book tells the story of Roy Eberhardt, a boy who is just moving to Florida from Colorado. When Roy first moves to Florida, he is not sure what to think, and feels pretty lonesome and very uncertain. However, one day while riding the bus he had seen a boy running really fast, down the street! Immediately thereafter Roy starts to find strange clues leading to the mysterious boy’s whereabouts. It had turned out, that the boy’s name was “Mullet Fingers,” and he was working to save an endangered species of owls that had planned to be killed by a construction of a new pancake house. This story tells of all the tricks, and pranks that Mullet Fingers and Roy try to pull to make sure the owls are safe from the harm of the construction.

I liked how the author, Carl Hiaasen, had used the setting and the characters’ personality, to the fullest! Roy Eberhardt first began off as a young, shy, lonely child that kept to himself. But toward’s the ending, he becomes very confident, powerful, and strong! He was made fun of, and pushed around alot, but I think that had gotten him to stand up for himself and the endangered owls. He learned more about himself, in this story, than he did about the owls. But he had his trusty friend by his side, Mullet Fingers, who also gave him a little push, to make Roy feel better of himself. I believe that one of the main conflicts in this story, was of Roy vs. himself. He needed to learn how to stand up and do things on his own, and in the end, I think that Mullet Fingers should be congradulated for helping Roy with his problem of self-esteem. And now Roy, is a great empowered kid with a great attitude towards others. The author of “Hoot,” is a genius.

Overall, I loved this book! There were so many twists and turns, from beginning to end. The author had done a great job! I love how he had used foreshadowing, to show the reader what was happening next! Carl Hiaasen is hilarious and I liked how he had put his creative thinking and comedy into his work. I would highly recommend this book, to children of all ages. It is very interesting, adventerous, exciting, and suspensful! You will be turning the pages, until the end to see if the boys finally save the endagered owls and to see if they can change a little piece of Florida forever!

Written By: Adrian

The Notebook

The book “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks, is a really good book. It starts out with an old man reading an old woman with Alzheimer’s a love story, that is all about Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson, who dated while they were young. They were then forced to separate, and since they really cared about each other, it was very hard for both of them. They went their separate ways, but about 15 years later, they’re still thinking of each other. Noah has remained single and is living alone in the small town where they spent their summer together, while Allie is engaged and living far away. When she reads about Noah in a newspaper article, she is inspired and takes off to go talk to him. They haven’t had any contact since she left with her family, so she has no clue what to expect. When she arrives, she first kind of hesitates to go see him, because she doesn’t exactly know how she feels, but she finally musters up the courage, and goes to his house (which was featured in the newspaper article, because he rebuilt it all himself). When she arrives he is ecstatic, because he has been waiting for her pretty much all of his life to see her again, and has really missed her. They start talking and kind of catch up on what’s happened in their life in the past couple years, and while Noah is disappointed that Allie is engaged, he tells her that he at least wants to be friends. They then meet the next day, when Noah takes Allie out to a secret kind of lagoon where all of these swans are staying during their migration. While they were out on the water, it began to thunderstorm, forcing them back inside. That night while they’re talking, they both kind of realize how much they still love each other, and kind of renew their love. Allie then stays with Noah for the next couple days (while they’re almost secretly dating again), until the unexpected happens, and Allie’s mother shows up at Noah’s house, looking for Allie. She realizes that Noah and Allie are back together, and tells Allie that she needs to pick between Noah and her fiancé, Lon, or else they’d all end up getting hurt. She then also reveals a secret, that she had been keeping all of the letters that Noah had been sending Allie (after they had left), and had never told her about them or showed her. It shocks both Noah and Allie, but then they knew why the other one had never responded to their letters, and it all started to make sense. Even though they’re happy, Allie knows that she has to go back to Lon to either tell him that she’s back together with Noah, or to go back with him forever, and leave Noah. That’s where the old man ends reading the book to the old lady, and she starts to ask questions about what happens in the “missing” ending. That’s as far as I’m going to summarize, since I don’t want to blow the ending for anyone who hasn’t read the book, but I can truthfully say that the ending is really good.
I really liked this book, because even though it was fairly predictable, it still threw in things that you weren’t expecting. It was good because you really felt connected to the characters, no matter what they did, and by the end you really wanted to see them end up together. At the beginning of the book, you really didn’t see what was coming, so it was nice to be kind of surprised. Like I kind of said before, one of my favorite things about the book was the characters, because they were the kind of characters that you’d want to read about. Some books are good, but you can’t really relate to the characters, but in this book I could totally relate to almost all of the characters in it. Noah was a person who liked to read, and was very easy going and nice. Allie was a very intelligent person, who had a hard time choosing between following her brain and her heart, and even though they may not sound like a perfect match, they were very cute together. The only thing I didn’t really like about the book was that it was kind of confusing in the beginning, but then luckily it ended up making sense. After I finished, I realized why the author kind of tied the two stories together, and why then it really made sense.
The setting in this book seemed like a really nice place, even though it was a small little town. The book took place in New Bern, South Carolina, which really seemed like a nice little town. Everybody knew everybody, and there really were little to no problems. This was the kind of town where everyone else looked out for one another, which was shown when Noah was best friends with his old neighbor, who would come over to keep him company. It shows that everyone really cared about one another, and would do anything for their neighbors. The one bad thing about that type of town is that everyone knows everyone else’s business, but luckily that type of thing really didn’t happen in this story. The overall mood of this story was very kind of lovey, because it’s all about kind of picking between your soul mate and what’s right, and all about Noah and Allie’s journey together. Overall, I really liked this book, and would recommend it to anyone who likes kind of sad love stories.

By: Ali, Hour 6

Beka Cooper

Beka Cooper is obviously about Beka Cooper. This story takes 200 years prior to Tamora Pierce’s quartet Song of the Lioness. Beka Cooper is a girl who is currently a Puppy, a Dog trainee. Dogs are the current police force of that time. They take care of robbers, murderers, and thugs. During this period, there is someone who is called the Shadow Snake. They demand that a person give over some type of valuable (it differs person to person) and if they don’t the Shadow Snake kidnaps one of that person’s children. They are then given another week to hand over the item. If they do not, the child is killed. There is also another case going on at the same time. There have been several secret murders that have been happening. Beka finds this out by her pigeons. The pigeons carry the ghost of the dead. All of those who have been murdered were miners for Crookshank. They were mining for stones called fire opals, rare and highly valued stones, after a certain period of time, Crookshank would have them killed. Beka has to figure out both of these cases before more are captured and then killed. But with all the unexpected twists, (what exactly is with that two-faced baker?), this will not be easy. This book is beautifully written and the ending is not one you will see…

As always, Tamora Pierce has written an absolutely amazing book. One reason why I loved this book was how well-rounded Beka Cooper was made. She has her talents and flaws. Beka is strong willed, loyal, and stubborn. She is also quick-tempered and has a great fear of speaking in front of people. Her stubbornness could also be counted as a flaw as well as a talent. While Beka does posses a bit of magic, Piece makes sure as to still make Cooper still naive. Her shyness is also a huge flaw as being that shy could potentially burden her once she becomes a Dog. The amount of twists is also quite interesting. As I said before, the ending is not something you expect. Something I like best about this book though, is that there was little to no romance. There was much action in the book, even if it did get a little slow at times, but it would always pick up.

Something that annoys me is that this is told in first-person point of view. Although Pierce does this beautifully, I’ve never really liked books in first person. There are many details that I would’ve liked to have known, but because of the first-person point of view I was not able to. Obviously, it was probably not important to the story is Pierce did not include it, but they intrigue me non the less. At the same time, Piece does a wonderful job on conveying Cooper’s thoughts onto paper and making it seem realistic. Page 524 is one page that I liked the most. Half the page is just a big inkspot. I like that because it shows some realism there, as spilling something (not just ink) could, would, and has happen.

-Tiffany

An Abundance Of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherine’s is about a high school senior named Colin Singleton, a child prodigy. Colin not only had a knack for science but he dated exactly nineteen girls and all of them were named Katherine. Not just any Katherine, it couldn’t be a Katherine nicknamed Katy. It had to be Katherine, spelt K-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E. Out of nineteen Katherine’s Colin had been dumped every single time. Coming out of the worst breakup yet, Colin felt awful he was alone once again. His Arab friend Hassan had a great idea, they were to go on a road trip. This was to clear their heads and find adventure.
After driving for along time they decided to follow a sign that lead them to Archduke Franz Ferdinad. Not expecting to stay long they meet a girl name Lindsey Lee Wells when Colin tripped over his own feet. Lindsey brought him home and her mother said that she had a job for them. Lindsey’s mom owned a factory that makes tampon strings. Accepting the job offer, Colin and Hassan decide to stay with Hollis and Lindsey. Meanwhile Colin was trying to find meaning in his life, and meaning for the nineteen Katherine’s. Why had they all dumped him? Colin, being the genius he is decided to make a mathematical formula for all the Katherine’s. There was something missing though, Colin couldn’t figure out why K-3 (Katherine the third) was not working with the equation. He later called her and found out he had dumped her, he was not the “dumpee” in all of his relationships. After two months with the Wells’ family, Colin finds an unexpected romance. I’ll leave it at that because I don’t want to spoil the ending.
I really enjoyed this book, I think it had a lot of comedy in it. I enjoyed the way Colin invented a graph to predict how his relationships were going to pan-out. I think the author wrote it very well. There were some words that I did not understand, a lot of them were in different languages, but the author included a foot note that contained information to help understand the story better. Another thing that I enjoyed is that he gave the characters a habit. Colin would constantly anagram any word that came to mind, which was comical during certain situations. That was also another reason why he got dumped. Lindsey Lee Wells had the habit of chewing the inside of her thumb and Hassan was always concerned if what he was doing was okay with the lord. There were also some things I did not like, I didn’t like how the author didn’t “finish” the story. It doesn’t say exactly how the book ends but it isn’t made to be a sequel. That was the only thing I didn’t like about the book, I really enjoyed reading An Abundance of Katherine’s and I consider it one of my favorites.
ALIKI

The sledding hill

“The sledding hill” by Chris Crutcher, is a book about coping with the loss of a loved one. In the book, the main character, Billy Bartholomew, is killed by a falling stack of sheet rock that he kicks out of anger for an untold reason. His best friend Eddie Profit, finds him, laying on the floor, under the sheet rock, spine crushed, only an hour after he found his dad dead in his repair shop, he died from and exsploding truck tier. Now, Eddie being the scensable kid he is, rides out to the hot spring as fast as he can and sits neck high in the warm mud the rest of the day. About a month later school starts and Eddie gets placed into the really modern literature class or R.M.L. for short. The deal with this class is that you can only read books by authors that are still alive, like J.K. Rowling or Scott Westerfield, no classics like to kill a mocking bird or grapes of wrath. Eddie likes this class because there reading a book called Warren Peace by Chris Crutcher. Yes, it sounds the same as war and peace but it’s a lot different. There are a few different main characters in it and they’re all trying to deal with their own problems. One of the characters is gay and he’s trying to figure out where he should tell everyone or just keep it to himself. One of the characters in “The sledding hill” is also gay, he read’s the book and decides to open up about it, he’s in the Christian youth group at school so, as Cruther says, it’s like being a member of the KKK and discovering your biological father is Jewish because in the youth group they preach that being gay is a sin even though but just by luck, 10% of america is gay. The book, because of it’s “questionable” language, is challenged for removal from the school library by the school board. There are 3 or 4 members of the Red Brick Church on the school board and they feel it has bad morels and is unfit to be read by the children in public school. From there the bookie takes a few unexpected turns so you’ll have to read it to find out for yourself.

I like this book because it takes a lot of unexpected turns and keeps you hooked, it starts out good and stays strong all the way to the end unlike some other books that have bad endings or begins that take 70 or more pages to get you into the story. I enjoy how the story is told by a dead kid so you get to see every angle of the story through the eyes of a dead kid who can travel at the speed of imagination, compared to light speed it’s like a nascar vs. the creation of the grand canyon, the race care being the speed of imagination and the light speed being the speed of the G.C.

One of the discussions that the characters mad was probably the stupidest discussions he’s ever made in his life and I’m not talking about billy kicking the sheet rock imminently causing his death, I’m talking about when Eddie climbed up on to the stained glass windows at church and proclaimed he was Jesus. Now, on a list of stupid things to do in a church that would probably be the top one. I mean, with all the people in there that think there’s a higher power and that you need to pry to him or her plus all the other things that go along with church the last thing you want to do is proclaim that you are Jesus in front of a whole congregation, it’s just not a good idea. I would however recommend this book to anyone looking for a good book that’s a fast read.

Peter

Gossip Girl: You Know You Love Me

You Know You Love Me is about a group of upper class kids and their lives. Each chapter is about a different character. The chapters explain there lives as they live them and what goes on in their lives. There is three girls and two boys. Blair, Nate, Dan, Serena, and Jenny. These five kids lives interwine as they become friends, more than friends, and enemies.

I will start with Blair. She is a senior and one of the most popular girls at her school for girls. She has the most popular, best looking boyfriend, Nate Archibald, and she thinks that they are in love. Blair has their plans for the future all laid out. She wants them both to go to Yale and then get married and have children. She has everything planned out. And then there is Serena. Serena and Blair used to be best friends and then Serena moved away to a boarding school and left Blair in the dust. Serena then got kicked out of the boarding school and had come back to her normal life, but what she didn’t expect was that Blair wasn’t going to take her back as a friend. Serena is beautiful and everyone likes her. Next there is Dan and Jenny. Dan and Jenny are siblings and are good friends with Serena. Dan is more in love with Serena and Jenny is her friend. Jenny is a little freshman and is in love with Nate. Nate is cheating on Blair with Jenny but he hasn’t told her yet. The five characters all know each other but don’t all like each other just as friends I should say.

So in the book before this it was just about how Nate and Blair had to fix their relationship and how Blair had befriended Serena. So in this book Blair’s mother is planned to get married and Blair is dreading every minute of it. Blair also has a Yale interview that has to go perfect because she has been dreaming of going to Yale since she was a little girl. Blair’s mother has decided that she wants her sisters and all of Blair’s friends to be her bridesmaids and that would include; Blair (the maid of honor), Katie, Isabel, Serena, and two of Blair’s aunts. Blair was upset when she had found out that Serena was going to be a bridesmaid and even more mad at her mother. Blair doesn’t like her mother’s boyfriend and her new stepdad is bringing on another son, Aaron. Blair is having more problems than just Serena and a wedding, Nate won’t talk to her. Blair blames it on Serena and the tension gets even bigger.

Serena has been spending a lot of time with Dan lately and Dan takes it a little more seriously than he should. He has been writing over obsessive poems about her and he thinks about her all the time. When the wedding rolls around and Serena asks Dan to be her date, Dan goes even crazier. At the wedding comes Dan finally figures out that he is being to obsessive with Serena and doesn’t talk to her anymore, but he finds a new girl, Vannessa. We don’t figure a lot about her because then the story ends. Serena runs into Blair at the wedding in the bathroom crying because Blair just figured out that Nate was cheating on her. Serena does something to Blair that changes her mind. Will you ever know what Blair decides about Serena?

Nate and Jenny run into each other in the park, and Nate figures out he has some feelings for her. Jenny has feelings for Nate and they fall in love. Nate doesn’t tell Blair about this girl and he decides to ignore her and not return her calls. When the wedding comes around Nate tells Jenny to meet him in the hotel bar at the wedding. He was supposed to be Blair’s date but he blew her off for Jenny. What will happen between them?

So as these five kids lives intertwine and the kids go crazy over each other, they all have issues. The kids live in the upperclass and they expect everything to come to them. They don’t care about others and do whatever they want. The kids are allowed to drink, smoke, and do whatever else they please. The parents don’t care what they do. This book is really interesting and keeps you interested. What will happen to each kid as they struggle and try to fix her problems? Read Gossip Girl: You Know You Love Me, by Cecily Von Ziegesar.

By: Stephanie

Specials

The book “Specials” is set in the far future, after our race has been destroyed, these people live on and try to create a “better” world. In the book, Tally has become a special, along with her best-friend Shay. A special is like a “super-human.” Now instead of trying to stay bubbly, they try to stay icy. Their assignment is to stop the Smokies from giving out pills that take the “pretty” lesions out of a bubble-head’s brain, and stop the Pretties from escaping to the New Smoke. When they crash a ugly party, they learn that the situation is far worse than they thought. Smokies had already given out thousands of pills, and that meant that thousands of pretties already had minds of their own. Then Tally and Shay are amushed by Smokies, and Fausto (one of Tally and Shay’s team-members) is taken hostage.
Tally and Shay go to visit their friend Zane, who is stuck in pretty town. In order to rescue him, they have to break in to the building that holds all of the City’s army machinery and tools. While breaking in, they end up destorying most of the building weapons (by releasing “hunger” in nano form, it eats everything and also makes more of it self at every passing moment), and escape with their lives by a thread. Zane escapes, with some of his new friends, and together they all travel to the New Smoke, for Tally and Shay, because they want to destroy it, and for Zane, because he wants to live there in freedom. Tally has to decide if she should listen to the voice inside her head, or if she should do what she’s programmed to do. After that many things happen, including betrayal, doublecrossing, destruction, death, and an unexpected ending.
I really like this book! It is the 3rd in it’s series, the first two are called, “Uglies” and “Pretties.” There is also a fourth book after it, and it’s called “Extras.” Specials is an excellent book because it hooks you in right away, and keeps you feeling like you know what is going to happen, even though you really don’t!
-Natalie

The View From Saturday

I read the book The View From Saturday. This books starts off talking about how these 6th grade kids are in Academic Bowl; which is a competition. They are competing with 7th and 8th graders. This is because they are really good. The next little section of the book tells a story about a boy who had to fill in for the groomsman. The groomsman fell over a wagon and hurt his foot. So they boy gets ready, makes a shirt that looks like a tux, and is in the wedding. He gives away a couple of prizes because he messed up some wedding invitations. The next story is about a girl whose parents get divorced. So she lives with her mom, and over the summer she goes to visit her dad for a month. She meets her new grandmother and her grandson. They go swimming and they help out turtles that might die if their nests don’t get moved. They save many turtle’s lives. Then the stories go back and forth. If you want to know more, you should read this book.

I thought this book was alright, although some parts were confusing because you had to fallow each of the stories. The book is interesting though, and if you like realistic stories, then I think you will like this one. You can always give it a chance, and if you don’t like it then you just wasted a little bit of time, because this book is pretty short. (Only 160 pages.)

I liked how each of the characters were different in there own way and had a different attitude to their situation. Also the stories were pretty cool because they all some how connected with each other. The theme was pretty hard to find, but I think that it is “Make the best out of things, because you never know what’s going to happen next.”

I hope this helped you to decide if you would be interested or not in the book. If you are go to your local library, pick it up, and give it a try!

Allyssa

Maximum Ride: The Angel Expirement

I read a book called, “Maximum Ride: The Angel Expirement,” and it was about these 6 children (the oldest is 14) that live by themselves as a “family” and they are bird-children and they have wings so they can fly. They were born or given to a place called “School” and they are very mean to people there and they expirement with humans to see what they can do to them. They made these things called “Eraser’s” that morph from a human to a werewolf and they try to kill the 6 children and capture them to bring them back to The School. Then when the Eraser’s came to the kids’ house they took the littlest one, Angel who is 6 years old, and no one could catch them.

So the “flock” started right away the next morning to go and get Angel back from the School so the “whitecoats” couldnt do anything bad to her or even worse, kill her. On the way Max (14, the oldest) drops down out of the sky and saves a litttle girl from getting beat up but then the guys who were beating up the girl shot Max in the shoulder/wing. So she gets help at the girl’s house and then the girl and her mom find out about her wings. Then she sets off to meet Nudge (11) and Fang (14 years old) at a cliff and they go and they free Angel and meet back up with The Gasman (8years old) and Iggy (14 years old and blind).

Then they make there way to New York, New York and they go there to find out about each one of there parents, where they live, and all that information at a place called The Institute. Then they find a place to go by the “voice” inside Max’s head that tells her what to do and how to save the world, and they free a bunch of mutants just like the flock in dog cages and crates, so they let them go and they left and went there own way in the big city (which was part of saving the world) , and they find a dog there too, so Angel got to keep it as her pet and its name was Total.

I really liked this book. It was really good because there is so much action and you just cant put the book down. The characters were really good too and i like how they are like bord-children and can fly and how the author used there imagination really good and made the book very entertaining and a fun book to read. The kids have to solve a puzzle kind of thing and you never know whats coming next.

Madeline

Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson

The book Speak is about a fourteen year old girl named Melinda. Everything started at an end-of-the-summer party. Melinda called the cops which resulted in several people getting arrested. She went into 9th grade as a social outcast. No one would listen to her so she decided not to speak. Little did everyone know that the reason Melinda called the cops was because she was raped by a popular senior named Andy Evens. She refers to him as IT. She often hid in a closet to escape from the torments and becuase of her depression. Things start to change though when she creates a bond with her art teacher Mr. Freeman. She begins to express her pain through art. When Melinda’s former best friend Rachel starts going out with Andy, Melinda feel that she must tell Rachel about him. Thankfully, Rachel sees the truth and dumps Andy, making him very angry. When Melinda goes to the closet to pick up a few things she sees Andy. He tells her that she made up the whole assult, saying that he had not hurt her and she actually wanted it. He then tries to rape Melinda again but she, knowing better this time, held up a piece of glass to his neck and said “I SAID NO!” Now I can’t give away the ending but I can say that it ends on a happy note.

I though that this book was great. It really told of how life is for teenagers suffering from depression. It told how great the effect of peer pressure has on people. It also went into detail about bullying. I liked how real the book was and how it made me feel like I was inside of Melinda’s head.

One possible theme of this book could be “Speak up and don’t hold you emotions back.” I think this because if Melinda had spoken about what happened to her people would have understood. She could have gotten help with her depression about being raped. Maybe then her freshman year would have been filled with more happiness, and less pain.

by Molly

Lioness Rampant

Lioness Rampant

The book that I read was Lioness Rampant, whose main character was a woman by the name of Alanna. This is the fourth and final book in Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness quartet. The world is Tortall and the neighboring kingdoms of Tusaine, Maren, Galla, Tyra, Carthak, and Scanra, during the rein of Tortalls King Roald and Queen Liane, with their son, Prince Jonathan.
Alanna of Trebond didn’t want to be a lady, she wanted to be a knight and worked at the fighting arts from the youngest age, and her twin brother, Thom, didn’t want to be a knight, he wanted to be a sorcerer and perfect his magic, but Alanna was scared of the violet power she held within her. So, naturally, they switched places. Alanna worked hard, disguised as a boy, at the palace. She became friends with Prince Jonathan of Conté, Raoul of Goldenlake, Gareth (Gary) of Naxen, and Alexander (Alex) of Tirragen, all a year older than she; she also made enemies of Ralon of Malven and in her first evening of being a knight, she vanquished the Prince’s our cousin in a duel, for she had revealed his treachery to the crown, wanting it for himself. Alanna had to not only go through the hardships of being naturally smaller than everyone else, but she had to go through the changes of a girl becoming a woman. She saved the Prince from a dreadful sickness, fought ancient demons alongside the Prince, was a squire to Prince Jonathan, fought in a war with Tusaine, getting kidnapped in that war as well, vanquished an evil sorcerer, became a member of the Bazhir, desert nomads, tribe Bloody Hawk and made peace between the Bazhir and the crown, and finally she was adopted by her long time old friend, Myles of Olau, becoming Alanna the Lioness of Trebond and Olau, Bloody Hawk Shaman, and Lady Knight of Tortall.
Now that I’ve brought you up-to-date on the first 3 books we can go to the main focus. Alanna comes back in Lioness Rampant to be on quest for the Dominion Jewel, a powerful stone with immense magic abilities; it’s also said to be a legend. She travels with her Servant-at-Arms and Blacksmith, Coram Smythessen, and her trusty, and abnormally intelligent, talking cat Faithful, heading to the frozen scenery at the Roof of the World, in search and quest for the Dominion Jewel. Along the way she gains a few companions, first it’s the flirtatious Shang Dragon, Liam Ironarm (the shang is a people that train from chidhood in hand-to-hand combat and small arms), then she meets the banished and fleeing Princess of Saraine, Thayet jian Wilima, and her bodyguard, Buriam (Buri) Tourakkam. With her companions Alanna successfully makes to the Roof and after battling an immortal demi-god and his horrible blizzard, she is deemed worthy and gathers her prize, the Dominion Jewel. So, once again, Alanna travels, she heads back to Tortall, and after meeting up with Raoul, she gets back home. But, upon coming home she finds out that her twin, Thom, has risen Duke Roger of Conté, the evil sorcerer from his grave, however he came back with no sorcery. Can this be trusted? Then there is also the matter of the new villain Claw out loose. Will Totall survive, ill Jonathan stay alive long enough to make it to his coronation as King, or will it all be over then? See, as Alanna foils evil plots once more and save the realm of Tortall.
I loved this book. I also like the first 3 too, Alanna is brave courageous, and has an interesting and fiery temper. Her determination got her through the Knight training and through saving the kingdom. Her life made her cry and rejoice, but she still stays a knight. With her morals and chivalry she saves lives and even finds love. If there was any books that I would suggest this book, and series, would be on the list. Tamora Pierce provides you with complicated plots and a brave heroine to entertain and enchant the mind.

Book Review Done by: Cammie

He’s With Me

‘He’s With Me’, by Tamara Summers, is a story about a Lexie, pretending to date her one true love, Jake, so Bree McKennis, won’t have a crush on him. She can get away with convincing the world that their dating, but could she truly convince Jake that their meant to be? Lexie’s summer isn’t exactly starting out the way she wanted it to: her mom got her a bikini — she’s hates bikinis, she and her brother, Collin, can’t take the art class they signed up for, so instead she’s going to a tennis camp. Bree takes a sudden intrest in Jake, but Jake denies her. Bree always expects guys to love her, so Jake, Lexie and Collin come up with a plan. Though Collin doesn’t suspect that Lexie likes Jake, he mindlessy suggests the idea. They agree, accidentally putting Lexie in a really, really ackward position. Lexie is surprised to find that Jake is going to the tennis camp too, except he’s in the advanced class. Lexie and Jake must come up with a series of lies to fool everyone into thinking their dating. With the school’s most powerful girl pressuring Lexie and her own brother keeping a strange secret from her, it’s hard for her to even think straight. Conflicts come up and things get messy, but the bottom question is: Are Lexie and Jake meant to be?

Lexie is the main character of the book. She is very self-conscious, but very deep and kind. Her in-depth, sarcastic humor will entertain you through out the course of the book. Last, but defiantly not least, she has a huge crush on Jake, though she can’t let him know because she’s like a sister to him. Jake is a cute guy who moved to Lexie’s town 2 years ago. Other character’s in the story include Lexie’s twin brother, Collin, who is best friends with Jake. Sally, also a character of the book, is another popular girl at their school, whose actually more down to Earth then Lexie could have ever suspected. Bree Mckennis is a gorgeous, cruel being who hates Lexie’s guts because she’s dating her supposed-to-be boyfriend. Riley is a mysterious boy Lexie encounters that automatically takes interest in her.

The setting is at a tennis camp and Lexie’s house. It takes place in modern times, so it’s easy to understand and follow along with. Mood of the story is pesamistic. Themes would be “Never give up hope” and “Things will all work themselves out in the end”. I would highly reccommend ‘He’s With Me’ for teenage girls looking for romance. I, personally, loved it! It’s a fabulous, up-beat book with a cute, sweeter-than-honey ending. Similar books include ‘Island Summer’ by Jeanine Le Ny, and ‘What’s Hot’ by Caitlyn Davis, all three in the ‘I Heart Bikinis’ set.

Bliss

The Sweet Far Thing

Libba Bray’s 819 page novel, The Sweet Far Thing, is the third and final book in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy. In the first two books, A Great and Terrible Beauty, and Rebel Angels, we are introduced to the character Gemma who is living in India. She is at a market and temporarily leaves her mother to later find out that she has been killed. Gemma’s world is spun around and upside down as her father then sends her to England to attend Spence Academy for girls. There she discovers her power of visions and being able to enter a place called the realms, where anything can happen. She becomes great friends with Felicity, Pippa, and Anne, who help her on her adventures. (Pippa later on eats food from the realms, and then dies in the real world and stays to live in the realms.) The plot for this book then begins with Gemma trying to keep her back perfectly straight as Mrs. Nightwing tries to teach the girls how to become proper ladies. At the same time, some builders are renovating the East Wing, which burned down in a fire years ago because of Gemma’s mother and Circe. Gemma has bound all of the realm’s powers to herself, because Circe, the enemy to all of the realms, would have taken it. Now months later after the binding, Gemma finds that she can no longer enter the realms with her powers, and she is afraid that perhaps they have left her for good. Throughout the book, Gemma is getting ready for her debut, a time in the 1800’s when girls would look for potential husbands, but she is distracted by odd visions of a women in a purple dress who seems to be sending her messages. Once the East Wing is partially completed, Gemma finds a door in the foundations that allows herself to enter the realms once again. The realms don’t seem in danger, yet there is something peculiar about them. Creatures crowd around her trying to get a taste of magic, and she ends up giving alliances to tribes of the realms, when she doesn’t want to. It seems that everyone wants something from Gemma, and she doesn’t feel like she can trust anyone. Felicity wants the magic to ensure she will get her fortune from a relative, so that she will be able to live a free life in France, and Anne wishes to use the magic to get out of becoming a governess for her horrible cousins. Because of this, they urge Gemma not to give away the magic, but the tribes of the realms grow angrier by each chapter that Gemma doesn’t share the power. Soon, a new teacher comes to Spence by the name of Miss McCleethy, and the girls think she is Circe because her name spells out to be “I am Circe.” Felicity, Anne, and Gemma learn though that Miss McCleethy is actually part of the Order, and wants to get the magic back to the Order. Later on, as they continue to travel to the realms, they find their friend Pippa who was lost, living with a group of factory workers in a castle. Gemma isn’t sure that Pippa can be trusted either, once she starts getting magic of her own and her teeth become pointed… I won’t reveal to you the end of the book, but I will mention that Gemma is forced to make a decision that will affect the entire world. Mixed with emotions, and different facts from different people and things, this is a decision that might kill in the process.

There is never a specific mood that envelopes the whole book, simply because of the immense amount of plot changes. At one moment Anne is sad and crying about becoming a governess, and the next moment she is at a play watching her favorite American actress, Lily Trimble, laughing along. The book shows the emotions of love, happiness, joy, hate, fear, and utter panic. Though when in the realms I always felt a sense of something dark brooding about, and I could never really feel at ease when the girls made rocks turn into butterflies, or have little parties and dances at the castle, ignorant of danger. The creatures of the realms always appeared to be happy, beautiful, and lovely on the outside, but once Gemma realized their inner desires and true motives, they seemed sinister and gaunt-like in their hunger for magic showed.

I thought this book was WONDERFUL, even with such dark moods at times! The descriptions and characters were so involved and intricate, that I was never bored of a single sentence. The plot is very complex, and with this there are numerous plot twists and turns that I would have never expected. This is the type of book that once you pick it up, you can never put it down until you’re finished. But I must warn you NOT to read the last 75-50 pages in any public place or with anyone around, because it’s definitely a tear-jerker. I cried for quite some time and couldn’t stop thinking about it for almost week after I read it. Did this make me not enjoy the book as much? Perhaps I still wish that it would have ended differently, but it if had, it wouldn’t have been as powerful. This book is a love story that intertwined with adventure and mystery, that can have you confused at times. It was hard to tell who exactly to trust, such as Miss McCleethy who sometimes seemed like an angel or a demon. But in the end there is a great sense of comradeship that makes you proud of the characters joining together. Joining together in what, I will not say, but it involves a battle between two worlds!

Overall, I would consider this trilogy to be even greater than the Harry Potter series, a claim no other book could perhaps have. The deep love Gemma and Kartik have for each other is so sweet that it is sad this could only be a fictional tale. I would most definitely recommend this book to any person who wishes for a book about magic, adventure, and love.

Review by Nicole

Betrayed

Betrayed is a great book by: P.C Cast and Kristin Cast. It is the second book in a series called The House of Night. I would reconmend reading the first book, Marked, first because you will understand the second one more. These books are about vampires and I know that might seem weird, but they are really good. I know that there are a lot of books out now about vampires but this series really keeps you reading.

The books are about a girl named Zoey. She has been marked, that means she is going to turn into a vampyre, if she can make it through the change. Zoey has specail porwers that most fledgings, it is was they are called when they are going through the change between human and vampyre, don’t have. When you get marked you have to go to a school called The House of Night. Zoey is just getting settle in with her roommate and things are going pretty good. At the school there is a really mean girl named at her school named Aphrodite. She has the power of having visoins to tell the furture. Neferet, the High Priestness at the school, think that the goddess, Nyx, took away Aphrodite’s power. Zoey hears on the news that one of the kids that went to her old school was missing. And a little while later they find him dead, with cuts all over him. Then another kid from her old school goes missing. She does not know what to do. Zoey is lost and she keeps thinking that she is seeing dead people. Fledglings die because their body can’t handle that change, but there are a few times when Zoey is out in there yard and she sees dead fledglings. Then the wrost happeps, her boyfriend from her old school goes missing. Can Zoey find him? Will he end up dead like the rest of the boys?

The main character in the book is Zoey Redbird. Before she came to The House of Night, she hated her life. Her mom was not the same after she got married again. The only person who understood her was her grandma. Zoey had it hard, and it were not much better at The House of Night. Everyone looked at her funny because she had special powers and her mark was already filled in. That does not usally happen until your a vampire. But Zoey is a strong character. Sometimes I think she is to strong. She had a lot going on that her friends did not know about and she did not tell them. I think if she would have told them, they could have helped her. She also is not very good at making decisions. She made the wrong decisions a lot in this book. And did not really learn from them after. But she has had it hard, so I gave her a little sympathy. Another character in the book is Stevie Rea, she is Zoey’s roommate. She is so nice and caring. She is always there to help Zoey and she never thought Zoey was weird because of her powers. Stevie Rea is my favorite character. Zoey has a lot more friends that are always there to help. Zoey is very smart, but it is hard for. I would give Betrayed 4.5 out of 5 because some parts were a little predictable, but all and all Betrayed was a great book.

By: Hanna

Kira-Kira

The book Kira-Kira is about the experiences of a young girl named Katie. Katie’s family used to live in Iowa. They had their own oriental food store. Unfortunately not many people in Iowa where oriental, so it went out of business. Thats when they moved to Georgia, where Katie’s parents worked at a hatchery on the country side. They were saving up to buy a house, they didn’t want anything else besides that house. Her parents worked non-stop to save up for that house. Not only where her parents saving up for the house, but they were also trying to pay the medical bills for Katie’s sick sister Lynn. Lynn and Katie were best friends, so Katie did anything Lynn wanted. Finally the family decided to move to a small starters home, which Lynn had picked out. This made Lynn happy, and she became less sad, and didn’t look so sick. One day Katie’s parents told her the news that they are having a baby. Soon after Sam is born, Katie’s mother goes right back to working non-stop. When Lynn’s illness progressed, Katie’s mom started to take Katie to work with her. She and Sam had to sit in the car all day. This is where she met her best friend “Silly.” On days when Lynn was feeling up to getting out of bed, the family (Katie, Lynn, and Sam) would go on a picnic. On one special day they decided to buy some doughnuts, and root-beer. While Lynn and Katie are setting up, Sam goes out to play, he steps in a animal trap and injures his ankle really bad. Lynn sends Kate off to get help. She comes back with a man that drives them to the emergency room. Katie’s parents come, and they take them all home. After that they go with Katie and Sam go with their parents to work everyday. During this time, Lynn’s illness progresses. Katie’s parents send her and Sam away on a camping trip with their Uncle. When they come back it’s time to celebrate the Chinese New Year’s. There is a big party but Katie only goes for a short while then stays with her sister for the rest of the night. In the morning, as a tradition, she goes outside and watches the sun come. She thinks about her life, about her parents, and Lynn. At this point Lynn is laying her bed, alone, and unattended.

Main Characters

Katie: Katie is the middle child of the three kids, although she is forced to act like the oldest. She has to do, and endure things way beyond her years with her sick sister, younger brother, and parents that were never home.
Lynn: Lynn is the oldest child of the kids. She is very ill, and rarely get out of bed towards the end of the book. She loves Katie very much, and tries to help her with anything she can. teaching up teaching Katie almost everything she knows.
Sam: Sam is the youngest of all the children. He is shy, and loves Katie. He listens to whatever she tells him to do, almost more then he listens to his own mother.

Theme:

I think that theme that best fits this book is that, ” The human spirit can endure many difficult things.” (Yes, like the one from Anne Frank).
My Review: 4/5 Stars
I really liked this book. I love the way the author developed the characters. I felt like I new Lynn, and Katie. She did a really good job of showing both of their free spirits. Also the author did a great job writing the story as-though a 10 year old girl wrote it. She did a really good job writing the kind of things that Katie, as a 10 year old, would say and think. There wasn’t that much about this book that I didn’t like. One of the things I thought was weird though was like on page, 198. Katie was listing the things she saw but she listed it like this:
“Here’s the things I saw:
1. Old crumpled newspaper
2. Ect.
3…..
4….”
I think this is a very strange way that someone would have listed something in their mind like this. I just feels really fake to me. Overall this was a great book that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys reading about the hardships that some people had to go through, and how they dealt with it.

-Sarah

So Yesterday

The book I read, “So Yesterday” by Scott Westerfeld, was very interesting! It is about a seventeen year-old boy named Hunter that lives in New York City. He has a job as a “cool hunter”, which means he helps to start trends. One day he meets an innovator, someone that does their own thing and doesn’t follow trends, named Jen. He brings her to work with him and his boss Mandy, thinks that she is really different, so the next day Mandy invites Jen and Hunter to come downtown to look at something, but she doesn’t tell them what. Hunter and Jen meet downtown by the building Mandy is supposed to be in, but after waiting for a while, they realize that she isnt’ coming. Hunter tries to call her, but when he does, he hears her ringtone coming from inside of an abandoned building. Jen and Hunter find their way inside, but Mandy isn’t there. Hunter sees something in the corner, so he goes to look. In a box there is the coolest shoe that he has ever seen! They also find Mandy’s phone lying on the ground next to the shoes. A really creepy guy comes into the building and chases Hunter and Jen, but they get away. Hunter worries about the guy that tried to get them, because he has his phone, but Jen reassures him and tells him to chill out.
Hunter and Jen have become pretty good friends by now, and they both get invited to a party to celebrate a magazine launch. They know that the guy that tried to get them would be there, so they go in disguise. While they are at the party, Hunter gets chased by the guy, and some other people that are working for him. Also, Hunter figures out that the shampoo that is being given out in the giftbags is actually purple dye, and the cameras have little lights that make you go sort of crazy on them! When Jen and Hunter finally leave, they see the leader of the “bad guys” group, and Hunter thinks she is the coolest person he has ever seen. Jen and Hunter want to figure out where Mandy is, because they believe that she has been kidnapped by “the bad guys”. They realize that the whole magazine launch party was a set-up, so they start to hunt down the “bad people.” I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll just say that “the bad guys” might not be so bad, and sometimes you can get the wrong idea, when you are getting the story told from a first person perspective…

I thought that this book was pretty good! It was a fast, easy read, but it kept me interested. One reason I like it is because it was fast moving. What I mean by this is that There was already something extremely interesting happening on about, the twentieth page! It was also an easy book, but the characters were complex. Hunter was a cool guy, but he had secrets that he didn’t want to bubble up to the surface. He moved from to New York from Minnesota(!) and he felt really out of place, and that is why he became a “cool hunter.” One thing that really suprised me about him, was the fact that he was so…smart! He always knew some random fact, and I thought that they were cool facts that added a lot to the story. Jen was another pretty complex character. She lived in New York, moved to New Jersey, then moved back to New York. She is nice, and cool, but she is kind of messed up, because of the moving thing. She doesn’t feel like she fits in anywhere, and she doesn’t have many friends, but she feels better once she becomes friends with Hunter.
That is why I liked the book, but there were some things that could have been better!

One thing that I though was kind of boring about this book was the ending. I’m not going to give anything away, but in my opinion it didn’t sum up the book very well, and it was a bit dissapointing to see what happened to the cool shoes. Another thing was that the book was very predictable. I could tell what would happen next. For example, the “bad guys” chasing Hunter at the party, the magazine being a set-up, Jen and Hunter liking eachother, it was pretty easy to see what was coming. I also hated that Jen and Hunter were really the only developed characters! You didn’t really get to know anyone else, except for those two. These were some things that could have been better, but overall, I like the book!

“So Yesterday” is a great book that I really recommend. Overall, it was interesting. What I liked about it was that it moved fast, had complex characters, and Hunter’s facts were cool! Some things that could have been improved were the ending, the predictability, and only getting to know two characters. If you are looking for a good book, that is pretty easy, very interesting, and you’ll be able to get it done fast, then “So Yesterday” would be the perfect book to choose

Mari hr. 2

Peeps

In the book Peeps by Scott Westerfeld, it starts with the main character Cal Thompson, who is looking for someone named Sarah. When he finds Sarah, there are hoards of rats around her, and she is living in a corner away from the light. Cal brings out Elvis recalls memories from Sarah’s “previous life” before she got the parasite that is making her insane. He finally forces two white pills down Sarah’s throat, which knock her out. Once the people that Cal is working with come and take Sarah away, we learn about the parasite. The parasite is what causes the victim to hate sunlight and everything he or she loved in their previous life. However, having the parasite also makes you extremely fast, and have a high metabolism. Another word for being parasite positive is a vampire. Cal is also a victim of the parasite, but he is one of the few carriers. A carrier has the disease, but doesn’t have the insanity that comes with it. The carrier will also have the speed and high metabolism that comes with the parasite. The parasite is passed around by kissing other people. We also learn that Cal was infected with the parasite by a girl named Morgan whom Cal met at a bar one night while he was in his freshman year at college. Cal wants to find Morgan, and stop her before she infects anyone else. During his search for Morgan, Cal stumbles across a girl named Lace, who currently has Morgan’s old apartment. Cal starts to search around the apartment for anything Morgan may have left behind. He discovers a pool in the basement of the apartment, and in the pool there are millions of rats. But in the center, there is a cat, calm as ever. This leads Cal to suspect that the cat may have the parasite. However, while Cal is in the basement, Lace follows him down. She goes completely berserk when she sees all the rats, and tells Cal that she is going to stay with him at his house. During the time Lace is at Cal’s house, Cal tries to figure out why the cat was sitting with all the rats. But by the time he figures it out, it’s already too late for Lace. And there is something from beneath the Earth that is coming up, and it’s up to Cal and the others to save Manhattan.

I really liked this book because I was always kept in suspense throughout the story. I could never predict what was going to happen, and if I did, I was wrong. The way that Scott Westerfeld also described certain things, like some features about the parasite positive victims, really helped me to visualize that scene. When Cal first finds Sarah, the image was described so vividly, I could picture the room, bed, and window looking over Manhattan. I also liked how there was a short summary of a different parasite at the beginning of chapters. When I first read about these parasites, I thought they were fake, but in the afterword, it says that all the parasites were real. That startled me for a bit, because there were some really nauseating things about the parasites. But then, it had some ways to keep the parasites from invading you.

The characters in this story really make the book come to life. We have Cal Thompson, who is a carrier of the parasite. He doesn’t want others to suffer from this disease, so he tries to protect others. He works for the government to try and capture the parasite positive victims so they don’t infect other people. Lace (or Lacey) is the girl who is currently staying at Morgan’s old apartment. Cal falls in love with Lace, but he can’t have her because he doesn’t want to infect her. Lace is eventually pulled into Cal’s life and finds out that he is a carrier. And our third main character is Morgan. Morgan was the person who first infected Cal. She is aware that she is parasite positive, and is a carrier, like Cal. However, she still infects people, but there’s a reason why, and Cal is shocked when he discovers the reason.

-Anna

Great and Terrible Beauty

Gemma Doyle, a teenage girl, is determined to leave India and return to London for an education and a proper upbringing, contradicting what her mother wants for her. On her sixteenth birthday, Gemma and her mother are walking through the Bombay market when the two encounter a man and his younger brother. The one of the men relays an unknown message to Gemma’s mother, who panics and demands that Gemma return home. Becoming angry at her mother’s secrecy, Gemma runs away, and has a vision of her mother committing suicide while yelling “Gemma”. She later becomes haunted with the images of her mother’s death.
With her mother dead and her father’s growing addiction to laudanum, Gemma is shipped off to a finishing school near London, Spence Academy for Young Ladies. At first, Gemma is an outcast at the school; however, she soon finds the most popular and influential girl in school, Felicity, in a compromising situation that would ruin Felicity’s reputation. Gemma agrees not to tell Felicity’s secret and the girls soon form a strong friendship, along with Gemma’s roommate Ann, and Felicity’s best friend, Pippa. But Gemma is still tormented with her visions and is warned by the young man from the market, Kartik, a member of an ancient group of men known as the Rakshana, dating all the way back to Charlemagne, that she must close her mind to these visions or something horrible will happen.
During one of her visions Gemma is led into the caves that border the school grounds. There, she finds a diary written 25 years earlier by a 16-year-old girl named Mary Dowd who also attended Spence Academy and seemed to suffer from the same visions as Gemma. While reading the diary, Gemma learns of an ancient group called the Order and becomes convinced that her visions are linked to it. Members of the Order could open a door between the human world and other realms, help spirits cross over into the afterlife, and also possessed the powers of prophecy, clairvoyance, and what was considered the greatest force of all, the ability to weave illusions. Gemma, Felicity, Pippa and Ann decide to create their own Order in the caves to escape from the monotone lives that they are expected to lead.
As the girls read further and further into the diary of Mary Dowd they realize that the actual Order existed at Spence Academy and that Mary was a part of it along with her best friend Sarah Reese-Toome and the original Headmistress Eugenia Spence, who all died in a fire at the school. Gemma tells her friends the truth about her powers and together they travel to the realms. There Gemma finds her mother alive and well and the girls find that they can achieve their hearts’ desires. Gemma wishes for self-knowledge, Felicity for power, Pippa for true love and Ann for beauty. The girls continue to sneak out to the caves in the middle of the night and visit the realms. However, Gemma’s mother warns them not to take the magic back into their own world, for if the magic leaves the realms, the evil sorceress Circe will be able to find Gemma and will kill her, leaving the realms unguarded.
The girls listen to Gemma’s mother, but after a time they are no longer content to only have power in the realms. The girls decide to take the magic back with them and have fun around the school with it, but find out that the magic is also evil. Then, Gemma learns that Mary Dowd’s best friend Sarah is actually Circe, and that the two of them had committed an unspeakable crime together: they killed Mother Elena – the gypsy’s – daughter Carolina. Shocked, Gemma also learns that Sarah never died in the fire. When she and her friends look for a photo of Sarah and Mary, Gemma finds the picture in the school behind the photo of the class of 1872, and is shocked to see her mother’s face with the name Mary Dowd under it. Gemma goes into the realms to find her mother and have her explain what happened all those years ago and why she did what she did. Muhahahahaha

I really enjoyed reading this book. I think that it had a very well planed out plot and never got dull. The only thing that I did not like very much was that some of the times they switched back and forth between Spence and other time periods and not knowing that got me really confused some times. Another thing that I liked about the book was that there was not always only one problem. That sounds strange but I think that if there is more then one thing that the character has to deal with the more suspense and some times empathy you have for that character. One thing in the book that was a like unclear was the description that they gave of the characters. Some of them where very well described like Gemma and Pippa but others like Felicity and Anne, you did not really know what they looked like and never found out.

Some of the characters in the book are Gemma, Anne, Felicity, Pippa, and Kartik. Gemma as you may have already learned is a teenage girl maybe 16 or 17 that grew up in India with her mother. She is outspoken and has some very witty come backs. Anne is Gemma room mate I guess you could say. Anne is a very shy girl and the only reason that she came to Spence was because her parents died and she had no where else to go. She is a little bigger and does not have a lot of money since her parents are no longer alive and she has no siblings, the only money that she has is the amount that she made before she came to Spence. Felicity is a very popular girl and has gobs of money. She can be a little no a lot snippy sometimes, and thinks that she should always have her way. Little does anyone know she has had some very hard times at home uh-oh. Pippa is Felicity BFFL (best friend for life *lame*) she is a little quieter then Felicity but also has a lot of money. Her parents do not think that she should be able to chose her husband so they do is for her *british accent* he is dreadful and his last name is Bumble who would want to marry him?!. Kartik is well, strange. He is around 20 I think and is is a gypsy. Him and Gemma like each other a little but her is elusive.

The setting is in India in the begging and around page 25 Gemma goes to England. I believe that this is in the early 1900’s because the diary that she found was 30 years old and it was in the 1870’s. The main setting is Spence Academy, a finishing school for girl (waste of time in my opinion). I know that these are early times because the girls are still wearing corsets. Women stooped wearing them in the 1920’s after to many people died from suffocation. The setting influences the story a lot because being in a school means that if you got stoned or drunk down in the cave last night then everyone in French class is going to know when you come tottering in with blood shot eyes and slurred speech.

That is my review for A Great and Terrible Beauty. I give it a 9 out of 10 and can not wait to read the next 2 books in the series.

- SARAH

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

This book is about a girl named Juli Baker and this new boy that moves into her town when she was a little girl. It starts off with Juli being a regular little girl and then Bruce (a boy who is the same as her) moves in next door. Juli immediately likes him because he is just what she wished for: a playmate that was her age and someone that she likes. When they first met, she falls for him and his shiny, blonde hair and his bright blue eyes. She even goes as far to think that Bruce will be her first kiss. However, Bryce has a almost opposite impression of Juli. He think that she is a annoying, know-it-all, clingy kid. From the very first moment she sees her, which just happens to be when she is trying to help unload the boxes, but instead she is leaving muddy footprints all over the boxes, he knows that she is going to be trouble. A while later after the boxes have been unloaded, Juli wants to hold Bryce’s hand and his mom sees this and thinks that it is cute. Bryce is turned off by Julia and desperately tries to avoid her by staying inside the first week.

As the years pass, Juli and Bryce occasionally bump into each other and Juli still has a passionate love for him. But, again, Bryce is just the opposite: He thinks that Juli is continually getting more and more annoying. But, he feels that he can’t push her away because, after all, she is whispering the answers to the spelling tests in his ear.

Every morning Bryce goes to the bus stop and hops on the bus. And every morning Juli climbs a huge tree and then gets on the bus. But one day, when Juli is enjoying her early morning climb, a bunch of workers arrive and want to cut down the tree. The workers as her to climb down so that they can do their job, but she stubbornly refuses. The school bus arrives, and then leaves and Juli still refuses to leave her perch in the tree. She sits up there all day and finally her dad comes home and tells her to get down and that every thing will be okay, because after all, it is only a tree. But that is not what Juli thinks. After a lot of fuss, Juli reluctantly comes down from the tree and it devastated.

Juli has pet chickens and every day she gives a dozen to Bryce’s family as a kind gesture. Except, Bryce’s family doesn’t trust her enough to eat her eggs. They have seen her back yard where the chickens are and they conclude that it is a dump. So, every day Bryce’s family has to throw them out without Juli catching them in the act. One day, Juli catches Bryce throwing them out and she is appalled. But then Bryce tells her why and she realizes that her backyard is filthy. So, she spends all weekend fixing it up just for Bryce and his family. When she is cleaning, she realizes that she doesn’t really know Bryce all that well and she begins to think that Bryce really isn’t worth it. But, by this time, Bryce is finally starting to see Juli for who she really is. He never noticed how smart she is, or how her eyes sparkle, or how energetic she is. He begins to think that maybe Juli is maybe the one for him.

At school, there is this kind of ritual where a boy’s lunch is auctioned off to the girls, and they trade lunches. But, usually it is not the lunch that they are buying, but rather the boy. Now, I won’t give away the ending, but who do you think Juli will choose and who do you think Bryce wants to choose him? It’s not what you think!

- Kelsey

Magyk By Angie Sage

Sarah and Silas are parents of 7 beautiful sons. But Septimus was unlucky as died at birth. Sarah and Silas cry over their dead baby. As Silas is on his way home he sees something in the snow. He goes over and finds it to be a little newborn baby girl with violet eyes. He also sees a wizard named Marcia, the Extraordinary Wizard. She tells Silas not to tell anyone that he found her. Silas brings the baby home and they name her Jenna. On Jenna’s 10th birthday they find out who she is. Jenna is the princess. An Assassin comes to kill her. The entire Heap family is on the run trying there hardest to keep Jenna safe. They do this by bringing her to there aunt Zelda’s house. On the way they save a boy who doesn’t have a name he is just called boy 412. He has no name because he is in the army and they don’t bother learning names. All the while there are amazing hunters after Jenna. If you want to find out what really happened to Sarah and Silas are parents of 7 beautiful sons. But Septimus was unlucky as died at birth. Sarah and Silas cry over their dead baby. As Silas is on his way home he sees something in the snow. He goes over and finds it to be a little newborn baby girl with violet eyes. He also sees a wizard named Marcia, the Extraordinary Wizard. She tells Silas not to tell anyone that he found her. Silas brings the baby home and they name her Jenna. On Jenna’s 10th birthday they find out who she is. Jenna is the princess. An Assassin comes to kill her. The entire Heap family is on the run trying there hardest to keep Jenna safe. They do this by bringing her to there aunt Zelda’s house. On the way they save a boy who doesn’t have a name he is just called boy 412. He has no name because he is in the army and they don’t bother learning names. All the while there are amazing hunters after Jenna. In the end they find out what really happened to their son Septimus Heap. I recommend you read the book

I love this book. It is so amazing. I am really in to magic books so when I saw this book the title drew me in and I was hooked. It is one of my favorite books because it is different from the other book that i have read. this book goes in to so much detail that sometimes when I am reading it I feel as if I am standing right next to Silas and I am watching all these thing unfold. This author has turned this book in to the Septimus Heap chronicles. The books it includes are Magyk, Flyte, Physik and , Queste.

The Main characters in this book are Silas: The father of Septimus Heap, Sarah: the mother of Septimus Heap, Jenna : The girl with violet eyes Silas and Sarah raised and their own and ended up to be princess, And Septimus Heap The boy that all the books are about, the 7th son of the 7th son.

By: Marin

Ida B

Ida B is a story about a girl named, you guessed it, Ida B. Applewood. The reason that everyone calls her Ida B is because her mom’s name is Ida too! Ida starts out living a happy life, living in an orchard where she has named every single apple tree in the orchard. Ida went to public school at Ernest B. Lawson Elementary school for two weeks and three days, and she absolutely hated it. She hated being around other kids and she hated not being outside and talking to her friends at home, who happened to be the trees in the orchard. When Ida’s parents finally decided that public school wasn’t a very good idea, they decided to home school Ida B. That went on for about 5 years, and then Ida B’s mom got what Ida called “a lump.” Well, that lump turned out to be a cancerous “lump.” While Ida’s mom was in the hospital, going in and out of treatments, Ida B’s life changed drastically. She went from happy-go-lucky 4th grader to a sad, lonely, 4th grader. Ida ended up going back to Ernest B. Lawson Elementary because her mom was too weak to teach her at home, and her dad was too busy taking care of Ida’s mom. Ida did NOT like this at all. Also, another setback that occurred because of Ida’s mom’s cancer was that they had to sell part of the orchard for money to help pay for Ida’s mom’s hospital bills. Ida pleaded and cried to try to keep the orchard safe, but it was no use. Alice, Harry, Bernice and Jacques Cousteau, the apple trees, would be cut down and the land would be used for other development. Ida hated going to school. Even though Ida’s teacher and all of the kids in her class were extremely nice and friendly, she still hated going there. Ida was a crab with a very hard shell to crack. She didn’t have any friends, even though some kids were nice to her. She wouldn’t let anyone into her heart. Ida hated school until one day, Mrs. Washington, (Ida’s teacher) read the class a story. Ida had been getting books from Mrs. Washington and taking them home and reading them, so this story she had already read. But the way Mrs. Washington read that story really touched Ida. From there, Ida begins to realize that her moping around and hating school and being mad at her parents, really isn’t fair.

I would recommend this book, but probably not to kids my age. Honestly, I thought that it was way too easy for me, but the plot was good. I enjoyed the plot, it just wasn’t very complex and there really wasn’t a very deep meaning to it. Even though the plot was good, if you are looking for a challenge, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for an easy, good story, I would definitely recommend this to you. It may look intimidating because it is a fairly thick book, but if you open it up and read it, you will realize it is a very easy book to comprehend. My sister, who is in fifth grade, also read this book, and she is an advanced reader for her age, and she read it very quickly and easily. I am not saying that this isn’t a book worth reading, but I am saying that this book is most likely below honors english 8 level. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I am glad that I read it.

By: Alli
Hour: 2