Chinese born American (Martine)

American born Chinese 

By Gene Luen Yang

    This story is three stories into one. A monkey King, a Chinese boy, and a high school boy. They wanted to be something different in someway to impress something or someone. But in the end the best solution was to be yourself. 

      The connection in this story is that some point in your life you may not like the way you look like and want to change the way you  looked. Or you wanted you change you in general to impress someone you liked. Just like in this story when Jin changed his hair because he thought that, the girl he liked, liked guys like that. I would recommend this book to    people who like folk tales, fiction and culture. This is a great book recommend to all ages.

         By Martine arranz

   

 

Spy School

I just finished reading a book called Spy School by Stuart Gibbs. This book would be a great read for teenagers both boys and girls. 
Ben Ripley is in the CIA's school and he finds out his recruitment is a setup to catch unknown bad guys.
He is not the best spy because once when he was being attacked he rolled up into a ball as his coat was padded.
The spy in the school is Erica, tells Ben that it's all a setup and once he realizes it's a setup they both start looking for the mole.
This book a spy book and it like a mixture  of James Bond and Harry Potter!

Super by William Cody (Griffin Bohan)

 

 

“Super” is a book about a kid named Daniel who does not have superpowers but his friends do. His friend Eric can fly and is very strong, his friend Mollie can fly and is very fast, and his friend Rohan has really good hearing. “Super” is the sequel to the book “Powerless” and in that book the bad guy’s name is the Shroud and his job was to take away all of the Superkids powers. Daniel who is not a Super still found it his job to stop the Shroud and save all of his friends. At the end of that book Daniel defeats the Shroud and buries him under a mountain of limestone.

In “Super” there is a new kid in town and his name is Theo. Theo turns out to be the Shroud’s great nephew and Daniel and his friends start to take suspicion that Theo is trying to take over the work of his great uncle. They did find proof of that, they saw many construction workers and bulldozers go to where the Shroud was buried. What they saw was Theo digging up the old limestone mountain to find his great uncle. Daniel and his friends have to stop Theo before it’s too late.

I thought “Super” was an okay book, it was definitely not the best book I read this summer, but it was pretty entertaining and you could kind of connect with the characters. Daniel is the hero, and he doesn’t have superpowers. So maybe you don’t have to to have powers to be a hero is the message. My favorite character was Eric, because he was pretty funny. I often find I like the friend characters of the main character because they usually have a better spirit and personality. I would probably give the book a 3 out of 5 stars. I would recommend this book to people who like to read mystery because they would find this very entertaining and funny.

 

Sold - Jo

Patricia McCormicks book Sold, is about thirteen year old Lakshmi. Lakshmi grows up is mountain village in Nepal, where she lives lives with her loving mother, step father and baby brother. One day her father told her that she is to be sent to the city to work as a maid. Without knowing Lakshmi is sold into sex trafficking. She is sold to a place India called, The Happiness House. Lakshmi is then forced become a prostitute to pay off the debt that she owes to Mumtaz, who cheats Lakshmi out of her earnings. Through the book Lakshmi befriends another girl named Shahanna. Together they form a friendship filled with trust and the hope of escaping Happiness House. Later in the book, their was a police raid, they captured Shahanna. Lakshmi lost the friend she depended on and her hope to get out. A month after Shahanna was taken, a American came to The Happiness House. He offered to help Lakshmi escape, she as worried that is Mumtaz would find out and wip her so hard, that she would be on the break of death. She accepts his card and has faith that see him again. Lakshmi survives and makes it out of The Happiness House.

The main connection I would make is that sex trafficking in a huge production in which young girls from Nepal are going to India to be forced into prostitution. They are tricked into leaving there homes, and are tricked into thinking that they are sending money to their families, the majority of them are pour. Just like Lakshmi's family, she thought that the money she earned would go to her family, so she could pay off the debt. I would recommend this book to someone who like reading about intense, and difficult subjects totals about. Also to someone who is interested in human rights.

Allegiant- Ruby

Summary

Allegiant is the third book in the Divergent series. DIvergents are people with the special ability of displaying more than one attributes valued in the world of Divergent. The main character, Tris is a divergent. Caleb is her brother, Tobias is her boyfriend, and Christina and Cara are her friends.  Throughout the series their government gets more and more unstable and when Allegiant starts Tobias’s mother, Evelyn is in charge and is trying to solidify her power.

Allegiant starts off a few days after the last book in the series, Insurgent, ends. Tris, Cara, and Christina are in a holding cell after having exposed a video instructing the divergents to leave their civilization and go beyond the walls that surround it. Several days later Tobias, Tris, Cara, Christina, Caleb, and a few other divergents decide to do just that. They are eventually picked up by employees of a place called The Bureau, where they are taken. At The Bureau they discover that the city they once lived in was called the “Chicago project”, a place that they sent people with genetically damaged genes to heal over generations. Divergents, were just people whose genes had healed, so it was safe for them to leave the project. While The Bureau initially seems innocent, they soon discover that not everything is good and true. Outside The Bureau genetically damaged people (GDs) are highly impoverished and discriminated against, while in The Bureau GDs are treated unfairly with unequal rights and job opportunities. 

Meanwhile, violence is about to erupt in the Chicago project. Leading the opposing sides are Tobias’s parents. Evelyn and her army, against Tobias’s father Marcus, and his army. Bureau officials plan to reset the memories of everyone in the project. Tris, Tobias, and the others who made it to The Bureau hatch a plan to stop this from happening. Tobias and a few others go to the project to stop the war, and get some close family members out. Tris and Caleb stay at The Bureau to release the memory serum (the same one that was to be used on the Chicago project) into The Bureau to wipe the memories of Bureau officials. Tobias goes to see his mom, but instead of slipping her the memory serum like they planned, he gives her a choice. Come be a part of his life again, or keep fighting in the war. She chooses to be with him and they avoid bloodshed.  Tris takes Caleb to the room where he will release the serum, but at the last moment decides to go into the room herself and release the serum for him because she is afraid he’ll die if he goes. She succeeds but is shot several times in the back by David, The Bureau leader. Tris dies and the book ends with a short epilogue from the perspective of Tobias.

Connection

The problems between GDs and GPs (genetically pure people) remind me a lot of segregation and racism in the real world. In the world of Allegiant the justice system is very biased towards GPs. For example, a GP can harm a GD and get away with it but if a GD harms a GP then they are either sent to jail or have their memories wiped. GDs are also considered to be almost less human then GPs. They are thought of to be more expendable and not able to do the same jobs that a GP could do.
Recommendations

Fans of other mainstream dystopian future books such as The Hunger Games, The Giver, The Maze Runner, etc. will love the Divergent series. People who would like to expand their vocabulary, or are looking for a challenge will also appreciate this book because Veronica Roth writes with a very advanced vocabulary. It is a good idea to keep a dictionary nearby when reading Allegiant. People who read this book should be able to handle violence in literature as the characters are placed in many dangerous situations throughout the series. If you can handle that I highly recommend this series to you.

 

Embroideries - Jo

Embroideries is a funny and opinionated graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. It is about a conversation throughout the afternoon about these women's vibrant and outrageous stories about their secrets and regrets. Throughout the book it shows the lives of women and their marriages. How some of them has escaped arranged marriage, and has reconstructed their lives after these marriages. It has the experiences of eight ladies who connect with each other through their love lives and the growing up in Iran. 

This book has a huge connection to the book Persepolis. They are both about living in Iran. These books are about how these people are experiencing customs that they are always aright with. The women in Embroideries leave the people they're married to, to go after the people that they love. In Persepolis, Marjane becomes divorced because she doesn't love her husband any more. Also they both has a connection to the fact that during this time period they have very few rights, as women. They were forced to wear veils and be married to the man they were arranged to, while her husband could have a mistress. Many of the older women in Embroideries, tried to leave their husband, to go against the lack of their rights. I would recommend this book to people who enjoyed the book Persepolis, because it goes over some of the same materiel. I would also recommend it to someone who likes to read graphic novels.

Rooftoppers, by Katherine Rundell - Lucy

           I just finished Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell, and it is an amazing book. Rooftoppers is about a girl who was a year old when she was on a ship named the Queen Mary with her mother. This ship had sunk and she had lost her mother, and there were no female survivors. Before the ship sank, the mother had put her in a cello case and sent it out onto the sea water for the rescue boat to find her. One of the men in the boat named Charles lifted her out of the sea and decided to keep her. He named her Sophie. Over the years Sophie had grown into a polite yet unusual girl. Unlike most young girls, she wore trousers instead of skirts, climbed trees and liked to get dirty, and never brushed her hair. When a Orphanage inspector (named Ms. Elliot) came to see if Sophie was a well-kept and perfect girl, Ms.Elliot saw the complete opposite. Ms. Elliot wrote to Charles and Sophie in a letter that Sophie must be taken to an orphanage to learn how to be a proper young lady. Sophie suddenly has the idea that they should run off to Paris and find her mother, who she believes is still alive. Leaving everything behind, they disappear from England to find Paris. But when they try hard not to get caught, Sophie finds more than she had expected.
          I would recommend this book to people who love adventure stories. I love this book because it was a mystery to be solved, and I kept wanting to read more. Sophie was an interesting character because she was different than all the other girls her age. I loved how she continued to have hope that her mother was still alive and in Paris. The line that was repeated in the story was "that you should never ignore a possible." It was a good book to show that you should always have hope and be strong.

Moose to Moccasins

The book Moose to Moccasins, The story of Ka Kita Wa Pa No Kwe by Madeline Katt Theriault is her autobiography about growing up as a First Nations person, and living a white man's way of life as a woman from Canada. This book focuses mainly on her experiences growing up on Bear Island, Lake Temigami as a First Nations person and how she went through life day by day. The most important part of the story is during one winter her grandparents, brother, and she almost starved. One day she was walking around the old storehouse and saw a forgotten animal leg hanging out from the roof from their hunting. She took a pole to get it down, cooked it, and her family was saved from starvation. Another important part is later in the book they went fishing and caught 200 fish in one day!


I can't really connect to this book myself but I can connect to it with other sources. In the book there was a lot of mention of white people disrespecting them because they were First Nation people. I have read in other books about this happening a lot too. For example, in a book I read about First Nations people much longer ago the white people took their land from them, which is also similar to the events in the book because it shows the white people didn't really have respect for the First Nations people. One thing I did notice was the First Nations people were self sufficient; they didn't go to the store, buy clothes, buy houses. They did it all themselves by using wildlife and the resources around them.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning something about what survival was like for people before you could get access to necessities easily. Also I would recommend this to anyone who likes learning of other ways of life.

Vocabulary

• First Nation People: the various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis

ADHD and Me

The book ADHD and Me is a memoir by Blake E.S. Taylor. It is about what it's like to grow up with ADHD, and the experiences he went through at school and home. The main character is Blake, a boy who lives in Weston, Connecticut, with ADHD who struggles growing up with it. The most important part of the book is when Blake realizes ADHD is not an all negative thing. It has huge advantages, and some disadvantages like many other things.

I can connect to this book on many levels because I also am growing up with ADHD as Blake did, and I agree with him that it's hard, too. Also I have heard that as Blake said, people with ADHD struggle with getting distracted easily because I have heard the same from doctors and psychologists that I know of. I also connect with Blake because in his book nobody except his family and some of his teachers understood his ADHD and I feel the same way too. A quote I also really connected with was: "A person with ADHD does not think about cause and effect, does not connect the dots between thought, action, and consequence. You shoot pebbles because you want to see them fly, and you don't think about the objects in their path."

I would highly recommend this book to anyone with ADHD and people who don't understand what ADHD is and how it affects you. I say this because the book explains all these things, and delves into how these explanations make perfect sense.

Escape - Jo

Escape is a memoir of the horrific stories of children in the holocaust. It has seven stories about brave, outgoing, and hopeful children, David Wollowitz, Alicia Jurman, Judi Beker, Halina Litman, Eddie Weinstein, Grace Frieder, and Hanci Hollander. Each of them has a unique experience during the holocaust. One of the most unique is Judi's. Her story starts in Lithunia, where she and her family are then shipped off to a ghetto. After 18 mounths of living in a ghetto, Judi and her mom are sent to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a annihilate for Jewish people. Judi and her mother lived with 1500 other women, until on day her mother is ordered to line up and taken to a gas chamber. Without her mother hope for her to survive Judi began losing faith in becoming free from the nazis. Judi later escaped from the Nazis just like the others.
The main connection it his book is to the history of World War 1 and the Holocaust. All of the children are a group of many who go through the pain and have to witness the death of others. It has details and facts of the main points of history during the Holocaust. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read historical fiction or about the Holocaust. Also I would recommend it to people who like short descriptive stories.

American Born Chinese

The book American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang is a graphic novel made up of three different stories. The characters in each story all have the same struggles: fitting in and facing racial struggles and stereotypes. The first story is the "Monkey King" which resembles a Chinese folk tale about a monkey who is not accepted into the immortal ranks of heaven just because he is a monkey. The second story is about a Chinese American boy named Jin Wang, who has moved from San Francisco's Chinatown to a mostly white suburb and school. Jin Wang's main struggles are that people stereotype him because he's Chinese, and he has trouble fitting in. The third story is about an all American boy named Danny, who has a Chinese cousin named Chin-Kee who visits him every year. Danny is so embarrassed by Chin-Kee because he fits all the unpopular stereotypes of Chinese people. At the end of the book each character's story overlaps and they meet each other. During this part they help each other to start resolving their struggles with accepting who they are.


A connection I can make to this book is I have seen kids react in racist ways to an another kids appearance, and their accent. In this book this happens to Jin Wang at school. I have seen people confused about their identity because of racial comments said to them.


I would not recommend this book to someone who likes a more straight-forward storyline, because this book can get confusing at times. However, I would recommend it to someone who likes a complex and rich graphic novel.

A Work In Progress - Isabel Flores

                      Connor Franta is a youtuber who is close to 5 million subscribers. He recently wrote a book called a Work in Progress, and after waiting in like a 2 hour line me and Faye got to meet him. In his book he described his child hood. Connor grew up La Crosse, Wisconsin with 3 other siblings. He talks about his connection with his siblings. He also talked about things he did in his childhood like how the YMCA was his second home and his experience with being a competitive swimmer for quite a while. Yes, you could find this info online it was better to hear the man who lived that childhood talk about his childhood. In his book he also talks about the many struggles he faced in the recent years. For example, he came out as gay on his you tube channel in January and his struggles with body image and finding himself and accepting himself for who he is. Connor inculdes a bunch of photos that he has taken in his book which were all very pretty to look at. And a bunch of tumblr quotes that he probably came up with.

                    This book connects with the real life of everyone. We all face struggles in our life. And I know for me and probably other people you could see a celebrity as perfect but we forget sometimes that their real people too and they have faced challenges too. This book also connects to all the people who feel like they aren't accepted into society. People who feel like they don't know who they are or that their afraid to show their true self. Personally I didn't connect with this book. Connor Franta is my favorite youtuber and I wanted to read his book Overall it was a very good book. If you want to watch his videos his youtube link is https://www.youtube.com/user/ConnorFranta

                   

The Selection- Ruby

Summary

The Selection is a dystopian future book about a girl named America Singer, a young, independent, and strong-willed teen who lives a relatively normal life in her society. Her country, Illéa, is divided into castes from one to eight. The lower your caste, the worse your job, and the poorer you are. America is a five, the caste made up of artists and musicians. America’s life changes when she is chosen to participate in the selection: a competition between 35 girls to win prince Maxon's hand in marriage and the crown. She arrives at the palace greeted by luxury a five rarely sees. While the prince is not the cold, rigid snob she expected him to be, she can’t bring herself to seriously compete for him because she wants to be with Aspen Leger, a six she had a secret love affair with back home. As the book goes on she begins to have feelings for Maxon, and considers the possibility of staying with him. Just as things are getting started between them a new draft of soldiers arrives at the palace and one of these soldiers is none other than Aspen Leger himself. To make this situation even more completed the castle is attacked twice by a mysterious group of rebels. The book ends with America in the middle of  this confusing situation.

Connection

I made a connection between The Selection and The Hunger Games because both competitions are broadcasted for people’s entertainment. Both contests are used by the government to ensure their hold on power. Another connection I made is between The Selection and the real world. In The Selection, while prince Maxon can only marry one of the thirty five girls it is totally okay for him to simultaneously have affairs with several of them at once. However if one of the girls is discovered to be in multiple relationships, prince Maxon is expected to put them to death. This reminds me of polygamy (the practice or custom of having more than one spouse, especially wife, at one time). This is a tradition practiced in many African countries and is also a part of early Mormon beliefs. This is an issue that the characters struggle with in The Selection and an ongoing topic today with international human rights and women's rights organizations. 

Recommendations

I would recommend this book to people who like the dystopian future genre. While I could have done with a little more resistance from the characters against the selection (in my opinion one of the most corrupt and twisted ideas in the book), this is a dystopian future book with all the violence and twists a book of that nature entails. I would also recommend this book to people who like romance novels. It is a big part of the book while it wasn't my favorite aspect.  People who read this book should be okay with books that move at a slow pace, especially between main events. Readers who want lots of action should look elsewhere. To anyone else I’d say this book is a worthwhile read.

Yankees vs. Red Sox: The Great Rivalry book report

           The rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees has lasted over 100 years, and still continues today. If you don't know, the Red Sox and the Yankees are baseball teams that play professionally in the MLB, which stands for Major League Baseball. But the rivalry is not all about the teams, it is also about the two different cities, the media, baseball fields, and the fans. This book covers every important moment in the history of the rivalry between these two teams and milestones in each of the teams long history.
           I really enjoyed this book because of my love of baseball and especially my love of the Yankees. Even if you don't know much about baseball or the rivalry, you can still understand this book because the authors, Harvey and Frederic Frommer both explain the rivalry well. Also, the way each chapter was formed really kept me interested in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who thinks it sounds interesting. Even if you are a Red Sox fan you should read it because it isn't biased towards any team.

Looking for Alaska- Ruby Trujillo

Summary

The book Looking for Alaska by John Green is split into two sections, Before and After. It’s structured like a mountain: the Before section is the slope up, the main event at the end of the Before section is the peak, and the After section is the slope down. In the Before section a boy named Miles leaves his “minor” life in Florida to attend Culver Creek Preparatory School, a boarding school in Birmingham, Alabama. At the Creek he meets Alaska, Takumi, and Chip. They become close friends, and teach Miles the culture of the school, which revolves around smoking, drinking, and pranking. On one particular occasion they pull a prank on a group of students known as the Weekday Warriors. While they are hiding out after the prank Miles and his friends discover that Alaska’s mom died right in front of her from an aneurysm, and she didn’t call an ambulance.  This explains why Alaska is so impulsive and can’t keep still; when her mother was dying she did nothing, so now she feels like she has to do everything. At the climax of the book, right before the After section, Alaska and Chip are drinking while Miles watches. Alaska runs out to take a call from her boyfriend. She comes back crying and screaming that she needs to go, and although she is heavily intoxicated, Miles and Chip agree to distract the school dean while she drives away from campus. The next day they find out that she died in a car crash.

The After section explores the consequences of Alaska’s death. Miles and Chip commiserate over their guilt for letting her go. They begin to fail classes due to their grief, and they trying to figure out what happened that night. Was it a suicide? If not, where was she going and what made her leave?  Finally, Chip, Miles, and Takumi pull off a final prank in honor of Alaska.  At the end of the book they all come to terms with their loss and the role they played in it, and move forward in their lives. 

Connection

In looking for Alaska Miles does things like smoke and drink because his friends do them. Miles says to the reader that he buys cigarettes for him and Chip because it keeps Chip from making fun of him for being a “rich kid”. This reminds me a lot of instances when peer pressure affects people. A connection I made to my life was when my sister was hit by a friend of hers because another kid (who he wanted to be friends with) was also mean to her. The book does address that a little bit but, but it is mostly left for the reader to think about.

Recommendations

I would suggest that people read this along with another John Green book because it is his first novel, and in my opinion his later books are better and more accurately represent him as an author. Having said this, I would highly recommend this book to people who enjoy complex, changing, and intriguing characters. I would also recommend this book to people who like suspenseful books.  In the Before section, Green titles his chapters “186 days before,”  or “83 days before,” or “2 days before,” and so on. I was constantly wondering “What is this big event that the entire book revolves around?” I highly recommend this book as a great young adult read.

Drama- Nina Weinstock

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

   Drama is about a girl in middle school named Callie who has a passion for acting and musicals. Although she doesn't have the skills for it she decides to work behind the scenes as stage crew's set design. She starts off with her friends Greg and his brother Matt. Liz his basically her BFF. Callie has a crush on Greg but Matt likes Callie. After Greg kisses Callie Matt gets mad at them both and the group of friends starts to drift apart. After Callie gets her roll as set design in her school play she meets two twins names Jessie and Justin. Justin is gay and Jessie is the only person that knows except for Callie. They both want to try out as characters in the musical but Jessie is too afraid and ends up working on behind the scenes with Callie. Callie soon develops a crush on both of the twins but none of them really think of her in a romantic way.
   This book really connects to the struggles of middle school and everyone trying to figure out who they are inside as apposed to who they are on the out side.This book captures the pro's and the con's of middle school. For example it captures the reality of what a crush feels like and the wonder that lays behind it like wondering if they like you back or not and the mood swings and friendships and break ups and the craziness that goes on back stage in the final days of rehearsing a production.
   I would recommend this book to teens, because like I said the book does capture a lot of middle school's pro's and con's. And looking at someone else's experience and knowing that their reality and ours is so similar.    

Homeroom Diaries- James Patterson and Lisa Papademetriou

           Homeroom Diaries by James Patterson and Lisa Papademetriou is a very good book to read in middle school and for people going into high school. I just finished it and its about a girl who calls herself "Cuckoo Clarke" who was a patient at St. Agustine Community Hospital (so-called 'Crazy Town') in Portland Oregon for a ten-day observation period. Her mother left her one night at her home without saying goodbye or anything, and never came back. So the ten-day observation period was to make sure Clarke was alright after what happened. So 'Cuckoo' gets a foster mom, who Clarke loves so much. But soon Clarke faces so much more as her life goes on in that school year. The authors of the book write it from a girl's (Clarke's) perspective. This book is very humorous but also very tragic. 

           

           I can cannot really connect with this book or the characters in it, but I can understand it very much because I know this can happen in real life. Well, most of it can happen, not all of it. I would recommend this book to anyone my age or going into high school because high school can be a rough time in you're life. This book gave me some strong feelings and made me think a lot sometimes. But in conclusion, this book can connect with a lot of girls (or boys) of this age and time. 

city of ember-nina weinstock

The city of ember by Jeanne Duprau

city of ember is about a town with only darkness in all directions. the city provides lighting but as of lately the light has began to flicker. A young named Lina girl who finds a ripped up old note. she suspects that the note is a way out of ember. her friend named Doon works in the city's water and gas pipes below the city. When she shares the information about the note they figure out each ripped up word and they are led to the outside world where they see the sun. they discover in the end that The City Of Ember that they have been living in a came their whole lives. they realize that someone set them up to embark on this journey.
   I would connect this book to The lost boy because there is loss in both books and the main characters in both books are both kids around the same age one girl one boy. in both books the characters embark on a long journey to discover the truth.   
   I would recommend this to young teens and anyone who likes mystery.

The lost boy -nina weinstock

The lost boy by Greg Ruth

   A boy named Nate  moves with his parents into a new house. he meets a young girl named Tabitha who is the same age as him.  In the attic he discovers a dusty old tape recorder that  belonged to a lost boy named Walter, and it had Nate's name on it. The rest of the book is about Nate's search for a magical key and to keep it safe from Walter, who has become evil because of the child abuse Walter faced as a kid. There are magical talking animals and bugs who keep people from entering the magical forest. Nate and Tabitha take on the adventure and mystery of finding Walter. Walter was trapped in all his anger and pain that he grew magical wood on his skin that preserved his body for years. at the end of the book Walt becomes suicidal and wants to drop into a bottomless bit but Nate caught him and would not let him fall. As Walter's anger turns into sadness the wood slowly chips off. once Tabitha was alone with Nate, Nate gets the magic key to guard. but little did they know that Nate and Tabitha will become guardians of the key and they will have to protect from the shadows in the next book.      
   This connects to life because the emotions reminded me of myself, I to once felt the same way as Walter. anger acts as a wall to keep away the sadness the sadness causes suicidal thoughts and feelings and can be fixed by love like in the book when Nate saved Walter and gave him a big hug and let him cry in his arms.
  I would recommend this book to young adults or teens or anyone who doesn't prefer chapter books but loves fantasy mystery.

The last Olympian By Rick Riordan

This is the last Percy Jackson adventure which led to the Heroes of  Olympus series.The last Olympian is about Kronos coming back taking over New York city and making it the New underworld. Percy Jackson and the rest of the crew try to take down Kronos and save New York before he takes over the world! What Percy Jackson and the rest of the team have to do is to take on all the Boroughs from Staten island to Brooklyn. This book is amazing  and it is the last Percy Jackson book so everything change between Annabeth,Grover,and Tyson.    

A book of elsewheres- The shadows -Martine Arranz

       Title: The book of Elsewhere- The shadows- Book 1

        Author: Jacqueline West
  

  The old house on hidden street is crumbly, dark and weird. An eleven year old Olive Dunwoody just moved in. Strange paintings line the walls. As olive begins to uncover the the house secrets. She finds herself drawn into a world. More dangerous than she could imagined. Something lurks in the old house, something that does not want olive, her family or anyone to find out. The more secrets she discovers the more danger she and her family are in.

    I had a connection with adapting to a new a environment. Olive moves to a new house that she  ins't used to. She is used to everyone having the same apt or house that you by accident are in someone's else's house  and you don't even realize it. I would recommend this book to someone likes mystery, spooky stories, adventure and fiction. It's a great series that I recommended!!! Love it so much. 

Treasury of Greek Mythology: Classic Tales of Gods, Heroes, and Monsters (Review)

"Treasury of Greek Mythology: Classic Tales of Gods, Heroes, and Monsters" is a great and awesome Mythological collection of the different mighty Greek Gods, Heroes, and Monsters. From Zeus to the Titans to Hercules, this book will massively expand your Knowledge of Greek Mythology. However, most Treasuries use Alphabetical order to place their characters in an organized order, but sometimes it can mess with a Person's knowledge of the Mythological timeline. Even so, this is not the case with this Treasury. Instead, different Gods, Heroes, and Monsters are all introduced in the order that they were introduced in the original Greek Myth timeline making it much less complicated for the reader to remember which event came first and which event came last. I also liked how in the Back of the book they had added a collection of the gods, each with a summary of their purpose and their alternate Roman names. For example, for Poseidon, his summary read: Roman Name: Neptune God Of: The Seas. It also made it more simple for someone who wasn't looking for such in depth info.

In the end, I loved this book and I'd give it at least a 4.5 out of 5. I also think that this connects to a lot of things in my life mostly religion. This is because it tells about the gods of a religion different than mine even though I actually believe in my religion while I see this as a form of Mythology. I would recommend this book to someone who love Fantasy and might like studying different forms of religions. However, if you do not like mythology or fantasy and never did then I highly suggest you steer clear of this book. I hope you've all enjoyed my final book review.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - (Martine Arranz)

     Title: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
      Author: Kate DiCamillo

      This wonderful story, The Miraculous Journey Of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo is about a China rabbit name Edward Tulane. He was loved by a girl named Abilene but Edward only knew how to love himself. All of his days seemed the same. Until one day when something horrible happened, Edward is thrown into the ocean. He now has to live the life of a fisherman, a Hobo, a scarecrow, and a puppet. He thens starts to feel feelings he has never felt before and that was appreciation, Heartbreak, sadness, loneliness, hope and love.
     

  I find this story very common, a person is selfish and only knows how to love him self when others love him. And in the end he finally understands love. I see a connection in real life between the person and the stuffed animal. When you were younger or you still do, always had that one favorite stuffed animal and you always loved it but you wondered how it felt about u, maybe thats just me. And if you lost it you would be devastating. Another connection to real life is, it's kind of like a relationship, She loves him,  he doesn't, he leaves, realizes that he loves her and comes back, etc. I would recommend this book if you liked Winn Dixie and if you like adventure and fiction.

The Big Field by Mike Lupica (Griffin)

The Big Field by Mike Lupica is about a kid named Hutch who wants to play baseball. Hutch has two conflicts throughout the story such as with his dad, who has neglected him for 5 years. The second conflict is with a kid named Daryl, because Daryl is so sure of himself and he is also a big jerk. Daryl is always is saying he is going to make it into the MLB.

I enjoyed this book because I really enjoy sports, especially baseball. I think this book is well written and Mike Lupica knows how to write how a kid actually thinks. My favorite character in the book was Cody, Hutch’s best friend, because he always was positive and had a good attitude and never got mad at Hutch when he really messed up. Things end up working out between Daryl and Hutch.  Daryl became really nice and they actually kind of became friends, which was surprising because you’d never expect that because they hated each other in the beginning.  I think it was about jealousy.  Hutch apologized because they were teammates and they didn’t want to effect their team in a negative way.  Nothing was really worked out with Hutch and his dad, but the book ended with Hutch hugging his dad because he won the little league world series and his dad was proud of him.  

There were some funny parts and there were some dumb parts like bad dialogue, but all in all, I liked the book. It was entertaining and kept on making you want to read more. I would recommend this to anyone who likes sports, especially if you play baseball.

Smile - Faye Arranz

Faye Arranz                                                                                                         August 21, 2015

                                         Smile

                 I've decided to reread the book Smile, by Raina Telgemeier, because personally I wanted do another book report to finally complete all four essays that I had "desired" to do. So I dedided to pick a random book off my shelve, which as you know, was Smile. Anyway, in the graphic novel Smile, a true story containing the author of the book, explains about her catastrophe of tripping and falling on her way to her house, resulting her front teeth to screw up. One up in her gum and the other in the puddle of blood dripping from her mouth. She takes on the journey of dentist after dentist to fix her screwed up mouth, and along that journey comes drama from crushes and friends and a new smile.

                  This book relates to people who care about what people think and how you appear on the outside. The main character, Raina, is faced with problems of her appearance and she learns to deal with it, which might help people who feel ashamed of how they look. I also recommend this book to people who like graphic novels as well as drama because there is plenty of drama that you can feed off of. 

Eleanor and Park - Isabel Flores

                      Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

                      Eleanor and Park is a love story taken place in the 1980s (best time period). Eleanor and Park isn't a type of "as soon as I saw him, I was in love" love story. This story is about how Eleanor meets Park and how their awkward friendship turns into a love story. Eleanor is from a lower class family that is controlled by their drunk step dad Richard. Eleanor was kicked out of their house by Richard a couple months, and had to live with her actual dad. When she moved back in she had to start a new school. At her new school you had to claim bus seats, and while being yelled at and made fun of she quickly sat down next to another kid. This kid was Park. Park comes from a half Irish, half Koran family. Park didn't want to be with Eleanor, he quickly tried to forget about her. After a couple of bus rides Park notices Eleanor was reading his comics books. He let her barrow his books. The two quickly bonded over the charterers and then Park let Eleanor barrow his walkman, then they started to bond over music. The two quickly began to fall in love. But there was problems. If Eleanor's step dad found out about Park she would be dead. People where also making fun of Eleanor which caused Park to get very anger. As you get deeper into the book you'll learn about how their relationship and the problems the young couple run into.
                 
                    Eleanor and Park connects to the world cause it focuses on the hardships that Eleanor faces with her alcoholic father. There are many kids who have a abuse or alcoholic parent and they must have a lot holding them back from going out into the real world.

                  I think this book would connect to people who like the book "The Fault in Our Stars" or someone who likes the 80s. The Fault in Our Stars is also about a awkward relationship. In the Fault in Our Stars they show their adventures and how they fall in love, I believe that Eleanor and Park shows they adventures and the hard times they had,  Just like the Fault in Our Stars.

The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters

           The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters is a mystery novel about a girl named Bethesda Fielding in the 7th grade who got an assignment in school to solve a mystery in her own life. But Bethesda was intrigued about another persons life; Ms. Finkleman, her music teacher. Bethesda uncovers that her plain boring music teacher actually used to be a rock star. She spreads the rumor to the other children and even the Principal at Mary Todd Lincoln Middle school, and soon Ms. Finkleman is a well-known and respected teacher. But Ms. Finkleman is upset that this news has been exposed. Later on in the story, more news is revealed; Ms. Finkleman wasn't really the rockstar, her twin sister was. The themes in this book are how misunderstandings can lead to emotional feelings and how it can change peoples perspectives a lot. Its also about how people are treated differently when rumors are spread about them. 

           This story taught me a lot about how spreading something untruthful about someone can hurt them in many different ways. I also understood how Bethesda wanted to go further with the expectations of her school project, but instead she went too far with them. It was a good book because when you thought the story was over, there was another turn in the book so you had to keep on reading. In conclusion, I would recommend this book to anyone who loves mystery, and loves to connect with characters with real-life problems in a story. 

Schooled - Chris

Schooled is a book about a hippie named Capricorn Anderson. Cap lived on a hippie commune with his grandmother. After his grandmother fell out of a tree Cap had to go to public school with people he never met. He also had to go to temporary Foster care. Cap was scared and felt unwanted at his foster home. This relates to real life because some people do have to go through what cap went through. I give this book 2 stars and I don't recommend it to anyone because the book doesn't have one steady plot. I think this book is a good book for people who don't like one themed books.

We Should Hang Out Sometime- Christian

The book "We Should Hang Out Sometime" written by Josh  Sundquist is a true story. How do you know you ask?  I know this because on the cover it states " Embarrassingly, A True Story." The book is about how Josh (an amputee) struggled through his love life. The book is a book with a pattern.

First Josh would state the female's name.  Then he tells the prior experience he had with the female. Thereafter, he would continue with the embarrassing hypothesis explanation as to why he thinks the relationship did not work.

 Once Josh has tracked down his ex-girlfriends he would state, "We Should Hang Out Sometimes." He then would invite them out for dinner or coffee. Weird right? If he gets them to agree to meet him at a specific location he ask the question "why didn't their relationship work out in the past?"

 Josh always had a problem getting into real relationships.  Therefore he came up with the clever quote "We Should Hang Out Sometime." His theory behind this was that the girls couldn't possibly say NO! besides, It's just hanging out right! NO strings attached.  He theorized.

 In my opinion this book relates to real life because ALOT of people are just like Josh. They play games with each other and aren't truthful or forthcoming with their true intent. Most likely, Josh felt like his prior relationships weren't successful because he was an amputees. However, he wasn't comfortable enough with himself or his disability to ask.

I would recommend this book to people that like romantic comedy books. I feel that this book was written from a male perspective due to the focus on male content.  I personally really enjoyed reading this book and give it 5 stars.

A Work In Progress - Faye Arranz

Faye Arranz                                                                                                                   August 17, 2015

                                   A Work In Progress 

                  Conner Franta, a YouTuber containing close to 5 million subscribers, decided to write a memoir called A Work In Progress. After waiting in line for a couple of hours with so called "basic white girls", I had finally received the book with one of my friends in Barnes & Nobles. The book had a white cover and a triangle cut out of the center to reveal cotton candy clouds displayed in a bright blue sky. Once opened, the words A Work In Progress were pressed against a white page and excitement filled inside me. What new things may I discover while reading this book? And may I answer you that. I found tons of quotes that are Tumblr worthy. I also found that things in his book were kind of already stated on his YouTube channel, which isn't bad but I wouldn't have spent $20 on information that I can easily find out for free. In his book he explains about his childhood of growing up in La Crosse, Wisconsin, living in a large, light-blue home with 3 other siblings. He attended catholic school and had taken swimming classes at the La Crosse YMCA. He then later explains about his experience of finding himself and feeling like he is finally accepted because of YouTube and everyone he has met. And don't get me wrong, I'm fine reading about how someone finally found themselves but a large percentage of this book was Conner blabbering on about something that I have heard more than once. 

                   This book connects to people who have grown up believing that the way they are isn't accepted by society and no one would like them, including themselves. People who need help finding their way in life and finally being able to be who they are. Personally, I didn't connect to this book because I've grown up feeling that it's better to be who you are because everyone else is taken. So for people who can't see that it's okay for you to be you, I recommend them this book to them. And also Conner Franta fans. 

Rakaiya-10 Things I Hate About Me By Randa Abdel Fattah

       This book is about a tenth grader Jamie (Jamilah) is a Lebanese Muslim  who just wants to fit in at her Australian school. She wears blue contacts and bleaches her hair blonde in an attempt to assimilate. It works, but when her strict and traditional father's rules keep her from going to parties or dating boys who ask her out, she lies to her friends rather that admit the truth. When her friends begin to ask about her life outside of school, Jamie fears that the two worlds she tried so hard to keep separate will collide. Unfortunetly this book doesnt connect to me but it connects to the world because alot of people take their religion seriously and cant do all things that other friends can do.I would recommend this book to girls that have the same issues and see what they can learn from this book or what they can take from this book.

Rakaiya-The Skin Im In By Sharon Flake

  This book is about a girl named Maleeka who is teased in her rough middle school. Shes teased about everything from the color of her black skin, her homemade clothes, and her joyous single mother.When a new teacher named miss Saunders shows up at her school with a big white birthmark ,Maleeka knew she was in for a tough year because she was going to get teased just how Maleeka gets teased.This book connects to me because i know alot of people who gets teased because of their skin,how they live and something they cant change.I would recommend this book to people who like realistic drama because this book has drama & it can connect to people lives in many different ways.

Looking For Alaska - Sunyyah

Looking For Alaska, another one of John Green's best selling novels, is about a high school student, Miles Halter, who is tired of his secure and safe life at home. He decides to transfer to boarding school called Culver Creek to discover, in his own way, what a dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." When in his departure, he stumbles up on a clever, mysterious, hilarious and daring girl named Alaska Young, who Miles fell deeply in love with. Although, Alaska commits suicide in a car crash, just to propel Miles Halter to enter inside the labyrinth which is of Alaska's mind and life to show him what the Great Perhaps is. I thought this was a very well thought out book and did give a little plot twist in the middle of the book, where it transfers from Miles Halter having to discover his wants and needs to having to figure out what Alaska wanted and needed.

This book is very much connected to John Green's other best selling novel, Paper Towns. Paper Towns and Looking For Alaska had similar connections because they were both about a boy in high school who falls in love with a mysterious, ingenious and daring girl. With that in mind, the girl travels a far distance away from the boy (although Alaska's travel was in death). The boy, while uncovering the mystery to their ways, unlocks something about themselves, as well as something about the girl in which they never knew about. I would definitely recommend this book to people who are compelled to mystery and adventure books, while also keeping in mind about metaphors and clues.

    

The girl on the train by Emani Rivera

The girl on the train is mostly about a girl who is a  alcoholic and when she gets drunk or when she drinks she gets really violent. It's also about how she got on a train to go to London and out of know where she stops in her old neighborhood and goes take care business and when she gets gets back on train it makes a unexpected turn.

 this book doesn't really remind me of anything or connect to any of my life  but I like this book because it's a mysterious book and has crime in it.I recommend people that loves and mysterious books and that loves crime books.

Middle school the worst years of my life by Emani rivera

In the book "middle school the worst years of my life" was mostly about a boy named rafe who starts middle school but his middle school was no ordinary middle school. He thought his middle school as a prison that you can not escape. Rafe came up with an idea to break every rule in his school oppressive code. (This setting took place in a school)


This book connects to the world because lots of people started middle school and thought it will be so hard and the worst years of there lives but to find out middle school isn't so bad when you give it a chance. I would recommend this book to people who loves complex characters or who loves sci fi 

For Boys Only! Review

After reading two graphic novels this summer, I decided to read a Non-Fiction book called "For Boys Only!" which is a Book that teaches children about the world outside of academics by two authors but the names of Marc Aronson `and HP Newquist. In this book you can learn many cool and new things that may even save your life one day. For example, after reading this book I now know how to land an airplane and emergency which is done by leveling the Plane and it's wings with the Horizon and then pressing a button on the steering wheel to let an Air-Traffic controller that your situation is Mayday. It also taught me how to escape from being tied up, how to find fingerprints, and how to escape from quicksand. But that's not all, because of this book I can now name the 5 most Venomous snakes off the top of my head: The Taipan, Black Mamba, Common Krait, Australian Brown Snake, and Russell's Viper.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading this book. It taught me a lot of new things that could get me out of a real pinch one day. I suggest this book to people that are adventurous and like to learn about the outside world (Animals, Technology, Sports etc.). It will expand your knowledge of these things massively. However, if you like Academics as your only form of learning or if you're not so adventurous then I do not suggest you read this book. Thank you for reading this review and I hope you pick this book off the shelf one day.

Shaman King (Volume 13) Review

Another Manga that I have read this summer other than "Attack On Titan" was "Shaman King", a strange yet interesting series written by Hiroyuki Takei. In Hiroyuki's world of "Shaman King" ghosts are stuff of fiction according to most people however to Shamans like Yoh Asakura, who  is 13 years old at the beginning of the series and a normal sized young man at 5'3" he also has neck length dark brown hair and he is constantly seen wearing a pair of orange headphones behind or on his ears and Tao Ren, was shorter than Yoh and most of his friends but he seems to look taller when the length of the tip of the spike in his hair is added up. This spike is a part of his hairstyle called an "tongari". He is relatively thin, and his spiked hair is a shade color of dark purple. Ren's eyes were golden yellow in the anime, however in the manga colored pages, they usually appear gold, brown or the same color as his haircolor, they are powerful companions that get the job of protecting the innocent done right. However, to keep the world from plummeting into chaos, the few modern-day Shamans that there are must keep their powers a secret. However, Yoh's Secret is discovered by Manta, who has short sandy-brown hair and large eyes. Throughout the manga he is usually shown wearing his school uniform - green pants, running shoes, white dress shirt and tie. His casual outfit consists of white shorts, and a blue hoodie with white angel wings on the back and a halo on the hood. Also, he usually has his laptop with him. And he is by far the shortest of the group, measuring in at 2'7". But after meeting Yoh it turns out that he can also see ghosts and later on helps Yoh find his Spirit Ally, Amidamaru, a 600 Year Old Samurai nicknamed the fiend for his legendary one-night slaughter fest. Yoh then channels Amidamaru in order to defeat a thug who had bullied Manta named Ryu, a very muscular man with a very unique appearance. He usually wears exaggerated 1970's fashion: white suit while wearing a purple shirt with over sized collars, cuffs and lapels, while wearing a pair white pointy shoes. He has an exaggerated goatee that ends in an spike and sideburns that also ends in a spike. 3 years after this encounter, Yoh is at the sight of the Shaman fight, preparing compete for the title of Shaman King along with Ryu, Ren, and a Shaman from the mountains named Horohoro, who is a tall boy. He is most commonly seen wearing a white and blue skiing outfit, dark blue shorts and skiing shoes that can be attached to his snowboard. He has long light sky blue hair that when tied together with his head band, that has Ainu styled patterns on them, sticks up in spikes. As they all prepare to compete it turns out that Yoh and Ren who have decided to be team leaders for the Shaman fight, need a third teammate. Luckily for Ren a boy named Chocolove who is an African American boy of average height and he always has his hair in an Afro. He wears an African wrap on the lower half of his body, an open white dress shirt and cloth boots as his street clothes. His battle outfit is a yellow native dress with red and green patterns and a black open vest. The dress and the accessories were all from a tribe in South America and was given to Chocolove by his master Orona. However Yoh's third member by force is his former enemy Faust VII, who  has discolored lips and permanent bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. He is also extremely thin due to malnutrition. Along with his height, these lend him an intimidating presence. Another very noticeable trait is the different color skin sutured onto his chest and torso. This doesn't appear to inconvenience him in any way, but, only makes him look scary. Shortly after, the Shaman fights start with Ren's team stepping up first. And that's where Volume 13 ends. I believe that this connects to different  religious texts as the main characters deal with different spirits and strive to be compatible with the Great Spirit, a.k.a. God. I suggest this to people who love action, ghost stories, ghosts themselves, or suspense. If you hate any of these things however, I do not suggest reading this series. And as always, start at Volume 1 so you are not lost.

Middle school the worst years of my life by James Patterson

The book middle school the worst years of my life talks about a boy name Rafe who goes to the weirdest middle school of his life and he thinks its like a prison that you can't escape from.He also has a best friend and a girlfriend who are the only people that make his world calm not crazy or insane like his teachers and the rest  of the staff and also the police.People are very weird in this school and the point of the book is Rafe is trying to survive the middle school by using his imagination.
Rafe gets arrested and he loses his friends over this book I don't want to spoil this for you guys to read
This book is guide about how the middle school feels for you or for Rafe himself.this book is a good book to read and there is more of James Patterson's book of middle school.

Attack On Titan (Volume 3) Review

Attack On Titan (Volume 3) Review

This Summer I decided to read the "Attack On Titan" series, an Action/Horror hit in the world of anime and pretty much Japan's answer to our very own "Walking Dead". "Attack On Titan" was written by Hajime Isayama, a now highly praised Manga author because of this series. "Attack On Titan" has a very intense yet simple plot about the survival of the human race and their struggle against the Titans, which are Giant humanoid, skinless creatures who prey on, you guessed it, humans and they made their first move a hundred years ago. They can range from 3 to a whopping 60 meters which is basically as tall as the Swedish building, the Twisted Torso!  [ http://www.peri.com/files/jpg1/Turning-Torso-PERI-01.jpg ]  However the human race didn't know this and thought it was only 3 to 15 meters. This would play a part in why the humans weren't protected like they should've been. 
Anyway, to "protect" themselves from these beasts, the humans built the walls. The Walls are large structures that surround the territory where the remnants of humanity live, and protect them from the Titans that rule the world outside. They were built more than a century ago, when humanity was brought to the edge of extinction at the hand of the Titans. The Titans have, however, gotten through the outermost wall, "Wall Maria" with the help of the largest titan who was, as mentioned before, 60 meters tall. They then destroyed the city located within which was the hometown of the three main characters, Eren, a young man of average height and build. He has a fairly long, yet rounded face, and sizable, expressive grey eyes (teal-green in the anime). His eyebrows are sparse and often furrowed, making him seem troubled or annoyed while his hair is short and black (dark brown in the anime), with his bangs falling naturally into a middle-parted curtain-type style. His complexion also seems somewhat more tan in comparison to other characters and his training and during his time as a soldier, he becomes very physically fit and muscular, often unseen through his baggy clothing, Mikasa, who is physically fit and has chin-length black hair. Originally, she wore her hair longer, but cut it short at Eren's suggestion. Mikasa is of Asian heritage, with an average height, pale skin and calm, black eyes. In the anime, however, her eye color is not consistent and often varies, depending on the light and surroundings. Her body has been depicted as extremely well-toned, with little, if any, in the way of body fat and muscles lined throughout her arms, legs, and abs. Mikasa also has a small scar below her right eye, which she received after Eren (in his Titan Form) unknowingly attempted to kill her.and Armin, who is rather short for his age with a small build. Armin has a round face, framed by his blond hair, with large, expressive blue-eyes and a pudgy nose. In his childhood, Armin wore a long-sleeved single-buttoned jacket with a collared shirt, long dress-pants and dress shoes. Back to the story, this attack forced the people of the outer city to move inwards to the city behind the second wall, "Wall Rose". Five years later, "Wall Rose" was brought down by the same Titan who had taken down "Wall Maria" and it was up to Eren, Mikasa, and Armin, to stop them especially since they were now soldiers who planned to be a part of the highest ranking army, the Survey Corps, responsible for handling all Titan threats both inside and outside the walls. However, before Eren can make this dream come true, he is eaten by a titan, dying the same way his mother did. As his best friend, Armin looks on and weeps, a Titan emerges from the same Titan Eren was eaten by. Strangely this Titan likes killing all other titans. And in Eren's mind all he can think about is "Kill...I'll Kill them all!!" and that's where Volume 3 starts. Eren wakes up, completely healed after being eaten and is surrounded by Soldiers with Mikasa and Armin to protect him. After remembering a moment where his Father gave him a shot that gave him the power to turn into a Titan, it puts Eren at a dilemma. As the soldiers continue to press him about whether he is human or Titan he struggles with the Answer but eventually responds with human. The soldiers decide to kill him anyway, shooting a cannonball at our heroic trio. However, Eren turns into a titan at the last minute blocking the object. This leaves the crowd of soldiers in shock making them want to kill Eren even more. Then, Commander Pixis appears saving the main Characters from death caused by their own kind. He then tells Eren about lifting a huge boulder in his titan form in order to plug up the giant hole in "Wall Rose" which would save the Human Race from extinction. The trio decides to carry out the plan and Eren attempts to lift the boulder. But, he loses control and attacks Mikasa who dodges the blow thrown by the 15 meter Titan Eren had turned into. Afterwards he hurts himself in an attempt to attack Mikasa once more. He then shuts down so to speak and that's where Volume 3 ends. This connects to various Zombie Apocalypse stories as it is a story about humans struggling to survive and take back the Planet they call home. I find this volume to be the best so far especially since I absolutely love Plot Twists and this book was filled with them. I mean, come on, the guy who HATES titans turns into one but kills other Titans even if they are the same species, but when he uses the power once more he ends up doing what the creatures he hates so deeply do on a daily which is attacking mankind? It can't get much better than that and I recommend this to a person who also loves Plot Twist and Suspense. And if you like to see giants fighting or even fighting and general, then I recommend this. Also if you like Dark Stories or Zombies you should check this out. However if you like light-hearted stories then I suggest you steer clear along with people who don't like blood and gore. Overall, Attack On Titan was a great read and if you are one of the people I suggested this to then read this series ASAP. But start from Volume 1. Otherwise you may be lost.

FanGirl - Faye Arranz

Faye Arranz                                                                                                         August 10, 2015

                                         FanGirl

                When looking at FanGirl by Rainbow Rowell, on the shelves of the pitiful book section in Target I really didn't know what to expect. I had recognized the author from a previous book that I had read and I noticed the book in our intricate library at school and I thought why not give it a shot! I had to read something and the books from my public library weren't really meeting my expectations. So once I bought the book and walked back to my house I had cracked open the book. It had begun with the author immediately pulling in the reader into the crazy circus with nothing but ciaos. The ring leader of this circus was Cather. A quiet nerd for Simon Snow, a girl who'd prefer typing away on her lousy laptop on FanFixx.net as the amazing MagiCath, than go out partying unlike her very close and very similar twin sister. While Cath's sister, Wren, is off going to frat party's with her roommate Courtney and getting drunk, Cath sits in her small dorm room while her own roommate, Reagen, is either off somewhere getting drunk or in the dorm with Cath, getting ready to go out. Reagen would sometimes wander to places with her best friend, Levi, a man who would give a smile to everyone who entered his peripheral view. Cath seemed to be slowly fallen in love with Levi and without realizing it, Levi was falling in love with Cath. They had never ceased a day where they didn't hang out. After Levi's smiled filled Starbucks shift had ended, he returned to Cath, returning to his princess as the knight in shining armor. But sadly, while Cath was living the dream with Levi, her dad and her sister weren't doing so well. Cath's dad seemed to be going on the crazy side when they left for college. He ate junk food, locked himself in his office and hadn't come out for days, and taped his ideas all over the living room walls. He needed her to push him to bed, make him healthy meals, there to make sure that he won't do anything he would regret. But Cath was to busy to worry about her father being able to live to see another day to talk to Wren, who was somewhere off with Courtney getting drunk, getting hit on guys, and stumbling to get another bottle of beer. With Cath's dad's health getting better, they decided that Wren's should too. Cath and her dad forced  Wren to quit  drinking and finally Cath and Wren were together with her health steady. Now everyone was radiant, no need to worry anymore.

                I think this would connect to young adults who are attending college. The life of going out to party, falling in love, and finding your purpose. To take the puzzle pieces and to be able to put them together to form something that will help you see your future. Anyway, I don't think any of the books I've read connect to this book. I've read books about love and college life but nothing really compared to this. Rainbow Rowell writes in a way that no one else does, so for me to think at 10 o'clock at night off the top of my head, again, I'd say I've never read a book that connected to this. But this book might connect to someone else in someway. I think it might connect to people who like stories about love and betrayal, but in a modern day twist. But hey, anyone could like it, maybe even the person we least expect. 

Animal Farm, by George Orwell (Griffin Bohan)

Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is a book about mistreated animals that rebel against their owner who abused them and gave them little food. One day their owner Jones forgot to feed them, and they got so hungry that they rebelled and scared off Jones and his assistants. The pigs Napoleon and Snowball were the smartest of all the animals and decided to take command. Everyone respected and followed them. But Snowball had more power than Napoleon, and Napoleon did not agree with most of Snowball’s decisions, so he scared Snowball away with a pack of angry dogs and took command. Napoleon was much more harsh than Snowball, he made them work much longer and harder with less food. He was becoming worse than Jones.

This book is based on the Russian communism. The animals represent different people, Snowball represents Trotsky, Napoleon represents Stalin, Boxer the horse represents the common worker, ETC. My favorite character is Boxer because I like his personality and how hard he works unlike the other lazy animals. I didn’t like it when Boxer died.  He died when he hurt his hoof when he was working, and Napoleon had him sent away to a glue farm.  Back then glue was made out of horse bones and hooves.

I thought the book Animal Farm was really good and I enjoyed many parts of it. Though some parts were a little confusing I was able to get what the book was about and what it was based on. Using animals in a farm setting helped me understand Russian dictatorship better than a history book.

Divergent - Sunyyah

Divergent, a best-selling novel by Veronica Roth, is a book about a girl named Beatrice Prior (also referred to as "Tris" throughout the story) lives in a utopia, which a society ruled over by the government, is divided into five factions. In this society, each individual entering into adulthood must take a test that indicated what faction they belong in, and the individual will then decide what faction to commit to for the rest of their life. Tris, however, after taking the test, gets inconclusive results, saying that she meets the requirements for three factions, considering that she is Divergent and she does not fit into one specific faction, and is a danger to society. So on the day of the Choosing Ceremony (which is when the individual decides upon what faction he or she will commit to) Tris chooses Dauntless -- the faction that pursues bravery as the top focus. Although, initiation leads to the point that she will be uncovered as Divergent. After multiple warning and red flags, Tris unearths a raging war which threatens her family and her safety as a Divergent.

This book relates to our society now kind of, because it shows basically how both societies strive for perfection, but people also have disagreements, which causes difficulty and a lot of debate and in some occasions, fights and protests. I would recommend this book to people who love futuristic topics, plus with a hint of fantasy. 

Paper Towns - Sunyyah

Paper Towns, by far, is a wonderful book. I found it very amusing (suggesting that for me, personally, I am an extreme fan of mystery and adventure, which has been included both into the context), and I personally find most of John Green's work genius. Paper Towns is a romantic novel (which executes part of the idea, to me, to find what your heart wants, and also the saying "don't judge a book by its cover") about a boy named Quentin who, as a kid, had a neighbor who moved next door to his house named Margo Roth Spiegelman, a girl who challenges the unknown and is a fanatic for adventure, who Q adores. As they were young, they spent many days together. As they got older, though, they evolved from friends to acquaintances. One school night though, while Q was asleep, Margo slipped open his bedroom window, suited as a ninja, asking Q to help her implement a well thought-out and clever quest for revenge, which Q ended up agreeing to. After the revengeful night ends, Q suspects that the next day during school that things will be different between Margo and him. Suddenly, as the following day of school arrives, Margo disappeared, and with her disappearance she leaves clues of where she possibly is -- just for Q. So Q and his friends, Radar, Ben, and later on, Lacey, go on a frantic quest to discover where Margo has hid. Yet the closer Q gets to unraveling the mystery, the more Q begins to realize that there's another hidden side to Margo that leaves Q questioning who she really is.

This book is relatively similar to John Green's other best-selling book, Looking For Alaska, which has the similar connection to mystery and adventure, with a boy who's deeply enamored with a girl who loves adventure and plots revenge on some schoolmates. Although in Looking For Alaska, the girl later ends up killing herself in a car crash. Both Paper Towns and Looking For Alaska support the idea of a boy and his friend deciding to figure out the backstory behind the girl's mystery. As you can compare, they both have multiple similarities. The two books also have very detailed resemblances, such as metaphors highlighted in books that explain fragments of their mystery. The only big difference is that Looking For Alaska has a lot more explicit content. Although I love Paper Towns a lot, it is not placed highly on the top of my list of book recommendations if the reader has already read Looking For Alaska. It sort of leaves me with a bit of a resent to the two books also, because not only do they share very similar factors, but it also is written by the same author, so by reading the two books it leaves me uninterested because they are practically the same book. Except in the lives of different characters and with different titles. Though I would at least recommend Paper Towns to a reader who is very engaged in mystery and adventure, with the interest of metaphors too.
  

Warriors Don't Cry - Sunyyah

One of the books, which I have finished reading, is called Warriors Don't Cry written by Melba Pattillo Beal in her point of view of her Little Rock 9 integration experience. This book was very touching and was very much difficult to read without disgusted or angry or joyous for the successions made. The book is about Melba and the Little Rock 9 journey from 1954-58 through racism in a Southern high school in Little Rock, Arkansas called Central High after a Supreme Court ruling, which is considered the Brown v. Board of Education. The ruling then determined that any African-American student of Little Rock, Arkansas, was allowed to participate in integrating Central High, which Melba and 9 other students participated in. Though there was many struggled, such as physical, emotional and mental abuse. Also, for Melba, it required losing many friends, phone call threats and being isolated in her own home. Though with the struggles came successes, such as many people from around the world sending letters and phone calls of hope and support, convincing Governor Faubus to continue integrating Central High, and enemies becoming protectors and friends. Though the book was mainly about the author's experience, she was nowhere near biased. She included the bi-racial crowd of reporters, the mob, the 101st guards (sent from the military to protect the African-American students), the teachers, the other 8 African-American students of the Little Rock 9, her friends, her family, neighbors, and many more while including each individual group's intentions.

This book definitely connects to the world as it was in the past and in the present, for it shows how racism had overcome. It also defines that improvement can definitely be made in a positive way. Also, it comes to show how racism is not tolerated at all in this world than it was in 1954-58 and how it impacts how lives. When reading about Melba's life as a Little Rock integrator, it really made me think that she was part of the reason why Caucasians and African-Americans can interact with each other respectfully and freely. This comes to show that her actions take a big role in my life. I would surely recommend this book to people who would love to be historians as a career or just love researching the past and history overall, because this book has a good chunk of history, and better yet, it's told from someone's first-hand experience, so you know this book is credible.

Eleanor— Paper Towns by John Green

Eleanor Loprest
3rd August 2015

Yes, fangirls, Paper Towns is the only John Green book I have ever read, and right off the bat, I didn't think it was all that great. I mean, it was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. Lately, I've been getting more into YA realistic fiction (which I used to hate with a passion due to the genre's tendency to incorporate tragic romance whenever possible), and I've definitely read better. This one showed a bit of that unfortunate classic incorporation, but I'll write a review about it anyway. For anyone who hasn't read it, the book follows a teenaged boy named Quentin, who lives next door to an adventurous girl called Margo Roth Spiegelman and has had a crush on her for as long as he can remember. Though the two don't interact much, one night, Margo climbs through Q's bedroom window into his life, dressed like a ninja and armed with a complex, night-long revenge plan she needs Q's help to execute. When he returns to school the next day, Quentin expects things to be different between him and Margo, only to discover that she has vanished, leaving a trail of clues for Q to follow. As he delves deeper into the mystery of Margo's disappearance, Q's image of Margo is shattered, and he realizes he doesn't know anything about this enigma of a girl.

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't read Paper Towns, STOP READING NOW. I do not want to be responsible for ruining the story for you. Please, work with me here. Also stop reading if you haven't read, and want to read, the adult book The Round House by Louise Erdrich.

During one part of the book, when the car Q and friends are driving to go find Margo nearly crashes into a cow, I was terrified for a second that the kids would all die and the story would be over. This may seem completely illogical, but it is an idea planted in my head by a moment in a book of my aunt's that I read the end of, The Round House by Louise Erdrich. In the end of this book, a teen and his friends, who are driving a car on a trip, crash. Some of the children are hospitalized, and some die. Then the book ends. So you can understand my concern when I connected the two moments.

While I didn't like Paper Towns all that much, I might recommend it to people who enjoy following the clues in a story along with the characters, although I fit that description, and unless you've skipped every other line reading this review, I'm sure you know I don't like it much. However, I would definitely recommend Paper Towns to any poetic spirit who really likes to philosophize about human nature, metaphors about which come up several times in the story, expressing different ideas. Even if you think the story is boring, the metaphors will hold your interest.

6.5/10

Thanks for Reading!

—E. Loprest

Eleanor— The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg

Eleanor Loprest
3rd August 2015

The View from Saturday is an incredible novel by the amazing E. L. Konigsburg. Sales pitch: it won the 1997 Newbery Medal (the second Newbery for Konigsburg, who also won it for her acclaimed book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler). The story follows in the footsteps of four very different 6th-graders living in the small town of Epiphany, New York, all of whom are linked together in ways that make you think about how small the world really is. The children become a group of friends who call themselves The Souls, and then, as a team, win the academic bowl state championship for their school. The book is really made up of four short stories in chronological order, with one section from the perspective of each of the four Souls, interspersed with  non-chronological moments from the perspective of their teacher, Mrs Olinski. Each of the Souls' stories is told in first-person narration, and their outlooks and ways of talking vary greatly, showcasing Konigsburg's great range as a storyteller.

Every time I reread this book, I am reminded of a connection to my own life— my great desire for my school to have an academic bowl team. I honestly would not care if I was the only one who wanted to do it— I still would, even if there was no one else. For this reason, I would recommend The View from Saturday to academic bookworms— children who fit this description like myself will connect with the precocious cast of characters and enjoy trying to solve the academic bowl questions scattered throughout the story (and listed in full in the back of the book) alongside the characters. Warning: Noah may make you feel stupid! In addition, I would of course recommend this to any fan of Konigsburg's books— The View from Saturday is a jewel in the crown that is her works. I truly love this book. <3

10/10

Thanks for Reading!

—E. Loprest

Eleanor— Frindle by Andrew Clements

Eleanor Loprest
3rd August 2015

DISCLAIMER: Frindle is way, way below the average 7th grade reading level, but I felt like writing about it.

Frindle a book by the so-called "school story" author Andrew Clements, is a short book with large type, miles below my reading level. However, I still enjoyed rereading it. The story is about an outspoken young boy named Nicholas, who uses his considerable creativity to bother his teachers— until one of them, the uptight Mrs Granger, tries to end his shenanigans. She forces Nick to write an essay about the origin of words, which results in his learning that people basically make them up. This makes him wonder if he could create his own word. And so the 'frindle' is born— a word his classmates, led by Nick, use in place of the word 'pen.'  Mrs Granger is furious about the new word— but it is spreading across the nation, and there's nothing Nick can do to stop it.

The etymology-centered premise of Frindle reminds me of a particular scene in a favorite book of mine, E. L. Konigsburg's The View from Saturday (which I reread immediately after finishing Frindle). In this scene, a character is asked to name acronyms that have entered our everyday speech as words, and names the examples 'posh' and 'tip.' This resembled Frindle to me in that the two books both discuss ways in which the English language has formed and changed over time due to the words created by normal people. I find this concept fascinating. I would recommend Frindle, not to anyone my own age, but to any inquisitive 3rd-to-5th-grader who wants to learn about an interesting language arts concept through an entertaining fictional tale. If you know a kid like that, suggest it to them!

7/10

Thanks for Reading!
(Again, both this recommendation and in general :) )

—E. Loprest