Delirium

  Love is a disease. Or at least in Lauren Oliver's Delirium it is. Delirium is a post apocalyptic, teen romance, dystopian, science fiction adventure. Wow! Now try saying that five times fast! In this book, Lena, the main character, is rebelling against the government, even if she doesn't in the beginning. She's in a world that everyone gets cured of amor deliria nervosa, or love.  She is terrified of the disease, because it is what killed her mother.
     Lena is counting down the days until it's her turn to get cured. She is trying to avoid the disease at all costs, until she meets Alex. This smart, nice, and most importantly CURED boy begins to capture Lena's attention. She keeps telling herself that what happened to her mother can’t happen to her, Alex is safe, Alex is cured. As time goes on, she begins seeing symptoms of the disease, but she doesn't think much of it. Then she finds out that Alex lied about being cured. Her mind tries to process this information, but she can’t take it in.  And there’s a good reason she doesn’t want to accept the consequence. She's in love. She's caught the disease, but now, she wants the disease. 
     This story held my interest throughout the entire book. It had a feeling like you were her thoughts, as if your were there firsthand when everything happened. Oliver was able to do something many books can’t, and that’s weave together multiple plots. If you look deeper into this extraordinary piece of literature, you find some amazing things. Of course, you see that love is a disease, and that she’s caught it. But you also see her struggle because her mother isn’t there, and then on top of that she is having trouble with her best friend, who is also rebelling. And then, an essential part of all teen books, you have her love life. Which, by the way, isn’t supposed to exist. It’s amazing how some authors can weave a web like this.
This book is similar to Uglies, another teen book. Both books express that some part of human nature is wrong. In Delirium, it is that they fall in love, while in Uglies, it’s the way that humans look. Lena and Tally, who is the heroine of Uglies, both want to be "fixed." They both want to fit in to society, start the perfect section of their life. The thing is, both have something happen that widens their perspective.  Lena and Tally both want to learn more, and neither of them want to go back.
     I think everyone should read this book. It makes you wonder, a little, what could happen to our world in the future. Is something truly wrong with simply humans? Lauren Oliver has created a wonderful book, which is to be part of a three book series. This book can appeal to everyone, because, as mentioned before, it fits in almost every category! Delirium is fascinating, because you watch as this girl goes against everything she's been taught, even though she has no idea what her future holds. A. 

Arcade Catastrophe  the sequel to the Candy Shoppe War  is written by Brandon Mull. These books are fictional story's in which four kids find out the truth about a newly opened candy shop. They find out that the owner of the shop is part of a world of magicians, and tells about all the adventures they have in this secret society.
 In this particular book they find out that an evil magician is running an Arcade and the leader of the magic world has been captured by this man. So these four children set out to try and find a way into the Arcade to save their friends. With their magical powers they try to sabotage this magicians lair and break their close friends out of the prison they are held in.
This is a creative and interesting book because of the wide variety of magical powers and how you get them. For example, in the first book the main character was being bullied every day for his lunch. So one day the candy shop owner gave him a candy that would make the bully vomit root beer for 5 minutes. There are also candies that reduce your gravity, make you invincible, give you the ability to shock others, and one that enhances all of your 5 senses. This book has made me think of all those weird mysterious people you see on the street and how they could secretly be a magician or have powers of some sort.
I freaking loved this book because it kept me interested the whole time, and it has a wide variety of everything in it. This book defiantly deserves an A.

Entwined

This book, Entwined, is about 12 princess who lost their mother. Because of this, they have to have a mourning at their house. A mourning is when they close all of the curtains and dye all of their dresses black. But the worse part is that the girls can't dance during the mourning. Plus, their father isn't very nice to them. He always has his office door shut and never goes in to tell them goodnight. One day he decides to go fight in a war, which makes the girls even more upset. Not only did he ignore them, now he has left them as well.

During the time their father is gone Azalea, the oldest sister finds a secret passage. In this passage there is a room decorated with trees and bushes and a pond with a bridge. In the middle of the room there is a dance floor. The person that is the "host" of the dance place is called Keeper. Every night the girls go down and dance until they are too tired to dance any more. The problem with the Keeper is that he likes to keep things. As time goes on the girls start to notice that he is rude and not as inviting as he once seemed.

Before their father came home from war Azalea made the other girls swear on silver, which is a very powerful oath. Swearing on silver means that after you have taken the oath, when you try to tell someone about the secret you start to get dizzy and faint. So swearing on silver is a pretty big deal. They swore to never tell their father about the Keeper and dancing at night, especially since they aren't suppose to be dancing during the mourning. The girls continue to act normal as if nothing was different. However, the girls started to be late to their lessons because they stayed up so late dancing. Their father keeps on questioning them about their late arrivals to their lessons and as time goes on their father soon finds out why they are late to the lessons.

I thought this book was very entertaining along with it had a hint of mystery in it. I wasn't too sure about this book at first. So if you read this book you might have to read a couple of chapters before you can officially decide if you like it. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that enjoys fantasy fiction. The girls with probably enjoy this book more, but I guess if this sounds entertaining to the boys go for it.

The author expresses some opinions in this book. For example, she writes about how having a death in a family can be really hard. However, to help deal with the death you could dance like the girls did. I agree that dancing, playing sports or other activities can help you deal with a death that has happened in your family. I also agree with her when she writes about how hard it is to live with a father that isn't very kind and doesn't want to talk to you. Dancing also helps the girls deal with their father. Overall I think the author says if you are having a hard time, go do something that you enjoy to help you overcome it.

I enjoyed the book because it was entertaining, it had mystery in it, and I learned things from it.I defintely would read this book again. I would highly recommend to those who enjoy fantasy fiction, I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a good book. So go check out this book and start reading it! A

I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I want to be your Class President By Josh Lieb

     I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I want to be your Class President is written by Josh Lieb, and it tells a story of a seventh grader who quite literally has it all. He has money, in fact he is the third richest man in the world, but nobody knows it. The only thing he really doesn't have is a loving father (fame is overrated). Then, the elections for the student government come up. Staying in character as the dumb weirdo, he declines the nomination, but later tries to win in order to upstage his dad.
    I really love this book and give it an "A." It is a fictional book, that is also comedy, and slightly political. I would recommend it to anyone that likes comedy. It does swear around two times, but is not very serious.

Worlds of the Crystal Moon, Worlds of Grayham

Worlds of the Crystal Moon, Worlds of Grayham

     Worlds of the Crystal Moon, Worlds of Grayham was written by Phillip E. Jones, With a very strange idea in mind. First, this book was re-written and now this book is now very rare to find. You are a spirit that was killed in a great war. A spirit explains to you the whole beginning. You start off with the 3 main characters, Sam, Shalee and George, who are living in earth and have regular lives. A demon takes their souls and brings them to Grayham to retrieve the crystal moon, and so the adventure begins!

    This book is a very well done. Even though it is not done, the book is very amazing for action lovers. If I had to choose between Hunger Games or this book, I think that this book would have more action. The characters were even very well thought. Each one of the books come with a picture of the characters in a 

3-D model. I had personally met the author and he had told me how he had thought up of this book. One day he had woken up from a very re-occuring dream. So one night while waking up from the nightmare, he had tried to write it all down. That is when he had found out that he was dreaming of a place he had called Grayham. In my opinion, this book is quite action packed. I have never read a book that had kept me going and it still is! By the way, this book is pretty graphic, so make sure you are used to that.

Open By: Andre Agassi

This amazing autobiography by Andre Agassi is a fascinating and inspiring book that will keep the reader from putting it down.  It starts off with Andre being a seven year old little boy wanting to do what all other little boys do.  Although he wants that, his father wants him to do nothing but tennis.  His father has his whole life mapped out.  The map is titled Tennis.
   As he grows up he does nothing but tennis.  His father is so determined at getting Andre to be a professional tennis player that they grow apart.  When Andre turns into a teenager his father sends him off to a tennis boarding school so that he can play more tennis with other amazing tennis players.  While at the school Andre turns into a very rebellious kid who doesn't want to do anything the adults say.  He quits school and starts to just play tennis twenty-four seven.  Although, he hates tennis he keeps pushing and finally becomes a well known tennis professional all over the world at age twenty-two.  He finally becomes number one in the world, and one of the best tennis players ever to play the game.  Most of all, he learned to love the game of tennis.
   I loved everything about this book.  It had so many inspiring stories about his life and his trials he went through to become the greatest tennis player he could.  I am not such a good reader and, books aren't really interesting to me, but this book was impossible to put down.  Although, the book does have some bad language, if that will bother you don't read it.  I think he wrote this book to show that it takes hard work to get to where we want to be in life, but the work is worth it even though we face many difficult challenges.
  In conclusion, this is a wonderful book for many people.  It will inspire you to work hard in life and strive to do your best.  I promise you that you will not want to put this book down!
 

The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
 
fiction, adventure, lotr

The hobbit is a story about hobbits. Hobbits are strange folk who stand about half the height of men and can eat twice as much as a full grown man does (They have six meals a day). Hobbits are quiet folk and they dont like it when people "disturb the peace".They live in a place called The Shire a beautiful green place. This story is about one hobbit by the name of bilbo baggins who lived peacefully in his home of Bag End. One day he had very unnexpected visitors in his quiet home. A group of 13 homeless dwarves and a wizard named Gandalf showed up one day expecting him to fill in the role of "burgular". Bilbo was eventually brought into a quest where he had to face goblins, Giant spiders and much more fearsome things as he travelled with his company of dwarves and wizard (who quite often just left without saying a word) to the dwarves old place of residence, The Lonely Mountain to try to reclaim the dwarves stolen gold from the great dragon Smaug. Along the way him and his company get a lot of help from unnexpected friends and also face many unnexpected enemies. I think that this is probably one of the best books written in the history of the earth. I have read the Percy Jackson books and have enjoyed them but they dont come in comparision to this book. This book is a very interesting book and I have really enjoyed it. I have always really liked Lord of the rings and related content but now that I have read the book I like it even more. A++

The Goose Girl

Written by Shannon Hale

               Do you love princesses, animals, romance, treason, betrayal? Then the Goose Girl is the perfect book for you.  Anidori is the Crown Princess of Kilendree, and has the gift of animal speaking.  When her  father is killed, her mother announces that her little brother will take the crown instead of her.  Her mother sends her to the neighboring land of Bayern, to marry the young prince.  But on the way, she is betrayed, and has to walk to Bayern on her own,  and there makes new friends and has many adventures.  Enna and Razo are as true of friends as any, and help her out of many situations. When she meets Geric, the guard to the young prince, she secretly falls in love with him, but their love cannot be.

                I absolutely loved this book. It was exciting, fun, and hard to put down.  Shannon Hale writes in such a way that you feel like you have a personal relationship with all of the characters.  Unlike  J.K. Rowling, Hale doesn't use magic or wands in her stories.  She weaves animal, people, and nature speaking into her words and adventures.  I LOVE that!

             All in all, this was one of my favorite books.  This story is perfect for all those who love fantasy worlds, princesses, adventures, romance, and excitement.  I think that Shannon Hale has outdone herself with this book.  She writes so perfectly, it's amazing.

              There are three other books to the Books of Bayern;  Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born.  If you don't start with the Goose Girl thought, none of the others would make any sense. This book gets an A+ for sure. 

 

         Xenocide by Orson Scott Card is the third book in the Ender Games series. It is set in a foreign world called Lusitania. After the people of Lusitania rebel, the Starways congress (the universe's government)  sends a fleet to control the situation. Since Lusitania is so far away it will take them a couple of decades to reach it. Some of the people on Lusitania find out that the fleet is carrying a bomb that is called "the little doctor." The bomb has the power to completly blow up their planet. This is a very controversial decision, because of the piggies. The piggies are an alien life form that only live on Lusitania. So blowing up the planet would be genocide.

           The book focuses on a person living on Lusitania, Andrew Wiggin. Andrew has a one of a kind friend named Jane. Jane has the power to cut off all communications, therefore saving Lusitania. However, cutting off communications would kill Jane. Most of the book focuses on trying to think of a ways to save the lives of Jane and the piggies.
         
            I would rate this book a C+. It had hardly any action and didn't keep me entertained at all. The whole book probably could have been around 150 pages instead of 394 pages. Also a lot of the scenes didn't make sense. They talked a lot about "faster then light travel" and the universe in general. Here is an example of this "There's a space so universally adjacent to our space that philotes can pass into our space." This is how they talk in multiple scenes for paragraphs at a time. Not only does it get repetitive but it get's extremely boring.

           The only good part about this book is the last few chapters. These chapters do have some action and some twists, although the book ends suddenly and doesn't really explain much. I would only recommend this book to a friend that enjoys techie science fiction. This is one of those books that you have to push yourself to read the whole thing, and when you finally get to the end you realize that you shouldn't have wasted all that time reading a book you don't like. All in all this book was boring and hard to read, and I wouldn't recommend it to most people.

           

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

     Welcome to Middle Earth! The Hobbit is the prequel to the legendary trilogy of the Lord of the Rings. (By the way, it is now a movie which recently came out in December of 2012.) The Hobbit was published before the Lord of the Rings trilogy in 1937. Plus, in every angle of the book there is a completely an unexpected journey for our little hobbit: Bilbo Baggins. This unexpected journey in Middle Earth is overflowing with the most dangerous and exotic creatures imaginable. (Some in which are very stupid.)

     Bilbo Baggins takes upon the request of this adventure from the great wizard Gandalf the Grey, followed by the dwarf Throrin Oakenshed with his twelve other dwarf friends that are willing to do anything to take back the Lonely Mountain which was taken by the dragon Smaug. (That's all I'm going to say on that.) Unfortunately, there are many obstacles and dangers that lie ahead before them. Though they go through many problems, they always find a solution by, of course, Bilbo.

     I love this book and it has moved me in many ways. From chapters that make me want to be in it or stay out of it, I was pushed into it anyway. I love books as much as the next person (or hobbit, goblin, troll, etc) but I really dislike when books take forever to get to the story, luckily, this does not happen at all in The Hobbit. It just jumps right to the adventure, like a good book should. Though there are many parts that are hard to understand, keep reading anyway. I was actually shocked and somewhat upset how Tolkien made all of the dwarfs (maybe not Balin) turn their heads away from Bilbo thinking he was worthless and thought Gandalf was crazy to pick him. But then I was glad that Bilbo showed what he can do and that he is a worthless Burglar for the Company.

     The only thing that I would tell Tolkien to do before writing The Lord of the Rings would be to write more adventures that Bilbo goes on. It would have also been nice to know what happened to all the dwarfs after a bunch of stuff that I shall not speak of.

     If one was at the library (or bookstore) and saw this booking laying there. Pick it up and read it! You will not be sorry or regret it that you did read this. It is a truly amazing adventure through J.R.R. Tolkien's great, big, work of art.
   

Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George

    What is your favorite type of book? If you like princesses, spells and handsome princes this is the book for you! There is plenty of all these things and more. But, if you haven't read the first book, Princess of the Midnight Ball, you may want to start with that.
    Princess Poppy of Westfalin was chosen to travel to travel to Breton. Once there she stays with her cousins. Upon arriving she makes it clear she doesn't dance, due to the unpleasant circumstances sworn to silence. Shortly after her arrival, the house acquires a new maid, who has renamed herself Ellen.
    All Ellen ever does is mess up her chores. She scorches the ironing, wrinkles the bed, and dirties the laundry. Everything just seems to go wrong. Losing job after job, she ends up waiting on Poppy.

    As Poppy settles in she finds that a foreign prince has come to stay, Prince Christian. He seems quite taken with her and her outright, and occasionally rude mannerism. She attends a few balls but, unfortunately she cannot be persuaded to dance. Unseen but, not unnoticed Ellen also sets her sights on Christian also. While Poppy unknowingly gains Christian's love, Ellen turns to a creature she sees as her fairy godmother.  When, in reality this creature is known as the Corley. A witch looking to replace her lost goddaughter.
    Ellen unknowingly falls right into her trap, becoming the mysterious "Lady Ella" for every party, and serving as Ellen the rest of the time. The Corley, using magic and molten glass, ensnares Prince Christian while mimicking the gowns worn by Poppy and her cousin. Also ensnaring all the possible suitors, including the man Poppy's cousin wishes to marry. Racing to find a cure, Poppy finds one that just might work...


    This book is perfect for all those who love fantasy worlds with princesses and castles. This book is the best version of the Twelve Dancing Princesses and also what comes after the story. I loved this book, just as I love all of Jessica Day George's books, I think she has outdone herself with this series. The book was very well written with all the differing points of view shown.
    This book was very entertaining and I would encourage lots of people to read it. The plot line was clear cut and pleasant to follow. When you do read this book, make sure to have read the first one, recently. Don't expect your knowledge of the Twelve Dancing Princesses to get you by. The third and final book is out, so don't miss the grand finale, it is sure to be amazing! This book gets and A for sure.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

\    The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, is a prelude to the trilogy, The Lord of The Rings, and it is now a major motion picture. This fiction book takes place in Tolkien's world, Middle-Earth. It's a place filled with elves, hobbits, dwarves, humans, wizards, goblins, and more fantastic/ dangerous creatures. This story focuses on a simple hobbit named Bilbo, and his unexpected adventure.

    Bilbo Baggins is confronted by a wizard named Gandalf, a dwarf named Thorin Oakenshield who is the son of a dwarf-king, and 12 of his dwarf companions. They choose him to go with them on a dangerous adventure to take back the Lonely Mountain. This mountain was once a kingdom of dwarves, but a dragon named Smaug attacked it, sending the dwarves running. Bilbo finally agrees, and off they go on their adventure where they confront evil spiders, hundreds of goblins, un-housewarming elves, and more.

    This book was very entertaining, because it got right into the story and their adventure got more and more elaborate and exciting with each chapter. The suspense literally built up like a volcano, until it bursts.

     This book affected me because it helped me to realize that there's a bigger picture to things, and to try new things. Also, it helped me to realize that I need to live my life to the fullest, because someday, all that I have may be gone.

    I really love all of Tolkien's works and this book was easy to understand and follow along. I recommend this book to everyone, and if you read it, don't drop the book if it drags on. It really is an amazing book.

The Maze Runner By James Dashner

     

      The Maze Runner is the very first book in a series of three. This book has a very strong resemblance to the Hunger Games. It's about a very large group of boys have been encased for the last two years between four high walls of stone and beyond the walls a maze. Unsolved and from what they know it is not solvable and there is no way out. This book is about how the boys struggle to solve the maze and their final escape.
      It all starts in the dark of the box, which is how they new boys, are delivered to the glade with a boy named Thomas inside. The glade is what the boys (known as gladers) call the place they have been sent to. With no recollection of their former life other than their first names they have set out and created their own community. Where they are staying alive while trying to find a way out of their confinement. Thomas arrives just as the new gladers normally do they get there and a bunch of boys faces are what they see. Thomas is greeted and comes to find out that he isn't the only one who has no recollection of his life before and that he is now living in an encased piece of a maze. That just happens to be guarded by awful creatures known as Grievers that can't be beat...or so they think.
      After two years the gladers know when things happen and they know new gladers always come on the same day of the month at the same time...until today. It's been one day since Thomas arrived and there are never two new Gladers in a month until now. The gladers are all startled with the sound of an alarm going off letting them know that the box is coming up with a new Glader on board. So the gladers then make their way to the box to see what is going on. To much of their surprise there is a new Glader in the box but this time it's...a girl. There has never been a girl in the glade! And this is not just a girl but a girl that seems to be dead. They pull her up out of the box and she then comes to long enough to tell the Gladers that, "everything is going to change." This was no lie everything was going to change...
      This book is an amazing book. I am not really a reader but once I started reading this book I could not get myself to put it down! With every page turn there was more suspense you never know what is going to happen. From the strange happenings in the Glade to the escape of the thought to be an unsolvable maze they keep the suspense running high. And with its extreme resemblance to The Hunger Games with the way they are put into an "arena" of sorts because they live in a very askew society and it is practically a death sentence to sorts. With many obstacles they must pass to get out of the maze. This book is one you will pick up and not put down till you have finished it!

      


      

                                                              The Da Vinci Code 

     The Da Vinci Code is an excellent book written by Dan Brown. It is a mixture of a mystery as well as an adventure. The book is based on a heart-pounding quest for the Holy Grail. 
     It begins with the murder of the Louvre curator, Jaques Sauniere. Only he knows the truth of the Holy Grail, so in his last moments, he sets his grandaughter Sophie Neveu and symbologist Robert Langdon on an adventure by giving them clues written with his own blood. Unfortunately, Robert is the prime suspect for the murder, and he is not the only one looking for the Grail. Opus Dei is in trouble, and has sent the albino monk Silas to retrieve it, no matter what the costs may be.
    Robert and Sophie are being chased by the French Police, but they can't stop to explain Langdon's innocence because they are racing against Opus Dei to find the Grail. The quest was created by great minds, especially Da Vinci. The twosome find clues in historical pieces by this great artist and learn that the journey is based off of the ancient sacred feminine and the descendants of Jesus Christ.
     Sophie and Robert enlist the help of Sir Leigh Teabing, also a Grail historian, but Silas is not alone either. Bishop Aringarosa is also searching for the Grail for Opus Dei. Both are being instructed by a man known as "The Teacher." Time is running out for Robert and Sophie as they learn shocking truths and the risks only get bigger.
     I was very impressed with the author, because the codes are very complex, and often have double meanings. I was also surprised to find how informational the book was. Surprising information was brought forth from subjects spanning from religion and history to math and science. Although I disagreed with some of the religous ideas it brought up, I thought that the book was very interesting and full of surprises.
    I definitely believe that you should read this book. If you do, I suggest that you get the special illustrated edition. If not, then look up the pieces of art and places that are in the book to get a better look at important details. The Da Vinci Code by Dan brown is one of the best books ever written!

The Warrior Heir

     As a baby Jack had problems with his heart, and so the brilliant Dr. Jessamine swooped in and saved the day with a heart transplant... or so everyone thought. All jack was, was a normal  sixteen year old boy who loved soccer. The only things that set him apart from other kids were he had to take medicine every day and the scar from his surgery. One day though he forgets to take his medication and goes to soccer try outs. He feels fine the whole time, actually he felt more than just fine he felt great. He felt like he was stronger, faster, and more athletic than ever before. Everything was going great until he almost killed a kid when a blast of something that he says feels almost like lava coming out of his fingertips knocks the kid across the whole field.
     This is when the fun begins. His aunt Linda shows up and tells him and his friends that they have to go with her away from town. Soon the end up looking for an ancient magical sword used by his ancestors and people begin chasing them. As all of this is happening he finds out that he is a weirlind. A weirlind is a group of magical people who are hidden deep in modern people. Also he learns of the roses and how they are after him because he is one of the last warriors alive. Jack was not supposed to be a warrior though he was supposed to be a wizard, and that was were Jessamine came in. Weirlind have something called a weir stone which defines who they are but during jacks so called heart transplant he had his wizard stone replaced with a warrior stone. Throughout the book they meet new characters and are always on the run.
     The Warrior Heir is an exciting and fun book to read. Cinda Williams Chima has come up with a great story that takes place somewhere that may surprise you when you read it because all the magic and fantasy that takes place. This book was full of action, adventure, and even a little drama. The plot line is a lot like The Hobbit mashed with Harry potter and sprinkled with Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It is full of very real life situations and some not so real ones. This book was very easy to picture in my head which I loved. I loved this book because it was a great story line, it was not confusing and hard to follow along with like many fantasy books like it. Also because it was so well described it was like watching a movie in slow motion so that you notice every detail. They only problem I had with this book was the conclusion from this book to the next book in the series. So for these reasons I give The Warrior Heir an A.

                The book “Life in Miniature” by Linda Schlossberg is told from a 12 year old girl named Adie’s point of view. It is all about her life’s story. She has a sister names Miriam and her mother. They have no family support at all and her mother you could say was a little bit out of it or crazy. Adie has always been an outcast and the smallest in her grade she could probably pass as an 8 year old. She stands out but not so much in a good way. All while she is trying to deal with her difficulties of being different she is faced with a challenge that no one should ever have to face. Her mother claims that they are being stalked and starts moving the little family of 3 around. With all this moving and being left from their little friends that they had time to make Adie’s sister get caught up in underage drinking and drug abuse. Later leading her to run away, leaving only 12 year old Adie to fend for herself with her mother.

                It teaches a valuable lesson in life that many take for granted. That we may seem like we don’t have a perfect life but somewhere out there someone else has it worse. It shows us that things could be a lot crazier than what we think. And that if you know of someone that may be in trouble you should reach out to them. Also seeing how bad Adie is constantly feeling about herself it makes us want to reach out to those who may not be the “most popular” or may present to be an outcast. They may become your best friend like happens to Adie.

                I love this book because of all the lessons its shows and also the way that it puts everything in the point of view. It makes everything seem so real. It isn’t always perfect but it isn’t always a rainy day. This book makes a clear view that to get a rain bow you have to have a rain storm. Sometimes the rainstorms are worse than others but everything tends to work out accordingly. I rate this book an A. all of the twist of events that lead up to the story take your breath away at parts, make you cry and sometimes even laugh. I do warn though that this book does mention drugs and drinking on several occasions. Also has some vulgar language especially on page 60 in the book.

A Countess Below Stairs by: Eva Ibbotson

    Eva Ibbotson's A Countess Below Stairs was great! It's a historical fiction book that focuses on humility and kindness. It takes place in England/Russia after the Russian Revolution, so it does talk about war a lot.
    Anna, a young Russian countess, has just had her life changed. The Russian Revolution has left her family in poverty and she has no choice but to go to England. Once in England, Anna becomes a servant in the Westerholme residence. Anna hides her background and loyally serves the Westerholme family with only the knowledge an outdated housekeeping manual has given her. The countess soon finds out how difficult this job can be. Oh, and she is attracted to Rupert, the young engaged Westerholme earl. As Anna tries to faithfully serve Rupert and his horrid fiance, Muriel, she finds herself in situations that make it hard for her to keep her past a secret.
       She tries to keep her family a topic of unimportance. Her cousin is the chauffeur for another wealthy family, so nobody realizes she's a countess. She has another family problem though. Anna's brother doesn't know she's a housemaid. Anna tries her hardest to get over Rupert, because he's engaged. Muriel is a completely different problem. She cares about appearance more than anything and least of all cares about the faithful servants. Anna has to decide between staying for Rupert and leaving because of Muriel.
    This book was entertaining in many different ways. I thought the end was actually pretty funny. There are times through the book when it's more serious or even anticipative because of both Anna and Rupert's problems throughout the book. This book changed my opinion on historical fiction. I'm not going to lie, I saw the sticker on the spine and almost didn't check it out for that reason. I love Eva Ibbotson now, even if most of her books are historical fiction. This book taught me not to judge a book by its genre.
    The first chapter of this book was a little hard to get through, but after that it was just amazing. It had characters that I could connect to and an ending that I never would have predicted. There are a lot of big words, so you may need to keep a dictionary near by. A.

Catching Fire

    Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is young adult story takes place where the first book in the series The Hunger Games left off. In The Hunger Games Katniss and Peeta are sent to the games where they are forced to fight to the death among other tributes on television. Keep in mind the books in this series take place in future America, which is now called Panem. At the end of the games, there are only two tributes left, Katniss and Peeta. Both not wanting to kill the other, they pick up poisonous berries and are about to eat them at the same time, when the Capitol decides that there can be two victors. Therefore giving Peeta and Katniss the win.
     Catching Fire is about the consequences of Katniss and Peeta's decision to pick up the berries, which the President of Panem sees as an act of rebellion. After winning the games, Katniss gets to return to her family and longtime friend, Gale. Although things don't exactly pick up where the left off, because since the games Katniss and Peeta have to act like they are in love so they are not seen as rebels. The problem with that is, Gale and Katniss have feelings for each other too, causing a dramatic love triangle. To top that off other districts are beginning to rebel against the Capitol, and the reason for that is Katniss and Peeta. As a result, they have to convince everyone, including President Snow, that they are indeed in love or the consequences will not be good.
     Just like the first book, Catching Fire is very interesting and makes you want to keep turning the pages to see what happens next. There are a lot of twists and turns that the reader will not expect making it fun and exciting to read. The books in this series really make the reader think. It is an interesting idea, what will America be like in the future? It brings up issues like how much control the government should have, and clearly demonstrated in this book, no government should have this much control.
    This book is truly great. It is very fun to read, and I really enjoyed it. It was hard for me to put it down! I would recommend this book to anybody that hasn't read it yet. I give it a solid A. But before you read this book though, make sure you have read the first one, not just see the movie, or you will probably be confused.  

     I'll Find You, by Clair M. Poulson is a fantastic fiction book about two best friends that were separated and tells how they try to find each other once again.

     It all started on a sunny summer day when Jeri Satch and Rusty Egan were playing in the front yard. Rusty’s mother Mindy tended to her infant daughter in the front room of the house and glanced out the window to where the two were playing together. When Mindy glances up after hearing a terrible scream, she saw a green car driving off down the street. Mindy rushed out to find out what the commotion was all about to find that Rusty was gone. As the car drives off Jeri shouts to Rusty "I'll Find You." When help finally arrived all that Jeri could recall of the incidence was that a green car pulled up and the man in the car took Rusty. Hope for finding Rusty slowly diminished, but Jeri never stopped trying to find him. Jeri felt guilty and responsible for Rusty's abduction which was one thing that motivated her to find him again.

     Seventeen years passed and Jeri was assigned to work at a minimum security prison and was invited to tour the facility. There she saw this strong man name Randy Moore with the familiar blue eyes that Rusty had. As Jeri tries to discover if this Randy Moore was her best friend that was carried away in the green car, Randy tries to unveil and remember what happened during his childhood.

     I really enjoyed reading this book and couldn’t put it down as I started to read it. As I started reading this book I felt like who would even start a book with a six year old being kidnapped on the first couple pages. Some topics that Poulson brought up that I thought were important and I agreed with were not judging people, having the benefit of the doubt, and most of all to never lose hope. I think that these are a few of the topics that as a society, we all need to work on. I personally believe that after reading this book I became more cautious of those around me and ability to work on these topics.

     I do want to warn the reader that this book does deal a lot with the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as LDS or Mormons) which may bring up topics that can make the story a little confusing. Aside from that, this it is a great book and nothing should prevent you from reading it.

 The City of Bones

BY Cassandra Clare

The city of bones is the first book in the mortal instruments series and is honestly one of the best books I have ever read. It definitely deserves an A! My one and only complaint about the book is that in some parts it was kind of slow. However all of the slow parts eventually add up in the end making the story complete and very well written. This book is about an "ordinary" teenage girl named Clary, and her best friend Simon. The two of them are out clubbing one night, when Clary witnesses a kidnapping. There is just one tiny problem...She is the only one who can see them. The people she sees are invisible to "mundanes," which means perfectly normal humans. The kids get way in over their heads, and their problems increase when Clary's mother disappears. To find her mother and uncover the unknown secrets and surprises, Clary has to look into her past, which isn't necessarily a good thing... This book grabs your attention right from the very first chapter and holds it right on through to the end. With suspense, romance, and action at every corner, this book is great for all teenagers. In a world where shadow hunters, demons, werewolves, vampires, and even warlocks rule the supernatural world, it is always entertaining. It's astonishing how wrapped up in it you can get. Almost every chapter finishes with a sort of mini cliff-hanger, making it impossible to stop reading. This book never ceases to amaze you. Just when you think the book is starting to calm down and even become relatively normal, an even bigger twist happens changing your whole perspective of the book and the way you think of the characters. I 100% recommend this book to everyone. It is an incredible read with an ending that leaves you breathless and hungry for more.

Also this outstanding book is being made into a motion picture and is coming to theaters on August 23, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc4CiTvQ-YE