Wonderstruck By Brian Selznck

This is a Big Spoiler Alert! This story starts by describing two different people in two different times, but in the end, the two people meet! This is also a very different story, instead of just words, it also has big pictures, that also describe one part of the story!



This is who it all goes... Ben, is deaf in one year. He lives with his Aunt and Uncle, but one day he sees a light on in the house he lived in before his mother died. When he goes and investigates, his cousin is up in his mothers room dancing to music in his mothers clothes and smoking. The cousin stops, and puts everything back but mentions a rainy day fund in the closet. While looking through his mothers stuff he finds a phone number, that could be his fathers. Just outside, the wind is blowing like crazy and lightning begins to strike. Ben dials the number and just as he puts the phone to his ear, he blacks out.

At the same time in the book there is a little girl that looks to be in the 50's. She ends up to be the daughter of a famous actress. Her mother doesn't like her because she is deaf. But she finds her older brother and eventually goes to live with him.

When Ben wakes up, he finds out that he is now deaf in both ears. So he goes and takes the rainy day fund from his mothers house travels to New York, where is father may live. HERE IS ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT!!! (His father died.) He goes to a museum that he could have worked at. He doesn't find his father, but he finds a good friend, at least he thinks, that will help him to find his father.

Just like every story, there is a fight, and a revelation that always occurs. He doesn't find his father, but he finds some one just as important! The girl in the pictures! :)

Brian Selznick did an incredible job on this book. He is also the author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which was also a great book, though very easy to read. Wonder Struck was the first book that I had read by this author, and it was a great experience. My favorite part was the pictures. Each one drawn to perfection! It was also so inviting as a book, and it was fun to make a hypothesis about what was going to happen next. Though switching from pictures to words confused me at first, by the end it was easier to understand! And I most definitely could not put this book down! An "A" to this book I say!!

Michael Vey, Richard Paul Evans

Michael Vey is an interesting fiction story. It has a certain addictive quality to it. It was very easy to get connected to the characters. It was written in a way where every page leaves you wondering what will happen next.

This is Michael's story, it is his story of becoming his own hero. When he was born there was an experimental devise being tested at the same hospital. It was called the Magnetic Electron Induction (MEI). It malfunctioned and as a result gave Michael and sixteen other children strange electric abilities. During a regular encounter with the school bully Michael makes an unusual ally, the very pretty, very popular cheerleader Taylor Ridley. She happens to also be one of the seventeen electric children. After doing some investigation they find out that they are being hunted. This organization, known as Elgen Academy, took Michael's mother and Taylor away. So with the aide of his best friend Ostin and two recently turned enemies Michael set out to save them. This story is also told from Taylor's point of view. It provides an intriguing insight into the other side of this war and Dr. Hatch's intentions for the electric children and the Elgen Academy.

Richard Paul Evans goes over several issues, but the one that stood out to me was the value of a human life. Dr. Hatch wants to create more electric children but in order to do that he must kill several other babies in order to find out why those specific seventeen lived and the others did not. Is ending one hundred lives worth trying to improve one life? I don't think so. Everyone deserves to live and no one should be treated like a lab rat.

This book had me hook, line, and sinker from the first page. You will fall in love with characters. They are so easy to relate to. You can't help but feel how they feel. In the end you will be willing them to win. I know I was. Characters like Michael, Ostin, and Zeus are the reason I give this book an A+.

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Laurel Sewell is going to public school for the first time in her life. In one of her classes she meets a friendly boy named David. Laurel confides everything to this boy, even when a mysterious bump that is growing on her back turns into a flower. David and Laurel race to try and figure out what this flower is . One day while at her family's land in Orick, California; Laurel discovers a very strange, enticing, and handsome man in the woods behind her cabin. His name is Tamani. He tells her that the thing growing out of her back is a blossom, and that she is a faerie. He, too, is a faerie.

Throughout the rest of the novel, Laurel confides more in David and discovers romantic feelings for him. She also likes Tamani, and he likes her a lot. Laurel's father gets sick, and while sneaking around a supposed home buyer's office, she discovers who made him sick. David and Laurel almost die together after being thrown into a river by something that Tamani tells her are trolls. Laurel runs to Tamani for help and they go off to kill the trolls. Tamani almost dies when he is shot in both thighs, but is rescued by his fellow faeries. The faeries give Laurel something to save her dad, and she does. At the end of the novel, we find that Tamani is all right.

This book is overall a pretty good book. However, if you're not crazy about love triangles then this book is not for you. I love the twist of fantasy in the book that in the beginning you think is about real life. Laurel teaches us that there can be something spectacular inside of us even if we seem ordinary. The story, however, takes a little while to get going. Overall, this is a good book. I would give it an A-.

The Boy Who Dared By Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Helmuth Hubener was a boy who lived at the time when Hitler first came to power. If you want to know what courage is about, reading about Helmuth Hubener is a great way to start. This is one of the best books I've ever read. I was only going to read the first two pages but when I looked up, I was almost a third of the way through the book. It is a fast read and you'll never want to put it down.

The story begins with Helmuth as a young boy. He started out being very loyal to Germany but his feelings of loyalty gradually diminished until he was convinced that something wasn't right and maybe Hitler wasn't the leader Germany needed. So late at night, Helmuth got an illegal radio out of his brother's closet and listened to it despite his brother's warning before leaving for war. He was immediately hooked and listened intently every night while his parents were asleep. He found out that Hitler was lying to all the German citizens and that the Germans were actually losing the war. Helmuth decided he needed to make a change and let the German citizens know the truth about the war. Helmuth decided to bring his friends in with him. He and his two friends, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudi Wobbe decided to make anti-Hitler fliers that told what was really happening in the war. Then, Helmuth made the risky move of bringing a coworker into the "secret society" that he and his friends had started. Each night, the fliers became more numerous and more dangerous because they put them in very risky places, like in public phone booths. Helmuth certainly became The Boy Who Dared.

This book was extremely intriguing and interesting. If I would have had time, I would have read through this book in a day or a couple hours. Just the storyline is enough to keep anyone captivated and the suspense makes this really interesting. Many books have down parts. Not here! I never wanted to drop the book and I wouldn't have if it wasn't for a basketball game. This book has a much better story line than a lot of fiction books and this story actually happened!

The author has hardly any voice in this book except for the author's note because she is telling someone else's story. So since it's Helmuth's story, his opinions are being expressed. I'm not sure if I completely agree with his ideas. It should have been obvious that a little flier wouldn't cause the downfall of Hitler but a little flier could sentence someone to prison or even worse. I'm not completely convinced that it was the right or even a wise decision for Helmuth and his friends to make and distribute the illegal fliers and pamphlets. However, I go back and forth because I really admire Helmuth's courage and bravery and it serves everybody a very, very important life lesson. This book has made me think more than any other book I have ever read.

This book could teach a very wide range of subjects in school. It shows that every choice or decision has a consequence whether it is good or bad. Helmuth knows all the bad consequences that could happen while making fliers, but he has faith that everything will work. Faith is another subject The Boy Who Dared briefly touches on. Finally, I learned a great deal about trust and the importance of good friends through this book. Helmuth learned a lot about those subjects throughout his life because he had to know if he could trust his friends enough to bring them into his little flier making clan. He found a lot out about who his true friends were during his little escapade.

All things considered, this book was absolutely fantastic. The thought of boredom never entered my mind while I was reading. I really don't know how a book could leave you hanging more and the fact that it was history makes it that much more amazing. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. This is one of the best if not the best books I have ever read. Period.

The Queen of Sinister

The book I have chosen to do my book review on is “The Dark Age: Queen of Sinister” by Mark Chadbourn. This book clearly emphasizes the idea that together we stand a better chance of accomplishing our goal than we did alone. The most dominant conflict in the book is that the void is imposing its power/influence on the earth. The book takes place in a post apocalyptic setting. Two of the five brothers and sisters of dragons have been uncovered.
The void is coming fast. The darkness is evident and the final end of the world is almost upon us. Caitlin Shepherd is one of the only doctors left in her small town that was infected with the plague. After her husband and son die from the plague she sets out to find the cure for the plague. Even though it may not be in her realm, she has to try.
This book has many descriptions. A few of those descriptions are its very interesting. There was never a part in the book that I was bored. There is always a minor conflict stopping them from overcoming their major conflict. And just when you think the conflict is solved, everything changes and it seems like it could be the end.
I related so much to this book it’s really hard to describe. For starters I am a Wiccan. Wiccans are commonly misjudged. I was amazed at how accurate the book actually was when it came to describing the different personalities and actions of wiccans. Not only was the book accurate, the main character was a Wiccan.
To give all a fair warning, this book can be very boring. The conflicts only made real sense to me because I can relate them to myself. Also the language they use is not always easy to understand because of the mass vocabulary the writer had. After all that, if you are to want to read this book you have to read the first book before you just pick up the second one.

I'll Find You by Clair M. Poulson

I'll Find You, by Clair M. Poulson, is a marvelous story. Poulson has written many books that include: Vengeance, Don't Cry Wolf, Hunted, and obviously I'll Find You.

"I'll find you," are the words that 4 year old Jeri Satch said to her friend, Rusty Egan, as he was being abducted. The morning started out with the sound of children's laughter floating into the second story window as Mindy Egan was cleaning her house. Then, in a blink of an eye, Mindy Egan had seen her son, Rusty Egan, pulled into a green car and see the car vanish as it turned onto a different street. As all parents would do, Mindy Egan told her husband, Patrick Egan, to call the police as she stood in terror. From that moment on, Mindy and Patrick Egan had a prayer in their hearts that they will find Rusty and that justice will be served. But, deep down, though they would never admit it, they knew that they will never see their son, Rusty Egan, ever again...until one day when Jeri recognizes him because of his radiant blue eyes.

I'll Find You by Clair M. Poulson is an interesting book that I eventually came to love by the end. This book is a unique novel; It combines suspense, cleverness, with a little chick-flicky-ness all into one great book. In this book, Poulson has integrated many of his opinions into this epic adventure. One of which is never give up. I totally agree with Poulson. You should never give up on anything even if it might appear that you have lost everything. One of the main issues that this book brings up is that we can't judge people by their looks. This book, made me realize that in today's society, our first thought after meeting someone new is judged on their appearance. We don't take the time to actually look at the person inside. After reading this great book, my opinions changed about judging people.

Here is an example from the text to prove my point.

Pink: "I wouldn't be so interested with that guy. Ya know, he used to be an ex-convict."

Jeri: "Do you have a few minutes? I'd like to tell you a story."

(Jeri tells Pink the horrendous past of Rusty Egan.)

Pink: "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I'm indebted to you for telling me."

Pg. 174-175

For any of you readers interested in reading this book, I just want to warn you about a few things. First, this book deals a lot with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also know as the Mormon or LDS) religion. Second, this book is extremely complicated at times, so be aware of what is happening in the story because everything important is not obvious at the beginning.

Unwind

This is probably the creepiest book on the face of the earth. This book is written in the future, but I'm not sure if it's post-apocalyptic. In this world, there are too many kids being born that are not wanted. The people in charge have a major problem. So, they came up with this thing called Unwinding. It is a terrible thing to be unwound. You are still alive, but you're taken apart and your body parts are sold to people who have lost those body parts in the past. It's LEGAL to do this people!
       Example: Your eyes would go to a blind person. This kid, Connor, is filed for Unwinding. He decides that's NOT gonna happen. He runs away, taking two kids with him. Risa, an orphan pianist who was going to be unwound because of budget cuts. And Lev, a Tithe. A tithe is a child sacrificed because of religious principles.
       The three of them try to get to this place called The Graveyard. It's a place where old, broken airplanes are recycled, not unlike the kids who are Unwound. I hated this book. It creeped me out and left me with an unsatisfied feeling. I would give it a F.