Journey

Journey, Patricia MacLachlan

Journey's mom just left him and his sister, Cat, with their grandmother and grandfather.  At first Journey thinks he needs his mother to carry on, until his photo-loving grandpa steps into the picture.  He teaches Journey to love pictures because you get to keep your memories and, that a person in front of you is different behind the camera lens. 

I love this short, interesting read because it shows how much Journey changed over the course of the book.

Pancakes

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

This first person, fantasy/science fiction book is about sixteen-year-old, Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to survive in a dystopian country situated in the ruins of North America. Every year, this country, known as Panem, forces the twelve districts that make up the country to "volunteer" two children, one boy and one girl, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, to participate in the Hunger Games.  The Games are an annual, televised fight to the death.  When they choose Katniss' sister, Prim, to be the girl tribute for District Twelve, Katniss goes in her place.  What follows is a very violent but thoughrougly engrossing plot story and edge-of-your-seat action.  If you think you can handle it, pick up this book from your local library or bookstore.  You'll be really glad you did!

By Autumn's pet cat

Call Me Hope

Call Me Hope by Gretchen Olson.

Call Me Hope by Gretchen Olson, is a realistic fiction book about a girl who is abused by her mom through words. Her mom won’t stop, and it seems as though everything Hope does is wrong. I think this book is great, with its first-person style of writing. Although it’s a sad topic, Hope learns things about her mom, and Hope’s mom learns things about Hope. Join this present-day girl, trying not to cry when she is “Hopeless.”

By Vay

Extreme Cuisine

Extreme Cuisine
By Eddie Lin

     With this grossly interesting non-fiction piece you will dive head first into one of the most cultural elements of life:  Food.  Whether old or odd,  food is everywhere.  This book will focus on the odd.
     You will find your ideas of what is socially acceptable to eat will expand.  This book will make you curious to explore; that's what happened to me. 
     You will be transported around the world; from eating bugs in a tiny village in the Amazon to munching on rural European cuisine and even the seafood markets of Asia.
     Make sure to read this book and start to explore your local, and not-so-local eateries.

                                                                              Little Italy

Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall

Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall is an intriguing story written by Wendy Mass.

Tessa has been through a lot in her life, yet she doesn't even realize it.  Tessa has made many mistakes that force her to find the one question she needs to answer, but what is the question?  Small items along the way help her unfold the secret question and find out who she really is and who she wants to be, which are two very different things.

Mango Muffin

Life As We Knew it and This World We Live In
 by Susan Pfeffer
These science fiction books tell the story of Miranda and her family's struggle to stay alive, when a meteor collides with the moon, altering everything in Miranda's carefully constructed world, as things she once to for granted fade away. Told through Miranda's diary entries, as the characters grow they hold on to the most important resource hope.  Each page is filled with with both desperate and heart-pounding emotions.  I recommend this book to anyone who needs a good science fiction book, or who is in need of a book that will keep you racing to the next page.  I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have.

 Plum Petunia

Powerless, by Matthew Cody

Powerless is about a kid named Daniel who is moving from his house in Kentucky to Virginia.  When he arrives at his new house he meets a girl named Mollie.  While they're loading their furniture into their new home Jim's mom wants him to watch his little brother but he is distracted by Mollie.  His little brother almost gets hit by a car but he suddenly disappears and reappears behind Jim.  The next day Jim meets a group of kids who have all been blessed with super powers.  Sadly, on their thirteenth birthdays, a mysterious creature comes and takes their powers and their memory of ever having them. Jim is the only one who can save these children.  I recommend this book to kids who like fantasy and mystery.

                                                                 By: Number One

Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles

Each Little Bird That Sings

Deborah Wiles

This book is filled with hilarious moments of mystery and suspense. You will fall in love with the characters in this very well written book. This story is about a girl named Comfort and her dog Dismay. Comfort's family runs a funeral home so she was used to death but suddenly a lot of the people she knows die and her crazy cousin shows up, which could ruin the whole day for Comfort. She's also falling out of friendship with her best friend. Then she takes her cousin for a walk when suddenly there is a flash flood. Will anyone survive? Will her cousin calm down? Will she start a new relationship with her former friend? The answers are in the book with some delicious food recipes.

MT

The Secret Life of Bees - Book review

     The Secret Life of Bees
      Sue Monk Kidd

 It's a busy world we live in, and people are always bustling around, leaving one destination and heading for the next. However, whenever I find myself with a slot of free time, I like to fill it with reading.

     I usually stick to a small group of select books, but one day a couple of weeks ago, I decided to branch out and try a book called The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd. This is a book about a fourteen year old girl named Lily who lives with her father, T-Ray, in the deep south. When Lily was four, she accidentily shot her mother. Her father has resented her ever since. This book is set in 1964, where Lily and T-Ray farm peaches with an African American woman named Rosaleen. But when Rosaleen gets in trouble with the police, purely for being black, she and Lily decide to run away. They go to South Carolina, and find a farm run by three black women who manufacture honey. They stay for some time, and Lily learns many important lessons that will stay This is a lyrical novel about loss and hope that I would recommend to anyone wishing for a touching book to read again and again.

Skyler Mae 

Artemis Fowl

The Arctic Incident , Eoin Colfer

Artemis is looking for his father; he disappeared in the arctic somewhere on a business trip. Meanwhile, an underground fairy police force is having trouble when somebody is selling banned weapons to a goblin terrorist group. Artemis and the fairies will meet in an exciting fantasy and science fiction story. The story is in the second person so you see the entire setting and you know what all the characters are thinking. The writing is very detailed and you can picture what is happening very easily. After you start you can’t stop reading. This book is for adult and children alike.

I would recommend this book for anyone who likes adventure, action and a lot of humor. I hope you enjoy.


By the Octopus

Book Review: The Red Pyramid

by Rick Riordan

Amazon.com Reviews

In this 1st person fantasy novel, Carter Kane travels the world with his father, the brilliant Egyptologist Julius Kane. All he wants is a “normal” life, going to school and having friends. But he has exactly what his sister, Sadie, wants: time with their father. On the only day they are allowed to see each other, their father takes them to the British Museum, saying he will “set things right.” But when the Rosetta Stone explodes and their father releases a nasty Egyptian god, Carter and Sadie get sucked into an epic quest of loyalty and heroism.Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them--Set--has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe--a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs. With strong, relatable characters and constant action and humor, The Red Pyramid is a great choice to read.


By Pablo