More Reviews from the Summer Reading Program

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

When a boy named Roy Eberheart moves to Coconut Cove, FL, he thinks his life is doomed.  One day on the bus ride to school, Roy finds himself faced against the bus window being pushed by Dana Matherson, the worst bully in school.  To a lot of kids that would appear like bad luck, but for Roy, if it weren’t for Dana he wouldn’t have seen the strange running boy who was shoeless, with no back-pack, and wearing dirty old stained clothes.  After a couple of days of thinking, and seeing the odd boy, Roy decides to follow him to wherever he may go.  But as usual, things go from good to not-s0-good.  After a couple of weeks without seeing the strange boy, Roy was just about to give up on ever finding out out who the mysterious boy was.  Then one day, as Roy was sitting on the bus looking at his comic books, he looked out the window, and to his disbelief, on the other side of the road was…the running boy!  After that sighting of the odd boy, Roy knew there was still hope to find and talk to him.  After some more weeks passed, Beatrice Leep, one of Roy’s new friends, tells Roy what she knows about Mullet Fingers (the mystery boy), and what she tells him is a bit surprising.  This is a great book about friendship and standing up for what you know is right.  You might even learn a thing or two about burrowing owls.  Review by Olivia

Missing Persons: The Rose Queen by M E Rabb

In this book, two girls named Sam and Sophia Shattenberg are forced to run away fromt heir home after their father dies and they are only left with their stepmother, Enid.  Enid is going to inherit all the money that their parents had and is going to send Sophie to boarding school.  The two sisters cannot bear to be apart from each other for that long, so they decide to run away.  But, it’s not that easy.  In order to not be found, they need to go from Queens, New York, to Venice, Indiana.  There they meet Delfriggio, who is another big part of not being discovered.  He helps with tips on not being discovered.  Felix back in Queens makes them fake ID’s, birth certificates and driver’s license.  In Venice, there is the big Rose Parade and there is a Rose Parade Queen.  The Queen of the Rose Parade was going to be Noelle McBride, but she has gone missing!  The night before, Sam and Sophie had given Noelle a ride home from karaoke.  No one had seen her since, so Sophie or “Fiona” and Sam “Scott” are the prime suspects!  Normally it would still be a problem, but it’s an even bigger problem for Sam and “Fiona.” That’s because if the police find out too much information about them, the police could send Sophie and Sam back to Queens and Sophie would still have to go to boarding school, never mind all the trouble they would be in.  There are many accusations, drama with boyfriends, love, and more.  Eventually, they are free of the possible murder because they actually solve the mystery. Review shortened to avoid SPOILER! Review by Elizabeth

Summer Reading Program Reviews

Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz

Fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is tired of working for the MI6 and needs a break. So they get him a summer job at Wimbledon. The only thing is that he has to keep an eye out for a group called the Red Circle. But Alex gets more than he bargained for when they start following him everywhere. Alex needs to get far away when the Red Circle becomes a danger to the people he is with. So, for his safety, Alex joins the CIA and joins two spies on a “vacation” to Skeleton Key, pretending to be their son. Troy and Carver say they are after something a salesman sold to the Russian president, but he starts to get suspicious. When Troy and Carver go scuba diving for Devil’s Cave and don’t come back up, he goes down to search for them. When Alex is down there, he finds more than just the answer to why they didn’t come back. In doing so, he meets a Russian army general from World War II who wants to change the world for the better. Find out how in this third book of the series: Skeleton Key. If you’re interested in thrilling mysteries with all sorts of twists and turns, then this is the book for you. Review by Nadia

Taken by Edward Bloor

I have been reading Taken by Edward Bloor for the past week. Overall, I thought it was a very well-written book that I enjoyed reading. I think that Edward Bloor did a great job describing this book in very great detail, since this book’s setting is the future –2035. This book is based on a different topic: kidnapping. Kidnapping is a major issue in this town. Kidnapping is up 50% in this small, little city. They actually have high tech security and guards surrounding their city. One day a 13-year-old girl named Charity called for an ambulance. She was not that sick; she simply wanted to see her parents, who were working at the hospital. When the ambulance came and took her away, they didn’t take her to the hospital, but kidnapped her. Charity was trapped in an ambulance with nothing to do until the kidnappers came in to remove her metal chip. A metal chip is a chip that is hidden somewhere inside every kid’s body. No one knows where they are hidden. Kidnappers have a machine that can detect where the chip is. For Charity it was in her braces. Now, after Charity had been stuck in the ambulance, she figured out an escape plan. The plan was for her to go to the bathroom and the kidnappers would go inside, and then she could make a break for it. The kidnappers found out her plan and she quickly tried to escape from their trap. She now got home safely with much to talk about. Review by Kathryn.

More Book Reviews from the Summer Reading Program

Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan

Naomi Outlaw is having a great life. Living with her Gram and younger brother Owen, Naomi still is missing part of her: her parents. When she was four and Owen was one, her parents took them to this shelter during a storm. Mysteriously, Naomi’s father disappeared and her mother no longer wanted her and her brother, so they went to live with Gram, their mother’s grandma. Now 11 and 7, Naomi and Owen have learned to love Gram and Baby Baluga (the trailer they live in). Suddenly, out of the blue, Naomi’s mother shows up at their trailer door. At first she is nice and sweet to Naomi and Owen, but soon things change, and Naomi sees the true side of her mother. Mean and harsh, her mother tries to take Naomi back to Las Vegas to her boyfriend and his daughter without any signs of wanting Owen. When Naomi stands up against her, her mother starts to threaten Naomi. As soon as Gram finds out the plan, she begins to arrange taking both children to safety. Gram and their loving neighbors travel all the way to Mexico where Naomi’s father lives. If they find him then Naomi has a chance at staying with Gram. Full of adventure, Naomi sets off on a search to find her father in the big country of Mexico! A great adventure story that proves family means more than anything else in the world. Review by Olivia

Gilda Joyce: The Dead Drop by Jennifer Allison

“But when she turned around, she found herself staring into the barrel of a gun –the lipstick gun. The face behind the gun was featureless –a dark shadow.” This is just one phrase in this intriguing mystery. When you pick up this book, you will be sucked into a psychic investigator world of spies, dark shadows, ghosts, and surprises. Gilda Joyce is a spunky almost-15-year-old with a hankering for spying. That’s why she really wanted to get a summer internship at the Washington, D.C. International Spy Museum. It will give her the perfect chance to sport her vintage spywear, cavort with real C.I.A. agents, and expand her knowledge of gadgetry and surveillance. But Gilda never expected some new cold war objects in the museum to stir up some trouble. Suddenly, Gilda’s dreams keep on getting haunted with Abraham Lincoln’s Ghost, and a mysterious woman with a bloodstained star keeps on showing up in the museum, fascinating Gilda to investigate. But when a doe shows her a loose brick in a cemetery wall, uncovering an encoded message, she finds that she jumped into a deeper mystery than she thought. If you like suspense, mystery, or tension, I bet in the first five minutes of reading you will be buried in this book! Gilda isn’t the perfect spy, but she is very unique –how many girls do you know that have psychic powers, type on a typewriter instead of a laptop, and wear vintage clothing all at once? I don’t think many girls do. As you can probably tell, Gilda Joyce books are for girls ages 9+ because of the complicated plot and humor. They can make you shiver with fear, and laugh out loud both at once! These books are suspenseful but funny at the same time. If you like this book, check out the other Gilda Joyce books: Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator, Gilda Joyce: Ladies of the Lake, and Gilda Joyce: The Ghost Sonata. Read them all!!!! Review by Anusha

To Kill a Mockingbird Turns 50!

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee!

“This heart-wrenching, coming-of-age tale set in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, served as the basis of an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country.” –Harper Collins

To find out more about the celebration, check out this Harper Collins website: http://tokillamockingbird50year.com/

Book Reviews from the Summer Reading Program

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Dial “L” 4 Losers by Lisi Harrison

Dial “L” 4 Losers by Lisi Harrison is a great book.  It is a part of the Clique series.  Claire, the unpopular new girl, Massie, a very popular girl and Alicia, also a very popular girl, all get invited to audition to be in a movie.  When they go to audition far away from home, Massie obviously thinks she is so awesome that she will end up getting the role, but after auditions end, Claire ends up getting the part.  When Claire finds out she will be the star in the movie she is psyched!  Massie and Alicia are so jealous that they can’t stand it.  They start packing their stuff to leave.  As they are leaving, they get a call to be behind-the-stage reporters for a hit show.  They take the jobs and start embarrassing Claire.  Read the book to find out what they do and how it will get solved.  Review by Caitlin

 

13 by Jason Robert Brown and Dan Elish

This book all starts with a boy named Evan who is turning 13, and is Jewish, so he will be having his Bar Mitzvah.  To make matters worse, not only does Evan have to memorize Hebrew and write a speech, but he has to deal with moving to Indiana as a result of his parents’ divorce.  Evan isn’t happy about the move because his dad is dating another girl, and he has to leave his friends, Bill and Steve, along with his lifetime crush Nina Handelman behind.  Once Evan moves to Appleton, his mother and her friend Pam (who they are living with) search the internet for a Rabbi to help Evan prepare for his Bar Mitzvah.  Evan find this torturous!  Evan also meets people like Archie and Patrice, who are considered freaks by Brett, Kendra, Lucky, Fudge and Eddie.  Patrice and Archie despise all of these people except for Kendra.  Archie loves Kendra.  Evan starts to blend with the “cool” gang and gets into some trouble.  When he sends his Bar Mitzvah invitations, someone’s invitation was not going to go in the mailbox, and that someone found out.  I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.  It was fun to predict what would happen next, because there were so many downfalls.  I really liked this book.  Review by Rose

 

Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

I read this book Hush Hush, a fantasy teen romance novel about a boy whose nickname is Patch, and an ordinary girl named Nora.  Nora is attracted to Patch, but she’s scared of him, too.  He knows so much about her, but she knows so little abouthim.  Patch is always making cute jokes, and she’s always trying to avoid him.  Elliot is also trying to win her heart, but after she figures out he was part of a suicide investigations, she backs away from him, too.  This book is truly amazing, and it will leave you with an “awhh” at the end.  There are all these surprising uncoverings throughout the book, you will not want to stop reading.  I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good thrill, love story, or even a fantasy!  Becca Fitzpatrick’s first novel Hush Hush will leave you breathless.  Review by Heba

 

Evermore by Alyson Noel

Evermore is the first book of the intriguing Immortals series.  Evermore is about a girl named Ever whose family died in a car accident.  She did, too, but somehow came back to live left with psychic powers that she can’t control.  She used to have a wonderful life when she lived with her family.  She was popular, but now she lives with her Aunt Sabine and only has two friends, who are not popular.  They’re called names like “Goth Freak” and “Gay Guy.”  Damen comes along and changes everything in her life, but Ever knows Damen is hiding something about his past and maybe even hers.  Alyson Noel takes you through an enchanting adventure throughout the Immortals series.  i would recommend this book and this series to anyone who likes a mystical adventure through a teem romance.  Review by Heba