See You at Harry's

Reviewed by Edan
Title: See You at Harry's
Author: Jo Knowles
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2012

Quick Summary:
     Fern is a 12 year old girl who's family is falling apart. Her sister Sarah is working at the family restaurant the year after high school, as her friends go to collage. Her older brother Holden has different feelings that aren't accepted by most people at school. Her younger 3 year old brother Charlie gets lots of laughs and attention. Her mom is almost always gets overwhelmed and hides away to meditate and her dad is always too busy with the family restaurant to care about anything else. Suddenly a shocking event takes place leaving her family thrown into disrepair. Fern has to let it go and continue life, which she thinks is not possible.

Review:
    I enjoyed reading See You at Harry's, even though it was very heartbreaking. I felt the same way Fern did and had to put the book down for a little bit because I didn't want to be sad anymore. The story was almost telling me if something bad happens push through it and things will get better even if it it seems like it won't. I start to become connected with the characters and feel sorry and happy for them. Even though it was depressing, I kept on reading because I wanted to know if things would get better and have an happy ending. It was a slow going, touching and beautiful book.

Rating: ****

The Faerie Ring

Reviewed by Edan
Title: The Faerie Ring
Author: Kiki Hamilton
Publisher:
Published: 2011

Quick Summary:
     Tiki, a girl who lives in London in 1871, lives on pickpocketing. She lives on the streets with a few other kids. Tiki steals a ring and to her dismay soon realizes it is the Queen's. And not just a ring, but the ring holding the truce between fey and the faerie wold and humans.  Another thief has to help her return the ring, but things start to get complicated. Secrets are kept, doubts are made and suspicions are created.

Review:
     I really dove into this book and loved it. The excitement and action flows throughout the book. I liked the way I felt Tiki's doubts and feelings about her plans and friends. I like Hamilton's perspective and descriptions of the faeries, unlike some other books. At the end of most books, everything the character had been confused about is explained and resolved. But in The Faerie Ring Tiki learns some information and some confusions are resolved. Not knowing all the facts motivates me to read the second book, The Torn Wing, which just came out this August. The wait for the third book, The Seven Year King,  is going to kill me, as it is coming out in May of 2013.

Rating: *****

The Underneath

Review by Mo
Tittle: The Underneath
Author: Kathi Appelt
Publisher: Atheneum books
Published: 2008

Quick Summary:
The Underneath is a story about a dog, a cat and two kittens. They live underneath a porch in the backwaters of a bayou. They have to live under the porch because otherwise, Gar-Face, the dog Ranger's owner, will use the cats as alligator bait. They live peacefully until one of the kittens ventures out from under the porch.

Review:
Personally, I did not like this book. I didn't even finish it. It was a boring story, written in an even more dull style. It was filled with too many details and written in a weird style. It flipped between the kittens, the dog, the bayou, the forest, Gar-Face, an ancient reptilian creature, her daughter, the alligator and the trees. It was tedious to read about all these different stories without caring about any of them or seeing how they all fit together. I don't recommend this book unless you like dull animal stories.
Rating: *

The Shakespeare Stealer

Review by Edan
Title: The Shakespeare Stealer
Author: Gary Blackwood
Publisher: Puffin Books
Published: 1998

Quick Summary:
     Widge, an orphan living in Elizabethan England and the same time Shakespeare's plays were alive on the stage, has finally received a new master and his first task is to copy down Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Widge and his masters aggressive servant go to London to watch and copy down Hamlet. Widge is found and with no escape, he joins the actors to steal the play later. He waits for an opportunity to escape with the play, but finds himself enjoying himself as he trains as an actor. Soon he starts to question himself, should he obey his master or be loyal to his new friends?

Review:
     I really liked reading The Shakespeare Stealer because it was full of adventure, but also interesting facts about Shakespeare and Elizabethan England. I am learning about Shakespeare in school and this book had new facts. Widge is from the country and doesn't know about the London or acting and he learns about it as the reader does too. I usually do not like historical fiction books, but this one was good. It wasn't boring and full of history like other ones. This book was a eventful, interesting and exciting read.

Rating: *****

The Supernaturalist

Reviewed by Edan
Title: The Supernaturalist
Author: Eoin Colfer
Publisher: Puffin
Published: 2004

Quick Summery:
    Cosmo Hill lives in the future where whales are extinct, wood is scarce, and the ocean will bleach your skin. He finally escapes from his military like orphanage and Cosmo then sees these alien like creatures as he lays on deaths door. The Supernaturalists, a group of misfits who can see these creatures (also known as Parasites), show up and save him. Cosmo joins there group to help save people from these life sucking Parasites. Finally they think they just made a dent into the Parasite population. Things start to go wrong and they are introduced to the horrifying truth.

Review:
     This book was wonderful. This idea of the future is very realistic if humans continue to live the way that they do. It is a book full of excitement and action, but also has some of the relationships between the Supernaturalists, each one having their own secrets that the readers learns throughout the book. A book about law breaking kids running around killing life sucking aliens in a city run by a satellite is probably a good book. I enjoyed reading Eoin Colfer's other books about Artemis Fowl and thought I would probably like this one too. This is a great book for any middle schooler to enjoy.

     The ending feels unfinished though. The Supernaturalists opponent lives on to continue their work and the story isn't over. I discovered that Eoin Colfer had got caught up writing the Artemis Fowl books and didn't write the sequel. Now he is finally writing The Supernaturalist 2 which I can't wait to read.

Rating: *****

Recommended:

Artemis Fowl by Eoin
Colfer

Ender's Game

Title: Ender's Game

Author: Orson Scott Card

Publisher: Phoenix Rising

Published: 1977

Quick Summary:

Ender's Game takes place in the future. Earth has been attacked twice by aliens and humans have started breeding military geniuses. They train them for war, so that the humans can win the next war. Ender, the main character, is the youngest of three siblings. Both his older siblings weren't quite good enough to be trained, but Ender is. Ender is one of the youngest at training, and yet he's better than them all.

Review:

Ender's Game was an amazing book. I was reluctant to start reading this book, because I think it's cover is boring and depressing. However, when I did finally read the book, I loved it. It had suspense, action, mystery and drama. Ender is isolated and ridiculed, and though he isn't always the most friendly boy, by the middle of the book, I was already rooting for him. Card introduces an unfamiliar world, though it's still Earth. I was avidly reading throughout this novel as Ender faced challenge after challenge, becoming smarter and smarter as he went. The whole book had a looming threat of alien invasion, and the book ends with a sudden twist.

Rating: *****

Matched

Review by Edan
Title: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Published: 2010

Quick Summary:
     Cassia lives in a perfect world. Everything is regulated from food, to when you die, to your spouse. When Cassia finally receives her Match, the person she would sign a marriage contract with in a couple of years, she is surprised that it is Zander. Zander had been her best friend as long as she can remember. To Cassias displeasure, she finds herself falling in love with Ky. Thing's become hard for them as the Society starts to interfere and Cassia finally starts to realize the truth.

Review:
     I liked this book. I know it says it is a romance novel and i hated that part, but I think the plot is interesting. It reminds me of the Giver, another perfect world that is more disciplined than the world Matched takes place in. The idea that the people are being controlled by making it seems like they have options, but only having one choice is fascinating. They can make it seem like people are acting on their own accord, but are actually being manipulated. All these concepts make the book interesting. I also cannot imagine that this is what the world might be like years form now.  This book was a page turner, making you read on. It was a book I would recommend, especially to people who like romance novels.

Rating: ****

Recommended:

The Giver - By Lois Lowry

all these things i've done -
By Gabrielle Zevin

Facing the Lion

Reviewed by Mo
Title: Facing the Lion
Author: Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Published: 2005

Quick Summary:
Facing the Lion is about a boy growing up Maasai on the African savanna. He gets to go to school, unlike the rest of his family. He has to go between the world at boarding school, to the world at home, which are very different. He struggles to fit in, while living in two different worlds. In the book, he faces his first lion, herds cattle, becomes a man and has to find his own way home.

Review:
I liked this book because it showed how hard his life on the savanna was. I also got to see how alienated he was at home after living most of his life at boarding school. He's really different than his family and his tribe because of school. The book was a little too simple for me and didn't have a very complicated plot, but was a good book because of the perspective. The story had action and suspense, which kept me interested.
Rating:***

The Island of the Aunts

Reviewed by Edan
Title: Island of the Aunts (also published as Monster Mission)
Auther: Eva Ibbotson
Publisher: Puffin Books
Published: 2000

Quick Summary:
     Three aunts living on an island in the middle of the ocean are getting old. They take care of hurt animals on the island including the magical creatures like mermaids and silkies, but they are getting old and need new helpers, children. They kidnap three children, two are happy to be there the other is not. When a search party comes out to find the children, suddenly rescue team is thinking about they money a live mermaid or other mythical creature is worth. The aunts and children will have to save them before it is too late...
    
Review:
     I think Island of the Aunts is a fun, cheery and fantasticle book. Even though it takes place in the very recent past, Europe is so crazy and surreal. Having an island in the middle of the ocean with mermaids, selkies, giant birds and wingless dragon and being unnoticed for years is also very unbeleivable. For the fisrt half of the book it's hard to see what the conflict is, but once it is revealed it has an exciting plot. I enjoyed this easy, light hearted and magical book with mythical creatures, interesting people and overall an exciting and pleasent story.

Rating: ****

Monster

Review by Mo 
Title: Monster
Author: Walter Dean Myers
Publisher: Harpercollins
Published:1999

Quick Summary:
Monster is a story of a boy named Steve, who is charged with murder. He's a sixteen-year-old African-American. He has to go to court, where he is accused of being the look-out for the murder. If convicted, he could be condemned to a life sentence. The whole story is written in a screen play format, the way someone would write a movie, with little diary entries scattered throughout.

Review:
One thing I really enjoyed about this book was that for most of the story, I didn't know what had happened. In the beginning of the book, Steve never told the reader whether he was innocent or guilty, or what had happened the day of the murder. The suspense kept me reading, because I really wanted to know what had happened. Steve is really good at expressing himself throughout his movie, which made me like him more. He seemed really human and I didn't want him to be found guilty. I also learned more about court, lawyers and criminal law in this book. I recommend this unique story to anyone who's interested in making movies or just wants an exciting book.
Rating:****

Lord of the Flies

Reviewed by Edan

Title: Lord of the Flies

Auther: William Golding

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Published: 1954

Quick Summary:

     A group of boys traveling in a airplane get abandoned on a island after their airplane is shot down. They form their own community and try everything they can to get rescued. But some of the boys break away and let their civilized mannors fade. Will they be rescued before it is to late?

Review:

    Lord of the Flies is a interesting book. I like reading about survival, wilderness, and children forming communities. Lord of the Flies has all three. It's interesting to see how they decide to live and it is a fun book at first. Later it becomes slightly more confusing and intense as the wilflife gets to most of the boy. One starts seeing things, and most of the others turn away and form a savage tribe. They hunt and kill wild pigs and threaten to harm other boys who come near the tribe. You start to say "What? Why would you do that? Did they seriously just do that?". One thing that is confusing though, is why the boys got to the island, why were they in the airplane together? They din't know each other and it is only these young boys on the plane. But other than that it is a good, eventfull read that I would recommend.

Rating: ****

The Thief Lord

                                                                                         

                                      Review By: Roshni 

                                     Title: The Thief Lord

                                    Author: Cornelia Funke

                               Publisher: The Chicken House

                                          Published in: 2001

Quick Summary:

The Thief Lord tells a story about two boys named Prosper, 12 years old, and Boniface, 5 years old. Prosper and Boniface, Bo, escape from the clutches of their cruel aunt and uncle, Esther and Max Hartlieb, and travel to Venice, Italy. In the magical city, Prosper and Bo are found by a gang of thieves. Scipio, Thief Lord, is 13 and takes care of 3 other kids besides Prosper and Bo. Their names are: Caterina (Hornet), Mosca, and Riccio. Esther and Max hire a detective named Victor, to find both Prosper and Bo. Eventually, the 6 kids find out that Victor is following them.They capture him and take Victor as a prisoner to their home, which is an old, abandoned movie theater. Ultimately, the detective runs away, while the kids are getting ready to go on a huge raid. On their raid, things go wrong leading the gang to split up and find homes where they can belong.

Review:

The summary on the back was so descriptive and detailed that I had to chose this book. I'm glad I chose it cause I loved the book! It took me to the mysterious city of Venice, Italy. I enjoyed picturing the beautifully described water, housing, people, and everything else. When they took Victor, the detective, hostage, I was surprised! Later on in the book, I found it very funny that 6 young kids were able to trick him like that. While they were on their raid, the owner of the house, Ida Spavento, walked in. She was confused because she saw a group of kids in her house, but she didn't call the cops. Instead she sat them down, fed them, and asked why they were there. I thought that part was funny because normally if you are caught trying to rob someone, you are sent to jail, but not in this case! This book was probably one of the BEST books I have ever read. I recommend it to anyone who loves traveling through books. 

Rating: *****