Title: By the Time you Read This, I’ll be Dead
Author: Julie Anne Peters
Stars (out of 5): 4
Review: Daelyn had suffered being tormented being bullied her whole life over her weight. Moving a new school, after 2 failed suicide attempts, her parents don’t trust her anymore, Her latest failure left her unable to speak and she is now on 24 hour suicide watch. She discovers a suicide board website ” Through the light” Helps her determinate her time will end, in 23 days. What will happen to her in 23 days? Santana, the only boy that tries to communicate with her, has cancer and with 23 days does she really have time?
This review was written by a 9th grader.
Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Stars (out of 5): 3
Review: I was really excited during the beginning of the book. I loved the idea of Miles going off to boarding school in search of the “Great Perhaps”. However, I couldn’t help but feel as if the characters and the plot were really forced on me, as if John Green REALLY REALLY wanted to make sure we knew exactly what the characters were feeling. The story and characters were powerful enough on their own, and would have made a bigger impact if it hadn’t been dragged out so long.
This review was written by an 11th grader.
Title: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Author: Douglas Adams
Stars (out of 5): 5
Review: Truthfully, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this book. I haven’t read much science fiction and wasn’t a huge fan of it. I was quite pleasantly surprised. This book had me laughing out loud. Its peculiar sarcasm and humor is both entertaining and thought provoking. It both challenges ideas and habits we humans practice today in some bizarre, wacky, and fun way. Even if you dont like science fiction, I suggest you give this book a read!
Title: Skippy Dies
Author: Paul Murray
Stars (out of 5): 4
Review: This book was very very odd. The characters however, even though wacky, were totally believable. The story is quite sad, and the tone was of the author was really difficult to pick up initially. It did lag in some parts and at times the numerous story lines were challenging to keep straight, but when it all came together, it really shined.
This review was written by an 11th grader.
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Title: Unwind
Author: Neal Shusterman
Stars (out of 5): 5
Review: This book was absolutely breathtaking. It deserves more than 5 stars. It was action-packed. It made you laugh, it made you cry, made you think. Neal Shusterman is a genious! Unwind had everythink I would want in a book: action, mystery, romance and soo much more. What I liked the most about this book were the characters. They were all deep. You understood them, you could so easily connect with them all. Even Roland aka the Bad Guy. My favorite characters were Cy-Fy and Hayden though. This book was scary and original with one of a kind characters and amazing plot and an awesome ending. I recommend this book to absolutely everyone! I am also going to read the other books by this author. Unwind is on the top 5 shelf of my favorites.
This review was written by a 9th grader!
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Title: Ender’s Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Stars (out of 5): 3
Review: Ender is the third child in his family and decides to go to Battle school to train to fight the Buggers in the third invasion. Ender does very well and becomes commander young.He makes some enemies who envy him. He graduates and skips pre command school and goes straight to command school. His teacher Mazer Rackham who beat the buggers in the second invasion puts him through practice battles which are really the real battle with the buggers. He is the leader of the fleets. Once he defeats the Buggers for good, people start to live on the buggers home planet. Ender is a hero.
This review was written by a 9th grader.
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Title: Bruises
Author: Ankes De Vries
Stars (out of 5): 5
Review: A young elementary student keeps all secrets to herself, one of them including the fact that her mother beats her for no apparent reason. Sometimes, she is beaten so badly she cannot even attend school for a few days. When Judith comes to school with bruises, her teacher asks her what happened, but all Judith does is make an excuse that she fell down the stairs or was clumsy and bumped into something. She is too afraid to tell people the real truth or else she might be beaten by her mother again. At school, Judith meets this boy named Michael. She has never had a friend in her life and she is extremely glad to have such a nice friend like Michael. Even though Michael is very trustworthy, Judith doesn’t dare tell him her secrets until one day, Michael discovers then on his own. I recommend this book to teens because of some of the details, but it was a book that I enjoyed reading and that moved me!
This review was written by a 9th grader.
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Title: Once
Author: Morris Gleitzman
Stars (out of 5): 5
Review: A child named Felix stays at a Catholic orphanage during the Holocaust. He doesn’t know whether his parents are alive or not, but he is determined to find them. On his way to find his parents, he finds a girl named Zelda. This little girl’s parents have just died in a fire that Felix has just witnessed. He takes this girl and takes care of her. Later on in the novel, Felix meets this nice man named Barney who is a dentist who takes Jewish kids in and takes care of them. Barney and the children hide in a cellar, and the children are provided with food, shelter, and clothing until one day, they are discovered – by Nazi’s.
This review was written by a 9th grader.
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Title: The Lucky One
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Stars (out of 5): 5
I recommend this book to anyone, because I was so drawn into this book as I was reading it; I couldn’t put the book down. At first it was confusing of who the narrator was because each chapter has a different character speaking than the one preceding and succeeding a given chapter. Overall, the story of the book has a fantasy like story line with the main character Logan finding a picture of a woman in a war zone half buried by dirt, which became his good luck charm when he survived an unusual amount of bombings. His friend Victor believed that Logan owed Beth, the woman in the picture for keeping him safe during his three tours to Iraq. So when he decided to go walk across the country from his mother’s home in Colorado to Hampton, NC, he was determined to find this unknown woman. It’s hard not to root for this ex-marine to find what becomes his future.
This review was written by a 12th grader.
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Title: Someone Like You
Author: Sarah Dessen
Stars (out of 5): 1
Review: I began reading Sarah Dessen books this year starting with What Happened to Goodbye and I thought it was great. I thought this book would be also great yet I wasn’t drawn in as much as the other books.
This review was written by a 12th grader.
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