Michael Vey: Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans

reviewed by Jonathan K.
Grade 8

"My name is Michael Vey, and there's something you don't know about me; something that scares people more than you would believe. It's my secret......" There is something special about Michael Vey, something that nobody knows.

Michael Vey lives an average life with his mother in Idaho. He goes to school, does his work, and overall does all right. Michael's journey truly explains the term, "self-confidence." That "special" thing about Michael leads him down a treacherous road. In the end, Michael finds his inner self, and that treacherous road becomes more treacherous.

I like the setting of this book because it is in a secluded location. It makes you think that not much would happen in a small town. An example of this is how Michael is able to hide his "special abilty" from everbody else.

I would 100% recommend this book to anyone. It is an exciting read because of the author's word choice. The words that he used triggered something in my brain that made me want to keep reading. It was very interesting.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Reviewed by Alex G.
Grade 7


Isn’t Christmas a time for joy and celebration? Not to Ebenezer Scrooge, its not. Scrooge is an old man who cares for nothing but money. He is lonely and miserly and always has been since his business partner, Jacob Marley, died 17 years ago. However his view of Christmas will be turned around when he is visited by the ghost of his dead friend.

Seventeen years after Marley's death, Scrooge is a grumpy old man in charge of a “counting house” in Victorian England. It is Christmas Eve, yet he is still running the counting house like any normal day. When he gets home he sees the face of Jacob Marley in his door knocker. He blinks, and the face disappears. However, when he gets to bed, he hears noises downstairs. Moments later, Marley’s ghost bursts in the door, and explains to Scrooge that if he does not learn to be kinder, he will be condemned to walk the Earth as a ghost. He tells Scrooge that he will be visited by three more spirits, and that will show him the error of his ways. When he disappears, he is replaced by the Ghost of Christmas Past, who shows him visions of his past miserable Christmases. These visions humble Scrooge, and by the time the Spirit leaves he has almost learned his lesson. The next spirit is the Ghost of Christmas Present, which shows him how the people he knows are celebrating Christmas happily. After he leaves, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives and shows him how is death is mourned by no one. When he leaves Scrooge is incredibly humbled, but has he learned his lesson?

The plot is very interesting, yet depressing at times. There are many parts in the book that are very sad. However, this is to be expected, as Dickens has a very depressing style.

There is no specific audience of people I would recommend A Christmas Carol to. I would recommend this to just about everyone because it is a very good book. Also, it is a classic written by one of the greatest English authors of the Victorian era.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Reviewed by Alex G.
Grade 7

The Greasers are the poor, uneducated, violent, kids from the south side of town. Or so the stereotype goes. But the Greasers aren’t the only violent ones. In the north side of town, the rich, biased Socs are equally horrible. In fact, there is only one thing that splits them apart...money.

The Outsiders takes place in 1960s Kansas. There, an on-going war rages between the two social classes, the Socs and the Greasers. Ponyboy Curtis and his brothers Darry and Sodapop are living by themselves, because their parents are both dead. They're Greasers and hang out with other Greasers, but never Socs. Their "gang" consists of them, Johnny--an abused, jumpy kid, Dally--a juvenile delinquent, Two-Bit--a joker, and Steve--Sodapop's best friend. But one night, their already sideways life gets turned completely upside down when a gang of Socs try to kill Pony, and in self-defense, Johnny kills one of them with his switchblade. The two run away with a gun, $50, and the location of an old abandoned church, all courtesy of Dally. What happens next takes a heavy toll on Pony, and he decides to write his semester theme on the never-ending conflict between the Socs and the Greasers.

I very much enjoyed the timing of this story and the setting. When I first picked it up for a school project, quite frankly, I thought it would not be interesting at all. However, the intricate story pulled me in. Personally, I would've liked to live in the 60's, so this story was really very interesting for me.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in reading a multi-faceted story. There are some touching moments, some suspenseful cliff-hangers, and some down-right exciting action. This is, in fact, a book based on the real life of the author, S.E. Hinton. So this is a great book for those interested in reading something with some history behind it.

Also available in CD audio book format!

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Reviewed by Lalee I.
Grade 7

Have you ever dreamed about mischief? Well, for Tom that topic was always on his mind. Have you ever dreamed about running away or faking your death to see if your family loved you or not? Tom Sawyer didn’t just dream about these things; he did them.

Tom Sawyer is not your average kid; he is the kid that will do whatever he wants whenever he wants. From getting engaged, getting trapped in a cave and trying to catch a murderer, Tom does this in a comical, bad boy way that won’t make you want to put this book down. Tom does have a little help though. His allies Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper lead him through a path of calmness and teach him how to be a good boy. NOT! If anything they lead him through a path of pranks and make a bad boy into a worse boy. If you would like to know more about this fun-filled, action packed book then stop at your local library and check The Adventures of Tom Sawyer out.

I find the author’s style a bit confusing at some points, for this book was written in 1876. This book has Old English, so make sure you have a dictionary next to you. One example of Old English in the story is when Aunt Polly (Tom’s guardian) is talking to herself, “Spare the rod and spile the child, as the Good Book says. I’m a-laying up sin and suffering for us both, I know. He’s full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! He’s my own dead sister’s boy, poor thing, and I ain’t got the heart to lash him, somehow.” I feel Mark Twain did an excellent job with the characters, especially Tom. I love how Tom has this lazy lifestyle that you just fall in love with, or his comical behavior. One example of this comical behavior is when Aunt Polly is making Tom paint the fence, and Tom finds a way to get boys passing by to do it for him while he just relaxes and sleeps.

I would recommend this book to people who like reading and like challenging books. The author’s style can be a bit challenging. This book would be for you if you like the bad boys that are always getting in trouble and into situations that hurt more than themselves. I know you will enjoy this book as much as I do.

Also available in CD audio book and eBook formats!

Maximum Ride: the Final Warning by James Patterson

Reviewed by Alexander G.
Grade 7

Have you ever dreamed of flying? For some of us it is just a fantasy, but for Max and her friends it's a unique reality that comes at a grim cost. Years ago, a group of scientists started experimenting with genetic hybrids. One group of creations were avian-human hybrids, or half-human, half-bird. These test subjects were Max and her "flock." Ever since escaping from their horrible incarceration, the flock has been chased by the elites of the hybrid creations.

In The Final Warning, the flock mourns the loss of their dead new ally, Ari, who had been an Eraser (half-human, half-wolf) bent on their capture and distruction. Once Ari realized he was lied to and doomed, he joined the flock. After the funeral, Dr. Martinez and Jeb take the flock to Washington DC, to negotiate with the government on the building of a school for them. However, Max, distrusting the officials, declined. Instead, Dr. Martinez told them about a research group heading to Antarctica. They take up the offer and go with the team. Weeks later, the flock is captured by a horrible creation of Itex, Gozen. They are taken to a building in Miami, where they meet the Uber-Director of Itex.

Compared to the previous books, this part of the series is relatively short. Also, there is a lot less action/fighting and more relationships, internal conflict, and a highly stressed moral that polluting is bad.

I would recommend this book to readers that enjoy books about the environment, like Flush by Carl Hiaasen. However, I would not recommend this book to people who want an extremly exciting and action-packed plot, unless you are an avid reader of the Maximum Ride series.

Also available in CD audio book format!

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Reviewed by Tanuj B.
Grade 10

What do you enjoy doing at Christmastime? Opening presents? Visiting family members? Catching up with your friends? How about a scavenger hunt, conducted through a red notebook? Because when Dash finds a red notebook full of dares, he is drawn to the challenges it lists and the prospect of love it offers. As Dash and Lily trade their book of dares back and forth, both of them get the other to do things that he or she would never do.

Alone at Christmastime, Dash decides to spend his days at the Strand, a rather large bookstore, looking for, you guessed it, a nice book. But when he finds a red notebook lodged next to Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, filled with dares such as finding books titled Fat Hoochie Prom Queen, The Joys of Gay Sex, and other lesser known works, well, who could resist? He agrees to the challenge, and leaves a note with the cashier for the owner of the red notebook to find. In the meantime, Lily, also alone, is spending her Christmas cooped up at home, her parents in Fiji and her brother with his boyfriend. So she agrees when her brother makes up a way to get her a friend of the opposite sex and leaves the notebook at the Strand. She’s quite surprised when she finds someone takes her up on the dare and leaves one of their own. And so Dash and Lily start to trade their dares and their memories back and forth. Throughout the book, they visit places such as a wax museum, a mall, the movie theater, and a nightclub, and leave their comfort zones to make Muppets, break grandma’s boots out, and feel up a stranger at the mall.

The difference in the authors' style of writing each chapter is great to characterize Dash and Lily. Because the two authors wrote each chapter of the book independently and then sent the finished sample to the other author so that he or she could write the next one, Dash and Lily’s characters develop extremely well. Dash’s chapters seem to be filled with sarcasm and witty retorts, while Lily’s are filled with unreal threats, for the most part. Both of the authors seem to be going for humor to make the book interesting but do so in different ways, using irony and wit. For example, when Dash first finds the red notebook, and has to find Fat Hoochie Prom Queen, he resolves to ask the man behind the counter. He says something along the lines of, “I’m looking for Fat Hoochie Prom Queen.” Pause. “It’s a book, not a person.” When Lily is faced with a problem, while trying to find a solution, she sometimes threatens to do things that the reader would never imagine her to do. For example, she seems to want to use her parents’ guilt at making her do something she doesn’t want to do to get a puppy, or perhaps a bunny. It just makes her look ridiculous. These not only make the reader like the characters, it makes the characters like each other. To Lily, through his writings and her family’s descriptions, Dash seems like a snarling hipster that might wear purple often (which he is), while Lily is conveniently described as “the weird girl” by Dash (which she is).

I definitely, positively recommend this book. Not only does it illustrate an important theme (one that I and many other people too, I suspect, often have problems with), the characters are rich and funny, as is the conflict, the plot, and anything else about it. Will Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares result in two good friends, disappointment, or love? One thing’s for sure: I know I loved this book, and I’m quite sure you will too!

Also available in downloadable eBook form!

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Reviewed by: Angela W.
Grade 9

Soar with Eragon and Saphira over the Hadarac desert. Hike through a deadly mountain chain with the villagers of Carvahall and Roran, Eragon’s cousin. Dance with the elves of Ellesmera. To get there, all you need to do is jump into Eldest, the second book in the Inheritance Cycle, and then join Eragon and Saphira, two unlikely partners that are out to save Alagaesia from the evil King Galbatorix.

Eragon, a sixteen year-old Rider who grew up on a farm, and Saphira, a young dragon that, as an egg, was rescued from the king, are sent to train with the elves in the forest of Du Weldenvarden. Eragon begins to show his affection for Arya, a century old elf-maiden who works with the Varden. Can they ever be together? Meanwhile, Saphira’s hopes of finding a mate are renewed when they make a sudden discovery at the edge of Ellesmera, the elven city where they are staying. Will anything come of it? Back in Carvahall, Eragon and Roran’s hometown, the village has just been attacked by the king’s soldiers. Several people have died, and Katrina, the one Roran holds most dear, has just been stolen from him. Is it at all possible the she is still alive? Roran manages to convince the village to leave their homes in search of safety, with an underlying mission of avenging Katrina’s death or rescuing her if she is still alive. Throughout the story, you receive many surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant, with one final twist that will totally surprise you.

I found that although Eragon has such a high stature and is revered all over Alagaesia because he is a Rider, he is still just a normal, sixteen-year-old boy on the inside. One example of this is when Eragon was sparring with another elf. The elf was chiding him about how he was inferior to the elves, who were much more agile, and Eragon lost his temper and bound the elf with magic. I commend Mr. Paolini on creating a whole new language (called the Ancient Language), and a different, new kind of magic that seems so versatile and diverse in how the characters use it.

I enjoyed reading this book, but it sometimes seemed a little bit slow. The descriptions were very good though, and I could clearly picture the places they went to. I think I would probably recommend this book to people that like fantasy and action, especially if they always think to themselves, “The thicker the book, the better!” I would also recommend that you read Eragon, the first book, before you read this one, but if you don’t, Mr. Paolini has kindly placed a detailed summary in the beginning of this volume.

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

Reviewed by Eve B.
Grade 8

"From London to Suez via Mont Cenis and Brindisi, by rail and steamboats...7 days. From Suez to Bombay, by steamer...13. From Bombay to Calcutta, by rail...3. From Calcutta to Hong Kong, by steamer...13. From Hong Kong to Yolohame (Japan), by steamer...6. From Yokohama to San Francisco, by steamer.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif..22. From San Francisco to New York, by rail...7. From New York to London by steamer and rail...9. Total...80 days." Is it possible to travel around the world in 80 days? In the twenty-first century, definitely. But in 1872, maybe not.

Around the World in 80 Days, written in 1873, begins in England where the reader is introduced to Phileas Fogg. Mr. Fogg goes to the Reform Club to play cards and finds himself in the middle of a bet. The bet takes him and his friends on exciting adventures around the world. Due to a recent robbery, Fogg is secretly followed, and obstacles are placed in this way to end his travels. Fogg races to win the bet. Will he make the deadline or be foiled by the secret follower?

Jules Verne creates unique and interesting characters. He gives the reader a clear picture of who the characters are but leaves some suspicion to keep the reader reading. For example Jules Verne describes Phileas Fogg in the first chapter. "He was not lavish, no, on the contrary, avaricious; for, whenever he knew that money was needed for a noble, useful, or benevolent purpose, he supplied it quietly and sometime anonymously. He was, in short, the least communicative of men. He talked very little, and seemed all the more mysterious for his taciturn manner." This is just one example which leads the reader to assume by Mr. Foggs actions that he is wealthy and generous man. The author uses descriptive words to create interesting settings of the places Mr. Fogg travels.

The book was certainly interesting and worth the reader's time to read. It is available in hard cover, paperback, online, and in downloadable format. The vocabulary seemed more advanced than books written more recently. Will Phileas Fogg win the bet? I recommend teens read this book and follow Phileas Fogg, and those who follow him, on his adventures to cities around the world.

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham

Reviewed by Lucas Najera
Grade 5

Do you like mysteries and realistic fiction plus adventure and a little law? Then I have the book for you! It is Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham . John Grisham mainly writes adult books, but he has started writing a series for young adults. This is the first book in the series.

Theodore Boone is a kid who goes to school like any other kid. Both of his parents are lawyers, so Theodore loves law. After school he spends his afternoons at either the courthouse or his parents’ law firm. Naturally, he gets involved in a big trial that is going on. He is the only person that can help the prosecution who is doing rather poorly. What Theodore knows can change the whole outcome of the trial. It’s risky, but only he knows the whole truth. But he’s only 13 years old. Will anyone even believe him?

My evaluation of the book is that the author did a great job. I liked the conflict between a normal kid and how the truth enslaves him. Also, the author has other mysteries and crimes throughout the book in addition to the big trial, so Theodore can solve more than just one problem or crime. The author's writing of the Theodore character is just brilliant. I am actually learning more about law and becoming very interested. The author puts it together piece by piece just like a puzzle.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. It is one that you truly will not be able to put down. But good news when you finish this book...the next book in the series is now available.

No Talking by Andrew Clements

Reviewed by Lucas Najera
Grade 5

So, who is going to lose first? Will it be the boys or the girls? Something strange is happening in the class, and the principal wants to know what.

No Talking by Andrew Clements is a fictional story about two kids in fifth grade at Lake Elementary. The characters are known for a name given to them by the teachers, the “un-hushables”. They just never stop talking. The principal would try to get them to be quiet by using a big bull horn in the cafeteria and say “QUIET!” But even that didn't work. In the story you will find out why they actually stopped talking all of a sudden. Yes, it was a miracle! No one could believe it.

I believe the author did a bad job by not having these children not get into trouble during the story. If children actually behaved the way the characters did in school they would definitely be in trouble. The children were disrespectful to the teachers and principal. In real life this would not be acceptable behavior. It truly sets a bad example for children who read this book. I would like to see more positive role models in books.

The competition is only a part of the book, but it is a major component to the story and where most of the disrespect was shown. Therefore, unfortunately I cannot recommend that other kids read this book. It just sets such a bad role model for the reader.