Unwind

When I first began Unwind, it was a little boring and I thought it was pretty predictable. However, I pushed myself to read it until I was about a third of the book through. That’s when I couldn’t put it down. I was reading it every single chance I got. There’s so much action and passion in the story that you can’t pull yourself away from it. Also, the ending is completely unexpected! Throughout the book, I felt like I was friends with the main characters and was nervous for their future. Neal Shusterman has done such and amazing job pulling Unwind together!! Totally an awesome choice!
~Lizzie

The Gollywhopper Games

The Gollywhopper Games, is a fun, entertaining book, that will keep you reading from cover to cover. It’s about a boy names Gil Goodsonwho wants to move away from all the commotion from the Incident. They will move if Gil win the Gollywhopper Games, he’ll have to complete mind bending puzzles, and master crazy Stunts as they call it in the book. Friendships among the players will be crushed when the competion heats up. I hope you read this book.
-Carolyn

Night

An autobiography of the time he spent in a concentration camp, Elie Wiesel creates a vivid picture of the life of a Jewish person during Hitler’s regime. Forced into a ghetto, at age fifteen, along with his Jewish community, Wiesel thinks that his situation cannot get any worse. However, he is mistaken when he finds out that he will be sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp. This a gripping tale of the courage it takes to never give up on yourself or the people you love.

~N

Chinese Cinderella

You might think this book sounds like it is for little kids, but it isn’t. It is about a girl named Wu Mei.  She lives with her stepmother or there Niang(chinese for mother), Aunt baba, her many siblings, Ye Ye (grand father), Nai Nai (grandmother), and her father.  She is treated poorly by her stepmother and has to walk to school.  She won’t take the money her Aunt baba or her Ye Ye  our offering her to take the tram.  She isn’t allowed to, her Stepmother told her not to she told her siblings too.  All her siblings take the tram when they aren’t allowed, but she wants to follow the rules.  This is a great book I got to chapter 9 in 1 hour and 16 minutes.  I couldn’t put it down.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini

Written after The Kite Runner,  this book takes place in Afghanistan with overlapping events. Instead of a tale of two boys, however, it defines the lives of two women, Laila and Mariam, in a period of turmoil and change . 

As an illegitamate child of a powerful man of Herat, a city in Afghanistan, and his housekeeper, Mariam felt that her birth prevented her from having a claim on things that legitamate people had: love, forgiveness and aceptance.  Brought up by her bitter mother, she grew to be meek, and to accept her situation without complaint: to follow others because ingrained in her mind she believed she was a half person. Married off because her father wanted to finally get rid of the shame of fathering a child out of wed lock, she becomes the wife of Rasheed, who is more than twice as old as herself at the time.  AFter failing again and again in pregnacy, he finds her a burdan and abuses her. He complains of her food, the cleanliness of the house and her withering looks. Nothing MAriam can do pleases him as it once had: when he had hopes and saw her as his fresh young bride.

Rasheed digs a girl out of the ruins of her house, which was bombed and killed the rest of her family. He makes her his wife. He name is Laila, and although she doesnt love him, she needs his shelter and protection in dangerous times.

Mariam is furious. Rasheed is more than 60 now, and the girl is 14. She feels that the girl threatens her fragile and unhappy life within Rasheed’s walls. The life that she strongly dislikes, but is all she has.

But, when Laila stands up to Rasheed for Mariam’s sake, she allows her walls to come down and let in the friendship and care that Laila wants to give to Mariam. Afterwards, they are a team. Braving life’s cruel winds together.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is just as good as the Kite Runner. It addresses what it means to love and what it takes to give it. I is a story of redemption and of acceptance. It reminds us that we can be alone or choose a way out. And ultimately, it is a quest of happiness and sacrifice for those you love.
~Catherine

The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd
The Secret Life of Bees was by far the best book I have read this summer. The story line was everything I could have imagined. It kept me engaged and I could not put the book down. It all starts whit a girl named Lily who lives on a peach farm with her dad, who she calls T. Ray. T. Ray is always mean to her and makes her kneel on grits when she disobeys. She runs away and breaks her maid, Rosaleen, out of Jail. She escapes to Tiburon, South Carolina where she thinks her mother visited before she died. She stayes with African American women, developes friendships, and learns secrets about her mother that she wishes she never knew. This book is gripping and emotional. I highly recomend you reading this book.
—Makayla

Home of the Brave

                              
Home of the Brave
by Katherine Applegate
I picked up Home of the Brave thinking I would not like it because it was written in poems. I was very wrong. Home of the Brave was one of my favorite books that I have read so far this summer. It really gives you an idea of how unfortunate some people are in other countries when the main character discovers so many new things in America. He is so used to having so little and not living with any lixuries that he doesn’t know what to do with all this new unfarmilliar technology. My favorite part was when the main character puts dishes in the washing machine. He thinks it washes anything but he ends up breaking all the dishes. He tells the book through his eyes when he moves to America from Africa and teaches us through his struggles how to be a good friend to everyone even when they are not one to you. I highly recomend this book even to people who do not like poetry.
—Makayla

All of the Above

All of the Above
by Shelley Pearsall
All of the Above was a really great book. It wasn’t action packed of adventurous but it was so interesting. I could not put the book down as a read about these kids in a math club trying to break a record. It even amazed me more that it was based on a true story. I think everyone should read this book. The book brought out every emotion a good book should bring out such as saddness, happines, exitement, laughter, and many more. My favorite part was when the people in the afterschool math club start to make there structure again even after the whole thing was destroyed when they were so close to finishing it. This book brought out frendship, leadership, and artistic talent in the most unlikely people in the story. I highly recomend this great read.
—Makayla

Sleepaway Girls

Sleepaway Girls
by Jen Calonita
AMAZING BOOK!! It is about a girl named Sam Montgomery who decides to take a break from her life dealing with her best friend, Mal, and her new boyfriend, Mark, to experience camp for the first time as a CIT (counseler in training) With the hottest counseler in camp on her radar, Sam becomes an instant “celebrity.” However, boys, friends, and hilarious pranks are only the beginning. The camp’s “it girl”, Ashley, doesnt like Sam’s new popularity and will do anything to get back to the top. Thus, the rivalry begins. Sam learns to survive the horrors of being a teenager and has a blast at camp with her group of friends they call the Sleepaway Girls. This book is constantly connecting teens to the modern world so it is so easy to relate to. Twilight fans will enjoy the love triangle that gives the book its unexpected twists. 5 stars!!!!
~Caroline

Charlie Bone and The Time Twister

Charlie Bone and the Time Twister
By: Jenny Nimmo
Charlie Bone isn’t my usual read. I’ve had The Time Twister paperback from a 4th grade bingo winning, but it’s not horrible.

Although I don’t absolutely love this book, I picked it up because I had nothing left to read and found that it wasn’t bad. In fact, it kept me interested until my next visit to the library.

Charlie Bone and the Time Twister is the second in the series, where Henry, the long lost brother of Charlie’s grandfather is sucked from his time of 1916 and into Charlie Bone’s life. Henry, who had angered his cousin Ezekel Bloor, founnd a magic marble, planted by Ezekel, that sent him whipping through time.

Ezekel discovers that his cousin is back, as young as the day he sent him packing, and Henry, thrust into a situation where most people he knows are dead and can trust no one becomes a hunted boy…

The Charlie Bone series is a bit of a Harry Potter ripoff, but if you have nothing else to read, it will do just fine.
~Catherine