2020-2021 School Year
November 2020
Student: Raelyn
Book: With the Fire on High
Author: Elizabeth Acevedo
Rating: 5 stars
Review: This book is about a teenage girl named Emoni. She had a child her freshman year and in the book, she’s a senior and she talks about the struggles of raising her daughter, Emma, over the years of high school. The biggest part of the story, though, is her cooking. Emoji is a very good cook and ends up using this ability to join a cooking class. She ends up raising enough money for her and the cooking class to go on a trip to Spain to learn other cooking techniques and to explore. The book ends with everything that’s going on in her life settling just fine, and she gets accepted into a college with a culinary arts program.
This book was very good because it’s realistic and written well. The story gets you on the edge of your seat at times because of the drama that goes on in the story. The story was also very good at explaining everything, and it’s very easy to understand what’s going on. It kept me interested the whole time.
#ILoveCooking #PrettyLeslie #Spain
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Student: Jacob
Book: Adventurers Wanted: Slathbog’s Gold
Author: M.L. Forman
Rating: 4 stars
Review: My book is about a boy named Alexander Taylor, or as everyone calls him, Alex. Alex wants to do something exciting in his life and get away from his current boring one. Alex so happens to find a mysterious shop named Mr. Clutter’s Bookshop with a magical sign that said, “Adventurers wanted; apply within.” After going into the shop and talking to Mr. Clutter, he starts his grand adventure with a group of others. They must slay the might dragon Slathbog. With his party members, he goes on many different quests with plenty of rewards and a lot of danger.
I think this book deserves 4 stars because I had a good time reading it. Its overall story-telling, multiple adventures, and character development is what I like best about the book. The only thing I would say is “bad” in the book is the lapse in time. It is not easy to follow. It goes from skipping a couple of days to skipping a couple of months. The rest of it I enjoyed and would read again.
#Alex’sFirstAdventure #PotentialWizard #SlathbogSlain
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Student: Eliana
Book: The Lucky One
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Rating 4 ½ stars
Review: The Lucky One is about logan, a marine, who finds a picture on duty in Iraq. No one claimed it, so he decided to keep it. When he comes home he decides to find the woman in the picture. He finds the woman and her name is Beth Clayton. She has one child, a boy named Ben, and has just been recently divorced. There is an instant attraction to her and their love story immediately begins.
This book was very good and it kept my nose in it with the ongoing suspense. I love anything with romance, so I really enjoyed this book. One thing I didn’t like was the back and forth between all the characters. One chapter would be talking about Logan, and the next one would be about Beth, Clayton, and so on. It was hard at some points to keep track of who was doing what. Overall, though, it was a great book.
#Romantic #CrazyEx #MagnificentMarine
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Student: Alyson
Book: I am Malala
Author: Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai
Rating: 4 ½ stars
Review: I Am Malala is based on a true story about Malala’s life. In the story she is a very young teenage girl that loves to dance. However, her family gets uprooted by terrorism. Her father owned a school, so Malala took her education very seriously. One day on her way home from school she was riding the bus and some men got on and shot her. No one really expected her to live, but she did, and she continued to fight for her education and the education of others.
I really liked this book. It was very inspirational and keeps you on the edge of your seat about what will happen next. This is a true story, so I feel like that makes it even better. Malala stands up for herself, so she is a very good role model. The only reason I didn’t give the book a 5 star rating was because it has some pretty sad parts. Somehow they still managed to make the best of every situation, but in my opinion that made it a 4 ½ instead of a 5.
#Education #UseYourVoice #StandUp
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Student: Caitlyn
Book: The Knowing
Author: Sharon Cameron
Rating: 4 stars
Review:
There are two sides to this story, both with completely different perspectives. One character is Samara Archiva, a person who lives on another planet and, most importantly, can remember everything. The other is Beckett Rodriguez, a boy from Earth who has come to study the planet that Samara lives on along with his partner, Jillian. Samara has lived through a lot of terrible memories and wants to forget, but the only way to do that is escape her highly guarded city and go to the “Cursed City,” a place of forgetting. Once at this city, all the characters meet up unexpectedly and have to avoid the Council, the people in power at Samara’s city. Along this journey, many questions appear like why Samara can’t forget, what is Earth planning to do to that planet, and, most importantly, who to trust?
I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars because it is a really interesting book, but the story could sometimes get confusing for me. This is coming from a person that didn’t know that this book was in a series. I actually found that out after I started reading, which led to almost dropping the book because I didn’t understand what was happening at the beginning. But, when the conflict hit and everything clicked, the story got really good. It contained a little bit of everything, some action, mystery, sci-fi, and, of course, some romance. It kept me entertained and interested. On the other hand, it gets harder to understand when you get around the end of the book, when all the loose ends start to get tied up. It was all very confusing at first, but I eventually understood too. In the end, this book may seem really confusing to understand at first, but if you keep reading it, it gets really good!
#WithoutMemoryWeAreNothing #LostCanaanProject #BeCarefulWhoYouTrust
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Student: Tori
Book: Frozen Charlotte
Author: Alex Bell
Rating: 4 ½ stars
Review:
Sophie is the main character of the book and the tragedy that strikes her friend Jay after messing around with a Ouija board app is what spurs her onto finding the ghost of her dead cousin. Whilst she tries to find the cause of Jay’s death, a series of events will happen that will change her life forever. After her parents had left a few weeks later, Sophie went to visit her cousins in Skye. Her cousin told her a story told about the Frozen Charlotte dolls; according to claims the dolls are responsible for the death of a teacher, poking a girl’s eyes out with sewing needles and other incidents. Sophie learns her newest cousin Lilias who is 7, is afraid of bones because of a story her sister Piper had told her. Lilias claims she can see her sister Rebecca and only likes her because she is the same age as her when she had died, Sophie thought it was nothing… Until one day Lilias shows Sophie Rebecca’s bedroom with tiny Frozen Charlotte dolls in a cabinet locked up.
I really enjoyed this book, it had very many aspects to it. It was suspenseful, yet intriguing. The story was well told and to keep things interesting, Bell added action and twists in unexpected places. The characterization and added mystery made up for anytimes that the story seemed predictable. The only thing I didn’t like about the book is that it didn’t give us more information about the origin of the dolls.
#BewareTheDolls #KeepTheGateLocked #YouShouldn’tBeHere
October 2020
Student: Caleb
Book: Genius: The Con
Author: Leopoldo Gout
Rating: 4 ½ stars
Review: The book Genius: The Con is the second book in Gout’s series. Its characters include an excellent coder named Rex, an amazing engineer named Tunde, a blogger and journalist named Cai, an evil and powerful general named Iyabo, a young but very successful inventor and futurist named Kiran, and many others. In the beginning, Rex, Tunde, and Cai, who are close friends, have been framed for stealing information from many governments after a “game” set up by Kiran in the first book. Throughout the book, the three try and figure out what is going on between Kiran and General Iyabo.
#GeniusAtWork #SubterfugeAndMindGames #TechnologyRulesPowerDrools
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Student: Zoe
Book: Heaven is For Real
Author: Todd Burpo
Rating: 5 stars
Review: This book is about a little boy named Colton Burpo. He went to heaven and back. Colton had to have an emergency appendectomy when he was three years old. Colton told his parents that he left his body while he was in surgery. He talked about going to heaven and seeing people who died even before he was born. He had never met these people, but he knew their names and faces. He told details about heaven that was too advanced for a three-year-old to know. He told thorough stories from the Bible, even though he hadn’t read the stories yet. Todd Burpo is Colton’s dad, and he is a pastor. He goes through a tough time with his faith, but then Colton makes him realize many things.
I gave this book a five star rating because I think this was one of the best books I have ever read. I love books and shows that are about people’s lives. I liked the fact that the story is through the dad’s point of view. This gives us a different point of view than the main character. Colton’s story through a pastor’s eyes is much more impactful than what Colton’s point of view would be. The book makes you think about eternity and heaven in a different way, and if books make you really think, then I think those are the best books.
#God’sMercy #MakingMiracles #BetterBeliever #ThroughAChild’sEyes
#BelieveLikeAChild #LittleMiracles #SaviorSurgery
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Student: Katie
Book: The Influencers
Author: Kassandra Garrison (Centralia author!!)
Rating: 4 1/2 stars
Review: Darcy was kidnapped after her mother died. She was taken to a facility to live in called the Society. People who live there live by a specific schedule every day, and live with someone. Darcy’s roommate was named Kate. At the Society, Darcy meets a boy named Ben. They fall in love. Ben’s parents created the society for good things, but when Ben’s aunt took over it was not being used for good anymore. When Darcy found out Ben’s aunt was the president of the Society they broke up. Darcy and some other people decide they want to take down the society. So they come up with a plan to do.
I really enjoyed the book. I like how it talked about Darcy and Ben’s past, and how it showed their relationship together. I think there was never really a dull moment in the book because you were always finding out something new. The reason I didn’t rate it a 5/5 is because I wish they touched on more how Darcy and the other recruits got there. I also didn’t like the cliffhanger at the end. Other than that I think it was a very interesting book.
#BenAndDarcy #MissionTakeDownSociety #SelfDefenseClass
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Student: Raelyn
Book: Walk Two Moons
Author: Sharon Creech
Rating: 5 stars
Review: I think this book deserved 5 stars because it wasn’t ever boring. The whole story was very mysterious and kept me on the edge of my seat and made me want to keep reading more. It really provides a lot detail throughout the story and everything that goes on in the story falls into place perfectly. Even though some parts of the story are very sad, there are definitely some funny and happy parts in the story that make up for the few sad moments.
#TheBlindCanSee #ILoveTrees #BlackberryKisses #Cadaver=DeadBody #HuzzaHuzza
