Book+Reviews+2B+2013

**Annie Wang** This book follows the story of a young boy Eliezer, who lives in Sighet. In 1944, Jews in his town are forced to live in ghettos. Then they are moved to Birkenau. Here, Eliezer and his father are separated from his mother and sisters. When he arrives, the Germans evaluate the Jews to see whether or not they should be killed or if they are able to work. The Jews that are "selected", are able to live, however have extreme working conditions. Eliezer works in Buna, in an electricity factory. After a few months, Eliezer's foot is infected. He is treated in the infirmary, and the Nazis decide to move the Jews since the Russians come. The Jews are forced on a death march in the middle of the snowstorm to another concentration camp. Many die because of the harsh conditions of cold and exhaustion. To the very end, we stick with Eliezer to hang onto the small chance of hope that they might be saved. This was an emotional book that really opened my eyes. Many of these events that occurred shocked me and I couldn't imagine how bad it must have been. I recommend this book to everyone because there is a lot of material that is educating, and this book is poignant. While it is a short read, it is an extremely powerful one. **Rate: 9/10**
 * __Night__ by Elie Wiesel**

__**I Am The Cheese**__ __**Robert Cormier**__ __**JiSup Kim**__ I Am the Cheese is a book that is narrated by a teenager called Adam Farmer. The novel starts from when he is biking from Massachusetts to Vermont to visit his father in the hospital. Throughout his journey we find out that he has all sorts of fears. As he meets new people and strangers on his way to the hospital, he sings the song "The Farmer in the Dell" which was their family theme song. After a few events Adam realizes that there is something wrong with his life. His girlfriend's, Amy Hertz, phone number is no longer hers for the past three years, and the motel he remembers having stayed at the year before is abandoned, also for the past three years. Adam starts to panic. After a while he arrives at the hospital in Vermont. We are then informed that he is a patient at the hospital. He passes some other patients and we discover that all the patients he pass are the people he meets during his bike ride to the hospital. A doctor named Brint interviews him and asks him a lot of questions about his "past life" and he slowly helps Adam remember what happened. His father was a witness to government corruption and they had to change all the family members' name to the Farmers. His original name was Paul Delmonte. As Brint helps Adam uncover more memories, we finally start to uncover Adam's past life. I liked this book because it jumped around from Adam's past to the reality. It was also interesting how slowly throughout the novel we start to find out that the narrator is unreliable, which created more suspense. Whoever likes books with a twist at the end with love this novel.
 * Rate: 9.7/10**


 * __The Ask and the Answer__**
 * __Patrick Ness__**
 * __Ryan Dang__**

The Ask and the Answer is a sequel to __The Knife of Never Letting Go.__ Todd and Viola have made it to Haven, where they might finally escape from the advancing army of Prentisstown. However, when they enter Haven, they find the Mayor of Prentisstown waiting for them. Todd and Viola are separated. When they wake, they find themselves in New Prentisstown, the new name of Haven. Todd is assigned tasks by the Mayor such as taking care of the Spackle. The Spackle are creatures that first inhabited that world before the humans came and colonized it. The Spackle were trapped and used as farm animals for the humans. Meanwhile, Viola wakens and meets Mistress Coyle, a healer who helps anyone who comes to her. Viola finds out that Mistress Coyle is the leader of a secret organization called the Answer. The Mayor forms the Ask, as a counterpart to the Answer. Todd must follow the orders of the Mayor whether he wants to or not, because deep inside he is still thinking about saving Viola.

__**Ender's Game**__ __**Orson Scott Card**__ __**Justin Luo**__ Ender's Game is a science fiction novel set in the future about a boy named Ender Wiggim who is selected by the military to train and help humanity fight the buggers (aliens). He is the third child in a two child policy society, and is often bullied by other people (his brother and other people) in Battle school. Graff, Ender's trainer, sees Ender's unique potential and thinks he can save the world. Ender is put in charge of a small platoon shortly after demonstrating his prowess. He shows his genius in mind battles and always outplays the enemy in practice fights. After beating out every opponent squad and humiliating his rivals, Ender is sent to the international fleet to advance his training. Ender learns most about the enemy buggers and that they communicate mentally, instantly. He starts having strange dreams and dreams about fighting the buggers in battles and winning them. But soon he finds out that these battles are real and his teachers are using his mind to help them defeat the enemies. He also realizes that he has wiped out the entire bugger colony (xenocide) and Ender fell into a deep depression. At that time, earth was in a civil war, so Ender stays in the command school. On a mission to help populate Earth's colonies again, Ender found a queen larva left by the buggers. He finds out from the larva (telepathy) that the buggers thought humans were non-intelligent beings. (like trees and birds) and greatly regretted fighting in the first place. They wanted to draw back but they could not communicate to humans. Ender takes the egg and decides that he will help the buggers start a new life in another planet. Overall, I enjoyed this book and I feel like it is very non-cliche. My favorite part was at the end when Ender realizes that the buggers are not bad but are mistaken. The abruptly of that part will change the entire course of the book. I recommend this book to anybody that likes science fiction or action books. 9/10

__**Fahrenheit 451**__ __**Ray Bradbury**__ __**JiSup Kim**__ The portagonist of this novel is a "fireman" (people who burn books) called Guy Montag who lives in a futuristic society. One day, he meets a seventeen year old neighbor called Clarisse McClellan. She talks a lot and opens up his mind, making him curious. As his talks with Clarisse go on, he feels dissatisfied with his life. He decides to steal and book and read it. When he comes back, Clarisse disappears and his boss is lectured on the dangers of books, but this just makes him more rebellious. That afternoon he reads with his wife and tries to memorize a part of the Bible. his curiosity drives him to do the extremes and he does not stop to get to know what are in these "books". His actions are taken to the extreme which forces him to face harsh consequences. This book reminded me of the novel 1984 where one man who lives in a futuristic society with a suppressive government tries to go against the system. At the same time, it kind of bored me because of the books' similarities, but I was glad how the end was different.
 * Rate: 7.8**

__**Whale Talk**__ __**Chris Crutcher**__ __**Tiffany Dai**__ T.J. Jones attends Cutter High School, a school that takes pride in its students’ athletic abilities. He refuses to participate in any school organized sport, and infuriates coaches who believe he is wasting his abilities. When Mr. Simet asks him to help him create a swim team to avoid being assistant coach for the wrestling team, T.J. recruits a group of misfits. No one except for T.J. has any swimming experience, but it doesn’t matter because their school doesn’t even have a pool. With a gym membership and daily training, T.J. whips his team into shape, but not for his own benefit. Against the typical jocks of Cutter High, T.J. strives to earn each swimmer on his team a letter jacket. I really enjoyed this book for its story, but even more for its lessons of discrimination and tolerance. T.J.’s voice is really unique, and you can clearly see how his past has influenced his habits and actions in the present. The story was very well written, but the beginning of the book was a little bit slow. This didn’t take away from the overall story, and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.
 * 10/10**


 * Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury **
 * Eleni Chatziparaskeva **

“Fahrenheit 451” is a book about this fireman named Guy Montag. Montag takes pleasure in his profession as a fireman, burning illegally owned books and the homes of their owners. He meets Clarisse McClellan a seventeen year old girl. She’s very chatty, and opens Montag’s mind. Montag keeps on not liking what he is doing with life and work. He starts to wonder if perhaps books aren’t so bad and even steals one from a book burning. The books don’t make complete sense to him but understands their importance. Will he keep on burning book or try to prevent book from becoming extinct? This book is are really well written with a lot of description and imagery. It also shows how the world would be without book and generally gives a different view of the society. I found this book a little boring sometimes. But I would recommend it because it is well written. Score: 8/10

__**Wise Man's Fear**__ __**Patrick Rothfuss**__ __**Ryan Dang**__

Wise Man's Fear is a sequel to The Name of the Wind. In this book, Kvothe continues his studying at the University, where people come to learn magic. However, his studying is hindered by other people. Ambrose, a son of a famous and powerful baron, constantly makes his life harder. Kvothe is a talented musician who has won his talent pipes at the Eolian, a famous musical tavern. The talent pipes are a symbol that the wearer has musical talent and is one of the best out there. Normally, people who earn their talent pipes also earn patrons. Patrons give money, shelter, and other gifts to their musicians. However, Ambrose has told every noble around town bad rumors about Kvothe, sealing his fate as a patronless musician. Kvothe's only chance of a patron, Count Threpe, already has three musicians working for him. However, the Count receives a letter from the Maer, a royal who is just as powerful as the King himself. Kvothe sees this as a chance to gain a patron and take a break from the University. He travels to Vintas to meet the Maer. However, his journey is unexpectedly dangerous. Once he gets to the Maer, he discovers a secret and dastardly plot that threatens the Maer's very life.

I rate this book a 10/10. It has become one of my favorite books. I enjoyed it immensely. However, there is a sex scene inside the book, so anyone who doesn't like that, be forewarned.

Talia Nechelput **The Fault in Our Stars** is a moving novel about Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters who meet at a young adult cancer support group. Hazel is there because she has had Thyroid since the age of 13. ‘Gus’ attended because he lost his leg due to osteosarcoma. Together they use Gus’s wish from when he had cancer to visit Amsterdam to meet and find out the unsolved ending of the book ‘An Imperial Affliction’ from its author Peter Van Houten. While there they end up acting on their feelings to each other and things get steamy. Like in many teen romance novels, something horrible happens and the other is left without closure, therefore the end of this book is tragic and heartbreaking. Though I liked this book, along with the other John Green books I’ve read, the end has been disappointing and I felt that the plot itself was very generic not surprising. It is beautifully written, yet the content is disappointing. I rate this 6/10
 * The Fault in Our Stars **
 * John Green**

Talia Nechelput The novel **13 Little Blue Envelopes is about Virginia** ‘Ginny’ Blackstone a seventeen-year-old girl during the summer before her senior year. Her Aunt Peg has died and left her with 13 Little Blue Envelopes, which are actually instructions to travel around Europe. She is instructed to only bring what fits in a backpack, no electronics, and to not open the next envelope until she has reached her destination or finished the task from the pervious envelope. The envelopes lead her to London, Scotland, Paris, Amsterdam, Denmark, and Greece. In Greece her bag, with the last envelope inside was stolen, yet she made it through the devastation onto the rest of the book (no spoilers). I personally thought this was great book, yet was quite a bit under my reading level. I enjoyed the read, and until the end I felt this story could have actually happened in real life. I have heard about the sequel, in which she acquires the last envelope, but do not plan to read it because I feel it would ruin the end of the book, and it would have no real meaning. I rate this 8/10
 * 13 Little Blue Envelopes**
 * Maureen Johnson**

__Whale Talk__ is a book about a boy who goes to Cutter High School named T.J who's real name is The Tao Jones. His biological mother named him that after a book, whom she also left him due to her drug problems. He is a very talented athlete who made it into the Junior Olympics at the age of thirteen, but doesn't join school sports because they associate with jocks and bullies. Mr. Simet, T.J's favorite teacher, decides to make a swim team so he doesn't have to couch the wrestling team and convinces T.J to join. He gets six more kids who are also known as the 'social rejects' to join his seven man swim team. It's hard for them to be confident about themselves since a bully, Mike Barbour, always shoves their self esteem down the drain. As the season progresses their bond becomes closer and they all share stories about their daily life problems and begin to feel like they belong somewhere. T.J takes one step further and tries to get the whole team letter jackets. This isn't easy to get since letter jackets show athletic achievement. T.J also explains what whale talk means: not being able to communicate how they are feeling. I thought this was really nice because a lot of people who could relate to this. I enjoyed this book very much because I feel like this is what happens in most schools. The lesson is not to just sit around and let people decide what your life should be like, but to overcome the obstacles. Be proud of who you are. This book got me to take a step back and look at everything in a different perspective. I could kind of relate because when I first came to SAS I also felt like a social reject. Not joining clubs or sports because I had no friends to look forward to having fun with. I'm really glad I read this book and it was really good. I recommend it to everyone.
 * __Whale Talk__**
 * __Chris Crutcher__**
 * __Leslie Chen__**
 * 10/10**

Lireal is the second installment in the series 'Abhorsen', and is the sequel to __Sabriel.__ Lireal continues the tale of Sabriel with a completely different person. Lireal is daughter of the Clayr, but she has never received the Sight, which makes her feel insecure and abandoned. From this, she hones her magic and creates a companion in a dog that can talk. In order to find out her true past and birthright, Lireal sets out on a journey full of danger and discovery. Along the way she is caught up in a war with a powerful Free Magic enemy that has held a grudge that transcends centuries and eons. Lireal changes herself to better fit her destiny and role in the Old Kingdom. Like __Sabriel,__ I recommend this for anyone who has a taste for zombies and magic. Nix continues his story of Sabriel and Lireal in this book, weaving a thrilling fantasy tale that had me glued to the book. A Society That Makes You Drink Hyun Jin Geon  Jimmy Park  Lucky Day  The Joy Luck Club  (Another Name  Amy Tan  Joyce Pang  The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan consists of sixteen stories, four chapters, about the lives of four Chinese immigrant women and their four daughters, born in America. The mothers immigrate to America, hoping their daughters will have a better life. The Joy Luck Club is a Mahjong group in a church in San Francisco, where Four mothers play Mahjong, gossip, tell stories, eat, gamble and so on. When Suyang Woo, a member  for  A Society That Makes You Drink) is  Joy Luck Club dies, her daughter, Jing- Mei Woo steps in and takes her place. Jing Mei-Woo finds out from the “Aunties” (Members of the Joy Luck Club) that her mother has two daughters she abandoned in China. She is sent to find the girls and tell them about their mother. Jing Mei-Woo realizes that she doesn’t really know  her mother. There are four sections in the book, “Feathers form a Thousand Li”, “The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates”, “American Translation”, “Queen Mother of the Western Skies”. These four sections are all told in different perspective and set in different times. The first and last one, are from the mothers’ Perspective. And the second and third one, are from the daughters’ perspective. The most memorable story for me was from Chapter 3, “The Red Candle”. This story is about Lindo (Member of the Joy Luck Club) telling her daughter, Waverly, about her previous wedding. It talks about Lindo being forced into marriage, being forced to be an obedient wife and how she avoided the marriage strategically. I enjoyed reading this book. It consists of many wonderful flashbacks and beautiful symbols. I didn’t really have trouble understanding some of the Chinese terms in the book. However, at times I got really confused about the names of characters and had to constantly look back to make sure I have them right. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an interesting read! Rating: 9.5/10 The Giver Lois Lowry  Justin Luo  The Giver by Lois Lowry is a dystopian fiction book set in the future in an  extremely irony, since the theme is brain-washing society. Jonas, the main character, is assigned a job when you get he is 12 to be a Receiver. This means that he will receive all the memories that the Giver has. These memories are memories of the community before it was terraformed, suppressive, and emotionless. This showed Jonas what music was, love was, and what colors looked like. He also learned about war, starvation, and misery. Jonas felt tired and sick of the community because of its inability to experience reality and the people's ignorance. One day, Jonas asked the Giver to show him what "release" meant, a term that is used by the community when people are sent away to "elsewhere." Little does he know, the people are being given lethal injections to kill them. Jonas plans an escape with the Giver but at the last second, takes a new born child named Gabriel. This child is planned to be released and Jonas loves this kid so he takes him too. Jonas steals his dad's bike and bikes out of the community. The journey is hard and it is cold. Jonas and the baby are freezing and are dying when Jonas believes that they have finally stepped out into "elsewhere." The book ends with jonas believing he is hearing music and seeing colors in the freezing cold. The author ended it so abruptly because she wanted the audience to guess what happened to Jonas in the end: if he died or lived a real life. I personally believed that he survived because if he died thats just too lucky, you will get unlucky. sad and all the memories would be lost. This book somehow intellects the society in Cho-Sun (Past Time of Korea), which is how the world was unfair and dirty. The story is very tragic, which is feeling bad for the character. However, in some point of view, people blamed the main character for interesting and I enjoyed it very much. I would recommend this situation. The story starts with a guy, book to anyone who is a wagon driver. He has a wife and newborn baby. He is poor and right now, his wife is suffering from pain. All he can do is earn some money and buy her chicken soup. One day, he uses all of his money and buys a chicken soup for his wife. Wife is sick and asked her husband to stay with her but husband denies, since he has to work. There are barely 3 people in a day, who use the wagon. It's not a good number of people. However, today is different. There are 10 people, waiting for his wagon. He says, "What a lucky day and I feel I'm alive! I will call my friend and I will buy him some food." He goes into high costly looking restaurant and orders bunch of food. He says,"You drink and eat as much as you can my friend. I will buy for you!" he gets drunk and he goes, "My life is horrible but fantastic…" (Irony) When the mood changes good, his friend goes, "I thought your wife was sick…You should just go and look her. Remember, if something is too lucky, something is going bad." This is the story that I can tell you so far (Since ending is big twist). This book is amazing, since he has so many ironies and foreshadows. It creates high suspense and makes readers nervous. likes to read about science fiction related or futuristic books. 9/10
 * __Lireal__**
 * __Garth Nix__**
 * __Gillian Hei__**
 * 10/10**

__Lucky Day__(Another Name for A Society That Makes You Drink) is extremely irony, since the theme is when you get too lucky, you will get unlucky. This book somehow intellects the society in Cho-Sun (Past Time of Korea), which is how the world was unfair and dirty. The story is very tragic, which is feeling bad for the character. However, in some point of view, people blamed the main character for this situation. The story starts with a guy, who is a wagon driver. He has a wife and newborn baby. He is poor and right now, his wife is suffering from pain. All he can do is earn some money and buy her chicken soup. One day, he uses all of his money and buys a chicken soup for his wife. Wife is sick and asked her husband to stay with her but husband denies, since he has to work. There are barely 3 people in a day, who use the wagon. It's not a good number of people. However, today is different. There are 10 people, waiting for his wagon. He says, "What a lucky day and I feel I'm alive! I will call my friend and I will buy him some food." He goes into high costly looking restaurant and orders bunch of food. He says,"You drink and eat as much as you can my friend. I will buy for you!" he gets drunk and he goes, "My life is horrible but fantastic…" (Irony) When the mood changes good, his friend goes, "I thought your wife was sick…You should just go and look her. Remember, if something is too lucky, something is going bad." This is the story that I can tell you so far (Since ending is big twist). This book is amazing, since he has so many ironies and foreshadows. It creates high suspense and makes readers nervous.
 * A Society That Makes You Drink**
 * Hyun Jin Geon**
 * Jimmy Park**

__**Whale Talk**__ __**Chris Crutcher**__ __**Justin Luo**__ Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher is a fictional novel about a young boy named T.J who tries to gain respect for himself, his friends, and his swim team at Cutter High School. T.J is a talented swimmer but doesn't want to join high school sports because he dislikes jocks and bullies that are usually associated with those sports. Everyone favored athletes and disliked nerds. T.J decides to break the social ranking in the school and tries to make a 7 man swim team. The people in his swim team are considered uncool. For example, there is a nerd who knows too much knowledge, a kid who is super fat, and a ordinary kid named Jackie Craig. Slowly but surely, the 7 start bonding on long swim meet road trips and they learn about each others problems and help each other out. T.J tells the group of friends what Whale talk means: being unable to communicate your feelings even though you are trying. This actually applies to the whole swim team because they are not accepted by being different. T.J also wants to get a letter jacket, which is considered a very high honor, meaning that your team is legit and that you are respected. However, The cool jocks (barbour and atheltic council) dont' want that to happen because they think the swim team are a bunch of losers. But in the end, T.J organizes a final swim meet, but he fails to meet the requirements (beat your old times) to get a letter jacket. He doesn't feel too bad and claims that the swim team **will** earn the respect of everyone and prove to the jocks that they are equals. I enjoyed this short book because it is quite simplistic yet very inspiring. T.J is very brave and defends himself and all the people who are considered losers. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading young adult novels. This book makes you realize how harsh reality can be sometimes in school.

9/10

__**Paper Towns**__ __**John Green**__ __**Jessica Moh**__ __Paper Towns__ by John Green is a fictional novel about a young boy who was best friends with Margo Roth Spiegelman, who then goes on a search looking for her. Questin "Q" Jacobsen is an average high school student who is best friends with Ben Starling and Marcus "Radar" Lincoln. One night, Margo appears by Q's window and convinces him to go on an adventure with him, which includes "breaking" and "entering". They go on a series of adventures from leaving fish at her friend's homes, telling them that their friendship lies with the fish, to breaking into SeaWorld. After Q returns home, the next day Margo has disappeared. Her parents does not find this suspicious because she has done that before. But after a few days, she still has not come home and they suspect that she has run away for good. Questin becomes worried and starts to look for clues that may lead him to finding Margo. After a few weeks of searching, he is lead to a mini mall where he finds more clues. He includes his friends who also search for Margo. On graduation day, all of them leave in pursuit to New York of finally finding Margo. I found this book some-what boring in the middle, because many chapters in the books is about looking for clues and searching for Margo. I would recommend this book to people who like an interesting mystery, but i would not recommend it to anyone who gets bored of a book easily.
 * 7.5/10**

__River Boy__ by Tim Bowler is a youth novel, which is tragic but beautiful story. It all starts with Jessica's new house. She is a good swimmer and she is still young. She has a grandfather, who is very artistic but badly sick. One day, Jess could feel the nature breathing in and out. Hearing the river's flow and grass shaking was relaxing Jess, but somehow making her nervous. She looked out the window and she realized that there is a boy on the cliff. That boy looked like a apparition of this nature. Jess shocked and tried to go back to sleep. Then, when she tried to swim on the lake, her grandfather was drawing something, even though he couldn't even move his body. Then, there is a sudden accident that happens (Not spoiling the End). In my personal opinion, the River Boy is Grandfather's younger version and looking for the nature. This book is creative, since it's including many symbols and imageries. If you read this book, you will feel that you are part of this book. I highly recommend this book. __**9/10**__
 * River Boy**
 * Tim Bowler**
 * Jimmy Park**

__**The Joy Luck Club**__ __**Amy Tan**__ __**Tiffany Dai**__ __The Joy Luck Club__ is about four Chinese women who immigrate to the U.S. for new opportunities and for their four daughters to have the American life. The four women first met at church, and then created a mahjong club together. The story begins with the death of Jing-Mei Woo’s mother, Suyuan Woo. When she is asked to take her mother’s place in the mahjong club, Joy Luck, she learns about the twin daughters her mother left behind in China during the Japanese invasion. She is the only daughter that learns a portion of her mother’s past and how she can become a part of it. In every chapter, each mother and daughter tells stories from their childhood, marriage, and of their struggles. We learn about a mother’s past that a daughter will never know and understand. The miscommunication in their relationships, unhappy marriages, and haunting histories are all developed from their Chinese culture. I really enjoyed this book because I could easily connect to the author’s point of view and share her cultural background. I really enjoyed this book, and the only detail that confused me was how all four daughters were suffering in their marriage. This didn’t take away from the overall quality of the book, and I would recommend this book to anyone, especially any American born Chinese.
 * 10/10**

__**I Am Number Four**__ __**Pittacus Lore**__ __**Peter Huang**__ __I Am Number Four__ by Pittacus Lore is a science-fiction novel that follows the story of Number Four and his Cepan and how they try to escape from the Morgadorians. Number Four belongs to a group of nine kids that have super powers that originate from the planet Lorien. They are called the Garde, and their guardians are called the Cepan. Lorien was attacked by the Morgadorians ten years ago, which almost wiped out the entire Lorien race except for these nine children and their guardians. The children and their guardians escaped to Earth, but one by one they are being targeted by the Morgadorians. However, the children each carry an amulet that forces the Morgadorians to kill off the Garde by their number. So, when Number Three is killed, Number Four knows he will be the next target and begins his escape. Number Four and his Cepan move to Paradise, Ohio, and assume new identities. Their situation becomes difficult after Four begins to enjoy living in Paradise, while his Cepan, Henri, is adamant that they stay on the run. However, Four refuses to leave even when things start to seem strange in the town of Paradise. I thought this book was a good read, because I really liked the concept of the story. However, I did not like how it was written, and I thought it was rather plain and mundane.
 * 7/10**

__Rain Shower__ is one of the beautiful and tragic Korean timeless classic book that I've ever read. The story contains many symbols and situational ironies. The story starts with a boy, falling in love with his new neighborhood girl. Story starts very lovely and optimistic. Since the boy is living in the rural area, they play with grass and frog. The boy never gets to know about that girl. When they are together, it suddenly started to rain. It is raining hard and they have to go to a hut. They accidentally touch each other, since the hut us small and they start to like each other. The girl's best quote is, "Somehow, rain is making it better." However, after that rainy day, the girl starts to not show up to boy. The boy wonders where the girl is. With his hurt feeling, he goes back to his house. When he enters his room, he could hear his parents talking about the girl. The conversation goes, "…Ah…That poor little girl. Her father is famous boss of corporation, but girl was sick. Therefore, girl came to this rural area, in order to clear her mind. Oh that pity girl, lies on this land. But the funny thing is that girl's last request was to put her clothes with rain next to her corpse…No one knows why…" The boy cries out loud. No further explanation is needed for this book. Read it and it's amazing.
 * Rain Shower**
 * Hwang Sun Won**
 * Jimmy Park**

Sarah Armstrong //Factory Girls// by Leslie T. Chang is a non-fiction novel in which the author, a journalist, goes and lives in her ancestral home, China because she can speak the language. The author goes and visits Dongguan, the migrant capital of China for work, and instantly falls in love with both the city and the people. Throughout the book the author recounts the lives of some of her migrant friends or 'factory girls', explains the evolution of migrant workers in China and explains the story of her Chinese ancestors and how China's history forced them to move to America. Her family were wealthy land lords who were on the KMT side during the Republic of China period. When the CCP won they were forced to escape to Taiwan. Her family never thought of there as home, only as a pitt stop, first somewhere to hide until China was no longer ruled by the CCP; and when that fell through a place in which they could stay until they were able to continue on to America. This is where the author was born and grew up. Since the 1970s China has had the largest migration in history- there are 130 million migrant workers in China today. They move from their home farming villages out into the city- originally to make money for their families but in more recent times it is for the purpose of finding a better life for themselves (especially after the cultural revolution). This book was very hard to read and took a long time because it was non-fiction and at some points it was purely statistics. The story was interesting but at points it felt like there were too many different parts to the story and it was hard to keep up. Rating: 6/10
 * Factory Girls**

There are a total of four women who immigrate to San Francisco. Here, they each have at least one daughter, whom of which all grow up with each other. There are four daughters, Jing-mei, Waverly, Lena, and Rose. These four women form the Joy Luck Club and play weekly mahjong in order to stay positive in the struggling times. Jing-mei is one of the daughters whose mother has just passed away. The book is mainly narrating her visit to her two half-sisters in China, who she has never met. Her mother left her two half-sisters in China earlier when she had to escape China from the Japanese invasion. The book ends with Jing-mei finally meeting her two half-sisters. During the book each daughter has her own story struggling with their marriage and difficulties with their careers. In addition, they share the stories of their mothers. In the last section, the mothers share their thoughts on their daughters who have all grown up Americanized. I enjoyed the book because there was a variety of different events and situations. Because of the wide range of characters, the storyline kept my interested throughout the entire book. However, the characters could get confusing if you did not know who they were or what events they were associated with. Also, I could see how this book could be difficult for non-Asians because many names and behaviors are unfamiliar. The book moved quite slowly, especially in the beginning. I thought it was interesting how the author used the pingyin of Chinese characters in her writing, and I could actually understand what she meant. I also enjoyed relating some events in the book to what I learned in Asian history about the Kuomintang and Japanese invasions. While I mostly liked it, I thought some aspects of the Chinese culture weren’t all portrayed accurately. This didn’t deter from the overall quality of the book though. I recommend this book to especially other American born Chinese, but it is a generally good book for any teen.
 * __The Joy Luck Club__ by Amy Tan**
 * Annie Wang**
 * Rate: 7/10**

__**To Kill a Mockingbird**__ __**Harper Lee**__ __**Justin Luo**__ To Kill a Mocking Bird is a early 1900's fictional classic by Harper Lee. It is about a girl called Scout Finch, her brother Jem, and their father Atticus Finch. The story is mostly revolved around daily life and is told from Scout's point of view. But the main plot of the story first starts out with Scout and Jem trying to dare each other into entering a haunted house, where "Boo" Radely is. "Boo" is rumored to be the crazy son of Mr.Radely and is kept locked up in the basement. Jem and Scout try to communicate with him but fail, only to receive presents inside a tree near their house by a mysterious person. At that time in the south, people were very racist to black people and did not respect them. There was an incident about a black man named Tom raping a white woman named Mayella. Atticus was appointed to be the lawyer of Tom and prove him innocent. At the court room, Jem and Scout sneak in and watch the trial. Even though Mayella and her father are obviously lying about the incident the jury still convicts Tom simply because he is black. Everyone is shocked and they give a standing ovation to Atticus as he leaves because Atticus gave it his best shot. Tom is killed shortly but Bob Ewell, Mayellas father, is humiliated for lying and beating his daughter into lying as well. He turns his rage on Atticus and the children and eventually try to hurt Jem and Scout. In the struggle, a mysterious person comes and rescues Jem and Scout and bob ewelll is killed (from his own knife probably). He brings them home to Atticus and Scout recognizes that man as Boo radley, the outcast crazy guy. Shortly after, things get sorted out and Scout shares a few moments with her hero. He leaves back to his own basement and Scout wishes she could've paid back his little gifts. This book was extremely good and i recommend it to everyone. It has a bunch of foul language but it is still good because it is so well wrote, so well put together, and the visual images are amazing.

10/10

__**The Da Vinci Code**__ __**Dan Brown**__ __**Justin Luo**__ The Da Vinci Code is a mystery-detective book that shows the main character Robert Langdon, and his friend Sophie Neveu. They embark on a journey to find the hidden secrets of Christianity. It started first with Sophie's Grandfather being shot inside the Louve. Then, Robert was called in because they thought he was the murderer. Sophie Neveu comes in time and finds a secret message left by her grandfather. Robert, about to be arrested, runs away with Sophie and start looking for clues to the puzzle. They end up finding a small codex with an encrypted message inside but are unable to open it. They turn to Robert's friend, Teabing, to help them on their quest. When they finally get to their final destination, Teabing reveals that he is the one responsible for sophie's grandfathers death. But Robert knocks him out just in time. Lastly, they reveal what is being hidden for centuries by Sophie's grandfather and discover the secrets of Christ. Even though I do not know everything about Christianity, I felt rather skeptical when reading. Some parts do not make sense and are inaccurate even though Dan Brown claimed that they were all facts. The plot and lore was very interesting and I enjoyed it still. I think that if the author changed some of the fictional stuff and made it a bit more realistic, the story would be even better and more interesting. Overall, I liked this book and I would recommend it to anybody that likes to read mystery suspense books. 8/10 __**Looking For Alaska**__ __**John Green**__ __**Leslie Chen**__ __Looking For Alaska__ is a story evolving a boy, Miles "Pudge" Halter who is considered a 'loser' at his school in Florida. During the summer he decides that he wants to move schools to Culver Creek Boarding School where his dad is an alumni. There, he becomes friends with his roommate, the Colonel who is friends with Alaska Young, Takumi and Lara. Alaska is known for being a prankster and the hottest girl on campus and Miles falls for her immediately. He does mostly everything that his dad told him not to do. Drink, smoke and drugs. The Colonel has been in Culver Creek for three years so he knows all the loopholes in drinking and smoking without getting caught. Alaska and Colonel get together and discuss their huge prank against the Weekday Warriors after they flooded Alaska's books in her room. They call this the Barn Night where Miles, Takumi and Lara are involved to make this the indestructible prank. After their prank is done, Miles and Lara hook up and they all play a drinking game that Alaska made up called Good Day, Bad Day. When everything seems to go alright, a sudden tragedy occurs that throw all of them off guard. Tears, heart breaks, they all began to fail class. Finding as much evidence they go through everything that could help them conclude what had happened. At the end, Colonel finds out what happens but it seems that Takumi already knew. He didn't tell them because they all left him out in prank planning and fun nights. I loved this book so much more than Papertowns. Definitely one of his best books. I recommend this book more than any of his others.
 * 10/10**

__**The Lucky** **One**__ __**Nicholas Sparks**__ __**Joyce Pang**__ __The Lucky one,__ by Nicholas sparks, is a romantic novel about a the journey of a man, fresh out of war, and how he carries on with his life afterwards. A romantic story unfolds, all because of a photograph. Logan Thibault, the main character, finds this photograph while serving his tour in Iraq. In the photo is a beautiful women with two men at the Hampton Carnival with "Keep Safe, E" written on the back. Instead of tossing the photo aside, Logan picks it up and returns to the camp base with it. Despite asking around, no one claims it. With the photo in Logan's pocket, he gets lucky and survives many dangerous and severe bomb attacks. He is confused as to how this could be, only his best friend, Victor, had an answer. She is his "Lucky Charm". Logan returns home safely with the "help" of E. He decides to find her when she continues to bring him good luck in a chain of events. He narrows his search down by traveling to Hampton by foot with his dog Zezus. He begins asking people if they know her. After many failed searches, he finds out that her name is Elizabeth. She is a single mother who owns a dog training business and lives with her grandmother (Nana) and son (Ben). Logan applies for a job but does not tell her about the photo he found. As time passes, they build a passionate relationship. Elizabeth's jealous ex-husband, Keith Clayton, who is a cop, tries to break them apart because he wants Elizabeth to remain single like him. When Elizabeth finds out about the photograph, the story takes a drastic twist. I really liked this story, however, I wished it had more parts on Ben (Elizabeth's son) and Logan and how they bonded. The end was probably the best part of the book, it was very romantic and realistic. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for some romance! Ratings: 10/10

__**Of Mice and Men**__ __**John Steinbeck**__ __**Tiffany Dai**__ Set during the Great Depression, two ranch workers named George and Lennie travel around California in search of job opportunities. They dream about earning the money that will finally allow them to settle down on their own piece of land. Lennie’s mental disability is always an obstacle for the pair; it made it difficult for the both of them to keep a job. George is clever but uneducated, and he takes care of childlike Lennie who doesn’t understand his own strength. Despite their differences, they’ve always relied on each other through difficult times. While reading this short novel, I could feel the struggle and strength in Lennie and George’s difficult relationship. Lennie’s confusion combined with George’s frustration makes them an unfortunate but powerful pair; they always rely on each other for protection. Steinbeck successfully packs an inseparable friendship and an important message all into a 100 page novel. I would recommend this quick read to anyone.
 * 10/10**

__**Fahrenheit 451**__ __**Ray Bradbury**__ __**Tiffany Dai**__ In a future where books are rejected by society, Guy Montag is a fireman. Instead of putting out fires, firemen burn books and punish those in possession of them. Montag has mindlessly enjoyed his job for ten years, until 17-year-old Clarisse teaches him to think and remembers a past where people were not afraid to ask questions. His interactions with Clarisse help him really see the world he is living in: full of war and ignorance. When he becomes unsatisfied with his life and marriage, Montag turns to the one thing he cannot have: books. Bradbury’s method of creating characters is very different and unique: he allows his characters to create themselves, as if he does not and cannot control them. Each character has their significance to the story and the novel ends up being very well-written and complete. The setting that Bradbury creates fits with all of the characters very well; they all have their own place in society. His style of writing is free of cliches, and he writes with unique and original language. No matter what genre of book you’re interested in, I would recommend this book to anyone.
 * ​9/10**


 * Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher **
 * Eleni Chatziparaskeva **

“Whale Talk” by Chris Crutcher is about a young high school student, Tao Jones, nicknamed “T.J”, T.J’s biological mother abandoned him when she got heavily into drugs as a result for T.J. to grow up with a lot of rage issues. With the help of his adopted parent and his therapist he was able to overcome most of it. Mr.Simet a teacher, wanted to start a swim team to avoid having to be an assistant coach for Wrestling. He encourages T.J., who is a talented swimmer to join and find others to join too. He starts with Chris Coughlin, a disabled kid with a natural stroke in the water who could easily become a Special Olympics champion. Then Andy Mott, a quiet guy with a prosthetic leg, Simon DeLong, Jackie Craig an almost mute kid, Dan Hole a geek and lastly Tay-Roy a body builder with no actual swimming experience. All together they formed the swimming team. As a team they grow and become more close together. But T.J.’s plan was to strike the jocks of their high school by the whole swimming team getting letter jackets. But will they get letter jackets after all? I really liked this book because it has a lot of lessons. T.J. also explains the idea behind the books title “Whale Talk”. It is a metaphor for how humans ofter fail to communicate their feelings. And this is really smart to refer to whales for that. I generally recommend it to everyone it is a really good book. Score: 9/10


 * The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd **
 * Eleni Chatziparaskeva **

“The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd is about this girl named Lily who is fourteen years old. She live alone with her father who is a peach farmer. T.Ray, her father is abusive. Lily’s mother died when she was small but the only memories of her that she has is from the day she died. Lily remembers that she may have picked up a gun and accidentally killed her mother Rosaleen their house helper one day went with Lily to town on the day of Lily’s birthday. This turned out to be a really bad idea because they got in trouble and they took them to jail. T. Ray went and picked up Lily at the police station, and they got into a fight. Lily ran away from her house that night and went to pick up Rosaleen from the hospital. They both get a ride to Triburon, South Carolina and spend a night in the woods. The next day Lily sees her mother’s picture matches a label on a jar of honey. She asks were it comes from and reaches the Boatwright’s house where Lily’s mother once lived. Lily says that she is an orphan and she is on her way to visit her aunt. And she gets invited to say as long as she needs. Lily is required to assist wit the beekeeping. She learns how the bee world reflects the human world, and she learns to love the bees. After a week Lily meets Zach, a black boy who works in the bee yard. The two of them get to know each other and shortly fall in love. One day Zach runs into his friend Jackson and two other boys. They are confronted by a group of white men who are prepared to protest against a white movie star attending a movie with a black woman. Jackson trows a bottle at one of the white men and four black boy and they all go put in jail. But he quickly gets out of jail. How will Zach’s life continue? And will Lily find more information about her mother? This book is amazing because it has so many events going on. It has a lot of action and it has a really good story. I recommend it to everyone because it is a really good book. Score: 10/10

Night is a novel written in the perspective of Eliezer, a young Jewish teenager living in Sighet at the start of the story. With the help and guidance of his mentor, Moshe the Beadle, he begins to study the Torah and the Cabbala. However, Moshe the Beadle gets deported soon after. After Moshe returns to the town, he speaks of the horrifying and gruesome acts that the German Secret Police initiated, including butchering many people in the woods. After telling his stories, Moshe finds himself excluded on the outside, with people not believing his stories and thinking he is insane. The Nazis eventually settle in Hungary and enforce numerous dictatorial rules, and the Jews from Sighet are forced onto cattle cars where they would be taken to Auschwitz. At Birkenau, Eliezer and his father are taken away from his mother and sisters, never to meet again. After being separated from their family, they are evaluated on their ability which will determine if they are to be killed instantly or put to work. Eliezer and his father both pass the evaluation and are later are taken to a working camp where they toil day and night under egregious conditions. As these terrible acts continue, including open murdering of fellow Jews and families turning on each other, we see Eliezer beginning to gradually lose his faith in his beliefs and people. As the story continues, we are kept to wonder whether or not Eliezer and his father will make it out. This book was extremely detailed and gruesome in it’s events and I found myself delved into the whole depression and lack of hope that Eliezer was experiencing. It was an overall great novel, however, I would only recommend it to people who can handle horrifying events.
 * __Night__ by Elie Wiesel**
 * Tiffany Gao**
 * Rating: 9/10**

The book “An Abundance of Katherines” by John Green is about this boy named Colin Singleton. Colin Singleton’s type when it is comes to relationships is girls named Katherines. And has been dumped nineteen times by girls named Katherine. Colin and Hassan his friend got on a road trip that ends rather quickly in Gutshot, Tennessee, where they meet Lindsey Le Wells and her mother Hollis. Colin develops a crush on Lindsey which is problematic because he only dates girls named Katherine. Will Colin date Lindsey? Or will he only date the Katherines. This book is good. I liked the writing because it was fast. I like the story but it wasn’t my favorite but of John Green. I would recommend it to everyone if they want to read it. Score: 7/10
 * An Abundance of Katherines by John Green **
 * Eleni Chatziparaskeva **

__**Who Moved My Cheese?**__ __**Dr. Spencer Johnson**__ __**Jimmy Park**__ __Who Moved My Cheese__ is one of the best book that I've ever read. This novel talks about the "Change" that occurs during our life. This book starts with group of friends, who went to same school when they were young. They realized that they are changed a lot from their old looks. Soon, one of the friends talks about this story called, "Who Moved My Cheese." It's too long to explain the whole story, but this story explains how humans are afraid of change and stay the same. However, we should welcome the change and adapt to those changes. This book tells the readers how the changes that come during our life might affect our whole entire life. Some people fear about the changes and remain the same. However, changes sometimes include developments and improvements. This book emphasizes about the part that changes might include failure or fear. However, you just have to overcome those fear and put one more step to your future. There might be some challenges that you have to overcome, but they are nothing comparing to your overall life change. The story is about two tiny humans and two mice fighting over the cheese that are located in several places. Two humans finds one place, which is full of cheese. Two humans decide to stay in the place, since they think there is plenty amount of cheese. However, the cheese ran out. Mice moved swiftly, finding small amount of cheese but enough to fill their stomach. Humans decide to stay more. They don't want to explore other areas, since they don't want to lose their way and die with hungriness. When they were about to die, one of the human started to think that exploring might be better than staying here and waiting four his death. He wonders if he should just go for the cheese and explore. He hesitates few moments, but he reaches out. This book is one of the best book I've ever read. __10/10__

__**The Joy Luck Club**__ __**Amy Tan**__ __**Leslie Chen**__ __The Joy Luck Club__ is a novel about four Chinese immigrants divided into four sections of the book. The four immigrants travelled to San Francisco and started a mahjong club at a church. The club was named the Joy Luck Club. They sailed to America so their daughters could have a better life. In each different section, a person talks about their life. The first section was told from Jing-Mei Woo's persepctive of the Joy Luck Club and she finds out that her mother Suyuan had two twin daughters but had to abandon them due to the Japanese invasion. Jing-Mei is determined to find them and tell them about the death of their mother. The two middle sections was about them talking about their difficulties with life and their relationships and the last section was about them talking about their daughters and how much they have changed. I forgot some of the details that happened towards the middle since I read it on China Alive, but I definitely do not regret reading it. The beginning is kind of slow but this book is one of the best I have ever read. I recommend this book to everyone.
 * 10/10**

__**And Then There Were None**__ __**Agatha Christie**__ __**Peter Huang**__ __And Then There Were None__ is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, where eight seemingly unrelated people that are invited to a mysterious Indian island, each going there for different reasons. Upon their arrival at the island, they are greeted by a butler and his wife, who tells them that the man who invited them, ‘Mr. Owen’, will be late. That night, all of the guests gather in the drawing room, where they hear a recording accusing them of different crimes. The guests become suspicious that they are part of some strange plot, and their suspicions are confirmed after the death of one of the guests. The guests retreat to their rooms, and they discover that the manner of the first guest’s death is very similar to the nursery rhyme ‘Ten Little Indians’ that is hung in every bedroom. As the guests continue to search for the murderer, more and more guests are killed off, until there are none. This novel is very suspenseful and exciting, and I found myself unable to put it down. I really enjoyed the novel, especially the ending because you can piece together everything at the end.
 * 10/10**

__**Fahrenheit 451**__ __**Ray Bradbury**__ __**Peter Huang**__ __Fahrenheit 451__ tells the story of Guy Montag, a firemen who lives in a dystopian society set in the future. In this society, books and individualism is looked down upon. Instead, the ‘firemen’ burn any books that remain and people watch television all the time. Montag dutifully carries his job out for a decade, until he meets Clarisse. Clarisse opens his mind with her questions and ‘weird’ hobbies. From then on, Montag begins to question his job and begins to store a stash of books. As Montag reads more and more books, he becomes more and more disillusioned with the society he lives in. __Fahrenheit 451__ discusses the themes of government censorship and individual thought, and is very relatable because of the censorship in China. I liked reading about the dystopian society in the book and I sometimes wonder if our world will turn out to be like that in the future.
 * 10/10**

Remy is 18 years old and knows all about relationships, or at least, thinks she does. She’s watched her mother fall in and out of love with several men who have tried to become her “father figure”, and she has been in numerous relationships, all of which she controlled to abide by her rules. Most of all, she is aware of how easy if was for her father to walk out of her life when she was baby, leaving behind no memories except for a famous song he wrote, titled “This Lullaby”. She believes every relationship is the same and when a new guy comes into her life, she is sure to time everything perfectly, breaking up with him right before she becomes too emotionally attached and preventing herself from being vulnerable. Then, she meets Dexter, who ends up breaking all of Remy’s rules. However, Remy can’t help but fall in love with him. I loved this book because of how the characters seemed so alive and the way it was written. While it may be cliché, it was so cute to see how Remy realized what relationships were all about, and how you have to take risks in order to let yourself fully live in the moment. I loved all of the moments between Remy and Dexter, finding out the history of her family, and learning about her group of best friends. Even though it is a romance, it doesn’t necessarily end like one. There’s much more to it, delving into growing up, moving on, and learning how to appreciate what you have. Even though I would strongly recommend this book for teenage girls, there’s definitely a lot in this book that guys can learn too, especially if they want to find out what really goes on in a girl’s mind. I enjoyed this book since it was a quick read and left me feeling satisfied and refreshed.
 * __This Lullaby__ by Sarah Dessen**
 * Annie Wang**
 * Rate: 10/10**

Talia Nechelput The Next 100 years by George Friedman is a forecast of what will most likely happen within the next century. Friedman uses geopolitics and historic, economic and political patterns to predict what will happen in the future. This book is interesting because it not only predicts, but also gives excellent justifications and historical evidence to back up his ideas. Friedman Predicts things like the second cold war between the United States and Russia, that the United States will not fall, and that other countries, like China, will not end up powerful like many have predicted. At first, I was very skeptical of this book; how could one predict the future? But while reading, the facts and predictions seem very likely with the evidence that is given. Many of his theories interested me, like Friedman predicts that the Third World War will most likey be around 2050 and will be conducted very differently than World War 2. Even if these predictions do not happen, I have gained a lot of historic information from this book, which I found very interesting. It was hard to read solely because some parts just weren’t interesting, but I enjoyed it. I rate this 8/10
 * The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Cenuntuy**
 * George Friedman**

Talia Nechelput Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher begins when Clay Jenson returns home from school, to find a strange box addressed to him awaiting him. When he opens it, he discovers 13 tapes made by Hannah Baker, a classmate who had recently committed suicide. Each chapter consists of a different tape, and on each tape is a recording of her telling a reason why she killed herself. These tapes were meant to be passed from person to person like a chain, so that everyone who she intends to hear then tapes get it. The tapes explain all other the reasons that she kills herself, and it has been made obvious throughout the book that she had become depressed and had felt that her life was in a downward spiral, and that suicide was the only option left, alike to many other suicidal teens. This was a very emotional and sometimes graphic book, so I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone below 12 years old. I loved it and think everyone should read this book. I rate this a 9/10
 * Thirteen Reasons Why**
 * Jay Asher**

This story is about two friends Lennie and George, who become ranch hands in California. Lennie is brawn rather than brain, and George is brain rather than brawn. Lennie has a mental disability and George takes care of him out of a strong friendship. The plot begins with Lennie who was accused of raping a woman, even though he only wanted to touch her red dress. The unlikely pair is forced to run away to work on a ranch. They find jobs and plan their future together, with Lennie especially wanting to raise bunnies. However, in the end, nothing works out how they plan it to. While this was a short read, it was extremely moving. Steinbeck writes with beautiful descriptions beginning from the very first page, and all the way to the last. The characters are rounded and you feel sympathy for Lennie, who struggles with his mental disorder, and George, who is obliged to look after his friend. Even though there wasn’t a happy ending, I was still touched by the strong friendship between Lennie and George. I recommend this book for all since it’s short and (bitter)sweet.
 * __Of Mice and Men__ by John Steinbeck**
 * Annie Wang**
 * Rate:9.5/10**

Gulliver's Travels is a satire set in the 1700s about the voyages of a British surgeon who's business had failed. Completely deadpan, yet also humorous, the story is narrated from a first person view of Gulliver. In his voyage, he encounters an island full of tiny people. Despite the fact that his existence could starve many Lilliputians, he is kept for the war against the people of Blesfuscu and for the entertainment of the Emperor. During this time, there are many political events that parody the current events in England at the time. A good example is the war between the Lilliputians and the people of Blesfuscu. In the book, it is interpreted as a conflict of "on which end, should we crack the boiled egg with?"; in reality, it's making fun of the conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Gulliver, in his stay, is convicted of treason for putting out a fire with his urine and is condemned to be shot in the eyes and then starved to death. He escapes to Blesfuscu and soon goes back to his home, England. After two months with his wife and family, he decides to undertake a second adventure; this time, he meets giants. He is first discovered by a field worker who then sells him to the Queen as entertainment. As time passes, he finds himself more and more repulsed by the human body, whose flaws are magnified several times over due to the enormous size. He is also surprised at how ignorant the people live; it appears even the emperor has no clue about politics. He leaves and sets on another voyage, where he meets an island dominated by scientists and theoreticians. The people there seem almost insane, impractical, irrational, despite being "smart". He soon leaves and sets forth on his last voyage. There he meets rational thinking horses (Houyhnhnms) and brute-like human creatures (Yahoos); he is enlightened by the horses' thinking and culture and is treated well and courteously. However, because of his similarity with Yahoos, he is banished. And, in the end of the story, he can't help but be disgusted with all humans, who are all too similar to Yahoos. A slow paced book whose climax is near the end, I would recommend this to readers who are willing to do some research on the context of the book and readers that enjoy satire. 9.5/10
 * Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift**
 * Austin Huang**

Mother Night is a book about a Nazi propagandist named Howard Campbell. The beginning of the story sets him in an Israeli prison where he is about to be tried for the crimes he committed against the Jews. He writes down his memoirs, and those are what we read about him. In it, he writes about his motivation to becoming a Nazi propagandist, his life as a writer, his relationship with his wife, Helga, and his time living alone in New York City. Prior to being a Nazi propagandist, he had been a writer. He was mildly famous and most of his plays revolved around his wife, Helga. The most notable one being "the Nation of Two", which is related to several times in the story. In his time in Germany, He was confronted by a US Agent named Wirtanem to be an American spy; Campbell didn't care much for either side, or even politics, so he quickly denied; however, because of Howard's desire to be a great actor, one to fool them all, he decided to play his part as a Nazi. He was praised during his time, and gained many followers; which is also the reason why he is hated, to the point where he should die. During his time in New York, he meets a white supremacist group, his wife's sister, Resi, who he falls in love with, and George Kraft, a Soviet intelligence agent working with Resi to trick Campbell to go into Moscow. Prior to discovering the plot, Campbell gains his will to live and write back; however, after discovering the plot, he is heartbroken, betrayed, and has nothing left to live for. In the end, despite being freed from trial in Israel, he decides to suicide because of "crimes he committed against himself." Although sad, it has many satirical elements to it. It's a great book. Rating: 10/10
 * Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut**
 * Austin Huang**

‘Farenheit 451’ is a futuristic novel in which society is overly attached to the technological elements of life and lacking appreciation of nature and engagement in human contact. The main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman. However, in the society that the novel is set in, firemen do not set out accidental fires as their occupation is meant to do in the present, but rather, they start fires to burn books. Guy Montag seems to be indifferent to life with no reason to question his own happiness or the deeper secrets of society until he meets Clarisse McClellan, a young 17-year old girl. Clarisse catches his attention one day with her glowing presence as he is walking home from work. Clarisse has an outlandish nonchalance towards interactions with other humans, and is not afraid to ask questions that others dare not ask. It is clear why Montag is taken aback with her character, as most people, including his wife, are uninterested in anything but the wires attached to their ears and watching an extreme amount of television. The same night Montag walks with Clarisse, his wife also takes a whole bottle of pills in attempt to kill herself. After seeking medical help and replacing her blood, things seem to go back to normal. Then, an unexpected turn with his newly found interest in Clarisse, changes things drastically. Montag is struck by this plot twist, and in his intensified dissatisfaction with life, he begins to wonder about the small questions that Clarisse would ask. He eventually starts to dig deeper and reads stolen books, an act which is against the law, leading himself to trouble when his own wife turns him in. I found this novel’s plot to be very exciting and I enjoyed the whole futuristic society in which this novel was set. It was an environment that I hadn’t really ventured about before in other novels, and it was realistic enough to fathom. At times, the imagery was overwhelming, and never seemed to halt in its complexity, making some areas hard to understand. However, overall, I found the novel interesting and would recommend it to all.
 * __Fahrenheit 451__ by Ray Bradbury**
 * Tiffany Gao**
 * Rating: 9/10**

__**Will Grayson, Will Grayson**__ __**John Green & David Levithan**__ __**Jessica Moh**__ __Will Grayson, Will Grayson__ by John Green and David Levithan, is a fictional novel written in two different Will Grayson's perspectives. Every chapter alternates between the two Will Grayson's. The even chapters are written by David Levithan, who narrates the Will Grayson who is best friends with Tiny Cooper, a very huge kid who is completely gay. While the other chapters is written by John Green, who narrates the other Will Grayson who turns out to be gay. The two authors do not tell you that there is two different Will Grayson's narrating the book, but when they meet in Chicago, the story then falls into place. Will Grayson (2) meets Tiny when they are both in Chicago and they start going out, while Jane and Will Grayson (1) start going out shortly after. Before meeting Tiny, Will Grayson (2) had an online friend called Isaac, who he liked while forming their relationship together. But it turned out that it was his only friend, Maura who just wanted to prove a point. Later along the book, Tiny directs a play that is about his whole life, meeting Will Grayson (1) and all his previous ex's. I found this book very interesting after learning that the chapters alternate between the two different Will Graysons. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a bit of humor and romance.
 * 9.5/10**

__**White Fang**__ __**Jack London**__ __**Gillian Hei**__ Jack London creates a unique and exciting book telling the story of White Fang, a half-wolf, half-dog breed with a husky as a mother and a wolf as a father. London narrates the book in a third-person viewpoint, but it is written in a way that a dog would think. He creates a unique perspective on the mind of a halfbreed like White Fang; both vicious and tame. The book details White Fang's life from when he was born, narrating the hardships he goes through, from lynxes to hawks to guns to humans. As a result of living in the Wild for much of his life and following the rule of Eat or Be Eaten, White Fang becomes a bloodthirsty halfbreed wolf that quickly earns a name for himself among humans. When he is taken in by Beauty Smith, he is beaten and abused to insanity, developing a hatred for all humans and animals, until Scott, the son of a Judge, takes White Fang away and teaches the crazed wolf-dog a different side to humans. The book is written in a very classical way that hints to the time period it was written. Jack London draws the reader into the life of White Fang. While reading this, I became a dog. The book is written in third-person from the viewpoint of a dog. It was as if I was a dog, standing on the sidelines and following White Fang through his journey. It is this unique perspective that won me over. Jack London creates a wonderfully written book using this perspective, and for that, I would rate this a ten out of ten.
 * 10/10**

__**The Joy Luck Club**__ __**Amy Tan**__ __**Gillian Hei**__ __The Joy Luck Club__ is about the lives of four Chinese women who immigrated to America for a better life and their American daughters. The four meet at a church one day and form the Joy Luck Club, where they agree to meet and play mah-jong. The book is divided into four sections that detail the events of the Chinese mothers and their daughters. The book tells the tale of each of the mothers, and the hardships they had to go through in their lives. The book also delves into the family life between American born children and mothers of a different culture. Throughout the book, there is a certain distance between the mothers and daughters. Having grown up in China with many many hardships, the mothers had hoped for the best for their children in America, but, ironically, ended up with daughters that didn't understand their motives or dreams at all. The story is based around Jing-Mei-Woo's desire to vist China and her twin half-sisters, with her being insecure about whether or not she will be able to tell her half-sisters about the true mother they never knew. Through this base, the other daughters and mothers of the Joy Luck Club tell their tale as a way to intensify the gap between the mothers and daughters, as the children do not understand their parents' pasts. The book is set up a bit like a mah-jong game, which may have some symbolism to it. I really liked the book. I don't have much else to say about it, other than the fact that this really is an amazing book, both wonderfully tragic and sad as well as liberating. This has to be one of the best books I have ever had the fortune of reading. Tan spins a vivid tale full of pain and hardship, but also of love and hope. I rate this 10/10 simply because of how amazingly this book is written.
 * 10/10**

__**Throne of Jade**__ __**Naomi Novik**__ __**Gillian Hei**__ __Throne of Jade__ continues the tale of Lawrence and his dragon Temeraire. It is the second book in a chronicle of books about Temeraire. Having found out that Temeraire is a Celestial dragon, Lawrence must deal with new challenges from the East. Temeraire was originally going to be sent to Napoleon of France as a gift from China, however, Lawrence intercepted the ship with Temeraire's egg, securing the egg for Britain. Temeraire ended up hatching for Lawrence, forcing him to become an aviator and give up his status as captain of a ship. Having found out about Lawrence and Temeraire, China demands that Lawrence and Temeraire be separated, to which Lawrence refuses. Thus, the two are sent on a ship to China. However, both on the ship and in China, Lawrence must battle against the wills of the Chinese and the sparking tension between the sailors and the aviators, as well as Prince YongXing, who seems to be determined to separate Temeraire and Lawrence, in whatever way possible. This book is a continuation of Naomi's first book, __His Majesty's Dragon__. Having already read the first book, I thought that Naomi's style of writing was unique and enjoyable. I especially like how she incorporates dragons into the war between Napoleon and Britain. Naomi uses a crisp and professional way of writing that really draws the reader into the time period. She also creates many unique personalities, both for the dragons mentioned and for the characters in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone with a love for fantasy and history.
 * 9/10**

__**Into the Wild**__ __**Jon Krakauer**__ __**Valerie Foo**__ Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is about a young man with the name of Chris McCandless hitch hiked to Alaska and lived in the wilderness. Before and during his journey, Chris has donated his savings to charity, burnt his money, abandoned his car and left his possessions, covered up his identity. Later a group of 3 hunters found his decomposing body. Through out the whole story, there are interviews and explanation of people that met and knew Chris, collecting evidence and tracking where he had been before he died. There is a common fantasy of hitch hikers believing that living in the wild is a piece of cake and full of adventurous fun. But this story proves that myth wrong and shows us the dark of nature that many might find disturbing and strange. The book was confusing at first because the summary seemed that it would be written from Chris’s perspective, like a traveling diary. But instead the story is written in a documentary format, having interviews from people, quotes from his traveling book, police discovery evidence, background information about him and his family and many more information. But what’s even more surprising is that they spoil the “ending” by mentioning first that Chris dies, then starts to work backwards. For people who like books with mystery cases, this is the perfect book to read. Therefore I will rate this book 9 out of 10 star,

Rumble Fish is a novel by S.E. Hinton about fourteen-year-old Rusty-James, who deals with an ignorant father, estranged mother, and rival gangs. The only person he looks up to is Motorcycle Boy, his older brother. Rusty-James wants to become just like his brother, and relies on him to solve his problems when he loses control. What Rusty-James doesn’t realize is what he’ll do when Motorcycle Boy isn’t there to save him. I expected to be able to connect to Rusty-James because of the ages of the characters in the book, but I found that his troubled background made it hard to relate. I found I wasn’t able to understand each character and really think about them. Rumble Fish is similar to The Outsiders, but not nearly as intriguing. This book was a quick read, but I would recommend The Outsiders anytime before Rumble Fish.
 * __Rumble Fish__**
 * __S.E. Hinton__**
 * __Tiffany Dai__**
 * ​6/10**

__**The Fault in our stars**__ __**John Green**__ __**Jessica Moh**__ __The Fault In Our Stars__ is a fictional novel about two people who meet at a Cancer Club and suddenly fall in love with each other. Hazel Grace, one of the protagonists in this book is suffering from Stage Four Thyroid Cancer, and when she goes to the club one day, she meets the charming Augustus "Gus" Waters, a former basketball star who lost his leg due to osteosarcoma. They start to spend more time together, and both wish to travel to Amsterdam to visit the author of one of their favorite books, 'An Imperial Affliction'. While they spend time together, they learn all about each other's cancer problems and more about themselves. After getting back from Amsterdam, Augustus learns that his cancer has come back and has started again to affect his body. I found this book very romantic and tragic at the same time. Hazel and Gus' love was very deep until both of their health broke them apart. John Green writes in a very modern style of writing, relating to many young readers, but it was sort of hard to relate to the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes tragic love stories.
 * 9.5/10**

‘The Last Lecture’ is an autobiographical novel written and narrated in the perspective of Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon. The novel is set in a time when Pausch has been invited to give a speech, known as ‘The Last Lecture’ among college professors, in which the professor must identify the matters and values they find most important, and deliver them in such a way assuming it is their last chance before they leave this world. However, in Pausch’s circumstance, this will really be his last lecture, his last chance, as he is diagnosed with fatal pancreatic cancer and is given 4-6 months left to live. Pausch speaks of the difficulty he faced in deciding whether or not he should give the speech, as he had been invited to do so before being diagnosed with cancer. However, despite his wife’s initial adamancy for him not to deliver the speech, he eventually gains her approval and moves forward with it. He finds this to be his last chance to give a lasting impression of himself to his friends, students, and most importantly, for his children who will have to grow up without a father. His main motivation throughout the novel is not only his wish to leave the world with a meaningful departure, but to show his kids what kind of a man his father was and what kind of wisdom he would want them to learn. The novel discusses Pausch’s point of view throughout his speech, themed “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, and his perspective on his terminal disease. Through the dejectedness of Randy’s situation, the readers feel and uplifting optimism to the way he views himself to be a truly lucky man, with achieving most of his dreams. This novel gives readers a chance to re-evaluate their own lives, and start achieving their own dreams and always be hopeful to do so. This novel was very inspirational and touching and I really did enjoy it.
 * __The Last Lecture__ by Randy Pausch**
 * Tiffany Gao**
 * Rating: 9/10**

__**You Against Me**__ __**Jenny Downham**__ "If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge, right?" "If your brother's accused of a terrible crime but says he didn't do it, you defend him, don't you?" __You against me__ is about the reletionship that develops between Milkey, who's sister (Karyn) claims to be raped by a boy, and Ellie, who's brother (Tom) is being accused of the rape. Ellie, as the only witness, wants to help her brother, also carries a secret around with her. Milkey with a constantly drunk mum, takes care of her Karyn who refuses to leave the house and go to school. As the book gets closer and closer to the end we find out what secret Ellie has been hiding, whether her brother is guilty and how her relationship with Milkey turns out. There were times when I got confused who was telling the truth. I felt like the romance was a little unrealistic. Example: If person A was Milkey's sister, she would not be "fine" about her brother dating the sister of the boy who raped her. This book is very much like Romeo and Juliet, it is unpredictable at times and forces us, the readers, to figure out who is telling the truth. I also didn't really like the ending because it ended during the trial and did not tell us how the story ended. Rating: 7/10
 * __Joyce Pang__**

Sarah Armstrong //Before I Fall// by Lauren Oliver is a novel about Samantha Kingston, a girl who has it all, a good-looking boyfriend, three amazing best friends and the best table in the cafeteria. Samantha gets up and goes to school on cupids day, February 12th just like any other day. Except that it turns out to be her last. After going to a party her and her friends hit a tree on the side of the road after swerving to miss something hitting the car. The next day she wakes up and thinks that everything must have been just a dream. She gets up and goes to school again only to realise that her dream was exactly the same, and she dies again. Throughout the course of 7 days, Samantha keeps relieving the same day and realises that she has to become a better person to break the loop. She untangles the mystery about her death and she realises things about her life that she didn't know until she died. Samantha soon realises that a girl her and her friends had been bullying was trying to commit suicide. She feels drawn to helping her so after digging a little deeper she finds out that Juliet (the girl they bullied) was best friends with Lindsay until they had a falling out at camp. After learning this Samantha finally figures out how to break the cycle and makes the absolute most of her last day. This book was really interesting and it made me think about if I changed one thing that I did in a day would the whole day turn out differently? Rating: 10/10
 * Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver**

Sarah Armstrong //If I Stay// by Gale Forman is a novel about Mia, a seventeen year old girl who was out on a drive to visit family friends with her family when they get into a car crash. Mia wakes up on the side of the road with no injuries. She walks around the car and finds out that her parents are dead before finding herself in the car, badly injured. After finding herself she can't bring herself to look for her brother Teddy. At first she thinks she's dead, but after the medics come she realises she can't possibly be because they are taking her to the hospital. Mia gets in the ambulance and rides with herself to the hospital, trying to figure out what is happening. No one can see her or hear her. She watches as her body goes into surgery, she watches her family grieve her parents and pray for her. After a nurse tells her grandparents that it is all her choice whether or not she comes back she realises that she has to make the decision to either die or stay alive. Mia goes back and forth between which one she is going to choose. After finding out her brother teddy died in the crash too she leans more towards dying but she still has her boyfriend Adam, her best friend Kim as well as her grandparents to think about. Throughout the book she remembers things that help her to make her final decision of whether to stay or go along with her family. This book was really enjoyable, fast and easy to read. Rating: 10/10
 * If I Stay by Gale Forman**

__**The Winter Room**__ __**Gary Paulsen**__ __**Valere Foo**__ The Winter Room by Gary Paulsen is about Eldon, a farmer boy, and his perspectives on barn life each season. It describes his close relationship with his older brother Wayne and his family and the daily chores of his life. For example it was said that spring was the time of awakening. But to Eldon, spring was a time of squishy muck and nothing to do with awakening. There was also how winter was a time of less chores and story telling from Uncle David. The boys never really paid attention to the stories except for one that will change them forever. I liked how it detailed the descriptions were about farm life and how Eldon mentioned how he differ the seasons change based on the farm chores. The word choices aren’t very advance but the description creates strong imagery for the readers. But I feel the transition from the season change to Uncle David’s story is to long and doesn't create enough tension. This book is suitable for people who want an easy yet powerful story to read. I will rate this book 9 out of 10 stars.

__**Far North**__ __**Will Hobbs**__ __**Valerie Foo**__ Far North by Will Hobbs is an adventure story. It is about how a boy call Gabe Rogers moves from Texas to Northwest Canada to live with his father. At boarding school he attends, he makes friends with a native boy name Raymond. Coincidently, the boys take a plane to see the spectacular view of famous sites such as the Nahanni River. Unfortunately, when the pilot flew the plane on the river to get a closer look, the engine shuts down. With the plane and pilot gone, unsure of whether help is on the way, the two boys are left stranded. With the subarctic winter season approaching and limited supplies, Gabe and Raymond want to get home as fast as possible. But meanwhile they must figure out how to stay alive such as how to hunt moose, how to defend against wolves attacks, how to seek shelter, when is it safe to travel further downhill. This book is fast paced and action packed, very interesting for people who enjoy reading stories that has a lot of tension. I liked the book because it gave information about native American culture and the story seemed like Hatchet. But some parts of the book were boring because they were moving a bit too slow. Therefore I rate this book 8 out of 10 stars.

Uglies is a novel set in the future, in which every sixteen year old will get an operation to become beautiful. Tally, about to turn sixteen, wants the operation more than anything. All her friends have become pretty and live in "New Pretty Town". But Tally almost gets in trouble when she meets Shay, who does not want to be 'pretty' because she thinks that it is all fake. Shay tries to convince Tally to go to a secret town with her where the uglies run away to. Tally refuses. However, the "Special Circumstances" know Tally's secret about escape of the uglies. They try to make Tally go undercover and betray Shay. If Tally does not obey, she will never become 'pretty'. She comes across a difficult dilemma: Pretty or Friends? On the adventure of finding the secret town, Tally meets David and many new friends. Slowly, she discovers that the operation of being pretty also meant being forced to pretty inside. Although this book is set in the futuristic world, there are some parts I can relate to. I really enjoyed this book, it is very interesting and an easy read. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for some adventure and action. Rating: 10/10
 * __Uglies__**
 * __Scott Westerfeld__**
 * __Joyce Pang__**

"Lord of the Flies" is a novel about a group of British teenagers who are stranded on an island following their plan crash. There are no other people on the island except themselves. Ralph, one of the oldest kids, and Piggy, the smartest, gather the boys with a conch shell which helps them maintain order in the group. One of the things they agree to do is always have a fire going so a shit can rescue them some day. Unfortunately, a boy named Jack gets jealous of Ralph's power so he forms a clique to only hunt because he believes it is more important than keeping the fire alive. After some time, things get tense and the two groups end up fighting each other. This fight shows us the savage side of these innocent boys. I liked this novel because of the quick character development and how Golding showed us the lost of innocence and the savage side coming out of teenage boys. Some of the scenes were disturbing, but other than that this was a great read. I would recommend this book to anyone. Rate: 10/10
 * Lord of the Flies**
 * William Golding**
 * JiSup Kim**

__Paper Towns__ is a romance novel about two teenagers Quentin Jacobsen and Margo Roth Spiegelman. Margo was Quentin's love since forever and next door neighbors. They haven't talked to each other for nine years and one day Margo appears at Quentin's window with black paint on her face. She asked him if she could borrow his car and if he could be her designated driver for the night. Margo had eleven tasks to complete before the day was over. They were mostly all pranks to get back at people who made her life miserable. Last task was to break into Sea World. When the guard came, she was totally calm and Quentin's finds out that she's a risk taker. Right after he dropped her off at her house, the next day she goes missing. Quentin believes that she has left clues for him to figure out where she has gone. We can see how much Quentin likes Margo because he missed his prom, graduation and hangouts just to go find her. I really liked the beginning but I was so disappointed when I read the end. It was so sudden and felt like nothing really got solved. The first half was really good but I hated the second half.
 * __Paper Towns__**
 * __John Green__**
 * __Leslie Chen__**
 * 8.5/10**

Sarah Armstrong //Slum Dog Millionaire// by Vikas Swarup Is a book about a young Indian boy called Ram Mohammad Thomas who goes on a game show called 'who wants to win a billion' or 3WB. He wins the billion rupees after correctly answering all 12 questions(and an additional 13th- although the audience doesn't know this) much to everyone's surprise. The night after he wins, the police come for him and lock him up in a cell because they think that he must have cheated, there is no way that he could have correctly answered all 12 questions. The TV show producers start bribing the police because they don't have the __#|money__ to pay him. They try torturing him to admit to lying, but he doesn't break before a girl comes running in claiming to be his lawyer - although he hasn't gotten one. She takes him home, feeds him and asks him to tell her how he really knew all the answers. He flips his lucky coin (on which is heads both sides) to see if he should tell her his story. They go through the video of the show, pausing before every question so that he can tell her how he knew the answer. The novel skips around through his life story. From voodoo to working for a famous actress Ram has seen it all in his life as a kid on the streets of India. 10/10
 * Slum Dog Millionaire**

Sarah Armstrong //The Lovely Bones// by Alice Seybold is a novel about a 14 year old girl called Suzy Salmon who is raped and murdered on her way home from school by George Harvey, one of her neighbours. Her murderer takes her body and puts it in a sink hole so that the police aren't able to find it. The novel shows what happens after her death, how she goes to an in between stage where she is not quite in heaven and yet not alive. In this in between stage where she is in her own heaven, she is able to watch all the people she loves deal with her death and see whether or not they will find her killer. Her grandma Lynn moves into her childhood home to care for Buckly and Lindsey because her parents are too emotionally unstable. She also gets to come to terms with her death. She watches as after her death her mother moves away. She watches her sister fall in love, get married and finally have a child. She watches her father become obsessed with her death and trying to find her killer after her mother leaves. When her mother comes back he is happy again although Buckly doesn't forgive her for moving away. Ruth, a girl who Susy accidentally touched while on her journey to heaven, can feel her presence so intensely that Susy is able to switch places with her for a while and spend time with Ray, her high school crush. Suzy is then to move on to another part of heaven where she can still watch events happening on Earth. At the end of the novel we see Suzy's murderer killed by falling down a snow covered slope while stalking a girl. Although this story was very sad, it was a very interesting novel. Rating: 8/10
 * The Lovely Bones**

Talia Nechelput Animal Farm by George Orwell is a reflection of the Russian Revolution of 1917, which then continues to mirror Stalin’s communist rule of the Soviet Union. The Animals revolt against the farm owner Mr. Jones and subsequently win. After the win, the animals decide to rename the farm ‘Animal Farm’ which would be run by Animals in the governmental form of ‘Animalism’, which reflects on the soviet communism. Certain characters in the book reflected important and powerful people, like Stalin and Trotsky are represented through Napoleon and Snowball. Throughout the rest of the book, the reader can really tell that the book is about this time in the Soviet Union with have a small amount of background knowledge. I personally though this book was very interesting, having learnt about this period and watching the Animal farm movie in seventh grade. Though interesting, I thought it was quite boring so I would not re-read for any other purpose than academic. I rate this 5/10
 * Animal Farm**
 * George Orwell**

Talia Nechelput Looking for Alaska by John Green is about ‘Pudge’ Miles Halter who newly attends a boarding school called Culver Creek because he didn’t have friends in his hometown of Florida. At Culver Creek he meets ‘The Colonel’ Chip, his roommate, and Alaska, a pretty girl who is already friends with ‘The Colonel’. Soon after become friends with the two, Pudge is introduced to smoking and alcohol, which is what Alaska, The Colonel, and many other kids at the school do. He is also introduced to and participates in the pranks that Alaska and The Colonel are famous for. These are all fun and games, until one prank goes wrong and has terminal consequences. Green uses suspense very well throughout the book, which improves it all the more. Though previous John Green books have disappointed me, this is a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend it to teenagers who like a novel with a bucket load of drama. I rate this book 9/10
 * Looking for Alaska**
 * John Green**

The Fault in Our Stars is much like the previous book I read, Before I Die by Jenny Downham. In the book, Hazel Grace suffers from Stage 4 Thyroid Cancer and meets the attractive Augustus Waters, a former basketball star who lost his leg to cancer. Together, they go on an adventure to Amsterdam. During their trip, they fall head over heels and experience an obsession for each other. As I expected, the story takes a sudden turn…. I think that Augustus Waters is a very inspiring character. He examines how sickness and health will define someone and the legacy they leave behind. This book is filled with symbols and themes. Although I could not relate to this book, i still found it interesting to read. Rating: 8/10
 * The Fault In Our Stars by John Green**
 * Joyce Pang**

Eight people, all strangers to each other, are invited to INdian Island. They are Vera Claythorne, Philip Lombard William Blore, Dr. Armstrong, Emily Brent, General Macarthur, Tony Marston, and Judge Wargrave. When they arrive they all realize that they do not know who the host is. Then a recording goes off accusing each of them of a specific murder committed in the past. As they are frightened and panicing, people out of the 8 die one by one. They start to suspect each other and are not able to trust each other. As the population on the island decreases, Vera, Lombard, and Armstrong are left, but they find Armstrong's body on the beach. They are both convinced that one another is the murderer. One of the last survivers, Vera, steals Lombard's gun and shoots him. I liked this book a lot because throughout the novel people die one by one which creates intensity and suspense. The best part was the twist at the very end of the book. I would recommend this book to people who like mystery and suspense.
 * And Then There Were None**
 * JiSup Kim**
 * Rate: 9/10**

"Silent To The Bone" takes place in Clarion County, New York. The story is from the point of view of Connor Kane, a 13 year old boy. One day his best friend, Branwell Zambroska, calls 911 when his baby sister Nikki suffers a head injury. Even though he is the one that dials 911, he does nto speak. The au pair completes the phone call to the police and she accuses Branwell that he dropped his baby sister, Nikki, intentionally. Conor knows that Branwell would never do that because Branwell loves his little sister too much. Branwell is sent to the County Juvenile Behavioral Center. Connor is on a mission to unravel the mystery, but the only problem is that Branwell has stopped speaking. Therefore Conor uses flashcards, bilnks, and sign language to communicate with him to discover who really hurt Nikki. I loved the way how Connor used different type of ways to break the wall of silence that surrounded Branwell. It was very nice to see how you can always rely on a friend even when your family has given up on you. Even though this novel is very sad, it is heartwarming at the same time. This was a great book and i would recommend people to read it.
 * Silent To The Bones**
 * JiSup Kim**
 * Rate: 8.5/10**

Taking place during the Great Depression, Jacob is an Ivy League university student when one day, he finds out he is orphaned. He decides to run off with a circus. During his time working at the circus, he experiences all kinds of adventures, both good and bad. After seventy years, Jacob is in a nursing home at ninety years old. He finally shares everything that happened during those years, from beginning to end. I enjoyed this book because of the characters and setting. It was fascinating to hear about the Great Depression and how it affected everything to even a circus and its performers. There are a variety of different characters, ranging from kind-hearted Jacob, to stunning Marlena, to clever elephant Rosie, and to bipolar August. These characters are round and have a lot of depth to their personalities. The book is narrated by Jacob, who tells the story switching from past circus life, to present nursing home life. The reader becomes attached to Jacob and sympathizes with the character, young and old. This book is well-paced and has something for everyone from thrill, to romance, to tragedy and happiness. Everything works out beautifully and ties in all together all the way to the very end.
 * __Water for Elephants__ by Sara Gruen**
 * Annie Wang**
 * Rate: 8/10**

This book is about a group of British schoolboys who are stranded on a deserted island, after their plane crashes. There are no adults with them, and they are isolated to fend for themselves. In this group, two of the protagonists are Ralph and Piggy. Ralph is one of the oldest and most confident. Piggy is pudgy with glasses, however is extremely smart. Ralph finds a shell, which he blows. The shell brings all the boys from across the island together in a gathering. They organize a group to search the island. Meanwhile, they establish rules for order on the island. The most important rule is to keep a fire going on the mountain, which could signal their existence to a passing ship, and end up rescued. The boys gradually form a daily routine, however a power struggle arises. Eventually, tension builds and they end up fighting between each other. This fighting leads to angst, revenge, and death. While this book may not have been the happiest or pleasant, it was definitely thought provoking and haunting. Many different characters and events happen quickly in this book, forcing you to keep up as the story develops. The character and plot both develop noticeably from the beginning to the end, leaving you to wonder what had just happened when you finally finish reading. It was disturbing, yet interesting, to see how Golding brought out the beastly, savage side of mankind from the characters of young schoolboys. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a plot with lot of action and emotion.
 * __Lord of the Flies__ by William Golding**
 * Annie Wang**
 * Rate: 9/10**

Of Mice and Men is a novel centered around the lives of two ranch workers, George and Lennie. These two protagonist appear to be polar opposites: George being smart, lean, and small and Lenny with a sturdy build but astoundingly dumb with a mental issue. George took after Lennie when his Aunt Clara who had raised him, passed. The pair of farmers began traveling from ranch to ranch for work, forming a strong bond. However, because of Lennie’s mental issues and inability to meet social standards, he is always running into trouble; trouble that evidently finds not only Lennie, but drags down George as well. They had to flee their old farm in Weed, because Lennie obliviously began stroking a woman’s dress, which lead to a rape accusation. At the new farm, they seem to get along well with everyone but the boss’s son, a character named Curley. Lennie's mental issues and inability to control himself follow them to the new farm as they run into trouble with Curley. However through these troubles, we see the strength of their friendship and the extent to which George will go for Lennie. Even through their contrasts in characters, and the resounding option of parting with each other, they stick together, making the unexpected close to the novel all the more emotional and touching. This novel is full of beautiful imagery, rich themes, and is an excellent read. I highly recommend this novel.
 * __Of Mice and Men__ by John Steinbeck:**
 * Tiffany Gao**
 * Rating: 10/10**

__**The Old Man and the Sea**__ __**Ernest Hemingway**__ __**Peter Huang**__ __The Old Man and the Sea__ is the story of an aging Cuban fisherman named Santiago who has gone eighty-four days without catching anything. Because of not catching any fish for so long, his apprentice and friend Manolin, is forced to leave him for a more successful fishing boat by his parents. So, after the loss of his friend, Santiago is determined to capture some fish and decides to sail further out into the sea on the eighty-fifth day. What he finds on the eighty-fifth day is a giant marlin, the biggest one he’s every seen. However, due to the enormous size of the marlin, Santiago has to spend 3 days trying to hook the marlin in. When he finally does, sharks in the waters are attracted to the blood of the marlin and begin attacking Santiago’s boat. Santiago is plagued by the attack of sharks the entire journey home, and when he finally returns, the marlin has already been devoured by the sharks. Although this book was a bit slow, it was a good but short read. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a short classic book to read.
 * 9/10**

The Chocolate War written by Robert Cormier is about a freshman call Jerry Renault goes against the tradition of Trinity, a private all boys high school. Because the Headmaster is sick and unable to rule the school, a teacher named Brother Leon and the Vigils take control of the school. The tradition of Trinity was the sale of chocolates. Every year, a student who participates in the event must sell his quota of chocolate boxes. Students who exceed the quota would be admired. Students who sell below the quota would be looked down and jeered at. Almost nobody really took the chocolate sale seriously and didn't understand why they need to sell chocolates for the school. But there is a hidden secret and reason of why selling chocolates seemed to be a huge deal for Brother Leon, which clearly showed when decides not to sell chocolates. At first it seemed like a huge sensation and left everyone in shocked awe. But Jerry Renault would have never expected that corruption; hatred and unimaginable sinful doings were about head his way. What will he do then? At first the book was confusing for me because the chapters kept switching back and forth of different character’s point of view. But also because of this technique, it creates suspense and dramatic irony. I really enjoyed and sympathize how corrupted society is and how humans are easily swayed and turn their back against you within a short period of time. It is a short book but projects a powerful message. Therefore I will rate this book 8 out of 10 star.
 * The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier**
 * Valerie Foo**

“Shiver” is about Grace a small girl that was attacked by wolves. But mysteriously, one of the wolves which had grey with striking yellow eyes stopped the rest of the pack and save her life. Since then Grace has been obsessed with the wolves that roam the forests at night. One day a boy from Grace’s high school is attacked and killed by wolves. After this event a group of hunters go in the forest to kill the pack. Sam the wolf turns into a human in the summer and into a wolf in the winter. Grace and Sam meet and fall in love. But Sam can’t stay human for very long, and so the young couple has to treasure the short time they have to spend together. I really liked this book because the narrator changes. One chapter is Grace narrating and the other Sam narrating. With this we can see both points of views of the characters for the same thing. I would recommend this book to everyone because it has romance, action and generally is a really catchy and fast book to read. Score: 10/10
 * Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater **
 * Eleni Chatziparaskeva **

__**Lord of the Flies**__ __**William Golding**__ __**Peter Huang**__ __Lord of the Flies__ is a novel by William Golding that tells the story of a group of British boys that are stranded on a remote island after a plane crash. After grouping together, the boys elect a boy named Ralph to be their leader. Ralph proves to be a sensible leader and is assisted by a boy named Piggy, who serves as his advisor. Soon after the election, Ralph takes action quickly and sets up a signal fire as he is focused on getting rescued as soon as possible. However, Ralph’s leadership is contested by Jack, the head of the choir boys. Throughout the story, Jack and Ralph go back and forth at each other, until Jack finally secedes from the group and forms his own hunting-focused tribe, which manages to draw in many boys from the original group. Jack’s group gradually becomes more and more savage, plotting against Ralph’s group and often staging attacks among them. One of Jack’s plots to garner the favor of the younger boys was to promise to kill a monster they feared named the Beast. In reality, this monster is imaginary and is actually a symbol for the beast within these boys. __Lord of the Flies__ was a very interesting book to read because of how it portrays the themes of human nature and chaos vs. order through a group of boys stranded on an island. I enjoyed this book very much and I recommend it to people who enjoy a good short novel.
 * 10/10**

__**Howl's Moving Castle**__ __**Diana Wynne Jones**__ __**Gillian Hei**__ __Howl's Moving Castle__ by Diana Wynne Jones is a fantasy fiction novel full of magic and spells. The main character, Sophie, is the eldest of three, which is quite a misfortune in the land of Ingary. Rumors flit around about the Wizard Howl, who eats the hearts of young attractive girls. Sophie, being the eldest, goes through a series of misfortunes- including being turned into a ninety-year-old grandma- and eventually makes her way to Howl's moving castle, in which she meets a cursed scarecrow with a secret and a powerful fire demon named Calcifer, not to mention Howl himself. Disguising herself as a cleaning witch, she goes about trying to find a way to break her curse, with Calcifer's help. Along the way, she finds out that there is more to Howl than meets the eye, as well as witches and wizards in general. The book is very well written, and is sure to give you a few laughs now and then. It's quite easy to relate to the characters within the book, especially Sophie and Howl. However, a recommendation is not to read the table of contents; it'll spoil everything that happens in each chapter. __Howl's Moving Castle__ is a fun, unique book that spins a tale of love, magic, and spells. I really enjoyed the book because everything that Sophie goes through is extremely creative and original, and the events in the book are all exciting to read. However, the fact that the table of contents spoils everything was a bit upsetting. Other than that, however, I highly recommend this book. It's a great read.
 * 9.5/10**

__**Looking for Alaska**__ __**John Green**__ __**Jessica Moh**__ __Looking for Alaska__ by John Green is a fiction novel written in the perspective of Miles "Pudge" Halter, a junior who moves from Florida to Alabama to go to a boarding school called Culver Creek. Miles did not have many friends at his old school so his motivation to go to Culver Creek was in search for the "Greater Perhaps". Miles meets his new roommate Chip, also known as "The Colonel", and is introduced to his friend Alaska. Alaska is a dare-devil, always pulling pranks on the school dean, who she calls "The Eagle". Throughout the book, Pudge introduced to smoking, which he then continues on throughout his school year. In Alaska and The Colonel's eyes, the school is split into two parts, the Weekday Warriors, which are the rich kids, and the normal school boarders, who were them. Alaska becomes close friends with Miles, and tells him the story of the labyrinth, and the ways of getting out. This book is split into two sections, the before and after; the before, being a countdown to an unexpected plot twist, which shocks all the characters in the book. This book is full in suspense which lasts throughout the whole book. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. I really enjoyed this book because John Green's writing made me feel some-what connected to the characters and sometimes understanding what they were going through.
 * 10/10**

__**The Name of the Wind**__ __**Patrick Rothfuss**__ __**Rya****n Dang**__ The Name of the Wind is a fictional novel about a boy named Kvothe. He lived with his family and friends as a Edema Ruh troupe. They would sing and act where they pleased. One day, Kvothe meets an arcanist named Ben while traveling. An arcanist is a person who knows all sorts of magics who helps people for a fee. Kvothe sees Ben defend himself against superstitious villagemen by causing the wind to swirl around them. Kvothe is instantly intrigued by this show of magic. He learns that Ben had called the name of the wind. Kvothe begins to learn from Ben, while Ben travels with their troupe. The whole time Kvothe is trying to learn about the name of the wind. However, Kvothe's parents had started writing a song about a legendary threat, the Chandrian. The Chandrian are feared by everybody, but they are still believed as simple fairytales. When Kvothe's parents decide to sing their song, it all goes wrong. Kvothe fetches firewood and when he comes back, his whole troupe has been destroyed. This begins the tale of how Kvothe tries to find the wind and enter the University, the place where all arcanists learn magic. While he travels on his journey, he thinks of his hatred for the Chandrian and the revenge he will have.

I rate this book a 10 out of 10. It has amazing imagery. Literally every page was illustrated with words. I loved it and I would recommend it to anybody.

The book "Nine Stories" is a compilation of several short stories. Most of the short stories are different but they share some common characteristics. For example they many seem to be post war period, probably after WW2. Second of all, the stories are quite sad, dark, or mysterious, none of them are joyful or light mooded. The author probably wanted to show what the WW2 soldiers were feeling at the time and how they perceived the world. My favorite story was probably the first one where the socially awkward man, seymore, lives a quiet and seemingly happy life but kills himself in the end. The metaphorical reference to the banana fish may be about his own life where if he has too many pleasures in life, they will end up backfiring. So, he probably killed himself to provent further pain. Nevertheless, that is just my interpretation and the whole story is quite enigmatic and suspenseful. An improvement i would recommend is to make the stories slightly longer because they all feel a little too short and I think the characters could develop a little better. All in all, I would recommend this book to anybody that likes to read "darker" short stories. 9/10
 * __Nine Stories__**
 * __J.D Salinger__**
 * __Justin Luo__**

In __The Fault in Our Stars__, 16-year-old Hazel Grace is suffering from cancer when she meets the gorgeous, charming Augustus Waters who has lost a leg to osteosarcoma. Together, they share their fears, obsessions and thoughts, all the while falling head over heels in love with each other. Their love is deep, but in the end, their health cracks and breaks it apart. Though John Green has an interesting voice and style of writing, I personally did not enjoy it as most people do. It wasn’t easy for me to relate to the characters, and I couldn’t really feel the love and sadness Hazel and Augustus have for each other. His raw perspective on cancer in teens is sadly refreshing, but using adolescents wise beyond their age who are sugarcoated with romance did not make this novel enjoyable for me. The overall plot of the novel is well planned, but small details contradict it. I would recommend this novel to those who enjoy tragic romance, but I would not recommend to read too deeply into it.
 * __The Fault in Our Stars__**
 * __John Green__**
 * __Tiffany Dai__**
 * 4/10**


 * Of mice and Men by John Steinbeck**
 * Joyce Pang**

Of mice and men, by John Steinbeck, is about two farmworkers, Lennie and George, and is set during the Great Depression. Lennie is muscular, and fails to understand his own strength; possibly due to the fact he is mentally handicapped. George is a kind hearted man who teaches Lennie to do rights things. I really enjoyed this book. It was short and an easy read. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a short and exciting book! Rating: 9/10


 * Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck **
 * Eleni Chatziparaskeva **

The book “ Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck is a story about two farmworkers George and Lennie. The story is during the Great Depression. Lennie has mental problem and doesn’t know how to control his strength and causes a lot of problems. George is Lennie’s friend and is taking care of Lennie and trying to keep him out of problems as much as he can. The two friends had run away from a farm because Lennie hd been accused of raping a young woman. They went to a place near Soledad, California and tried to find a job. As they get hired and start working in a farm and they were planning to buy a farm. But will Lennie stay away from trouble or will he ruin their dreams? I really liked this book because it is shows how friendship is really important and even if your friend is getting into problems you try to help. I also really liked this book because the story is unusual and it is well written. I generally really enjoyed this book and I recommend it to everyone!!! Score: 10/10


 * The Fault in Our Stars by John Green **
 * Eleni Chatziparaskeva **

“The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green is a book about a sixteen year old teenage girl named Hazel Grace and is suffering from Thyroid cancer. She had to go to a support group because she spent most of her time at home. This support group is held by the church and there she meets Augustus Waters. Augustus is seventeen years old and also suffered from cancer but is in remission. Hazel’s favorite book is ‘An Imperial Affliction’ and gives it to Augustus to read it. Augustus really likes it as Hazel does. Hazel and Augustus go to Amsterdam to meet with the author Peter Van Houten. As their relationship gets stronger Hazel knows that her cancer will bring Augustus down. The ending was heartbreaking, this is why this book is depressing. I would recommend it to anyone. Rating 9/10

__**The Chocolate War**__ __**Robert Cormier**__ __**Ryan Dang**__ The Chocolate War is a book written by Robert Cormier about Jerry Renault, a kid at a Catholic high school called Trinity School. He tries to live his life normally and even becomes the quarterback for the football team. However, the Vigils, a secret society within the school constantly makes trouble for him and other students. One day, Jerry is chosen by the Vigils to pull a prank. Brother Leon, one of the teachers, is asking who will sell chocolates to all students. Every student is expected to say yes. However, Jerry is forced by the Vigils to say no. The Vigils make Jerry's hard life on him. So, Jerry does the unexpected. He disobeys the Vigils. This book reveals the horrors of bullying within schools. The Vigils control the school, and the teachers did nothing about it. Thankfully, in today's world bullying is not acceptable. This book was very emotional and troubling. I enjoyed reading it somewhat, but the ending was rather abrupt for me.

I rate this book a 8 out of 10.

__**Of Mice and Men**__ __**John Steinbeck**__ __**Jessica Moh**__ __Of Mice and Men__ by John Steinbeck is a very short but entertaining read. George and Lennie the two protagonists of the story, start off on a journey from a bus that left them in the middle of a road, miles away from a village. After traveling for almost the whole day, George and Lennie take a rest and spend the night in some bushes. Lennie is a tall, muscular man but has some mental disabilities which decreases his speaking ability, but we also learn that he is a very gentle person because he likes small animals. The following day, George and Lennie walk into this farm, seeking a job. They meet all the people on the farm and slowly become friends with them, except for the boss' son, Curley. The farm job was only a temporary job, because when George and Lennie made enough money, they planned to buy some land and start their own ranch, and be the owners of it. Curley, who is always seeking trouble, starts fighting with Lennie because he thinks that Lennie was "flirting" with his wife. But instead, Lennie crushes Curley's hand and they have to take him to the doctor. When everyone is gone, Lennie goes into the barn, and Curley's newlywed wife starts talking to him. She lets him touch her hair, but when she tells him to stop, he grabs on instead. A terrible situation happens and when the rest of the ranch workers hear about what happened, they all intend on killing Lennie. But in the end, George and Lennie's friendship come to an end as something unexcited happens.
 * 8.5/10**

__**The Plague**__ __**By Albert Camus**__ Peter Huang __The Plague__ by Albert Camus is a novel about a plague in a city called Oran. The story is told through a doctor named Rieux, and it begins with several thousands of rats dying in the city. This news scares the people of Oran, but the authorities brush it off and only collect the rats and cremate them. Despite the complaints from several doctors in Oran, the authorities take little action until people start dying daily from the plague. The government then place the entire city under quarantine, which leads to the different reactions of the population. Some believe that the plague is an act of God, others plot to escape the city, and some even take advantage of the situation and using illegal means for their own profit. However, there are some that are trying to battle the suffering that the plague brought. After several months, they are finally joined by the majority of the city in their efforts to stop the plague. At the end of the story, the epidemic ends and people return to their normal lives, but Rieux knows that the plague is never over because it can lay dormant for years. I enjoyed reading this story because and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read a well-written short novel.
 * 9/10**

__**Of Mice and Men**__ __**John Steinbeck**__ __**Leslie Chen**__ __Of Mice and Men__ is a classic about two farmworkers George and Lennie. Lennie has trouble remembering things and always looks to George for guidance. He is big but never means to hurt anybody. On the other hand, George is very different from Lennie. He is bright and a leader, always giving Lennie tips on what to do and what not to do. These two were stuck together after Lennie's aunt died and George promised to look after him. They left their previous job due to an accusation that Lennie felt up a women or we can infer that he was accused of rape. This led them to another farm in Soledad, California. We hear some of George's made-up stories that he has to repeatedly tell Lennie because he keeps forgetting. One of the stories about them two buying a cat house of their own and where Lennie can raise a rabbit was being overheard by a guy at the farm named Candy. Candy takes this as an opportunity to leave this farm and start somewhere new. To let Lennie have his hopes up, George pretends to already have a place picked out. Everything was going fine until one day when Lennie was petting a pup, he thought that the pup was going to bite him and he slapped the pup causing it to die. Curley, the boss of the farm's wife starts approaching and Lennie quickly buries the dead pup in a pile of hay. After talking to Curley's wife for awhile, they find out that they have one thing in common. They like to touch soft things. Not only did the pup die but something bad also happens that evolves Lennie. In this book they call the black people '**n**jswjfs' giving a big hint that it was near the segregation time, but his life style was still pretty high class, so i'm guessing it was around the Great Depression. I enjoyed reading this book very much and it was a quick read. I did get very frustrated at Lennie a lot for being so dumb and I think he deserved what he got at the end. I recommend this book to everyone.
 * 9/10**

__**Big Girl Small**__ __**Rachel DeWoskin**__ __**Leslie Chen**__ __Big Girl Small__ is about a 16 year old girl, Judy Lohden, who attends an arts high school and is 3 feet 9 inches. Being the new girl it's already hard for her to fit in and on top of all of that everyone's questioning about her size. Judy's constantly left being an outsider and suffers all the insecurities possible from the hallways to the stage. Worst of all she has a crush on the most popular guy in school. She can't seem to keep her eyes off of him and one day she catches herself flirting with him. All the worries about where to sit at lunch, what to wear everyday and how to act suddenly goes away. Judy's self confidence begins boosting after their first date. This is the first half of the story, being told from the beginning of eleventh grade. When the past catches up with the present Judy finds herself in a huge pile of drama unable to be solved. I started tearing up at some of these parts because I felt like she shouldn't be treated this way, but i'm glad that the ending of the book left me smiling. I would recommend this book because it wasn't a book about a stereotypical high school life. Rachel DeWoskin made it felt as if I were the narrator. I loved the beginning of the book, but started losing interest near the middle half because there were too much drama going on. Overall it was a pretty good book.
 * 8.5/10**

__**The Shining**__ __**Stephen King**__ __**Tiffany Dai**__ __The Shining__ is a modern yet classic horror story about the Torrance family who stay in the Overlook Hotel during the winter. Jack Torrance, an alcoholic, short-tempered father and husband, applies to be the Overlook’s caretaker to mend his marriage and career. Spending the winter at the Overlook seems to be perfect chance for Jack to reconnect with his wife, Wendy, and their five-year-old son, Danny. Danny’s telepathic powers, called the shining, strengthens the supernatural power of the Overlook and gradually shows frightening visions to the family more frequently. When the isolation of the hotel begins to drive Jack insane, Danny senses that his father is possessed by the spirits of the Overlook. King’s style of writing is chilling, refreshing, and perfect for anyone who wants to sink into an unforgettable book. The horrors of the Overlook Hotel combined with a family torn apart makes __The Shining__ a memorable read. I would recommend __The Shining__ to anyone who is willing to be terrified and to work through the novel page by page.
 * ​10/10**

__**Paper Towns**__ __ **John Green** __ Talia Nechelput As children Quentin ‘Q’ Jacobsen and Margo Roth Speigelman had been friends, neighbors, and even once discovered a dead body together in Jefferson Park. Since then Quentin along with the rest of the school, have been watching her from a distance, she was the THE Margo Roth Speigelman. One night, after not talking for years, Margo appears at Quentin’s window and invites him along for an all-nighter in which they get revenge on all the people that have done Margo wrong. At the end of this night together, they go to the top of the SunTrust bank building of Orlando, Florida, and Margo mentions how their town is a ‘paper town’ and that it is very fake and not genuine. Margo soon runs away from home, although no one but Q is worried because this has happened before, and Q decides it’s his job to find her. The rest of this book is about his mission to find Margo, but if you ask me, the rest was not worth reading. When Q starts looking for Margo, the book becomes very repetitive and dull. There wasn’t much conflict and the book resolved the conflict so minimally that it just seemed like the book drifted away into nothing, instead of just ending. It disappointed me, because I was really looking forward to reading this book, and in my eyes it was a let down. I rate this 3/10

__**Of Mice and Men**__ __**John Steineck**__ Talia Nechelput This is a story about George Milton and Lennie Small, two field workers during the great depression, who dream of owning their own farm. After Lennie is accused of rape when he wouldn’t let go of a woman’s dress (which he was touching because he loved to touch soft things such a rabbits and mice), they flee to another town and go to work at a new ranch. They both protect each other mutually from obstacles in life, Lennie, a large man protects George from physical dangers, while George protects and cares for Lennie who probably has mental issues. They soon meet Candy, Slim (who soon gives Lennie a puppy from his dogs’ litter because of his love of soft animals), Curly, and his wife. Curly’s wife is very flirtatious and almost immediately flirts with George and Lennie. The puppy and flirtation from Curly's wife are large parts of the end. Though it is a classic American Novel, loved by millions, I didn’t care for it very much. It had a good message but it’d didn’t really intrigue me. I rate this 7/10

Ryan Dang Fahrenheit 451 is about the future where books are outlawed and burned when found. Guy Montag is a fireman, a person who finds and burns books. After a rainy night coming back from his job, Clarisse McClellan follows him. Clarisse is different than everyone else in the society without books. She is happy and cheerful. She cares about nature while everyone else focuses on technology. Montag becomes friends with Clarisse and bonds with her. Mildred, Montag's wife, has become controlled by society and now simply watches television all day long. Montag genuinely likes Clarisse, a girl who doesn't belong in the indifferent society. However, one day Clarisse is run over by a car. After the death of Clarisse, Montag starts to wonder about the books. He hoards them and even tries to get Mildred to read them with him. Mildred argues with Montag and she says that Books are completely useless. Montag talks about how all of society is falling apart. Mildred ends up calling the firemen and they chase after Montag. Montag torches Beatty after Beatty taunts him. Then Montag runs away and finds out about a group of exiles who love books. He runs into the countryside and meets the exiles. The exiles memorize books and wait until society is ready to accept books again. Suddenly, the war begins and ends just as quickly. Bombs land in the city and destroy it. Montag and the exiles head out to the city to help rebuild a new society. I enjoyed reading this book. It predicted the future but didn't take it out of proportion. It added new elements to the world such as the burning of books. I give it a 9/10
 * Fahrenheit 451**
 * by Ray Bradbury**

__**Z for Zachariah**__ __**By Robert C. O’ Brien**__ Peter Huang __Z for Zachariah__ by Robert C. O’ Brien is a post-apocalyptic novel that tells the story of Ann Burden in the form of a diary. Ann is a young girl who is alive during a nuclear war and believes herself to be the only survivor. The story takes place in Burden Valley, where Ann has been living alone for a year. When a stranger approaches the valley, she is worried that he is dangerous, so she decides to observe his actions from a distance. However, after the stranger takes a dip in a radioactive pool of water, she is forced to reveal herself and nurse him back to health. After meeting him, Ann learns that the mysterious man is a scientist named John Loomis who is searching for other survivors. In the beginning, Ann and John get along quite well, but as Ann learns more and more about John’s past, she becomes suspicious of who he actually is. As the story progresses, more and more problems surface until they result in fighting between the two parties. These conflicts remain until the end of the story because John and Ann are unable to work things out and want different things. I thought that this book was a good read because of the way it was written and the idea behind the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in science-fiction and books about apocalypses.
 * 8/10**

Justin Luo This book is about a teenager, Jerry, struggling for survival in a new school. Although most schools have common bullies and gangs, the Trinity Catholic school has a structured secret society called the Vigils. Their leader, Archie, commands them to do cruel and miserable pranks that always go unpunished. Even some teachers, such as "Brother Leon" have strong connections in the Vigils and would tell them to do his bidding. At the school, Jerry meets "the goober" on the football team, a nice person who has no desire to be part of the Vigils. One day, Jerry is assigned to sell chocolates at double the price for the Vigils so that Brother Leon can make a profit out of this. But he refuses. Jerry was inspired by a famous quote by T.S Eliot ("Do I dare disturb the universe?"). He decides that he will "dare" to disturb the universe and continues to refuse orders. Archie becomes angry and turns the Vigils attention on Jerry, beating him up and making his life hell. Archie even assigns an Vigil enthusiast, Emile, to beat up Jerry after school. Near the end of the book, Archie makes Emile and Jerry to fight, as the final event for the chocolate sale. Jerry ultimately loses the fights and is seriously injured. He tells his friend Goober that he shouldn't of disturbed the universe and just went along with it. Lastly, Archie feels no regret for what he's done and will continue to do this. Overall, this book is a great book. There is a lot of foreshadowing and it is very suspenseful. The book is also very sad because throughout the plot, the protagonist is bullied and his life is very miserable. This makes us root for him as well as pity him at the same time. 9/10
 * The Chocolate War- Robert Cormier**

Zoology by Ben Dolnick Valerie Foo Zoology by Ben Dolnick is about a college flunk out student call Henry Elinsky. In the summer, his brother David had invited him to move in with him and his girlfriend in New York. Coincidently, Henry got a job offer at the Central Park Zoo. Working at the zoo is part of the story, but the story is mainly about his experiences in New York. His friendships with his co-workers, his crush on girl downstairs, Dad getting a heart attack, and many more. Through these incidents, he starts to learn more about himself and begins to mature. Life isn’t all about getting a prestigious job. Life is about having fun and paying attention to things around you better. The title Zoology made me have an impression that the book is going to be mostly Henry’s experience about working in the zoo and I am an animal lover. But as I started reading the book, I was sort of disappointed that the author didn't focus on the zoo. But on the other hand, the hilarious and sarcastic thoughts that go through Henry’s brain is fun to read on. Therefore I would rate this book 6 out of 10 stars.

The Outsiders by S.E Hinton Valerie Foo The Outsiders by S.E Hinton is about a 14 year old, Ponyboy, who is raised by his two brothers, Darry and Sodapop, because their parents have passed away. In the small town he lives in, there are two gangs, the Greasers, the poor and abused kidsm and the Socs, the rich kids. Ponyboy and his gang are Greasers. Ponyboy’s best friend, Johnny, is constanly abused by his parents and is deathly afraid of the Socs. One night, when Ponyboy and Johnny were playing in the park, a gang of Socs attacked both of them. Johnny out of fear committed murder. Knowing they would be thrown to jail, they consult Dally, a member of the gang that isn’t afraid of anything. In a flash, Dally had given them instructions on where, when and how to escape town to avoid being caught. Ponyboy and Johnny know that they have to act quick and their lives would be different. But what they didn’t realize is how the life they were so used to, would change completely within a night. I feel that this book is interesting because it is written from Ponyboy’s point of view. And also because of that, the readers are able to see how Ponyboy view others and how his opinions change as time passes by. Its also funny to see the Greases’s slang talk like “You dig?” and “Shoot!”. This book is packed with endless events that will surely and is suitable for people who like deep friendship and adventures. For me, I couldn’t put the book down until I finished reading. Therefore I rate this book 8 out of 10 stars.

Tiffany Gao Tuesdays with Morrie is an autobiographical novel with a unique structure in which we switch from present day to flashbacks. The novel begins with Morrie, a college professor, being diagnosed with the fatal disease of ALS. From there, we are reading through the perspective of Mitch, one of Morrie’s old students who had a special bond with him during his college years. Mitch takes a look at his life and sees how much his values and dreams have changed from the time he was in college taking Morrie’s courses and learning the philosophical views on life that Morrie held dear to his heart. When Mitch finds out that Morrie is diagnosed with the disease, he begins visiting him again, every Tuesday, just as he did 16 years before. From these Tuesday sessions, they discuss aspects of life, death, family, love, and we are engrossed in the optimism and realistic insight that Morrie has to offer and teach Mitch. This novel is truly touching not only in the sense of the optimism, happiness, and vitality Morrie has above other people, even when facing death, but also by the lessons of life he still wishes to share. This book really emotionally touches the reader and offers a chance to re-evaluate their life and start living, really living. Tuesdays with Morrie is full of humour and sorrow and will teach you important insights to life. I highly recommend this novel.
 * Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom**
 * Rating: 9/10**

__**How to Kill a Mockingbird**__ __**By Harper Lee**__ JiSup Kim The novel "To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Alabama during the Depression. A girl named Jean Louise “Scout” Finch narrates the story. Her father is Atticus Finch and he is a lawyer. The story starts out with Scout, Jem, and Dill trying to figure out who "Boo" is and continues to communicate with the mystery man even though their parents tells them not to. There is one incident where they go very close to the house and Boo's brother, Nathan Radley, fires his gun because he thinks he hears a prowler. The children run away and when Jem goes back to get his pants, they are neatly folded. More mysterious incidents happen with them and the Radleys. One day, Atticus Finch decides to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white girl named Mayella Ewell. The Finch family is criticized because of defending a black man. After further investigations, the evidence favors Tom, but the jury announces him guilty. Mr. Ewell feels as if his family has been humiliated because of the trial against a black man, therefore he attacks Jem and Scout at night. When the two are almost killed by Mr. Ewell, Boo Radley stabs Mr. Ewell and saves them. The police think that Mr. Ewell fell on his on knife and Boo does not have to be testified. This book angered me because of the racial inequality in America. Something that caught my attention was when Atticus gives Jem and Scout airguns for Christmas, he tells them to shoot tin cans. He also tells them that if they are going to shoot at living things, do not shoot a mockingbird because mockingbirds never do any harm and all they do is sing beautifully. Therefore it is a sin to kill them. Tom Robinson, the falsely accused black man, is an example of a mockingbird. He does not do any harm to any one, but is charged guilty and later loses his life. This shows that the town has committed a sin. Atticus explains that Boo does not need to go to trial because if he does, it will be the same as killing a mockingbird. Rate: 9/10

__**Clockwork Princess**__ __**Cassandra Clare**__ __Clockwork Princess__ is the 3rd book in the series of Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare. Tessa, one of the protagonists of the book is wanted by an enemy of the Clave, Mortmain. Mortmain was the leader of an army of clockwork automatons, also known as the clockwork army. He wanted to use those automatons to destroy the Shadowhunter race and create a new one with the powers of Tessa. Not sure what she is, Tessa is captured by Mortmain and is forced to marry him, so that they can create the new race of Shadowhunters. Will Herondale, another protagonist of the book goes on a mission to rescue her while his friends are left at the Institute wondering where Will went. When Will finds Tessa, their friends come through a portal and fight against a portion of Mortmain's clockwork army. Tessa is taken by an automaton and is brought to Mortmain, but she has the powers to shape-change, so she held her necklace, the clockwork angel and changes into the angel. She then destroys Mortmain and all the automatons crumble to pieces because they relied on Mortmain to function. I find this book a really good read because there is an unexpected plot twist. But i advise that you read the other books in the series to understand what happens in this book.
 * Jessica Moh**
 * 10/10**

Sarah Armstrong //Reached// by Allie Condie is the third and last book in the science fiction series 'matched'. This book skips forward from the last book where Cassie and Ky have just joined the rising and been sent to where they will be working. Now, Cassie and Ky are living in separate places- Cassie in Central and Ky in Camas. Towards the start of the book everyone is hopeful for the rising, but as time moves on there are still many people sick. Xander who is working as one of the medics at the hospital is one of the first to realise that there is a mutation. Ky, Xander and Cassie are all taken by the pilot to end stone, one of the stone villages, go and help work on the cure as all the people from these villages are somehow immune. They are working on a cure because they want to go to the other lands. There they find the farmers that they met while in the carving. Xander and Cassie find out that they are both immune to the mutation but Ky is not and he falls ill. Xander works with Oker in the lab to make a cure, Cassie sorts through all the things the villagers eat so that she can try and find the key ingredient needed for the cure. After Oker suddenly dies, and Xander is blamed, Cassie and Xander are left to find the cure quickly so that Ky doesn't die. When they find the cure they all go back to the society and help to get everyone better before they leave with all the farmers and villagers to live in the other lands. At the end of the book Cassie finally chooses Ky over Xander and Xander falls in love with a medic that he worked with before the mutation was found. This book was really interesting, especially after reading the first two books in the series. I would not recommend this book, but only because it is pretty long. 8/10
 * Reached**

__**Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins**__ __**Joyce Pang**__ __Mockingjay__ is the last book of the Hunger Games series. In this novel, Katniss and the others, including her family and Gale seek refuge in District 13. The president of District 13, Coin, asks Katniss to be the Face of rebellion, 'Mockingjay'. She is unwilling, but agrees. Katniss then leads the rebels to take over the districts and the Capitol, and finally rescue the captives, including Peeta. Unfortunately, Peeta was tortured using a method called 'Hijacking', which made him hate Katniss and constantly try to kill her. Over time, Peeta got better, but he wanted the rebels to kill him, because he thought that he was a threat to them, and obviously, they said no. As Katniss, Peeta, Gale and many others make their way to the Capitol, some people die from the traps. The rebels team up and fight against the Capitol, they kidnap President Snow, and President Coin, sets up an execution stage to kill President Snow. Coin had promised to let Katniss kill Snow when she agreed to be the Mockingjay, so when Katniss is about to kill Snow the book takes a sudden twist, and Katniss shoots Coin. She does this because she believes Coin's intentions are not all good, and that she only wanted to take Snow's place. I really enjoyed reading the book, but i didn't really like the ending. The book ended with a lot of unanswered questions and it felt abit too rushed. Rating: 8.5/10


 * __The Best Poems Ever__**
 * A Collection of Poetry's Greatest Voices**
 * __Jimmy Park__**

This book is a collection of beautiful poems, written by famous poets. There are poems about love, wind, school life, and death. There was a poet that I personally liked, who is called Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote "The Raven" in this poem collection. I liked Edgar Allan Poe's poem, because his poem is very unique, in a way of describing a scene or a mood of poem. In this poem collection, there are long and short poems, but they are all effective and have their own color of poems. The implicated meanings in the poems are interesting to know about. There are some of the poems that we learnt in an English Class such as Haiku, Sonnet, Limericks, and Free Verse. They have all their characteristic and their own understanding of poems. There are some of the most amazing poems ever written, touching the heart, challenging the mind, and conjuring worlds of experience and imagination. I recommend this book for people, who has stress in their mind. This book clears your mind and makes you focus into this book 10/10

__**Jimmy Park**__
 * Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief**
 * Rick Riordan**

This book is the first series a Percy Jackson Series. The story starts with a boy called Percy. He didn't realize that he has a hidden power, the power of demigod. In the school Yancy Academy. He can't read well, since he has ADHD an dyslexic. He has a potential power, which was to swim underwater for long time. When they went to the art museum, Percy gets attacked by his Mrs. Dodds. Then, he realized that he's not like the others. He soon realizes that he's a demigod, son of Poseidon. His best friend, Grover, is a satyr and he helps Percy through his life. Percy went to the camp, where all the demigods train themselves. Then, he gets a mission, which was getting the stolen lightning bolts. He has his team Grover and Annabeth. When he was a rookie in the camp, he learns some basic ideas about Luke, demigod of Hermes. Percy, then feels something weird about Luke. Who is Luke really? I recommend this book mostly for the people, who like to read fantasy novels. It's very short and easy to read. 10/10


 * The Outsiders by S.E Hinton **
 * Eleni Chatziparaskeva **

“The Outsiders” by S.E Hinton is a violent book about this 14-year-old boy named Ponyboy Curtis. Ponyboy has two brothers: Darry who is 20 and Sodapop who is 16. Ponyboy lost his parents in an car accident and now lives with his two brothers as long as they don’t get into any trouble. They boys are greasers which are the poor kids and their enemies are the Socs which are the rich kids. Ponyboy always gets into trouble with the Socs so one Ponyboy and his friend got in a fight with the Socs at a park, because the Soc’s were drunk. They almost drowned Ponyboy but his friend Johnny stabs on of them. One other day a fire stars in the church while a group of kids were in the church. Pony and Johnny acted heroically and saved the kids. But did Ponyboy and Johnny survive? I recommend this book mostly for people that are into books with action and mostly for boys. But i think it was well written but I didn’t really like the book that much. Score: 7/10

__**I Am the Cheese**__ __**Robert Cormier**__ __**Peter Huang**__ __I Am the Cheese__ by Robert Cormier is a novel about a boy named Adam Farmer who is trying to uncover his past. The plot switches between two story lines, one where Adam is on a bike ride through New England and the other a journey to remember memories from his life. Adam faces many problems on his bike ride, but his mental journey to find his memories are even more troubling. “Guided” and interviewed by a doctor named Brint, Adam revisits his childhood, but as he unravels more and more details about his life, he becomes increasingly confused over who he is. Other than the taxing process of recovering his memories, Adam uncovers the lies that his parents have told him over the years and what he finds out reveals his family’s situation and the danger they are in. Throughout the entire story, Adam gradually loses his sense of identity and finally realizes that he is the cheese. This novel has a very dark tone and the tragic ending to the story only adds on to the grim themes of the book. The themes of the book, identity and isolation, are presented very well and are visible from beginning to end. This book is very complex and captivating because the story is so well-written and the intricate plot just fits together at the end. However, the beginning is a bit confusing but it will eventually begin to make sense. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to read a suspenseful mystery novel and an amazing book.
 * 10/10**

__**The Victim**__ __**By Saul Bellow**__ JiSup Kim

"The Victim" by Saul Bellow is a story about a man named Leventhal, who has a job as a copy-editor in New York. One day when he is at work, his sister-in-law calls him frantically telling him that his nephew is incredibly ill. He suggests her that he needs to go see a doctor, but she refuses. After a few days a man named Allbee confronts him. Allbee tells Leventhal that he has ruined his life and he holds responsibility of all his tragedies such as losing his job, the death of his wife, and on and on. Leventhal remembers Allbee and how he angered him with anti-Semitic remarks. He also remembers having a horrible interview with Allbee's boss. Allbee concludes that Leventhal did that on purpose and he is the main reason of his fall. At the end, Leventhal finally apologizes to Allbee but is later put upon stress once again due to his nephew's sudden death. Even after this disaster, we learn that he has been promoted, looks younger despite his gray hair, and is about to become a father. At the end of the novel, Leventhal and Allbee meet again at a theatre. The situation is totally reversed and Allbee is rich and is also dating a Hollywood actress. Leventhal is shocked at the unexpected turn. Allbee apologizes to Leventhal for his aggressive behavior. Finally, the novel ends with Leventhal and his 9-month pregnant wife in the dark, being show to their seats by an invisible usher. I did not enjoy this book because of its sudden turn of events. The plot confused me a lot and was very hard to understand how Leventhal’s small acts made Allbee’s life miserable. Personally, I would not recommend this book to someone else. Rate: 4.5/10

__**The Book Thief**__ __**Markus Zusak**__ __**Peter Huang**__ __The Book Thief__ by Markus Zusak takes place during World War II and is about a girl named Liesel Meminger. She is under the care of foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann in Molching, Germany, because of her family’s relations to communist parties. Due to her mother’s disappearance and her brother’s death, Liesel is traumatized, but soon finds comfort in her foster father Hans’s attempts to teach her how to read. Liesel’s interests in books lead her to steal books,from places such as the Mayor’s library to a book burning. Later, the Hubermanns house someone named Max Vandenburg, a Jewish man on the run. Liesel and Max becomes close friends, but when Hans shows compassion for a Jewish man, Max has to leave in fear of the Hubermann house being searched by the Nazis. Because of her experiences, Liesel learns about the dangers of living in Nazi Germany, where any sympathy towards the Jewish people will result in harsh punishments. This tragic story is rounded out with a terrible incident where Liesel is the only survivor. I thought that this story was extremely sad and depressing, as there was so much death. However, it was interesting to read about the Holocaust in a different perspective and learn about the struggles that the Germans that helped the Jews had to go through, as well as learning about the paranoia that the Jewish people in hiding underwent. I enjoyed the book and I recommend it to anyone who would like to learn more about the Holocaust.
 * 8/10**

This story is the third book to the trilogy: The Hunger Games. The second book was about Katniss Everdeen being rescued by rebells and taken to District 13. She becomes their "mockingjay" or symbol of hope for all imprisoned under President Snow. The president there, Coin, realizes that Katniss is not herself because Peeta is not there. They decide to rescue Peeta and they do rescue him from the capitol. But they find out the capitol has brainwashed him and considered mentally insatiable. As time passes, Peeta recovers and District 13 teams up with other districts to fight the Capitol. They close in on the capitol after much fighting and suddenly, a capitol ship drops a bomb that kills many innocent children helping in the war effort. Katniss's sister is among them and she is killed. But they capture President Snow and take control of the Capitol. Katniss first thought that President Snow ordered the bombing but she finds out that it was President Coin instead. During the final execution of President Snow, Katniss turns around and kills Coin instead. The story fasts forwards 20 years and it shows Katniss married to Peeta. They have two children and Katniss and Peeta start playing a repetitive fun "game" with their kids. Katniss then recalls that there are much worse games to play. The final book to the trilogy is very well written in my opinion because of the many plots and twists in the plot. Basically at the end, Katniss does not kill Snow but kills Coin because she thinks that Coin is the true evil. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for adventure and action.
 * __MockingJay__**
 * __Suzanne Collins__**
 * __Justin Luo__**

9/10

This story is the second book to the trilogy: The Hunger Games. The first book was about Katniss Everdeen and Peeta surviving the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games were a brutal sadistic game in which children from every district had to fight to the death. The story is quite peaceful at first but starts escalating when President Snow, the evil leader, visits Katniss and threatens to kill her friend Gale. She is forced to quench the rebellious spirit that many districts have. But she fails. Gale was whipped and tortured but wasn't killed. Then came the Hunger Games.This year was the quarter quell and Katniss and Peeta were chosen to return to the Hunger Games. During the brutal games, they gain some allies along the way and fight their way through. But soon they found a small glitch in the arena. Surprisingly Katniss and some threes were able to escape with the help of an anti-capitol helicopter but Peeta was captured by the Capitol. They were taken and brought to a secretive place: District 13. People did not know it existed until now and most thought the place was extinct. Katniss agreed to the people there that she would help them fight the long war against the capitol. Overall, I thought that this book was ok but lacked some finesse to it. I think that the first book was a little better since the second book was slightly repetitive. But it was still a good book and I would recommend this to young adults who like to read about adventure and action 8/10
 * __Catching Fire__**
 * __Suzanne Collins__**
 * __Justin Luo__**

Talia Nechelput The novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson, follows the stories of two teenage boys that have the same name. The even numbered chapters (written by Levithan) follow the Will Grayson who is best friends with Tiny Cooper. Tiny is a huge guy who is really, really, gay. Will wishes to go unnoticed, but it is made even more complicated when Tiny writes, directs, and acts in an autobiographical musical. The other Will Grayson is narrated in the odd chapters (written by Green). These chapters follow his fight against depression and living life with nothing to hold on to other than his online friend, Isaac. These two characters meet and it causes a large change in both Will Graysons’ lives. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes duo point of view novels, and who enjoy romance and internal conflict. Personally, I loved this book, but there wasn’t a large enough conflict for my liking. I also thought the ending wasn’t very strong. I rate this an 8/10
 * __Will Grayson, Will Grayson__**
 * __ John Green and David Levithan __**

Talia Nechelput Tuesdays with Morrie is a touching true story by Mitch Albom, which follows the lessons of the meaning of life between Albom and his college professor Morrie Schwartz in their weekly Tuesday meetings. One day, Albom recognizes his old professor on ‘Night Line’ and decides to contact him when he remembers the promise to keep in touch, that he hadn’t kept. He learns that His favorite professor has been diagnosed with ALS ( Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ) and is dying. They then meet every Tuesday till Schwartz’s death, and discuss topics important to life and the lessons of life. The life lessons and topics discussed between the two include: regrets, death, aging, forgiveness, and several more. I liked the book; I particularly liked how I, as the reader, could learn these lessons that Morrie was teaching to Albom. Though many aspects of the book are sad, it is heart warming and is a great read. I rate this a 7.5/10
 * __Tuesdays with Morrie__**
 * __ Mitch Albom __**

__**Crossed**__ __**Ally Condie**__ __**Jessica Moh**__ __Crossed__ by Ally Condie is the sequel in the series "Matched". Cassia, one of the protagonists of the story is re-classified to the Outer Provinces because of a deed that her father did. She starts working in the fields, harvesting crops but is then brought on an airship to go to another village. Ky, the other protagonist of the story is brought to a village to fight against the Enemy. He knows that the society sent them out there to kill them, so he and his friend Vick, take along this other boy, Eli to escape the village. They run into the Carving and slowing try to find the marks of the farmers to trade with them. When Cassia arrives at the village, she realizes it is the village that Ky was at, and learns that he has run away. In pursuit of finding him, she too, runs away with her friend Indie who she met at the fields. They run into the Carving, and along the way Cassia notices trademarks of Ky. They finally meet up and make their way towards a rebellion called the Rising. In the end, Cassia is sent back to the society to keep an eye out from inside. I find this book super captivating to find out what will happen to Ky and Cassia as they are forced through terrains they have never been too.
 * 10/10**

__Stolen__ is a fiction novel that is full of suspense and is written in second person. The main character, Gemma, was kidnapped from the airport after being drugged by Ty. He takes her to a deserted place in Australia where he expects her to fall in love with him. After many days of failed attempts Gemma decides to cooperate with him and see what his daily routine was. Occasionally she'd look around to see if she could try to find an escape route. Ty leads her into a room where all the paint was made from sand and rocks. Gemma thought he was going to kill her and messes up all the beautiful patterns he made. There, Ty agrees to let her run away, but only come after her once she's lost. The every day that Gemma and Ty got to know each other better, their bond becomes stronger. When things of kind of deliberately well, Gemma gets bitten by a snake, which in the beginning is said to be quite dangerous. For the many times that Gemma has tried to escape, we know that there are no buildings or people in this deserted place, so Ty has to bring her back to the city to get treatment. Gemma was in a venom-induced coma and after she woke up she finds out that Ty has been arrested and any feelings she had for him were because of Stockholm Syndrome. This book is really good, but the plot was slow which made me want to skip through some parts. Also I found Ty to be really creepy and a psychotic freak who wouldn't stop smiling. Every time they described his eyes, I would get so freaked out and imagine a pedophile with shiny eyes staring into my soul. Besides that I really liked this book and always wanted to know what would happen next.
 * __Stolen__**
 * __Lucy Christopher__**
 * __Leslie Chen__**
 * 9.5/10** (because it was boring at some parts)

__The Fault in Our Stars__ is a romance novel about a 16 year old girl, Hazel Grace, who is suffering from Stage 4 Thyroid cancer. Her parents force her to go to Support Group every Wednesday that is held in a Church. There, she meets a 17 year old boy named Augustus Waters who lost his right leg to osteosarcoma. They start to hang out more often and recommend each other the books An Imperial Affliction and The Prince of Dawn. An Imperial Affliction is Hazel's favorite book because she feels like she can relate to it since it is also evolving around a cancer patient girl. The book ends mid sentence because the main character dies. This causes Hazel and Augustus very frustrated because the other characters don't get closure, and all the problems haven't been resolved. Augustus decides to use his one Genie wish to go to Amsterdam with Hazel, where the author of An Imperial Affliction lives. As their relationship starts to strengthen Hazel feels like it is unfair to Augustus when she dies and refers to herself 'as a grenade'. This book is really sweet and romantic. I found myself crying so much at the end that I woke up with swollen eyes. I recommend this book to everyone, but note, don't read more than one John Green book in a row because it is way too depressing.
 * __The Fault in Our Stars__**
 * __John Green__**
 * __Leslie Chen__**
 * 10/10**


 * __Looking For Alaska__ by John Green**
 * Tiffany Gao**

Looking for Alaska is a fiction novel written from the perspective of Miles “Pudge” Halter, a junior in high school who has just moved from Florida to Alabama to attend boarding school at Culver Creek. Miles was a social outcast at his old school, not caring much for friends, and was motivated to attend boarding school in search for a “Greater Perhaps”, something purposeful in life. He arrived at school to meet an unpleasant welcome in which Kevin and his bunch, later identified as a Weekday Warriors (rich kids), dunk him into the lake-duct taped. His roommate, The Colonel, who is known for not only his burning hatred for weekday warriors, but also his strong values of loyalty, is royally pissed at them and seeks vengeance. A long the way, Miles meets a close friend of the Colonel, Alaska, and we see their flirtations and his longing for her develop throughout the book. The novel is divided into a before and after, the before section literally being a countdown to a vague event that turns out to be a dramatic plot twist. This book held suspense from the very beginning and maintained it throughout the story. I highly recommend this book to all readers. I found I was able to connect with the characters, sometimes emotionally moved to the point of tears, and was able to finish the book in one sitting. A truly great novel.
 * Rate: 10/10**

This story is set in a dystopia with five different factions. The Abnegation is made up of the selfless, the Dauntless is made up of the brave, the Erudite is known for their knowledge, the Amity is friendly, and the Candor is honest. When the kids turn 16, they need to decide which faction they will live in for the rest of their lives. They may choose between the one they are born into, or switch into a different one. The main character is Beatrice and the story follows her journey as she decides which district she wants to go into. Ultimately, she needs to decide between her family and her true self. After she decides, she undergoes a transformation beginning with changing her name to “Tris”. She goes through her faction’s initiation and completes all different kinds of tests and meets all sorts of people. She experiences things she never thought she would before. Throughout the book, Tris has to hold onto a secret of hers, which could mean life or death. This book is similar to the __Hunger Games__ and is filled with a lot of plot twists. It is fast paced and keeps you reading until the very end. However, many things go unexplained and the reader is left to wonder what happened. I would rate this an 8.5/10 because there is a bit of everything in there for everyone – action, romance, and thrill.
 * __Divergent__ by Victoria Roth**
 * Annie Wang**
 * Rate: 8.5/10**

__**Tuesdays With** **Morrie by Mitch Albom**__

JiSup Kim Tuesdays with Morrie is sort of a final tutoring session between a college professor, Morrie, and his long lost students, Mitch. (The author of the book) Mitch Albom sees Professor Morrie on the show "Night line", and is reminded of a promise he made sixteen years ago to keep in touch with him. Professor Morrie has Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and does not have much time left. Mitch Albom travels from Michigan to Massachusetts to meet with him. His little sessions with Professor Morrie impact him that they meet for the next fourteen consecutive Tuesdays, until the day Professor Morrie passes away. During each of their meetings, they discuss a different topic about life. This brings in different themes such as death, love, culture, marriage, and regret. I liked this story because i was able to feel many emotions at once while reading this book. I felt extremely sad, then happy in a split second. This novel made me think more about my life and care about the people around me. Rating: 7.8/10

This book is about a normal teenage boy (name is never given) whose life changes once he meets a goth girl, named Anna Cayne. The narrator explains how they first met, how they fell in love, and leads up to the week before Valentine’s Day, when she goes missing. All that is found is her dress placed near a hole in a frozen river. No one knows if she died, ran away, or was abducted. The narrator goes on a journey to find out what truly happened to her, looking back on conversations, letters, and events. This book was a huge disappointment. The first few pages I actually enjoyed since the characters were introduced nicely and the exposition showed a lot of potential. However, it just went downhill from the beginning. I found the characters and situations unrealistic. For example, Anna is a girl who writes obituaries, listens to radio channels that only play chanted foreign words and numbers, and sends cryptic letters and packages to the narrator with homemade stamps she creates herself. I don’t know any person, not even in Pennsylvania, who does this. While the author may have written the character like this to add interest, I found myself not able to relate to the character and detached from the story. The narrator uncovers clues, and every time it seems like he finds something important, it turns out to be a red herring. Every. Single. Time. The book is filled with unresolved plot holes. Nothing is answered in the end. I would not recommend this for anyone at all unless you suffer from short-term memory loss, which would be a blessing in this case, so you could forget everything you read in this book. I rate it a two for the two first pages.
 * __As Simple As Snow__ by Gregory Galloway**
 * Annie Wang**
 * Rate: 2/10**

Sarah Armstrong //Crossed// by Allie Condie is the second novel in her science fiction series 'Matched' about a society in which everything is chosen for you; who you love, what you eat, your job and what music you listen to. The novel focuses on the lives of Ky and Cassie. After Ky is taken by the society to go to the outer provinces to fight the 'enemy' because he is an aberration Cassie goes in search of him. Cassie goes from work camp to work camp but still can't find Ky and so in a last effort she fakes being an aberration and goes with her friend Indie to the outer provinces. Ky not knowing that Cassie is searching for him escapes his camp and goes into the carving. After arriving in the outer provinces Cassie and Indie find a boy that was at Ky's previous camp. Once Cassie finds out she decides to also escape. Ky and Cassie finally meet up in the carving after Cassie finds her name carved on a tree. While in the carving Cassie begins to question her old life and what she wants. Cassie goes with Ky and Indie to find the Rising. The chapters in this novel alternate between Ky's and Cassie's point of view. This creates delay and helps the reader to better understand the story.
 * Crossed**
 * Rating: 10/10**

Sarah Armstrong //The Fault In Our Stars// by John Green is narrated by Hazel, a sixteen year thyroid cancer patient. Since Hazel spends most of her time at home, her parents force her to go to a support group in which she meets Augustus "Gus" Waters, a seventeen year old amputee who is in cancer remission. Hazel convinces Augustus to read her favourite book, 'An Imperial Affliction'. He loves it just as much as she and it becomes 'their book'. Hazel and Augustus end up going to Amsterdam, Netherlands so that they can meet with the author, Peter Van Houten, by using Augustus's wish from the 'The Genies'. As their relationship deepens, Hazel finds herself pulling away from Augustus because she doesn't want to be a grenade; When she dies she doesn't want everyone else to stop living their lives as well. She wants to minimise the pain everyone will feel when she passes away.The trip to Amsterdam changes that as Hazel finds out that Augustus's cancer has returned Augustus changes the way that Hazel looks at her disease and her life. I really enjoyed reading this book although it was very sad at parts.
 * The Fault In Our Stars**
 * Rating: 9/10**

__**Night**__ __**Elie Wiesel**__ __**JiSup Kim**__ Night is a novel narrated by Eliezer, a Jewish teenager who lives in Hungarian Tryansylvania. One day, his teacher, Mosh the Beadle, is deported. After a few months, he returns and tells everyone how the German Secret Police have killed the Jewish. 1994, the Nazis take over Hungary and the people who live in Eliezer's town are forced onto cattle cars. After a few days in the car without any water or food, they arrive at Auschwitz. Eliezer and his father are than separated from his mother and sisters. There are evaluations where they decided if the Jew should be killed, or put to work. Eliezer and his father pass the evalution and have to work for the Nazis. He then witnesses horrible events such as the Nazis burning babies in a furnace and being forced to watch the hanging of fellow prisoners. He also becomes a victim when one of the Nazis pluck out his golden tooth with a rusty spoon. After a few months, Eliezer has to have surgery on his foot due to an injury. While he is healing, everyone in the camp is being evacuated because the Russians were advancing to their location. They are forced to run for more than fifty miles to another concentration camp. Many die during the way. Him and his father survive, but in Buchenwald his father finally dies. Eliezer survives until April 11, 1945, when the Americans liberate the Jewish people from the concentration camp. After reading this story, i felt as if i have lost faith in humanity. The story was very emotional, but i would not recommend it to other people. Not because it is a bad book, but because of the horrific events in the novel. __**Rate: 8.5/10**__

__**Catching Fire**__ __**Suzanne Collins**__ __**Joyce Pang**__ In the last novel, __The Hunger Games__, Peeta Mallark and Katniss Everdeen both won the Hunger Games by threading both of their lives. Towards the beginning of __Catching Fire__, Peeta and Katniss are about to start the "victory tour" when she is visited by President snow. He tells Katniss that she is furious at what Katniss did at the Hunger Games, he also tells her that she started a serious of rebellions and that he will kill her best friend, Gale, if he doesn't continue to fake her love for Peeta. On the 75th Hunger Games, all the previous victors must go back and compete in the arena again, which included Peeta and Katniss. Katniss decided that this time she was going to help Peeta make it out alive. At the games, Peeta and Katniss found many allies. During the course of the games, they gained more allies but at the same time, many died too. When one of their allies decides to use a coiled wire to kill the rest of the opponents, but instead created an escape from the arena. All of the allies made it out alive, including Katniss, except for Peeta. In the end, it turned out that it was all a plan to break out from the Arena to head to District 13 and Haymitch, Gale and many of Katniss's friends were in the plan too. At the end of the book, Katniss discovered that district 13 has been destroyed. I think that this book is very unexpected twist, especially near the end. I personally think that it was better than __The Hunger Games__ and I would recommend it to everyone.
 * Rate: 10/10**

__**Catcher in the Rye**__ __**J.D. Salinger**__ __**Tiffany Dai**__ Catcher in the Rye is a novel about Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old full of angst, confusion, resent, anger, and all other feelings that we struggle with all at once. After being expelled from his fourth private school, he decides to leave campus early after getting into a fight with his roommate. Holden spend a few days of freedom in Manhattan before his parents find out. He fights the adult world and is torn apart by his fears and desires, leaving his emotions battered. Holden’s battle with loneliness, desperation, rejection in the city is a journey of reflection and change. Even though this novel was written more than 60 years ago, Salinger is able to capture and intensify these universal feelings among adolescents. Readers are easily able to relate to Holden. His train of thought is candid and interesting to follow; his ramblings and flashbacks naturally add to his character. Catcher in the Rye is the perfect classic for young adults. You would not regret reading it.
 * 10/10**

__**Two*Way Street**__ __**Lauren Barnholdt**__ __Two Way Street__ by Lauren Barnholdt is a fictional love story narrated by two teenagers who go on a trip even though they broke up 2 months ago. Each chapter is narrated by either Courtney or Jorden in the past or present tense. The story starts off with Courtney not wanting to go on a trip with her ex-boyfriend, Jordan. They had planned this trip before they broke up before Jordan met this online girl. At the end of the first few chapters, there is fore-shadowing and the readers don't know if there is more to the story. Along the road trip, Courtney's father and Jordan exchange phone calls, but they keep on building the secret until Jordan cannot keep it anymore. He decides to tell Courtney, but her father tells her before he can. Her father kept the secret of an affair with Jordan's mother, he makes Jordan swear that he will not tell Courtney. This incident makes Courtney angered towards Jordan and decides it was finally time for them to go their own ways, but in the end, Courtney realizes that Jordan was only keeping the secret to protect her. This book is a very cheesy romantic story, but it is a very easy read. This book made me keep on reading to find out what would happen next.
 * Jessica Moh**
 * 9/10**

__**Will Grayson, Will Grayson**__ __**John Green**__ __**Leslie Chen**__ __Will Grayson, Will G____rayson__ is a book written through two Will Grayson's perspectives. At first I had no idea that each chapter was giving an insight on a different Will Grayson. I only found out later when they met accidentally in front of a shop. They are both in High School, trying to deal with the typical everyday teenage problems. Will Grayson #1 has a best friend, Tiny Cooper, that's gay. Everyday people make fun of him for being enormous and homosexual, but yet these comments make Tiny ten times more confident about himself. On the other hand, Will Grayson #1 always gets questioned by his sexuality since he hangs around Tiny and the rumors frustrate him and he feels uneasy about himself. The two also have a friend named Jane, who later on dates Will Grayson #1. Next chapter (that's written informally to show the difference between the two Graysons) Will Grayson #2, doesn't have many friends at school except a girl named Maura. Maura gets pissed every time she thinks that he is hiding something from her. The only thing he looks forward to is talking to his online friend, Isaac and rants to him about Maura and how she's so needy. They finally decide to meet at a shop in Chicago the same day Will Grayson #1, Tiny and Jane go see Maybe Dead Cats. Everyone passes through security except Will Grayson #1. Will Grayson #2 finds out that Isaac isn't real and is just Maura wanting to find out the truth about him. On this very night, the two Will Graysons meet at the shop and everything changes. Will Grayson #2 finds out he's gay and Tiny and him start dating, while Jane and Will Grayson also begin to date. Two weeks later Tiny's production of his play //Hold Me Closer// is about to present. His play goes back to all the memories of his friends and exes. From this book I learned that life goes on. It never stops for you and no matter how much you try to hold on, people will get hurt and soon everything will just become a memory. This book made me cry so many times and I enjoyed reading it. I definitely recommend this book.
 * 10/10**

The King of Torts is a suspense novel from a legal stance oriented around life in court. The story begins with Clay Carter, a Public Defender for the OPD, making only $40,000 a year, a meager sum considering he graduated from Georgetown Law. After just closing a murder case, he finds himself defending yet another one for Tequila Watson, a 20-year old street boy who murdered with what seems to be no motive. Clay sees it as just another senseless street killing, hundreds of which he has already dealt with, and begins his routine digging and investigation. He is completely unaware of what he has tapped into and whom he is threatening. But he soon receives a call from a vague Max Pace, claiming to be a headhunter but in actuality is a secret defender for big corporations wishing to bury their mistakes. He explains that Tequila Watson was on a drug that was supposed to cure his addiction to weed, and did, but it came with aside affect that caused him to have an arbitrary need to kill. Now the ‘big company’ (undisclosed name), that Pace is helping wants to hire Clay to settle with all the victims' families, and in return he gets a shocking 15 million. And just like that he is thrown into the world of Mass Torts where the money is big and the options for attack are limitless. I found this novel to be engaging and exciting at the beginning, where the big plot twist on the murder case occurs, but the story soon reaches a flat line after Carter agrees to take on the tort case. Honestly, it just gets boring at one point. However, if you are interested in books taken from a legal stance, you might be interested in this novel.
 * The King of Torts: by John Grisham**
 * Tiffany Gao**
 * Rating: 6/10**

The Fault in Our Stars is a romance novel written through the perspective of Hazel Grace, a 16 year old cancer-stricken teenager. In the novel, Hazel has already survived a near-death experience, and is living life with a terminal disease that causes her lungs to teem with water. Attending Support Group, which she somewhat abhors, she meets Augustus Waters, who manages to win her over. Their relationship grows closer over their shared attachment of the novel, “An Imperial Affliction”, of which the GenieFoundation grants them to fly to Amsterdam to meet the author, Peter Van Houten for some unanswered questions they have. There, they find their casual flirtations growing into an undeniable love. But just when their love is starting to bloom, they are met with a heart-wrenching reality that threatens to break their bond. This novel was engaging from start to finish, with clever use of cliff hangers and foreshadowing that created suspense. However, at points in time, it was quite predictable what was to happen, and the overuse of cliches was, while cute, a bit overwhelming. But I was also able to become emotionally attached to the characters with their glowing humor despite their diagnoses and their strive to just be normal. If you enjoy romance novels, this is the book for you.
 * The Fault in Our Stars: by John Green**
 * Tiffany Gao**
 * Rate: 8/10**

Gillian Hei The story is told through the eyes of a man named Charlie Gordon, a worker at a bakery with an IQ of 68. He attends reading and writing classes with his teacher. Alice Kinnian, at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults to try and improve himself. Two of the researchers at the college are looking for a human test subject to try out a new surgical technique that will supposedly increase intelligence. The surgery has already been done successfully on a mouse named Algernon. Charlie, due to Mrs. Kinnian's recommendation and his own determination, is chosen over smarter students. The surgery is a success; over the next three months, Charlie's intelligence increases to an astonishing degree. However, as his intelligence increases, his relationship with other people begins to fail. He tries to begin a relationship with Mrs. Kinnian, but their relationship ends in a failure. Charlie, trying to fill up the hole of loneliness inside of him, brings Algernon to his apartment and spends large amounts of time studying Algernon and observing him. Through this, he finds out about the flaw in the scientists' theory, and is proven correct when Algernon begins to lose his intelligence, and eventually dies. I feel that the book is wonderfully tragic and sad. The story is written extremely well; the journal entries from when Charlie had a low IQ have spelling and grammar mistakes, making it very in character. The characters are all easy to relate to; they are all extremely human and flawed. The ending, especially, is what made the book so amazing. I would rate this a 9/10 because it does get a bit boring at times, but it's plot and characterization are both flawless.
 * __Flowers for Algernon__**
 * __Daniel Keyes__**
 * Rating: 9/10**

Vera Dietz is an 18 year old student and a pizza deliverer. She lives alone with her father and next door to her former best friend Charlie Kahn, who has just died. When they grew up together, Vera ended up falling for him, but Charlie became a different person. Now he’s gone and only Vera knows what really happened to him. Vera needs to clear Charlie’s name with the truth, but it’s not easy when everyone is against you. This book frustrated me so much. Vera swears not to become like her parents (her father is a recovered alcoholic and her mother is an ex-stripper), however she ends up drinking in order to deal with her pain and gets involved with an older boy who she works with at the pizza shop. Sometimes I just wanted to shake some sense into Vera. The characters are flawed and the relationships between them are broken and rebuilt. The book is narrated through mainly Vera's point of view, but several other characters', so you learn a little about each one. For me however, this book was extremely boring and didn’t seem realistic at all. It moved so slowly, I had to get up and take breaks from reading it. The characters are hard to like and difficult to relate to. I would recommend this book if there is nothing else for you to read and it is the only thing you can do and within a two foot radius. Please ignore Vera Dietz, literally.
 * __Please Ignore Vera Dietz__ by A.S. King**
 * Annie Wang**
 * Rate: 3.5/10**

__The Maze Runner__ is a book by James Dashner, which takes place in a dystopia. A boy wakes up in a metal box with no recollection of how he ended up there and can’t remember anything but his first name, Thomas. He arrives at the Glade, and meets a group of boys. He adapts quickly, learning who he can and can’t trust and how to fight for survival. As he learns about his new home, he can’t help but feel as if he is familiar with the Glade. Outside the Glade, is the Maze. This prevents the boys from escaping. Every day, “Runners” go through to find a possible escape route, but it has been two years since Thomas has arrived, and they have no idea of any kind of exit. However, this doesn’t prevent Thomas from trying. He wants more than anything to escape this foreign place and return to what he hopes is “home”, even if he has no recollection of what that place is. I would rate this book a seven out of ten. The storyline was interesting and kept me going until the end of the book, where is ended up in another cliffhanger. The book is also written very well with a lot of descriptions and even though the author introduces a lot of new terms associated with this new world, we are able to learn along with Thomas, which prevents confusion. However, I feel like the characters were not as developed as they could have been. There were also plot holes and places where the story didn’t seem to be working. I felt as if some parts moved too slowly, while some moved too fast. Overall, if you enjoy fantasy and sci-fi that will make you think, __The Maze Runner__ is an ideal choice for you.
 * __The Maze Runner__ by James Dashner**
 * Annie Wang**
 * Rate: 7/10**

This story is set in a dystopia with five different factions. The Abnegation is made up of the selfless, the Dauntless is made up of the brave, the Erudite is known for their knowledge, the Amity is friendly, and the Candor is honest. When the kids turn 16, they need to decide which faction they will live in for the rest of their lives. They may choose between the one they are born into, or switch into a different one. The main character is Beatrice and the story follows her journey as she decides which district she wants to go into. Ultimately, she needs to decide between her family and her true self. After she decides, she undergoes a transformation beginning with changing her name to “Tris”. She goes through her faction’s initiation and completes all different kinds of tests and meets all sorts of people. She experiences things she never thought she would before. Throughout the book, Tris has to hold onto a secret of hers, which could mean life or death. This book is similar to the __Hunger Games__ and is filled with a lot of plot twists. It is fast paced and keeps you reading until the very end. However, many things go unexplained and the reader is left to wonder what happened. I would rate this an 8.5/10 because there is a bit of everything in there for everyone – action, romance, and thrill.
 * __Divergent__ by Victoria Roth**
 * Annie Wang**
 * Rate: 8.5/10**

__Before I Die__ by Jenny Downham is about a 16 year old girl, Tessa, who is diagnosed with Cancer and has only a few months to live. Tessa makes a list of things she is going to do before she dies and invites her friend, Zoey,to complete her list with her. Tessa starts of her list shallowing with sex and has sex with a drunk boy called Jake. As she moved down her list, she started to do more extreme things such as stealing, taking drugs etc. Later in the story, Tessa also becomes friends with her neighbor, Adam, who comforts her when she is in pain and teaches her the importance of life and convinces her to stop making her list and to enjoy her last days. Slowly, their friendship turned into love. Tessa never thought someone would like her for who she is, a sick and bald girl, but most importantly, she never thought she was going to experience true love. Unfortunately, Tessa became sicker everyday, she could not bare to go through chemotherapies anymore and decides to stop. Without the help from chemotherapies, Tessa became even sicker than before. However, Adam never gave up on her and stayed with her until the very end. I think that one of the main themes of the book is to treasure your loved ones, because at the end of the story, Tessa spends her last days with her family, Adam and the people she loved. I really enjoyed reading this book, it Is insightful, deeply moving and a very good read.
 * Before I Die By Jenny Downham**
 * Joyce Pang**
 * Rating: 10/10**

__**The Book Thief**__ __**Markus Zusak**__ __The Book Thief__ by Markus Zusak takes place during the Holocaust and starts off being narrated by "death". Liesel Meminger, the protagonist of the story travels on a train with her brother, but by the end of the train ride, her brother is dead. She is taken under the foster care of the Hubermanns, and met her soon-to-be new best friend, Rudy Steiner. Liesel soon got the nickname "The Book Thief" because she would steal books from the Mayor's library, or from fires. Hans Hubermann, Liesel's foster father taught Liesel how to read, thus making her "hungry" for words and wanting to read more. After one night, a strange visitor arrived in their home, he came by the name of Max Vandenburg. He was a Jew who hid in secrecy for more than 10 months in the dark. Max travelled to the Hubermann's household, and was welcomed to stay, but out of sight in the basement full of drop sheets and paint cans. In the end, a terrible incident happens and the whole Himmel street is completely destroyed. But only Liesel survives. I find this book very touching and explains a lot of the Holocaust in a different perspective.
 * Jessica Moh**
 * 9/10**

Sarah Armstrong //Looking for Alaska// by John Green is a fiction novel in which the narrator Miles 'Pudge' Halter, who is obsessed with people's last words, moves to a boarding school in Alabama in his junior year to look for a 'greater perhaps'. On his first day at Culver Creek he meets the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, Alaska Young. Alaska is described as beautiful but emotionally unstable. He makes fast friends with his room mate Colonel and his friends Takumi and Alaska. The school is split up into two groups, the weekday warriors and his group, the live ins who are in a pranking war because he was not given the customary prank of being thrown in the water; he was duct taped too. The novel describes Miles' journey to figuring out love, making friends and figuring out the 'labyrinth of suffering'. This story is divided into two sections, 'Before' and 'After' which creates suspense right from the beginning as to what is the big even that will happen in-between these sections. This book was very easy to relate to. I would highly recommend this novel.
 * Looking for Alaska by John Green**
 * Rating: 10/10**

Sarah Armstrong //The Host// by Stephanie Meyer is a science fiction novel in which the Earth has been taken over by a kind and peaceful species, the souls. The human bodies are used as a hosts; the souls are inserted into the human bodies and they live as the humans had before the invasion, except in a peaceful way. Wanderer is a special soul, she has lived on nine different countries before arriving on Earth. When she is put inside the body of a girl named Melanie, she starts hearing Melanie talking to her. The seeker who hunted Melanie comes to Wanderer looking for answers about whether or not there are other humans still out there, but Wanderer can't get rid of Melanie's voice and soon Wanderer begins to have feelings toward people that Melanie previously loved and cared for. Melanie persuades Wanderer to leave the safe soul society and search for a secret human civilisation by showing Wanderer all of her memories. I'd recommend this book for anyone who likes adventure with a bit of romance.
 * The Host by Stephanie Meyer**
 * Rating: 10/10**

__The Hunger Games__ by Suzanne Collins is a science fiction novel. The story is set in the futuristic world of Panem, and is focused on a 16 year old girl, Katniss Everdeen, who replaces her sister, Primrose Everdeen, in the 74th annual hunger games. She competes with a fellow district 12 boy, named Peeta Mallark, who has had feelings for her for a while. In the Hunger Games, the tributes are forced to fight against each other to death; only one can survive. Peeta and Katniss partner up and keep each other alive, as time passes, their partnership turns into friendship and love, until only Peeta and Katniss are left alive. The game then takes an unexpected turn. This book has an very obvious theme which is survival, in the Hunger Games, the characters had to keep their humanity and dignity as they keep themselves alive. I enjoyed reading this book, it was an easy read and was full of action. It was definitely better than the movie, and I would recommend this to anyone who hasn't read this yet. Score: 9/10
 * The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins**
 * Joyce Pang**


 * Catching Fire by **** Suzanne Collins **
 * Eleni Chatziparaskeva **

“Catching Fire” is the second book of “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. Its a fictional story about Katniss Everdeen and her adventures. The book starts of with the life of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta as a victor of the Games. But develops into a complicated and suspenseful situation. Because of Katniss act of rebellion at the end of the previous Games, President Snow has threatened her that he will harm her family and friends and other people that are associated with her if she doesn’t obey the rules. Katniss wanted to run away of District 12 but as she was planning on leaving the Quarter Quell was announced. It was for participants that were previous hunger game winners. Because Katniss is the only female winner in the District 12 she was has to participate with Peeta and have to participate in another Hunger Game. Katniss is determined to keep Peeta alive and Peeta is determined to save Katniss. Read the book to see what happens and who wins the Hunger Games. This boo is really interesting for the beginning till the end and i recommend it to everyone!!!! Score: 9.5/10


 * Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins **
 * Eleni Chatziparaskeva **

“Mockingjay” the third and last book to the series “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. Katniss was saved from the Hunger Games and brought back to District 13, which got destroyed. Because of this Katniss is really mad. But with Gale’s help, she talks on the role of a Mockingjay which is the symbol of the rebellion and leads the revolt. But as she is the leader Katniss leans about betrayal and losing people you love by everything that is happening. Katniss in this book shows the other side which is week, despite the fact that she keeps a strong and determined character through out the book. By generally the Hunger Games we learn that no matter what is happening around you, you still have to keep strong even if you risk on losing everything. Just keep strong. This book is really good and i would recommend it to everyone who has not read it. Score: 9/10

__**Velocity**__ __**Dean Koontz**__ __**Tiffany Dai**__ __Velocity__, a thriller novel by Dean Koontz, is written about ordinary Billy Wiles, who finds a note under the windshield wiper of his car: If you don’t take this note to the police...I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher...If you do...I will instead kill an elderly woman...You have six hours to decide. The choice is yours. When Billy brushes the note off as a joke, he doesn’t realize his life is about to unravel into a series of horrors. Then the news broadcasts a story of the murder of a young blond schoolteacher--- and Billy finds another note in his hands. He receives another ultimatum, and every non-action is considered an action. Billy finds himself one step behind the killer, though a sick feeling always tells him where he’ll strike next. This book was very well written; Koontz is able to force a good, honest character through all sorts of suffering and have him emerge as the same person he was at the start. Koontz’s way with a protagonist is his talent and his flaw: the story becomes a little too far-fetched. The way every single character is developed makes the novel so intriguing. I was not satisfied with __Velocity__ until I had absorbed every page.
 * 9/10**

__**Two Way Street**__ __**Lauren Barnholdt**__ __**Leslie Chen**__ __Two Way Street__ by Lauren Barnholdt is a fictional love story about two teenagers battling their way through the secrets and rumors of what happened between their relationship. Each chapter is either in Courtney or Jordan's perspective, in the past or present. It starts off in the present, where they already broke up, but being the foolish teenagers, they planned a college visit together that was happening today. Jordan broke up with her three months ago because he met a girl online. At the end of his chapter, we get the hint that maybe there is more to the story. On the road trip, Jordan tries his hardest to get Courtney to find out the truth, but her ignorance to reality gets him impatient. When the book goes back to the past, walked in on his mom and her dad having an affair. Courtney's dad made Jordan swear to him that he wouldn't tell anyone. As this secret began to build, more and more started to pile up as well. Jordan couldn't handle all these secrets and decided to break up with Courtney for his "online girlfriend". Finally, he decides to tell Courtney everything, but coincidentally Courtney's dad gets to her first. This led to more fights and questions and they decided to part ways. In the end Courtney learns to not hide when things get difficult. She started facing each and everyone of them and her problems slowly get resolved. Although this book was quite cheesy, it was an easy read and very charming. I always found myself smiling and wanting to know what would happen next. My friend recommended me this book and i'm doing the same by recommending it to you.
 * 9/10**

__Matched__ by Ally Condie takes place in a "perfect" world which everything is determined by the society, but soon becomes a dystopia in the main character's eyes. In the world that the characters live in, no one needs to worry about anything because the society has everything under control and they have already taken care of it. Cassia Reyes, the protagonist of the book lives in a daily routine, including eating set nutrient meals, to going to second school. Matched starts on Cassia's seventeenth birthday, as she rides on a train to her match banquet. The match banquet is held every year, which the society decides who marries whom. The society makes sure that each match is perfect for each other, thus meaning they are genetically matched, and being able to create well-balanced children. At the match banquet, Cassia excitedly awaits to know who she is matched to, she finds out that she is matched to her best friend Xander Carrow, whom she knew since they were young children. After the banquet, Cassia goes home with a micro-card with information on her match, but when she checks it, Xander's face does not appear on the screen. On the screen shows the face of Ky Markham, an aberration, someone who is never able to be matched. Cassia finds herself falling in love with Ky, but should be with Xander. An unexpected situation happens at the book, I find this book catching and a very good read.
 * __Matched__**
 * __Ally Condie__**
 * Jessica Moh**
 * 10/10**

__**Uglies**__ __**Scott Westerfeld**__ __Uglies__ is a fiction sci-fi book about a futuristic world where kids turning sixteen go through an operation that turns them from being an 'ugly' into becoming a 'pretty'. Being a pretty means everything in Tally's world. Turning sixteen changes your life drastically; becoming a pretty means parties all day long in a technological paradise and not having anything to worry about. Tally can't wait to turn sixteen, and who would want to wait, given the prizes? Early in the book, Tally meets a girl named Shay who shows her a whole new world of excitement and thrill. However, Shay doesn't want to become a pretty. She would rather live an exciting life in the outside than in New Pretty Town, where the fun there is all fake and overrated. After failing to persuade Tally to follow her, Shay runs away from New Pretty Town, and from Tally. Tally, left with the aftermath, is faced with a horrible choice. She is ordered by the authorities to find Shay and bring her back, or never turn pretty. The book is written in first person, and is interesting, but not invigorating. It deals with issues about society, and also about material things, such as looks and possessions. I thought the book was alright. It was not as interesting as I hoped it would be, but it was still a good read in the way that it draws you into the book. I was able to look through Tally's eyes at the world of the pretties. However, the book was a bit boring and shallow at times.
 * __Gillian Hei__**
 * 6/10**

__The Red Pony__ is a Youth Novel that tells the truth for young boys. When you are fifteen years old, this book will fit for you. This book is about a boy called Jody, who is living as a rancher in his father's farm. He's very strenuous about his works. He never excuses and he also does his school work well. His dad, Mr. Tiflin, saw Judy working very hard. Mr. Tiflin was a cold daddy for Judy, since he only focuses in his work. Because of this reason, he buys a pony to Judy. Judy names him Gabilan. Jody was excited to have his own pony. He took care of Gabilan better than anyone. Judy truly loved Gabilan. However, if things are going too good, it will go unfortunate and bad. Jody accidentally left Gabilan in the rainy day. Gabilan, soon gets sick and Gabilan gets a sack of puss under his jaw. Sadly, there was no vets around this town. The puss grew bigger. It grew until Gabilan couldn't breath. Judy just watches the whole thing. Billy, father's assistant, had to make a hole on Gabilan's neck, in order to let him breath in and out. After the horrible night, Judy found Gabilan, covered with blood and maggots. Gabilan died with his eyes opened. Judy, without any sound, cried and yelled. There are four different events that happen to Judy, but I believe that the first event is the key event that will tell the reader some kind of message. I found out this book very interesting, since the title of this book is Red Pony, since Gabilan was covered with his own blood. in my analysis, Judy is a young boy, who believes that if he takes care of his own animal, the animal won't die and live happily ever after. However, there was a twist event that occurred, which was Gabilan's death. This death tells the young readers that pets do die. We can see that this is a youth novel, since it tells a lot about the truth that young people have to know. The other three episodes are the great mountain, the promise, and the leader of the people. The great mountain is a part where Judy met a person called Gitano and shares his gigantic dream. This chapter represents that we should dream big and aim big. The second part, the promise, is the another tragic event. Since Gabilan died, Billy tried to get him a new pony, which is a baby of Nallie. Judy take cares of Nallie better than anyone. He asked Billy that will the baby die just like Gabilan. Billy denied and promised that won't happen. However, while giving a birth, Billy smashed a head of Nellie with a hammer, which means that Nellie was dying with her pain. Judy saw Nellie having spasms. Judy didn't say anything. This event shows that the people who are older that us are not always correct. The fourth chapter shows the love between Judy and his grandfather. This represents how Judy missed a love and care from someone. I personally enjoyed this book, since I'm on puberty and this is youth novel. 10/10
 * __The Red Pony__**
 * __John Steinbeck__**
 * __Jimmy Park__**

__**Planet of the Apes**__ __**Pierre Boulle**__ __**JiSup Kim**__ Planet of the Apes is a story that starts out with a couple, Jinn and Phyllis, out on a pleasure-cruise in a spaceship. They find a bottle with a letter in it, floating around space. The letter is a story about Professor Ulysse and his fellow scientists flying off into space to a planet called Betelgeuse. This would take tame 350 years, but due to the speed of the spacecraft and time dilation, it only feels like 2 years to them. He arrives at a planet that is very much like Earth, but is ruled by apes. They are captured and Professor Ulysse is taken for experimenting. They do simple tests on him and the apes teach him the ape language and culture. He is freed from his cage and is able to do some research about the apes history. He discovers that the humans have been ruling the planet while using ape servants. But as they become more and more dependent on the apes, the apes start a rebellion and take over, leaving the humans reduced to a savage animal-like state. The other apes do not want to believe, so they try to exterminate all humans. He runs away with his wife and son. He writes this story and puts it in a bottle and throws it out so other people might discover it. I liked this story because of the novel’s irony, humans are savage beasts, and apes rule as their civilized masters.. I also loved the ending because we find out that the couples are apes. They dismiss the whole story because they do not believe that the humans have such intelligence to write a whole story. __**Rate: 9/10**__