The Fruit Bowl Project by Sarah Durkee

What happens when a teacher and a famous rock star give a class of middle schoolers a writing prompt - but assign each student a different writing style?

This hilarious and self-aware story has two portions:
the initial setup, which is written in prose, and then the variations on the project, which are written in every way imaginable. There's a screenplay. A limerick. A newspaper article. A transcript. The point of view of an insider, an outsider, a popular girl, a gossip hound. Different styles, different kids.

This book completely lives up to its premise. I encourage teachers and students to read and discuss this book in their classroom, then create their own Fruit Bowl Project.

The Hollywood Sisters: Backstage Pass by Mary Wilcox

Sixteen-year-old Eva Ortiz dazzles viewers weekly on a hit television sitcom. Her younger sister, Jessica, does not have any acting aspirations, preferring to led an average life off-camera. When accidents start happening on the set and things start to go missing, Jess decides it's up to her to solve the mysteries.

Jess often has pratfalls, but she also has a very big heart. In fact, the entire family is loving and supportive. Though she is a rising star, Eva is very down-to-earth and likable.

A quick read which is refreshing clean, Hollywood
Sisters: Backstage Pass is suitable for young readers who want a little mystery, a little glamour, and a lot of fun.

Rogue Angel: The Spider Stone by Alex Archer

Another Rogue Angel book, The Spider Stone has a lot of the same elements as Destiny. Annja Creed, an archaeologist, is called in about the discovery of several skeletons of slaves in Kirktown, Georgia. The identity of one of the slaves, Yohance, leads Annja, Professor Hallinger, and McIntosh to West Africa. In possession of the Spider Stone, they become the target of Tafari, an African Warlord after the treasure of the Spider god, Anansi. Roux and Garin, characters from Destiny, also play roles throughout the book. Various minor characters appear and add to the story, leading to all out fights with Annja using her sword (from Destiny) and strength.

I would recommend reading Destiny before reading The Spider Stone to better understand Annja's sword and it's abilities. Like Alex Archer's other novel, this is a page-turner that keeps the reader involved through sharing different characters actions in episodic succession. There is much to learn with the historical content of this novel and Archer does an excellent job of infrming the reader with the background story while narrarating. The characters are formed well, especially the minor characters who move the plot forward. With aspects of mystery as well as history, many readers will enjoy The Spider Stone.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 8
Reviewer Age: 18
Reviewer City, State and Country: Kansas City, MO USA

The Grays by Whitley Strieber

Think all those stories about UFOs and alien abductions are bunk? Whitley Strieber’s new book, The Grays, disagrees. In this work of fiction, aliens do exist and are about to make the ultimate human contact. For years they’ve been following the life of one special little boy, Connor Callaghan, whose very conception they orchestrated. Now they must send one of their own into Connor’s soul in an attempt to understand the human race and save both species. But not everyone on earth is ready to let the grays carry out their plan. A group of wealthy and powerful men, known as The Trust, is inherently skeptical of the grays and will do anything to stop them from enacting their plot, even if it means destroying all of humanity. Ultimately, the survival of both humans and the grays rests in the hands of Connor Callaghan and his neighbors in a small Kentucky town. The novel ends with plenty of action and suspense and lends itself well to another installment.

Strieber paints vivid and imaginative scenes throughout the novel, whether describing extraterrestrial phenomena or the snow-packed Kentucky landscape. However, his creativity does not come through so well in his characters, who tend to be stereotypical. Most are middle aged, white males with some kind of either intellectual or military power (or both). There are no strong females represented in the story, only an overly-doting mother and a sex-crazed Air Force officer; each scene with the mother involves some kind of gushing sentiment for her husband or son, and each with the officer an analysis of her sexual feelings, past and present. Connor Callaghan himself is so full of self-importance that it’s difficult to sympathize with him as he’s being taunted by classmates or even as he’s being invaded by the grays. Strieber passes up another opportunity to add depth to his characters through their conversations, during which it is impossible to tell one voice from another. This adds to the difficulty readers may have in keeping characters straight and makes this a purely plot-driven novel. Regrettably, the plot leaves too many loose ends to be satisfying. This is most evident when The Trust causes a major earthquake in Washington, D.C., near the end of the story, which kills the president but seems to have no clear or lasting purpose overall. Finally, the plot is weakened by clumsy sentences that feature unnecessary repetition, frequent contradictions, and obscure references—like the one to Swedish actor von Sydow—that are simply meaningless to many educated adult readers, let alone young adults, and really have no place in the story. Even the small details that Strieber doesn’t get quite right, like when the Air Force officer’s colleague refers to her as “soldier” (a term used for Army personnel, not Air Force) rather than “airman” or by rank, detract from the narrator’s reliability and the overall believability of the story. Although The Grays introduces an interesting story and is marked by some vivid and creative descriptions, it feels more like a novel in its draft stages than a finished work.

Content:Mature readers. Book deals with a good amount of inter- and extra-marital sex.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 3
Reviewer Age: 26
Reviewer City, State and Country: New Braunfels, TX USA

Clabbernappers by Len Bailey

Is this a dream or what? Danny Ray, the best rodeo cowboy of the Junior Division in Oklahoma, gets a nasty surprise when he walks through a doorway. One second he was at the Cherokee Country Fair Grounds and another at a Chess-piece Kingdom named Elidor. There he is burdened by a mission: to find the queen before the Great Chess Game begins! Along with the snobby Prince of Elidor, Danny Ray is twirled into an adventure of a lifetime.

Although beginning with a cliché start, Clabbernappers is definitely an entertaining, adventurous and humorous read. Filled with effective details and intriguing suspense, the tale is extremely similar to the style displayed in “Jabberwocky”, a poem by Lewis Carroll. Some may think the story is childish, others may not. In conclusion, Clabbernappers is a must-read for people who love the unlimited borders of imagination.

Rating: 7

Soccer Chick Rules by Dawn FitzGerald

No more sports! That’s what Tess is afraid of when the school district threatens to take away all of the sports, unless the community decides to pay higher taxes. Tess joins the levy committee which supports higher taxes, and she helps with the effort by putting up signs, holding protest signs outside of a school, and throwing a Halloween party to help raise money to keep sports alive. When election day comes everyone is anxious about what the results will be, but it is always important to remember Rule #2: Even when the odds are against you, it never hurts to think positive. If the levy fails there is still something that can be learned from all that has happened, Rule #6: Sometimes you’ve got to take one for the team.

This an amazing story that tells not only about soccer but about what happens in Tess’s busy life. The author picked a very good plot for Soccer Chick Rules and did very well at writing this wonderful book. It was really easy to relate to Tess because she is in middle school, and she’s a girl who loves soccer and having fun just like me. Exciting soccer action is packed into one amazing story that is divided into sections within the chapters. Dawn Fitzgerald really tied the title in with the book because no matter what happened there was almost always a rule that went along with it. This story was kind of dirty with the stuff that the characters say and do, but overall this book was fairly clean and decent for teens to read. I recommend Soccer Chick Rules mostly to young adults, ages 12-16, who love soccer and realistic fiction.

Content:infrequent use of profanity

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 8
Reviewer Age: 13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Upper Strasburg, PA United States

All The Way: Prom Night by Megan Stine

Carmen Salgado has just moved to a new school. It is her senior year and it has been going horrible. Her only three friends are her cousin, her cousin's best friend, and her best friend from her old school. Most importantly, Carmen NEEDS a date to the prom. Finally, the most popular guy in school asks her out near the end of the school year and she accepts. They go to the donkey basketball game and everyone stares at them the entire time, especially his ex-girlfriend. When they leave the game, he takes her to a lake. He wants to go all the way, but she won't have it. So she walks home, three miles, and is extremely agrivated. He posted a message on his website, that the whole school reads, saying that they did go the whole way. Everyone believed him of course. Her friends and her tried out for the school play and she wanted to be the lead along with her crush, Tyler North. When The entire play cast goes to Cleveland to audition for American Superstar Carmen finds out the real Tyler. Does she ever get Tyler to like her? Does she find a prom date? Will everyone believe her side of what happened? Does she get revenge?

All the Way: Prom Night is a very good read. I read it in one night! The book is a page turner because the reader is always wondering if Carmen will get what she wants. The vocabulary is not difficult either. At the end of the book it kind of leaves you hanging because you don't know what happens to some of the characters. Megan Stine could have added an epilogue to it so we did know what happened. I definitly learned that you should learn more about people before you start to trust them as well as Carmen did. I recomend this book to any female mature readers (guys would be bored because the promlems in it are pretty much female issues).

Content:mature reader for sexual situations

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 8
Reviewer Age: 13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Carlisle, Pennsylvania United States

Un Lun Dun by China Miéville

Twelve-year-old Deeba Resham and Zanna Moon were just regular schoolgirls, when strange things started to happen in their hometown London. One night, they ventured out and were teleported to a parallel universe called UnLondon. In UnLondon, they discovered that the abcity was ready to go into war with the Smog, a huge cluster of gas, poison, and other chemicals that had been created from global warming. The Smog has gotten so powerful over the years from all of the pollutions created that it generated the ability to think for itself. Zanna, the Chosen One who's destined to defeat the Smog in the Prophesy, was knocked unconscious during a fight and was sent back to London without remembering a thing. Now, it's up to Deeba to save UnLondon from the powerful wrath of the Smog. Throughout her treacherous journey, she met many friends who were also determined to help her win the battle. With her bravery and dedication, she defeats the Smog once and for all and saved the people of UnLondon from a horrible fate.

This novel is very well written by Miéville. The story has suspense and at the same time, is filled with humor. Just when I thought something was going to happen or Debba was finally going to defeat the Smog, something unexpected happened and Deeba must find a new way to try to annihilate the Smog. For example, when Deeba finally obtained the UnGun, which is the only weapon that is able to defeat the Smog, one of her allies stole it and gave it to the Smog's allies. This created many problems for Deeba and her wide range of friends, which included a milk carton, a half-ghost, a bird, some "words", a rebrella (a fixed unbrella, which is a broken umbrella). But they were able to get the UnGun back and defeat the Smog. The 425-page-book is divided into 99 “chapters” so it’s easy to read and stop. It never gets dull and is packed with action. This is truly a must-read book that everybody will be able to enjoy.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 9
Reviewer Age: 13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Urbana, Illinois United States of America

Dragon Avenger by E.E. Knight

In the beginning of Dragon Avenger two dragon eggs are hatching. The evil Wheel of Fire clan (dwarves) come into the cave and Wistala (one of the hatchlings) leaves the cave with her older brother. Her brother sacrifices himself to save her and then she is left alone to find her father. When she does, Wistala needs to get metal for her father's stomach. She travels to Tumbledown and meets a cat named Yari-Tab. When the evil Fangbreaker comes to kill her father and her, Wistala runs away. Later she meets Rainfall, an old elf, and the circus led by Ragwrist. Many terrors come and go throughout this book along with deaths and triumphs. Will the book end with one of those? or both?

Dragon Avenger was an interesting book to read. I suggest that only very good readers read this book. It is extremely challenging even for me; I was at an 8th grade reading level in 2nd grade! Otherwise, the book was very good. It kept me entertained all the way throughout reading it.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 8
Reviewer Age: 13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Carlisle, Pennsylvania United States of America

Frogs and French Kisses

Rachel has finally got over the fact that she does not have any magical powers and uses her sister, Miri, as much as possible. In exchange for simple spells, like a love spell for her crush, Raf, Rachel has to help Miri stop wildfires, feed the needy and other plots to save the world. Suddenly everything starts to go wrong. First off, their mother, a non-practicing witch who has not been on a date for a very long time becomes a serial dater and uses magic for every possible situation. Then, the love spell goes awry and instead of Raf falling in love with Rachel, it is his brother Will who is under the love spell. Then Miri's attempt to save the world endangers other parts of the world, and even affects the senior prom. And it's up to Rachel to save the day, without magic.

I really liked the first book, Bras and Broomsticks, so I figured that the sequel would be just as much fun. I wasn't disappointed with Frogs and French Kisses, but I don't think it was as good as the first one. The story was interesting though and I kept wanting to know what happened next. The ending also leaves room for the next book, which I'll be looking forward to.

Reviewer: PS