Positively by Courtney Sheinmel

"When my mother died, I imagined God was thinking, 'One down, and one to go.'" This is how Emerson Price feels when her mother passes away. Her mother was sick for a long time with a disease known as AIDs. Emmy is HIV-Positive, she takes pills everyday and visits the doctor all the time. She becomes a different person when her mother dies- angry, moody, upset. Her father and his expectant wife Meg, decide to send Emmy to Camp Positive hoping to help Emmy become herself again. Camp Positive is for people like Emmy, those who are HIV-Positive. At camp, Emmy begins to realize she's not alone.

This book was amazing. It showed the truth about AIDS and what it means to be HIV-Positive. Emmy's heartwarming story is personal, and you feel like you're right there in the book with her. Crying about her mother's death, yelling at her father, everything makes you feel like you're in the book. First person narrative's are always my favorite, because you really feel connected to the character. The plot was original, too. I loved the idea of Camp Positive. It seemed like such a great place, and was perfect for people like Emmy, feeling lonely and different in her everyday life, she learned a lot about being grateful for who she was, for being alive. The characters and plot were all well developed and every character had a specific role in the book. Heartwarming and life changing this is a book every girl needs to read.

Reviewer Age:14

Reviewer City, State and Country: Hightstown, New Jersey USA

Winter Duty by E.E. Knight

Major Valentine still fights the Kurians in Kentucky. Except this time the fight is harder than ever before. Caught between politics and his foes Valentine will have to fight harder then ever to keep Kentucky into Kurian territory. People are getting more angry at Valentine. Will Valentine survive this winter or die to try to protect Kentucky...

Knight puts a authentic twist of action and romance into this book. With E.E. Knight's amazing writing it makes this book look like the apocalypse for us all. David Valentine's Bravery shows how well he is at writing. No one can make such vile and realistic enemies like Knight himself. I think every reader reader reading this will be on the edge of their seat at 1:00 in the morning just to finish this.

There is some sexual references

Reviewer Age:11

Reviewer City, State and Country: Dana Point, California United States

The Midnight Charter by David Whitley

In a world where bartering and trading was the only currency. People can trade there services and even their very own emotions. If your reputation goes down the tubes well so do you and you will be homeless or what is know to be as a debtor. You will meet mark which the grey plague took most of his family except for his father. He is till young we he is sold of to doctor. The doctor works in his grandfather's tower which there he meets lily. Both of them are supposed to fulfill a prophecy of the town. Did they meet by chance or just destiny.

This book was very hard to understand in the beginning but as it progressed it got easier to understand. All the vocabulary was fine just understanding the world at first was a little hard. Then the middle of the book was good once you understood the working of the world. Then I disliked the ending, not because of what the character decided at the end but how it was a cliff hanger. It got me a bit mad because I didn't like the book at the start then I thought it was going to get way better but the end just cut it off. Though I believe the author did this so he can make another book. The best thing about this book was the setting which was this other world. Going to much detail in this world and not helping out the characters made this book not so great. All in all this book is not that good, the thing I would change is to work on the plot.

Reviewer Age:16

Reviewer City, State and Country: Northport, NY USA

Girls Just Wanna Have Guns by Toni McGee Causey

What do you get when you mix three different kidnappers, missing diamonds, and voodoo? The answer is a new Bobbie Faye adventure. When a couple of million dollar diamonds go missing, Bobbie Faye's life is turned upside down. Francesca, Bobbie Faye's cousin, is convinced that Bobbie Faye knows the location of the diamonds. Unfortunately, three different kidnappers and their hitmen believe the same. What else is a girl to do when family is involved? Bobbie Faye goes after the diamonds and soon discovers startling details about the people she thought she knew. Join Bobbie Faye in her new adventure surrounded by a handsome FBI employee, an ex-boyfriend, and explosions like you've never seen them before.

While the story line itself was fine, I could not focus on the story because of all the unnecessary foul language. The words were numerous across every single page of the book. I hardly paid attention to the story because I was too busy thinking, "Those words are horrible and there is no point in having them in the story." Even when I tried to read the story and forget the curse words, I couldn't do it because "fudge" was written and used as pretty much every adjective. I myself think that this book is a sorry attempt to reach the teenage world through language, and I do not recommend it to anyone.

There is at least one curse word on every page, sometimes as many as five. Most of the time the curse word rhymes with duck and is known as "fudge".

Reviewer Age:15

Reviewer City, State and Country: Mineola, TX U.S.A.

Chance Fortune in the Shadow Zone

Chance and the Outlaws are mysteriously transported to the Shadow Zone. After an encounter with the dark beings called shadowmen, the Outlaws are separated. Four of them are captured and sent to the Shadow Tower, where the dreaded Shadow Prince is awaiting a moment that the Outlaws are unfortunately there to see. Can Chance and the Outlaws reunite themselves and escape, or will they be trapped in the Shadow Zone forever? Watch the story unfold in Chance Fortune in the Shadow Zone.

Chance Fortune in the Shadow Zone is a great book for the super-hero lovers of the world. The combination of action-adventure and mystery is the best. The action happened quick and sometimes slow but left that wave of suspense that made you not want to put the book down. The plot was so thick that you could cut it with a knife and no one could even guess what would happen next. Anyone looking for a good super-hero book would be satisfied if they read this.

Content: 1
Rating: 10
Reviewer Age:12
Reviewer City, State and Country: Mineola, Texas, America

Love is the higher law

"Love is the Higher Law" is the story of three teenagers: Claire, Jasper, and Peter. They all live in New York City at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers. Each is affected in a different way. This book tells the tale of how they coped and how their lives were forever changed by the events on that fateful Tuesday morning.

This book was extremely well-written. I have always been intrigued by books written about 9/11 and this was by far the best fictional account of the attacks I have ever read. David Levithan creates depth in his characters, something I find extremely rare and hard to accomplish. I felt a lot of sympathy for Claire, Jasper, and Peter, as all their worlds got flipped upside down. The book asks the ever-interesting question, "Where were you when the plane hit the first tower?" Levithan has written a wonderful and heart-wrenching novel that I will surely read again and again. I would recommend this for anyone who was old enough to remember the attacks, but too young to grasp the meaning, just like I was. At the time, I didn't realize the magnitude of the attacks and this book has helped me realize just how bad it was. An instant classic.

Many instances of harsh language (including the f-bomb) and several sexual scenes.

Reviewer Age:15

Reviewer City, State and Country: Westerville, OH United States

A Flash of Hex by Jes Battis

A Flash of Hex by Jes Battis is very realistic for its genre. Tess, Mia and Derrick make up a very dysfunctional family that also seems to work. Tess and Derrick live together and have adopted Mia, a teenage vampire, while working as Occult Special Investigators (OSI). And they're working on the case of a dead runaway drug addict. On the way to finding whoever or whatever plastered this boy across the ceiling of a new apartment, two new murders take place and other not so good situations. Miles from Toronto is called in as a profiler and Lucian the yummy necromancer that has a past with Tess, is also called in to help with the case. Love or companionship is most always found in these dark and dangerous times and there is no lack of that in Tess' world.

A flash of Hex is well written with a lot of descriptions of people and places. I also like how this whole other world of mystical creatures and people, are so smoothly incorporated into the "real world." There are situations that can occur in one world can happen in the other and that the mystical world is not stuck in what seems like another era. Both worlds are modern and the mystical world is not left behind like some other books where two worlds life side by side. I also like how these worlds are not parallel anymore and that they intersect.

Reviewer Age:15

Reviewer City, State and Country: Guilderland, New York USA

Lessons From A Dead Girl by Jo Knwles

Laine McCarthy wished for something, something bad. She wished for Leah Greene to die. Now Leah is dead and Laine believes that it was her fault. She feels guilty about her death, but she hated Leah. She can't help but still hate Leah for all of those things Leah made her do in the closet. Leah had told her that they were praticing. She wanted them to be prepared for when they were older and had boyfriends. laine knows that she lied. She knows that other bestfriends don't do those things. Laine just doesn't understand why Leah chose her out of all the girls she could've chosen. Does she have some kind of importance or was she just easy to control? Leah is dead now and Laine knows that she can't erase the memory of what happened all those years ago. Now she needs to find meaning in the lessons that she was forced to learn. Laine knows she has to find it in her heart to forgive Leah, because maybe something drove Leah to do it. Maybe something worse had happened to Leah for her to hurt Laine so emotinally.

This book was very interesting. It was very different than most young adult novels turn out to be. It had surprising twists to it. Lessons from a Dead Girl explains about abuse and guilt. Jo Knowles did and excellent job on the plot of this book. I enjoyed every last page that I read. Lessons from a Dead Girl tells the story of forgiveness and it tells the story of two young, very confused girls. I recommend this book to all young adult readers who enjoy all genres.

Reviewer Age:13

Reviewer City, State and Country: Fairborn, Ohio USA

Stealing Heaven

What would you do if you had to move every few weeks? What
if you had to live out of a suitcase and make new friends?
What if you had to move all the time because you and your
mother stole things? Well, in Dani's case, that's reality.
She must help her mother break into houses, steal silver,
and leave town as quickly as possible. As an eighteen year
old, Dani has never been to high school, had friends, or a
boyfriend. Dani and her mother have "settled in" to a
little beach town called Heaven. Dani has finally made a
friend and met an amzing guy, who happens to be a cop. Can
she balance her new relationships while still pleasing her
mother? Only time can tell, in Stealing Heaven.

It took
me some time to get into this book. In the first part of
the book, the author switched back and forth from past to
present frequently, and at times I was confused with which
state the character was in. Other than that, I liked the
book. Each character was well thought out, and I felt like
I knew them. I also loved the vulnerability of Dani. She
was torn between pleasing her mother and pleasing herself.
She tried doing both, but in the end, it failed. I think
all teenagers have tried to please both their families and
friends, and at one point or another, they have chosen the
wrong one. I also loved the relationship between Dani and
the police officer. It was obvious Dani liked him, but the
love was forbidden. The characters were realistic and the
author did an excellent job.

Reviewer
Age:18

Reviewer City, State and Country: Villa Hills, KY
United States

Fantastical Creatures Field Guide

The Fantastical Creatures Field Guide is a collection of
short, one-page stories about different fantastical
creatures. Each short story has a picture of the creature
being described, and includes creatures from all seven
continents. Each creature's story is written in news
article form, which gives the stories a more realistic
feel.

The stories in this book were amazing, as were the
illustrations that went with them. I liked the way that
each story was written almost like a news article,
featuring one creature at a time. The stories themselves
were humorous and made me smile more often than not. I
really enjoyed this book and all the creatures featured in
it. Anyone into the fantasy realm of books would enjoy
this book.

Reviewer Age:17

Reviewer City, State and
Country: Highland, MI USA