That's Life, Samara Brooks by Daniel Ehrenaft

"That's Life, Samara Brooks" by Daniel Ehrenhaft is
something else. The book starts off with Samara getting
in trouble for starting a gambling ring at school. Then,
she proposes an idea to her principal--she will use an
electron microscope to test her DNA against Lily's (school
president and friend that bet on blackjack and lost); if
the structure is the same, Samara should not be punished
more for being "bad" because she is innately no different
from Lily. Nathan--a geeky boy obsessed with alien / code
theory--joins in the experiment, too. Mystery heats up as
Nathan points out a mysterious "eye" in the photos of
Samara's DNA that hint at extraterrestrial origins. The
story gets even more intense when the photos are stolen
and detectives are hot on the trail of the children.

This book is written from the perspectives of Samara,
Lily, and Nathan in chunks. The topic of God comes up a
lot--particularly because the donor of the electron
microscope to the school was a scientific rival to a
creationist. Certain characters believe in God as a
gambler but think it's okay if others don't believe in him
(Samara), certain believe in Jesus (Lily), and certain
claim not to believe in God but simultaneously think he is
an alien (Nathan). Unfortunately, at times, the
creationist is seen as stupid and an ill-representation of
the church. This book is a great mystery and quick to
read, but the religious views are somewhat reflective of
the perhaps confused nature of the author's own views. If
anything, this book will be good for young Christian
readers to test their faith and see how they react to what
these characters say, which would be excellent for group
discussion.

Religious discrepancies
Reviewer Age:18
Reviewer City, State and Country: Staten Island, NY USA

2009 The Best New Playwrights by Lawrence Harbison

In Play 1 a Korean family living in America are struggling
with the divorce of the parents divorce, coping with the
fact that their father has returned home from Korea after
years, and the separation of their family. The Playwright
is called "American Hwangap". This Playwright will make
you laugh and cry. It truly relates to modern struggles of
families. Another one of my favorite Playwrights
was "Animals Out of Paper". The play is about a woman
who's life is a mess. A fan of her's comes to ask her to
teach his student. Not to give away to much, this play is
full of romance, sorrow, and pain. It is definitely a
great play.

This book is a great read for an interested
actor. I enjoyed the relations you get to the characters.
I feel like I know the people in the stories. As, great as
the plays were, the book had one fault....The language.
Due to the vulgar words, I would only recommend this book
to people over 13. Other than that, this book was great! I
laughed, I cried, I felt like I was literally in the
audience at a Broadway play. The book was
enchanting...Four stars!

The language is vulgar.

Reviewer Age:12
Reviewer City, State and Country: Panama, Florida United States

Kris Longknife: Undaunted

Kris Longknife Undaunted is a sci-fi novel with military undertones. It opens with Kris captaining the scout vessel the "Wasp" in semi-neutral space. Kris has to turn her trigger-happy computer off to stop it from shooting up other ships, shortly afterward, she takes an Iteeche Imperial messenger on board the Wasp where she is promtly told her great-grandfather is needed and Kris will "take him to her leader", after which she takes off to settle some other dispute while her great grandpa takes care of the Iteeche problem.

It seemed a little forced, and not very smooth-flowing. Content-wise it was very well put together, but I thought the writing style left a little to be desired. The plot jerks the reader around a bit, and left me slightly confused as to the characters' place and rank and whatnot. Nicely done action-wise, I liked the military throwbacks and the few battles were well written. Overall, I thought it was a decent sci-fi novel for anyone with some spare time.

Reviewer Age:14
Reviewer City, State and Country: Loves Park, Illinois U.S.A

Rise of the Heroes, by: Andy Briggs

At the click of a button, Hero.com gives you power beyond your wildest dreams. These powers send four kids on a quest to save their mother and the world. They don't realize that Jake Hunter, the school's top bully, has discovered Villain.net. Now he is working with Basilisk, who will guide Jake on the path of evil! Can the heroes of Hero.com end the evil rampage. Read to find out.

The Hero.com series is a series that I think everyone would love. The story of downloading superpowers is so original. But with these powers, the characters must go on perilous quests to save mankind. Who knows what other websites are out there. It just goes to show, you should be careful what you find on the internet.

Reviewer Age:13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Mineola, Texas America

Patriot's Reward by Stephen Clarkson

Patriot's Reward is the story of an African man captured by slave traders in 1755 when he was sixteen and brought from what is now Senegal, Africa to America to be sold off as a slave. At the beginning of the novel main character Will Clarkson, having adopted the surname of his owners, undergoes many emotional, physical and circumstantial changes, thus allowing him to develop into an interesting and appealing character central to the plot. Will develops a yearning to learn the English language, like the white men he is surrounded by. With this skill Will gains an air of confidence, a newfound skill as a leader in social situations and is able to establish himself as an admired member of both the black and white community. When Will hears word that all slaves signing up for war would have assured freedom upon return, he is eager to claim this reward. Therefore Will is sent first to fight in the Civil War in southern colonial areas, subsequently he is involved in the Revolutionary War in which he must overcome the racism throughout the army to fight side by side with the whites. Will is acknowledged in many of these battles for his heroism and acts of strength during conflict. When Will finally returns from the Wars, he is haunted and shattered by his experiences. Though, not free as promised, he continues to petition for his liberation.

I liked the idea of this book. I was interested to learn about the slave history of America and captivated by the first hundred or so pages. But after this point, the appeal faded as the war scenes lengthened. The way Patriots Reward was written in third person made it easy to follow and I liked the eloquence of language used, fitting to the era. The author depicted well the personal side of the story, in which we see Will care for his family and his struggle for acceptance and freedom, whereas the description of conditions and events during the Wars became tedious. My impressions and thoughts after reading this book were varied with a slight disappointment at the ending to amazement at the strength of spirit of one African man. The preface and comments included in this book made the characters and situations more real to me due to the direct ancestry between the author and Wills owner, James Clarkson. I would recommend this novel, Patriot's Reward to mature reading history enthusiasts who will be able to understand the powerful and articulate language as well as appreciate the scenes of war.

Reviewer Age:15
Reviewer City, State and Country: Melbourne , Victoria Australia

Grk Smells a Rat

Tim’s friend Max is going to play in a tennis tournament in India. One of the richest men in India doesn’t know what to do with his money, so he hosts an under-16 tennis tournament. Tim travels with his sister, Natascha, his friend Max, and Max’s parents. On a train they meet a kid named Krishnan, who tries to sell them a pirated book. Krishnan tells them about his sister who has been enslaved by The Blue Rat Gang. They wind up trying to free Krishnan’s sister from the gang led by an old lady with a pet blue rat, which she says has magical powers.

Overall, this book was good, but it took a while to get exciting. It took about 80 pages to get interesting. At first, I didn’t really want to keep reading, but at the end I was glad I did. Joshua Doder would have done a lot better of job if he had made it more exciting, more quickly. Boys and girls will like this book, but it would be better for young readers. Joshua Doder has written five other books about Grk, but none are really well known. There are only 202 pages in this book but I wish there were more. They get shot at once, but other than that there is no violence. If you like adventure stories and you are willing to read a while before it gets interesting, this book is for you.

The Junto Racing to the Bell by Ron Costello

This book is about a boy named Jamil Jamil, who is in a bad
situation and looking for outside help. His mother is into
drugs, and jumping from nasty boyfriend to nasty boyfriend.
The latest one beats Jamil often. Even school isn't safe
anymore; the principal has it out for him. The only place
were he is comfortable is at his grandmother's house. She's
also the only one who knows his secret. He can communicate
with animals! One day while doing his homework, Jamil gets
a message from Bette the elephant saying that there have
been bad people at the zoo plotting to blow up the city.
But what could Jamil do? He's just a kid. Can he save the
city or will he be blown up with it?

I think that this book is interesting. I think it would
have been better if it started in medias res. Instead, it
is sort of slow starting. I like the fact that he can't
actually 'speak' to animals. It's more like the animals and
Jamil just know what the other is saying. There are too
many books where animals talk. I also like the parts where
the author explains why the terrorists are terrorists. It
is a helpful insight, that helps the story I think. All in
all, though it is a good book that I recommend to anyone
who likes slow intros.

I give this book a 2 because it's about terrorism and
has references to drugs and not exactly a book for fifth
graders.

Reviewer Age:13

Reviewer City, State and
Country: Sandy, Oregon USA

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

There's only one thing that Micah Wilkins will honestly tell you: she is a compulsive liar. To her, lying is as easy as breathing. She's fooled her parents, classmates, teachers and she can always stay one step ahead of the many lies she's told. When her boyfriend ends up dead, his death is suspected as murder, and Micah's trickery begins to catch up with her. Can Micah tell the truth when it matters most? If she does, will anyone really believe her?

I really enjoyed Liar. I thought the beginning was a little boring, though. I was hooked on the book after that, however. The ending caught me by surprise because it was nothing that I expected it would be. I thought that the book was very interesting and I recommend it to any young adult readers.

Reviewer Age:13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Enon, Ohio United States

China Clipper by Jamie Dobson

Nick is back in another book, but this time instead of going overseas, he's back at school and has managed to get a job working on the China Clipper, a "flying boat". But some force is determined to not the plane fly. Nick is sure his old enemy Miyazaki is to blame, but is he working alone or does he have acomplices hidden everywhere? There's also Haas who's loyalty has been shifty, the two new kids at school, Rodger and Nancy, but they've been behaving suspiciously too. Nick may just be alone on this one.

I reviewed the first book in this series, Flying Boats and Spies, and thought it was just great! I was so excited when I found out there would be a second book. Although it is written with guys in mind (lots of mechanical terms and stuff while working on the planes, I still love reading it and this time, his girlfriend, Leilani, plays a bigger role in it which is great to read! I would reccomend this book to anybody! It's very well written and clearly explains terms I would not recongnize.

Reviewer Age:16
Reviewer City, State and Country: Gearhart, Oregon United States

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

The Island of the Blue Dolphins starts when a group of people called the Aleuts come to the island that is Karana's home to hunt sea otter. When the Aleuts don’t want to pay fairly for the otter pelts, they have a battle with the island tribe. Karana’s father, the chief, is killed. A new chief is chosen who goes in a canoe to a place in the east to ask white men to help them. He sends back white men to bring the tribe to the place he has found. When Karana’s little brother, Ramo, misses the boat, Karana jumps off to stay behind with him.

While they are alone on the island, Ramo is killed by the wild dogs. After a while, Karana learns to make weapons and captures the leader of the wild dogs, whom she names Rantu. She also makes friends with birds and a sea otter. She survives on her own for many years, until the white men finally come back and rescue her.

This book was very interesting because you were never quite sure what would happen next. I chose this book to review, even though I had already read it, because I really like the way the book described the animals and the whole environment of the island. It’s easy to imagine what the island was like. I like Karana because she’s brave and even though she did what she had to in order to survive, she still took care of how she looked and made herself nice clothes to wear in case the people came back for her. I thought it was really interesting how she could make friends with so many different animals, so she wouldn’t feel so lonely.

This is the 50th anniversary edition of this book, which contains a new introduction by Lois Lowry. The introduction told the few facts that were really known about the woman Scott O’Dell based Karana’s story on. Ms. Lowry also uses parts of the book as she tells us why she admired it so much. If you’ve never read The Island of the Blue Dolphins and you like survival stories or animal stories, this is a good one to read.

Reviewer Age: 11, Lake City, IA USA