Sweet 15 by, Emily Adler

In three months, Destiny Lozado will turn fifteen. In a Latino household, this means the countdown begins for a Quincenara, or big fifteenth birthday celebration. However, Destiny is not sure this is how she wants to celebrate. Her mother wants her to have a girly Quincenara complete with a fancy dress and caballero (male escort). Destiny's sister, America, is fighting tooth and nail against her mother to prevent Destiny's Quincenara. America argues for a Quincenara without the fancy clothes and definitely without the caballero. And stuck in the middle of this is Destiny, swooning over a possible crush and worrying about the toll the Quince￱ara is taking on her family's financial situation. Can Destiny put up with her mother's and sister's arguments about what's best for her, or will Destiny take things into her own hands?

I like the storyline because I enjoy hearing about other cultures' birthday celebrations. However, this book was hard to get through because, for most of the book, Destiny let herself be swayed back and forth by her mother and sister and never took control of her life till the end. This book presents an interesting view of the modern day feminist (America, Destiny's sister) and the strain of being caught between two cultures. I liked how in the end, Destiny managed to make her Quincenara her own with a mix of fancy and grungy aspects. Over all, this book has a sweet and inspiring story that female tweens will surely enjoy.

Reviewer Age:16
Reviewer City, State and Country: Mineola, TX U.S.A.

Nature Girl by Jane Kelley

Eleven year old Meagan didn’t want to be stuck in Vermont for the whole summer without her best friend, Lucy. The summer looks like it’s going to be horrible. It gets worse when Meagan gets lost on the Appalachian Trail with only her loyal dog, Arp. Instead of going back, she decides to prove herself and walk, oops, hike to Massachusetts, where Lucy is staying. Along the way she begins to discover herself more. After all, she has a long time to think and think and think.

I liked this book because I love how Meagan perseveres; hiking from Vermont to Massachusetts. She thinks about the times when she and Lucy were together and how she acted. I found this book very moving. I would definitely recommend this book to others. Why? This is a very touching book.

Reviewer Age: 10

Reviewer Cities, State and Country: Katy, Texas USA

Conspiracy 365: May by Gabrielle Lord

Cal has been locked in a mental institution, and given the fake identity of Ben Galloway. The only problem with this is, he doesn't know who put him there or how he got there. Vulkan Sligo has stolen important documents pertaining to his father's murder case. Cal is informed from his shrink that he will be released when he gives the the papers to Vulkan. Cal tries to persuade his shrink that Mr.Sligo is lying and that "Ben" is really Cal Ordman. After his chat with his shrink, Cal tries to run away from the asylum, but his plans are foiled by a guard! Then, one day Cal was watching television and saw his mother had been assaulted. Finally, Cal is able to contact Boges secretly over an email. Boges is allowed to visit Cal at the asylum, and Cal finds out that Boges has the documents. Then Boges dresses up Cal like a woman, and sneaks him out of the institution! Cal leaves town to get away from the police. The rest, you need to read and find out!

I wasn't a fan of this story. It was book 5 in the series and I didn't understand the plot. The setting wasn't very appealing, or interesting. The author didn't make the mental institution as exciting as it could have been. The main character is Cal, he wasn't a very interesting character. He was locked in a mental institution, yet didn't share his strong feelings for this situation. The author of this book made Cal feel boring, and i didn't connect with him at all. The author's voice just had a humdrum tone about it. The writing was difficult to follow and at times just didn't make sense. I found this book dull and at times it felt like the author was trying to push the situation too hard! I didn't learn anything from this book. I wouldn't recommend this book to readers, it was humdrum and the plot didn't make sense.

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

Change of Heart by Shari Maurer

Emmi Miller is an average teenager; her life consists of
soccer, friends, and parental problems. However, her life
is radically changed in a short few days when she
contracts a virus that led to congestive heart failure.
Now, her life is in a form of a beeper, and she's waiting
day in and day out for it to tell her a new heart has come
so she can go one with her life. Soon, Emmi realizes how,
maybe, her life will never go back to normal, and through
it all, she learns how great her family and friends
are.

I felt like I've encountered this storyline so many
different times, and this book doesn't write it in a very
refreshing way. The plotline is predictable and cliche.
The characters and situations are underdeveloped. One
dramatic event happens after the next making them seem
unrealistic and jammed together to make the book more
exciting. Also, the characters relationships are
established, but the reader doesn't feel the full
connection between the characters. Moreover, the narrator,
Emmi, is extremely whiny and immature. The author's
writing is choppy and unsophisticated. Although she
captures the teenage voice pretty well, at times it seems
as if she's trying too hard. All in all, it was a decent
book if you're looking for a light read full of cheesy,
predictable drama.

Reviewer Age:16

Reviewer City,
State and Country: Hinsdale, IL USA

Keeper by Kathi Appelt

Poor, poor Keeper! It's supposed to be a wonderful day: the blue moon will come out tonight, Dogie is going to ask Signe to marry him, Signe will make her blue moon gumbo, and Mr. Beauchamp's magic flowers are going to bloom! But when ten crabs spoke to Keeper, the whole day just went disastrously wrong. Going off the stories Signe told Keeper about her mother, Keeper ventures off with her dog named B.D. (Best Dog) and her seagull friend, Captain, to go find her mermaid mother at the sandbar. What will happen to Keeper, Captain, and B.D. on this crazy trip? Will Keeper ever find her mother and fix everything that went wrong, or will she find out everything is not what it seems?

Keeper, by Kathi Appelt, was a truly enchanting story. This book reminds me of me, of something I might do if told certain things. A strength of Keeper is always keeping the reader puzzled. It had me guessing what would happen next, and then amazed me by doing something totally different. One weakness it had was the skipping between characters. Most of the time I'm pretty good about realizing who is talking in the story or whose point of view the story is coming from, but in this book's case I was constantly confused about what was going on in the different story settings. I would recommend this book to kids who love mermaids and to kids between the ages of eight and twelve.

Reviewer Age:12
Reviewer City, State and Country: Fresno, California USA

The Squad: Perfect Cover by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

This book is about Toby Kline. Who is that you might ask? She is a girl who does what she wants; from hacking computers to being a black belt karate student..she is the very last person you would ever expect to find on the cheerleading squad. Not only would they not want her in the squad, but she would not want to be close to them either. That is until she is invited to join the cheerleading squad for her high school. This is when Toby finds out that the cheerleaders of her school double as secret agents. Is Toby willing to become something she always hated in order to become an agent?

I do not think that the book was all that great. I was expecting the author to be more descriptive. Though the author was not descriptive, she was very good at talking as if she was a teen. This book is more of a leisurely read. The words the book used were very easy to read and understand. I would not recommend this book for others because it does not do a very good job in drawing a person's attention. If I had to recommend this book to anyone, I would for middle school cheerleaders because I think they would be able to relate well with the characters.

Reviewer Age:15
Reviewer City, State and Country: Newville, Pennsylvania, United States

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey is a novel about love, chemistry, and what lies in within a person. Of course no one can overlook the combination of Jekel and Hyde. But when good girl Jill and loner fighter Tristen join forces to uncover secrets in both of their lives, unexpected things start to occur. Jill's father is murdered right before the start of the book, and the secrets of his life, and death, force Jill to dig into his final months, and her family's past. Tristen, on the other hand, has dark secrets of his own that he is trying to hide, and an evil side he is trying to defeat. When Jekel and Hyde come together to win a chemistry competition, and base their project on the work of Dr. Jekyll, you know the results will be explosive. But through their project they discover things they never expected, and both of their lives are changed forever.

Going into this book, I expected a lot. Something based off of Jekyll and Hyde had to be amazing, which is partly why I chose the book. Unfortunately, I was let down. The book started off being amazing, and I could not put it down. But the more I read, the less fascinating it became. A minor issue I had was the awkward formalness of every conversation the high school students had. It was also really jumpy at some points. It alternated chapters between Jill and Tristen, but I was often left confused and wondering, usually for so long that at one point I could barely keep track of all that was happening. The author seemed to stuff five or six different plots into this one book, leaving it confusing, with twists and turns, some stories starting while others come to abrupt halts. It was just far too much, and I felt a little overwhelmed. It was a good idea for a story, but I was ultimately let down by it.

Reviewer Age:15
Reviewer City, State and Country: Minnetonka, Minnesota United States

Kiss in the Dark by Lauren Hendersen

Scarlett Wakefield thinks she will finally be able to put
Dan McAndrew's murder behind her and start fresh at
Wakefield Hall Collegiate that her grandmother runs and
will soon be hers. Everything is going her way with a new
boyfriend, new best friend, and nobody who knows about
what happened with McAndrew. But that is all ruined when
Plum Saybourne is transferred to Wakefield from Scarlett's
old school, and establishes her reign in no time.
Scarlett can handle Plum just fine until she targets
Taylor, her best friend, and Jase, her boyfriend. And
things can only get worse when Jase's dad is found dead on
campus. Could Jase be involved with the murder? Or is
Scarlett just bad luck like everybody says?

This book is incredible! It's kind of a cliff hanger ending, but not
the kind that stops in the middle of an exiting part, and
it's not the first book in this series, but everything is
really well explained. You could easily read just this
book and be satisfied, but yet there is a bit of mystery
that intrigues me to read the others in this series. You
can really get into the characters, and unless you are a
Nancy Drew prodigy, the ending isn't what you would
expect. Scarlett goes through a lot of different suspects
and with each one you thing Oh yea, they definitely did
it! but they didn't. So it was really interesting in
that way. I would say this book is like a Sarah Dessen
mystery book.

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

Split by Swati Avasthi

In Split by Swati Avasthi, a sixteen year old boy named Jace is kicked out of his home by his abusive father leaving his mother alone with his father. He is forced to move in with his estranged brother Christian whom he hasn't seen or talked to in years. After moving in with Christian, Jace starts with a clean slate where no one knows his past. He comes to realize its not as easy as it looks and his past starts to haunt him. Jace has to come to terms with his father's faults so he can see it was never his own fault.

Split is one of those books with characters that you feel sorry for in the beginning but eventually fall in love with by the end. This book should be read by as many people as possible. It is an open window to domestic violence in the homes of those we are told to trust. While some of the passages were graphic, this was one of the better books that I have read in a long time. I was glad to see that after everything Christian and Jace were able to stay together and finally have a happy ending. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good read with a little angst mixed in. Great Story!

Reviewer Age:18
Reviewer City, State and Country: Mantua, NJ USA

Fire Will Fall by Carol Plum-Ucci

Scott, Cora, Rain, and Owen are typical teenagers, at least they were until two months ago when a terrorist group, called ShadowStrike, poisoned the water of their town. They now have a level four disease and are living in the kellerton mansion, trying to deal with their scary symptoms and haunting personal lives. They all hope for a cure, but even more they hope they can trust the people in care for their life.


Tyler Ping and Shahzad Hamdani are internet spies, they've taken on the illegal job of tracking members of ShadowStrike online. Only problem is no one will listen to them when they find out that ShadowStrike might not be as far away as everyone seem to believes. And their coming back.
 
Fire Will Fall by Carol Plum-Ucci was a great sequel to Streams of Babel. I had not read the first one before this, but I still understood. Each page was filled with thought-provoking words, weaved in with suspense. Each chapter was terrifyingly realistic, every page raised goosebumps on my arms. It was entertaining yet filled with horror. I would think I had everything figured out, and then Plum-Ucci would throw in a horrifying twist. There was action, mystery, and even romance. I was engrossed with the book the whole time I was reading it. I would extremely recommend this book to a mature reader. A lot of the language, and sexual content was mature. I didn't approve of it, even though it did make the situation more believable.
 
Violence, sexual content, and mature language.
 
Reviewer Age:14
Reviewer City, State and Country: Springtown, Texas United States