A new student review of The Portal's Choice by KD Pryor

jj24 posted a new student review of The Portal's Choice by KD Pryor. See the full review.

The book was wonderful from the beginning through the middle, but the end seemed rushed and the plot seemed to go in different directions.  I liked that the book was both a romance and mystery and had supernatural elements. I think they blended well together. I didn't like how the book jumped to different settings because I had a hard time keeping track of things. The book was written in so many places that it was hard to keep up with the characters and hard to figure out how they got there.

 

A new student review of Penny's War by Anne Dearle

LaRayne posted a new student review of Penny's War by Anne Dearle. See the full review.

 

This is an amazing book that I devoured in one sitting. I recommend Penny’s War to ages 10-12. Although it is a very short book I feel as though there is still wonderful character development. When I read it I found myself completely attached to Penny and Peter. I always felt like I was in the book, not just observing from the outside. Many times I found myself scared when Penny is in great danger and joyful when she meets new kind people. This is a wonderful book that at times was so suspenseful I had trouble finishing the page I was on because I was so excited for whatever would come next.

 

A new student review of The Tragedy Paper

alikat7 posted a new student review of The Tragedy Paper . See the full review.

“The Tragedy Paper” by Elizabeth Laban was a powerful duel narrative story making you think deeper about the powers of love, friendship, and of course tragedy. The story begins with Duncan who seems utterly bound to listen to Tim’s recordings that are left to him. Which initially doesn’t make sense; a teenage boy wanting to listen to an outcast’s recordings instead of doing more productive things? It later begins to make sense towards the end because Duncan blamed himself for the tragedy and felt he owed Tim to listen to them. Making Tim the outsider in the book an albino was thought provoking in the way he would deal with things and what he wouldn’t do because of it. In conclusion this book pulls at your heart strings and urges you to uncover the truth.

 

A new student review of The Dark World

tlang posted a new student review of The Dark World . See the full review.

I love this book so much! I laughed out loud on almost every page. Paige is so funny with her internal comments. Each character is well-developed, and the author did a remarkable job writing this story. 

A new student review of Talonridge by Heimdall Thunderhammer

jotaf posted a new student review of Talonridge by Heimdall Thunderhammer. See the full review.

Out of the two books, I liked Magefable better than Talonridge.  This book didn't catch my attention as well as Magefable.  Talonridge was full of action, yet only grabbed my attention in half of the book instead of all; it was a little confusing at times.  It was still a very good book, though, with lots of other good parts.  I liked how well the author made the new characters fit in with the old characters.  I also liked how well he developed the new characters and added finishing touches to the old ones.  My favorite character is still Durbin the mouse because he is doing his best to follow in the footsteps of his father to protect anyone in need.  I would recommend this book to ages 10 through 14 because there is fighting, killing, and a few tough words.  Readers over the age of 14, however, might get bored.

A new student review of Pieces of Me

sumrsilentmusic posted a new student review of Pieces of Me . See the full review.

This novel had such a unique idea, but it was really poorly executed. Throughout the entire novel, I kept hoping that it would live up to its potential. I kept hoping that it would get better.

            I guess this novel and I got started on the wrong foot. I felt like the beginning was completely unnecessary, and it was probably violating all sorts of human rights. The cheerleaders (or Skirts, as Jessica calls them, but they’re the clichéd mean girls of the story) actually, physically, cut Jessica’s hair from her head while Jess is at her locker. First of all, why didn’t she report this to a teacher instead of covering up by saying she donated her hair to charity? Second, how did the cheerleaders manage to shear the entirety of Jessica’s hair in one snip?

            The beginning is just an indicator of the lack-of-subtlety and believability that’s prevalent in the rest novel. All the relationships between the characters in this novel lacked a certain sense of reality. The love storylines rang false. When I finished the novel, I had no idea why each person had such a “deep connection” with his or her respective love interest. It fell into the dangerous “insta-love” trend that is so prevalent in young adult fiction (except this novel had no excuse—it was supposed to be realistic fiction).

            Additionally, the author portrays the teenagers’ relationships with their parents in a horrible light. The novel follows five teenagers’ families and lives, and in every plotline, the parents were oppressive, had a lot of miscommunication issues with their children, and written in a way that wasn’t positive. I felt that this novel would have been a lot stronger if the author could have at least shown a range of different relationships, since she does have so many main characters. I understand that she was trying to capture the teenage angst of feeling misunderstood, but really, it wasn’t done with much tack or subtly.

            I also felt that the author didn’t really have a good understanding of her characters. Firstly, Jessica’s voice did not remain constant throughout the novel. Secondly, the author’s other characters only had one thing that defined them. For example, whenever the reader was in Vivian’s point of view, the only thing that characterized her voice and made her distinctive is that she kept using the Pantone palette to “color her world,” which was refreshing at first but got really annoying after a while.

            The author had a really hard time figuring out what point of view to tell her story from. It was supposed to rotate points of view between the five characters, but when the author tried to describe something from another character’s point of view, Jessica’s thoughts and her feelings would bleed into that point of view and vice-versa. Furthermore, I don’t think that Amber Kizer had a good grasp on how her world worked. I was really confused how Jessica was able to switch between her organ recipients (and why there were only four of them), how she could essentially read their minds, and why she could sometimes interact with the physical world.

            Overall, I felt as if I was reading the first draft, not something that was printed and bound and meant for the general public. 

A new student review of The Circle Book One of the Sidhe by Cindy Cipriano

aeehrhardt posted a new student review of The Circle Book One of the Sidhe by Cindy Cipriano. See the full review.

I loved The Circle. Cindy Cipriano created a different world that is so unlike, “The realm of man.” I like how the circle draws you in by giving you so many questions, and you’re just waiting for them to be answered. My favorite character in the circle was Laurel, because she was about my age, she was friendly, and she liked to read, just like me. Cindy Cipriano painted a picture in my head, and that’s what I like most about the circle. She made the book come to life. I found myself asking in real life, “Is that a faerie circle?”

 

A new student review of North of Nowhere

druryj posted a new student review of North of Nowhere . See the full review.

 Liz Kessler must have put a lot of time and effort into writing this book.  I think this because it took me 4 days to finish it, I liked it that much!  I recommend that anybody 10 and up should read this book.  I let my mom read it and she liked it a ton!  I hope Liz Kessler makes a second "North of Nowhere" or a book like it!

                                                                                               

A new student review of Squish: Game On (#5)

druryj posted a new student review of Squish: Game On (#5) . See the full review.

Squish is the kind of book that you could read in a day, it is fast and easy.  I think at least  they should make one book like 3 of them put together.  I would recommend this book to kids 10 and under, kids higher might not like it as much. They might enjoy it but not love it.  I like it because it is a graghic novel.

A new student review of The Well's End

nowhereman posted a new student review of The Well's End . See the full review.

From the very first page, I knew this book was good. The author puts you right into the story with how he describes Mia’s surroundings. Mia herself feels like an actual person with the style Fishman writes in. Fishman delivers a wonderful science fiction, thriller and mystery bundle. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoyed The Hunger Games, Maze Runner, or Divergent. If you read any of these books, you will find similar science fiction/thriller qualities that will keep you on the edge of your seat.  This book is appropriate for young adults.