I had pretty high expectations for this book since it was written by Ann Brashares (the author of The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants) and unfortunately this book fell short of those expectations. The beginning was pretty confusing because you don’t know all of the details about the time travelling and the main character talks about a bunch of stuff that doesn’t really make sense. I also thought the story was going to have more romance in it. It’s weird because the boy that Prenna falls for has really deep feelings for her already and then all of a sudden Prenna feels the same way, so there isn’t a lot of development of their feelings. The book also talks a lot more about technology than I would have expected. The book wasn’t necessarily bad, but I think it was too short (the book is only about 230 pages) to develop all the ideas that Brashares is trying to include.
Tuesday, July 08, 2014
A new student review of The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
Monday, July 07, 2014
A new student review of Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #29: Soccer by Mary Pope Osborne Natalie Pope Boyce
I did not know a lot about soccer before reading this book. It was a great book to read while I was enjoying the World Cup on TV. I felt much more prepared, and I think I enjoyed watching a lot more since I had the knowledge I gained from this book.
A new student review of Precocia: The Sixth Circle of Heck by Dale E. Basye
The book had an interesting plot - funny, original ideas and names - and the premise was certainly not pedestrian! Two children stuck in the afterlife, sent all the way down to Limbo where a demon principal decides which circle of Heck they will go to. Some parts of the book were a little awkward, and the entire story would have been perfectly fine without all of the crude parts. Precocia, in a nutshell, was a semi-fluff book that I could easily read several times over without getting the point at all.
Saturday, July 05, 2014
A new student review of Scared Stiff: Everything You Need to Know About 50 Famous Phobias by Latta Sara
To exemplify the contents in this book, I will give a highlight about Gephyrophobia, the fear of crossing bridges. In this section, I learned that "Gephyophobia" derives from the two Greeks words "gephura," meaning "bridge," and "phobos," meaning "fear." I also learned that this fear can come from the fear of heights as well as the fear of being trapped. Gephyrophobes, even at the thought of crossing a bridge, can have a panic attack. Usually Gephyrophobia can occur when a person experiences a traumatic event pertaining to bridges, such as witnessing someone commit suicide off of one. This is only a small chunk of this section, so wait to see what's in store in the whole book! I hope you enjoy this great read by Sara Latta.
This book is absolutely amazing. In the book, Sara Latta connects with readers in a very personal way and tries to make them feel comfortable. Some examples of her doing this is when she uses very informal language (not anything profane, though) to relax and "welcome" the reader and even connects the contents of her book to her own life while still remaining serious and informative. I believe that Latta achieved her goal with writing this book, which was to inform as well as entertain her readers. Certainly, she achieved this with me! I do not see any weaknesses in this book. It lists 50 famous phobias and contains as much information as possible for each one, just like Latta intended. As it can be inferred by my positive review on her book, I would highly recommend this book to anyone, from my little sister to the librarian at my school. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
A new student review of White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout
I believe this book is awesome because it shows that a person who loves you would give their life for you. I kept wondering who was bad and who was good. I love the feeling of how the characters felt for each other and the adventure they went on. I cannot wait for the next book because I want to see what will become of the characters.
Friday, July 04, 2014
A new student review of WhipEye by Geoffrey Saign
This fantasy story was so unique and exciting! I had a hard time putting it down. The author developed the characters well, and I felt like I became part of the story.
A new student review of The Loch Ness Monster
I thought that The Loch Ness Monster was a great, fast-paced book. In fact, reading this book made me interested in reading the other two books by the same author (The Chupacabra and The Pacific Giants). There was a lot about Vanessa’s conflicted feelings about her mom’s death and her father’s new girlfriend, Lee. This does make the story more girl-oriented, though boys could read it, too. I would personally recommend this book for girls 12 and up. One of the things I especially liked about The Loch Ness Monster was that each chapter provided interesting facts about Loch Ness and the legend of Nessie (the Loch monster).
A new student review of Twisted (Volume 1) by Brittany Hawes
Twisted is a debut novel by a talented author. The plot is clever, the premise intriguing, and the pacing steady. But I still found issues with Twisted that hindered my enjoyment of the book.
The characters of this novel were extremely stereotyped. Retro, the love interest, is the typical playboy jock, his sister an overly cute fashionista, the computer geek a complete nerd, and the love rival, Carma, a terrible Drama Queen. The only character with shades of grey was Lola. This makes the story unrealistic.
But let's return to the love rival, Carma. The addition of Carma turned a spiced, exciting spy novel to a melodramatic High School Musical parody, complete with locker fights and teacher gossip--extremely distasteful.
In fact, the actual spy action was limited. There were a few missions, but they were poorly executed--nothing close to the actual efficiency of modern espionage. The mission scenes lacked tense pacing and suspense.
Finally, the author's writing style. In a word, loquacious. The biggest issues seemed to be unnecessary modifiers--such as 'shouted loudly' or 'said happily and joyfully'--and the balance of sentence styles, which was completely off. There were too many complex sentences, and not enough simple or compound.
Overall, Twisted is a fun book, but not the electrifying read I'd expected. I'd recommend it as a light read.
A new student review of The Stepsister's Tale
Honestly, I had a bit of trouble really getting into the book at first, but once I did, I couldn't set it down for the tiniest second. Every word grabs your attention and makes you start to wonder if the tale about Cinderella is really how it happened, or if it was all just a big misunderstanding. I would recommend this book for any girl to read.
A new student review of Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle
I think this book was inspiring by teaching you to always follow your dreams. It has lots of twists and turns that make you want to turn the page. I recommend this book to readers who like fiction with a hint of adventure. Overall, this book was really great.