A new student review of Task Force by Brian Falkner

Crazyman5 posted a new student review of Task Force by Brian Falkner. See the full review.

Task Force was an interesting book, especially if you want action in a sci-fi setting. Point of view helps the story develop a good bit, and switching between characters really helps the point of view be told. There are a few characters who have very straight forward personalities, and lack back stories. This doesn't seem to hurt the overall plot line, however the book is far less cerebral then it could have been. I would recommend this to someone looking for a quick action read, in the ages of 11-13, and give it 4/5 stars, only losing a star for character development.

A new student review of Backwards by Todd Mitchell

AudreyCFarrell posted a new student review of Backwards by Todd Mitchell. See the full review.

"Backwards" was not an easy book to read. Not to say that the language was advanced, or that I didn't like it, or that it was a particularly long book. In fact, it is written relatively plainly, and is not really long at all. It was hard to read because it begins at the end, and so the whole story has the weight of the inevitable pressing upon it. The unavoidable future, being treated as the past. Todd Mitchell speculates through the story about the answers to some of life's unanswerable questions, and that is not an easy thing to put forth, let alone in a young adult novel. I think he did a wonderful job of it, nonetheless, and seriously doubt I will be forgetting "Backwards" anytime soon.

A new student review of Secrets and Spies: Plague by Jo Macauley

underwood_bcl posted a new student review of Secrets and Spies: Plague by Jo Macauley. See the full review.

I really liked this book because of the way the mystery was brought up and that  Beth was an actress. The illness that was going around London gave the book a little more spice. When one of the suspects dies because of the illness, I was surprised.  I thought that the suspect would be alive healthy and wanting to know everything that Beth had discovered. I was disappointed that the author used what I thought was inappropriate language in the book.  

A new student review of Lick by Kylie Scott

Mayo_whoa posted a new student review of Lick by Kylie Scott. See the full review.

Lick was a fantastic read! Held my interest throughout the enter way. Will read the rest of the series!

A new student review of Take Me On by Katie McGarry

lunarwolf posted a new student review of Take Me On by Katie McGarry. See the full review.

Truthfully I loved the story. The thing I didn't like was that they never really go deep into what happened to Hailey that traumatized her so badly. What I loved most about this story is the trials the characters go through. It shows the mental, emotional, and physical capabilites that anyone can go through, whether it's teenagers or adults.

Also, I loved how every chapter was either Hailey's or West's point of view. It gave a complete understanding for me and didn't leave me confused on whether we missed something important in the characters thoughts. This is a great read for anyone looking for a sweet, sad tale of life, hardship, and love.

A new student review of Taking the Reins by Katrina Abbott

EmilyFredricks posted a new student review of Taking the Reins by Katrina Abbott. See the full review.

 I very much enjoyed this book. I started reading it Sunday afternoon and I did not want to put it down. I had it finished by the next afternoon. Out of all of the books that I have read in the past I have no read a book that I was like this before. The plot and characters were all new and interesting. It was funny and very enjoyable to read. The book managed  to keep my attention.

The characters had me laughing the whole way through. There were many things that happened in the plot that made me laugh and that kept me guessing as what was going to happen next. There were also many things that shocked me because I did not think that it was going to happen the way that it did.

When the book ended I was very sad because I could have kept reading. I am very happy that there is a second one to this series and I will happily read it when I get the chance.
 

A new student review of The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

kaiyle posted a new student review of The Here and Now by Ann Brashares. See the full review.

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.

A new student review of Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #29: Soccer by Mary Pope Osborne Natalie Pope Boyce

cowboys1 posted a new student review of Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #29: Soccer by Mary Pope Osborne Natalie Pope Boyce. See the full review.

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

spickle posted a new student review of Precocia: The Sixth Circle of Heck by Dale E. Basye. See the full review.

 

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.      

A new student review of Scared Stiff: Everything You Need to Know About 50 Famous Phobias by Latta Sara

erh454 posted a new student review of Scared Stiff: Everything You Need to Know About 50 Famous Phobias by Latta Sara. See the full review.

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!