Coming on Valentine's Day! Stop in the library, pick up your date, and post your review HERE. The first 30 Middle School students to post a review will be invited to our Blind Date lunch party in the library. Upper School reviewers will be entered in a raffle for dinner and a movie. Take a chance on love!
20 Comments
Ryan Rinaldo
2/22/2017 05:34:26 am
The book Confessions of a Murder Suspect is an amazing suspense book. I couldn't stop reading the book with all of the surprises and twists the authors put in the book. The book Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro is a Murder Mystery. The book starts off with a girl named Tandy talking about her parents death. She explains why she is scared and how hurt she is. Tandy is a short sixteen year old girl who does not show much emotion till the death of her parents. She is part of the Angel family which is very wealthy. She wakes up one morning seeing two FBI agents at the front door, she is scared and puzzled by this show, she lets them in and looks for her parents. She finally learns that her parents are dead and the FBI won't let them leave till they figure out who committed the murders. Tandy does some investigation to try and figure out who the murderer is. Her suspects are her twin brother who was looked down on by their parents. It could it be her younger brother Hugo, who has a physical strength well beyond his age. Or Samantha, her mother’s live-in maid who knows far more about the family than she should. As Tandy investigates those inside and outside of the house, she discovers that there are many people with a motive for murder. Eventually she’s begins to remember little gaps of her past that were somehow removed from her memory. For example memories of being in love.
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Anna Effenberger
2/22/2017 06:06:47 pm
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd was a fantastic novel. It takes place in South Carolina against the backdrop of the civil rights era. It follows the fourteen year old Lily Owens in her journey to find out what happened to her mother, a question that has been weighing her down ever since it happened, when she died when Lily was a baby. Lily decides to leave the town she grew up in after her peach-picker-turned-stand-in-mother was attacked by the harshest racists in town, hitch-hiking to Tiburon, a town almost one hundred miles away, because her mother had written the name on the back of a picture of the mysterious Black Madonna. When she arrives, she is taken in by the kindest and strongest sisters. The book focuses on dealing with grief, finding strength, and what love truly means. The main women in the novel are such strong, motivating characters. I loved The Secret Life of Bees; it's perfectly balanced with suspense and peacefulness, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a feel-good book!
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Isabella Santulli
2/23/2017 04:33:09 pm
The book Chasing Vermeer is fun tale twisting book. The book starts with a unknown person sending a letter to two students. This person is asking for help in correcting a crime involving art. This letter threatens them, telling them that if they go to the authorities, their lives will be in danger. The next chapter introduces the two main characters, Calder and Petra. They are eleven year old students at the University School, located near Chicago. They are both unique, intelligent, and have an interest in patterns and the world around them. After seeing Ms. Hussey buying books about crime and art and then reading about the theft of Vermeer's The Lady Writing, they begin to worry that their teacher is somehow mixed up in this theft. Soon many of those they care about are possible suspects, so they decide they should help to solve this crime.
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Matt Padovano
2/26/2017 10:48:16 am
The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe describes a fictional plague spreading across an island community, and how a young woman deals physically, mentally, and emotionally with losing everything she once had.
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Jackie Baron
3/1/2017 10:26:13 am
Every You, Every Me by David Levithan is a fictional novel about Evan and his friends Jack and Ariel. Ariel is gone and it's really hard for Evan because they were best friends. One day while walking to school, Evan found an envelop with a picture in it. He didn't know who left it for him, but thought it could be Ariel. The second picture he found was a picture of him. After seeing that he was so sure Ariel had to be the mystery photographer. He brings Jack, Ariel's ex-boyfriend into the whole thing and the two of them try to figure out who the mystery photographer is. The book was very interesting and kept me intrigued throughout the entire book.
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Brooke
3/1/2017 03:45:03 pm
I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Legacies by Pittacus Lore is an amazing book. This book is part of a side series to the I am Number Four books and gives a terrific background to the characters I have gotten to know through reading the series. Little did I know, this book showed me I knew nothing at all of the characters and how they became who they are in the real series.
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Madison Lubin
3/2/2017 04:15:14 pm
The book I read was The White Bicycle by Beverly Brenna. This book was about Taylor Jane Simon who has Asperger's Syndrome. She travels to France where over the summer she babysits for the Phoenix family. This book included some flashbacks from her younger days. I was not that big of a fan of the book. I had no interest in this book and it was difficult for me to continue reading. This book was a nice book and I would recommend it to someone who I know who likes this type of writing.
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Samantha Riebesell
3/3/2017 06:07:31 pm
Carter's Big Break, by Brent Crawford who pursued his own acting career in New York, was a great novel that showed a boy's perspective and point of view of his life and his thoughts. It also showed the development of this character and the bumps on the road that he endured. The main character, Carter, is a 14 year old boy who has many friends in high school: EJ, Nutt, and his gorgeous girlfriend, Abby. Carter is then cast for a film, and this is his big dream to fulfill his very own acting career! Carter thinks it is amazing to be a movie star, but he doesn't realize the reality of being a "movie star". He soon learns that his co-star, Hilary Idaho, is a drug abuser. The story shows how Carter finally realizes how he wants his life to be, even if it is not having a life of acting. Personally, I like theater and acting, so I would recommend this book for anyone who lives their life on the stage. Although, there were some mature themes and negative stereotypes which I was not a fan of, but overall it was an interesting story of someone finding who they truly are.
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Victoria Gualario
3/5/2017 05:33:16 pm
The book I read was Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel. The main characters are the (fictional) Tomlin family. The story revolves around them adopting a chimpanzee. The father of the family was a scientist who was conducting an experiment to see if people could teach chimps sign language. They named the chimp Zan. He became the main subject of their research. The book is in the perspective of The Tomlin's son Ben. He forms a very strong bond with Zan as he grows and helps teach him sign language. There are many bumps in the research process and in the life of the family as the book progresses.
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Victoria Gualario
3/5/2017 05:35:06 pm
* so i could have recommended it to others.
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Ethan Brandon
3/6/2017 05:13:48 pm
In Darkness is a fiction book by author Nick Lake in the aftermath of the earthquake that rocked Haiti in 2010. The character we first pick up with is named Shorty. He's currently trapped under a pile of rubble inside of a hospital building. He's going to be telling us about his life and many of the major events all from under that pile of rubble. From here we learn about Shorty's troubled life. He and his twin sister were born in a time of revolution, and would eventually lose both his father and his twin sister due to gang violence. Shorty joins a rival gang, and is taken in by the leader, Dread. He's given an education and a life due to Dread's kindness until police are about to kill Shorty when Dread makes the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect Shorty. Before he dies, Dread hands him a good luck charm, said to hold the spirit. We soon learn that it's the spirit of Toussaint l'Overture, a Haitian revolutionary who for a brief moment, freed the island of Haiti from colonial rule and released all the slaves. The story goes back and forth between their lives and the conflicts that they both faced. For Short, we learn more about his life before the earthquake, like what really happened to his father and brother. For Toussaint, we get reading about his military victories in the face of overwhelming obstacles right up until he's double-crossed by the French and imprisoned. All in all, the story ends up well as the slaves are finally free in colonial Haiti and Short is finally rescued from the rubble only to be reunited with his mother.
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Olivia Knoop
3/9/2017 09:48:49 am
I read Of Poseidon, it was okay. This book was kind of a typical teenage romance book and it didn't really have a plot. I would recommend it for someone who likes romance and/or sci-fi. Emma, the main character is uncharacteristically syrena, the type of mer-people in the book. Galen the syrena ambassador for humans sees her and romance ensues. Most of the book is Emma playing hard to get which is slightly annoying after a while. For someone who typically reads historically based books this was a nice departure.
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Alexandra Greenberg
3/9/2017 07:46:27 pm
Where Things Come Back, by John Corey Whaley, follows the life of a young teenage boy named Cullen Witter who longs to leave "the place where dreams die," also known as his hometown of Lily, Arkansas. Cullen lives a life full of hardships. These hardships vary from his brother being kidnapped to his cousin dying of a drug overdose to his girlfriend leaving him for a paralyzed boy. Along with this, the novel consists of two storylines, one from the past and one from the present, which eventually connect together to fill in the missing pieces of the story. Some themes of the novel include family, religion, isolation, mortality, versions of reality, and coming of age. Personally, I was not a fan of this novel. The storyline was kind of all over the place, and most events that took place in the book seemed pretty unnecessary. Also, the story involved too much death and not enough substance. Despite this, I truly enjoyed the connection between the past storyline with the present storyline. Also, the symbolism in the novel, such as the woodpecker, was interesting in the way that the woodpecker itself could be interpreted in many different ways. I would recommend this book to a person who does not mind a storyline which is consumed with deaths and has the patience to stick with the story until the end.
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Jocelyn Lin
3/9/2017 07:52:00 pm
The book I read was The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong. This book tells a survival story of three young brothers face the ultimate challenge at sea. Ben, Dylan and Gerry go on a year-long sail with their dad after their mom died in a car accident. Most of the story takes place on their sailboat Chrysalis. The three brothers learn to be courageous and responsible along the adventure. They take care of each other and even risk their own lives to save each other when the big storm comes. Moreover, this story also reveals strong family relationships when faces crisis. I like this book because the story is told in first person from Ben’s point of view. The narration in this book makes me feel like I am in the story. In addition,the characters are well developed and appealing to readers.
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Himani Nayyar
3/10/2017 04:11:11 am
The book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is about the15 year old narrator Charlie. He is a freshman in highschool and is a “wallflower”. This means that Charlie is reserved and very quiet. His friend Michael has committed suicide and Charlie's is trying to come to terms with that. Throughout the whole book, Charlie is writing many letters to a an unknown friend. In school, Charlie’s english teacher, Bill is someone Charlie can go to and feels comfortable. After overcoming his anxiety or shyness, he befriends a boy named Patrick and Patrick's stepsister Sam. Overall, I enjoyed this book because of the way that Stephen Chbosky wrote it. I liked how it was written like a diary. Also, I did not suspect that Charlie would forgive his Aunt Helen for what she did to him. I have been wanting to read this book for sometime and it was definitely worth it.
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Haley Bovino
3/10/2017 06:11:33 am
My Life as a Book, written by Janet Tashjian, was a lighthearted and fun book to read. The plot surrounds a young boy named Derek Fallon who has a hard time in school, specifically with reading. As summer break begins, Derek thinks his summer will be filled with water balloon fights, adventures, and other activities accompanied by his best friend, Matt. To his surprise, Derek is forced to go to a summer learning camp, which he dreads. For him, that means no fun, and all work. Derek dreads his upcoming summer, until one day, he discovers a family secret that involves Martha’s Vineyard, and a young girl’s life. Throughout the book, Derek tries to dig up some of the mysterious details about the story, while at the same time, trying to finish his summer reading books, and still maintain his social life.
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Mikayla
3/10/2017 09:24:44 am
Walter Dean Myers and Ross Workman collaborate to create the a mysterious fiction book that gets you hooked from the very first line. "Kick" is mainly focused on a 13 year old boy named Kevin who is accused for some pretty serious crimes against a girl in his school named Cal. Like in a regular criminal case, there are two parts to every story so the authors wrote the book from other perspectives besides just Kevin's. The author makes you feel that even though what Kevin did was against the law, that you feel bad for him and that he shouldn't be convicted for this crime. This book is definitely a mystery that the whole time you are trying to guess if what the people are saying is really what happened. As a star soccer player, Kevin just tries to put all of his problems aside and focus on soccer, like his father would want him to. With the help of an old friend of his father’s, Sergeant Brown tries to find out what really happened that night between Cal and Kevin and why Kevin would do something like this. To see if Kevin wins his case, read "Kick" for an exciting, mysterious case to be revealed at the end of the book.
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Varun Sikand
3/10/2017 10:25:30 am
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen is a young adult novel about friendship, teamwork and standing up for your beliefs. The story revolves around the main character Roy Eberhardt who moves to Coconut Cove, Florida in middle school and has a hard time adapting to his new school. Roy is the subject of daily torture by the class bully Dana, who he eventually fights with, leaving Dana with a broken nose. Roy befriends the town delinquent Mullet Fingers, who has been accused of vandalizing the construction site of the new All American Pancake House. Mullet’s primary motive is to delay the construction of the restaurant in order to save an endangered species of owls that live on site. Roy partners with Mullet and seeks help from his classmates to expose the truth about the company’s violation of the construction’s environmental impact. Eventually the owls are saved and the property becomes an owl sanctuary. Although somewhat of a juvenile book for high school students, I enjoyed the book because it reinforced the importance of friendship,leadership and community responsibility. The unusual friendship that was forged by these two “unaccepted” boys depicted the power of conviction and fortitude. The underlying message of environmental awareness and accountability is strong and important for young readers to appreciate and uphold.
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Alan.Li
3/10/2017 12:12:54 pm
The book etiquette and espionage, written by Gail Carriger, was a popular book. However, I did not like the book very much after finishing reading it recently. It is about the school life of Sphoronia, a teenage girl who caused problems all the time. When her mother could not stand her boy-like character any more, she sent her to a private school, which turns out to be a school training women how to kill, spy or espionage.
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Kaylie Shapiro
3/10/2017 08:54:55 pm
Sarah Gruen's Water for Elephants has an intriguing storyline that makes it difficult for the reader to put the book down. The story is told by a modern day, old Jacob, and a present day Jabob. Jacob tells the journey of his life, from when he learned that his parents have been killed in a car crash, which sparks up the rest of the novel. He hops on a circus train and is met by adventure, love, drama, and company from within the interesting members of the circus. I found this book complex, yet seamlessly written. It's fluctuating of narritives, satisfying conclusion, and powerful plot makes it a perfect read. I loved and would recommend this book to anyone looking for an exhilarating story.
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