Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Son of a Mob, submitted by Gracie (6-28-06)

Son of a Mob, by Gordon Korman (YA Korman)
Vince Luca is in quite the predicament when he falls for the daughter of an FBI agent since his own father runs a major criminal orginization. This book was quirky and unpredictable. The characters are believable and funny. Worth reading.

A Great and Terrible Beauty, submitted by Gracie (6-28-06)

A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray (YA Bray)
My favorite book! It bothered me at first that it was written in present tense but i forget about it after i started reading. The plot is complex and the girls are relatable and life-like. A must-read. 5 Stars!

Laws of Nature, submitted by Suzanne (6-28-06)

Laws of Nature, by Christopher Golden. YAPB Golden
I really enjoyed this book. The writing was challenging, but easy to understand. The story moved along at a good pace and was very engaging. It is part of a series, the second book, and it continued the story really well from the first book. Now i want to read the third one and find out what happens.

The Dating Game submitted by Suzanne

The Dating Game, by Natilie Standiford (YAPB Standiford)
I thought the book was basically a light summer read, and thats what it was. It was light and fluffy, and very easy to read: the perfect beach book: 3 Stars.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

A Long Way Down is worth reading

A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby
I love the original idea of telling a story through four estremely different viewpoints. It's such a refreshingly different take on story-telling in comparrison to the common third-person narrative. Through most of the book i dislike the older characters and i am most interested in the teenage girl. I mostly just have pity for the teenage guy. Being an optimist, I always believe and most approve of a happy funtional ending, but there's something very comforting with the way the Nick Hornby ends all of his stories- on a better note than in the beginning, but at the same time not summed up or fully concluded. He leaves his stories open ended so that the reader can draw their own conclusions.

The Lost World gets 4 stars by Vinny

The Lost World, by Michel Crighton, is a sci-fi book. It is about a park gone wrong, and is the sequel to Jurassic Park. In order for you to understand the plot, you have to understand the first book. A man called John Hammand starts an amusement park and invites a paleontologist, his two grand kids, and an old college buddy Ian Malcolm, a pessimistic (but genius) mathematician. They fly to a remote Island off the coast of Costa Rica. On the way they find out that what Hammand has been doing is creating dinosaurs (through the help of modern technology). Malcom predicts that it will all go haywire, but he seems to be wrong until a power outage occurs. The outage is induced by Nedry, a spy placed by a competing genetics company. A bug in the computers let all the dinosaurs free. In The Lost World, a team of scientists go on to discover what is left after the original Island is destroyed. This is an action-packed thriller.

Parasite Pig (submitted by Vinny)

The book Parasite Pig by William Sleator is the sequel to a book where the main character, Barney a 16 year-old boy, is caught up in the battle for the Piggy. The aliens trying to get the Piggy destroy his parent’s beach house so now he has to go to a boring job at the Library to earn the money back. Since the Aliens had been in such a rush to get the Piggy, they leave behind a board game. The board game is a fictional version of what happens in the battle for the Piggy. Barney, Max and Julie (Barney’s friends) play the game for fun every Friday. Soon they meet the mysterious ‘Julian’ who starts to play with them. Next thing they know it, Barney and Katie discover that Max and Julian are aliens themselves! Seconds later, they are being swept off to a planet where the Piggy is supposed to be. One catch, the planet is home to human-eating crabs! The Aliens want to use Barney's powers to get the Piggy while Barney and Katie Are just trying to escape. I give it 3 stars.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Teen Summer Reading Program: June 27th - Aug. 22nd

Submit 2 book reviews and be entered into a raffle to win an MP3 Player and other prizes- read more about it at: http://www.tcpl.org/teen/tsrp.html

Loved To Kill a Mockingbird (6-15-06), by Peggy

This book is fabulous! After you read it, you must see the movie. They are both great. Anyways. The book is about how this black man is inaccurately accused of raping a white woman. By all the clues throughout the trial you can tell is is not true. The black man's lawyer is a white man and a girl named Scout and a boy name Jem's father. The father is called all sorts of names for defending a black man because it takes place in the south where discrimination is still in effect. This book is great and it shows historical events such as the Civil Rights Movement while being an interesting and intriguing book at the same time. This is hard to do however Harper Lee does it well. I recommend this book to all wanting a good read. However it is a good book to read on your own time when you have the time to read it carefully because then you will notice all the metaphors and what the title actually means. All around I loved this book and I think peope should read it. It is a good book for Social Studies and English. 5 Stars.

The Giver is Great! by Peggy (6-15-06)

Personally, I really loved the book The Giver. I thought it was well written and it was suspensful. I liked the idea of the made-up place with this made-up life. I also loved the parts where the boy would get the gift of something new he learned from the Giver at the time. It was very detailed so I could feel exactly what he was feeling. I felt as if I was in the book at times. Overall I loved this book and I recommend it to anyone who is wanting a good read for the summertime or for book reports or just for fun!