Title: Crocodile Tears (An Alex Rider adventure)
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Rate It 4.5/5
Review It: Horowitz's newest book in his Alex Rider series continues the story of Alex in his new, exhilerating mission to stop the massacre of the African continent. It is a great enjoyment to read for anyone who loves spy/action fiction.
Title: Living Dead Girl
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Rate It: 5 out of 5
Review It: A very intense book, Living Dead Girl kept my attention for a period of time. The content may be horrific, but the style of writing was the readon I couldn't put it down. Even after reading the last 3 words, I still felt an impulse to flip back and reread some parts.
Title: Playing With the Boys
Author: Liz Tigelaar
Review It: Good book about a girl who plays for her high scholl's football team. Funny and interesting.
Title: Evermore
Author: Alyson Noel
Rate It: 5/5!
Review It: This book cannot be changed to be better. I love it. I keep flipping pages, reading word for word, I read it twice! I'm just waiting for someone to FINALLY return the second book!
Reviewed by: Pamela Ponce
Title: Surfers
Author: Matt Griggs
Rate It: =)
Review It: This book tells about the lives of many different surfers & their surfing stories. It's really interesting and I would recommend it to anyone who surfs.
Title: Of Mice and Men
Author: John Steinbeck
Rate It: 3/5
Review It: This novel is quite depressing, for it displays how futile the American Dream and how necessary companionship is. Though it is short, it can get slightly boring.
Title: She Said Yes
Author: Misty Bernall
Rate It: Very Very Good
Review It: This book is sad and touching. Teens going through hard times should read it; it should really help. I recommend it to everyone.
Title: Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy)
Author: Richelle Mead
Rate It: 5/5
Review It: I liked reading about Rose & Dimitri, and I enjoyed the suspense of Dimitri trying to find Rose to turn her into a Strigoi so that they would live forever in eternity.
Title: The Quillan Games (Pendragon, Book 7)
Author: D.J. MacHale
Rate It: SUPER
Review It: I have not much to say, it is one of the best series ever!
Title: You Shouldn't Have To Say Good-Bye
Author: Patricia Hermes
Rate It: Very nice
Review It: This is one of the saddest books I have ever read. If you are going through hard times, read it! It is very touching & is a good book.
Looking for something to read now that you've finished Mockingjay and the Hunger Games trilogy? Luckily for you, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has come out with a list of suggested readalikes. The "What If..." list highlights titles featuring alternative history and worlds, steampunk, apocalyptic fiction and cyberpunk, among other settings.
Also, feel free to make your own suggestions in the comments below!
FIC (YA VL) Arakawa, H. Fullmetal Alchemist
What would you give up to bring back someone you love?
FIC Barry, M. Jennifer Government
In a world where you take the name of the company you work for nothing is off limits.
FIC (YA) Bodeen, S. The Compound
After his parents, two sisters, and he have spent six years in a vast underground compound built by his wealthy father to protect them from a nuclear holocaust, fifteen-year-old Eli, whose twin brother and grandmother were left behind, discovers that his father has perpetrated a monstrous hoax on them all.
FIC (YA) Caletti, D. Fortunes of Indigo Skye
Indigo Skye loves her waitressing job and thinks she knows where her life is going- until a customer leaves her a 2.5 million dollar tip.
X SF Christopher, J. The White Mountains (The Tripods #1)
Young Will Parker and his companions make a perilous journey toward an outpost of freedom where they hope to escape from the ruling Tripods, who capture mature human beings and make them docile, obedient servants.
FIC (YA) Dashner, J. The Maze Runner
Thomas wakes up in an enclosed environment with 60 other boys and no memory. He must learn to work with the group if he expects to survive.
FIC (YA) Doctorow, C. Little Brother
Marcus must fight for his freedom after a terrorist attack.
X SF DuPrau, J. The Diamond of Darkhold
Lina and Doon venture back to the City of Ember to find a gift left by the Builders.
FIC (YA) Fukui, I. Truancy
It's students vs. teachers in a fight to the death.
SF Gibson, W. Neuromancer
The book that started it all...
FIC (YA) Grant, M. Gone
What will kids do when all the adults have disappeared?
FIC (YA) Kostick, C. Epic
On New Earth, a world based on a video role-playing game, fourteen-year-old Erik pursuades his friends to aid him in some unusual gambits in order to save Erik's father from exile and safeguard the futures of each of their families.
FIC (YA) Lloyd, S. The Carbon Diaries 2015
It's the year 2015, and global warming is ravaging the environment. In response, the United Kingdom mandates carbon rationing. As multiple natural disasters strike and her parents head towards divorce, Laura's world spirals out of control. Chronicling the daily insanity is all Laura can do to stay grounded in a world where disaster is the norm.
X SF Malley, G. The Declaration
For others to live forever you must not exist.
FIC (YA) Marsden, J. Tomorrow, When the War Began
Group of teens go on a camping trip. Upon return discover their country has been invaded by an army and all their family and friends held captive.
FIC (YA) Ness, P. The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, Book 1)
One month away from officially turning into a man, Todd learns his world isn't what he thought it was.
X Oppel, K. Airborn
A luxury airship, pirates, and an undiscovered species make for a great adventure for Matt and Kate.
FIC (YA) Pfeffer, S. The Dead and the Gone
Alex must fend for himself and his sisters after an asteroid hits the moon.
FIC (YA) Pfeffer, S. Life As We Knew It
The world changes when a meteor hits the moon.
FIC (YA) Rosoff, M. How I Live Now
War breaks out across the ocean, teen and her family must cope and survive amidst danger.
FIC (YA) Ryan, C. The Forest of Hands and Teeth
The zombies have breeched the fences and Mary must venture out into the forest or die in the village.
FIC (YA) Simner, J. Bones of Faerie
Liza, born after the Faerie War, flees her town when she discovers she is developing magical abilities, a certain death where she lives.
FIC (YA) Sleator, W. Test
Ann, a teenage girl living in the security-obsessed, elitist United States of the very near future, is threatened on her way home from school. Soon she and a new friend are caught up in a vast conspiracy of greed involving the school testing company. Students who pass this test have it made; those who don't, suffer. For those who question the test the results may be deadly.
FIC (YA) Westerfield, S. Leviathan
In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.
Title: Girls Under Pressure
Author: Jacqueline Wilson
Rate It: Four and a half stars!
Review It: I think this book shows and sets a fine line between being skinny and healthy and being skinny and sick. Because as long as you make the right food choices, you're healthy, the book basically says in bold letters.
Title: Chessie Bligh and the Scroll of Andelthor
Author: Thora Gabriel
Rate It: Excellent
Review It: It is somewhat scary and exciting. I like the idea of elves and flying and finding Atlantis. It is a good story about family love.
Title: Slaughterhouse Five
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Rate It: 5/5
Review It: The best book I have ever read!! It makes the reader question thought, morality, war, and just about everything. Slightly confusing (the timeline jumps a lot) but a great read!
Title: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 1)
Author: Rick Riordan
Rate It: 5 stars out of 5 stars
Review It: As Percy Jackson finds out that he is the demigod son of Poseidon, he embarks on many journeys and adventures to seek the lightning bolt. When he was accused of an act he hadn't done, it was up to him to fix it by retrieving the bolt before war broke out in Olympus.
Title: Bewitching Season
Author: Marissa Doyle
Rate It: 4.5/5
Review It: In her magical debut, Doyle writes of two sisters - Persy and Pen Leland - who are ready to make their debut before the royal court. This not only means they are of marriageable age, but is also a chance to meet their idol, Princess Victoria. However, when the twins' tutor and friend Ally disappears and their beloved Princess Victoria is threatened, it is up to Persy Leland to save her friend, sister, and idol from danger.
Title: Sunrise Over Fallujah
Author: Walter Dean Myers
Rate It: 5/5
Review It: A story of a man named Robin, also known as Birdy, joining the Army to help serve his country.
Title: The Last Song
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Rate It: 5/5
Review It: Ronnie, a goth 18 year old, grew up with a mom and no dad. When her mom sends Ronnie and her little brother out to see her dad, she falls in love and begins to love her dad again. Her dad dies later of cancer, and she realizes that her mom was the one who cheated, not her dad.
Title: A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
Author: Betty Smith
Rate It: Super!!! Awesome
Review It: I really liked it. Sad and happy in many parts. Very touching. A book to read over & over again. I recommend it to ages 12-adult. Very enjoyable.
Title: White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1)
Author: Holly Black
Rate It: 4/5 - Really Good
Review It: Cassel is the only member of his family not to be born with a curse power. But when a myseterious white cat appears in his dreams and he begins questioning his brothers, he realizes there's more to him and his life than he originally thought.
Title: Witch Child
Author: Celia Rees
Rate It: 5/5
Review It: This was a really stimulating book. It used very understandable vocabulary, and it was very easy to see from the main character's point of view. It kept my attention occupied for a while, and very suspenseful parts kept me reading to find out more. All in all, a fun book to enjoy.
Title: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Author: Mark Twain
Rate It: 3.5/5
Review It: This book had quite an interesting plot, but the difficult vocabulary theft most of my fellow readers nonplussed. If Twain had used simpler words and phrases, the book would have been half as thick, with probably twice as many readers.
Title: The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book 5)
Author: Rick Riordan
Rate It: 5/5
Review It: Overall, the book was great. This book had lots of action and unexpected turns in the story. I would recommend this to others to read sometime.
Title: Exultant (Destiny's Children, Book 2)
Author: Stephen Baxter
Rate It: 5/5
Review It: Stephen Baxter's latest sci-fi novel explores the future of humanity in its battle against the alien Xeelee. Pirius and his comrades are led away from the war's interstellar front to discover secrets that could change the course of the war and all humans. Exultant truly is exceptional.
Title: The Call of the Wild
Author: Jack London
Rate It: 5/5
Review It: This book is about a boy named Buck who was kidnapped from his very comfortable home and put into the harsh conditions of sled dogs.
Title: Soul Surfer
Author: Bethany Hamilton
Rate It: 4/5
Review It: I really liked the idea of the book, but it could have been written better.
Title: Victoria, May Blossom of Britannia (The Royal Diaries)
Author: Anna Kirwan
Rate It: 5/5
Review It: I enjoyed this book very much. Although it didn't have much suspense, I still just had to turn the page! This is a book I'd read again!
Title: Spells & Sleeping Bags
Author: Sarah Mylnowski
Rate It: 5/5!
Review It: Miri and Rachel go to camp along with Prissy, their stepsister. They get sent to camp because their dad and their stepmother are trying to have a baby. At camp, Rachel and Miri find out they have a cousin. Also, Raf & Rachel have a romance going on.
Title: Found (The Missing, Book 1)
Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Rate It: 4/5
Review It: This novel captivates you from the first page. A mystery that haunts you until all the secrets are revealed. Unfortunately, with this not being the end for the young heroes, we will have to await for the next chapter in the story. We will wait to know the fate of the heroes.
Reviewed By: Kimberly Barba
Title: The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Author: Elizabeth George Speare
Rate It: Very nice
Review It: A very good book that uses fear, love, and friendship all together. Good book to read.
Title: Scary Stories
Author: illustrated by Barry Moser; introduction by Peter Glassman
Contents:
Kittens / Dean Koontz -- The Magic Shop / H.G. Wells -- Miriam / Truman Capote -- The tell-tale heart / Edgar Allan Poe -- Genesis and catastrophe (a true story) / Roald Dahl -- The squaw / Bram Stoker -- Here there be tygers / Stephen King -- Man overboard! / Winston Churchill -- The lottery / Shirley Jackson -- The bus-conductor / E.F. Benson -- Thanksgiving / Joyce Carol Oates -- Excerpt from The legend of Sleepy Hollow / Washington Irving -- The terrible old man / H.P. Lovecraft -- John Charrington's wedding / E. Nesbit -- The furnished room / O. Henry -- The man upstairs / Ray Bradbury -- The music on the hill / Saki -- The boarded window / Ambrose Bierce -- Fingers on the back of the neck / Margaret Mahy -- The cremation of Sam McGee / Robert W. Service.
Rate It: 2/5
Review It: It had some good stories but most weren't the least bit scary. Some didn't even make sense.
Title: The Fire Within (The Last Dragon Chronicles, Book 1)
Author: Chris D'Lacey
Rate It: 4/5
Review It: It was about David who moves into a house with Elizabeth and her daughter Lucy. They make special clay dragons and give him his own. Lucy begs David to write a story about squirrels an while he does he learns much more about the dragons.
Title: The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1)
Author: Rick Riordan
Rate It: 5/5 stars
Review It: This story is about 2 kids who discover that the Egyptian gods are real and that they (the 2 kids) have special powers. Through many dangerous misadventures, they must find a way to control Set (god of Chaos), save their dad and escape from magicians before Set takes over the world.
Check out the trailer for Ellen Hopkins' Tricks, then check out the book from the library!
Title: The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl, Book 7)
Author: Eoin Colfer
Rate It: A+, Very Good, 5 stars...
Review It: This book was very intense and funny (at the same time!) I loved every second of it and am happy that soon there will be a new Artemis Fowl Book - The Atlantis Complex - available next month. I really liked it.
Ceck out the trailer for Lisa McMann's Wake, and then check the book out from the library!
Check out the trailer for Cassandra Clare's City of Glass, and then check the book out from the library!
Check out the trailer for Robin Wasserman's Skinned, then check out the book from the library!
