Son of the Mob

This was a great book. It has a great flow, and a twisted plot. I loved the way that the author wrote so that I was wrapped up in the story.Every chapter was better than the last, and I couldnt put it down. Each character had a distinctive personality, and it was clear when one liked or hated one another.

Rating:****

S.S.

A Great And Terrible Beauty

This book is about a girl named Gemma Doyle. She has grown up in India, but has wanted to go to England all of her life. Her mom commits suicide, but they tell everyone it was cholera. So she gets to go to London. She finally gets to go by going to Spence Academy, a girls boarding school. There she meets and builds friendships with Felicity, a jealous daughter of a commander in the army, Pippa, a girl forced to marry for the sake of her parents, but she has epilepsy, and Ann, a poor orphan there on a scholarship. They soon learn that Gemma has the power to go to the relms, a magical place. But there is a twist. Circe, a powerful creature, is trying to take over the realms. She is told this through a messenger, a little girl. She leads Gemma to a cave, where their art teacher brought them to do sketches, where she finds the diary of Mary Dowd. The 4 girls go to the cave every night to go to the realms, because they find it enchanted and magical. So Gemma has to keep that from happening. She also finds out that there was a fire in Spence in 1871, and that they hid the picture to "not bring back memories". But she finds the hidden picture and looks for Mary Dowd. She discovers Mary is her mom and Sarah is Circe. Gemma goes there one day with the 4 of them against her will. They wanted to go, but Gemma didn't think everything was okay. She takes them there and they find Circe chasing them and are chased for a long time. In the end, Pippa dies by being drowned by Circe. But the people there don't know that, so they blame her epilepsy Gemma had a vision telling her that it was going to happen, but she didn't know when. In the end, they burry Pippa and continue on with their lives at Spence.

Rating:*****

S.B.

Standing Against the Wind

My book was about this African American, 13 year old girl, in the 9th grade. She is a very smart student and was putting in a application at Dog Wood Academy it's an African American school, and it is located in Mississippi. Pratrice moved to Chicago from Georgia. She lived in georgia with her fathers mother then she had to move to chicago with her moms sister because her mother was going to jail and try to say she took care of patrice. patrice had a lot of her it was long but nappy and people would make fun of her because of her hair they would call her puffy. she would run fast so she could get to her aunts apartment. when she would get to the apartment she would go to her room and cry. then one day she meet this boy name Monty and he would look out for her. she would tutor his little brother micheal. she had a big sister but nthey didn't spend that much time together. at the end of the story micheal and pratrice walked away holding hands and started going out.
Rating:*****

J.N.

Rules of the Road

This book was about a girl named Jenna who had a dad that was an alcoholic. She was an employee at Gladstones Shoes. This store was located in the mall. Mrs. Gladstone was the owner of this company. But her son Elden Gladstone wants her to retire so he could take control of the company. One day she called Jenna and said that she wanted her to be her driver. They traveled to Texas , Little Rock, and everything in between because she was planning to retire. Therefore, she had to attend all these meetings in all these places. Jenna met allot of people that worked at the different Gladstones. It was a good pleasure for her to meet this certain guy which i forgot his name right now. His goal in life was to help alcoholics quit there habit. But unfortunately one day Jenna got a call from Mrs Gladstone from down the hallway of the hotel and said that he had died from a car accident that was caused by a drunk driver. It was hard for Jenna at this point because she considered s a father. Then when the big meeting came that was to announce the retirement of Ms. Gladstone Elden did what he usually does and "fired" Jenna. But she came back anyways. As Mrs. Gladstone was reciting her speech, Jenna went on stage and said that she shouldnt do this because Elden is in iut just for the money. Luckily she stayed and everybody was happy(Except for Elden of course).

Rating:****

R.A.

Bottled Up

This book is about a troubled teen. His father is abusive and his little brother is a "20 Questions" kinda person. He is addicted to meth and has been for a long time. He starts fights, backtalks teachers, and is the most disrespectful person on earth. His principle decides to do somthing about it by making him go to counciling. If he doesnt go to counciling, the principle would call his father, and his father would probably kill him. So he goes to counciling.

One day his little brother decided to throw his dads bettles of vodka into a hole. But he ends up falling into the hole and gets hurt very badly. His older brother was supossed to pick him up every day, but he was late that day. So he goes to the hospital, and is eventually released. He learned that he loves his little brother, and is never late to pick him up again.

Once he is at counciling, he meets a group of people he would see at every group meeting. He also learns about the urine tests. If the urine came out positive for drugs 3 times, he would be kicked out of group, and his principle would call his father. In the end, He Stays sober, gets a girl he never would have dreamed of getting, and learns to comprimise with his brother.

Rating:*****

S.B.

Orwell's Luck

A bunny by the name of Orwell is found on the sidewalk by a girl. Next thing she knows, she gets messages through her horoscope. Some of them include a heads-up for a pop quiz, a message in french, and the day's winning lottery numbers. She tries to use her bunny for her science project. Will her beloved Orwell die, or will it have a happy ending?

Rating:****

D.C.

We Are So Crashing Your Bar Mitzvah

My book is about two girls who try to become cool, so they change the way they dress and the way they act so that they could become a part of the chicas. The chicas are a group of three girls who are supposed to be the coolest girls in their school. The two girls also have another friend who gets invited to a Bar Mitzvah. Everyone who is supposed to be cool gets invited. The two girls don't get invited.So, they crash the party, but then get caught. Read this book to find out what happens.

Rating:**

I.B.

Gathering Blue

This book was about a girl-Kira- who had a twisted leg-so she was useless at her town after her mother died. She was taken by the guardians and had to work on a robe (which was going to be used during the fall ceremony- The Gathering). Kira had to create the future on the robe and fix the past. So she sew all day. Later, she had to learn the dyes, which she learned from an old women in town-Annabella. She accomplished everything.
The reason this book is called Gathering Blue, is because when learning the dyes, she didn't have the right flowers to make the color blue. So her friend- Matt- went to another townvillage and got the flowers for her. Matt also brought her father with him.
At the end of the book, she decided to make the town which her father lived in and hers would connect, and that is what she was hoping to happen on the robe.

Rating:****

S.L.

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

This book is by Lewis Carroll! It is a long, but intresting book! I thought the book was one that didn't catch my attention. Most people think that the book is just like the movie, but it is not! There are a lot of details that are in the movie that are not in the book, and there are details in the book that are not in the movie! I would still recomend this book to people who like magical worlds with fairy-type creatures! But when you read it, be ready for what ever might show up next!

Rating:***

M.M.