Twilight

Twilight
By Stephanie Meyer


This book is about a young girl named Isabella who moves to a place in Washington called Forks. Bella gets attached easily to he new school she goes to : she has plenty of friends to talk to but she's a very shy girl. Of course, she sees a nice young man named Edward Cullen the first day of school. Edward seems repulsed by her in a strange way: he tries not to be around her, and she overhears him asking the office to change his class. All of a sudden, he's gone for a few days and when he comes back, things are better. One day Bella was in the parking lot at school next to her truck, then all of a sudden a van was heading her way in fast motion and she sees Edward far away from her. As the van gets closer, Edward mysteriously saves her with his bared hands.

Bella is full of questions and constantly pesters Edward. Bella is still constantly trying to figure it out, until Edward tells her: he can't control how he reacts to the scent of her blood. Later on Bella and Edward fall so deeply in love, but Bella is in some trouble with other vampires who eat human blood instead of eating animal blood like Edward's family. These other vampires try hard to find her because her blood smells the richest to them, too. Bella wants Edward to turn her into a vampire, but Edward isn't sure.

Will the other vampires find her? Is Edward going to turn Bella into one of his own and let her be part of the family? What's going to happen? Read the book to find out what happens to Bella and Edward when the bad vampires find her.

-E. Fernandez


Bella is a magnet for danger, but never in her life has she been in as much danger as she is in Forks, Washington, a small, rainy town where her father is on the police force. In Forks, Bella meets Edward Cullen. Edward is different: his eyes are intense, he moves with speed quicker than the blink of an eye, and he saves Bella’s life on multiple occasions. There is one other remarkable thing about Edward: he’s over a hundred years old, and a vampire: and he thinks Bella smells tastier than anything else. This book is the first in the series and introduces readers to a world of romance, mystery and danger.

-Ms. McConnel

I read the Twilight series since my daughter was reading the books and I enjoyed them. The creative way the author treated the subject matter was fun to read, and it presented a fresh take on an old subject.

-Mrs. Grogan

Twilight is a book about a girl named Isabella Marie Swan, they call her Bella for short. She moves from Phoenix,Arizonan to Forks,Washington to live with her father. She meets new friends and on her first day of school their names were: Mike,Jessica,Ben,Angela,Lauren,and some more teenagers. She also meets the Cullen's: Edward,Rosalie,Jasper,Emmett, and Alice. They weird thing is they were all vampires! Edward was a cute,old-fashion vampire that falls in-love with Bella... and Bella falls in-love with Edward. Along the way she meets Jacob Black, a Native American boy, with long brunette hair, he has beautiful eyes. Also, along the way of a little fairy tail... let me rephrase that, NIGHTMARE, a vampire was after Bella and not for her beauty... for her blood! The smell of her blood triggered to him and he started chasing after her sent. Near the end she tells her father that she wants to go home, and not to be cooped up in this house anymore. So she left with Edward... where she would be safe. But when Edward leaves her with Alice and Jasper... They leave to somewhere far away from the vampire, James. But there were three other vampires helping him but one that was with James gave the Cullen's a heads up about James saying that he will never stop until he gets Bella... and he didn't...

-A. Pepper



Bella, who can help her bad luck streak? Clumsy, quiet, smart, ECT. She is 17 years old and she just moved in with her father in Forks, Washington, and the rainiest city in the U.S. She meets Jessica and Mike and a lot of other people at school. When she saw Edward, she didn’t mind him. But then in Biology class, He was being rude and couldn’t stop staring! He left in a hurry and didn’t come back for almost a week. She thought it had to do with her being there. But then, Edward starts talking to her and he finds out from Jacob, an old friend, that he is a vampire . She asks him and he tells her everything she needs to know about vampires. He told her it’s very dangerous to be together but she didn’t care. They were in love. At the end, she asks him if she can be a vampire with him and he, of course, said no.



-C. McGee

Holes

Holes
by Louis Sachar

"Holes" is about a boy who gets sent to a camp in the desert for punishment. His job there is to dig holes all day. There is a secret mystery there that the owners of the camp want to find. Along the way, Stanley makes lots of new friends. Plus, he helps solve the mystery of Camp Green Lake. This camp is located in the Texas desert, and Stanley soon gets along with everybody there and has lots of friends.

I think his is a good book because it has a mystery, and you have to keep reading to figure it out!

-L. Conyers

"Holes" is about a boy named Stanley Yelnats the IV. He is sent to Camp Green Lake, but it is not really a camp. It is really a juvenile facility where kids that made mistakes have to dig a five foot deep hole every day. Stanley got sent there because this pair of shoes fell and hit him in the head. He picked them up and started walking with them. The cops saw him and chased him down. The shoes were from a famous baseball player, who had donated them to the homeless shelter, where they had been stolen. The kid who actually took them was sent to Camp Green Lake too, but for another crime. The boys went through a lot, and eventually Stanley and Zero (the other boy) ran away. In the end they find something important.

You will have to read it to find out what they find! This book is good, it shows that things are sometimes meant to be.

-D. Smith

The Outsiders

The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton

There is a boy named Ponyboy Curtis. He has two older brothers named Sodapop and Darry. Their parents died in a car accident. The brothers are in this gang called "Greasers". They are called that because they have long hair and put a lot of hair grease in it. They have four other people in their gang; their names are Two-Bit, Johnnycake, Steve, and Dally. They all stick together.

There is another group calls "Socs". The Socs are a bunch of West-Side rich kids. They will jump a Greaser walking by them for no reason whatsoever. The Greasers go through a lot in this book. Two of the gang members in the Greasers group will die...read the book to find out who!

This is a very good book, and it shows how brothers stick together. Read "The Outsiders".

-D. Smith

This is a wonderful novel about a boy named Ponyboy. He lives in a divided town. You're either a Soc, or a Greaser. Ponyboy is a Greaser, and has gone through many hardships, such as being bullied by Socs, experiencing a murder, running away, and having to run through a burning building to save some kids. While saving the kids, his friend Johnny gets severely burned, along with a broken back, and ends up being hospitalized. There is also a big fight between the Socs and the Greasers. Read it to find out what happens!

-Y. Zarrouk

This is a story about a boy named Ponyboy. You have to decide if you are going to be a Greaser or a Soc, and Ponyboy and his brothers hang with the Greasers. They currently live in a different town where no Socs should come around. Ponyboy has to go through a lot to learn and understand what life can do to you when you decide to make bad choices. Ponyboy is a great writer and loves to read books. He has a really good friend named Johnny who in the past has been beaten by some Socs. Ponyboy and Johnny experience a terrible murder, run away, and Johnny gets severally burned with a broken back: what will Ponyboy decide to do now?

I think you should read this book because it teaches you lessons that you don't have to experience, and this book is very emotional.

-E. Fernandez

Bridge to Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia
by Katherine Paterson

This is a book about a boy from Virginia who makes a new friend. Back in the woods they create a fairy tale place which they name Terabithia. They go there everyday after school and create lots of fairy tale creatures. One day the boy goes to a museum with his teacher and something terrible happens to his friend. He doesn't want to believe it, but then he realizes that it is for real. He decides to fix up Terabithia and then he takes his little sister there.

This is a good book because it has lots of fairy tale stuff in it, and is very sad at the end. But it's great because of the imaginary land called Terabithia!

-L. Conyers

Coraline

Coraline
by Neil Gaiman

Coraline is a very active and curious girl. She just moved into a new home with her mother and father, and she already doesn't like it. Her neighbor upstairs is a weird man who is obsessed with his pet rats. Although she does enjoy being at her other neighbors' home, Miss Forcible and Miss Spink. They are old women who always talk about the days when they were young actresses on the go. Even though Coraline loves spending time with them, she can't always go to their house. So in her spare time she explores outside and watches T.V. Now, Coraline isn't fond of doing this every day and tries to find other things to do in her free time. She isn't in school yet so there is nothing else to do, and her parents are always busy and telling her to go play. So one day Coraline finds a secret door in the spare bedroom and asks her mom about it. Her mom said she didn't know much about the house but she gave Coraline the key to the secret door. When her mom is out grocery shopping and her dad is working she opens the secret door. There in the door is a mirror image of her world, but much better. There's a cat there that leads her through an adventure as she finds out that this amazing world is all a set up. She has to now fight her way back into the real world.

This book is amazing because it has a lot of adventure that will knock your socks off.

-M. Colon

The Tale of Despereaux

The Tale of Despereaux
by Kate DiCamillo

Despereaux is a little mouse who has very big dreams. He is not like the rest of the mice. He says he wants to be a knight in shining armor and to save the awaiting princess. In this case, the princess is a real human, and his family doesn't like that. Since he is such a disgrace, he decides to do something horrible (I'm not going to tell you what).

Every story has a villain, and in this one it's a rat who is just like Despereaux, but evil. He wants to prove to the other rats that he can be tough too, so he finds this girl who is nearly dead and was sold by her father to an evil farmer. Since she wants to be a princess so bad, the rat has an offer. If you want to know the rest, you'll have to read!

-R. Gorrin

Tuck Everlasting

Tuck Everlasting
by Natalie Babbitt

"Tuck Everlasting" is a book about a family with a huge secret and a girl named Winnie. The family with the secret is the Tuck family. Winnie is a young girl who lives in a village called Tree Gap and her family has lived in the same house for a very long time. Winnie is used to staying inside her gate at her house. Beside her house is a forest that her family owns which contains a secret that nobody in her family knows about. Winnie has decided that she was going to run away. But the night before she does, a stranger comes and talks to her. The next morning she runs away into her forest. She hears a noise, it's Jesse Tuck, soon Mae Tuck is there too, and so is Miles. They decide to kidnap her and once they are far away they tell her their secret. But they don't know that a stranger is eavesdropping on them. The Tucks take Winnie back to their house and she spend the night, but many things go on before they get her home. The whole story is full of many more crazy things.

I like this book because it's full of adventure. Lots of fairytale stuff goes on in this story and really crazy stuff that would never happen in real life. But this is a great book for anyone to read. Even some real life stuff goes on in this book, like when Winnie was kidnapped, and other dangerous stuff, but it's mostly fairy tale.

-L. Conyers

The Bad Beginning

The Bad Beginning
by Lemony Snicket

Three siblings Violet, Klaus, and Sunny were happy children until there was a fire that burned their house down and killed their parents. They were forced to live with their terrible uncle, Count Olaf. Until Violet was old enough, Count Olaf was in charge of all their parents' money, which isn't such a good thing. This is the first in the series that introduces the Baudelaire children and their troubles with Count Olaf.

-M. Curcio

Inkheart

Inkheart
by Cornelia Funke

This book is a thrilling adventure about a 12-year-old girl named Meggie who becomes entwined in a story much like the ones she reads. Meggie lives a fairly regular life with her dad who restores books, when one night a strange man named Dustfinger appears on their doorstep. After her dad talks with the man he tells her that they are going to her great aunt's house. Dustfinger goes with them and while they are there her father is kidnapped. The next day, Dustfinger leads them to where he says her father was taken. It turns out to be a trap. Meggie is locked in the same cell as her father, and on that night she discovers that nine years earlier her father was reading aloud when Dustfinger and the villains who are responsible for their confinement appeared. Somehow, the characters came out of the book. For every character taken out of a book, something must go in. On that night so many years ago, Meggie's mother was trapped in the story that started the wild adventure that would change Meggie's life forever.

I would say that overall Inkheart is a good novel. One of the big issues that I disliked was the length of the book. It had a good beginning and a great end, but the middle wasn't the best. Despite this, whenever there was an interesting part, the event seemed to jump right off the page. The characters in the book were well-developed and made you feel like they were real people. The ending was hands down the best part, with suspense and unseen events at every turn. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get lost in a story full of adventure.

-E. Porter

Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express
By Agatha Christie

A man with many enemies is murdered in the night on a train, and the train is stuck in a snow bank. The murderer can not escape, yet the train full of witnesses swear they saw someone running away. Pieces of the crime don’t seem to fit, however, and the detective Hercule Poirot starts putting the pieces together in a way that seems to make the passengers nervous. Who is the killer? And can Poirot solve the case before the killer selects another victim?

-Ms. McConnel

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
By John Boyne

When Bruno comes home to find the maid packing his belongings, he isn’t really sure what is happening. His mother tells him they will be moving, leaving Berlin at the command of the “Fury” to move to a place which Bruno calls “Out-with”. Bruno does not really understand why they have moved, nor does he understand why there is a large fence outside his window which separates his family from people called “Jews”. This story takes place during World War Two, but Bruno doesn’t really know about the war. He just knows he’s lonely…until he meets a boy on the other side of the fence.

-Ms. McConnel