India W. and Izzy F.
The book Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a struggling 13 year old girl named Melinda Sordino who lost her voice, friends and her ability to feel safe, all because of a party. In middle school she had no problems, she was popular, Melinda had so many friends. Then over the summer her best friend invited her to go a Senior party where they were only Freshmen. This was the party where she lost everything. The party that ruined her life. This book is very deep, emotional, depressing and can be hard to read at some points. While reading this book, we learned how traumatizing it can be to go through something so intense by yourself, and learned that you don’t know what people are going through if you don’t and they don’t speak about it. We recommend this book for 13 and up, because it is very mature, and it handles very mature and hard topics.
0 Comments
by Alexis B. and Luna R.
The Ask and the Answer is the sequel to Patrick Ness’s first book The Knife of Never Letting Go, which was left a cliffhanger that keeps readers hooked and excited about the next climax Viola and Todd must overcome. The book follows the theme of Sci Fi where Todd and Viola began separated Viola in the New World and Todd captured by the mayor in Prentisstown. Noise is an immersive problem that Todd witnesses everyday where people can hear what others are thinking. Controlling noise is close to impossible because the brain comes up with constant thoughts without thinking. Although Todd is stuck between attempting to find a cure for noise and not attempting to find a cure his thoughts also are wondering about Viola. Viola also struggles with noise and with not being able to find Todd. The main themes that were found throughout the book were choice and overcoming certain obstacles, found in the quote; “We are the choices make. And have to make. We aren't anything else. ” (287). I would recommend this book for ages eleven and up, because although the book including meaningful topics to learn from, the book includes violence, and the book was both long and slow at times. As Todd and Viola both travel to cure noise and cross paths again, Ness introduces a different but meaningful type of writing that connects readers feelings and minds during the novel. by Darrow A. ,Charlie A., Elijah B. & Lydia S.
The Passage by Justin Cronin is an intense, and epic novel that show the demise of the human race in the strangest way yet. It is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good sci-fi dystopian thriller. Our novel starts out with Amy, a 6 year old girl who lives a rough life with her single mother. She is abducted and then infected with an experimental virus as a test subject, along with 12 others. You won’t be able to put it down once you start it. We would recommend this book to early high schoolers or mature 8th graders and up. It is a good read for anyone who enjoys a good dystopian novel with a sci-fi twist. The book does a good job of showing how the world dissolves into this man made, post apocalyptic wasteland. by Sean W., William P., Milo G.S.
Carrie tells the story behind a fictional case of a girl named Carrie White. Living under an abusive mother who puts her religion before her own daughter, as well as tirelessly mocking school students, she learns that she has the psychic ability to act on objects with her mind. After she discovers this, Carrie begins to feel as though she is finally becoming accepted by her peers. She stands up to her mother and goes to prom with someone, only for more disaster to strike. The book is very well written and for an older audience. There are sexual and abusive themes that can be very graphic and disturbing to some people. The style in which Carrie is written is interesting. It gives many points of view using characters, and even a court hearing, constantly jumping between viewpoints. The book is fast-paced because of this, and can be hard to follow at times. Overall, though, Carrie is an interesting book that explores the topic of abuse and its effect on people. by Alex K., Simone L., Julia M.
Twilight is a fantasy teenage novel with elements that anyone could enjoy. In the first installment, Stephanie Meyer introduces us to the protagonist, Bella Swan and the vampires of Forks, Washington. The story follows the romance between Bella, a shy and uncoordinated new girl, and Edward, a charismatic, mysterious, and handsome vampire. If you want to read a book that matches teen emotions and has a good story, including romance and action, this is the book for you. We give this book a rating of 8/10 and a suggested reading age of twelve and over. The book Miss. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a disgrace to writing. Even though the plot is worthy of gold, the actual writing in the book is extremely unsatisfying. The plot is about a teenage boy named Jake, who after a tragic incident, travels to Wales to discover more about his grandfather's peculiar past. During his time there, Jake discovers what it means to be a leader and his own person. The movie's special effects were unearthly. Vivid colors and an exquisite set designed by Tim Burton set the authentic mood of magic. Spine chilling monsters clung to your mind, coloring in the pages of a marvelous picture, acted by Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, and Ella Purnell. Throughout the movie, the characters create an unbreakable friendship that lasted despite the danger they had to face. We’ve all watched movies that have strayed drastically from the plot of the book. Miss. Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children is no different. Despite how good the movie is, if you've read the book you can’t help but get distracted with the polar opposite from the movie compared to the book. For example, the climax setting takes place in a haunted house very different from the book which takes place in the ocean. Despite the brilliant pot written by Ransom Riggs, the book is a big disappointment. Along with underdeveloped characters, the writing in the book is as bland as runny oatmeal. With no fluency whatsoever, the book runs all over the place without a set course. The movie added color to the black and white pages of the book, adding the small but necessary details that make the movie worthwhile. There is no point in reading the book if the movie is 50 times better. However many complaints there were from the audience about the drastic plot differences, you’ll find yourself enjoying the movie’s plot more than you would with the book. With just the right amount of romance, the movie captivates it watchers in a delightful experience. Directed by the renowned Tim Burton, this movie brings to life a new world where anything is possible.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy started out as a radio series, turned into a book, and was then adapted into a movie. Every time it seemed to get worse. A lonely earthman named Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) is having a very, very bad day. His house is being bulldozed, and he finds out that his best friend Ford Perfect (Mos Def) is an alien. The Earth is about to be destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Together they embark on an action filled journey in which they travel the galaxy in search of a lost planet with the president of the universe, a girl named Trillian, and an insanely depressed robot. During this journey, Arthur finds out that everything that he will ever need to know is in a little tablet called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I absolutely loved the book, it’s as if Douglas Adams himself was personally guiding me through his whimsical world. One reason that I loved the book so much was the fact that he went to great lengths to explain how all the crazy futuristic tech works, such as the babel fish, or how the improbability drive works. He always goes into detail, but never too much so that it makes it boring. Prior to this, I had never even heard of Douglas Adams, let alone read one of his book’s, so I was pleasantly surprised when I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. One thing that was unsatisfactory about the book vs. the movie is that the movie completely strays off from the book’s plot. The director (Garth Jennings) most likely did this to extend the length of the movie, but I still don’t like what he did. Basically, in the book, they went directly to look for the lost planet, but in the movie, they made a pit stop at a few different planets. This completely changed the character’s motives as well as the plot. Something that I did like about the movie was the special effects. Although they weren’t amazing, one has to keep in mind the fact that the movie was made in 2005. They really made the movie pop out, and made me somewhat believe that some of the things in the movie could actually exist . Although they did not show some things that I was looking forward to seeing, like Arthur as a penguin, overall I liked the special effects liked the special effects. Another thing that I did not like about the book vs. the movie is how the movie portrayed Zaphod Beeblebrox. In the book, he was incredibly clever and intelligent, although he sometimes made bad decisions. But in the movie they made him look like a complete idiot who was incapable of doing anything. I also don’t like how they made him look. Zaphod is an alien who looks like a human, except that he has 3 arms and 2 heads. The way that they showed this was ridiculous! He has his second head hidden under his first head, and could make it appear whenever he wanted? And his third arm only appeared once in the whole movie, and just materialized out of his stomach. When I was reading the book, I imagined him having 2 heads going in different directions, and 1 arm on one side of his body, and 2 arms on the other side. I was very disappointed by what they did to him. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a great book, but the movie wasn’t so great. The changes that were made to the plot made it very hard to focus on the movie because all you could think about throughout it was, “Hey, that didn’t happen in the book”. Although one could argue that the changes that they made were good, I’m sure most people would disagree. The changes to the plot weren’t the only thing that ruined it. The way that they changed some of the characters made the movie even worse; the ones that I hated the most were Zaphod and the Vogons. All in all, the book was much better than the movie, and I don’t recommend anyone to watch the movie if they have already read the book. If you plan on watching or reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green- and you definitely should- be prepared to lose at least half a gallon of water weight. This tale is a sad one. It tells of the beautifully depressing love between thyroid cancer patient Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley), and osteosarcoma survivor Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort). The two meet at a cancer support group, and from the beginning they are a perfect match. They slowly fall in love, despite the inevitable oblivion that awaits. The movie and the book were very different. In the book, the characters felt a lot more distant because I was imagining the story and not watching it happen. But with the movie, I felt a strong connection with both because I could see their lives play out. The movie really brought both characters to life. But I did feel like the characters in the movie and the book were very contrasting from each other. In the book, Hazel had a kind of edge to her that the movie took away, which I didn’t really like. Hazel’s character felt very different to me. While I still loved the Hazel in the movie, the Hazel in the book was a little more interesting. Another thing that I didn’t really like about the movie was that they took away a lot of important characters. Caroline Mathers, Gus’s ex girlfriend, and Kathryn, Hazel’s Best friend in the book, and many others were not in the movie. This kind of made it harder to get to know the main characters. Caroline was a huge part of Gus’s past, and was a big moment in the book where Hazel really got to know Gus. And Kathryn was one of Hazel’s best friends in the book, and really taught Hazel a lot. Without these characters, the story is a bit more bland. I really loved the book and the movie. Both John Green and Josh Boone have mastered the art of the tragic love story, and if you ever need to remember how grateful you are and how good you have it, this story is one to experience. The Fault in Our Stars really taught me a lot about love, life, and being happy- and I would recommend this to anyone and everyone. Have you ever hated a movie so much that the sight of the end credits feels like a mountain taken off of your shoulders? That's how watching The Fifth Wave felt. I am going to try to make this review as unbiased as possible, but watching The Fifth Wave after you read the book is like eating McDonalds after a 500 dollar steakhouse meal. The movie begins with our main character Cassie (Chloe Grace Moretz) running through the woods, breathing heavily, she reaches the edge of the woods where she sees a gas station, which she quickly loots. She hears a man calling and walks into the back to find a wounded homeless man, who she quickly shoots, setting the tone of the movie, kill or be killed. Flashback to a 20 minute section explaining the five waves: A global power outage, a huge earthquake followed by tsunamis, a modified Ebola virus transmitted by birds, and implanting aliens inside human hosts, the fifth of these waves is unknown. While it works beautifully in the book, director J Blakeson fails to make a character narration inside of a movie work, leaving watchers with a dull, cheesy 20 minutes about the death of 7 billion people. Cassie and her family travel to a refugee camp, and within a couple of days, rescue magically comes. Cassie and her brother Sammy (Zackary Arthur) are separated in a mix up with a transport bus. With her parents separated from her as well as Sammy, she sets out to find her brother. On the way, she stumbles across Evan Walker, a farm boy with a mysterious past, he joins her on her journey. They later find an old high school friend of Cassie’s who plays a pretty major part in one part of the multi-perspective book. The three realize that they have the same goal, reunite with Sammy. The next 20 minutes are chaos, people die, things explode, it's basically exactly what you would expect after the suspense of the first hour and a half. The movie pretty much ends there, no last goodbye, or inspirational sentence, just a black screen. Then we get to the good part; the end credits, a pretty display of a bunch of random shapes being mirrored with Sia playing in the background, a highlight of the movie. This movie leaves you unsettled, like that feeling you get when you are forgetting something important. Aside from the interesting five waves concept, this movie is just your typical apocalyptic, everybody dies but our main characters somehow dodge the bullet, waste of 2 hours film. Out of all the things wrong with the movie, there is one thing that irritates me more than anything else, the movie takes two crucial characters and combines them into one. In the book, Dr. Pam is a sweet, welcoming person whose character had even me fooled, and Sergeant Resnik is a tough, undermining drill sergeant. In the movie, the two are combined to create a girl called Resnik who acts in the role of a fierce doctor, but is missing the harshness factor that shapes his/her character. Another issue with this movie is that it struggles to form strong characters, If I had watched solely the movie, I wouldn't be able to tell you much more than Cassie is a 16 year old girl with blonde hair and a seemingly perfect life. The book develops all of the key characters to the point where you know them in and out, you could predict their every move, the movie fails to please. I have watched many teen novel movies, Divergent, The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, and so on. While none of the movies come close to the books, they still are good movies, the characters and are built up almost as much as they can be described in a movie, unlike The Fifth Wave on the other hand, does nothing to give you a sense of development. Another one of my major gripes with this movie is how little detail they go into with the budding relationship between Cassie and Evan, as well as with Cassie’s doubts, both crucial parts of the book. The last major problem that I want to cover is how little the movie actually indulges in major areas of the plot. A couple of days since watching the movie, I honestly have no clue how they managed to produce a two hour movie with such little detail. Rick Yancey depicts an amazing idea for how an alien invasion could play out, but the movie puts it to shame. Again, if I had not read the book, I would have very little information about the complexity of the invasion, and how the aliens were playing the humans like lab rats. In the movie, there are 30 minute stretches with no indication that the world is ending. I was extremely disappointed in J Blakesons interpretation of The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey. I have seen good movies, and I have seen bad movies. I have seen movies that stretched the limit of what can be depicted in only 2 dimensions, and I have seen movies that I couldn't be paid to watch again. This movie easily takes the title for the worst I have ever seen. Some of my critiques of this book are derived from my burning passion of hatred towards all movies made from a book, but I also know that even if I hadn't read the book, I would still have that disgusting feeling that something is missing. I do not think that a movie should have ever been made for this book seeing as how complex this piece of literature is, but of course, it isn't my decision and I did come out the experience with a great book under my wing and a great test subject of a movie to tear apart bit by bit. By: Finn F.
Age Recommendation: 13&up Prepare to be lost in time. Dan Brown’s newest novel mixes intellectual captivation with heart racing thriller, as lovable Robert Langdon journies through layers of codes and puzzles from different times and cultures. The book follows the pre-established character Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist (professor of symbols and codes throughout the ages), through the secrets of Washington DC. When his old friend Peter is taken hostage by an unknown villain, Langdon is forced into a hunt for a Masonic treasure. While being pursued by dogged CIA director Inuo Sato, Langdon unravels layers of symbols and codes to uncover a lost treasure and rescue Peter.
The Lost Symbol is a finely written book, as Brown manages to perfectly explain the intricacy of ancient and unknown puzzles and codes, making the reader understand the genuine difficulty of them, while making the story feel realistic and entrancing. The plot was amazing, as it mixed CIA action and suspense, with esoteric mysticism surrounding the Freemasons. My only criticisms are that there were a great number of contrasting characters that added depth to the story, but made it difficult to follow different motivations and personalities. I found myself flipping back to earlier pages in order to place the rank, allegiance, or organization of some lesser characters. This weakness though, was also a strength, as Brown added a couple “throwaway” characters that were given motivation and personality for realism, but were only part of two or three pages. This helped “fill” the story, and made it interesting to read as you could understand even the most trivial of characters. Another thing, however, is that Brown only kept one character, Langdon, from the last three books in the series which made it necessary to add in an entirely new cast, as well as rebuild connections and relations between the characters. Langdon often had to re-establish his profession, knowledge, and expertise, which slowed down the book and made it slightly repetitive when compared to its prequels. Conclusively, it is a fantastic book that is worthwhile to read. The subject matter of the book (Ancient organizations, hidden puzzles and codes, and religion) is interesting, and easy to navigate thanks to Brown's well developed characters and storyline. Note: This book contains some adult content related to drug use, and may not be appropriate for younger readers. |
Author ArchivesCategories |