The Lightning Thief

I just felt that I absolutely had to post on this book. For starters, I had a lot of bad feelings for it when I opened up the cover. Even though everyone gave it such great reviews, I still had this little and quite annoying voice in my head that was saying, "This book is going to be really cheesy, you're going to hate it, this is a very bad idea." I'm not sure exactly what caused this, I just had that feeling. I started off on the very first couple of pages thinking it was mediocre. There was a hint of plot, a dash of characters, and a pinch of vocabulary. But as I continued it was like the book reached out it's arms and pulled me into it's story. When it would say something about a Greek god that I didn't understand, I would let myself puzzle over it for a little while, but then the book would answer my questions. Who is Athena? Why was she important? What the heck does she have to do with this at all? Why am I asking so many questions? I still have not finished this book, I still have high expectations.

I Have Lived A Thousand Years

I just finished re-reading I Have Lived A Thousand Years. This is such a powerful book even though lots of people have written Holocaust books based on information they read, or heard about. But this book is actually written by a real Holocaust survivor, who experienced most of the events in the book. When I read this, it was horrible because at some parts. In order to get more involved with the book, I would picture myself in the main character's shoes, and doing that made me really connect with what was going on and try and understand what she was saying as much as someone who hasn't experienced anything half as awful could. 

I have read a lot of Holocaust books, but there's something about this one that really takes a toll on me. At the end of the book there is a mass shooting of everyone in the cattle cars and she describes everyone's injuries and what people were saying and I could just picture their faces, and it really upset me. There was one part where I just fell apart with emotion and had to put down the book for a couple minutes and just think about what was happening. I'm not going to say exactly what it was because you should read it for yourself but it really made me reflect on everything I knew about the Holocaust and think about the brutal treatment of all the prisoners and how awful everything was. I hope that remembering all the monstrosities of what happened during that war will prevent anything like tit from happening again.

Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit

I think this is a wonderful book to talk about because seeing as I am doing Audrey Hepburn as my research blog topic, I don't want to give a summary because I want it to be a surprise. But, what I can tell you, is that this book is a lot better than any of the other websites I've been to. All the other ones just list facts about Audrey that were important and assume what she was like. But, tying to what we did in library today, the one I am reading is by Audrey's son, so it really tells the key things. He really knows what she was like on a daily basis, and he knows some of her habits and what they would do on the weekend. I love learning about little things she did like wear ballet slippers in the morning and a bathrobe and worry more about getting her son's homework done than he did. I think Audrey Hepburn is a great role model and she is someone to look up to for your whole life. Whenever I read this I think, "Wow, she was a great mother," and, "I wish I were like Audrey Hepburn!" I definitely recommend this book if you are interested in her and I give it a 9.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

I just reread this book and now I am rereading the second one. I want to refresh my memory before the 2nd movie comes out, even though it's the movie of the 4th book which I just read. While I was reading this I was thinking, "Oh yeah, I remember this" or "Wow, that's surprising!" So all in all, the book was great to read again. This book really gets into a lot of peoples minds and digs down deep about what they were thinking. At one part, I was crying, and at another, I was laughing which means this book is really well written. Compared to the movie, I'd say it's really different. The movie gets the over all picture but it doesn't get the nitty gritty things that are really important to the plot. Each character has some huge emotion that is really important to them. For instance, Lena, is beautiful and extremely shy and is self-conscious about falling in love. Here is a quote from her; " It makes me so sad that people like Kostas and Bridget who have lost everything can still be open to love... while I, who have lost nothing, am not."

Uglies

Imagine living in a world where anyone normal looking is hideous. While, for Tally, that's life. She lives in the future, and when you turn 16, you get an operation where all your old skin is ripped off and the doctors put in plastic cheekbones and things like that to make you what Tally calls, "supermodel pretty". Tally had been waiting for this operation her whole life when one day, just a couple weeks before her operation she meets a girl named Shay. Shay starts being Tally's best friend but it turns out, Shay doesn't want the operation but she wants to run away. Want to know what happens next? Will Shay run away? Will Tally get to have the operation? Read the book and find out.

That's my little advertisement for the book. Something I loved about this was when I had some time to just relax and watch TV or go on the computer, I chose to read this instead. The whole time I was reading this I was thinking "What's gonna happen next?!" Unfortunately, I lost the book so I never got to finish it :( Well, I'll keep on the lookout!

The Sisterhood Of the Traveling Pants: Girls in Blue The Fourth Summer Of the Sisterhood

I am very sad that this series is over. This was the last book and this is my favorite series besides Harry Potter (which has also ended). It is about 4 girls who are all very different but are like sisters and they call themselves the Septembers because they were all born in that month. Carmen's father left their family when she was little and is very self-conscious, Bridget loves soccer and is outgoing and her mother died when she was still a teenager, Lena is from Greece and is shy but very kind, and Tibby makes movies and she is the more serious out of the friends. They are are all teenagers and in the last book they are in college. There isn't A LOT of romance in these books but depending on which one your reading they amount varies. It's nice not to have that "hard core" romance that I've been reading lately. By brain really needs a break but they way that the author wrote the book, there was just enough romance to hold me over and I repeatadly thought to myself, "More romance, please!" But if there WAS more romance, it would be too much! I definitely recommend this series and I would give it a 10 because I always wanted to keep reading and it is one of my favorites.

Forever... part 2

I know I have already posted about this book before but I read it again in Mexico and decide I just don't like it! I think I have grown out of the romance genre believe it or not. The whole thing just annoys me and the voices in my head were saying, "Wow, this is incredibly stupid." I think what changed my mind is that I've realized romance IS overrated. Okay, so you love somebody, move on with your life! Jeez, this has gotten me really worked up. Anyway, if your interested read the book but it has sex in it so beware.

Nicholas

This book is about a French school-boy named Nicholas, and he has a "gang" of friends at school. They are always getting into trouble and it's really funny. The voices in my head when I was reading this were really connecting and it was almost like I was having a conversation with the characters in the book like I was Nicholas. This is a series and the next book is Nicholas Again, followed by Nicholas on Vacation, and Nicholas and the Gang. I also like this book because every other page or so it has funny little drawings.I would give this book a 10 because it was one of the best I've read all year.

Eclipse

I really liked this book. Even though it was really long, it was still really good. This book is the 3rd in a series. I didn't even realize it was a series though until someone told me. But it doesn't matter because it still all makes sense. Anyway, I give this book a 9 because it was really good but not life changing.

Hurt Go Happy

In past posts I have rated books 10 but that's because I didn't get the rating system. But this book was absolutely life changing for me. It is about a girl who is deaf named Joey. Her mom doesn't let her learn sign language so she lip-reads. One day she meets an old man who has a chimpanzee who knows sign language, and starts to teach Joey. Some of you might know that I am 100% against animal testing and animal cruelty. This book was really an eye-opener for me and it is part of what influenced me to become a vegetarian. Towards the end I was crying so hard that I had to take a break from it to think it over. Of course I finished it and it is actually the best book I have ever read.

Incantation

I just read this book and it was really good. It is about a girl who lives in Spain and is raised Catholic and is one day told she is secretly Jewish. By the way this is all happening during the crusades. Which is the time when Jewish people were killed for being Jewish if they didn't convert. Something I really liked about this book is basically every chapter something really unexpected happens! And believe it or not, at the end I was bawling it was so sad.

Go Ask Alice

Go Ask Alice is about a girl who lives a normal life. She has normal parents, and normal friends. Untill everything goes wrong. One day a boy introduces her to drugs. She loves them. Little bye little she tries every kind of drug she can get. Finally, her drug use gets out of control and she decides to leave home with her friend and start a buisness. That of course goes all wrong too and she comes home again. Again, and again she messes up her life. Follow Alice on this never-ending journey and help her find her life. Watch out for the tearjerking ending.

This book has taught me never to even THINK about using drugs. It is really scary the things that happen to her. I would give this book a 10+ and I was sad when it was over.

Copper Sun

The first thing I want to say is wow. This book is extremely powerful. As soon as you open the book you jump into the life of fifteen-year-old Amari. She lives in Africa. She speaks the language of Ewe. She is engaged. This book is very mature in some ways that are inapropriate. But it is a great, even fantastic book to read if your parents are okay with it. This book made me sit and think for a long time because the discription is so intense. Of Amari leaving her tribe and being thrust upon a mysterious boat to America. On the boat ride over she has to encounter great horrors that no fifteen-year-old should have to. She is sold to a very rich man who lives on a plantation; Master Derby. Amari is intended to be a birthday present for Master Derby's son Clay Derby. The thought of a human being SOLD to someone for a birthday present is unimaginable. But it's real. It's the story of Slavery. The story of misery. The story of hope.

Tuck Everlasting

To start off, I am going to judge this book by it's cover. When you pick up this book, you probably will think to yourself, ''This looks really boring.'' And set it down, but I am here to change your point of view. When I first picked up this book, I thought the exact same thing and set it down. A year later, I picked up the book again and thought the same thing. This year, for my birthday, my sisters game me all the books they liked from when they were my age. My sister Zoe gave me lots of incredible books, and so did my sister Ella. But my sister Ella also gave me Tuck Everlasting. Of course, since I read all of Zoe's books, and most of Ella's books I had to read Tuck Everlasting or it would be offensive. When I read the first couple of pages I still thought it was boring, but I kept telling myself I had to read it. When I got to about the middle of the book I got really intrigued. Because there is this kind of water that the Tuck family found that can make you last forever, and one of the sons Jesse was telling Winnie that when she was 17, she should drink some of the water and then they can get married and live forever. But the whole story has a catch to it, it sturns out that it is really miserable after you drink the water because you live forever but you will always stay whatever age you were when you drank the water. I would give this book an 8 because it's really good, but it doesn't get very good untill the middle.

Forever...

Forever... by Judy Bloom is a great book! But it isn't really for 5th graders. There are a ton of innapropriate scenes but the rest of the book is fantastic. This book is about a girl who's friends invite her to a party. She meets a boy there named Michael and it's like love at first sight. They soon be come boyfriend and girlfriend and do everything together. My reason for thinking that it's so good is it's really easy to get soaked up in the book. I picked up the book, sat on my couch, and read it for an hour straight through, I had 30 pages left but I made myself save some because I didn't want to stop reading it! This book is in the realistic fiction catergory and the main characters in it are 17 or 18. This book gets me soaked up because you really feel like your part of the story. Also, if you wan't to read this book, it's a good idea to ask your parents permission first. I give this book a 10+

Fairest

The book Fairest is the sequel to Ella Enchanted-well that's what it says on the cover, but the only thing that really relates is that it takes place in the same setting and it uses some of the same characters. I really liked this book because it is another romance novel, but it isn't really trashy. I also really like the setting because it is magical and there are gnomes, and giants, and fairies. I would give this book a 10+, I was sad when I finished it!

Stick Figure

Stick Figure

I think this book is really important to read during this time in our 10 and 11 year old lives. It is a true story about an 11 year old girl who things she is too fat and stops eating, and develops the disease anorexia nervousa. The story behind this book is that the woman who wrote it, was looking through her old things from when she was a kid and found a bunch of her old diaries. She thought they would just be like any old diary you would read but found out that she was writing in them during the time of her illness. The reason it is important to read this book is because (mostly in girls) people at our age are pressured into looking thin and pretty. If I had to rate this book I would give it a 1,000,000,00!! (out of 10)