War Is...

This book was intense.

I struggled with this book because of the content. It focuses on the reality of war and uncovers the truth about what really happens before, during and after a soldier goes into battle.

A compilation of articles, stories, letters, and experiences I think that Seniors in high school should read this book through out the course of their year. It is a bit of heavy reading and suprised me with the details. I definitly had my eyes opened to something I never expected to find in a book.

A Separate Peace

I love, Love this book. I can't tell you why, I can only say I do.

Finny and Gene are almost polar opposites, that's why they need each other. Only is seems that Finny is in Gene's life for one purpose only, to help him live life to the fullest. Finny or Phineas is a carefree boy of 16 who loves life and knows how to enjoy it. The epitome of what youth is Finny is the favorite of all the teachers at Devon School for Boys and is the natural leader of the boys in his grade. Finny is an emblem of what life should be like. But at the end of the first Summer Session at Devon School, there is an accident and Finny gets hurt.

In his absence Gene begins to realize how much he depended on Finny as a friend and roommate. Finny is everything that Gene hoped to be. So the fact that Gene was right next to him on a branch high in a tree above a river when the accident happens haunts Gene.

This story is one of a boy finding who he truly is, discovering true friendship and forgiveness.

I read this book in high school and I will defintely have my students read it.

I am the cheese

This book is really intersting. Told in a couple different ways the reader slowly peices together the memory of Adam. There is a part in this book where the story is moving forward and you are on a journey with Adam as he tries to bike from Monument Massachusets to Rutterburg Vermont. He encounters people he can trust and those who he cannot. Afraid and suspicious of everyone Adam almost makes it to his destination when he is unexpectedly delayed.

Also, there is part of the story that is told as if you are overhearing someone talk to a psychiatrist, questions and answers then flashbacks. All revealing A.'s past. You discover and fill in the blanks along as A. does. A. seems to be Adam and as the story goes along you find yourself becoming suspisious of the same things as Adam.

This is a book that I would recommend to a student who wanted to be challenged a litle more and who wanted to test his/her mind. I would not recomend this to someone who is prone to falling asleep during books, because they would get completely lost and confused as to what is happening. A good read and took me about 2-3 hours.

The Giver

I love this book.

This is the story of a young boy who has grown up in a society of sameness. Everything is predictable and nothing happens by chance. A controlled atmosphere where there is no fear, and everyone is provided for. At the ceromony which the communittee celebrates the birthdays of children of ages 1-12, Jonas is selected to become the new reciever. This means that he will meet with and be trained by the old Receiver until his training is done.

As the story progresses, Jonas finds out that his communittee has flaws. His job is to hold all the memories from the past, and advise the communittee council on subjects only when they come to him. Jonas holds the memories of snow, joy, happiness, color, anger, fear, sorrow, and pain. And through this developes a conscience of what is right and what is not.

This story is about a young boy who has to make adult decisions and faces the choice of whether or not to leave everything he's always known, or to stay and by doing so encourage something he believes to be wrong.

This is a fantastic book and I think that it is one that everyone should read so that they can realize how wonderful it is to have freedom to choose for ourselves, though dangerous, it is liberating.

Cyrano

Cyrano, a man in love with the most beautiful girl in all of Paris. Clever and whitty, charming and heroic Cyrano fears he will never be able to marry the beautiful Roxane because of his large nose, watches as young Christian wins the heart of the young beauty. Cyrano, a poet and master of words can't help be to feel obligated to help the fumbling Christian when words are out of reach.

Cyrano teaches and coaches Christian in what to say, all the while writing love letters to Roxane in Christian's name. Roxane falls in love with the man who can say how he feels and put his feelings to such delicate words.

The beauty of the poetry causes Roxane to proclaim that she would love Christian even if he were ugly. When Cyrano hears this he feels a twinge of hope. But alas with a final twist in the story Cyrano, Roxane, and Christian's struggle to find their places in each other's lives.

This book was wonderful. it was a quick read and I thought that the author did a wonderful job in writing for young adults. This book focused on love and that it depends more on the beauty of the being of the person, than the physical appearance of the person. I loved this book.

Burning Secrets

This book reading level was probably that of an 8th grader, but still the main character was 13. It is a story about two brothers and an old man that continues to show up in random places. With a mysterious little door that won't open in their late Uncle's home, the two brothers discover an old family secret and help a very old man acheive his dream.

This book took about 45 minutes to read and was a simplistic in form. However it drew the reader in and I found myself nervous for the two brothers wondering what would happen.

This book would be perfect for someone who struggles with reading and/or middle school students.

American Born Chinese

A fantastic quick read. This only took me about forty five minutes to read, and it was really entertaining. I have never read a comic-book before and this gave me a great taste for what it is like. I enjoyed this very much. While the story was entertaining and at some parts rediculous I thought that by the end it had a great moral to the story. It being that we will never be as great as we can be, until we are comfortable with who we are. I think it is a fantastic way for someone who is struggling to connect to books or who struggles with reading to still be able to pick up a book, have a good experience with it and to close it having taken something away.

Getting Away With Murder: The True Story of The Emmitt Till Case

A fourteen year old boy from Chicago and his cousin go to Mississippi to visit family and work on the farm for a short vacation in August of 1955. When Emmitt dares to treat Southern-White Folk the same way he treats Whites in Chicago, he crosses a line that is a catalyst to the Civil Rights Movement. In this biography, Chris Crowe takes you through the events and details of before Emmitt was kidnapped and after the trial of the murder of Emmitt Till.

This was an incredibly well written biography and I will probably use it in some future class of mine. I thought it would be boring and I thought that I would really struggle to understand the facts and what had happened, but the story was very concise and to the point. It didn't embellish any part of the events that took place and handled the event in a very respectful way. It was careful to represent the details in a truthful and un-biased manner. I really enjoyed reading the writing style of the author and learned a lot about the events surrounding the Emmitt Till trial of 1955.

Beast

Beast is the story of Orasmyn, Prince of Persia. When he seeks to help in the sacrificing of a camel, as is ritual in his country, he discovers on the morning of the sacrifice that the animal is imperfect and has blemmish. He decides to cover the blemish and allow that the animal be sacrificed anyways. Later that night he is incountered by a spirit from the other side and a curse is placed upon him. The curse is that his father will kill him the next day.This serves as punishment for allowing the animal with blemmish to be sacrificed. Frightened, but determined not to die at the hands of his father, Orasmyn goes strait way to his father and tell him everything. They make a plan, in which they decide that Orasymn will stay locked in his bedroom that night and all of the next day, while his father will do the same except to go on the hunt with the guest that have come from so far. All seems to be going well until Orasmyn meets a lady on the street who needs help and then tells him that the only way for the curse to be removed is if a woman can fall in love with him. Scared that she should know of the curse when he only has told his father of it, Orasmyn runs through the rose garden and stays there a while. There he falls asleep, and when he wakes he finds himself turned into a Lion. Here the adventure really begins. As Orasmyn flees from the hunters he must learn how to work in his new body. Over the next two years Orasmyn travels from Persia to India, then to France. In France he discovers an old abandoned castle and takes it over as his home. When a blizzard hits and an old merchant is forced into the castle for safety, Orasmyn learns the man has a daughter. He demands the man, by writing on the floor with his paw, to bring the daughter to the castle, and the man agrees because he thinks that this lion is possessed. When Belle arrives she is unhappy and Orasmyn does everything in his power to win her over and to make her happy. As time goes by the two grow closer and closer, Orasmyn truly falling in love with Belle and Belle finding compassion for the Beast.

This was a wonderful book, I thought it was fantastic and I thought that it was well written. I thought the ending of the book was weak though and thought that the author should have put just as much detail into the last event as she had all the others of the book. I felt the author gave up on the ending and instead of polishing the story of nicely I felt like the carpet was ripped out from underneath me.

Inexcusable

Keir Sarafian is a Senior in High School and for him everything is working out just perfect. He's been living with just his dad after his two older sisters move out and are at College. To Keir he is a pretty good guy and as we all know bad things don't happen to good guys. As his senior year progresses, Keir goes through the routine, football season, prom, and graduation. When he talks to the girl of his dreams who happens to be a friend of his, he is convinced he's in love with her. He'd do anything for her, and anything to be with her. But there is a small snag in his plan, she's dating someone else. The two are thrown together when Keir's older sisters don't come to his graduation and Gigi's boyfriend doesn't make it home to celebrate with her. When Keir's dad rents a limo for him as a graduation present Keir and Gigi decide to go on a little road trip so that Keir can see his sisters on his graduation day. Once they embark on this journey it puts things into motion that will change both of their lives forever. Do they know the people they love as well as they think they do? This will be tested in the first 24 hours of graduating from high school and walking into the real world.

I didn't really like this book, I thought it was an interesting read and I thought that it provided and interesting look into the mind of a teenage boy who is struggling to stay on top. I liked how the author used flash backs and throughout the story the reader was able to piece together what happened.