Jellicoe Road

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Reviewed by Sara Ray

Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mom on the Jellicoe Road at the age of eleven. She attends the Jellicoe boarding school. This school is part of a territory war with the local Townies and Cadets. Taylor is chosen to head the Jellicoe wars. As she has fun with these wars, she is continually trying to find out answers to her past. Why did her mom abandon her? And when her mother figure, Hannah, disappears, Taylor decides to dig a little deeper into Jellicoe's past. What she finds may surprise you as it did me.

At first, I didn't quite understand what the territory wars were about. I thought they were a more serious, formal competition between the different schools. This novel is very intriguing especially after Taylor finds a couple of clues. I was very surprised and happy with the ending.

Twilight Saga

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
Reviewed by Emily Oparowski

This saga is about an ordinary girl, named Bella, and a gorgeous vampire, named Edward, who fall in love. Edward and his family feed strictly off of animal blood, unlike most vampires. Bellas has just moved in with her father whom she has not seen in years. As if a vampire and a mortal being in love wasn't hard enough, a group of bad vampires named James, Laurent, and Victoria, are seeking to kill Bella.

These books are so amazing that you'd wish you were a vampire.

Charlie Bone Series

The Charlie Bone Series by Jenny Nimmo
Reviewed by Emily Oparowski

This series is about a boy named Charlie, who lives in a family that has special abilities. For example, his Uncle Paton controls electricity. Charlie discovers that he can hear the people in pictures. When his grandmother and 3 great aunts find out, they force him to go to a school that has other endowed children, the same school his dead father went to.

These books tell a really good story that you could find yourself lost in.

Mediator Series

The Mediator Series by Meg Cabot
Reviewed by Emily Oparowski

This series is about a teenage girl named Suze that has the gift of seeing ghosts. When she moves in with her mom's new husband and his 3 sons, she finds that a hot ghost, named Jesse, is living in her room. At first she is annoyed with Jesse's constant appearance, then Suze starts to fall for him. Suze also finds herself in contact with many ghosts that she feels responsible to help get to wherever they're supposed to go, whether they like it or not.

These books are really suspenseful and just fun to read.

Plain Truth

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
Reviewed by Sara Ray

Eighteen year old, Amish, unwed Katie Fisher is accused of birthing and then smothering her baby. Katie claims that not only is she innocent of smothering the baby, but she claims she didn't even bear the child. As common in Picoult's novels, a court case follows as we discover if Katie is telling the truth. If so, who had the baby? Who killed the baby?

I really love Jodi Picoult and this is another novel that kept me on my toes.

Pact

The Pact by Jodi Picoult
Reviewed by Sara Ray

Seventeen year olds, Chris and Emily, have been lifelong friends and have started a relationship. They make a suicide pact to kill each other, he shoots her, but fails to shoot himself and is charged with murder. The story continues with a court trial of what made them do it.

This book is very heartbreaking and sad. I was very drawn into the story of these teenagers in love and why they would want to kill themselves. A very good read if you don't mind a "real" topic.

Diamond of Darkhold

The Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne Duprau
Reviewed by Sara Ray

The citizens of Sparks are becoming desperate during this hard winter. A roamer comes to town and Doon trades to get a book addressed to the People of Ember. It is only eight pages because the roamer has used the rest for fire. The book describes some sort of hidden treasure waiting for the People of Ember. Once again Lina and Doon go off on an adventure to conclude the Ember series.

I LOVE the Ember series!!! I always find them suspenseful and able to hold my attention well. I really like the characters of Lina and Doon. I find this novel to be just as good as the rest in the series.

Crank

Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Reviewed by Sara Ray

Crank is a novel in verse. Kristina is a normal 16 year old with divorced parents. She sees her mom as controlling. Her dad is a drug addict and makes no real effort for a connection with her. When Kristina visits him the summer before senior year, Kristina makes a new friend and he introduces her to crank. The crank allows Kristina to have an alternate self, Bree. Bree is the flirty one and the one who tries the drugs.

This novel will take you through the stuggles of Kristina and Bree as she tries new things and tries to find herself. It will make you laugh and cry and you won't be able to wait to read the sequel, Glass.

For me, the novel in verse took a little getting used to. After a little while, it went by really quick. This is a really scary story to watch this normal teen go through these personal struggles.

One Good Punch

One Good Punch by Rich Wallace
Reviewed by Mrs. T

Michael Kerrigan is a high school senior and a serious student in a city hard-hit by unemployment. He is counting on a track scholarship to get him into college. When a drug sweep is made over the weekend, marijuana is found in his locker. Unfortunately, he is not surprised. Angry yes, because he had specifically asked his troublesome friend not to take chances delivering the drug. He doesn't even want it; it was his girlfriend who requested it. So why doesn't he turn in his friend, who isn't much of a friend anyway, and lessen his own punishment? Michael makes some tough choices in this short but powerful story.

Everything Beautiful In the World

Everything Beautiful in the World by Lisa Levchuk
Reviewed by Mrs. T

Eleventh grader Edna has two big issues. The first is that her mother is dying of cancer. This is good for getting sympathy from other adults. The second is that she is in love with her young handsome ceramics teacher and he encourages her, jeopardizing his job, his reputation, his marriage, not to mention that his behavior is illegal. Edna doesn't seem to have a clue that there are consequences to her behavior also. Before she loses her mother and before the affair blows up, does Edna get the wake up calls she needs?

Swiss Mist

Swiss Mist by Randy Powell
Reviewed by Mrs. T

I love Randy Powell but his book covers are not great, so don't judge this book by its cover.
This story spans five years in the life of Milo. In fifth grade his father leaves to follow his path of enlightenment- which is a very haphazard and impulsive path, not to mention irresponsible. Milo's mom pulls herself together, works, goes to dental hygiene school and maintains their low standard of living, making sure that Milo stays on track with schoolwork and behavior, no matter how hard the circumstances or how bad the housing is. A wonderful, comforting memory for Milo is that of his fifth grade teacher and her idyllic picture of living for a while in Switzerland. The images of beauty and peace that she implanted have gotten him through some of his harder moments. In tenth grade he chances to meet this heroine of his memories and with a great twist discovers something about his trust in her and his trust in himself.

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
Reviewed by Curtis Sirois

This book is for people who like action and adventures. It's about a group of kids that are outcasts and they have to run because they are being chased and hunted. Will they live or not?

Twilight

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Reviewed by Curtis Sirois

This book is for people who love romance and action. In this book a girl named Bella falls in love someone who wants her blood so will she get to be with him or will she die because of him.

The Off Season

The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Reviewed by Sara Ray

D.J.'s story picks up right where it left off in Dairy Queen. D.J. is playing high school football. She and Brian are in a "more-than-friendship" relationship. When her older brother, Win, gets seriously hurt at his college football game, D.J. must once again but school on the back burner and take care of her family. This then puts her hopes of getting an athletic scholarship in jeopardy.

D.J. is one of my favorite characters and I am glad Murdock continued her story. I can't wait to read the last book of the trilogy (Front and Center, Oct 2009).

Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Reviewed by Sara Ray

D.J. Schwenk lives on a farm and ever since her dad hurt his hip, she has been doing ALL the work. This has stopped her from being on the basketball team and resulted in her failing English due to the lack of assignments turned in. Her family has had many male football players, so when coach Jimmy (of the rival team) asked D.J. to train his head quarterback, Brian, she hestitates but gives in because she'd be good at it. Brian, in turn, helps out around the farm. D.J. will struggle with feelings of anger, confusion, and romance.

This humorous, romantic novel made it a real fun read. (And the sequel is great too!)

This is the first book of the trilogy.

The Case of the Missing Marquess

The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
Reviewed by Sara Ray

Enola Holmes, sister to the great detective Sherlock Holmes, goes on an adventure to try and find her mother who has mysteriously disappeared. Using a cipher in her mother's goodbye letter, Enola finds money stored away for her. She takes this money and runs away on a mission to find her mother. She comes up with a variety of disguises and while in London she becomes involved in the kidnapping of a young marquess.

Although this was a slow moving novel for me, I found the ciphers very intriguing and fun. Enola is so intelligent to come up with the variety of disguises and ciphers.

This is the first book in a series.

Ask Me No Questions

Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos
Reviewed by Sara Ray

Nadira and her family are living in Queens, NY on expired visas. Nadira is always a shadow of her older sister Aisha, who is a straight A student. After 9/11, immigrants from certain Muslim countries are watched carefully. Fearing the American government, after living in the US for a decade or so, Nadira's parents decide to try and move to Canada - to be granted asylum. This family will go through a variety of struggles to try and become American residents including having their family be apart from each other.

Although I didn't feel close to the characters, this novel will have you learning about a different way of living and will have you feeling their tense drama.