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The False Prince By Jennifer A. Nielsen (Jayden Liu)

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The False Prince By Jennifer A. Nielsen (Jayden Liu)

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The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen is a book with lots of action and mysteries. The False Prince stars a 14 year old boy named Sage. Unfortunately Sage lives in an orphanage and the orphanage is located in a kingdom where there is a dangerous civil war happening. In order to end the civil war, Connor, the nobleman, tries to find someone from the orphanage to pretend to be the king’s long lost son. Sage and three other orphans are ordered to complete the role. Sage had no choice because if he didn’t play as the king’s son, he will in fact be killed.

As Sage travels through pain, blood, and suffering, he finally reaches Connor’s beautiful palace. But when he gets there, a dangerous truth is revealed. Read the book to find out.

I really like this book! There is lots of fights and action throughout this Fantasy book! I rate it a 9.2/10 🙂🙂🙂❤️❤️

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Smile is a great graphic novel that is about how a big mistake turned into a beautiful smile. Raina, is a 13 year old girl who was playing tag and lost her 2 front teeth. She had a long 4 and a half year treatment to get a great result

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I read by Speak Up by Rebecca Burgess. It's a graphic novel about a girl named Mia who has autism and gets bullied at school for it and she's also unable to stand up to the bullies. But little do they know, that she leads a double life. She's also this famous music star known as Elle-Q. Later in the book, Mia and her best friend Charlie enter this music talent show and a lot of the plot of the book follows their journey with that. If you want to know if they win, you should read this book! Lastly, this book has many good sub-plots and gives an inside view of the experience of someone with autism. I also find it really cool that the author herself has autism so she's able to incorporate her own point of view in the story. I rate this book a 8/10.

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Emilie wakes up excited for her first Valentine’s day with a perfect boyfriend, Josh. She is a meticulous planner and decided today is the day she will tell Josh she loves him. She’s on her way to school when her van slides on ice and runs into Nick Stark’s truck. Nick is her gruff Chemistry lab partner. The day goes downhill from there–disasters keep coming. She catches her boyfriend kissing another girl, her spot in a summer journalism program is canceled, and her father makes a big announcement that has her reeling. Even worse, when she wakes up the next day, it’s Valentine’s Day all over again and she has to relive her terrible, really bad day. I was wary of the time loop but it didn’t feel repetitive. We follow Emilie every day as she tries changing things to get out of the time loop. As she does so, she keeps running into Nick and hanging out with him begins to change the way Emilie approaches her life and her goals.  I loved it when she decides to be a rebel and do whatever she wants without having to worry about the fallout. I really enjoyed reading this book, it’s a 10/10 for me.

-Ananya Lal

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Max Sinjoanu- The Summer of Lost Letters

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Max Sinjoanu- The Summer of Lost Letters

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The Summer of Lost Letters is a realistic fiction book by Hannah Reynolds and it’s about 17-year old Abigail Schoenberg, who one day finds a box letters from her grandmother before she passes away. In the box are letters, but not just any letters-love letters! And when she read through them, she discovers when her grandmother was young, she would go to Nantucket in the summer, and she never told anyone that she went to Nantucket. So now it’s Abigail’s job to try and uncover the secrets hiding her grandmother’s past and learn about her family history.

This is a great book, a thrilling read and an adventure to learn more about herself. Great book, 9/10.

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Freewater by Amina Luqman Dawson is a Historical Fiction book which follows Homer and his little sister Ada as they try to flee an enslavement camp on a Southerland Plantation. Later on, during their journey, Ada and Homer become separated from their mom. Eventually, the two kids are saved by a man named Suleman who helps them join this community known as Freewater where escaped slaves and plantation workers support each other to live better lives. Little do they know, while they are doing well, Ada and Homer's mom is still severely suffering back at Southerland. The book follows the plot where the kids try to save their mother and must surpass many obstacles on the way. It has a lot of well-researched historical details and while not 100% true it gives very vivid details of people who secretly lived in Southern swamps. Overall, it's a pretty good book, 7/10.

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I read Speak Up, and it was a Graphic Novel. It was pretty good, though a bit easy to read. It talks about a girl with Autism, who get bullied at school for her habits and condition. Little do they know, she’s actually Elle-Q, the famous singer online. She over comes challenges of her autism, bullies, and her friends that want to do a live show. I rate it a 7/10.

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This Summer I read city spies. I enjoyed it extremely and would highly recommend reading it. I also read the sequels which were not as good but still great. The book is a great mix of realistic fiction, mystery, and adventure. Also I can’t wait for the next book

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I read city spies this summer and I really liked it. I liked it because it is full of adventure and a little bit of mystery

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Squished is a book about a girl with 7 family members all squished in one house. This book was fun for me even though I couldn’t relate, but it’s worth it. There are lots of mood swings though the book, like a new problem, then it gets solved, a new problem, then it gets solved. It was a great book, but it wasn’t really my favorite genre, I still liked it though.

7/10

-ant

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I read the book Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim. It was an awesome book. I loved the girl Maia who went through a lot. This book was so good and I’m so glad I read it. Everyone should try this book because it was so good!

Sasha Toubes

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This is such a good book because the parents wanted her to do something, but yumi doesn’t want to do it, she wants to go to an acting camp. So she sneaks out while going to the library and she sees her favorite YouTuber and she joins them in the camp as a different student. She has so much fun. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. You guys should all try this book.

Caroline yuan

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-Elina

This book is a great book because it’s full of mystery and adventure. I give it 4.5 stars

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I read the book lucky scramble by Peter raymundo. The book Lucky scramble is about a kid named Tyler who is very proud and Passionate about cubing. He is a mastermind at solving it and can solve it in a breathtaking amount of time. Because he had all of this talent of course he decided to make it come into use. So he decided to start participating in cubing Competitions he was so good he was winning so many and getting so many trophies along the way. One day he got invited to the finals but was devastated finding out that his mom couldn't afford to takDirke him there. later on when a lot of people recognized his talent Tyler received an invitation to Vegas for free! In Vegas, he competed a ton of cubing challenges and met many tough opponents From everywhere! Some of these opponents were people such as speedman, Eli and 2 twins who both had the same Score! Lizzy and Izzy Peterson. And the best cuber in history, Dirk speedman! Throught the competition Eli, a great opponent was found shockingly beating dirk speedmans time! But later on, unfortunately Eli was caught cheating and was disqualified so then it was up to determened Tyler and his quick and powerful cubing skills witch ended up winning the championships and ended up becoming a cubing champion in history!

This book was amazing! It is so inspiring and it teaches you to never give up and follow your dreams I would recommend this book for anyone who needs a boost or who loves cubing! I rate this a 10/10!❤️

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I read the book Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson over the summer. The book was about these slaves who wanted to escape from their enslavers. On their journey, they find this hidden village up on the trees, full of previously enslaved people. The main character is astonished at them for building such a nice village after escaping, but, most of all, the protagonist is shocked at how they are so free. Throughout the story, the protagonist comes to learn how to be free after a life of enslavement.

It is a beautiful book that goes into depth about overcoming the trauma and getting out of being enslaved, physically and mentally.

I would definitely recommend this book to just about anyone.

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Alexa Redmann

I liked it because it had action, mystery and adventure. The book is about: Firestar, Thunderclan’s leader is getting mysterious dreams from a Starclan cat, telling him to restore Skyclan. The dreams lead him to embark on a quest to restore the long-lost Skyclan. I rate this book a 9/10

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Max Choi

I liked it because it taught about overcoming authority.

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I read squished this summer. I liked it a lot. Here are couple reasons I liked it:

One, the book is about a big family and o[n of my favorite genre is realistic fiction about big families.

Two, it is a graphic novel. Graphic novels are my favorite type of book.

Three, the main character in the book has an older sibling that she fights with a lot. I like that because I can relate with my older sister.

This book gets a 10/10

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Over the summer I read the book freshwater. I liked it because it was about overcoming authority and about freedom and I enjoyed the aspect of the secret town very interesting about how a whole bunch of slaves were able to thrive right under the nose’s of the white people. I rate this book a 7.5/10

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I like when stars are I like it because it talks about family, and that you always need to watch out because you never know what could be what could happen to them shows how people used to live in the holes and times what they would wear and what they would do. I also love it because it gives like an olden time thing so it shows me before I was born with that used to do.

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I read the book squished.I thought it was a really good book for anyone who has a lot of siblings not that many siblings or no siblings at all. It’s a really fun book with some family troubles. however working together they over come all there problems and eventually get along. I give this book a ten out of ten.

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This summer I read disaster days, it’s about a girl who is trying to prove to her mom that she truly is an adult, but when babysitting goes the opposite as planned and ends in a disaster of an earthquake, she feels like a kid searching for help. Throughout the book we see how this experience develops for her, how she becomes a person people can rely on, and how her and the kid relationship blooms. “The Disaster Days” is an amazing book and I recommend it for any person who enjoys a book about change, surprise and becoming.

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I like the book dugout because it is full of action!

I recommend this book if you like action and baseball!

I rate this book 10/10!

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The Smartest kid in the universe is a funny book about a kid who accidently ate a a jar of jelly beans that made him super smart. I enjoyed this book so much that it made me want to read the book as much as possible. 10/10

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I read A Duet For Home by Karina Yan Glaser. It is a realistic fiction book that focuses on family, friendship, and homelessness.

In this story, June, her sister, and her mom end up in a Brooklyn homeless shelter called the “Huey House”. She lost her dad in an accident last year, and her mom hasn’t spoken ever since. Her dad was saving for her to get a new viola, and that is June’s most prized possession. The sad part is, she can’t bring it inside of the Huey House.

She soon befriends Tyrell, a boy who has been at the Huey House for 3 years now. They bond over their shared love of classical music and even meet the musician next door. Soon, though, they get a new social worker and they may be forced out of the shelter sooner than they are ready.

June and Tyrell have to figure out how to prove to the government that they deserve more time in the shelter.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes light - hearted stories about friendship and finding your voice.

I give this book a 9.5/10

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This summer, I read Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee. This historical fiction novel focuses on the themes of having privilege, identity, and family.

Valora Luck, a British-Chinese acrobat, dreams of going to New York to perform with her twin brother. Although she has the privilege of having a ticket on the Titanic, she is not allowed to board. Using her acrobatic skills, she secretly hops on the ship.

Soon, she manages to get herself a room to stay in and finds her twin brother. She is able to entertain other passengers on board using her talents. Valora makes a few allies to help her with her disguises on board, which comes in handy.

Ethnicity is a huge conflict and creates many challenges. The Chinese Exclusion Act is passed in America which means that Valora isn't allowed to be in America. However being a Chinese acrobat in America isn't the only problem. Soon the Titanic crashes into an iceberg, which causes surviving to be the biggest problem.

I definitely enjoyed reading this and would recommend it to anyone who loves thrilling historical fiction novels.

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This summer, I read a book called 'A Rover's Story'. It was about a rover named Resilience (or Res). The story starts with the rover in the lab, where they get built. Res meets a fellow rover, Journey, and a drone named Fly. Res and Fly then go to Mars, their goal being to find and power on an old rover named Courage. On the way, they collect rock samples. This ends up being Res's doom. Eventually, he gets back to earth and is displayed in a museum. The end. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I love the way the author (Jasmine Warga) writes here. Even though it is technically prose, the wording feels like verse. It really makes the rover's personality and opinions about the world jump out. I think I would give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars, the only reason being that the book was a little short and lacking detail. I think that anyone interested in science and outer space would like this book. I also think that realistic fiction readers should give it a try.

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Charile Thorne and The Curse Of Cleopatra

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Charile Thorne and The Curse Of Cleopatra

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Charile is a girl who is very intelligent. Then everything changes after finding Pandora and Darwin's discovery. She then hack's a CIA databade to uncover the lost discovery After the CIA getting hacked, the russian's take noice of this and sent a small mitila with Mossand, to steal whatever of what as in inside of Pandora. When hears about this, she would then would go to Egypt carefully, to find Pandora. Unforturnatly, her situation get's worse, as two multi-millionaires then also chase after her. But everything goes bad, as she then find the famed Phycisfore's stone. 10/10 Great!

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The book I read was Enduring Freedom by Arash and Reedy. In the intro a young man named Baheer saw the twin towers collapse. They live in Kabul. His family starts to worry that trouble will come because the Taliban rule the town and caused the twin towers to collapse. The second main character is Joe Killian who after witnessing the twin towers collapse went to the war as a soldier with dreams of being a journalist in the future. He and his fellow comrades go to Kabul, there he meets with Baheer. Together they help each other and the surrounding community. As they learn and help each other they become best friends. Do they survive in his town or die because of differences? Read this book to find out. I give this a 10/10.

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This summer, I read The Smartest Kid In The Universe by Chris Grabenstein. It is a middle grade sci-fi book with a lot of humor.

The book is about this 12 year old kid named Jake, who is kinda dumb. However, that fact soon changes, as during a science press conference at the hotel where Jake's mom works, Jake eats some jelly beans.

Wait. What? How does eating jelly beans change anything? The reason is... those weren't your everyday, typical jelly beans. In fact, they were the incredible new information technology known as Ingestible Knowledge (IK)! With his newfound intellegence, Jake and friends might have a shot at stopping their middle school from being shut down. (Whoops, did I forget to mention that?) Like I was saying, Jake now knows everything about everything (except Spanish).

However, this isn't all a good thing. When word gets out, many people (good and wicked) want Jake for themselves. Megacorporations. Government. They all want to use Jake's big brain for their own advantage.

There's also something about a pirate legend, but I won't spoil that for you. Oh, you want to know what happens? I have an idea! Read the book.

This is, overall, an amazing adventure, and I'd rate The Smartest Kid In The Universe a 9/10! (The only reason it wasn't 10/10 is because I wasn't in it, lol.)

This is Gibson, signing off.

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This summer, I read Stand Up, Yumi Chung! It is about 11 year old Yumi, who suffers from #shygirlproblems, bullies, a bad haircut, and the strict control of her parents. Unlike her parents who want her to become a doctor, Yumi dreams of becoming a famous standup comedian.

Yumi’s family owns a Korean barbecue restaurant named Chung’s Barbecue that isn’t doing too well. The restaurant isn’t making enough money to pay for Yumi’s next year at Winston, her private school in LA. The only way Yumi could stay was getting a 98% on a scholarship test.

Yumi’s parents force her to go to Korean Hagwon tutoring, so she can study for the test. Yumi is on a special plan where she must go to the library to study after the class is over. The first time, she sees a comedy club, so she sneaks in to check it out. She then learns that her idol will be teaching comedy camp there. The only problem is that the camp found her and everyone thinks she’s a girl named Kay Nakamura. Yumi starts coming to camp as Kay.

As Yumi’s grades improve, she gets even more wound up in her plot. She has trouble keeping her secret from the camp. She learns more about her passion.

Yumi’s life starts to fall apart after the camp finds out about her secret, she learns that her sister is leaving, and their restaurant is failing.

Yumi has to use her passion of comedy and stand up for herself to save her family and their restaurant. She must almost ace her test and trust her plan to save her family.

I rate this book a 9/10 because of the amazing plot, like when Yumi attempts her idea or when her friends have different reactions then she expected. I would have liked more cliffhangers at the ends of the chapters, because in this book, the author just tells us what’s happening. I would really recommend the book Stand Up, Yumi Chung!

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For this year’s book, I read The Disaster Days by Rebecca Behrens. It is about a 13 year old girl named Hannah who goes to Zoe and Oscar’s to baby-sit them for a few hours that turned into 3 days! Why? A 8.0 magnitude earthquake hit them. To make things worse, they have no Wi-Fi, electricity, or clean water. But they do have a crank radio and a flashlight. Hannah must take care of the two kids and face tremendous challenges along the way. Zoe gets a deep cut, Oscar breaks his ankle, and the house is falling apart on them. Will they survive until rescue comes? Can Hannah work under the pressure or will she crumble?

This book goes a little fast but, I really enjoyed reading this thrilling story. It really kept me at the edge of my seat. It was broken up into 4 days. Every day was a cliff hanger when it ended. If you like fast-paced books and adventures, you will like The Disaster Days. I give it a 9/10. I can’t wait for a sequel!

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Ben Fester’s Summer Reading Book Review

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Ben Fester’s Summer Reading Book Review

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I read the book Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets by Chelsea Ichaso for summer reading, and it is a YA high school mystery thriller. In the book, the protagonist, Savannah Sullivan, has a sister named Piper who has fallen into a deep coma after falling off a cliff. To everybody who knew Piper and even those who didn’t, this was a terrible tragedy, for as far as anyone could tell, Piper was a practically perfect person. While Savannah’s parents claim the fall was an accident and her friends claim it was suicide, after discovering a note that says to meet up at the very place that Piper fell for the school’s survival club, Savannah suspects otherwise. Soon after, Savannah joins the survival club and heads off on a camping trip with its members, where every single person is a suspect, from Piper’s best friend to boyfriend to even the teacher himself.

Despite an interesting premise, this book fails to live up to expectations. Nothing in this book particularly stood out to me, for all the characters were typical high school student tropes with nothing to really challenge said tropes, while the plot itself was extremely repetitive. Multiple times, all Savannah would do to investigate was corner a suspect and ask them about what they were doing on the days that led up to Piper’s fall, only to have them say that they didn’t do it, however they knew someone else in the club who may have been involved. All the evidence for the claims against the suspects were really just “he said/she said”, and all actual concrete evidence such as threatening notes and text messages really just turned out to be red herrings. While red herrings are good to make mysteries more confusing, in this book these just served more as a testament to the repetitive plot than anything else. As for Savannah’s motivation to solve this mystery, this is more to clear her own name than actually her love for Piper, for her relationship with Piper was not going that well in the days leading up to Piper’s fall. This, while it does make it stand out from other mystery novels, also makes Savannah feel a lot like a jerk, in an effort to show “parallelism” between her and the other characters who are also written to act like jerks to further make them all feel like suspects. Overall, both the plot and characters just felt really boring and uninteresting, and even as the stakes were raised I still did not feel fully 100% captivated into the mystery.

One cannot write a review about Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets without mentioning the ending, for the only shock it gave me was shocking disappointment. It completely threw all the previous leads out the window, and while normally this would have acted like a plot twist, the actual reasoning behind why Piper fell was, simply put, very underwhelming. I suppose the repetitive plot structure did get somewhat shaken up there, but still what should have been a climactic and shocking ending only brought outrage from my brain as I felt that it could have ended in such a better way. Speaking of better ways the book could have gone, I believe that the author should have simply killed Piper from the very start of the book to add more emotion to all the characters and a more serious tone to the plot, as well as making the book’s plot more accurate to its title. Overall, the book had a lot of missed opportunities, making me like it even less.

Despite all its failures, Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets still had a few aspects that prevented it from plummeting all the way down to making it an absolutely terrible book. The author still did a decent job at raising the stakes of the book, and the flashbacks the author included from Piper’s perspective were able to somewhat captivate me more into the mystery, while also acting as the little amount of proof needed to clear the names of suspects to the reader (though how Savannah still believes them so easily is a bit wild, since she never saw the flashbacks herself). There was also some character development for Savannah and Piper’s best friend, Jacey, which showed them grow closer together due to the near-loss of Piper and made them bond together, and which I thought was one of the few things that made sense in the book. However, none of these were able to fully promote this book to that high of an opinion in my regard, for the bad still heavily outweighed the good.

Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets was really not my cup of tea, and despite this book being of the thriller genre I did not feel any thrill while reading this. I would give this a 4/10, however if you have not read any other high school mystery novels (so that you don’t have your expectations raised too high) or don’t care about the endings of whodunnit books then I guess I would recommend this to you. Additionally, the vocabulary in this book is rather simple compared to other YA novels, so if you happened to be interested in the maturity aspect of YA novels but are unsure if they are the right reading level for you, then I would also recommend this. But at the end of the day, if you go into this book thinking it will be just as good as any other mystery novel — you’ve been warned.

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This summer, I chose to read “Snow Globe”. The main character is named Chobahm and she lives in a world where everything is cold. The only warm place on earth is in the Snow Globe, where everyone living there has to act and their life is recorded for the people outside to watch. Chobahm is a clone to the main character, named Haeri. One day, Director Cha (the director of Haeri’s show) shows up and tells Chobahm that Haeri killed herself, and she needs a new Haeri. She leaves her family and enters the snow globe to be Haeri. Soon after, a girl shows up that is an identical clone to Chobahn and says she is Haeri. The moment that she is alone with this girl out of view of cameras, she is put to sleep with a drug and sent to a retirement home run by Directer Cha’s sister. Turns out, she was a backup for the backup Haeri, who was getting face surgery due to a large scar on her face that she got as a child. Chobahn gets support from the person who runs to house to help her destroy Haeri. She goes and collects a team of people who look like her, and on the way learns how she was made to clone Haeri and take her place if needed. They then go on to Snow Globe property and show their faces to the camera, busting the plot.

I loved this book because it was so unique. To invent a completely different world takes time. It’s not just something you can come up with in ten minutes. This is something that hasn’t been done before. It is completely original to the point where the author even made little changes, and instead of going with what we might assume to be the norm, she changes little details. It’s those details that really make the story what it is, and without them, it wouldn’t be good. I give this book 4.5/5 stars. The only change I would make is separation in names, because most of the group of Haeri’s all had their name start with a S, and it made it hard to tell them apart because of how similar they were, but other than that, I would definitely suggest this book!

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I read the book Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets by Chelsea Ichaso. A young adult mystery genre book about a girl named Savannah who's sister mysteriously fell off a cliff and probably will never wake up from the coma she was left in after the fall. Savannah wants to find answers on who did this to her sister. I rate this book a 5/10.

Before I start with talking about the beginning of the book, the back of the book synopsis says "Piper's fall was no accident." I don't want to give away too much about the book but when I read to the end of the book I found out that this statement wasn't true and that was really disappointing. In addition, at the end of the book the reader also finds out the title is misleading too. I think some people would be really fed up about the title being misleading, but I’m really just mad about the misleading synopsis. Had I known the synopsis was lying that whole time I probably would have never read the book. By the end of the book it kind of leads us back to where we started. In other words, Savannah didn’t need to go through a whole entire journey and we would already know many of the answers we got in the end. The author starts with setting up the shaky sister relationship between her and Piper, and what her parents think. Then, Savannah gets cold and opens Piper's locker, causing her to find a note from the survival club teacher, Mr. Davis, inviting Piper to the place she fell. It read, “Survival club will be holding a meeting today at Vanderwild point.” I thought this was one of the few well thought out parts of the book.

Then Savannah decides to go on a Survival Club campout the coming weekend because she is convinced that she will find answers for Piper’s fall there. Also at this part of the book Savannah's boyfriend Grant is introduced. She somehow really loves him for absolute no reason. And Grant has absolutely the most bland personality possible. His personality is inconsistent, sometimes he is calm sometimes he is crazy. The whole part about Grant I think is not well thought out and doesn't make much sense. Also, Jacey (Piper’s old friend) used to date Grant which makes even less sense because Grant goes to all sorts of parties and is popular but Jacey isn’t that type. Another thing introduced in the plot is that Savannah’s parents in-favored Piper over her because Piper was academically smart and did all sorts of after school activities. I liked the author’s choice of adding this into the story. It adds extra drama and I really enjoyed reading about flashbacks that Savannah had. This was probably the part of this book that saved me from giving this book a terrible review. Savannah, Piper, and Jacey have great character development but everyone else in the book has no personality whatsoever. One flashback I found interesting to read was Savannah and Piper each had a tournament on the same weekend and the tournaments both costed money. So the two both ask their mom for money. But their mom says that she can only pay for one and then she chooses Piper’s. I liked this part because it reflects real life situations and I also found it really heartbreaking to read through. This causes Savannah and Piper’s relationship to become bad right before Piper fell. That is the reason why Savannah felt so guilty when Piper fell. Before Savannah goes on the campout she finds a note in Piper’s backpack saying “Quit Survival Club or ELSE.” Once they are on the trip Savannah starts asking people about who threatened Piper. It makes no sense because if anyone did it they would probably just lie their way out. And after this point the book just starts repeating itself. The cycle is ask, find out it wasn’t them and then repeat with different people. It just keeps repeating. This is another reason I do not rate this book that highly.

Then on the first night of the campout someone gives Savannah a note that says “Leave it alone” with the same handwriting as “Quit Survival Club or ELSE.” When I got to the end of the book I still don’t know who wrote it. I’m really confused on that part. Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets has parts that are so confusing and don’t feel properly edited yet the vocabulary is so simple. I read this book quickly because there wasn’t much to think about. It’s a simple plot yet confusing.

Also, this book in general just has a lot of coincidently “something happened” which feels totally unbelievable. The worst part is that it turns out that it is true that it happened. An example of this is that Mr. Davis says that he keeps forgetting each day for one month straight to give Savannah something from Piper. And then we find out that it is true that yes, Mr. Davis does just keep forgetting and he was in fact telling the truth. It is kind of infuriating to read through something that has so unbelievable parts.

Another complaint I have for this book is the storyline. The author builds up this whole interesting story about a drug scandal and Piper finding out about it. And it got me so interested, only for me to find out that the real reason she fell had absolutely nothing to do with it and in the end it is totally irrelevant.

I overall rate this book a 5/10 because there were quite a few downs such as some questions in the end not feeling answered but I enjoyed reading about Savannah and Piper’s sister relationship. I like how this book emphasized how adults being unfair to children can really cause sibling relationships to crumble even when it’s not the siblings fault, and I can connect to Savannah when adults compare siblings. It’s unfair and cruel to siblings to do this to them and the fault and pain is put on the siblings once they hold a grudge with each other. I also liked how the book ended with a happy ending. I recommend this to people who like a book regardless of the ending. This books has its strengths and weaknesses which balances me into giving this book a 5/10.

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Simryn Srivastava's Summer Reading Review

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Simryn Srivastava's Summer Reading Review

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I read Ellie Engle Saves Herself by Leah Johnson as my first summer reading book. It is a book about how a very ordinary girl who doesn’t like to stand out completely changes when an earthquake hits.  When she is in her best friend Abby’s bathroom after the earthquake, she touches a dead plant and it revives. This is when she realizes she has the power to turn things alive. Although, this comes at a cost, a lot of costs. And to make things worse, everything she thinks she knows about her powers and Abby is changing. Read the book to find out what happens to “stick in” Ellie with her new powers. I rate this book 6.5/10. It was interesting but it is was slow moving and slightly predictable.

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This is a story about a war with dragons. A girl named Creel gets a special pair of shoes from a dragon. Then she goes to a new kingdom named the King’s seat and gets a sewing job. One of her coworkers betrays her and gives her slippers to an evil princess from Roulain marrying the prince named Amalia. Amalia uses the slippers to control all the dragons and wreak havoc upon the King's seat. Rouain waged war on the King’s seat and with their men and all the dragons they had and captured the King. Then one of Creel's dragon friends named Feniul who had a special collar on that would make him immune to the spell of the magic slippers. Together Feniul,Creel and many of Creel’s friends helped make more special collars and put them on the controlled dragons. Then with all of the dragons uncontrolled the King’s seat army took their chance and attacked the Roulain army and won.

Connor Pearce

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I read Lucky Scramble by Peter Raymundo.

The main character in this book is Tyler. Tyler loves cubing and he even qualifies for the cubing world championships in Las Vegas. When Tyler doesn't have enough money to travel to the championships he is heartbroken. Later he gets an email from the CubeMania giving him a sponsor ship.

In Vegas, Tyler must face many tough opponents, including the world’s best speedcuber, Dirk Speedman.

When Dirk seemingly loses, everyone is shocked. Young speedcuber Eli Newton has beat Dirk Speedman! But, When a shocking truth is revealed, Eli must sit out the rest of the tournament. Tyler has to preform some of the fastest solves of his life to come out a world champion.

I think this is a great book and I rate Lucky Scramble 10/10.

Anyone who likes Cubing should read this book.

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For summer reading, I read a first time for everything by dan santant. This book is a true story about Dan in the summer going into highschool. He was a shy child and did not like to party, or be center if attention. He preferred to be alone in his room more than anything. At the end of 8th grade, his teacher, Mrs. Bjork, gives him a flyer for a summer traveling in Europe. When there, he discovered himself and that he realized that maybe being with friends and being extroverted is a good thing. When in Europe, he meets a girl named Amy. They fall in love and sadly Dan goes home, and doesn't see Amy anymore, but he does become friendly with many people around his neighborhood. This books main themes is finding yourself and stepping out of your comfort zone. I rate this book a 9.5/10

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This summer, I read the book Big Top Burning: The True Story of an Arsonist, a Missing Girl, and the Greatest Show on Earth by Laura A. Woollett. This book is a nonfiction book about the greatest show on earth, and themysteries around how and why the show went up in flames on that fateful day.

On July 6, 1944, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus held a large performance.Thousands gathered to watch the show that day. Children playing in the field, people piling into the seats, no one could have foreseen the danger they were in. Around 10 minutes through the show, you could start to smell smoke.

At first no one paid much attention to it. Then, when someone shouted “Fire!”things got serious. People evacuated the tent, as it was already too late to stop the fire with the buckets of water they had. The tent fell to the ground before the fire department could even arrive.

The fire left us a few mysteries we never solved, such as how the fire happened, and the body of the girl named “Little Miss 1565,” later identified as… well, you wouldn’t think I would give that away that easily, right? Read the book to find out for yourself! This book is for people who like non-fiction mystery books. I rate this book as a 7.5/10, since I like the fantasy genre more.

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I read A Storm Too Soon by Michael J. Tougias.

This book is a true about a great big wave that capsizes a 45ft sailboat. The personnel got trapped on a raft in 80ft waves and struggled to stay alive.

In the beginning of the book, JP and Ben go on a voyage but soon it will become very dangerous. Next, a great big storm comes, and the ship capsizes. They then get into a raft and wait for rescue. The book tells a different side of the story from the rescuers point of view.

The nature of the rescue made the book very interesting. Overall, I think you may be able to enjoy this book. I enjoyed this book.

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For my third book I read Snowglobe by Soyoung Park. This is a young adult book and is meant for middle schoolers and above. If you have read the Giver by Lois Lowery and you liked it, this might be a good book for you. I give this book a 10/10. It was super action filled book, with sudden changes of events and unexpected events as well.

In this book, a girl named Jeon Chobahm, lives in a frozen wasteland where it is very cold and everyday people have to go

everyday to work at the powerplant.

There is this dome in the middle of this frozen wasteland. This dome is called Snowglobe. Snowglobe is normal and everything is super nice inside. There is warm weather, people have decent jobs, and have good pay. Everyone dreams to work in this dome, including Chobahm. she wants to be a director and go to the film school at Snowglobe.

A very Important thing about Chobahm was that she looked almost identical to a famous actor named Goh Haeri, Goh Haeri starred in a very popular show called Goh Around

One day coming back home after a long day a black limo pulls up to Chobahm, and a person named Cha Seol steps out of the car and offers her the part of Goh Haeri because of a tragic event.

Read the book to find out what happens next.

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I read storm blown by Nick Courage. Some of the main characters in this book are, A father on a ship coming home to his kids.Emily who wants a better summer with her friends. Her brother Elliot, who just got back from the hospital with stitches and Alejo a kid from a hotel trying to get back home to his Padrino Nando’s house. Joy, a meteorologist from the NATIONAL CLIMATIC

RESEARCH CENTER (NCRC) was monitoring the storm of the century (Valorie) closing in on all of them. And now as the storm rages and all of our characters paths cross in New Orleans there is one thing clear they are no longer safe. Emily, Elliot and Alejo are stuck and have to take desperate measures to get off the island as the storm rages on and a sink hole develops.

I personally loved this book. It takes a few chapters to understand the bigger part in it all. I liked the descriptions because I could picture it so vividly in my mind it was like I was there. And I also liked how from the beginning the story’s stakes escalated with the storm closing in and you don’t want to stop reading. That’s why loved it so I will rate it 10/10 and I really recommend it to everyone who likes natural disasters.

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For my first book I read City Spies by James Ponti.

This book is about Sara, a young hacker, that got arrested for hacking into the foster care system to expose her foster parents as law brakers but got sentenced to a few years in juvenile detention. But Mother, a spy from the M16 recruited her to join his team of teenagers to become spies for the M16. As she goes through her journey of being a spy with her team, they uncover some sinister plots. This amazing action-packed book forces me to give it an 8/10 rating.

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For my second book I read city spies. This book is full of action and mystery. This book is meant for young readers and is a great book to read.

In the story, a girl named Sarah Martinez who is a hacker who hacked into the New York foster care system to expose her foster parents as lawbreakers and cheats. After she did this she was forced to go into years of juvenile detention. When she gets to court she is met with Mother a MI6 spy. Because of Mother, Sarah is able to get released from jail and get an offer to get home at the MI6 agency.

In Scotland, there are five kids from all around the world. They are called the City Spies. They all use their unique skills to help with missions all around the world. Since they are kids they are able to go to places where adults can’t and can go everywhere in the world of espionage.

For her first mission Sarah head to Paris to hack into systems and do risky things to save the world.

This story is the start to a series of complex missions with each page being filled with action and espionage. I give this book a 10/10.

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For my first book I read taste for love by Jennifer Yen. It was a young adult romance book. There is cooking, family, and so much more.

In the story, Liza’s mom is trying to find a partner for Liza. Liza meets multiple people but likes none of them. One day she decides to be an assistant judge on a baking show that her mom hosts. But when she sees the fliers and meets the contestants in person, she realizes that her mom did this only to match her up with someone.

Liza meets new people and finds out the good and the bad. Balances out school, friendships, her love of baking, and going along with what her mom’s do’s and dont’s.

I liked this book because the story was very unique to any of the other books I had read before. There were people who seemed nice but secretly evil on the inside which to me is not that common in this type of book. Also the conflict was one that I never thought would happen in the book. I would recommend this to a person who likes baking, and reading about friends and friendships. I give this book a 9/10. I hope you read this book.

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For my second book, I read It Wasn't Me by Dana Alison Levy.

This book was almost a rollercoaster, it had its ups and downs, and had me on the edge of my seat more than once. At first, every sentence felt like another punchline or joke that you would hear on the announcements. Closer to the middle, however, as we learned more about the characters, it started to touch down on darker, heavier topics. However I love how the author kept things light, and how interesting some of these scenarios were. Sometimes characters can feel pretty distant, even in realistic fiction. However, in this book, you feel like you're really there. Overall, the story line was great, characters were great, and I love how the characters react to everything that happens. A few points off for the beggining, but reading through is definitely worth it. Im going to give this book a 7/10, and I highly recommend it.

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For my first book I read Mystery On Black Hollow Lane by Julia Noble. This book was an absolute page turner. Every character was used to the fullest, each playing a role in making the book better as a whole. And each encounter with the enemy had me on the edge of my seat! Honestly, the whole boarding school and secret societies gave me Wednesday vibes. Finding out who Brother Loyola truly was was a HUGE plot twist. Overall, I would give this book a solid 9/10, and the only reason it isn't 10/10 is because of how good all the other books seem. Can't wait to read the sequel.

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A Taste For Love is a romance book focusing on multiple themes such as love, family standards, relationships, and so much more.

A Taste For Love is about a girl named Liza, she wants to go to culinary school and she wants to be with the someone that she loves and wants to be with. But her mom is constantly choosing who she should be with, her mom sets standards and Liza can’t stand it and wants to be able to choose who she’s with. She is determined to do what she wants. Later on she is faced with a great opportunity such as the annual junior baking competition to prove to her mom that she is capable of different opportunities. Will she be able to prove to her mom that she will be able to be capable of different opportunities? Read A Taste For Love to find out!

I really enjoyed A Taste For Love and I think you should read it too!

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I read A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen as my first summer reading book. It is a YA romantic comedy with tons of heart and a focus on family, relationships, friendly competition, and baking!

In this story, Liza's mom wants to help Liza find the perfect match, and is always setting her up on dates. When Liza decides to be a judge in her mom's famous baking challenge TV show, her mom picks only eligible bachelors as contestants!

Liza has to navigate what she wants to do and what her mom wants her to do, all while pursuing her love of baking.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes light-hearted, relationship-centered books, and to all aspiring bakers!