The Outsiders is about two social classes in the town of Tulsa Oklahoma. The socs live on the north side of the tracks. They are very privileged and always going after the greasers. The greasers are on the south side of the tracks and don’t have a steady income all the time. The two gangs are always clashing to keep their brothers close as well as fighting to figure out there place in the world is. 

Jillian Bossert (hour 1)

By: Marie F. Marquardt

Realistic Fiction/YA

The Radius of Us is a compelling story of tragedy and rising above it, reincarnating, like a phoenix from the ashes. 

Writing Structure

The book starts out rather slow and doesn’t really speed up much. Please don’t let that fool you because the journey is well worth it!

Character Development

Told from a parallel narrative, this story gives you an overall feeling of the characters. The main characters Gretchen and Phoenix, come from two different worlds. 

There are things I liked about the book. For instance, Gretchen seems like a normal suburban girl, who’s lost her marbles. Phoenix seems like another asylum seeking immigrant. Then, you read further and want to kick yourself because you just judged two of the strongest people you’ll ever meet. As the story progresses, Gretchen and Phoenix learn how to trust again. This book takes you on an emotional journey that will leave you forever changed. 

There are things I didn’t like about the book as well. The pace made it seem like it took longer to read, than it did. At times, Phoenix spoke Spanish without any context and I didn’t know what he was saying, so I had to look it up. As I wrote, the pace is slower and that makes it slightly less appealing to read.

Plot

There are some more mature topics in this book. It takes place in Georgia in modern time. I absolutely don’t think of immigrants as I wrote up there, that is how the neighbors in Phoenix neighborhood feel. Writing the setting in Georgia added a certain aspect of racism, but it was necessary to capture the unfortunate truth; Some people look down on other people of different races. 

Recommendations

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes real, sad, honest, perseverance, and emotional books. The Radius of Us is similar to Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven and Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone.

Destiny Reuvers 1st Hour

    This book is about a boy who is born in the projects, which is a rough area and  the only way out is become a gang member or somehow get an education, then get a job, which is really hard. He is very smart, and he is smart enough to stay in school, but all of his friends choose the gang. He gets invited to a private school for smarter kids because the education at his school isn’t as good. With his family starving he has to decide school, or gang. This book goes through what it is like in those rougher areas, which made it even better.

Tyler Bjugan/1

and terrorise everyone you love....channel it, find a way to let it out. Cry, dance, sing, build, create, 

do everything you can to give it a way out. Take everything that tries to destroy you, curse you,and turn it  into something beautiful by incantation.”

       This book does a beautiful way of giving advice of what not to do, but always finishing with what to do. If you did or even didn’t enjoy “Milk and Honey”, you WILL enjoy this book. “Wild Embers” focuses not on traumatic experiences, but on feminism and standing up for young women and how we should be equal to men. As far as grammar and vocabulary, Gill exceeded my expectations. There were many inquisitive words that intrigued me and made the topic she was talking about stand out more and be recognized more deeply.

       The only thing that I disliked was how Gill’s talks about evolution and how the world and humans came to be. I strongly believe in Christianity and reading the first 15 pages, I was cautious, but it is really worth reading and doesn’t focus on evolution. 

Emma Duzan/2nd Hour

Genre: Young adult fiction. Plot: Everything Everything is a book about a girl who is too sick to leave home or else she would die. She does online school and loves reading books. Her dream was for only one whole day to visit the beach. As you read into it more there’s a boy who moves in next door with his family. His parents aren’t in such a good situation. Throughout the story both characters get closer and she decides to fly to hawaii with him. Things then start falling off cliff from that moment on.The rest is yours to find out! 

Theme: There could honestly be many themes for this book, but in my opinion I think the theme is true love. Love wouldn’t be true if you didn’t risk your life to be with someone. The main character risked her life of dying to leave to hawaii with the one she loves. She knew he was worth her life and took the risk. I think that’s called true love. 

       They story takes place in the United States years and years in what we would call our future. The story doesn’t include a Sci-Fi future but it does have many changes in how the country is ran. There is something new about each page that pull the whole story together at the end. One thing I didn't realize I love  about this book is you have no expectations about the end because you get so into the plot line. 

       I would recommend this book to people who want to fall in love with characters and also are okay with reading the second and third books. The book makes you want to continue so if you love series I definitely recommend this one. Many people I know have loved this book and both boy and girls can attach to the characters and want to keep reading more. Legend also  has every other chapter called June and Day after the two main characters so if you do not enjoy knowing what the main idea of each chapter will be about that is something to keep in mind. Also this story doesn’t pick up until chapter 2 or 3 so I would give up to chapter 5 or 6 a chance before deciding you do or don’t enjoy the story. Overall I highly recommend this book because of the emotional connection and the amount of tragic and happiness and confusion that occurs. I believe this book deserve five out of five stars because of the characters and intense plot line. 

       They story takes place in the United States years and years in what we would call our future. The story doesn’t include a Sci-Fi future but it does have many changes in how the country is ran. There is something new about each page that pull the whole story together at the end. One thing I didn't realize I love  about this book is you have no expectations about the end because you get so into the plot line. 

       I would recommend this book to people who want to fall in love with characters and also are okay with reading the second and third books. The book makes you want to continue so if you love series I definitely recommend this one. Many people I know have loved this book and both boy and girls can attach to the characters and want to keep reading more. Legend also  has every other chapter called June and Day after the two main characters so if you do not enjoy knowing what the main idea of each chapter will be about that is something to keep in mind. Also this story doesn’t pick up until chapter 2 or 3 so I would give up to chapter 5 or 6 a chance before deciding you do or don’t enjoy the story. Overall I highly recommend this book because of the emotional connection and the amount of tragic and happiness and confusion that occurs. I believe this book deserve five out of five stars because of the characters and intense plot line. 

I have to say though the story did have a good structure and made it easy to read and understand. The story also allowed readers to understand what date each page would be dated on given that the chapters were different dates. From the story I didn’t see a overall theme. If there was it wasn’t a good one. Greg Heffley constantly got into trouble with others, along with trying to get rid of his closest friend Rowley in exchange to be popular. Overall Diary of a Wimpy Kid and the whole series will never make total sense to me.

Anders Larsen

Bannon Hr 2

I feel like the book starts out slow, like every book, and then it really picks up. I usually don’t read books a lot out of school but I did for this book. I think anyone over 7th grade would love the book because lots of people can connect. There is some racism and older people experienced that more and there is also some romance in it as well so younger people could like it as well. 

If you read alice sebold's books then you should love this book because they have the same writing style.

The last thing I have to say about the book is that it is overall a great book because it flows really nicely and the timing of when certain events makes the book really fun to read.

Thoughts: I always loved books and movies about survival. They interest me and keep me hooked. This books is no exception. From the first few pages the end of the book I loved this book. Even though is got repetitive at times. The book still kept me hooked all the way. I enjoyed how it taught the reader things about life during the book.

Recommandations: I would recommend this book for all genders who is interested in the survival aspect. Around kids in the age group of 9-14 years old. Would recommend!

Ryan Sajulga
Hr. 2

This book takes is a non-fiction attention grabbing story taking place in the real world in present time. The setting is laid out so perfectly and vividly that you can make a movie out of it in your head, and the author uses descriptive yet colorful words to piece everything together brilliantly. The author of Wonder, R.J. Palacio, draws the readers into the setting by making Auggie, the main character, be affected by his surroundings and making the setting have a main position throughout the story. 

Character development in Wonder is amazing, it really takes you inside everyone's lives and shows their personality strongly throughout the story. Auggie, the main character and protagonist, faces a lot of bullying his first year of going to real school because of his facial deformities. Auggie is a likeable and funny kid that connects great with other when they actually associate with him. Auggie was personally my favorite character because of his bravery and strength he has throughout the story facing all of the issues that come across him, especially when he gets bullied by Julian. Julian was the antagonist of the story, he would out Auggie down every day, but in real life Julian does not have a very good family life. His parents are extremely strict and try to raise him to be perfect, but Julian gets very stressed and takes it out on Auggie to make himself feel better. 

The thing I love about this book the most is the characters. Right away, I fell in love with both Hazel and Augustus, and I felt a connection on a deeper more vulnerable level. The two have similar personalities, so they understand and relate to each other very well and I think that really makes the book!

The fault in our stars is heartbreaking, inspiring, amazing, breathtaking, and an overall incredible book. It is very well written so its not choppy and confusing like some books. If i’m being completely honest, it is the best book i've ever read and would not recommend any other book for someone who is looking for a good read.

- Gracie Asanovich
hour:2
rate: *****

When I read the reviews for the book, they were very mixed. Some people really liked the book and others found it slow and boring. I do have to agree some parts were slow and could use more action, however, overall I thought the book had a good message and plot. The beginning had good detail, but the third or fourth chapter started to get boring. Although it was boring, when I finished the book I realized it was crucial details you need. 

Summary: 

The main Character “Q” has a new      neighbor. Margo has just moved in. When they go and explore a dead body in the park, they are only kids. As the years go on, they drift apart and stop talking. When high school starts, Margo finds details out about her boyfriend. When she finds these things out, she knows she has to get revenge. She sneaks into Q’s bedroom window and asks for his help. The day they plan to get revenge, Margo goes missing. She leaves clues around to help people find her. Most of the book is Q and his friends trying to find her. 

Characters: 

Margo sometimes has a negative attitude and doesn't set a good example for teens who read this book. For example: 
"It’s a paper town…all those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm…Everyone demented with the mania of owning things…I’ve lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters."

Margo (p.63) 

Q is a good character and sets a good example for kids who read this book.For example: 

 “It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined.”

Quentin (p.257)

I think when kids read books, they look up to how the character act and sometimes they can influence someone and how they act. 

This book is a lot like other John Green books, and sometimes his writing style can get boring. Overall the book was good and was interesting and had a good plot. The main theme of the book was unclear but one of the small lessons it talked about ways people can change and how you shouldn’t judge people as they appear. 

Overall, I would give this book 3 stars. 

Kendal Jones/ Hour 1

What I did not like: I did not like some other characters because of the they started it and developed. 

I would definitely recommend this book to ages 10-14 because if you like fictional adventure you will like this book.

Ryan Kleber 1st Hour Bannon

Sydney Hardy
Hour: 1

I When I first started reading the Red Queen it started off really slow, but when the story started going I couldn’t set the book down. It was full of twists and turns that held my attention towards the end. They left us a little surprise at the end.

I think they did really good when describing the powers different people and I love how they showed the effects that the Silvers had on the Reds. This is a great book to hand out to students, friends, and family.