Caitlin

 ** __The River,__  Gary Paulson(Summer Reading) **

 __The River__  is an action filled book written by Gary Paulson. It’s about a guy named Brian Robeson who was once stranded by a lake all alone for fifty four days with only a hatchet. Because he was all alone in the wilderness for a while, he gained many skills that are important to know. The government realized that, and a couple years after his rescue, they sent three men to his door named Derek, Erik, and Bill. They told him how they wanted to send him back to a lake but with an emergency kit that they ended up not taking. So Brian went with only a knife and radio (in case there was an emergency). Derek, one of the three guys that the government sent to Brian’s house, would also be there.

 This book has many different problems but the biggest problem was when there was a huge storm while Derek and Brian were sleeping. One huge bolt of lightning woke them up, and just as Derek got up, he got struck by lightning. The lighting also hit the radio and Brian. The lightning strike knocked Brian out, broke the radio, and put Derek in a coma creating the biggest problem in this story. Especially because the radio was broken so Brian couldn’t call for help. Now Brian had to come up with a solution so they would all get back alive. Especially Derek, because there is no way for Brian to give Derek food and water. This problem was what made me want to keep reading.

 There weren’t that many characters in this story. Brian and Derek were the two main characters. Everyone else wasn’t in the story for long. But while Brian and Derek were alone in the wilderness, Derek got struck by lightning and was put in a coma. So Brian was pretty much alone. Although that’s the way he liked it because with Derek that is an extra stomach to fill, a bigger shelter so than can both fit, and there is now an extra person for Brian to worry about. Now that Derek was put in a coma, Brian had bigger problems. It was to get help for Derek before he dies of dehydration. Now Brian has to build a raft to travel down a river to get help from the nearest place, which happens to be Brannocks Trading Post. On his way he thought about dropping Derek in the water so Derek wouldn’t be a problem to him anymore, but he didn’t because he knew that was wrong. I couldn’t believe he was thinking about doing that.

 I really liked this book because everything about it was interesting. But, I didn’t like the ending. I wish it explained what happened after they reached Brannocks Trading Post. At the end it just showed the family at the trading post helping them. There was a two page section called “Measurements” that explained how Derek had low grade coma that lasted six months after they reached the trading post. It also mentioned how Brian and his parents agreed to never send Brian back to the wilderness again. It explained other things too, but I would rather have found it out as a part of the story. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading serious books full of action and adventure.

 **__The Wave,__ Todd Strasser (Summer Reading) **  Laurie Saunders and all her history classmates enjoy history more than other classes. Especially when The Wave began. Mr. Ross started The Wave to explain to his students why the Nazis went along with Hitler’s plans. But after a few days of The Wave, Laurie realized how bad The Wave had become and quit, and tried everything she could to stop it. The whole school had become obsessed with The Wave. This fiction book is called __The Wave__  and is written by Todd Strasser. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I liked how <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">__The Wave__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> always kept me interested. There was always some kind of problem throughout the story. Pretty much all of the dilemmas had to do something with The Wave. The main problem in this story is that the teacher of a senior history class is creating an experiment to explain to his class why the Nazis went along with Hitler’s plans. Mr. Ross ended up taking it way too far, that almost the whole school was involved in it, and the kids who weren’t, would get beat up because they weren’t a part of The Wave.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There were a lot of characters in this story. I liked that when a new character was introduced in this story you would learn a little bit about each of them as they slowly got involved in the book. The main characters were Laurie, David, Mr. Ross, Amy, Robert, and Brian. All of those characters were one of first members of The Wave besides Mr. Ross, who is the leader of The Wave. But some were not members of The Wave for much longer, like Laurie who quit a few days after it started. Laurie realized how bad it had become and tried to get as many people to quit by publishing bad things about The Wave in the newspaper.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Overall, I liked this book because it always kept me interested. I like how, at the end, The Wave was stopped and everything at Gordon High School went back to normal. I’m happy the end of the book wasn’t left with a cliffhanger because I like knowing what happens after the problem is solved. I would recommend it to people who like reading about events that happen at schools and who don’t mind World War II.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0pt 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"> __How I Live Now__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0pt 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> By: Meg Rosoff <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0pt 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Review by: Caitlin Kelly

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> For my book review I read a book called <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__How I Live Now__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. It’s written by Meg Rosoff. The book is about a girl who is sent to live with her cousins in England because her evil step-mother sent her there. While in England the war is going on so she runs into trouble. Although, she ends up really liking her cousins. What I liked was that there were many surprises and twists in the story that made you not want to put the book down.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I liked how Meg Rosoff wrote about kids surviving through the war without a grown up guiding them through. One part I didn’t like was how when Piper and Daisy got separated from Edmond and Isaac and I didn’t know what was happening with Edmond and Isaac. I found out what happened with them at the very end when Daisy went back to England. Although, I was really surprised with Edmond’s story. I was also surprised when Daisy and Piper were in their house and they got a phone call that ended up making Daisy go back to New York against her will. I didn’t like how that happened because it messed up she and Edmond's relationship.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I also liked how from beginning to end how the characters grew older and completely changed throughout the story. Piper went from being a 9 year old to a mature 14 year old with a boyfriend. Edmond had a big change because he saw things that he will never forget and that effected him a lot. When Daisy saw him after the war, he had all these scratches and scars on him and he wouldn’t talk to Daisy for a while. Isaac matured a lot and especially because he started off shorter than Daisy and at the end of the book he was taller than her. Osbert was mentioned a lot in the beginning but towards the end he was mentioned very few times. I wish he was mentioned more because I don’t know his complete story serving in the Army.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Overall I think that this was a really good book. I would recommend this book to sixth through eighth graders. I would probably rate this book a 5 because almost every time I read a section of the book, I never got bored. I was really surprised with the ending because I thought that Edmond would be really happy to see Daisy, but instead he was mad at her. Apparently he was mad at her because she left England before he got back, and he thought she abandoned him. In the end they still had a relationship, but it was different than what it used to be. I thought it was cool how Meg Rosoff had a similarity with Daisy because at one point in her life she moved from New York City to London just like Daisy did in the book.

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://search.barnesandnoble.com/How-I-Live-Now/Meg-Rosoff/e/9780553376050/?itm=1&USRI=how+i+live+now__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__The Outsiders__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Book Review <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By: Caitlin Kelly <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> It’s the Socs vs. the Greasers in this historical fiction book called <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__The Outsiders.__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> This book was written by S.E Hinton. It’s about the time when the rich and educated kids (aka the Socs) and the poor but tough kids, (aka the Greasers) were practically in a war. There’s definitely some rage and hatred between the two gangs. The Socs liked to brag and show off to the Greasers. The Greasers get a little jealous, but they don’t let it get to them. The two gangs typically settle it in fights and rumbles. Although this is not the safest way to handle things, they do it anyway. Some of them are just looking for a fight.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The characters in this story are Ponyboy, Johnny, Sodapop, Dally, Darry, Two Bit, and Steve. They’re in a gang together and are all Greasers. They get jumped a lot by the Socs just because they’re Greasers. Sometimes they keep knives with them for self defense just in case they get jumped. At one point, the knife was used in self defense, but it was used a little too much. Without realizing it, Johnny stabbed one of the Socs, who was drowning Ponyboy, and ended up killing him. The characters in this story made the book come alive. I could mentally picture what I was reading in my head. The characters were so interesting but realistic at the same time. The author did a great job with the characters and described them well. They fit in nicely with the topic and concept of the book. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> This story takes place back in the day, around 1960, in a small town in Oklahoma. This setting wasn’t really mentioned too much in this story, so your imagination played a huge rule. It was very descriptive and was never boring. There was always some kind of conflict going on, which was good because that made it really interesting. The author did a good job keeping the reader interested by adding really intense moments, and also some really sad moments too! The sad moments got you emotionally involved. Sometimes when I was reading this book, I forgot everything that was going on, and just paid really close attention to the book. Overall, the author did an amazing job keeping the reader interested.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The book taught me that fighting is not the answer to everything. Some of the fights between the Socs and the Greasers were pointless and didn’t need to happen. They should’ve tried to settle it in a different way. Ponyboy, the main character, definitely changed throughout the story. Pony went through a lot of hard times and toughened up. He lost many people he cared about and loved, and is finding out how to cope with it. I liked this book because it was really interesting and I liked the concept. There was never a moment when I was bored. The ending was a little confusing and I had to think about what just happened to figure it out. The ending wasn’t any typical ending, but I still thought it was good. I would recommend this book to people who like action and don’t mind getting a little emotional. Overall, I really liked this book and would rate it really high. Link: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Outsiders/S-E-Hinton/e/9780142407332/?itm=1