Book Blab @ Stevenson H. S. » award winner

Kira – Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

flee2 — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:25:54 +0000

Review by Faith L

Mr Wise – period 7

The book I read was Kira – Kira by Cynthia Kadohata. It is about a young girl named Katie Takeshima and her family. Her older sister, Lynn, is the one who teaches her everything. To Katie, Lynn is perfect in every way. As their Japanese family struggles in a white community, Lynn gets very sick. Katie remembers the first thing Lynn had taught her, the word kira kira. It means glittering and shining. Katie and her family try to get through the hardship. Her parents told her that hitting was the worst thing u can do. Stealing would be the second, and lying the third. Katie would have committed all three things.

Perfect Chemistry By Simone Elkeles

kpatten2 — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:16:13 +0000

Review by Kelsey P.

Lockowitz Period 3

I read the book Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. This book is about two totally different people. First character would be Brittany Ellis she is a senor at Fairfield High School and is captain of the pom pom team and was dating the captain of the football team. And the second main character would be Alex Fuentes he is also a senor at Fairfield. He is in the gang Latin Blood and he isnt as rich as Brittany or as popular. When they become chemistry partners everything changes for them. They fall in love and can’t help each other love one another. But things change. You would have to read the book to find out what happens. I would rate this a 10 out of 10 because it is a realy good book seeing it from both of their point of views.

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

aberger2 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:43:10 +0000

Review by Alec B

Wise period 2

Monster by Walter Dean Myers is a book about a 16 year old boy who is being tried as an adult for robbery of a drugstore and murder . The whole book is written as screen play for a movie because Steven the main character really likes film class and he needs something to keep him busy in jail. Throughout the whole “movie” or trial, Steve’s lawyer Mrs. O’brien is trying to prove his innocence by bringing in key witnesses including an eye witness who claimed Steve wasn’t there. Steven is miserable in jail and can’t stand to be in there any longer, he knows that he doesn’t belong there. As the trial gets further along more is revealed about Steve and his alleged accomplices that could prove his innocence or guilt….

I recommend this book to people who enjoy quick reads. This book is 280 pages but I guarantee it feels more like a 100 page book. Monster may seem more of a guys book but I think that any gender or any age could really enjoy this book if they like trial books. The book is in a really cool format (screenplay) which makes the book actually fun to read. I recommend Monster to everyone!

The Clique By: Lisi Harrison

egeocar2 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:49:58 +0000

Emily G. Wise Period 2

It’s about five girls and how they see their life and how they feel about each other. A girl named Claire Lyons is the new girl at Octavian Country Day School, who is not rich and lives with a girl named Massie Block. Who thinks she’s the greatest thing in the world. Claire goes through being humilated by Massie’s friends and doesn’t know why. Until she gets revenge and ends up messing up the clique.

I liked how each girl goes through not liking themselves or how they look like to themselves. They all have their secrets that not even the clique will share to each other. Then with Claire there, they start liking themselves and feel better knowing Claire can be herself and can be themselves even around Massie.

Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles

kpatten2 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:29:42 +0000

Review by Kelsey P

Lockowitz Period 3

I read the novel Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles. This novel is about a girl and a boy named Maggie Armstong and Caleb Becker. It all started when Caleb went to a party and got drunk then got into an accident which ended up hitting Maggie. Caleb took the blame and went to juvinille detention while Maggie went to live in a hospital both for a year. The accidental cause Maggie to walk with a limp even afer all of her sugeries. And Caleb never lived the same life either after the accident. A year later Caleb and Maggie both return for their senior year of high school and end up meeting each other for the first time after the accident. You will have to read the book to find out the rest.

Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess

jgorcho1 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:51:54 +0000

Review by Jamie G.

Brown- Period 3

Meredith Shale is a fifteen-year-old teenager. She is a bothersome daughter, a worrisome girlfriend, and now a fearful victim. Growing up, Meredith is raped by her father and he is sentenced to prison. When Meredith verbalizes the event, her mother turns her back. Her father is released from prison after only three of the nine sentenced years, and expects everything to be the same as how he had left it, including his defenseless “Chirp,” but he is wrong. “Chirp is dead,” Meredith justifies after she is told to “give her old man a break.” “You killed her, and now you have to deal with me because I’m what’s left” (Wiess 19). Meredith will do anything to expose her father’s “mistake,” as her mother calls it, and get him back to where he belongs.

In Such a Pretty Girl, Meredith continually uses numbers to convey her emotions. At first, I couldn’t understand why Meredith found such a comfort in numbers. To me, numbers are just a counting system, a defined set of rules. These rules shouldn’t be broken, but if they are, the inaccuracy will eventually become evident. To Meredith, numbers are one of the only things she can actually “count” on. Meredith takes comfort in numbers because she has learned to depend on their consistency. With numbers, rules cannot be broken. With numbers, lines cannot be crossed without the error being apparent. This, I noticed, is contrary to the actual crime Meredith’s father committed. He had crossed the line, he had broken the defined rules, and not even Meredith’s mother could see the awfully apparent “miscalculation”. I feel the use of numbers so powerfully tells readers exactly what Meredith couldn’t tell her mother. Meredith hopes that by disguising the issue, her readers will recognize the obvious metaphor between numbers and principles that shouldn’t be broken. Ironically, after all numbers and their meanings are expressed, Meredith’s dad tells her “I taught you how to hit a fastball and how to count, […] you might want to remember that the next time you break the rules” (Wiess 55-56).

The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

kplotsk2 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:42:05 +0000

Review by Kyle P.

Mr. Argentar – Period 7

In “The Glass Castle” follows the twisted
childhood of Jeannette Walls. Like most children Jeannette has two
parents her mom Rose Mary and dad Rex, and she has one brother Brian and two
sisters Lori and Maureen. Through out the book the Walls family has to
keep moving from town to town because Rex get fired or just cannot pay to live
there anymore. It seems that everywhere they go something bad seems to
happen to Jeannette like before they move for the first time in the book
Jeannette is cooking hot dogs and her dress catches on fire and she has to go
to the hospital.

The one aspect I liked about this book was how all
these terrible events keep happening to them, but yet the Walls family still
stuck together. Like when they had
to live in a house with a pit full of garbage and deal with it. I also liked how Jeannette writes this
memoir with such detail. For
example when she talks about falling out of the while they were on the run and
was cut up pretty badly from the rocks.
This Book I would recommend to anyone who wants to read a great book
full of real shocking events.

To Kill A MockingBird by Harper Lee

kpatten2 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:26:36 +0000

Kelsey P.

Lockowitz 3

I read the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Is about a girl named Scout Finch. The summer when Scout was six and Jem was ten, they met Dill, a little boy who spent the summer with his aunt who lived next door to the Finches. Dill and Jem become obsessed with the idea of making Boo Radley, the neighborhood recluse, come out of his home. They go through plan after plan, but nothing draws him out. However, these brushes with the neighborhood ghost result in a tentative friendship over time and soon the Finch children realize that Boo Radley deserves to live in peace, so they leave him alone.

Scout and Jem’s God-like father, Atticus, is a respected and upstanding lawyer in small Maycomb County. When he takes on a case that pits innocent, black Tom Robinson against two dishonest white people, Atticus knows that he will lose, but he has to defend the man or he can’t live with himself. The case is the biggest thing to hit Maycomb County in years and it turns the whole town against Atticus, or so it seems. Scout and Jem are forced to bear the slurs against their father and watch with shock and disillusionment as their fellow townspeople convict an obviously innocent man because of his race. The only real enemy that Atticus made during the case was Bob Ewell, the trashy white man who accused Tom Robinson of raping his daughter. Despite Ewell’s vow to avenge himself against Atticus, Atticus doesn’t view Ewell as any real threat.

I would rate this novel an 8 1/2. I thought it was a good book for anyone to read. It also you can’t out it down once you start. I also like the charcter too. Thats what i would rate this novel.

To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee

jmorris2 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:14:01 +0000

Reviewed by Jessi M

Lockowitz period# 3

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird the main conflict is that the Finch family lives in a town in Maycomb this is kind of a racist town. In this town there’s a character named Boo Radley but he never comes out of his house and no one can seem to figure out why. Also there’s a character named Tom Robinson he was accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell and Atticus is nice enough to become his lawyer and try to defend him and not make him go to jail. During the trial the judge goes and tells Tom that he’s guilty and going to jail. Atticus is very upset by this and doesn’t think that it’s fair what he’s doing because everyone knows that Mayella is lying. When he gets to jail he tries to escape and get shot to death. Everyone is very sad when they all heard the terrible news

One aspect of the book that I really enjoyed was the character of Boo Radley. I thought that his character was one of the best written. His character was very mysterious and you never actually knew anything about him until the end of the book. All we knew is that something happened to him and now he never comes out of his basement until the end of the book when we find out he’s really a good person and cares for others.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince By: J.K. Rowlng

egeocar2 — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 03:11:32 +0000

Emily G

Wise- Period 2

In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Harry is in his sixth year at Hogwarts. He soon learns why Voldemort (real name is Tom Riddle) who changed his appearance and how his childhood life was like. Professor Snape is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Professor Slughorn is the new teacher for Potions. Harry needs to destroy Horcruxes that are part of Voldemort’s soul. It is the only way Harry Potter can survive is to defeat Lord Voldemort himself.

I liked how Harry and Dumbledore go back into time to see Tom Riddle act as a child. As they go back in time, Harry develops a sadness towards Tom Riddle. They journey to when Riddle wanted to be a teacher at Hogwarts and give students his views on how to become a great wizard. I liked the book because it’s suspenseful and addicting to read on. It’s suspenseful to read Harry and Dumbledore’s journey as they go in the life of Lord Voldemort. Harry needs to know Voldemort’s soft spot and how to make him mortal.