Fairest

Levine, Gail. Fairest. New York: Harper Collins, 2008. 326 pages. (Fantasy)

Fairest is the story of a young girl named Aza. She lives in the kingdom of Ayortha, where beauty and singing are the most important qualities that one must have to be “acceptable”. Aza has the most beautiful singing voice, but is not at all attractive. Because beauty is so important in there, people are scared of her without even knowing her or listening to her singing. Aza lives in an inn with her parents who had adopted her a long time ago when an old woman abandoned her at one of the inn’s rooms. Aza has been helping out with cleaning the inn all her life. One day, Aza looks through a mirror while cleaning a guest’s room. The mirror was the queen’s mirror. Suddenly, Aza was beautiful. She had light peachy lips, dark blue eyes, silky brown hair, and her ragged clothes turned into an elegant gown. Aza was perfect, but the only question now is: Can Aza still sing as beautifully as she used to?

This is one of my favorite fantasy books. The book really got me into it with its suspense, mysteriousness, and charm. The story does not have only one theme going through it, it has tons! There is war, romance, drama, and hatred. My favorite part of the book was when Aza looked through the mirror. With the author’s description of how she looked, I could almost see Aza in my bedroom mirror. Her dreams had come true after so much tragedy and sorrow. This scene has definitely had the greatest impact on me when I was reading this book.

Reviewed by: Kambat

Where the Red Fern Grows

Rawls, Wilson. Where the Red Fern Grows. New York: The Curtis Publishing Company, 1961. 249. (Realistic Fiction)

Billy wants two coon dogs more than just about anything in the world, but a good coon dog costs money and that is something Billy’s family just doesn’t have. Billy mopes around for quite a while knowing that he most likely won’t get his dogs when he finds a discarded hunting magazine with an ad for registered coon dogs. The problem is that the dogs cost twenty-five dollars each. Billy decides that two dogs is worth however long it takes to collect the money, so he cleans out “an old K. C. Baking Powder can” and gets busy trapping the Ozark Mountains where he lives, picking berries and doing just about anything he can to fill his new bank. Even after he gets the dogs there’s still the training to be done. What adventures will Little Ann, Old Dan and Billy get into when the training is over?

This is an amazing story about a boy, his dogs, and their love for each other told through their adventures together and their team work when the trail gets hard. I would definitely read more books by Wilson Rawls because I found this novel to be a very good story that was very well written.

Reviewed by: B man

Downriver

Hobbs, Will. Downriver. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1991 204 pages. (Survival/Adventure)

Jessie’s dad has decided to send Jessie to “juvenile delinquent camp,” she calls it. Jessie used to do so well in school and is now skipping classes in her sophomore year in high school in the first month of school. Also, she has been in two car accidents being below the age of driving and hangs out with guys a few years older than her. When in Hoods in the Woods, or Discovery Unlimited, they travel all around for 9 months, not just hiking, but anything you could imagine. No one likes the leader, Al, because they all have to go rafting on the flat, slow river, San Juan River, just so Al could get a permit. Al steps out of the van to make sure everything is set, and everyone in the van decides to drive away and leave him. They end up going to the Grand Canyon because they had all the gear for rafting on a river, and they thought that people looking for them wouldn’t think to check there. All seven kids go through many tough situations where they have to stand for what they think is right, not just what Troy, the “leader,” says. Al finds them and tries to set them up because they were in trouble, but they always find a way to get away from him.

I selected this book because it looked like a book of adventure. I really enjoyed the story, and I thought it was well plotted out. Nothing happened too fast, but nothing happened to slow. There was always sometime in the book where I could think about what had already happened and. I could never tell what was going to come next, and I was just as surprised as the characters when something big happened. When I don’t have a book to read in free time, I know I can count on Will Hobbs’s books to keep me fascinated!

Richie Rich

Do You Know The Monkey Man?

Butler, Dori. Do You Know The Monkey Man? NY: Scholastic Inc., 2005. 193 pages. (Mystery)

Do You Know the Monkey Man was about a girl named Samantha Wright who did not know her father all her life because he disappeared when she was only three years old. He disappeared right after Sam’s twin sister died in the old quarry……. Or did she?!Now she is thirteen and wants to find him. She sets about looking for him by asking around her family, looking at the library and going to see a psychic who said her twin sister was alive . None of these things help Sam find her dad, but out of nowhere her friend said she could find a detective online. They found a detective and emailed him. He emailed back three days later and said that he thought that he had found a match! Sam called him but he didn’t answer so she left a message saying who she was. He never called back so Sam called him again four days later……….and the phone number was changed. Will Sam ever find her dad, or if her sister is still alive???

I enjoyed this book because I was drawn into it. Dori made this book a suspenseful and sensitive take on a family’s crisis brought on by a thirteen year old girls search for the truth! I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys meaningful stories. Including guys, just because the book is about a girl’s story doesn’t mean guys won’t like it just as much as I do!!

Lexi Swartzenegger

Danger.com: @6//Bad Intent/

Cray, Jordan. Danger.com: @6//Bad Intent/ NY: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1998. 225 pages (Thriller)

The book that I read was called Danger.com: @6//Bad Intent/. The main characters are Brian Rittenhouse, Dawn Sedaris, Lobo (who was Brian as well), and Mal Bouchard. The story takes place at their high school, Bloomfield High. The problem they face was that some jocks at their school shot their coach and are on trial for it. There was also strange stuff going on. This stuff was like people are changing and people are dying. People are changing by going crazy; in the story it says “Bloomfield was getting more full of psychos every day.” People are committing suicide and people are killing other people. The characters go about solving the problem by figuring out facts on who did what at their school. Some other interesting facts are that Brian is in love with Dawn, but Dawn is one of the popular girls who only talks to nerds, like Brian, when they need help. I loved this book, and the series it’s in. I would recommend this book to people because it is a very good book and its one of those stories where it makes you wants to keep reading. If you like mystery stories then this is a book to read. I would also check out the Danger.com series.

Logan@Wolverine.Xmen

Closer Than Ever

Gunn Jones, Robin. Closer Than Ever. MN: Minneapolis, 1955. 152 pages. (Romance)

Sierra Jensen and her dearest friend are celebrating their graduation from Christen high school, and they all are accepted to Rancho Corona University. Sierra’s friend Paul, is coming to Sierra’s graduation. Paul and Sierra were very close friends for a long time. Did their likes grew into love?

Everything was going perfect, the lobster was cooking, Sierra’s friends were decorating Sierra’s house, and Sierra’s brothers went mini golfing so that they can’t mess up the party. But the only thing that was missing is Paul! Where is Paul? Sierra was having a felling that something bad happened to Paul. Sierra older sister and Paul’s older brother went to the airport to see if Paul was there waiting for a ride to Sierra’s house. But he wasn’t there! Is Paul kidnapped, killed or ever in the hospital? Sierra didn’t know what to do, and the party has to start! Everyone in the house went down to their knees, and prayed so that Paul is safe.

A lot of the things that happened in the book happened in my life, like when Sierra was waiting for Paul come to the graduation, she was praying to God that Paul is all right and safe. My family and I were waiting for my cousin, Natalya to come our house but her airplane wasn’t there, went my dad got there! My dad called home and told my family that Natalya wasn’t there. So my grandpa made my whole family go on our knees, and pray that she would show up. And she showed up about 2 am.

DeanMyers