A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer reviewed by Michaela Chauvie

A child Called It by Dave Pelzer is a true story based on a boys life that grew up and was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally, unstable alcoholic mother. She would play torturous and unpredictable games with him which left him nearly dead. Some of the games included him drinking ammonia and Clorox, this would burn his throat and his immune system terribly. His mother would starve him for days and sometimes weeks at a time. He got to the point that he needed to steel food from the grocery stores and his classmates lunches. when his mother found out that he stole food, she would make him throw it back up and re-eat it. One of her favorites games that she would play with him was having him eat his baby brothers feces. She started to get worse and worse and no longer considered him as a human or her son, she referred him as an "it", her slave. When he goes to school and teachers ask about his bruises, he is forced to lie because his mother brainwashed him. He always gets punished whenever he does not complete his chores within the time limit she gave him. His only hope and love was from his father. His father would sneak him food whenever his mother was not around. Later down the road when his mother got worse, his father decided to move out and Dave's dreams of hope and love was crushed and no longer existed. He would live down in the basement on an army cot without blankets or a heater. One day, she stabbed him in the chest and he almost died but suffered through the pain. By the end of the book his mother finally got caught and he was sent to a foster home. In the second book called, "the lost boy" is about him moving through foster homes. I found this book extremely interesting because these things really do happen in our everyday life.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower written by : Stephen Chbosky Reviewed by Rena Dragony

The Perks of being a Wallflower.

  The definition of a wallflower is someone who see's things, keeps quiet about them, and understands them. And that is exactly how Charlie is. Charlie is just starting out his freshman year of high school. Charlie isn't like all of the other kids at school, he's never been one to socialize ever since his best friend killed himself. High-school is very big to Charlie and he feels as if he was not accepted by anyone. Then comes along seniors Sam and Patrick. They accept Charlie for being a wallflower, and let him in. Charlie faces many obstacles after he meets Sam and Patrick. This book speaks on how Charlie comes to deal with his mental problems with the help of his friends. Charlie cares about everyone. He just doesn't know how to show it. By the end of the book he faces his past, and becomes one with himself. 

I have read this book over five times, and it gets better every time. I feel as if I can relate to Charlie's fear of not being accepted. But I have accepted my self and so did Charlie. This book can be upsetting, but you have to read it with an open mind. Being a wallflower is special. And this book is very special. So its cool and you should all read it.

House Rules -- Jodi Picoult -- Review by Monica Rocha

House Rules

by Jodi Picoult



        Jodi Picoult's novel, House Rules, is a real page turner because it is about a family who is trying to fit in but is suddenly the talk of the town. One of the main characters is Jacob Hunt, who is a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome. He cannot express himself to others and is hopeless at reading social clues. However he has an interest in forensic analysis which could be the cause to why he is involved with a murder in his town. Emma is the mother of Jacob and has been protecting him from any dangers. Theo is Jacobs’s brother who constantly feels like he is left out because his mother's focus is on his brother. Rich is a detective who is facing problems of his own but is now involved with Jacobs’s family. Oliver is a lonely lawyer who is representing Jacob through a murder case. Lastly, Jess is the girl who gets murdered, or in better words, is found dead. The muder of this girl causes Jacob to be suspected as the killer but could it really be logical for him to be able to commit such an act?

       This novel is not just about the murder that has occured but it is also about a family bond. In the Hunt house there is only one rule that Jacob always follows which is “Take care of your brother; he’s the only one you’ve got.” Jacob has just been charged with murder and he keeps telling officers and detective Rich that he did not kill Jess. He tells them that he just simply moved her body but all the clues lead to him. Detective Rich does not understand why Jacob keeps lying to him because he is clearly guilty with all the clues but Emma tries to explain that he did not kill Jess. Jacob does not know how to explain himself to the court because he has never been comfortable around a crowd that he doesn’t know. Oliver is trying to defend Jacob but with so many clues that scream guilty, he starts to believe that Jacob is indeed guilty of murder. When all the clues begin to unwind, Jacob tells his story of how he found Jess in a pool of her own blood and how he cleaned the whole scene to make it look like something else had happened. He appeared very guilty but when the court asks him if he killed her he keeps responding with “no, I just moved her body”. In the end it is discovered that Jess' death is an accident because she was startled when Theo was snooping through a house she was watching. Jacob was on his way to her house for a meeting with her when he realized that his brother had been there before him. Jacob cleaned the whole scene so that his brother would not be at fault for this accident because he was simply following the family rule.

       Jodi Picoult's way of write is very interesting because with each character she writes in a different font and their own thoughts are described in the chapters. It's incredible how the readers are able to read and understand all the characters' thoughts including Jacob who has trouble displaying his emotions. The readers get to understand what every character is going through because Jodi Picoult gives brief background history as well as details to what is happening outside of their life. Picoult has been known for starting the first chapter with the climax and from then on she makes the readers wonder throughout the whole story on what really happened to Jess and how she was killed. Of course any reader could go to the end of the book and read the final thoughts to see what actually happened. Readers don't really know which characters to trust and Jacob was just automatically blamed because he seemed like a shady person. House Rules is a very exciting book that everyone should read because of the high and lows of each chapter.



The Waston's Go To Birmingham

The Waston's Go To Birmingham

 it’s about an African American family from Flint, Mich., that drives to Alabama for a long visit with relatives in the summer of 1963, where, of course, they peripherally experience certain key moments in the civil rights struggle, including the deadly bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church three weeks after the historic march on Washington.

It's a great read. Not something I can relate to, but it's a great story to read.

Hosoi by Zack Z.

So basically this book is an autobiography on one of the origanal skate pioneers and one of the worlds best skateboarders Christain Hosoi.
His life is relatable for many teens as far as partying and skateboarding. But his life was misguided from the start. His father who is a man of love taught him how to roll joints at age 6. he was always skateboarding throughout his life. At age 8 lost his virginity to a random girl his dad set him up with. He was in trouble alot for drugs and stuff. Soon he was doing Coke and Meth but still skating and was one of the best in the world even at that young. His life was a huge party but was goign down hill, his sponsers were letting him go and he was losing friends left and right. All the fame and glory and movie actinbg and sponsership was comming to an end when he hooked up with a girl from a club who would do meth with him. Soon she convinced him to change his ways and quit meth and focus on God all the while getting fame back. He now has two kids, still sponsered, loves God and his family and skates with all the modern pros. this book was good but crazy, all in all i really enjoyed it and think its a powerful story.
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Ender's Game

Ender's Game, By Orson Scott Card

Review by Joel Kaderka

It has been a while since I read the beginning of this book, so forgive me if key points have been left out. I love this book and have read many books of the series. A strong piece that attached to me in this book is the military's involvement. The broad summary of this book involves the following. It is in the future, where Government even controls the amount of kids you have, and the only reason they have you have more than two kids is if they think your third would be a great space soldier. This is what Ender was, a Third, a derogative nickname for these kids. His official name is Andrew Wiggin, but goes by Ender since birth. His older brother, Peter, hates him for being better. His sister, who is inbetween their ages, loves him and protects him from Peter. Ender is without a doubt brilliant, and the government tests his skills for years, until they feel he is ready, accelerating him through training, starting two years young at age six and becoming commander around sixteen. Our war is no longer a petty human conflict. The buggers are out there, properly known as formics, and live as a hive of human-sized insects in the universe. After Ender leaves Earth for Battle School, he only sees our world again for about a month during his ten year training spree. Battle School is like bootcamp in space, where kids are in armies of fourty and battle eachother in null gravity rooms with high-tec, non-harming laser guns. This doesn't prevent Ender's mind from being harmed, however. He undergoes extreme stress from these burdens, and some may even call this ten year process psychological torture. He graduates from there extremely early, never losing a battle during his command no matter what odds. He even killed a guy at Battle School, as a part of The International Fleet's (I.F.'s) process of making him the perfect commander, but he was never informed of this mortality. He skips through several schools and goes to Command School, and a few of the semi-friend, intelligent kids from Battle School soon follow to be Captains under him. I say semi-friend because I.F. never allowed him to be able to depend on someone, for this would have ruined him as a Commander. When saving humans by wiping out the Buggers long after they attacked us, there is no friend to rely on, and I.F. wanted to make this clear for Ender. He soon meets his mentor, Mazer Rackham, the "savior" of mankind during the Second Invasion, who was presumably dead. He is thought to have died in battle, and even more uncanny is that he should have died from old age by now, but space travel slows time for the traveller. In training with Rackham, he does mock Fleet commanding on computer with his Captains. What they do not know is these are actual battles they are commanding, not play scenarios. Finally, they reach the last battle, involving a planet (the Bugger's home world). Soon after succeeding, Ender finds out he just commited Xenocide, killing the entire alien race off. It is amazing what we will do to a human being just to benefit others. He was not even an adult

yet. Years later of space travel to various, some uninhabited, worlds, Ender comes upon an old Bugger world, and finds a cocoon. He promises the cocooned Bugger Queen, through their mind communication to him, that he will search as long as it takes until he finds a world for them. This brings a sort of bittersweet ending, with the hopes for Ender to redeem himself.

It is a great book! I have read it three times and several of the "sequels". All around 350 pages. Some of the other books are the same timeframe, but from a different character's perspective, others are actual sequels. Great Sci-Fi.

Prince of Wolves

                  Jacque Pierce was just a 17-year-old girl getting ready to start her senior year in high school in Coldspring, Texas. When a mysterious foreign exchange student from Romania moves in across the street, Jacque and her two best friends, Sally and Jen, don't realize the last two weeks of their summer are going to get a lot more interesting. From the moment Jacque sets eyes on Fane she feels an instant connection, a pull. Little does she know that she is drawn to is actually a Canis lupis, werewolf, and she just happens to be his mate; the other half of his soul. Jacque soon discovers things about her past that she would of never of known unless Fane didn't show up. Not a week later from when Fane shows up she is now in a house of werewolves that back fires when the Alpha of Coldspring, Texas clam's her as his. Jacque then watches Fane fight for his life fighting what is rightfully his. Jacques life took a full one-eighty again when she was put into the hospital because of an accident, then she got kidnapped. Not only all of that she is now forced to Romania. Will her best friends be able to go with her or are they stuck in Texas? What other struggles do Jacque and her friends face? If you are interested in supernatural books i would highly recommend The Grey Wolves Series.When i first starting this series i found it hard to put down. Ive read the series about three times and i love these books. The seven books in that series are Prince of Wolves, Blood Rights, Just One Drop, Out Of The Dark, Beyond The Veil, Fate and Furry and Sacrifice of love.