“Blood on the River: James Town 1607″ by Elisa Carbone

In “Blood on the River: James Town 1607,” Samuel is a street orphan picked to be the page of Captain John Smith on his voyage to the New World. Sam is excited because he hears gold washes ashore with every tide.

As he travels from England to Virginia on the stormy seas and has contact with the Native people, Sam realizes the New World is nothing like he imagined. The settler’s troubles begin in the summer of 1607 with a mysterious illness, and by winter they are starving.

As he learns the language of the Algonquian Indians and observes Captain Smith, Samuel begins to see he can be whoever he wants to be in this new land.

Blood on the River

“The Daughters” by Joanna Philbin

Fourteen-year-old Lizzie has a gorgeous supermodel mom, and is always surrounded by photographers. She hates the spotlight, as well as her ugly eyes and frizzy hair. Lizzie spends time with her best friends Carina and Hudson, who are also daughters of celebrities. They have a pact to always stay together and help each other out, no matter the crisis.

When a photographer tells Lizzie even though she’s not pretty, she can be the new face of beauty, Lizzie freaks. With Carina and Hudson’s help, she decides to try out this new world of modeling. While doing so, she finds a talent she didn’t know she had, and suddenly becomes a hot celebrity without even trying. Her life begins to change, but all she wants is time with Todd, the handsome guy in her 9^th grade class.

Find out how Lizzie deals with her ups and downs, and her sudden fame in “The Daughters.”

The Daughters

“A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park

“A Long Walk to Water” tells two stories, the story of a young girl forced to walk miles every day for water for her family, which they drink – even though it’s muddy and full of diseases. The other is Salva’s story.

When Salva was 11 years old his village was attacked by rebels. When forced to flee, Salva lost touch with his family and wandered with other refugees trying to find food, water and a place to stay. We read of the tragedies that befell him, the near starvation he endured, and the years spent in refugee camps.

After almost 13 years, he was one of a group of boys chosen to go to the United States where they became known as “The Lost Boys of the Sudan.” This is his true story, including his story of bringing clean water to villages in the Sudan.

A Long Walk to Water

Great New Books

I’ve been reading and reading and reading and reading and…well, you get the idea. Here are some book reviews for some of my favorites. Enjoy!

Bamboo People

Bamboo people by Mitali Perkins

Chiko was 15 years old when his father was taken away and jailed by the Burmese government. Several months have passed and the family is hungry. While trying to get a job as a teacher, Chiko is taken by the Burmese army and forced to become a soldier. While in the Burmese camp, he meets other child soldiers and is sent on a mission to attack a Karenni hut. The Karenni are a minority group of Burma, and the Burmese blame them for all their problems. When Chiko is injured in a mine explosion, his life intermingles with the Karenni and his enemy meets their enemy. This is their story.

Bruiser

Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

Brother and sister Bronte and Tennyson are having a problem. Bronte is dating Bruiser, a big, gorilla like, homeless looking guy who lives in a broken down shack with his drunken uncle and little brother. What does Bronte see in this guy? He’s a nobody, and nobody likes him. Tennyson makes it his business to make sure they don’t spend anytime together. Instead, he starts to find out strange things about Bruiser. Why does Bruiser’s back look all bruised and beaten? Why does his beat up knuckles suddenly heal, yet Bruiser’s knuckles are now all bruised? As Bronte and Tennyson find out more about Bruiser, they find that sometimes all someone needs is a friend. Can they be that friend for Bruiser before it’s too late?

Good Fortune

Good Fortune by Noni Carter

Sarah was only 4 yrs. old when she was kidnapped from her village in Africa, thrown into a ship with other captives, and sold as a slave to a Tennessee plantation owner. Life as a slave is difficult but Sarah, now 14, dreams of freedom and a chance to learn to read and write. While taking care of Massa’s children, Sarah teaches herself to read and write a little – even though it’s dangerous, and starts to think of escaping to the North. When the time comes to put her plan into action, Sarah and her brother Daniel manage to escape, but leaving the plantation is just the beginning of what life has in store for them.

Red Umbrella

The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

Fourteen-year-old Lucia is enjoying life as a teenager in 1961 Cuba when Castro’s revolution changes her life. Her father loses his job, people start to get arrested and killed and the family is being watched because of their anti-Castro beliefs. Her parents decide to send her and her brother to the U.S. for their safety through Operation Pedro Pan. Lucia describes her new life in a foreign country and her struggles between trying to stay Cuban while becoming an American.

 

 

Ruby Notebook

The Ruby Notebook by Laura Resau

Zeeta has lived in 16 different countries by the time she turned 16 years old. Using different colored notebooks to record her feelings and thoughts for each country has helped guide Zeeta through the constant changes the moves have generated. Now living in Aix-en-Provenance France, and using a ruby notebook for her writings, Zeeta has confusing feelings of love for a dashing street performer named Jean-Claude and for Wendell, the incredibly handsome teen she’d met in Ecuador a year earlier, who is coming to France for the summer. To add to her confused state, she is getting secret messages and gifts from a phantom admirer while longing for the father she never got to know. Wendell and Zeeta agree to help an old couple find a fountain of youth guarded by a secret group of Celtic gypsies, and find themselves drawn into a mystery that has eluded searchers for centuries.

Total Tragedy of a girl named Hamlet

The Total tragedy of a girl named Hamlet by Erin Dionne

Hamlet is mortified. It’s embarrassing having parents who love Shakespeare so much that they dress, cook and act like it’s the 1600’s. What’s even more embarrassing is having her genius 7-year-old sister attend 8^th grade with her. Even though Hamlet tries her best to keep her parents away from her school life, the new 8^th grade Shakespeare unit on A Midsummer Night’s Dream is her new nightmare. Hamlet feels like she is living through a Shakespearean tragedy. All she wants to do is make it through 8^th grade, but her parents and her sister aren’t making it easy.

 

“Radiance” by Alyson Noel

“Radiance” by Alyson Noel

When Riley died at the age of 12 in a car accident, she left her sister Ever in the Earth Plane, and crossed the bridge into the afterlife, a place called Here. While living Here, she has to learn her place in life. She finds out that Here is not just for lying around with a harp on a cloud. She is expected to work, and is assigned a job as Soul Catcher. Her first assignment is to return to Earth to get Radiant Boy, a ghost who’s been haunting a castle in England for centuries, to cross the bridge to Here. Many Soul Catchers have tried and failed. Now, it’s up to Riley.

(Riley was first featured in “The Immortals,” a series by Alyson Noel where her sister Ever is the main character).

Check out the new Book Trailer for “Radiance.”

“Chains” by Laurie Halse Anderson

“Chains” by Laurie Halse Anderson: At the start of the Revolutionary War, Isabel is sold to a cruel Loyalist family even though her former owner had promised her freedom. Shipped to N.Y., she hopes for a day when she and her little sister will belong to no one. She meets Curzon, who convinces her that the only way to freedom is to help the rebels by spying on her new owners. Faced with the choice of working for or against the British, she chooses to side with herself and work with anyone who can help her.

“Anything but typical” by Nora Raleigh Baskin

“Anything but typical” by Nora Raleigh Baskin: Jason is autistic, but is able to take words and letters to write creative stories. In this book, he tells us his story. Through Jason, we learn about what it’s like to be autistic. We find out how simple things like the air in a room, the lights and our body language can be upsetting. Jason meets Rebecca online through a writer’s group where he gets a chance to just be himself through his stories. He is excited to have her as his first friend; until he finds out they will meet at a writing convention. Now he’s afraid she won’t like him because he’s autistic.

“Accidental Love” by Gary Soto

“Accidental Love” by Gary Soto: Marisa has been in trouble her whole life. Now that she’s in high school, nothing seems to have changed – until the day she beats up the guy who cheated on her best friend. On that day, she drops her cell phone. When she returns it to Rene, the guy it belongs to, she winds up meeting the love of her life. Even though Rene is a total nerd, with white socks and high water pants and loves school, that doesn’t bother Marisa – even though she hates school and is stronger than he is. Theirs is definitely an Accidental Love made in heaven.

“Academy 7″ by Anne Osterlund

“Academy 7″ by Anne Osterlund: Aerin has escaped 6 years of brutal slavery on another planet. Dane has an angry father who’s a General in the Alliance but hates his own son. The two of them meet when they’re accepted to the prestigious Academy 7 school. There, while learning how to stay safe, they become friends, and soon begin to fall for each other. They also find themselves mixed up in a secret that’s so dangerous it could affect their entire universe.

Hi-Lo Book Reviews #3: “MP3 Mind Control”

(Book Review #3 written by Kostya, Aaron and Harry from Ms. George’s 6th grade class):

“MP3 Mind Control” by Jonny Zucker

The main setting: The main settings are Keisha’s house, and the school.

Other settings: Some other settings are the desert, Zzone building and the Zzone store.

Genre: The genre of the book is sci fiction.

Situation: Keisha has just bought the newest version of an MP3 Player. She is so happy. She has saved her money for months and can’t wait to use it. But then she finds something weird about it. It reads her mind and other people’s too. She tries to tell her friends about it but they don’t believe her. They get into many fights in the book. The MP3 creators are up to something and Keisha wants to get to the bottom of it. But how will she do it without her friends?

Characters: Keisha is a girl who has the MP3 mind controller. She is the main character. Keisha has a best friend named Shelly. Shelly does not believe Keisha about the mind controller. Dr. Grey is the inventor of the MP3 mind controller. She wants to know everything about teenagers.

After the Book: After I read the book I did not think the book was over. Dr. Grey still had the chip and it wasn’t destroyed. I think that Dr. Grey will be back and make another piece of evil technology that reads minds and the girls will stop Dr. Grey again.

My favorite character is Keisha because she is the main character of the story and at the end she saves the country from being under the control of a mad woman!!!!!!!

My favorite part in the story is when the factory blows up because it is the only action part and that caught my eyes when I read that part.

My favorite quote in the story is when Shelly said “I wish I hadn’t finished the cornflakes yesterday” at page 18, because it was funny and interesting that she felt badly just for eating cornflakes.

I would recommend this book to people that have any system that has music on it. I wouldn’t recommend this book to people that get scared too easily. And I would recommend this story to people that are fast readers and want to read a book quickly.