Touching Spirit Bear

Touching Spirit Bear

Ben Mikaelsen

Harper Collins in 2001

Summary:

Cole Mathews is a young boy that is angry- with the world and his family and himself. One day, Cole takes out his anger on another boy named Peter Driscall. He smashes Peter's head against the sidewalk and Peter ends up with almost permanent brain damage. As punishment for Cole, he has to go to an island in Alaska for a year so that he can learn how to heal and to let his anger leave. At first, Cole destroys the shelter that was built for him and tries to swim an escape. He can't escape that way and is brought back to the island where he is mauled by the great Spirit Bear. He is left to die. During this time, he learns a lot about himself and changes. Cole learns how to release his mind and roll his anger away and how to do the animal dances and how to carve and how to forgive. He learns so much about himself and about life and others.

Review:

I have read this book before and I think that it is a pretty good book. I like how Cole changes so drastically and that you know why and how he changed so much. I like the drastic differences between the Cole then and the Cole at the end of the book. I liked the people that tried to help him, Garvey and Edwin, who were always there to help him through his trials and to care about him. I like how there were some lessons in the book that everyone can learn- about love and trust and anger and revenge.

Cautionary Note:

This book has a lot of gross things in it. He eats things that people wouldn't normally eat and he as well as Peter get beat up pretty bad, which explains how they were beat up and the damage it caused. The mauling of the bear was really violent and bloody.

Uglies

Uglies

Scott Westerfeld

Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing in 2005

Summary:

Tally is an Ugly. Everyone is an ugly until they turn 16 which is when the have the big operation and turn Pretty. Tally meets a girl named Shay, who doesn't want to turn Pretty so she runs away to join the other Uglies that didn't want to turn Pretty. The government, or the people who are in charge, the Specials, take Tally and tell her that if she wants to be a Pretty, then she has to go and find Tally and bring the Specials to them so that they can get them back to "where they belong." Tally doesn't want to do this to her friend but she goes and finds she likes it there, in "The Smoke." Tally accidentally lets the Specials know where The Smoke is and they come and take most of the people away. Tally tries to rescue them but she may need rescuing herself.

Review: I really liked this book! It was interesting and I loved how it had romance as well as character. I loved Tally. She came to realize what she really wanted and who she wanted to be, or not to be. I liked seeing her change and grow throughout the book. I liked Shay, who showed her the way and I liked David, how he really grew to like her a lot. It was a really good book.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

By E. Lockhart

2008 by Hyperion

Summary: Frankie is a sophmore at a boarding school when a senior boy starts to take interest in her that she has had a crush on for a very long time. Matthew, this senior, takes her into his circle of friends and they start to date. Frankie learns that Matthew is a part of this secret club called the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, which is an all-male society and which Frankie feels very excluded from. She takes on a fake identity and starts to participate in the tricks that the club does.

Review: I think that this is my favorite book of the ones that we have had to read this semester. I love how Frankie doesn't simply sit back and let Matthew tell her what to do or what not to get in to. She takes charge of things and doesn't let herself be underestimated. She sticks up for what she believes in and what she wants. I love Frankie's character and the kind of girl that she is.

Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl

Eoin Colfer

Published in 2001 by Hyperion Books

This book is about a twelve year old genius who captures one of the dangerous fairies so that he can get a ransom for her. He is so smart in the way that he does this. He captures her and learns all of the fairy secrets. He goes about trying to get this gold and he uses his wits and cleverness to make sure that his plan goes perfectly. Even the dangerous and smart fairies cannot outdo Artemis in this novel of danger and suspense. 

I liked this book a lot! I had never considered a twelve year old that could be as smart as Artemis Fowl is in this book. It was strange because he was the bad guy but I liked him a lot! I liked his personality and I loved his butler and Butler's little sister. I loved his personality and how he was so smart. 

There was a little bit of swearing in this book and some violence. 

A Long Way From Chicago

A Long Way from Chicago

Richard Peck

Published in 1998 by Scholastic Inc.

This book is about these two children who go to their grandmother's house every summer to spend time with her and their many adventures that they go on with her. They go on these crazy adventures with their crazy grandmother and learn all about themselves and the people that they are. 

This book was really funny! It was full of stories that always kept me entertained and I loved learning about all of the different characters. I loved how hilarious all of the stories were and all of the things that they went through during the summer with their grandmother. 

Beauty

Beauty

Robin McKinley

Published in 1978 by HarperCollins Publishers

Beauty starts off with a young girl that is named Beauty. She has two other sisters and her mother has died so it is only her father is still alive. Her father's business has a horrible disaster occur where they are left with nothing. They travel to a different town to start life over, as a poor family in the country. One day, her father leaves to check on one of the ships that was lost in the disaster. He comes back telling a tale of how he had come upon an enchanted castle and had tried to pick a rose for Beauty because that is what she had asked for when he left. The beast, the master of that castle, took him and told him that he had to give him one of his daughters or he would take him instead. Beauty volunteers to go to the Beast and take him up on his offer. She goes to the castle and learns to love the beast. In the end, she decides that she truly does love the beast and he is turned back into a man and they are married. 

I liked this book alright. It wasn't one of my favorites because it seemed pretty cheesy and just like another one of those fairy tales that are told a million times. I did like the characters in it though. I liked Beauty the best because she didn't really care that she wasn't as beautiful as her other sisters, she just knew that she could make up for it in other ways and she believed in herself to do things that she needed to do to help her family and to be happy. She was a strong character and I loved her for it. I liked the arrangement of the story. It was like Beauty and the Beast but a little bit different and I liked it but I feel like this kind of story is told all the time but it was told well, even if it was a little cheesy.

Becoming Naomi Leon

Becoming Naomi Leon

Pam Munoz ryan

Published in 2004 by Scholastic Inc.

This book is about a girl and a boy named Naomi and Owen. Naomi is a quiet girl and Owen is her little brother. They both live with her grandmother until their mother shows up and decides that she wants to take Naomi with her to Las Vegas but while she is there, for that little time she is, Naomi and Owen see that she is a bad mother- she drinks alcohol and she slapped her daughter and she is not very nice. She scares her children. She's left them once before and only wants to use Naomi. Naomi, Owen, and their grandmother travel to Mexico to find the children's father and so the judge, who is overlooking this case as to whether or not Naomi should go and live with her mother, will decide that it is best for them both to continue to live with their grandmother. They go to the festival where they carve from radishes and they find the children's father and he sends a letter with them so that they can live with their grandmother and they find out that their father really does still love them and wants to be with them but can't so he will help so that they can live with someone who will love them and care for them. 

I loved this book! It was very well written and I loved all of the characters in it. They were all so different. I hated that mother and I loved Owen and Naomi. They all grew to be the kind of characters that anyone would want to be- strong and confident in themselves. I liked how Naomi never lost track of what she wanted. She stayed strong and never let herself get down but she went through a lot of tough times. 

I don't think that there is anything to warn against in this book. It was really good!

Black Storm Comin'

Diane Lee Wilson

Pubished in July of 2005

Black Storm Comin' is about a boy named Colton Wescott. Him and his family are moving to California to live with his mom's sister. His mom and his aunt are both black and they are going to take the freedom papers to her and go to live with her. On this journey, his father runs off and never comes back. His mom has a baby, which dies soon after birth. His mother becomes very ill and she needs a doctor. Colton gets his family to a town with a doctor and knows that he needs to make money somehow so he gets a job with the pony express. It may seem like a simple job but it is full of danger and cold and he has a hard time with this job, although he loves it. 

It took me awhile to finish this book and also to get into it because I don't read many westerns so I wasn't used to the kind of writing that it was in and I couldn't really get used to the story line and the horses and everything that are in westerns. I liked it in the end though. I learned about Colton and I loved how he always stayed strong, even from the beginning. 

This book had some swearing in it but that is about all that I would warn about. 

War Is

War Is

Marc Aronson and Patty Campbell

Published by Candlewick Press in September of 2008

War Is is a book about war. It is a collection of articles about war and what it means and what goes on in war and how certain people feel about war. But most of the articles were about our own American soldiers. It is a book about what people feel about war and what war entails. It is telling everything that anyone would want to know about war. It talks about the truth about war and it is for young adults who need to know about war from people that have experienced it first hand. It is people's thoughts and experiences from wars that they have been through. It tells what people say is the truth about what war really is and that everyone should read it and know about all of the things that is talked about.

I can't decide if I like this book or not. I read it and was amazed at what I had read. I had not known a lot of the things that were talked about. I hadn't realized what was going on when people talked about war and I hadn't realized what sorts of things real people had to go through when they experienced these kinds of things. I think that the things talked about are things that every person should know about so that they can make better decisions about going to war or signing up for something that they don't know about entirely.

This book has  a lot to warn against. There is a lot of violence and a lot of swear words. There are a lot of images that are hard to ignore as well. 

Ella Enchanted

Ella Enchanted

Gail Carson Levin

Published in September 19998 by HarperCollins Publishing

Ella Enchanted is about a girl named Ella who, when she was born, was given a "gift." A fairy gave her the gift of obedience. She had to do whatever anyone ordered her to do. Her mother died from an illness and only her and their cook/fairy god-mother knew of the curse. One cruel girl learns of the curse though and forces her to do things against her will. This cruel girl named Hattie's mother marries her father and Hattie makes her life miserable. Meanwhile, Ella falls in love with the prince, Prince Char. He is the only spot in her life that is not miserable. She wants to marry Char but knows that it would never be good for him because of her obedience, which could create problems so she tries to find the fairy that gave her the curse so that she can take it away. 

I really really liked this book. It was a nice fluffy read and I liked how it wasn't a dark, deep book but just a fun one that was easy to read. I loved Ella's character. She was strong and tried to fight her curse. I loved that even though she tried to break the curse before and disobey, she could never truly do it until Char, the prince that she falls in love with, is in danger because of her curse. I liked seeing how Ella's character changed throughout the book- she started out strong and became stronger. I wish I could be more like her. I liked this version of Cinderella a lot. 

This book doesn't really have anything to be cautionary about. I would recommend it to anyone.