Reading+Annotations

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=Welcome to our Reading = =Annotation page, the = =place where you can = =connect with books! =

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[|Iowa Core] suggests students independently read [|25 books and texts each year]. These books should include both fiction and nonfiction in a variety of genres. In order to help encourage students to increase their independent reading, every English 303 student will prepare two annotations per semester on one of the independent reading books or texts they have read during the semester. An annotation is a critical or subjective evaluation of a piece of work (something like a book review), usually included in a bibliography or citation. Students will prepare a 150-200 word annotation about their chosen texts and post them on this Reading Annotations page of our HartwigEnglish303 Wiki. Each student will be responsible for two annotations per semester.  It is my hope that each student will not only enjoy the books and texts they read, but will also enjoy sharing information and their opinion about the books. =====

===To submit your annotation, please follow the format  example  below in purple  (including the MLA citation, __Annotation__, __Evaluation__, and __Notes__ sections) and then email your annotation to Mrs. Hartwig. Please note that all annotations MUST BE E-MAILED. The main reason you are to submit your annotation electronically rather than handing it to Mrs. Hartwig in person is because this is a 21st Century skill you will be using in college and business.  Most college classes require that you submit assignments electronically. Therefore, it is my hope that you will get familiar with and used to this form of submission now in order to help you in college. In addition, more and more businesses are requiring their employees and customers to submit information and documents electronically. This is a skill you must be at ease with. ===

You will be graded on your annotation according to the following rubric:[[image:Picture_9.png]]
=== Below is a sample of how your book annotation should be formatted. Remember your R.A.F.T. You are a reader summarizing and evaluating (Role) for your peers and classmates (Audience) in an annotation (Format) about your chosen text (Topic). ===

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** Through a wardrobe, behind the coats, is the magical land of Narnia. The Pevensie children find themselves fighting to defend the land in the wardrobe. While playing hide and seek, Lucy Pevensie steps through a magical wardrobe into the land of Narnia. She spends the afternoon having tea with a faun, but when she returns, it is gone, only minutes after she left. Soon she returns to Narnia with her two brothers, Peter and Edmond, and her sister Susan. They are told from a family of talking beavers that the four of them fulfill a prophecy where they become the rulers of Narnia and defeat the White Witch who rules tyrannically over Narnia. The children begin to travel to meet Aslan, a lion and the rightful ruler of Narnia. Edmond is tempted away by the White Witch and is held prisoner. In order to rescue their brother and save Narnia an epic battle ensues between the forces of good and evil. ** =====

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**I highly recommend this great story. It is filled with literary techniques, mainly allegory. Its narrative can help teens understand how literary techniques are used to bring more layers to the story than what is simply on the surface. ** =====

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** Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician's Nephew, and The Last Battle ** =====

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**<span style="color: #6b0fae; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">*In 2005, Walt Disney Pictures released a film adaptation of <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">// The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe .// ** ===== <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(adapted from annotation by Carrie M. Kreutz at  http://kreutzlibr26510database.blogspot.com/2009/05/lion-witch-and-wardrobe.html)

Tiffany Ruhr Naylor, Phyllis. __Shiloh__ 1991 by Macmillan Publishing Company __ Annotation __ When Marty finds Shiloh out by the schoolhouse he takes him home. But when his parents figure out who’s it is they make him take him back. He fights for the dog because he knows that his owner is abusing him. Shiloh comes to Marty’s house and his owner gets mad. This story is a good story that shows love. __ Evaluation __ This is a great book. I recommend it to anyone who has a care for animals especially ones that have been abused. __ Notes __ This book has been made into a movie and sequels after that.

Brett Keegan Pilkey, Dav. //__Captain Underpants and the wrath of the wicked wedgie women.__// New York: Broadway, 2001. This book is about two young boys, Harold and George, and a superhero named Captain underpants who is actually their principal, name is Mr. krupp. He only turns in to a superhero when he hears the snap of fingers and he can only become human again when he gets wet. In this story there is a super villon and she is Ms.Ribble and she is retiring, so she has her class write good bye cards and George and Harold make a plan for Mr.kupp and Ms.Ribble to get married. So at the wedding every thing went wrong and she found out about the plan and got mad. Later in the book she gets magic milk poured on her hair which made it become super. Turns out that it took a lot of hair removal to defeat her. But in the end they all got turned back to a human except Mr.kupp he can still be turned in to a superhero. This book is good for people who like adventure, comedy, and superheros, this is a good book. There are 4 other books that i know of.

Jamison Lowe __Cloud of Sparrows__ by Takashi Matsuoka Cloud of Sparrows is set in the year 1861. The book starts with Genji Okumichi looking out into Edo (Tokyo) bay at a missionary ship called “ The Star of Bethlehem”. Three missionaries are aboard the ship and have come from the United States to spread their Christian faith. The late Lord Kiyori, had foreseen of their arrival long before his death. Lord Genji accepts the missionaries into his palace. Prophecy foretells that Lord Genji will be saved by an outsider. The Christian missionaries quickly find themselves in the middle of a battle that has been waged for hundreds of years. The books is read much like a play, it splits off frequently from one scene to the next. Evaluation: I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in feudal Japan, it is my favorite novel. This novel also goes very far to show the difference in morality and ideology between the western world and Japan. Notes: -Takashi Matsuoka wrote a sequel to Cloud of Sparrows titled __Autumn Bridge.__ - This is Takashi Matsuoka’s first novel.

Jamison Lowe __The Book of Five Rings__ by Musashi Miyamoto Translated by Stephen F. Kaufman Annotation: Musashi is legendary in Japan and around the world for his skill in Japanese swordsmanship. The Book of Five Rings was originally intended to be read by samurai. This book is split into five different sections. The book of Earth lays the groundwork for the study of his martial arts; The book of water explains understanding of his methods in martial arts; The book of Fire explains fighting based on the knowledge from the book of Earth and Water; The Book of Wind explains the difference between his teachings and the teaching of other swordsman schools; The book of No-thing explains describes "the spirit of the thing". I found this book very interesting. Evaluation: I would refer this book to anyone who is interested in learning about martial arts. Notes: -Musashi Miyamoto is believed to have partaken in over sixty duels to the death, all of which he won. - Musashi won his first duel at the age of thirteen.

ReAnn Cappel Stephenie Meyer __Twilight__ October 2005 Annotation: Twilight starts out with a girl named “Bella”. She is finally moving back with her dad, to his town. Once the scene sets, you meet Jacob and his father. As this miserable girl lives her life as a regular teen, she is going to school. One of the first few days of school, the Cullen’s family is introduced. Bella doesn’t really know what to think about Edward and same for Edward. As Edward saves her life, they become a “thing.” The two get a little closer and Jacob doesn’t like this idea. Therefore it is like a battle between the two. Bella finds out the truth about Edward and his family and the two of them date. After a few days Bella goes to Edwards’s house to meet his family. Most of them like her, a couple don’t. As the two date, Bella decides she wants to become a vampire also and not be old while he is still young, but Edward doesn’t want it to happen. On a night that Bella goes out with the Cullen’s family, a bad thing happens and Bella is almost supper. She runs away with Edward and leaves her dad behind, she gets hurt and is sent back to live with her dad. Evaluation: I thought this book was an amazing book; it kept my attention through the whole thing. It had parts that made me not want to stop reading. I highly recommend it! Notes: There are 5 books in the whole Twilight series. Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, and Midnight Sun. The first book came out in October 2005.

Jordan Westphalen Kinney, Jeff. __ Diary of a Wimpy Kid __. Amulet Books, 2007 __ Annotation __ Greg is little middle school kid, who still has recess. This is Greg’s first year in middle school and he is skinny and week. He gets a dairy or journal and he starts to write in it. He tells about each month and every single day. He has a wrestling unit in gym and he has to wrestle a girl and he loses. They have a game called “Cheese Touch” and nobody will touch the person with the cheese touch. Greg gets the “Cheese Touch”. __ Evaluation __ I would recommend this book. It is a fast and easy book to read. It has some boring parts in it though. It is a very, very easy book to read. __ Notes __ There are other books in the series. It is a series of five books, counting this book. The fifth book just came out this November.

Ben Nelson John N. Smallwood Jr. __Fear No One the story of Allen Iverson__. Pocket Books, 2001. Print __Annotation:__ As a kid growing up, Allen Iverson lived in poverty for most of his life. No father and crapy livingn conditions, Allen knew he had to get out of there. Allen started basketball when he was young and was an immediate talent and prodigy of the game. In highschool Allen was the number one recruit in the nation. But a problem holds up his carrer of basketball. Will Iverson step up and get through the problems and help his family get out of poverty. __Evaluation:__ This book is a great book for sports fans and people that want to persue dreams of there own. You'll love this book from page one. __Notes:__ This book is based on a biography of Allen Iverson and his a great sports story.

Tori Dolch Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Marty Becker, D.V.M., Carol Kline, and Amy D. Shojai __Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul__ "The Haunted Bowl" New York: New York 2005 Print __Annotation:__ John Arrington bought a $4.95 cream colored bowl from an old store called Jackson's Hay and Feed. He first bought that bowl for a black lab named Swamp. Swamp would lay down with the bowl between his legs to eat. Once he had kidney troubles with 4 months left to live, John got another dog, a yellow lab named Cheddar. First day Cheddar was home, he tried to take a bite out of the bowl while Swamp was eating and he bit Cheddar on the nose, making him get stitches. Swamp later went to that same vet to be put down. Then about 15 years of Cheddar eating out of the bowl, he died. After 13 years of Swamp eating out of the bowl then 15 more years of Cheddar eating out of it, it's time for the new yellow lab, Chamois, to eat of the almost 30 year old bowl. Every day John wonders if Chamois sees the black ghost, Swamp, eating out of the bowl or the yellow ghost, Cheddar, running back and forth eating out of it or does he know John cries every day filling the bowl, thinking of all the memories it has in it. __Evaluation:__ Chicken Soup books are very inspiring so yes I would recommend them to anyone of all ages, because you can find a book that fits your interests. __Notes:__ Chicken Soup as many publishers and all of the stories entered are by every day people. "The Haunted Bowl" was written and entered by John Arrington.

Ashley Haupert Baxter, Mary K. __A Divine Revelation of Hell__ 1993 by Lowery Ministries International Annotation: Have you ever wonder about what Hell is like, where it is, or what happens if you’d get there. Mary K. Baxter soul was taken at night from her sleep by Jesus and he told her that he was going to take her to hell every night and show her what it is like there and tell the world about it because the end is near. Mary went down with Jesus. Hell is in the center of the earth in the shape of the human body. Jesus went through hell and showed her what happened to the people and how they were tormented. The legs are where your soul is kept and your body is down in a jail cell made of fire and you can feel every bit of your flesh burning and the snakes and worms slithering throughout you body. There are many other things that Jesus shows her. After her experiences she wrote this book in inform the world of what could come if you don’t repent for your sins. Evaluation: This book was a very good one. It helped me to realize that I would much rather be in heaven then suffering and being whipped by demons. This book really helped put revelation in perspective and to help understand more about what is to come when Jesus comes back to save us from the Lucifer. This is a very good Christian book and I would recommend it to everyone. Notes: Mary K. Baxter goes around and talks to many places about her encounters with Jesus and her knowledge of Hell to help save the lives of others from having to go through that horrible afterlife. Over a million books have been sold through out the world.

Cody Juelsgaard Anderson, Laurie Halse. __Speak__. United States: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1999. Print. __Annotations__: This book is about a girl who learns to speak up for herself after a chain of events that leads to life-changing results. At the beginning of the school year, Melinda (the main character) is very self-conscious and is always by herself. Earlier that year, during the summer, she was at a party and Andy (a popular guy) took advantage of her and raped her. She then called the police, reporting that she was just raped. The cops then showed up and everybody at the party thought she called the law enforcers to bust the party, so they didn’t like her anymore. Throughout the book, Melinda labels people by her point of view and stereotypes she has developed. She spends much of her time being looked at as an outcast and fighting her feelings that she keeps inside. She even looks down on herself, thinking she has nothing to offer herself or others. At the close of the book, Andy tried to rape her again, but this time she stuck up for herself and threatened to cut him if he proceeded. She screamed and her former friend came to help her. Melinda then earned her friends back that she had before the party incident. They found out why she called the police. She found out that she had a voice, she can speak up for herself, and that she can have a lot to give her family, her friends, and herself. __Evaluation__: This is a good book to recommend to those who are going through hard times or have just been through a tough situation. This book shows how easily we can judge others. It also shows the strengthening of people as they battle tough times. __Notes__: -In 1999, Speak was a finalist for the National Book Award. -Anderson also wrote __Catalyst__, which was set up in the same school as was Speak.

Diana Perkins ANNOTATION: My book is from the Clique series. This one is Clair from the summer collection. Clair had just moved from her loved, warm home town of Kissimee Florida to cold and clique filled Westchester, New York the last school year. Now shes back on vacation in her home town. Ready to reunite with her old best friends. Only problem is they all think she's different since she's hung with Massie and the Pretty Commity. Clair tries to show them she's the same but it get tricky when her fashion sence changes. When the hometowns annual beauty pagent starts she's asked to judge. To top it off, Massie visits and joins the pagient. How can clair choose between her old best friends and her new one? In the end it all works out but in a unexpected way

Sarah Park I'm reading the book Matilda, this book is about a little girl who lives with her family. Her parents are not very nice people. Her dad owns a second-hand garage and he cheats people all day. Her mom is mostly always in town playing bingo. She was at the library almost all day when she's home alone. Matilda is really good at math. Her teacher asked her two times four hundred and eighty-seven. Matilda answered fast and she was correct. The teacher was really surprised that a little girl was so smart.

Carson Heiny Sarah Dessen Keeping the Moon When Colie was younger she was very over weight, her family was poor and always moved around and they drove around in the car eating corn chips and other junk food. When her mother goes to Europe for sales tour, Colie is sent to stay with her Aunt Mira, a woman as overweight, she manages to remain unaware of the rude comments people make behind her back about her clothes, her work and her choice of house-mates. She meets a really cute guy, Morgan, in her aunt's basement. He helps her aunt and works for her. He takes pictures and is very good at it. She goes to a restaurant and meets one of the girls who made fun of her when she was younger. She is afraid to get overweight again and get made fun of. She makes some new friends Isabel and Morgan. They are very nice to her.

Travis Olsen Paulsen, Gary, Hatchet. Delacorte Books, 1987, print. __Annotation__ Brian Robeson, a thirteen year old from New York City who hops on a plane to the Canadian woods to see his father. While going to see his father Brian knows that his mom is having an affair with another man which hurts him a lot. On the plane ride the pilot starts have severe pains which no one though would be a big deal. Then the pilot began to start having a heart attack and later dies. The pilot had given Brian a brief lesson on how to fly the plane so he took over. The plane then crashes into a lake in the woods were everyone is stranded. After the crash Brian thinks he will be rescued. He finds some berries to eat that make him sick. He makes a shelter to stay in where he has many encounters with other visitors. Those visitors are a porcupine and a skunk. Brian also succeeds in making a fire by using his hatchet to start the fire. Brian found many different things for food, like turtle eggs and a fish. A plane flies over which gives him a false sense of hope, which causes him to try and kill himself. Brian then kills a foolbird which is the first red meat he has had while stranded. A tornado comes through which destorys his camp and he is also attacked by a moose in which he is severly injured. After the tornado Brian goes into the plane where he gets a survival pack. He cooks the food in the pack and also finds an emergency transmitter that doesn't seem to do anything. Then right before the meal was ready a plane landed on the lake and Brian was rescued. __Evaluation__ I really would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about the outdoors and adventures. This book is very descriptive and never lets you get out of the story. __Notes__ -a Newbery Honor book -an Ala Notable book -Booklist Editor's Choice book

Kallee Mudd __Annotation:__ It's amazing how you have so many memories of loved ones you have lost. In the story //Mick Harte Was Here//, Phoebe Harte tells us of all the memories of her brother before he died in a bicycle accident. It all started on a normal day when Phoebe and Mick were getting ready for school. When school was over, Phoebe was at soccer practice when she saw the ambulance pull up in front of the school. Even before she was told she knew it had to do with Mick. After being told what had happened in the office, she spent the night at her best friend Zoe's house. It wasn't until the following morning that she got the news that Mick was gone. So many things changed in her life then. She rarely ate (and when the family did eat it was never at the table), had trouble sleeping, and couldn't even bear it when her dad tried to shut the door to Mick's bedroom. One day she decided to go back to the place where the accident was. It tore her apart when she saw a flower in the exact spot. After that, she tried to mention Mick in every conversation possible. Even if it was with the delivery boy or the mailman. Before the memorial service was even to take place, Phoebe is so upset that she keeps on wondering where Mick //really// is. And she won't take heaven for an answer. At this point, Phoebe really starts to question her religious beliefs. But when Zoe told her that Mick could be anywhere like God, she suddenly felt better about knowing if Mick was okay where ever he was. After the memorial service, Phoebe had to go back to school. No one could find the right words to say to her. It only got worse when it was time for lunch. After talking to her "so called friends", she decides to go to the nurse to see if she can go home. But before she got there, her principal steered Phoebe into her office and told her how she moved on after her mother died. Phoebe lost control after that and ran all the way home and shut herself in Mick's room. That night was also the first night everyone sat at the table as a family. One week later, Phoebe was asked to speak at a seminar about biker's safety, and decided to do it. She told everyone how he got a helmet for his birthday but he never wore it because he thought it made him look like a dork. One month after the accident, everything starts to get better at home. Her mom starts to go back to work. One day Phoebe told her dad that if she took Mick's bike home then Mick would still be there. Her dad then told her to write a list of all the things that would have prevented the accident. After a soccer practice, Phoebe decided to stay at the fields and watch construction workers lay out concrete. Then she found a stick right next to her, but there wasn't a tree on sight. When the workers left, Phoebe took the stick and went over to where they were working. She wrote in large letters //MICK HARTE WAS HERE//. __Evaluation:__ I enjoyed this book because it showed what people may go through when they lose a loved one. It also shows what a big difference a little decision can make. Highly recommended. __Another Interesting Fact:__ Barbara Park (the author) is one of the most popular authors for middle-grade readers

Austin Petty // The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn // This book is a continuation of //The Adventures of Tom Sawyer//. At the end of Tom Sawyer, Tom and Huckleberry Finn stumble upon some robber’s gold stash. They both got there share of it and put in the bank as a trust. This where //The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn// starts. At the start of the book Huck, sort for Huckleberry, got adopted by Widow Douglas. She is a wealthy woman and likes her house a clean house, showers, and going to church. Huck hates all of it. Tom comes along and ask Huck to join his robber gang; but tells Huck he has to sleep out in the cave with the rest of the gang. He jumped all over the offer. They planed to do lots of violent things but, end up not doing anything after all and end up separating. Huckleberry went back to Widow’s home to live. Not long after that, Huck’s dad showed up, who had been gone for a year. He had heard about Huck’s gold find and wants it for him self. He took Huck off in cabin in the woods; where he locked Him up inside his cabin. After a few weeks in the cabin, Huck escaped. While His dad had when to town and got drunk, Huck got out through a whole he sawed in the cabin wall. Once he got out he went and unlocked the door. He went in and got out all the useful supplies need to make a get away. When done with that, he went and trash the place. He put pig’s blood and hair all over to make it look like murder. Huck goes and hides on Jackson’s island where he finds up with Jim, the Widows slave, and who his suspected for Huck’s murder. From here they travel south on the Mississippi River together. And run into lots of trouble going down the river. Along the river they meet Duke and Dolphin, some local scam artist. They end up selling Jim, who is black. Huck goes to the farm where Jim now is and they Huck in. They just happen to be Tom Sawyer’s Aunt and Uncle. Tom comes to visit and together they free Jim made there way back north and find out that Jim had been for two months. When the Widow died he was set free in her will. This was my forth time reading this book and I still loved its adventures. I like how Huck Finn is so smart for his minimal schooling and his great survival skills. I would suggest this one to any body, because I will most likely read it again some day.

Emily Jacobsen VanLiere, Donna. __The Christmas Shoes__. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001. Print. Annotation: This book is about a little boy named Nathan. He is in second grade and his mother is fighting for her life due to cancer throughout this book. His mother is Maggie, who has a baby girl, Rachel. Nathan understands that his mother is ill. His parents go to the doctor a week after Thanksgiving. The doctor says that her liver is failing, and the transplant list is limited. As her liver fails, Maggie gets weaker and weaker. She has to have a hospital bed in her living room and a part time nurse by her side. As Christmas gets nearer and nearer, her liver gets weaker and weaker. On Christmas Eve, Nathan takes all of his money that he has saved and goes to Wilson’s department store. As Nathan was rushing trying to find the perfect present for his mom for her last Christmas, he found himself in the women’s shoe department. The laid his eyes on the most beautiful pair of shoes. They were the perfect size for Maggie. He rushed to the checkouts. He waited nervously in line. When Nathan finally got to the counter, he placed the shoe box on top of it. Nathan pulled out a wad of bills and change from his pocket. The cashier counted it. When the cashier said there wasn’t enough money, Nathan turned around to the man behind him with tears in his eyes and asked him if he could pay for the rest. “Sir, I need to buy those shoes for my mother. She’s not been feeling very good, and when we were eating dinner my dad said that Mama might leave to see Jesus tonight.” Nathan ran home. He gave the shoes to his mother. Maggie carefully opened it and Nathan’s father put the shoes on her. Maggie slept in her beautiful shoes. In the early hours of Christmas morning, Maggie lost her life. Evaluation: I recommend this book to anyone, especially during the Christmas season. Anyone who has read this book has had a tear in their eye. I really enjoyed this book. I have reread it a couple of times. My great-aunt is currently struggling for her life due to cancer. Her liver is failing just like Maggie’s did. Even though her days are numbered, she still lives life to the fullest, day by day. Notes: · The story started out as a short story on the radio. · There is a song and a movie about it. · There are 6 books in this series total: __The Christmas Shoes__, __The Christmas Blessing__, __The Christmas Hope__, __The Christmas Promise__, __The Christmas Secret__, and __The Christmas Journey__.

Blake Stender I read the book Twisted this quarter. It is about a teenage boy that gets in trouble for graffitting on his school and has to work all summer to pay for it. He works for the janitors at his school. Over the summer he gets really buff from doing hard work all day everyday. When he goes back to school he impresses the hottest girl in the whole school. They start flirting and hanging out at football games. After a particular football game, they go to a party. The girl gets super drunk but he stays sober, they go upstairs to a bedroom and are going to have sex when he decides that it isn't right and takes her home. The main characters dad is a drunk and they argue all the time, his sister starts dating his best friend, the girl he likes is mad at him, and he thinks his life really really sucks and is having abnormally strong thoughts of suicide. One night the main character's dad comes home and starts yelling at his mom, he finally decides to do something about it after his dad goes to hide in the basement, he goes down with a baseball bat and breaks his dads train set that he has spent years building, then the main character runs out of the house. He spends the night with his best friend and comes back in the morning to find his dad sitting on the front porch waiting to appolagize.

Cody Kirchhoff All is quiet on the western front All is quiet on the western front is a very good book describing what it was like it world war one. The main character is Paul Baumer. When World war one began, Paul and his friends were at the age that they could go to war if they wanted to. Seeing all of the propaganda about going to the war they all decided to go. After they got done in school, they all went to a German training camp and were brutally trained for ten weeks. Then they were moved to the front. Here they all fought against the French while looking out for each other. When they got back from their first two weeks, they only had about half of the starting amount of soldiers. This means they had a lot of extra food, so they all ate a big meal to tide over their hunger. Kemmerich was the first of the group to die. There are two more battles after that until Paul gets to go on leave. While on leave he goes and sees his family. He learns that his mother is dying from cancer. He also has to break the news to Kemmerich’s mother about his death. Paul then goes back to the war and gets injured along with his friend Kropp. Kropp ends up getting his leg amputated and gets very depressed. Paul is okay though and goes back to the war. His friend Kat then dies right by Paul. All of his friends are dying and he just wants the war to be over. He then gets killed in October of 1918. There was hardly any fighting this day. The war was almost over.

Tatiana Anderson Lael Littke Lake Of Secrets Henry Holt and Company, New York By:Tatiana Anderson Annotation This is a book about a young teenage girl named Carlene and her mom, who move back to the town that she lived in when she was born 18 years ago. They come back to find out what happened to he older brother Keith that she never knew that supposeily drowned on a lake that used to be the actual town, before she was born. She never knew him, but her mom would never even tried to forget about him and wouldn't let Carlene either. When they first moved there she met a young boy named J.P. who's parents left him when he was a baby so he lives with a women that he has known for along time. Then she meets Jonathan, a older man that has lived there all his life, whose wife Elaine drowned the same day that Keith had. When she meets Jonathan she gets the feeling that she has known him for years, she knows everything about him without him even telling her anything about himself. When her moms hears that she came to the conclusion that Carlene was Elaine in a past life and was born to come back and find out what really happened to Keith. Her mother takes her to Perla, a woman that is suppose to be able to be to bring back memories from someones mind. Her mom thinks that if she brings Carlene to her she will be able to tell them what happened to Keith. The day before they were suppose to go and meet with Perla, her mom was in an accident and was in the hospital, so Carlene decided to go herself to Perla to find out what happened. While she is there Perla gave her some hot chocolate, after she drank it she started to feel woozy and weak. Then she starts to remember Elaine's memories of what had happened the day of the drowning and she sees Keith being taken by someone in a boat, and she sees that it was Perla who is taken him. She and Jonathan where out on the lake that same day and goes to save Keith and she falls in the water, Keith falls out of the boat too and swims to Elaine to save him. They are hollaring for Jonathan to come and save but he falls in the boat and hits his head, so they call to Perla to save them but instead she just drives away. Elaine and Keith then sink down to the bottom of the lake. When Carlene wakes up from the memories Jonathan is there and they call the police to come arrest Perla. She goes to jail and they go on with the rest of their lives, but now knowing what really happened to Keith. Evaluation I highly recommend this book to anyone who like to read books about mysteries. Notes This is the only book that I know of from this author but if he\she has any more books I will really like to read them.

Mike Watts Eric S. Nylund, __Halo: First Strike.__ Del Ray books 2003. Print. The book starts out on Reach, the human strong hold planet now under siege by the convenant. The master chief splits his squad into two different teams. One team will go with him to destroy a navigation database that failed to dump its memory and the other Spartans went to the planet to defend generators on the ground. Things went sour on the ground and most of the Spartans were killed except for a small handful that fell back to an underground bunker. Mean while in a completely different area the master chief, now alone, is stuck in the debris field of Halo (the mission the master chief went on at Reach was a failure and on seeing that Reach was doomed they jumped out of system on a random course and found the halo ring, a weapon that can kill all life in the galaxy. Explained better in the book Halo: the flood) he steals a covenant flagship with the help of some marines and jumps (slipspace) to reach to pick up his Spartans. They jump on another random vector and intercept a covenant transition telling the covenant fleets to gather at a command center to attack earth en mass. The master chief and his Spartans board the command center and rig it to blow. Admiral Ackerson takes their captured covenant fleet and uses a crystal they found on Reach to lure the enemy ships closer to the command center. __Evaluation:__ yet again good book and a big fan of the series great for people who like action books. __Notes:__ Third book in the series and the second book written by Eric Nylund. 6 books and 6 games in the series. Was made into a graphic novel. 93 of the 107 reviews were 5 stars. Given 5 out of 5 on amazon.com only two people gave it a bad review

Mike Watts Eric Nylund, __Halo: The Fall of Reach.__ New York: Random House, 2010. Print. The book starts out after a huge loss for the humans. The planet Harvest was completely destroyed by the new alien threat, the covenant. Seeing that humanity stands little chance against the covenant human scientist Doctor Hailsy suggest to the UNSC high command that they need a way out and she had one. She went from planet to planet and picked out the perfect subjects for the “experiment.” After finding 80 subjects they were transferred to the top military facility in the solar system, Reach. Most of the kids, being at the age of 12, had no Idea what they were doing on this strange planet. After years of difficult training and multiple painful augmentations the experiment was complete. The super soldiers called Spartans were taller than normal people, could run faster and lift three times more than a normal human, and had a faster reaction time. When they were about to leave for a top-secret mission the covenant found reach and destroyed it. Only a handful of Spartans escaped the enemy and only one ship survived. __Evaluation:__ I would highly recommend this to anyone who is a big fan of either the series or of action/adventure books in general. __Notes:__ 6 other books in series, got 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com, 201 gave it 5 stars

Tim Archibald Bruchac, Joseph. __Code Talker: A Novel About The Navajo Marines.__ New York: Speak, 2006. Print. Annotation: Ned Begay, a sheepherder from a Navajo family, goes to a mission school at the age of six. At the school, Ned is told that his native language is forbidden and his mouth is washed out with soap if he ever says anything in Navajo. Years after boarding school, the Marines cometorecruit many Navajo Indians for a "special duty." The Marines are looking for natives that can speak Navajo and English very well. Ned, at the age of 16, joins the all-Navajo 297th Platoon and is sent to code school, where he learns the very top secret code. This code could not be talked about until 1969. The Navajo "code talkers" saw much action in the Pacific where the Japanese could not break the secret code. Ned goes to many islands in the Pacific Ocean like: the jungles of Guadalcanal, Bougainville Island, and Iwo Jima. Many Marines are assigned to keep Ned safe, because without Ned, the Marines would lose contact between Platoons and sectors. Ned's experiences from war changes him, but those experiences are retold to his grandchildren by Ned himself. Ned conveys his pride in the vital contribution he and his fellow Navajos made to win the war. Evaluation: I really enjoyed reading this book alot. If you like history about World War Two or would want to study about Navajo background, this book is for you. Notes: This book is based on a true story but the names in the book have been changed.

Jordan Tupper Howe, James. __The Watcher__ New York, 1997. Margaret is a young girl who lives in an abusive household, although you don’t find this out until the very end of the book. Everyday she comes to the beach watches Evan a young man about her age who has a seemingly perfect family. And Chris the hunky lifeguard who has come to this beach because he feels he can not take the place of his deceased brother. As she watches them, she writes about the fantasy life she has created for them. Throughout the book, the perspective changes and we get a taste of each characters life, although they do not speak to each other once. From Evan’s point of view, we see how not perfect his family really is, and from Chris’s point of view we see how confused he is. But these characters all come together at the end when Evan spots Margaret’s dad pushing her head down in the sink filled with water. Evan runs and gets Chris who saves Margaret from her father. As a cop is walking by, he hears her mother’s loud music and goes inside to see what’s going on. And Margaret finally gets the courage to tell the cops, “My dad hurts me.” __Evaluation:__ I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It’s an easy read, and it makes you look at people from a whole new perspective. It also talks about problems a lot of kids are going through now a days. Although the characters don’t just come out and say, “This is how I solved my problem..” they do think about how it makes them feel and how they can cope with it. __Notes:__ The Watcher is the most serious book James Howe has written. The author has written over 70 books.

Shelby Tichota The Notebook The setting of this book is on the coast of North Carolina in 1946, the notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a southerner who returns from World War II. Noah, thirty-one years old, is restoring the memories of his plantation home, while restoring the memories of haunted images of the beautiful girl Allie Nelson he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he was madly in love with. Unable to find Allie, yet unwilling to stop trying or to forget the summer they spent together. Noah is alright with living with only memories, until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again. When Allie is spending her time with Noah, they go back to their old ways of rarely agreeing on anything but still in love. They spend an amazing time together until Allie’s husband Lon finds out where she really was this whole time, he tells her that she has to make a choice on who she wants to be with. Allie decides to come back to her love of fourteen years, Noah. __ Evaluation __ I would highly recommend this novel to anyone, it is a beautiful love story, and it shows that everything is supposed to happen for a reason. I love this book and this movie.

Josh Schorle __ Charles Dickens’: A Christmas Carol __ __ Annotation: __ “I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book to raise the Ghost of an Idea which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their house pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.” ~Charles Dickens This classic Christmas story tells how Ebenezer Scrooge transforms from a greedy, selfish man feared by the community to a giving man respected by his community. The book describes Scrooge in the following paragraph: // “Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, ‘My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?’ No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and, when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, ‘No eye at all is better than evil eye, dark master!’ But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance,…” // Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley, who tells Scrooge that he will be visited by three ghosts: the first when the bell tolls one, the second on the next night at the same time, and the third on the next night at the stroke of twelve. The Ghost of Christmas Past shows him his loneliness as a child during his schooling, his happiness working for Fezziwig, and his girlfriend trouble. When the bell strikes one the next night, the Ghost of Christmas Present is there to show him the home of his clerk, Bob Cratchit, with his fragile son, Tiny Tim, and the party where his nephew plays a party game that ends up making mean jokes about Scrooge. Scrooge is then visited by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and was shown his approaching death, for which many people were glad, and implied to Scrooge the death of Tiny Tim. These visits woke Scrooge up from his cold and uncaring ways and make a brand new start in his life; to live life in the spirit of Christmas. The morning after the visitations he tells a boy outside his window to go buy the prize turkey for him and plans to take it to the Cratchit home. In his second chance at life Scrooge does everything right by giving money for the poor, going to church, being a happier, less angry person, and helped out the Cratchit family by supplying enough food and medical care to keep Tiny Tim from dying. __ Evaluation: __ I would definitely recommend this book for people who want to recap the movie or to look deeper into this classic Christmas story. I would also recommend this book for people who want to compare the book to the different movie variations. I was also surprised to find that Disney’s rendition was the closest to the book compared to all the other movie versions of this book I have seen. __ Notes: __ -This book has been made into several movie versions. -One of the recent and more accurate versions was made by Disney in 2009. - Charles Dickens has written many books that are considered classics, such as: A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, & David Copperfield.

Kray Lukehart Sunflower's Promise: A Zuni Legend, Author: Gloria Dominic, Illustrator: Charles Reasoner "Sunflower's Promise" is a perfect example of Mexican ways of story telling. Much like other heritages story telling traditions it involves talking animals and, the attire they'd be expected to wear in this era. "Sunflower's Promise" Starts out with a beautiful girl. The girls' name is Sunflower. Sunflower isn't only beautiful but she is also clever and rich. Sunflower lives the perfect life, she wears all the nice cloths and eats the best foods. The only thing is, she isn't married. All of the boys in the village come up to her and ask for her hand in marriage, it got to the point where Sunflower didn't have room to breath. With Sunflower being clever as she is, she comes up with a plan to not only rid her pest problem in her fields, she can also get married in the process. The next day Sunflower has the announcement that she promises to marry the man that can rid her of her field pests. Of course the word spread quickly and she had men coming up to her asking to attempt the seemingly impossible task at hand. After several men fail in their attempt at solving the problem, therefor capturing her heart. A man that lives in the hills a great distance away hears the news. His name is Little Mole. Little Mole isn't your typical "herdsman" he is a clever individual. When he makes the journey to the village and talks to Sunflower to get the approval to attempt the task. Now Little Mole isn't a good looking man, in fact he's kind of homely. But he is bright, and he uses that to his advantage. Little Mole works long, strenuous hours digging a trench all around the field. After he plants the best beans, corn, and meat on top of the hole he waits. The first to fall in the hole was the coyote, the meat smell was to irresistable. Coyote wasn't dumb, he used sarcasm to get Badger into the whole. Coyote then thought of a plan to get himself free. He called out to the other creatures and used his cunning ability to talk them into the whole, once their in he climbs on top of them and frees himself leaving the others. All in all, Little Mole's plan worked and Sunflower went through with her promise. They got married and had many of children and lived the rest of their days out happily. Evaluation: I highly recomend this story to other kids my age. It has a great understanding of Mexican story telling culture. The story has a great way of descripting the type of cloths The Mexican Culture offers. Another Mexican story telling tradition, there are always animals have conversations. This shows a lot of dialogue between animals. Notes: Sunflower's Promise is an only book in its' series. The author is Gloria Dominic. The Illustrator is Charles Reasoner.

Alaura Schuler Mcdaniel, Lurlene. __Last Dance__. Darby Creek Publishing, 1982 Print Annotaion: Rachel Deering, a normal average 13 year-old girl who has one passion, and thats Ballet. Rachel goes to a ballet school in Miami, Florida. Her teacher, Madame Pershoff, is hosting a Swan Lake performace at the end of the year. And Rachel wants the main character part. She pushes herself into having that part by doing more plies and battements tendus, battements degages, and ronds de jambe en l'air. She finds herself in the bathroom all the time, but shes not anerexic. She is drinking water and orange juice more than she has ever before. But why is she acting like this? Rachel is in ballet class one day doing her everyday routines when she wakes up n a hospital for some odd reason. She can't remember why. She had passed out in class and her ballet friends found her laying on the floor. Rachel, a regular girl in Miami, ends up having diabetes. She now has to be on a diet because her body can't produce insulin; she needs to get shots and has to do it herself. Will she be able to still participate in the school's Swan Lake performance. Evaluation: I would recommend this book for teenagers who have a dream in life to be successfull but have some kinda of disease and doesn't think they can still have and do their dream that they have in life.

Seth Rohde Eldest is the second book in the ERAGON series, it was written by Chris Paolini. The book takes place in the fantisy world of Alagaesia. Eldest follows the great adventures of Eragon and Saphira, Eargon's dragon, as they trian to fight the evil king Galbatorix. Eldest is the squel to Eragon and continues where ERAGON off. Eldest starts out after the battle at the Varden hide out.The Varden's leader, Ajihad, was killed in the battle and it is time for the varden to elect a new leader. Nasuada, Ajihad's daughter is chosen to lead the Varden. Their black which is strange for poeple to be in this book. Eragon and Saphira pledge lolaity to Nasuada and the Varden people. Then leave with the elf Arya to begin their training with the elves. On the journy to the elven capital Eragon learns a lot about the elves and dwarfs that reside in Alagaesia. Eragon and Sahira have to hurry through their traing because the king Galbatroix could attack the varden at any time.This book is awesome! I love fantasy books and Eldest is by far one of my favorites.

Sam Bateman Darren Shan __A Living Nightmare__ __Annotation__ In the beginning of this book Darren Shan and three of his friends come upon a paper advertising a freak show, but when they pool together their money they only have enough for two tickets. Obviously only two of them can go so they play a game of chance where Darren Shan and a boy named Steve get to go to the freak show. so the two of the children went to the freak show where they say several different acts, but the one that caught there attention was a man who controlled a spider with a flute. later on Darren steals the spider it bites Steve and he is infected with the poison. Darren makes a deal with the freak who is actually a vampire that Darren will become his vampire assistant. Evaluation I greatly recommend readying this book it is by far the greatest book I have ever read notes: there are 11 other book in this series

Abby Johnson Meyer, Stephenie __Breaking Dawn__ New York: 2008. Print. __Annotation__ Getting married may seem like fun and games, but for Bella and Edward Cullen it's different. At the beginning of the book Bella and Edward get married and go on the best honeymoon ever. While on their honeymoon Bella gets pregnant, since Bella is still human this causes a lot of complications. The baby grows at a very unusual rate and after 4 weeks of being concieved the baby comes into the world almost taking Bella's life. Luckily, Edward is there to bite her and turn her into a vampire before she dies. Edward and Bella name their baby Renesmee. Everything is going good for this family until one day when they were out taking a walk. A women named Irina makes a surprise visit and sees this new creature and thinks that Edward has bitten a child, which is forbidden. She runs and tells the Volturi. If you bite a child you are to be killed, so the volturi makes a visit to the Cullen residence. The cullen's have to gather enough witnesses to prove that Renesmee is half human half vampire, so the volturi doesn't take their lives. Will the Cullen's have enough witnesses to save their lives? __Evaluation__ The Twilight series was a great group of books. They are filled with intense action that will make you keep reading. __Notes__ The Twiligh series has 4 books: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. All of the books are being made into movies.

Dakota Erickson The book I read was "The Door to December" by Dean Koontz. In this book it starts out a crime scene where Laura comes to find out why her daughter and her husband were their. Later you find out that The husband named Dylan took Melanie (her daughter) and left when Laura wanted a divorce. She hired a private detective to track and find her husband and her little girl. His name is Dan Haldine he found out bout this and called Laura. the detective shows her a grey room where experiments seemed to be planned and carried out. also in the grey room was three dead mutilated bodies who were beat to death. He believed Melanie was their test rat. She would sit in this chamber and tests and experiments would be done on her. they also found records of what they did. Melanie had never left that room and never left that chamber. the chamber was filled with water but she could breathe. After hearing this Laura starts looking around for her daughter then a detective comes over and tells her that they found a girl walking around town naked 7 blocks from there. Laura was relieved because she was sure that whoever killed those men they were after Melanie too. He said she had auburn hair and green eyes the same as Laura's. Laura goes to the Hospital to confirm its her daughter and it is but her daughter doesn't really talk much. she takes her home and is reluctant to take therapy for her and her daughter. Haldine gets to work on the case of the 3 dead men right away but all the evidence suggests that it was not humanly possible to do what was done to those men. Melanie is making progress but doesn't talk for long. they ask her about the isolation tank for a long time and she is reluctant to answer. she keeps saying something evil is coming and every time she goes to sleep something bad happens. Haldine and Laura both find out that they are no longer dealing with a human killer. they were in the kitchen when at the table Melanie falls asleep and the radio starts changing channels and tells them to leave the house. they unplug it but yet it stays on. Dan runs to Melanie at the table and brings her and Laura to an isolated room. They hear the door swing open and something come in. they feel the wind and then it leaves and Melanie wakes up. Dan gets a lead to a murder of an occult leader and hires a security guard to watch over Laura and Melanie. one lead brings upon another and he finds out all these guys wee tied to Dylan and his associate from UCLA. Both of which were found dead in the grey room and both of which helped fund the money for the experiments. Meanwhile Laura gets Melanie to talk more and Melanie keeps talking about a door and how the door needs to be shut and she cant shut it. well all the people who ever helped Dylan were found dead except two. Haldine goes to one of the two remaining and finds out Dylan was trying to achieve Melanie to astral project herself. While he is there Melanie tells Laura what the door is. she explains that her dad would tell her how hot it was an she would be in a house and the house was so hot and he would tell her to open the door the door to December. when she finally got this down she told how she watched those men die. Dan Haldine and the man he is talking to both know the man will die. Dan goes to leave but he door to the room is blown open and the man is picked up and thrown all about the room by something that Dan cant see after he is dead the force leaves and Dan leaves without harm. The last man hears about the attacks and runs into the forest hoping to get away from danger then he hears the wind coming for him but he cant run fast enough. he falls on a ledge and starts getting beamed and pinned with rocks. He is pinned down and then the wind dies down and he is thankful that he made it out with his life. and right as the smile crosses his face a huge boulder comes and smashes his body. Melanie goes to a movie theatre with Laura and as they are watching it gets cold and dark and windy and IT is coming for Melanie. this is happening while Dan is talking to another conspirator of Dylan’s named Boothe and he leaves because he finds out all he needs. he finds out Melanie is the one who is killing all the men and she will come back to kill herself. He comes back just in time for Melanie to fall asleep and she tries to kill herself but Laura wont let her and then the darkness goes away and Melanie wakes up. then the book ends.

Nick Renner Draper, Sharon M. __Forged by Fire__. New York: Collins, 1998. Print. __Annotation:__ A young boy named Gerald, is suddenly separated from his drug addicted, abusive mother because of a fire at his home when his mother was gone. His mother goes to jail, and he has to stay with his aunt, who treats him well. But after she dies, and his mother gets out of jail, he has to live with her and her new husband Jordan. This story is about how Gerald stops his step father from molesting his little step-sister, Angel. Finally Gerald confronts Jordan as their home is set aflame. Gerald manages to save Angel, but Jordan never made it. Finally, their mother sees the problem she has brought into her home by letting her abusive husband remain there. From then on they began to form as a happy family. And it shows through all of their struggle, in the end, they can still be together as a family. __Evaluation:__ I think that this book is a very good novel for people with strong willed minds. People who have the capacity to understand that these types of things really do happen. __Notes:__ *There are 6 other books portrayed to this book: Tears of a Tiger: Darkness Before Dawn: Romiette and Julio: Double Dutch: The Battle of Jericho: Copper sun.

Bryce Wernimont Hobbs, Will. Jason’s Gold. Harper Collins 1999. Annotation: Jason is a 15 year old boy who lives in New York City selling newspapers during the 1890’s. One day he was selling newspapers when he read a headline. A steam ship had sailed into Seattle harbor with two tons of gold. The rush to mine gold from the Yukon has begun. Jason had just spent the past ten months traveling across the country from Seattle to reach New York City. He wanted to prove to his family he could live on his own, and now he wants to travel back to Seattle to follow his gold dreams. Jason tries to persuade his brothers into letting him have the $500 his dad left him as an inheritance. He finally reaches Seattle, just to find a letter explaining that his brothers took the money to look for gold. Now broke, Jason is determined to catch up with his brothers to help them look for gold. Jason stows away on a ship to Stagway, Alaska, where he then has to somehow get to Dawson, 500 miles down the Yukon. He also has to make it before the river freezes over, where he could end up stranded for death. Evaluation: I would highly recommend this book to readers who like adventourous, action packed stories. The book shows how life in the 1890’s was truly like, and how millions of people would give up everything they had, for a slim chance at getting rich quick. Notes: Will Hobbs has wrote many other books including Beardance, Go Big or Go Home, Down the Yukon, Downriver, and Take Me to the River. Will Hobbs actually did go down the Yukon River in search of Gold.

Tiffany Braukman Lois Duncan //Don't Look Behind You// Annotation: April is a Junior in highschool, her brother is a third grader, and her mother is a writer. They have to leave the town that they live in and change their names. April has to leave her boyfriend, Steve, her tennis team, and her grandmother because of this. They have to move to Florida and live in an old raggedy house. April hates moving there because she can't play on the school tennis team because of the witness protection program. She hates that she has to miss the prom and Steve's graduation. They also have to change some of their characteristics. Bram, her brother, has to wear contacts to hide the two different colored eyes he has. They have no idea why they have to do this, until their uncle comes and tells them that their father and husband was secretly working undercover for the FBI and had almost got shot. Evaluation: People that would like this book would be people who love mysteries, and romance novels. I think students should read this because it tells them what some people have to go through. Notes: Lois Duncan has written a book about a true story by her own experience. It is called //Who Killed My Daughter?// She writes many books for children, teens, young adults, and adults.

Noah Welter Deuker, Carl. __Gym Candy__. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. Published February 5, 2008 Annotation: This novel is about a boy named Mick Johnson. He always wanted to play football ever since his dad put a ball in his hands at age 4. While at junior high he had great talent he could break tackles or even get the corner and be gone. He never had the speed that he would like. So his dad offers to get him a personal trainer at a local gym. While attending there he told his personal trainer Peter that he wanted to be the varsity running back. Peter took this opportunity to take Mick to his office and introduce him to steroids. At first Mick said no way as time progresses he eventually gave in to taking them. Will Mick get of the steroids you will have to read and find out? Evaluation: This was a fascinating book. I highly encourage people to read it once you start you can't stop. Especially for those people who love sports. Notes: This book is not part of a series it is a one of a kind.

Feinstein, John. __Next Man Up__
=== Next Man Up is about a year with the Baltimore Ravens in 2004/5, from the draft, through training camp, until its unexpectedly early end with the Ravens falling short of the play-offs. The ravens just got a new coaching staff and were trying things different so they decided to start there rookie draft pick Kyle Boller. He is under hot water for the struggle he has had in the year. During the season they win some games they were suppose to lose, but lose the games they needed to win. By the end of the season they are so close to the playoffs but they lose close games at the end of the season and fall just short of making it. ===

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
=== This book is very suspenseful and quite entertaining. It starts off when four best friends, Jonesy, Pete, Beaver, and Henry are going to an abandon school in Derry, Maine to look at a nude poster on the wall and they run into the most important character in the whole story. Duddits, an autistic boy who is being bullied by some jocks and they help Duddits by threatening the jocks that they will tell the police. What they didn’t know is that Duddits will give them each a secret tool like mind reading or GPS. Duddits is from another planet and he warned them about a evil alien Mr. Gray. === === The first encounter they have with the evil aliens is when Jonesy is infected by the red smoke that makes them think what they want them to think. A stranger is wandering around the cabin they go to every year as an annual celebration of meeting Duddits. They put the stranger to bed and a few hours later they find him dead on the toilet with an alien eel inside of his stomach laying eggs. Jonesy and Beav try to trap the serpent inside of the toilet but the serpent ends of killing Beaver. Henry and Pete are out in the woods and they find the strangers wife and she has a eel inside of her stomach too and it kills Pete. The army came in and told them they had to stay where they were for the next 24 hours until they figured out what was going on. === === Then Henry follows Mr. Gray and Jonesy to the water system. Mr. Gray wants to lay a baby eel in the water system to infect the whole state but Henry has a secret plan to defeat Mr. Gray. Henry brought Duddits with him so he can kill Mr. Gray, which he does and Duddits kills himself in the process but saves the whole world from extinction. ===

Stephenie Meyer Twilight 2005
=== Twilight begins with a girl named Isabella Swan, who moves to Forks, Washington to live with her dad while her mom's on the road with her new fiance. She winds up meeting and falling in love with a really old vampire, who's stuck at 17, whose name is Edward Cullen, who at first was overwhelmed by how her blood smelled and was curious on why he could'nt read her mind, and tried to avoid her. Edward tried to switch his class to no prevail. I think his "sister" Alice saw her coming, because she can she the future kind of. He tries to scare her off, calling himself a monster, but that didn't work either, only because she was interested in him. After a while he gave into his desire, and said he wanted to introduce her to his "family". Everyone except Rosalie liked her, because Rose was jealous of her being human; Alice especially liked her, because she had a vision that they would be bestfriends. Emmett, Edwards other "brother", besides Jasper, thought it would be fun to have a human around. Their "mom" Esme adored her. ===

Author: Dean Hughes
=== The military life isn't for everybody. But when you've never been good at anything your whole life, you look for things that will make the people around you (or even yourself) feel like a man. That's what Spencer Morgan, a boy from Utah thought. That's why he joined the United === === States paratroopers. Another reason a person would join is when the have to much pride for their country, and join for the wrong reasons. That's what Dieter Hendric, a German boy, did. But when these two boys meet in the Battle of the Bulge during the winter of 1945, the atmosphere and adrenaline rush is like nothing they've ever witnessed or felt before. Spencer, wants to join the United States Paratroopers so that he can show everybody back home that he is a man. Also because he's always had a fantasy of being a war hero. Dieter, a boy from Germany is nervous to get into the war, but for different reasons. Dieter was brought believing that the Germans were the master race, and he would proudly fight and die for Adolf Hitler. When the boys met in the winter of 1945 Dieter was injured and Spencer, being the nice guy that he is, hears the cry of the German boy, and leaves his crew to try and help him, but gets shot and killed in the effort. The military changed the boys lives, but for one boy, there was no turning back. === === Soldier Boys was the best book I have ever read. It was a mix of drama, passion, and action all in one. I would recommend this book to anyone (boy or girl). It teaches just how different military lives are in different parts of the world. === === Dean Hughes knew he was going to become a writer in middle school. It wasn't until his senior year in high school he started to get serious in writing. Hughes was 35 when his first book was published. He has written and published over ninety books. Much of his writing is targeted to children and young adults ===

Annotation:
=== The Book is about a little girl who doesn't really get along with anyone but her twin sister named Angel. HEr sister dies and she feels like she is left in her big house on Lake Michigan all by herself with no one ther for her. She is terrified of men all together and gets very upset one day when she finally realizes that her sister has died. The rest of Mandy's family has moved on aout her sister Angel's death but she is still stuck onto it and can not get over the fact that she is all alone. She makes a trip out to her lighthouse everyday because that is where her sister spent the majority of her time. She later lets in the boys to her life that she has been bothered by before and realizes that they can help her through the death of her sister and ends up being a very good decision made by Mandy. ===

Reason I enjoyed the book:
=== I enjoyed the book very much because i like the kind of books that can make you cry, and is something realistic. Girls do get very emoition and rund own by a lot of things, but losing a close sibling like a twin sister has to be very difficult. I enjoy helping people with their problems so reading about stories of emotional difficulities grabs my attention and i can get into it. ===

Anotation:
=== Don Piper is on his way home from a conference of pastors and decides to take a different route home on Janruary 18, 1989. He was driving over a very large bridge when a prison inmate driving a tractor-trailor went into his lane on the bridge hitting his small Ford Escort head on. The paramedics that arrived at the scene pronounced that he had died instantly. Don Piper claims that he went to heaven and was met by family and friends that had passed away. All the people in heaven sang praises to God, songs he both had and hadn't heard before. Everyone was very happy. He couldn't be anything but happy in heaven. Within an hour one of his pastor friends arrived at the scene of the crash named Dick Onrecker. Dick got into the car with Don's smashed and cut up body and placed his hand on Don's shoulder and began to pray for him. After he had been praying for quite some time, Dick started to sing the song called, "What a friend we have in Jesus." Partly through the song, Don't body started to sing with Dick. HE got taken to a hospital where he underwent many difficult surgeries that took many long months of being in the hospital. Now Don Piper has a very strong ministry that come from his near death experiences to help people know that what is ahead from then in heaven is amazing and beautiful with no worries nor hurt. All your family and friends that have passed away and went to heaven are there waiting for you! ===

Evaluation:
=== This book is a very good book. It made me cry at some points in it where Don got very upset that he wouldn't be able to walk his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day because of the accident when he was laying in his hospital bed. I would recommend this book to anyone! It is a very good christian non fiction book that helps us all realize that if we keep our relationship strong with God and worship him. Then we have the most beautiful thing we have ever seen waiting for us up in heaven with no sickness and only happeness! ===

Annotation:
=== Each of us is destined for something, a purpose that often seems muddy, or vague at best. We want nothing more than to know what our purpose is, to know that we haven’t just been plopped down to fumble our way through to the end, but that there’s a reason for our being here. We may not discover that purpose in the way that we’d want, as time in the valley will be longer and darker than we imagined, but if we are patient or still long enough, we will catch it in fleeting glimpses. We will see tiny sparks of revelation that push us closer and closer to our destiny. There will be pain, sometimes more than we bargained for, but as Maggie promised Nathan before she passed, in the end there will be joy. ===

Evaluation
=== Nathan Andrews is the narrator, whose mother died in the previous book due to cancer on Christmas. In this book, he is in med school and meets a girl named Meghan. Meghan is a heart transplant patient at the hospital and is fundraising for a scholarship run. Meghan’s liver slowly fails. Her best friend, Charlie, another heart transplant patient, dies on Christmas day. Charlie’s lever is a perfect match for the transplant. When Nathan visits his family on Christmas Day, Robert Layton shows up on his father’s doorstep. Robert is the person who paid for shoes that Nathan couldn’t afford, the night Nathan’s mother died. The scholarship run was in Charlie’s name. I highly recommend this great book. It is filled with suspension, pain, hope, love, and joy. ===

Uglies, Scott Westerfeld
=== Tally is turning sixteen, which means she is going to turn pretty, she can’t wait. Tally is the last of her friends to turn pretty, so she is alone. When you’re ugly, what you are called before the operation to becoming pretty, you go to school, do chores, and have fun. All the uglies play pranks just like a bunch of kids. Uglies aren’t allowed to go over the pretty side, the two worlds are split by a river, and if you go across you could be punished by not being able to turn pretty. When Tally goes to Prettyville to see Paris, her old friend that never talks to her anymore, she meets this girl named Shay. They become friends and always hangout. Shay and Tally have to same birthday so they won’t have to wait for each other when the other turns pretty, but Shay isn’t sure she wants to turn pretty. Shay tells Tally about David, a boy that was born in the wild and his parents own a camp for people who don’t want to turn pretty called the Smoke. Tally thinks Shay is crazy. === === When it is the night before Shay and Tally turn pretty, Shay tells Tally she is going to run away to the Smoke, and she wants Tally to come with. She refuses saying she wants to turn pretty. When Tally goes to turn pretty, the doctors say no and take her to the Specials, people who keep track of who turns pretty and make sure everyone turns pretty. Dr. Cable tells Tally if she doesn’t go find Shay and the camp that she will never be able to turn pretty. She gives Tally a necklace and when she finds the smoke she is to push a button on it. === === Tally goes to search for Shay, with the note shay gave her, directions to the smoke, and it takes Tally about a week to get to the Smoke. When she gets there it is not what she expected. She hated it at first but then gets to like it and she starts to like David. === === David introduces his parents to Tally, former surgeons to turn people pretty, they tell her about how they change your brain, and how you act. Tally doesn’t want to turn the smoke in anymore so she throws the necklace in a fire. The next day she wakes up to everyone gone. === === She runs and finds David in a cave and they go to save everyone from the Specials. David’s father has died and Shay has been turned pretty. They take everyone out of the cells they were trapped in and take them to a safe place. David’s mom thinks she finds a way to turn pretty but keep your personality but Shay won’t take the pills. Tally decides she will turn pretty and take the pill because of what she has done. ===

Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen
=== Auden West hasn’t been sleeping at night ever since her parents started fighting, the divorce made it even worse. She would stay up and work on school, GPAs, college courses that she didn’t need to be working on, and homework, she never had time to do the things that normal teenagers would do, like ride a bike or go to prom. When Auden goes to stay with her dad, his wife Heidi, and there new daughter, Thisbe, her whole life changes. She beings to discover that she needs to do more things outside of school, when she starts to work at a clothing store that Heidi owns. Auden makes new friends and has fun. === === She soon meets Eli, Eli used to be a BMX rider but lost his best friend in a car accident and hasn’t ridden ever since. When him and Auden meet he talks, which he never usually does, and they started to explore Colby, the town where her father lives, and starts adventures to help Auden become the teenager she has never been. === === Auden soon feels like she doesn’t want to be the teenager she wants because her father is just like what her mother said, he doesn’t take care of the new baby and is always working. She then feels like she is back home when her parents are fighting because Heidi and her father are fighting. She refuses to speak to Eli or anyone of that matter. === === In the end Auden finds out Eli is BMX racing again and they make up, knowing that they want to be with each other. Auden’s father finally starts to help out with the baby and Auden decides to stay with her father to be with Eli. ===

Sarah Masker
=== The annotation I have decided to write about was the book I just finished. It was called Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This book was very interesting. I wanted to read it so I could compare it to the movie. The book and movie is totally different. But in this story and in all the Harry Potter stories there seems to be a problem Harry can never solve. Until the end, he always ends up figuring it out. In this book it was finding the Chamber of Secrets. It was a mission because the person who opened the chamber 50 years ago was back at Hogwarts and killing all the Muggles and half bloods. Harry’s best friend is a muggle. He has to save his friends and the people he loves and cares about. There is a bad guy in the book his name is Lord Voldemort and he comes in the figure of a memory when Harry finally gets into the chamber and has to face the greatest wizard of all. Even though…He is not the greatest wizard, Dumbledore is and he sends a phoenix bird to save him and he brings him a hat with a sword in it. This helps Harry win the battle against Voldemort who has been in the memory of Tom Marvolo Riddle preserved in a diary. If you re arrange the words Tom Marvolo Riddle it spells out to be I am Lord Voldemort, this was a change in path in the book. ===

ReAnn Cappel
=== Annotation: Moving to a new place, meeting new people, isn’t just what the family is expecting. It starts out as a little game and then turns into a whole new world. Lucy, Susan, Edmund, and Peter are put into a family during war. They are playing a game of hide and seek when the youngest, Lucy, crawls into the wardrobe and she magically finds her way into this whole new world. As she tries telling her brothers and sister about it they just doubt her. They finally all find out for themselves that it truly is a place. The night that the family enters they meet a beaver that leads them on their journey. Mr. Beaver began to tell them the story about the White Witch and Aslan, when all of the sudden Edmund has gone missing. As the family makes a battle for their brother’s life, the life of Aslan is taken. Since it was a real sacrifice he comes back to life. Aslan is found by Lucy and Susan, as the boys are just begging the battle between Aslan’s group and the White Witch’s group. As battle usually goes the good side wins, the White Witch is destroyed, and the four brothers and sisters are made king and queens of Narnia. ===

Evaluations: I recommend this book because it is a great book, very descriptive, and inspiring to look in wardrobes now.
=== Notes: There are 7 books in the Chronicles of Narnia. The Magicians Nephew, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, The Last Battle, The Silver Chair, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader are the books. It all started in the 1950s. ===

__Annotation:__
=== A tenth grader (Gabe) from Texas moves to Northern Canada to attend boarding school and be closer to his father, who works on a drilling rig. Gabe’s father arranges a sight-seeing flight for him, which ends up being a trip to take his roommate home as he is dropping out of school. The pilot sets the plane down on the Nahanni River so the boys can get a good look at the Virginia Falls. The airplane’s engine quits and the pilot, the two boys and an old man are floating quickly toward the falls. The boys and the old man will be left in the harsh winter to survive until someone can find them; which is made more difficult by the severe Canadian weather. The three come together, sharing their wisdom from their different cultures to survive the winter in a cabin in Deadmen Valley. ===

Sarah Park
=== I'm reading the book runaway. this girl ran away from home because she doesn't like her adoptive parents, they are really strict. Her room is a laundry room, with no bed, or anything. She has to sleep on the floor. One day she never went home after school she just ran away, she didn't like that life style. She went to this homeless shelter so she could have food, sleep on a cot, it was way better than what she lived in before. she told the people that were hosting the homeless shelter that her mom was in the car and she told her to go in, the people wouldn't let her in without her mom. She went and found some old homeless lady and said that that was her mom so they could go in. They got in and they had a lot of food and places to sleep. They stayed there for about a week then the hosts got a little curious and started asking them questions, so they left the homeless shelter. The old lady passed away, so it was just the little girl about my age on her own again. She then started remembering and misses her mom. her mom passed away when she was little. She went to a church and slept there for a while. That's all the further I got. ===

Paulsen, Gary- __Hatchet.__ Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
=== Brian Robeson a 13-year-old boy survives alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing to assist him but a small hatchet. Brian was the only passenger on a small plane. The Pilot let Brian control the plane for a little while, which became very useful minutes later when the pilot had a heart attack and died. Brian flew the plane for a few hours but then ran out of fuel and the plane crashed into a small lake. Left with only the hatchet he received as a gift from his mom, Brian faces many survival challenges. He begins to panic, but then realizes that he is all alone and the only chance he has of surviving is relying on his own two hands, his hatchet, and the natural resources around him. He uses the hatches to chop some trees and build a shelter. After that he is faced with the challenges of hunting for food, fighting off wild animals, and making a fire. After two months of intense adventures, and using his newly developed survival techniques Brian is rescued. But in the process he had grown and changed to become a new person. ===

Annotation:
=== Threw the eyes of Tony Dungy. He has found the love of sports whether it is basketball or football. Growing up his dad was at Michigan State getting his PhD, but he always found time to play catch with Tony. Ending his high school career he decided on playing football at Minnesota. After attending Minnesota for college he entered the NFL and was drafted by the Steelers. On June 19, 1982 Lauren Harris joined the Dungy family. After ending his career after a player he just couldn't stay away. That didn't last very long in 1996 he got his first head coach job at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It took him almost two months to get his first win but it sure was sweeter than ever. Tony always remined his players that there were kids watching them. So he thought it always made them try there hardest. After being fired from the Buccaneers he got a coaching job at the Indianapolis Colts in 2002. ===

Eric Nylund, __Halo: The Fall of Reach.__ New York: Random House, 2010. Print.
=== The book starts out after a huge loss for the humans. The planet Harvest was completely destroyed by the new alien threat, the covenant. Seeing that humanity stands little chance against the covenant human scientist Doctor Hailsy suggest to the UNSC high command that they need a way out and she had one. She went from planet to planet and picked out the perfect subjects for the “experiment.” After finding 80 subjects they were transferred to the top military facility in the solar system, Reach. Most of the kids, being at the age of 12, had no Idea what they were doing on this strange planet. After years of difficult training and multiple painful augmentations the experiment was complete. The super soldiers called Spartans were taller than normal people, could run faster and lift three times more than a normal human, and had a faster reaction time. When they were about to leave for a top-secret mission the covenant found reach and destroyed it. Only a handful of Spartans escaped the enemy and only one ship survived. ===

Annotation:
=== There was a Circus of Freaks, included a vampire, a snake-boy, a wolf-man and a performing spider. The three friends from school found themselves trying to figure out what person will be going to the circus with Steve. Darren and Steve were excited to the circus. After the circus Darren found him in a deadly trap, with a thing that isn’t human, and that was a vampire. His friend Steve stole the spider from the circus and put it in his closet where it bit his arm and made him really sick. So Darren had to become a half-vampire if Steve ever wanted to see light again. Now Darren is a half-vampire and has to travel the world with the Cirque De Freak crew to perform with them. It was day and since Darren was a half-vampire he could go out in the morning while the full-vampire had to stay inside and sleep. ===

Notes:
=== There are 11 other books in this series and they are, The Vampires Assistant, Tunnels of Blood, Vampire Mountain, Trials of Death, Vampire Prince, Hunters of the Dusk, Allies of the Night, Killers Of Dawn, The Lake Of Souls, Lord of the Shadows and the 12th and final book Sons Of Destiny. ===

__ Annotation: __
=== The opening is of this story is very touching and gets your heart into it. Billy, who wants a couple coonhounds, works very hard to earn money to get them. He trusts his grandpa and tells him that he has been saving money for about two years to get these hounds. His grandpa is impressed and helps Billy order and buy some dogs. He goes on a journey to get them. Throughout the story, he and his best friends (the dogs) go hunting almost every night. One night, his dogs chase a mountain lion. Old Dan, the older,male hound, keeps after the lion and it eventually wounds Old Dan badly. Old Dan eventually dies the next day and Little Ann, the younger, female hound, can’t take it and she is completely heartbroken. She dies within a few days. Billy, having losing his favorite friends ever, is confused and lost without them. His family and he move to the town and that’s the day he realizes an angel has planted a red fern at the dogs’ graves. He never forgets them and they live in his heart forever. ===

__ Evaluation: __
=== I would recommend this book to anyone. It will stay with me forever and I hope to share it with many. It helps anyone who reads it understand the relationship between best friends, even if they are dogs. In my mind, one of the greatest books ever written. ===

Annotation:
=== In the book, the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, four kids are sent away by their parents so they don't get sent to the war. While they are there they are trying to find ways to have fun. They play games hide and go seek. They are playing hide and seek, three of the four kids are running around this huge house trying to hide, while the other is counting. The youngest child, Lucy, hides in a wardrobe. She discovers that this wardrobe is a portal to a far away land, which she later finds out is known as Narnia. Here, she meets Mr. Tumnas, they become friends. Lucy goes back through the wardrobe and tells all of her other siblings what she has found, but none of them believe her. But then the second oldest, Edmond, goes through the wardrobe and meets the White Witch, he agrees to bring all of his other brothers and sisters to her. He eventually gets them to go through the wardrobe, but cant get them to go see the White Witch. They have a crazy adventure when they are in Narnia, they fight a huge battle, and become the kings and queens, when they are older they return to the normal world, and they are the same age, it was like they didn’t go at all. ===

I Am David
===__ Annotation- __ I Am David is about a boy who is in a concentration camp and he is a Jew. David is a 12-year-old boy. He did not know anything about his parents. One night he was told how to escape by a guard. The guard gave him a compass, bread, and some water. He is told to head south for Salonica, stow away on a ship sailing to Italy, and then walk north until he gets to Denmark. Then he figures out his mother is in Denmark and his father was the guard who told him how to escape. === ===__ Evaluations- __ I love this book and would recommend it to many. It is a book that gets people interested in the first couple of pages so they don’t want to stop reading. It is a pretty good size book so it would help people getting use to reading long books. ===

Annotation:
=== Joe Stoshack, a traveler through time hears about Babe Ruth and the myth of did he or did He not call his shot in 1932 at one of his games. Joe can travel through time just by holding an object that was made at the year he wants to go back to. This time (the Third book) his dad comes with him just so Joe will be safe. They meet up with Babe become friends with him, even save his life from a man with a knife. Joe’s dad just got fired from his job and has made a plan to get a bunch of baseballs signed by Babe Ruth and then sells them back in the present. Babe Ruth did call his shot, and Joe’s dad gets caught by security guards of the president and gets the balls taken away. ===

__ Annotation: __
=== Have you ever wondered what it is like to live in prison? Well in this book called __Life in Prison__ written by Stanley Williams you will find out those questions you have been asking. The book will tell you everything from the living conditions to the eating & working out conditions. The book starts out with an inmates living conditions which are very small and tight to be in. The book goes on to tell how people can go crazy because they are so isolated in such small spaces. Prisons have more rules than a school and the difference in not following them in prison is it can lead to fights and even sometimes death. If you are that person that complains about everything you eat than prison is not for you, in prison you can't have extra or more and you can't choose like a normal person to have or eat what you want. There is alot of prisons that have programs so if a inmate decides to change his or her ways she can by going to the bible room which is just like church, they can work and make a little amount of money or just do nothing all day. over all from reading this story you will find out the harsh conditions of prison and never want to be an inmate of one. ===

__Annotation__
=== In the town of bump city down the road was the Wolfe mansion. This is where Lydia Wolfe lived, but a ghost was also living in this mansion. Cindey Finney was walking down the road one evening where she was on her way to learn about the mansion for a story for a news team she wanted to be in. She was in the bushes when she saw a light and Lydia Wolfe walks by so she runs in to investigate and comes upon the ghost with Lydia's body on the ground next to it dead. now she goes on trying to find the ghost, trying to find out what has happened to Lydia Wolfe. ===

Annotation:
=== Living on the edge of a border, humans on one side and one the other side are the ancient, mysterious monsters, as they are called, DRagons. Kay Wyatt, a seventeen year old, loves to rock climb in places she probably shouldn’t be, was saved by Artegal, a dragon. Kay started visiting Artegal and they became friends. A few months later, they get into some trouble when a plane pilot saw them flying together. The plane crashed and they thought their secret was out. A couple months later, they were seen, the military knew about them and the dragons weren’t happy either. Kay and Artegal had to do something to keep the humans and the dragons from a war. They had to do something to save their friendship. Kay and Artegal have to come up with a plan to save both the dragons and humans. ===

__ Notes: __
=== There aren’t any other books in this series right now. Carrie is going to write a sequel to this one after she is done writing another book to the series Kitty. Carrie has another series of books she calls Kitty. ===

Diana Perkins
=== __It's a Mall World After All__ is a buetiful and comic romance. Not just a dating relationship though, also a friendship. The main character, Charlett, workes at a mall in Calafornia. One day, her best friends boyfriend comes to the mall with another girl draped on his sholder. She tries to to tell Bre but the evil boyfriend, Bryant, and his best friend, Colton, make her believe there story. Charlet is now doing her best to get Bre to know the truth but it may cost there friendship. Whats worse is shes falling for Colton. But maybe he doesn't know the truth either. ===

__Annotation__
=== Alex Rider, a 14-year old boy, finds out about his uncle's, and adopted parent, death from a deadly car accident, Alex was suspicious. When the police told him how the crash had happened, Alex knew it was wrong. He knew his uncle always wore his seatbelt. Alex was suspicious so he decided to investigate the accident himself. Alex then finds that his Uncle didn't die in a crash, but was a spy who was shot. Ale was then forced to join the "M16's," where he is sent on a mission. The mission was to go to Cornwall, where Harod Sayle lived, to investigate this man. Alex finds that Harod has invented a computer that he is going to send to every school in the country. Alex also finds out that this computer has a terrible virus. This virus is smallpox, and while Alex is playing with one of the computers in Sayle's home he catches what he is doing, and is left to die with many other people. Everyone in Britain with the computer will get the virus when the Prime Minister pushes the button to release the small pox. Alex then steals a plane and crashes it into the Science museum where the Prime Minister is. Alex almost shoots the Prime Minister and the Stormbreaker is all called off. Alex then gets in a taxi to go home, but the taxi driver is Sayle, who takes him to the top of a building intending to shoot him. Then the murderer of Alex's uncle kills Sayle and Alex lives. ===

__Evaluation__
=== I would highly recommend this book, because it is action packed. The book keeps you interested the whole way through. The book also helps you look deeper into the story by reflecting on real life things. ===

__Annotation:__
=== Billy Baggs, a raised farm boy with a crazy fastball, and amazing baseball skills, starts some tension with his archrival Archer “King” Kenwood on the baseball field. Thankfully, Billy has the edge during heated games against the Town teams. But once Billy figures out Archer is best friends with Suzy Langen, the girl he likes things get way out of control. A fight creates one day during baseball practice, and Billy’s head coach, Coach Anderson tries to interfere and forces Archer and Billy to trade homes for awhile. For half a week, Archer has to stay out on the Bagg’s farm doing everything with Billy. Then, Billy has to turn around and stay at Archer’s house in town for a half a week. It turns out Billy and Archer do have something in common. They both have strict fathers who tell them what to do. They both have to come together to overcome their fathers, and settle their argument between Suzy. ===

__Evaluation:__
=== I recommend the amazing book to anyone who likes a mix between sports and girls. It combines the two topics to create a page turning, action packed book. It teaches readers about many life skills and how to handle them, including family tension. ===

__Notes:__
=== - Will Weaver has published eight other books: __Striking out__, __Farm Team__, __Red Earth, White Earth__, __A gravestone Made of Wheat__, __Memory Boy__, __Claws, Full Service__, and __Barns of Minnesota__. ===

Annotation:
=== It starts with a dream. Max is running away for three guys, and these guys have guns. They are shooting at her though the trees. Max quickly stops when she sees that there is a cliff. She is thinking to herself what she needs to do as one of the bullets hit her in the wing. She starts to fall down but, she wakes up. Max is a fifteen year old bird mutant whose destiny is to save the world. She also has to take care of her family who all are bird kids too. The six of them venture the world to find their parents and also to stop the evil scientist for further experiments. ===

__Annotation:__
=== Anne Carter was born and raised in New York and every summer her parents took her to Long Island, where they had a cottage back in the woods close to a beach, to get away from the city. When Anne got married and had kids they continued to go to Long Island with her parents. One year shortly before summer, Anne's parents adopted an English Basset Hound. The kids loved him and named the puppy Huckleberry Hound. Every day until summer the kids went to walk and feed Huckleberry. Once summer came, they took their yearly trip to Long Island and brought Huckleberry with. He hated the country and spent most of this days on the porch, curled up in a chair. Until one day a water line in the kitchen broke so they called a plumber, Young Charlie. When he came to fix the pipe he brought along his black lab, George. The kids played with him and Huckleberry watched from the porch. Soon they drug Huckleberry in the yard to play, George grabbed the leash from the kids and began walking Huckleberry. Which was the first of many. That's how the story got the name //"The Great Dog Walk."// ===

Christopher Paolini __ERAGON__ New York, 2002
=== When a 15 year old boy named Eragon is hunting in the moutians, a shiny blue stone appears out of no where right in front of his eyes in a hail of fire. He hopes it may buy his famly some food for the coming winter. But in fact it is a dragon egg and it hatches soon after he findes it. A few weeks after the dragon, (Saphira), hatches two cloked stangers come into the isolated town of Carvahall, where Eragon and Saphira are living, they ask questions about the blue stone. Then they kill Eragons uncle and burn his farm. Brom the town story teller joins Eragon in the quest to hunt dwon and kill the two cloked murrders. Alnog the way Eragon learns about the dragon riders of old, of magic and evils of the tryrent king. He is the last of the riders it is his duty to join the Varden in the fight against the evil king, be taught by the elves. Along the way he finds love, pain, and his place in the world as the last of the riders. The rest is in the book for you to read. ===

__NOTES__
=== There are two other books in this seris, and a movie about the first book. Don't waste your money its not good at all. The move is a horificly bad recreation of the book I highly recommend you not watch it. ===

Kidd, Rob. __Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm.__ New York: Disney Press. 2006.
=== This story is about a teenage boy named jack sparrow, he is going on a quest to find the sword of Cortes. this sword is said to give them a great amount of power. But first Jack must find a ship and find a crew that will stick with him and not be scared. Thought the book they are fitting sea creatures and racing other pirates to the sword. When they get to the island where the sword is at they find out that one other ship was already there and they were already trying to find the sword. Jack and his crew were off the shore not to far and say that this great power was a curse, so when they all realized what the sword did they sunk the other ship and sailed away, this is how the story ends and it does not say where they are going. ===

Annotation:
=== Harry Potter, an eleven-year-old boy, lived a normal life, except for the part that he lived underneath a staircase in a cupboard. He is living with a family that found him on their doorsteps. After Harry's birthday, he has been getting letters from an unknown person. So to get away from the mail, Mr. Dursley, decides to go to stay in a lighthouse to where no one can mail them letters. But to their surprise, a giant man, Hagrid, is knocking down the door and telling Harry to come with him. Harry sets out with Hagrid to buy his school supplies for his new school, Hogwarts. When Hagrid leaves Harry at the train station, his ticket is looking a little funny. The platform number is 9 3/4. When he tries to find the platform by himself, he asks somebody else and he says the ticket is invalid. Harry sets out again to find the platform. When he is in between platform 9 and 10, he finds somebody also looking for platform 9 3/4. When the Weasleys tell him how it is done, they become family friends. After that, Harry sets out on a fun filled adventure to find new experiences. ===

Anotation:
=== Eragon is about a young farm boy named Eragon. Eragon finds a blue dragon egg and he becomes apart of the magical dragon riders. But there's one problem. He is the last dragon rider alive besides the king and the king wants to kill him. His uncle gets killed by one of the king's servants so he flees town with the story teller Brom and he begins his adventure to get back at the kings servants. Along the way he develops his powers and makes many friends (as well as enemies). He must learn how to use his and his dragon's new abilities in order to survive the attacks from the empire as well as to use them to track his enemies. ===

Annotation:
=== Winifred Foster also known as “Winnie”, is a girl who is not satisfied with her life. One day when she is wandering through her wood she comes upon a boy who she automatically falls in love with. After having a conversation with this boy whose name is Jesse Tuck, she finds herself being kidnapped by Jesse's mother and brother. She soon finds out that the Tuck family is immortal because they drank from a spring in Winnie's wood. Jesse is seventeen years old, but falls in love with Winnie anyways, and asks her to become immortal when she turns seventeen, so they can be together. Winnie will have to make up her mind about becoming an immortal when she turns seventeen and also help Jesse's mother get out of jail for kidnapping her, and killing the man who tried to take her away from the Tuck’s. ===

Evaluation:
=== I recommend this book because it’s a great story, and it’s a life lesson to be thankful for what you have because some other people don’t. In this case, the tuck’s can’t ever go to the great paradise of heaven because of a spring they drank from, so they are telling Winnie not to so she can go to heaven. ===

Kallee Mudd
=== __Annotation:__ There’s a large difference between California and Montana. That’s what main character Guy Martinez (the main character in Dog Sense) realizes after he, his mother, and his dog Streak move in with his Grandfather in Coffee, Montana. But after his first encounter with school bully Brad Mullen, he makes his first friend in Montana named Luke Grant. After a few days of school, the boys decide to enter Streak in a Frisbee contest at the Fall Fair. The only problem was that Brad had entered his dog Shep in the contest, too. At the end of the event, Brad wins and Guy comes in second. Soon Guy hears that both he and Brad both qualify for the District Contest. But on the day of the contest, Luke's dad has a stroke and Guy decides to skip the contest to comfort Luke at the hospital. Even Streak comes to visit after a couple days. After a few days, the judges from the district contest hear about what Guy did. They then talked with the judges for the State Frisbee contest and decide that Streak could compete in a qualifying round before the actual contest in Missoula, Montana. But then Brad finds out about it and he and Guy raise the bet and before guy knows it, he bets the ownership of Streak. Now, not wanting to give up Streak, Guy and Luke throw Frisbees for him whenever they could. It seems like the more Guy and Luke practice with Streak, the better Luke's dad is getting after his stroke. Before they knew it, the day of the contest was getting closer and closer. After they get to Missoula and make it past the qualifying round, the time comes for the real competition. In the competition, (to my surprise in my reading) Guy and Brad tie for second place and have to have a tiebreaker. With a stroke of luck, Streak beats Shep and gets 11th out of 20 entries in the State Competition. Guy decides to do his part of the bet and offers to tutor Brad in Math. Even though Luke ended up moving to Portland, Oregon, Guy started to think that Montana was beginning to feel like home. ===

Haddix,Margaret Peterson __Sent__. New York: Simon and Schuler, 2009. Print.
=== Traveling very slowly through to a land unknown to them is Chip, Katherine, Jonah, and Alex find themselves in the time of Prince Edward V. After the actual chip and jonah disappear in time. Jonah and Katherine must find a way to save them. After the first nights problem of attempted murder. Katherine and Jonah set out to help and then they run into the princes uncle, who is out to kill the princes and take the thrown. After the uncle is crowned, a great war breaks out and the only people they can save their friends is to fight. When the battle begins they are right in the middle of it and just at the last second they grab their friends and return to the present year. ===

Annotation
=== This is a story about a young girl named Cathrine and her brother Thomas. The town they live in has been being attacked but Indian's and alot of children and families have been kidnapped and killed. So all of the children have to walk to school in groups so that if they get attacked, hopefully at least one child might be able to run and find help. One day, alot of the children were sick so Cathy and her brother had to walk to walk alone. They got attacked and kidnapped. Instead of being killed they were taken to their camp. They were separated when they got there, and they wouldn't stop kicking and screaming so they were both given something to keep them quiet. She woke up in the woman's tent, she kept asking all of them where her brother was but all they did was smile at her. So she decided to go out and explore where she was. She met a young boy, he was the only one that knew english, so he explained that her brother was taken to the next camp over. Cathy then asks him if he can go get him, so he goes to the camp and makes a deal with the chief so that Thomas gets to come with Cathy. After they were reunited they lived there for about a year, until the camp got attacked by american's. Cathy and here brother were hurt so they were taken to the hospital. At the hospital someone reconised them and somehow got a hold of their parents, so they came and got them. ===

Annotation:
=== This young girl has to go through many problems through her life. Right at the beginning of the book Julie Trelling's mother died. She has to go live with her strict Aunt Cordelia, who is a school teacher, and has to go to the country school where her aunt teaches. While living with Aunt Cordelia, Julie has to deal with her aunt calling her Julia, because Aunt Cordelia doesn't believe in names with the end of "ie" or "Y". While she lives with her aunt Julie loses a schoolmate that had a hard time learning, and who didn't bathe or anything. Her name was Aggie Kilpin. She wasn't very smart, but she was sweet. After Julies days in the old country schoolhouse she went to high school in town. When Julie was in high school she was an outcast until she started dating the most popular guy in school. Except that he was using her in order to get an a in english. After they broke up she started to date Danny, her childhood friend. When she graduated from high school she graduated with a lot of honors, and was her class's validictorian. ===

Evaluation:
=== I recomend this book to any teenage girl who has gone through a lot of trouble with her life. Especially when she has been through a lot of death, like me, because she can relate to the characters. It's a story about a girl going through the troubles with her life, so I think other girls would enjoy it. ===

Annotation:
=== Down in Texas, at the Sam Houston Tiger Ranch, is the destination of where Cody has decided to work and live after running away from some family problems at home. At the tiger ranch, Cody works as feeding all the tigers, lions, and all wild cats that live at the ranch. But there is one tiger that no one at the ranch can take care of. The tiger is a big over five thousand pound white Bengal tiger. Cody over the time he has been there he starts to feel a connection with the tiger and seems like he can maybe make friends. Until a terrible accident happens between a worker and the tiger that sets them back of their progress to become friends. ===

Horowitz, Anthony: Stormbreaker. United Kingdom, 2000. Print
=== Annotation: Stormbreaker is about a kid named Alex Rider who had an uncle that supposedly died in a car crash without his seat belt on. Alex did not believe that, because he always wore his seat belt. So with further investigation he found out that his uncle was actually an undercover spy for a company called M16. He was shot on his last mission. Alex was then brought to M16 for training and then was supposed to finish his uncle’s mission. He escaped a lot of very close calls with guards though while undercover. He had to find out why a guy named Herold Sayle was giving away a lot of “super computers.” It just sounds very suspicious to M16. ===

Annotation:
=== Nancy, a 14 year-old girl was having the time of her life. When one day she got to go to a Garth Brooks concert because her aunt picked up the tickets for her. But wat Nancy didn't know was that she would met a guy there. An eitghteen year-old boy named Collin Eagle. They get to talking and enjoying themselves. But time flies by when you're having fun. Days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months. Before Nancy knew it, she and Collin were dating and she was very happy about this decision. But one day when Collin and Nancy are all alone at her house, Collin starts to kiss Nancy and before she knew it, Collin was dragging her up the stairs into her parents bedroom. Collin tries to have sex with her but Nancy said no and he just kept asking and asking. Collin doesn't care any more and takes of his and her clothing. Before she knew it, Collin had rapped her. She was terrifed and didn't know what to do. When she woke up Collin was gone and Nancy was laying in her parents bed alone, scared, terrified. She didn't want her mom to know what had happend so she layed low and didn't mention a word about what had happend. Weeks go by and she doen't hear from Collin. Nancy life gets turned upside down by feelin tired all the time and not wanting to do anything anymore. Nancy doesn't know whats going on so her mom takes her to the hospital to get Nancy checked out. The doctors took her blood and had her try to get some rest. The doctors reveal a life-changing information to Nancy and her mother. Nancy has gotton AIDS. But how? From Collin. Nancy has to end up telling her mom what had happend to her that day Collin was there. Nancy gets weaker and weaker to the point where she can't get out of bed. Nancy is scared of the fact that she is dying and is just hating on Collin. Nancy died in her sleep on April 12th two days after her last entry in her journal. ===

Mike Lupica __Summer Ball__
=== Danny is from a town called middle town. Danny is good at basketball and has won championships with his travel teams. Danny is a point guard. He is good but runs into the problem of being short. He hates being so short because everyone is so much taller then him. As an eighth grader, he plays with the ninth grade traveling team because he is good enough. They were all so much taller then him and he struggled. He hated this so much. Over the summer, Danny goes to a basketball camp called Josh Cameron’s Right Way Camp. It is where most of the good players go. His dad used to play in the NBA and got him and some buddies hooked up to go. Here, he runs into the problem of being short again. His coach doesn’t like him because it used to be one of his dads old coaches in college. Danny struggles here. On top of that, Danny runs into a couple of guys that he doesn’t get along with from playing them in travel team. Those two are better then Danny and give him a hard time. Danny fights threw the camp and makes its. He ends up being friends with one of the guys, Rasheed. Rasheed turns on his old friend for being so mean to Danny. Rashhed and Danny end up being good friends for the rest of the camp. === === Evaluation: This book is very good. It sends you a message to be strong and not give up. It tells you that it doesn’t matter how good or bad you are, or how short or tall you are. It tells you that you should keep trying and not give up. === === Notes: Mike Lupica has many other books. Some of his famous are __Travel Team__, __Heat__, and __Miracle on 49th Street__. He is a fan of basketball and baseball it seems like from most of the books he writes. ===

__Annotation__:
=== Falling in love with a vampire is not easy and in this book Bella proves how much she loves Edward Cullen. Bella’s life is threatened when an angry vampire named Victoria comes to town looking for her, but Victoria isn’t alone. Victoria is the leader of wild and dangerous newborn vampires who are all after Bella. Luckily, Alice, Edward’s sister has a vision in which Bella is being hunted and warns Edward, so they can prepare to fight the unskilled newborns. The Cullen’s can’t fight all the newborns alone, so they ask their enemey werewolves to help them save Bella’s life. Together the Cullen’s and the werewolves dominate the newborns, killing all of them and only walking away with one injured werewolf. Once all the fighting is over and Bella doesn’t have to worry about being killed, Edward proposes to Bella. Now, Bella’s wish of becoming a vampire is about to come true. ===

__ Annotation: __
=== The book __Stormbreaker__ is about a boy whose uncle, Ian Rider, says he is a banker and lets Alex, Ian’s nephew, believe that he really is a banker for about 13 years. Alex finally finds out when his uncle unexpectedly died in a “car accident” because he “wasn’t wearing his seatbelt”. Alex knows something is going on because his uncle is a very careful and a law abiding man. He finds out that his uncle, in fact, did not get in a car accident but was shot to death when he went to the salvage yard and found out his uncles car had been torn apart by bullets. When Alex went to his uncles’ workplace he found out that his uncle was actually a special agent for the Government. His uncle had been KIA while investigating a suspicious computer company. Alex took over the mission for his uncle in disguise of a boy who won a contest that had a prize of getting to visit Sayle Enteprises (the computer company). He went to the company facilities and investigated in place of Ian while pretending to be the other boy. What Alex found out was that Mr. Sayle was putting a highly toxic form of the small pox in every computer that was being sold and when the computers were activated they would release the toxin, killing many people. Alex ended up stopping Mr. Sayle just in time to save. ===

By: Travis Olsen Mackel, Kathy, __Boost,__ Barthelmess, Thom Copyright 2008 Booklist __Annotation:__ Savvy and Callie are sisters and they both have there own set of struggles. The have a very interesting way of dealing with them. They moved to Rhode Island to a farm just after their father had a terrible accident. Savvy in 13 years-old and in 6 feet 2 inches and is a very good basketball player. She plays on a league team called "The Fire." This is a 18 and older team and she is only 13. Callie is her older sister. She is on the varsity cheerleading squad at their school. The stress of trying to perform at here peak level is pushing her to the point where she is now gaining a lot of weight. She then used the method of over-the-counter diet meds to help here loose weight. Before this she is demoted from a flyer to just staying on the floor because of her weight. During on of Savvy's basketball games a cop comes on a tip that there are steroids in her locker. Then lying to the detective, she says, that the pills are for poison ivy. Her and her coach is the suspended temporarily. __Evaluation:__ I would recommend this book to any sports fan. It is packed with suspense and you can't put it down. In this book it also tells about family tension and struggles that they have and how they deal with them. This book is great. __Notes:__ -Published September 4th, 2008 -Written many books like "Mad Cat" and "Alien in a Bottle." Tiffany Brauckman Annotation: This book is about how teens should approach dating. It tells teens that befored dating someone you should discuss to each other on your religious views, and the boundaries that you want from each other. It also tells the five ways to know if that person is really into you. Dumb dating things that even smart people do. The five top tips on finding true love. What "Just Friends" really means. Ten disgusting ways that guys make it so girls won't like them. Ten things you should never say to a guy, and the problem with dating mythical creatures. This book is funny, but Chad does a great job telling the truth about relationships to girls and guys. Evaluation: I would recommend this to any girl who is haveing a relationship problem or even a guy who is haveing a relationship problem. This book is a really good book for any teenage girl who has questions about relationships, dating, or who has been through a break up. It helped me realize that one bad relationship isn't a big deal. This isn't for just teenage girls either the advice is for guys too, but it's mainly for girls because girls are the ones who have all the questions. Notes: Chad Eastham is a motivational speaker who speakes at the Revolve Tour. (that's where I got the book) He doesn't speak at the teens, but he talks to the teens as if he was talking to them just one on one, and he interacts with them ||
 * Eastham Chad, The Truth About Dating, Love & Just Being Friends... and how Not to be Miserable as a Teenager because life is short, and seriously, things don't Magically get Better after high school and lots of other Important stuff, but we'll get to that later... Published in Nashville Tennessee by thomas Nelson

Cody Kirchhoff Christopher, Matt. __Dirt Bike Racer.__ Massachusetts, Boston, 1979 __Reading Annotation:__ This book is about a kid named Ron Baker. Him and his friend Tony went to this pond to go scuba diving one day. While diving, Ron saw something shiny at the bottom of the pond. Getting closer, he realized it was a dirt bike. They got it out of the water and figured out what was wrong with it. He then got a job to pay for the parts. Once he got it all fixed up with the new parts, he decided to race it and he did pretty good. It became his dream to ride professionally. __Evaluation:__ This was a really good book and I think that anybody thinking about riding dirt bikes should read it. It really tells a lot about riding and how it costs money to fix you bike. __Notes:__ Matt Christopher has written 129 books and they have all been about some kind of sport. He has books of about any kind of sport you can think of. Horvath, Polly. __Everything on a Waffle__ New Nork, 2001. Take a package of carrots and scrape them. Chop the carrots into bite sized pieces. The book starts out with a recipe. Primrose is a little girl without parents. She has to go and live with her Uncle Jack. Uncle Jack live alone so it is a surprise to him when a fun loving, accident prone little girl come and lives with him. Uncle jack is always gone, so primrose is always walking around town by herself. She must of the time goes to this little waffle shop called Little girl on the red swing. when there Miss Bowzer is always teaching her new recipes. Primrose is always on an adventure. She goes on many adventure. Even one that costed her some toes. This book is a good one to read if you just feel like reading a book. It is a fast read and never gets boring. Notes -Has the Newbery honor award. -Also the author of The Trolls. ||  ||
 * || Emily Hemphill

Bryce Wernimont Green, __Tim Football Genius__. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007 Annotation: Troy is a 6th grader living in Georgia who is parented by his divorced mom. Like any other kid in the United States Troy loves football. He is part of a football team, only problem, he’s second string. He’s behind the coach’s son, of course. It seems like everything’s going wrong for Troy, except for one thing, his brain. He is somehow able to predict plays before they happen, and he’s never wrong. It also just so happens that his mom has recently landed a job working in public relations, for the Atlanta Falcons. Finally, his chance to be a star at something, and all he has to do is get the attention of Linebacker, Seth Halloway. After that, with Troy’s play predicting brain, and Seth’s amazing athletic ability, the Falcons could actually end up winning the Superbowl. Evaluation: This is overall a great book. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes football tied in with a little suspense and comedy. It reads easy, and keeps your attention for the whole book. Other Notes: Tim Green is a retired Defensive End who played in the NFL. He has written several other books like __Exact Revenge__.

Ryan Garber Schmitz, Dorthy Childers. Hang Gliding. Parsipanny, NJ: Crestwood House Inc., 1978. Print. This book is all about the experience and training involved with hang gliding. If you ask anyone that has experienced it they will say it is the best feeling they have ever had. It is the closest thing to flying like a bird. The number one key to hang gliding is safety. Before a person can actually go into flight they have to go through several steps of training. First you have to learn the parts of the glider and how to recognize when there is a problem with your glider. After you go through that and ground training you are ready to begin on “bunny hills”. After you fly on the bunny hills if your instructor thinks your ready you then move on to intermediate hills. The number one most important thing that they teach you is safety. If people would follow gliding instructions and use safety the number of casualties would be reduced greatly. Hang gliding has come along way in the last 30 years and there are now competitions. Alaura Schuler Myer, Stephanie. Breaking Dawn Annotation: Bella and Edward finally get married and go away on their honeymoon. While there, Bella and Edward had sex. Vampires can't have kids because of their reproduction system does not function. But Bella ends up pregnant and can't understand how that is possible. Bella's pregnancy goes by really fast due to the fact that she is carrying a half vampire half human baby. When she is about 6 months, her baby is at the age of a 1 year old. When she goes into labor she ends up dying so Edward injects his venom into her heart and all over her body so she can survive. Bella survives and is now a vampire herself which is what she wanted. They have a baby girl named Renesme and Jacob imprints on her. Evaluation: I would recomend this book to people who love vampire books or movies.

Tori Dolch Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hasen, Marty Becker, D.V.M. Carol Kline, and Amy D. Shojai __Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul__ "Just an Old Golden Retriever" New York: New York 2005 Print An elderly women had an 11 year old Golden Retriever named Brandy. Neighbors would watch the two out in the garden every day. One day the eldery woman had passed away. The family came and got the valuables they wanted then locked the dog out and out up a for-sale sign. One neighbor had an 18-month old boy that Brandy would play with. His mom would try shooing her away, but it didn't work. One day the boy was outside alone and when his mom came out to get him, he was gone. She called the polive and after about 6 hours of searching someone had asked were Brandy was while another lady had heard barking in the distance. So everyone started yelling for Brandy and as they got closer to the barking everyone was shoked at what they had saw. The old dog has the little boy pressed against a tree with her shoulder as one of Brandy's legs dangled over a 35-foot drop to a stream below. Once they had grabbed the boy, Brandy dropped. She had held the boy up for all those hours of them searching and her work had paid off. They took her in til she passed away. Now in Brandy's honor there's a recuse kennel for all unwanted animals called Pets Alive in New York City. Chicken Soup books are very inspiring so I would recommend them to anyone of all ages, because you can find a book that fits your interests. Chicken Soup has many publishers and all of the stories are entered by everyone around the world. "Just an Old Golden Retriever" was written by Audrey Thomasson.

Sarah Park I read the book City Of Ember by Jeanne Duprau. I really like this book, I usually don't like books like this but I LOVE this one. They built the City Of Ember to last only 220 years. They mayor had held the box that could end the city, well 241 years later they opened it and followed the plan for escaping. The people who live in Ember don't know what's going on. with the electric flood lamps. Some people took advantage of their positions in the escape. It ends by Lina and Doon work together to figure out the message they had. Lina and Dook get away from the mayor and they delievered the message.

Emily Jacobsen VanLiere, Donna. __The Christmas Hope__. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005. Print. __Annotation:__ A social worker gets a call in the middle of the night. She is called to a house where the mother got in a car accident and a little toddler, Emily, is taken in by the social worker. The social worker’s son Sean pasted away 7 years prior to the setting. The social worker is also going through some marital problems. Because the social worker and her husband knew that a little girl should spend her Christmas in a place full of strangers, they decided to keep her until after Christmas. The social worker had another patient that was only a few months old, Mia. Mia had to have surgery on her heart. The social worker learns to cope with the loss of her son, and decides to adopt both Emily and Mia. She also works out her relationship problems along the way. __Evaluation:__ I highly recommend this great story, especially during the Christmas season. I love reading books about the different ways God can impact your life. I would love to adopt a child someday because I know that that child needs a family, and someone to be there for them, to take care of them. With just a little faith, you can reach milestones. Notes: There are 6 books in this series total: __The Christmas Shoes__, __The Christmas Blessing__, __The Christmas Hope__, __The Christmas Promise__, __The Christmas Secret__, and __The Christmas Journey__.

Nick Renner Rowling, J.K. __Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone__. New York: Collins, 1999 print. __Annotation:__ Harry Potter, an orphan forced to live with his dreaded aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, had an unusal tale about to unfold. __Evaluation:__ This is a great story for anyone who likes any taste of literature. The dialogue is amazing. and it really keeps you in tune with the story. There's so many twists and turns you won't know what hit you. And it gives you plenty of other books to lead on to. Harry begins to notice that there are things going on around him that he can't understand. One of which is that he can speak with serpents! And before he can realize what is even going on a large man named Hagrid comes to see him with a letter admitting him to Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardry. He then leads himself onto find out that he has a mortal enemy named Voldemort that he must either kill, or be killed. __Notes:__ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.
 * there are 6 other books in the Harry Potter Novel collection:
 * All but the last half of the Deathly Hollows has been made into films.

Joshua Schorle Annotation: This book is about 2 kids, Jonah and Katherine, going back in time to help Andrea find out who she really is. Jonah and Katherine’s mission is to help return Andrea back to the lost colony of Roanoke in the sixteenth century and help restore the balance of history. Margaret Peterson Haddix’s intriguing summary of this book (located on the inside cover of the book) does a pretty good job of explaining what happens: “(After they have landed in sixteenth century) right away things start to go wrong. They lose the Elucidator (a very helpful tool used when time traveling) and aren’t sure where in time they’ve landed. As Jonah, Katherine, and Andrea struggle to survive without food, water, supplies, or a way to contact anyone for rescue, they try to piece together the mysterious history of Roanoke. What happened to the missing colonists? Does it have anything to do with their current predicament? And how can they help Andrea restore history if they don’t even know what century they’re in? The more Jonah and Katherine look for answers, the more questions they have.” Evaluation: This is a pretty good book and I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a story involving time travel and possible complications when traveling back in time. However, before reading this book, I would recommend reading the first 2 books. Otherwise, things will make no sense to you whatsoever. Notes: This is book 3 in a series called “The Missing” · 1st book: Found · 2nd book: Sent · 3rd book: Sabotaged First book published: RUNNING OUT OF TIME · Date published: 1995 Advice she gives kids: Read a lot. Write a lot. Think a lot. Enjoy what you read, write and think about. And, not to sound too much like a mom, but, really, next time start on your report before the night before, okay?

Eric Kirchner Korman, Gordon. __Swindle__. Scholastic. 2008. Print. __Annotation__ Griffen finds a rare Babe Ruth baseball card hidden in an old, abandoned house that is about to be torn down. A card collector tricks Griffen out of the card. Griffen and a group of friends, and enemies, try to get the card back. Their adventures take them up against a guard dog, a security system and a really secret hiding place. Griffen is determined to get his card back, no matter what. __Evaluation__ This book is a good adventure book. __Notes__ This book is a special edition with questions and activities in the back of it. There are five other books by this author: __Schooled__; __Maxx Comedy__; __No More Dead Dogs__; __The Sixth Grade Nickname Game__; __The Last-Place Sports Poems of Jeremy Bloom__ Author web site: [|www.gordonkorman.com]

Miranda Yarrington Margaret Peterson Haddix, Escape from Memory 2005 Simon Pulse Escape from memory is a book about a girl who found out about her past at a slumber party by hypnotism. A strange women saying that she is her aunt kidnaps her. She finds out that she has memories stored in her brain that could kill her, but they save her in the end. This is a great book and if you like action you'll like this book.

Noah Welter Pilkey, Dav __Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets__ New York: Broadway, 2001 Annotation: Were George and Harold are really excited to enter this contest. If they are able to win they would become principal for a day. From last years incident were George and Harold glued everybody to there seats. There mean principal Mr. Krupps bans them from the contest will George and Harold. To get back at there principal for banning them from the contest they snuck in and broke all the other kids inventions. Will George and Harold get caught or will they find a way to participate. Guess you will have to read and find out,. Evaluation: This is a great book. If you are in to superhero's and comics this is your type of book. It is along of funny remarks and classical quotes. Notes: This book is part of a series of if you fall in love you always can read more.

Brett Keegan Colfer, Eoin. __The Artemis Fowl Files__. New York, New York 2004 This book is a add-on if u have not read any of the Arthemis Fowl books then this is not for you. After you have read the books, this book goes further in depth of all of the characters. It explains their lives from child to a grown adult or as old as they are in the last book. Also in this book the have quiz's, it has maps of all the places you travel around in the book. This book also has short stories that take you further in to the books, also once you pick it up it is hard to put it down right away you get hooked. There are many good things in this book but once again you first need to read the other books or else you will be really lost in this one.

This book is great for people who like fairy tales and adventures. Its the last book that i have of the Arthemis Fowl books. In some of the book you are in first person so it puts you in the book which makes it more interesting.

There are 7 books Artemis Fowl <[]> The Arctic Incident <[]> The Eternity Code <[]> The Opal Deception <[]> The Lost Colony <[]> The Time Paradox <[]> The Atlantis Complex <[]>

Jordan Tupper Steel, Danielle. __Bungalow 2__. New York: New York, 2007. Print __Annotation:__ Tanya is an extraordinary mother and wife who works from home. Her job/hobby is writing short stories, and she occasionally writes the scripts for soap operas. But her dream has always been to write the screenplay for a feature film. After years of bad news, she finally gives up and realizes she is happy with her life. She has three well behaved kids, 1 boy starting college and twin girls starting their senior year. Then one day she gets a call to write a script for a movie with big names. After her husband begs her to go, Tanya gets all packed up and leaves for Hollywood for 9 months. Over the course of time things start to go horribly wrong. She loses her daughter to her best friend/neighbor, and then also loses her husband to him. This makes her decide she wants to do another movie. After a good dose of the Hollywood lifestyle and Hollywood romances, Tanya swears she will never do another movie, until she gets a call from Phillip. She agrees to do his movie and over time, they fall in love. __Evaluation:__ I highly recommend this book. It kept my attention the whole way through with different twists. Plus, I felt like I was part of the Hollywood scene just reading it. __Notes:__
 * Danielle Steel has sold over 570 million copies of her novels and has been hailed as one of the world's most popular authors.
 * Danielle is the author of His Bright Light. It is a story of her son's life and death.

Blake Stender Laurie Halse Anderson, __Twisted,__ Annotation: As a senior in high school Tyler Miller is you're average teen, average looks, average dysfunctional family. But since he got caught doing graffiti at school he spent the summer working to pay for it. After a summer of hard work he stands out more than anyone would ever believe. His new bod attracts the attention of his fathers boss's daughter, who just so happens to be the hottest girl in school. This sets off a string of chain-reactions that have tyler questioning where he belongs at school, and in the world. Evaluation: I would very strongly recommend this book to any teenage boy looking for a good book. It is good in a very unique way that is easy to relate to. It tells you that you're not the only teen with a dysfunctional family, average looks, or a "background kid.

Carson Heiny Flinn, Alex Beastly Kyle has a perfect life. He is rich, popular, and handsome. He is also mean, and shallow, just like his dad. When he plays a rude prank on a girl who is weird, she turns him into a beast, with only two years for someone to love him and give him a true kiss to break the spell. His father tries to find him a doctor to fix what he has, but he finds no one. He sends Kyle to a house with his maid and a blind tutor to live on his own. Kyle find that he loves to plant roses, and love the company of his captive staff. When he catches a thief that gives his daughter up to save his own life Kyle gets excited and agrees, hoping his daughter is the girl who will finally fall in love with him. When Kyle meets the girl she is angry and wants nothing to do with him, thinking he is a horrible person for taking her away from the only person who has cared for her. She finally comes around and likes Kyle, thinking he is beautiful for whats inside, not on the outside. She falls in love with him and he turns into a human again. __Evaluation__ It is a really good book if you liked the beauty and the beast as a kid. __Notes__ Many of her books made it to the American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adults lists.

Sam Bateman Darren Shan, The Vampires assistant Annotation: At the start of this book two vampires are headed to the "freak show" that they had left in the first story. The assistant had not worked in this freak show he had just watched it in the first story, but in this story Darren is in the freak show as an act with his vampire "master" where he eats a poisonous spider. later on he find a friend who gets killed by a monster that is at the freak show and Darren since he is dying from not drinking blood he drinks his friends blood. this is the end and it is followed up by the 3rd book in the story. Evaluation: This is the greatest book series I have ever come in contact with I encourage reading it. Notes: This is the second book in this story you should probably read the first one before this one.

Austin Petty Speak By: Laurie Halse Anderson Speak is about a young teenage girl named, Melinda Sordino, she was at a party and got raped, and then she called the cop. This makes all of her friends very mad. When school starts a couple weeks later, no one talks or has any interaction with her. Melinda also went from a striate “A” student to a strait “F” student. She also had a lot of family trouble. Her parent fought a lot and were seldom ever home. Melinda turned into a mute, she talk with no one, not even parents. She began to stop caring about what she looked like. Melinda stopped dressing nice and even stopped showering. She started biting finger nails and licking her lips till they were all cracked open. At one point in the book she started cutting her wrist, she even attempted suicide once. Through all of this there was one this Melinda still liked, art. In art her assignment was to make trees in all different types of mediums. Art was the one thing that she cared about. Speak is a book that I enjoyed reading. I liked how I was always in suspense and was learning new things on every page. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about possible real life situations.

Diana Perkins The book __Don't Judge A Girl by Her Cover__, by Ally Carter, is the 3rd book in the series of the Gallagher girls. In this book, The main character Cami, goes with one of her best friends and room mates for the summer. Macey is the daughter of the soon to be vice president. While on a canpain in Boston, the girls are attacked by kidnappers, but, not normal one after Macey. These kidnapers know who the girls are and that they go to the secretive Gallahger Accademy for exceptional young women. The Gallahger accademy is really a school for girl spies. They get away but know that whoever attacked them will strike again. Cami and Macey are looking around every corning trying to discover the truth. In the end, you get a shock that was never seen. It is a great book.

JT Baker Rowling, J.K. __Harray Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone__ London: Bloomsbury, 1997. print. A young man that was orphaned at a young age is now living with his aunt and uncle. He has always lived a normal life until his 11 birthday, when strange things start to happen. He soon finds he can control things and talk to snakes. He meets a man named Hagrid, and soon becomes friends with him. Hagrid tells him that he was chosen as a baby to be the one to kill he who shall not be named, the future of all wizards rests on his shoulders. Hagrid takes him to a bank where he finds out that his parents have left him alot of money. He uses the money to buy a wand, books, and a pet owl named Hedwig. He has to take a train to Hogwarts school and his platform number is 9 3/4. He has to run straight into a pole to get to the train. This is all the start to a wonderful andventure and a series of books. I recommend this book it is really good.

Tatiana Anderson International Wildlife Explorer West Indian Manatees Printed by IMP Inc. Annotaion This is a book that explains all the bacics about Manatees. You can usually find 3,520 pound magnificent animals around the Atlanic and Caribbean coast lines in tropical and subtropical waters. They prefere to be in shallow waters like, bays, lagoons, and swamps where there is a good supply of plant food. In the summer though manatees will venture out further in the ocean where it's warm. Manatees are known for there very laid back, lazy daily routines. About third of their day and night manatees spend their time eating and grazing at a very slow speed. Other than that all they do is rest on the bottom. When they do move around they move at a very slow speed of 2-4 mph, but if they get frightened they can move up to 15 mph in some cases. Manatees are loners, they only bond during mating season, other than the bond between mother and cub, but that will only last for about a year before they separate for life which their life span is approxmitly 30 years or so. They have a very picky eating habits, for example, other than plants they only eat very small fish. They like to eat underwater plants, in order to do so they can stay under water for up to 15 minutes before having to surface for air. Because not all it's food is very nutritious they have to eat about (110 pounds) per day in order to meet its daily needs. Since they eat so much their gut contains masses of cellulose-digesting bacteria. So over all manatees are very laid back, usually harmless animals. Evaluation I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about manatees. Notes This author right alot more informative books about animals

Jake Auerbach Nicholas Sparks, Dear John. Annotation John a young army man who stationed in Germany is currently at home for leave. His dad was not a big part of his life growing up and John never seemed to understand why. When John came back on leave he was feeling a little lonely. Then one day at the beach he met this girl named Savannah who was in town working on a mission trip with some of her friends from school. Although she was slightly younger her and John quickly started to hit it off. They went on dates and Savannah took a liking to Johns father. She soon realized that he had a slight mental problem which would explain his behavior raising John. But now it was time for John to go back to the army. Before he left his and Savannah had made a deal that when we got out of the army they would get married. While he was gone the wrote each other. After while Savannah's note game less frequent. And eventually she told John, in one of her notes, that she was going to get married. He was heartbroken. The distance just didn't work. When he got back on one of his leaves, for his dad's funereal, he went to see Savannah her and her husband, Tim. He was Savannah's best friend growing up and John was glad that it was him instead of someone else. But Tim was suffering from an illness. And the doctors weren't sure what was going on. John sold his dad's coin collection and anonymously donated the money to get Tim the proper treatment he needs. evaluation: most guys think this is a girls book, but honestly I enjoyed it. Although it was good I did kinda think it was predictable. notes: was made into a movie.

Cody Juelsgaard Petty, Daniel. “Taking Flight.” Running Times. January/February 2011. Issue 383 Annotation: Lisa Koll has chosen Oregon to launch her professional running career and life. She has made this decision because the harsh Iowa winters would not able her to run her intense workouts during the snowy weather. After setting several records running for Iowa State at the college level, she will now begin with her new trainer. When they really started training together, he told her “You have to be 100 percent committed to this if you want to do it.” She took a lot from that. He will hopefully be able to shave seconds off of her course and track times. There are few runners that can stay up with her during her training workouts. Also, she is sponsored by Nike, and they don’t just support anyone. Koll has a lot of potential and I would look for her to be on top of the U.S. Olympic teams within the next 8 years. Evaluation: This is a good magazine for any body wanting to lose weight or for the full-fledged runner. This article is showing how running is picking up in the media and in the sports world. Notes: Break-off of Runners World Magazine

Hope Bowker Shusterman, Neal. __The Shadow Club Rising__. Penguin Putnam, Dutton; 2002. Annotation: The book is about a boy named Jared and his group called the “Shadow Club.” Alec Smarts moves into town and draws all the attention to himself, because he is a genius, good at sports, and popular among people, but eventually starts gaining negative attention and gets pranks pulled on him. Jared’s group is being blamed for it and they’re innocent, so he gathers his team and searches all over the town to find who is pulling these pranks. They follow the clues, develop relationships between former enemies, and eventually find somebody they wouldn’t expect to be doing the pranks. Reason I enjoyed the book: I enjoyed the book very much because it was very suspenseful and had lots of unexpected surprises. I can relate to the main character Jared because he loves to swim and so do I. Jared lives near an ocean and that is where I hope to end up someday. I enjoyed the setting and imagery the book provided. Fact about the book: The book, __The Shadow Club Rising__, was released September 15, 1992, and has 393,823 words in it.

Nick Olsen Hobbs, Will __Jason’s Gold__ HarperCollins Publishers __Annotation:__ Ho for Klondike! That’s what thousands of people were shouting when the discovered gold around Alaska. Jason Hawthorne was In New York at the time of the discovery although his brothers lived in Seattle. Jason’s father had recently passed away and his father always said, “The Roving Bee Gets the Honey”, that’s exactly what Jason did, he went to New York to get away from the cannery he worked in. When he heard of the rush he got on a train, went to Seattle to surprise his brothers. His brothers had already taken off for Alaska with his inheritance from his father, which left Jason without any travel partners, money, food and a job. Jason overcame many struggles on his way to the Dawson City, such as trekking over many rough miles, getting ratted on by crooks, getting beaten up, getting attacked by a mouse and adopting a 12 year-old boy with who he wintered with in a log cabin. Jason and the boy eventually made it to Dawson City, but there wasn’t any gold… Jason started working at the sawmill with his brothers in the end. __Evaluation:__ This book is an easy but interesting read for both young and older readers. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys and adventurous book. __Notes:__ Will Hobbs wrote many more books, including a sequel to __Jason’s gold, Down the Yukon.__

Jordan Westphalen Clare, Cassandra. __City of Glass__. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc, 2009. __Annotation:__ Clary must go to the ancient shadowhunter city in Idris, the City of Glass, to get the antidote that can wake her mother up. It turns out that her brother, Jace, who she also loves, doesn’t want her to come with him, so he leaves without her. Clary breaks the law so that she could get to Idris, and that could mean death. When she was in the City of Glass, she found out that her best friend Simon, whose vampire now, has been thrown in prison by shadowhunters. While in this city she meets a shadowhunter Sebastian. Mean while her father, Valentine, is somewhere in Idris. He is planning on taking down all shadowhunters. Can Shadowhunters and Downworlders team together to defeat Valentine? Can Clary use her new powers to help defeat her father? __Evaluation__ I highly recommend this book. It is one of my favorites. I have read the whole series a couple of times. It is action packed with a little bit of a love story. __Notes__ There are two books before this one, since it is the 3rd book: City of Bones & City of Ashes. There will soon be another book coming out. It is a possibility that City of Bones is going to be made into a movie. She also wrote another book in a different series. But it is about the same thing, just in a different time period.

Chris Hemphill

The Vampire's Assistant This book is about a boy named Darren. He is currently coaxing on trouble at home with his parents. After visiting a freak show Darren feels that he would like to be a vampire like one of the performers were. In reality Darren wants to be a vampire or super human. After going to a traveling freak show Darren conviences Mr. Crespely to turn him into a vampire. Once he becomes a vampire he has a week to say his goodbyes to people that he knows. After the week of him telling people his goodbyes he goes to Crespely and says that he is ready for his fake funnerel. To make everybody thing that the death is real he drinks the bottle of stuff that Crespely gives him and jumps out of the window. The time that Crespely gets to the grave to unbarrie him is very important or he may die from lack of oxegen. Crepsely comes in time for hime to open the caskette. After a few months of Darren being a vampire Crespely sometimes wishes that he did not turn Darren into a vampire. So he takes Darren back to the Curque du freak show and they start traveling around with them. Darren later makes friends with a boy that has scales for skin. After them being there for awhile they must move on because they are getting threats of Reggie (Darren's old best friend) calling the cops on them. His friend Steve who in the begining wanted to be the vampire but was decleared to have evil blook vowed to hunt for Darren and his mentor when he becomes and adult as the worlds best vampire hunter. I think this is an amazing book if i had to rate it on a scale of one to ten i would most definetly give it a nine. This book shows how easily something can come between two friends if one of them wants it enough but instead the other one that wasnt really into it until he sees it wants it to happen to him gets it. This is a good lesson that even in a book there aren't always happy endings just like in life, but this is just the first book of the seires. I have read the whole seires and i can't wait to see the movie sometime soon.

Tim Archibald Collins, Suzanne. __The Hunger Games__. New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print. Annotation: __The Hunger Games__ is a set in the future after North America has been destroyed and new colonies have been created, Panem. In the colonies of Panem is the center of it, the Capitol. Around the Capitol in a circular pattern is the original 13 districts. During a war, all 13 districts allied against the Capitol, but because the Capitol is surrounded by mountains, all of the districts were defeated and the Capitol annihilated District 13. The story begins in the poor District 12. District 12 is known for mining coal. The main character is Katniss, whose father died in an explosion at a mine. Each year, as a result of the war, 24 tributes are chosen from the districts. Two are chosen from each district, one boy and one girl. The Hunger Games is where the Capitol shows what they can do. In the Hunger Games, the tributes have to fight to the death to be declared the winner. Behind the Games are the Gamemakers, who decides what and where the tributes will meet. Evaluation: I have enjoyed reading this book because at the end of each chapter it kept you wanting to read more. If you have trouble finding good books ,I would reccomend it for you. Notes: There are two other books: __Catching Fire__ and __Mockingjay__. __The Hunger Games__ is currently being made into a movie and will be in theaters March of 2012.

Shelby Tichota Meyer, Stephanie __Twilight__, New York, October 2005 Annotation: Twilight starts out with the life of seventeen year old Isabella Swan “Bella”, who is living the normal, boring, life of a teenager. Until she moves to Forks, Washington to live with her father Charlie. As she unexpectedly laid her eyes on Edward Cullen, her life completely changed. She couldn’t help but notice how beautiful him and his brothers and sisters were. Bella tries ignoring Edward at first, pretending that she thinks he’s annoying, but really inside she is dying to get to know him. She then later finds out that he is a vampire and is very different from normal seventeen year olds. Even though Edward tries to make her stay away from him she doesn’t listen and finds any excuse to be next to him. She begins to realize that her life is in danger by hanging out with the Cullen’s. One simple game of baseball encounters her with a tracker who is also a vampire named James. He instantly becomes obsessed with Bella and tries tracking her. The Cullen’s try to keep her safe but Bella ends up going after him herself to do anything to try and save her mother. She meets him at her old ballet studio where he attacks her and almost kills her. In the end Edward and the rest of his family save her and she and Edward promise to be together, forever. Evaluation: I think this is the best book I have ever read, for as long as it is, it only took me three days, I would read it again. Notes: There are three other books to this series such as, New Moon, Eclipes, and Breaking Dawn. These all have made movies also. The first book was published in October of 2005.

Ben Nelson Catherine M. Lupica, Mike __Miracle on 49th Street__.Puffin Books 2006 Print __Annotation:__ Josh Cameron guard for the Boston Celtics who has a spotless reputation. He has everything until one day a 12 year old girl named Molly Parker arrives in his life. Molly is claiming to be Josh's daughter and she catches him of guard. She tells him about her mother who told her about him before she died on cancer. Josh at first denies it and wants nothing to do with her. Later, after Josh becomes attached to her, he tells her the truth. The story goes on about all the stuff they go through together and Molly's journey to get Josh's attention. __Evaluation:__ Great book highly recomend it if you are in to basketball or like sports books. __Notes:__ Mike Lupica writes many other sports books if you are interested in sports books look him up.

Kallee Mudd Annotation: Normally, I read stories that involve teenagers turning into adults. But this time, I decided to read a book about a boy that is about to turn into a teenager. In Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid:The Ugly Truth, a boy named Greg Heffley learns that growing up is harder than it looks. And without the help of his best friend Rowley Jefferson, things just keep getting worse. After a fight with Rowley, his mom taking a class, getting a very lazy maid, boy-girl parties, and taking a class about puberty, Greg had to start thinking for himself. To try to show that he will be fine without Rowley, Greg tries many things that would get him on TV. But after his failed "Peachy Freeze" spokesperson audition, he decided to to use a math book that belonged to a popular boy in the grade above him to get new friends. But when that fails, he learns from his "Gammie" that he should enjoy the time that he is young and to make it last. After receiving that little piece of advice, he talked to Rowley and they became best friends again. And with Rowley by his side, Greg was ready to have fun like a kid should. Evaluaiton: I thought this book was a very good read for two reasons. One reason is because it was written in Greg's point of view and it's very easy for kids to relate to. And the second reason is because not only does it have humor, but it has pictures. I think that the pictures add to what the book saying while adding humor to it. Recommendations: I would recommend this book to children in middle school because this would probably answer the questions that they have about growing up. But I would also recommend this book to high schoolers because the way the story was told might take them back to when they were that age and how excited they were to grow up.

Dalton Cook Mary Pope Osborne __Magic Tree House: Civil War on Sunday__ Scholastic INC. __Annotation:__ This book is #21 out of a serious where Jack and Annie; brother and sister have a tree house in their back yard and it takes them back in time to different historical happenings in the past. This book is about Jack and Annie go back to the civil war. They meet a nurse who needs their help with gathering up soldiers that are injured. As Jack and Annie are wondering around the battle field they see a strange sight. They find a young boy around the same age as them. They become friends with the young boy and come to find that he is the drummer boy for the army. When it's time to go back home Jack and Annie are stuck in a sticky situation with their new friend. Read to find out more about this thrilling book __Evaluation:__ I recommend this book it is full of tense situations and a fun easy book to read and one of many in the series __Notes:__ There are 45 books in the series

Abby Johnson Sparks, Nicholas. __The Last Song__. New York 2009. Print. __Annotation:__ The Last Song is a great drama/love book. A mother sends her troubled teenage daughter, Ronnie, and son to live with their father for the summer in North Carolina. Ronnie and her father used to share the love of playing the piano, but when her father left her, she abandoned playing. Ronnie is not happy about going to see her father, because she is still mad about her father leaving them. While at her father's house she meets a guy who changes how she feels about her life. They hang out and enjoy the entire summer together and she finally starts to get along with her dad. Just as Ronnie and her father start bonding and enjoying each others company, they learn that her dad is ill with cancer. To deal with her sadness Ronnie and her father turn to the piano and start to make a song together. They start making a song, but before they have time to finish it he passes away. Ronnie finishes the song they started together and finally realizes how important her dad is to her. She charishes each day she spent with her father and now looks at life through a different perspective. __Evaluation__: The Last Song was a very good book. It kept my attention throughout the whole book. __Notes__: The Last Song was made into a movie in 2010.

Seth Rohde The Spiderwick Chroniles: Book 1 Annition: Twins Jared and Simon Grace, and their older sister Mallory, move with their mother to an old worn down Victorian house which they inherited from their aunt who is in a mental hospital. There they discover a secret room, and clues which eventually lead them to an old, handwritten and illustrated book, Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. The book is filled with details about faeries, boggarts, brownies, and other amazing magical creatures, but these are not your Disney fairies, not at all they are not cute or are they friendly. At first only Jared is interested, but strange and destructive things happen to the house, and though their mother blames Jared, his siblings don't. Throught out the rest of the books in the series they learn all about the magical world around them that only they can see and interact with. Eval. It is a great book if you like adventure and mystery. So may say that it is a kids book and they would be right. But I like it anyway.

ReAnn Cappel Oates, Joyce Carol. __Freaky Green Eyes__. New York: Harper Collins, 2003. Print. Annotation: A young girl going into a big world. She has her first party experience and it isn’t a good one. She finds a boy she really likes at this party and hangs with him. After she realizes he didn’t want her, he wanted sex, she left the party. This in fact is where she got her name “freaky.” This girl lives in a bigger town. She grew up with an older brother, a younger sister, and a mother and father. The only problem with her family was the fact was a famous person. Reid Person. He wanted just what every other famous person wanted, he wanted fame and fortune. Reid was a very bad father and husband. He got what he wanted or bad things happened. As her mother and father didn’t believe in divorce, they spent as little time together as possible. While this was going on the kids didn’t have a clue what was happening. So one day the dad came and got the kids from their mother in an instant. He claimed that she was cheating on him and Reid Person couldn’t have a bad history. So one day the mother just disappeared, as the family went through a tough time, the father got them to take his side. The ending of the book, the Freaky comes out in her and she comes to find out her dad killed her mom. Evaluation: I think this is a great book and I hate reading. It’s filled with lessons and other great things. It also shows that famous people are idiots. Notes: There are other great books also written by Joyce Carol Oates. She has written many others and received awards for them.

Tanner Anderson Pro Stock Cars Many pro stock cars are the same as street cars but the mechanics take parts off and add additional parts on. Spoilers are put on to help keep control of the car. The cars can reach up to 200 mph. The stock mechanics have to repair the car fast to get it back in place so he doesn’t fall behind to last. If they make a mistake they lose their place. Many professional racers make their money by winning a race, their sponsors, and advertisements. The cars are built better with the money they win and get from races. The races began in 1950 and 1960 with voltswagon beetle. Now these days they stay tightly together, but two cars pull ahead of the rest. But they pull into the pit stop and loose their place due to a blown tire. Now you know more about race cars you might watch them or even go to a race.

Ashley Haupert My Sisters Keeper. Picoult J. New York, NY, Atria Books, 2004 Annotation: Ana was brought into this world for the purpose to be the exact match to help her sister Kate. Kate has cancer. Because of Ana, Kate has made it along for 15 years. Ana has been poked and had many surgeries to help her sister survive the fight against cancer. Ana is now thirteen years old and understands exactly what is going on and how she is the match for her sister. Kate falls in love with a guy named Taylor. She meets him at the hospital during one of her check ups for the cancer. They are madly inlove and he holds her hand throughout the entire battle of cancer. Taylor takes Kate to prom and she gets to be beautiful for a night! That night they do a few things that they both had never done before to show there love for each other. The next few days, Kate doesn't hear from Taylor and thinks because of what they did that he doesn't like her anymore. Kate finds out that his battle with cancer has finally ended, and the cancer had won. She was very heartbroken from the death of her love. Ana and her brother Jesse get a lawyer to get the rights of Ana's own body so she does not have to give her sister a kidney. They siblings all have a little secret behind sueing there mother that no one really knows about. Kate is going to die without a new kidney and there mom is very furious to find out that Ana no longer will undergo surgery so her sister can have the Kidney. You will have to read the book to find out what the secret is because i really don't want to ruin the book for anyone that hasn't read it! Opinion: I think that is book was even better than the movie! This story touched my heart and made me cry. I would recommend this book to everyone! It is a very fast read and it is a true heartwarming story! Many people today are fighting battle with cancer that them or there loved ones have and so everyone can easily relate to this book. I have lost many family members to cancer. Notes: This book was #1 New York Times best sellers!

Blake Meneely __Old Yeller - Fred Gipson__ __Annotation__ The book Old Yeller is about a family of four who lives on a farm out in the country with a lot of other families. The father leaves with all the other farmers on a cattle drive to Kansas to get some extra money. The father told Travis, the oldest, to take care of all the chores and help mother around the house if she needs it while he is gone. Travis went outside and found a dog stealing their food they had hanging outside. He yells at the dog and the dog drops it. The dog stays and they call him Old Yeller because of the sound of his bark. The dog helps Travis around the farm. Their neighbor comes to the house because he found out Travis was attacked by a hog and got a huge cut on his leg and Old Yeller came and saved him. Travis’s mom and the neighbor’s daughter went to go get wood to burn the diseased bull that they killed and when they came back they got attacked by a wolf contaminated. Travis’s mom yelled at Travis to bring a gun quick, because Old Yeller got bit by the contaminated wolf so they had to kill Old Yeller but the neighbors daughter brought a dog to cheer up Travis from Old Yeller’s death. __Evaluation__ I thought it was one of the best books I have ever read. I would tell everyone I know to read the book. __Notes__ There is a movie over the book but it is not a series. I have not watched the movie.

Mike Watts Drew Karpyshyn, Star wars Darth Bane: Rule of Two ballantine books New York The book starts on a planet called Rusan where the dark brotherhood (sith) battle against the army of light (jedi.) After weeks of fighting lord kaan activated the thought bomb that kills anyone attached to the force in a certain radius. Lord Bane, a sith, survived the bomb along with his apprentice zannah. Bane goes to an ancient sith tomb to get a holocron, a device holding tons of information. After he picks up the holocron he is attack by orbalisk, parasites that feed on the power of the dark side. After years of training and multiple fails at making a holocron Bane and zannah go to the planet Typhon to obtain another holocron. A team of six jedi arrive at Typhon to kill Bane and end the sith. The jedi are eventually killed but the exchange almost cost Bane his life. Zannah takes her master to a healer on a different planet. The healer agrees to help Bane only if Zannah sent a message to the jedi telling them where they were so Bane could be arrested. Zannah agreed sent the message but killed every one at the camp and hid in a secret doorway so when the jedi came they thought they were all dead. __Evaluation__- It was confusing at first because I haven’t read the first book yet but it turned out to be a great book __Notes-__ Has multiple movies and a lot of books