Knightly Reading at Inglewood Junior High School

Are you looking for a good book? A book that uses stealth, poison and assassins to keep the reader entranced? Crocodile Tears, the eighth book of the ever intriguing Alex Rider series, is a book full of all that and more. This book, full of action and friendship, starts with the main character, an MI6 spy named Alex Rider, getting ready for a New Year’s party. The party is in Ireland and he is going with his newest friend, Sabina Pleasure. The party they are going to is hosted by the new British charity, First Aid. First Aid is led by a formal criminal named Desmond McCain who claims to have repented of all his sins. In the middle of the party, right before the fireworks, the Pleasures decide that they want to go home. As they get going on their way it starts to snow and the road gets slippery and narrow. They start going on a turn when suddenly one of the tires pop and the car slides into the lake below. Will Alex and his friends survive the accident? How did the accident happen? Is First Aid really as innocent as it looks? To find the answers to these questions read this great book yourself!

Podcast Episode 1

Have you ever imagined the future? Maybe there’s hovering cars, robots, or talking furniture. The possibilities are endless. In the future, there is all of that and much more. Tally is a girl who lives in the future. Everything around is high-tech, down to even the walls (which talk). But Tally isn’t all that happy because she isn’t a pretty. In Tally’s town, when you become sixteen, you get a physically altering surgery that makes you “pretty” and Tally is only a couple of months away from being sixteen. When her birthday finally comes, Tally eagerly waits for her surgery but unfortunately for Tally, there is a “special circumstance” that doesn’t allow Tally to be pretty. Now, Tally can only become pretty if she betrays everyone she loves.

Tally Youngblood is an ugly. She hates the way she looks. All her life, she couldn’t wait till the surgery that you got when you were sixteen; the surgery that would finally make her “pretty”. Her best friend, Peris, became a pretty a few months before she did and Tally suddenly wants to be a pretty more than ever. After Peris leaves, Tally discovers a girl named Shay. They quickly become best friends but Tally discovered something shocking about Shay. She doesn’t want to be pretty. Shay has heard rumors of a place called The Smoke where uglies ran away before their surgery and lived there. Shay always said she wanted to go there but Tally figured she was only blabbering. Tally finds out that Shay wasn’t joking. Right before Shay’s birthday (which is on the same day as Tally’s), she runs away to The Smoke. Even though Tally is sad, she still continues on with the operation, only to be stopped by a certain Dr. Cable who politely informs her that if she ever wants to be pretty, she will have to betray her best friend Shay, and a colony of innocent uglies.

I really liked the way the author wrote this book but I will select one or two sentecnes I liked. One sentence I liked was, “The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.” I liked this sentence because it was descriptive yet funny. It described the color of the sky but the part about the cat vomit was really funny and I thought it was a perfect comparison and a lovely way to start off the book. Another sentence I like was, “Nature didn’t need an operation to be pretty.” I loved this quote because first of all, it is very true and I just really liked the message the author was trying to convey. Those are just a few of my favorite sayings from Uglies.

One connection I found between the book and my life is that you are forced to make difficult decisions sometimes. Though I haven’t ever had to pick between my best friend or being “pretty”, some decisions you have to make in life can be really hard. Another connection is you find friends in the most unexpected places. When Tally was sent out to betray The Smoke, she found some friends along the way. That’s just like you can find friends in the oddest places even in school. One last connection that I found is that you should check your work. That is because when Tally lies about how much she used up on the journey to The Smoke, she miscalculates and that gets her into a spot of trouble. In school, if you don’t check your work, you could get stuff wrong.

Uglies was a very entertaining book. The characters were a nice variety ranging from rebellious Shay to Peris who was calm and reassuring. The setting was very futuristic so in a way, it gave me a mysterious feel. There were all sorts of things like talking walls, rings that let the City Council know where you were at all times, and much more. There were also ruins called the Rusty Ruins (in the book, “Rusties” are people of this generation who died due to an oil-bacteria disease) which were ruins of tall skyscrapers and town that only had the metal frames left. I found the setting exciting and unique. The story itself was very original and so intriguing. The whole idea of a futuristic plot was fun to read and the way the plot manipulated the characters was exciting to read. You also didn’t know what was going to happen because Tally took so many quick decisions and it was… interesting to see how they impacted her further in the story. The main theme of the book, which I identified is love yourself for the way you are, was very inspiring and I like how the author added it in there along with an amazing plot.

I would definitely recommend this book. If I was to rate it, I would give it 4.5 stars out of 5 stars. There are a few boring parts in the book but I really liked the futuristic plot and the different twists the author gave the story. One thing I especially liked in this story is that the futuristic town has a special but slightly weird way of talking. They have many slangs that I thought were creative and fun to read. Another thing I am pretty sure the reader will find interesting is the way Tally and her friend Shay change through-out the book. All in all, I think that Uglies is a fanastic book which I would recommend to all.

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to fall into a rabbit hole into a completely whimsical universe? Alice Liddell did! Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is all about a girl who falls asleep in her garden and wakes up to see a bunny wearing a waistcoat hopping away. She is intrigued by it and decides to follow it. The bunny then disappears into a hole which Alice soon discovers and falls into. She falls very slowly into the hole and ends up in a hall with many doors. She follows the rabbit which leads her to a door that she opens with a key. She steps inside only to find a door she is too small to go into and discovers a bottle that has a paper attached to it saying “DRINK ME”. What will she do? Will she be able to open the door and discover the rest of this magical place? Read and find out!

Think of your social life at school. Do you have a clique? Isn’t it great to know that they will always be there for you and you can trust them with anything? This is how the girls in this book feel with their clique. Then, school is out and its summertime and the girls go their separate ways. This Clique book focuses on Kristen and her summer stuck in her hometown, Westchester.

Kristen has to stay at home while all of her other friends go on exciting vacations. She figures that she will earn some money by babysitting and tutoring a little girl named Ripple, and helping her with school. What she is really doing is trying to get tutored herself on the Ripple’s older brother, Dune. Unfortunately, everything he likes, skateboarding, surfing, and girls dressed like a surfer is completely against everything her clique likes. Then, Kristen decides it is worth it and she will do anything to impress Dune. But when her plans are put on hold because Dune falls for the alpha of 8^th grade, Skye, she almost gives up hope. Until, she comes up with a mischievous plan to disrupt Skye and Dune, does this plan work? You’ll have to read to find out!

“Kristen wanted to grab him by the shoulders and tell him that she was into glitter polish. That she was a girly girl. That she was funny! And that if she’d had the confidence to ignore Ripple’s terrible advice, she would have been wearing the orange dress with the turquoise bracelets. But all she did was thank him again and close the door. The rest she would save for a box of Puffs and David Beckham.” (Kristen’s cat) –pg 81

I like this series of sentences because it explains Kristen’s situation. Kristen wants to impress Dune so much that she was acting like a boy, not wearing glitter polish, or being a girly girl, or wearing a dress. She just wanted to let out the truth and tell him who she was, and that is why I liked it.

This book relates to any girl’s life. It is human nature that a girl would want to impress someone she likes. This relates to what Kristen was acting like with Dune. This idea also relates with acting like someone your not. People all the time think they are weird because they are different so they act differently, just like Kristen. She thought that Dune thought she was too much of a girly girl so she acted the opposite.

I loved this book. The characters, setting, and theme give me a clear understanding of what the author wanted to explain. I loved the different characters like Dune and Ripple who are not usually in the regular Clique books.

I would recommend this book to all teenage girls. I think all teenage girls would like these books because they are completely relatable. You can relate to boy issues, school problems, and the overall drama of being a teenage girl. For instance, when Kristen had to fill a private country club’s pool with Jell-O in the burning sun with no one catching her. She wanted to do this to break up Skye and Dune. Teenagers could relate to how much she wanted to impress Dune.

What if you realized that your father was Poseidon, the god of sea, and you were half-human half-god? Well, Percy Jackson feels this exact same way. Percy Jackson is a twelve year old boy who discovers he is a half-blood (half-human and half-god), Percy is the son of a mortal woman and the Greek God, Poseidon, the god of sea. When Percy goes on a “trip” with his mother and his friend Grover who appears to be a satyr, tells Percy’s mother they need to good to this magical camp called Camp Half-Blood. On the way to Camp Half-Blood a Minotaur grabs Percy’s mother, but she disappears into a faded light. Percy and Grover run to the boundaries of Camp Half-Blood there, they are safe from any monsters. When Percy wakes up, he realizes he’s at the camp site, Camp Half-Blood, a secret training place for half-bloods like Percy. There, Percy meets Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom, who helps Percy find his way around camp. During a Capture the Flag game, Percy is attacked by the children of Ares, Percy is healed once he steps into the river. There, he is revealed as the son of Poseidon. Long ago, Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus took an oath to not reminisce with mortals because half-bloods of the Big Three (Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus). After Capture the Flag, Percy is granted a quest to find Zeus’s master blot, this is Percy’s quest because when Zeus realized that Percy was the child of Poseidon, he thought that Percy would take the bolt and give it to Poseidon to overthrow Zeus (technically the main god). Now, Percy has ten days to find the missing master bolt and return it to Zeus, or else there will be a war between the gods.

I like the quote when Poseidon says,” Whatever else you do, know that you are mine. You are a true son of the Sea God. I like this because it shows that Poseidon really cares about Percy even though Percy never grew up with a father. This book is nothing like my life because Percy fights monsters and trains for battles while I just go to school and play soccer and volleyball. I really like the character Percy because he’s really funny and he has a sarcastic tone/ voice, but he is really brave, friendly and risked his life trying to save his mother and find the bolt. The setting is taken place mostly in New York, at Camp Half-Blood, Las Vegas, and other mysterious places while Percy tries to find Zeus’s master bolt. I like this theme because I think the whole Greek God theme is interesting, yet suspenseful. I like this story because some parts talk about Percy and Poseidon and how Percy meets him for the very first time and how they connect and become friends/ families again. In conclusion, I recommend this book.

Ever since the animal plague happened, the world’s population had been crammed into one-third the size of the earth. Everyone lived behind the wall in the future London, protected from the animal plague. The massive Genghis Borgs placed upon the massive wall keep any infected animals out, and keep the humans in.

When Mika’s twin sister, Ellie, is kidnapped, everyone thinks that she is dead. But Mika somehow senses that she is alive. Then when a mysterious organization starts a tournament with unbelievable prizes and his nanny disappears when it starts, his doubts form. As the real challenge arises, the strings of the puzzle come together.

“He felt suddenly strong and tried to propel the ball forward with his hatred, but the force of Ruben’s resistance was powerful and after a few seconds the ball did something no one expected – it melted and warped in midair and began to flicker with flames.”

I chose this series of sentences because of the tone in the story. This represents different thoughts and actions that have happened and maybe will happen in the future of the book. This tone in books have really changed the way fantasy action/adventure novels are written and gives future authors something to think about when writing books.

This book could be connected to families or kids who have lost siblings in different incidents in their lives. It explains how families deal with this certain situation where a sibling has been kidnapped.

I would give this book five out of five stars because of its constant action and thought process. The way the author describes different thoughts leading up to certain events in the story really catch my attention. The plot in the book has been very well thought out and the cliffhanger at the end of the story will really catch the reader’s attention.

Sweet and Vicious is the second book in the In and Out series. This series is about Marnie Fitzpatrick and Nola James – former best friends. It was a really good book and I recommend it to anyone who likes a very girly books.

The book is about how Nola is the vicious one and is she is thirsty for revenge and does pull some tricks on Marnie. She first tells Marnie’s ex-boyfriend Weston that Marnie still likes him. Weston doesn’t know that Marnie and Nola are fighting, so he totally believes her. Nola says Marnie wants to meet him at an ice cream shop to talk to him. Then, to lure Marnie into the trap, Nola tells her that they need to work on their English project together, and she should meet her at the same ice cream shop that she told Weston to. When Nola sees Marnie and Weston coming at the same time, she leaves and Marnie is very mad to find that Nola set this up. Marnie is sweet, not doing anything to Nola and trying to be as nice as possible, but Nola is not buying it. When they are sharing their English project, something goes wrong in the PowerPoint they set up and another group member, Evan, has to fix it. To save Nola from being embarrassed, Marnie gives other information with Nola to save her. When the PowerPoint is fixed, Nola keeps presenting it and never says thank you. This makes Marnie doubt if she should keep being nice, and so she decided to be “vicious” as well.

My favorite quote in this book is from the author, describing Nola. Her and her dad are talking about their fight, and this is how the author describes Nola’s thoughts:

“Given that they couldn’t even stand to look at each other, how would be patient ever bring Nola and Marnie back together again? It sounded like a crazy yet well intentioned theory that only a father would dream up.”

I like this quote because the first sentence is almost a complete summary of the entire book, and the author incorporated this very well into a light-hearted and casual conversation of Nola and her father.

I can relate this book to my life because sometimes I feel like Nola, vicious, when I am mad at my friends. But other times, I feel like Marnie, sweet. Also because my feelings toward the one I am fighting with is diffrent all the time. I feel mad, then happy, then sad. This is probably the way that Marnie and Nola I imagine are feeling because they want a friend to talk to, but they can’t talk to each other.

My overall opinion of this book is that it is great. I loved it and couldn’t put it down, and recommend it to anyone who likes very girly books. Whenever reading it I always felt like I was right there, because the author was very descriptive and made you feel like you were Nola, or you were Marnie.

What would you do if you discovered a secret garden? Mary Lennox did just that! She is a sickly, sour-faced little girl born and raised by wealthy parents in India. Her parents were too busy and had little interest in her so they left her in the care of an ayah. Sadly she becomes orphaned because her parents die of an outbreak of cholera. But, she is sent to her lonely widow uncle, Archibald Craven in England. Archie is always traveling so he leaves his manor under the supervision of Mrs. Medlock. Mary has her own chambermaid, Martha Sowerby, who keeps her company. She learns about the garden that has been locked up by Archie because his wife died there and he doesn’t want to remember it and blocks it out as best as he can. She uncovers the key, unlocking the door to the garden and many new friendships and adventures.

My favorite series of sentences is:

“Do you really think he likes me?” “He wouldn’t come near thee if he didn’t,” answered Dickon. “Birds is rare choosers an’ a robin can flout a body worse than man. See he’s making up to thee now. ‘Cannot tha’ see a chap?’ he’s sayin’.”

This story is about a girl who finds a way to live without her parents and change her ways from a sick, mean little girl to a kind, brave little girl. It proves people can change and live through hardships with a little help from friends.

I love this book! I think it has a great theme, story, and characters and overall it’s pretty great! It’s sad at times and some people might not like it because it doesn’t have much action, but its still a generally happen and adventurous story. I would definitely recommend this book!

Michael Oher was a kid in a bad situation. He had no places so to go, no main place to sleep, and no way to be educated. In “The Blind Side” (Michael Oher’s biography), it reports how the Touhy family took him in and boosted his path to living a successful life in football. They found him after a day at Briarcrest Christian School, where Michael had just started to attend school at, as well as where Collins Touhy and Sean Touhy Jr. had been attending for a long time. They took him for the night, giving him a roof to sleep under. This, however, was a situation that lasted for years, and Sean and Leigh Anne Touhy adopted Michael into their family. They helped him learn, interact with people, and most importantly, guided him on the path to football.

First off, this book is one of my favorites, and it’s written very well. Michael Lewis is an awarding-winning author, and was the ideal person to write Michael Oher’s biography (Lewis was Sean Touhy’s classmate for thirteen years at Isidore Newman School). He has almost every detail you could think of putting into a biography, and then some. Here is an example of his writing from “The Blind Side” when Michael Oher is getting his license:

“There’s no such person as Michael Jerome Oher.”

Michael just sat there in silence. Leigh Anne begged than man to keep looking: did he have anything even close? He tried spelling Oher in various ways. Finally he said, “There’s a Michael Jerome Williams.”

“That’s me,” said Michael.

I chose this section of the book as an example because it shows how this book has very detailed dialogue and thoughts from so many events in Michael’s life. Usually biographies only hit the large events, but this one goes into detail about less significant ones, and I think it is a really good attribute of this book.

Next, I think that this book really helps shed light on the struggle of less fortunate people. Before Michael Oher met the Touhy’s, he wasn’t going anywhere or achieving anything. Michael was a lucky to get help, and he was able to make something out of nothing and really make a life for himself. I think that if more people donate to clothing and food drives and try to help the less fortunate, then more people can make something out of nothing, just like Michael.

Finally, I think that this book was excellent, and that the story makes me happy to know that someone was helped out. It is a good story that makes you happy, even though there are parts where “The Blind Side” goes into Oher’s less fortunate past. Michael was very determined throughout the book, and he had fun at the same time. I would consider this book a “feel good” book.

In conclusion, I recommend this book to everyone who is a teenager and up, since there is violent pieces and swearing in this book. Even so, the book is still very happy, and I think that many people will like it.

Have you ever felt that your life could be fairy tale? Perhaps there is a feeling, a spark, or perhaps even a little magic in your life that is similar to a fairy tale. Iris Fisher could not agree more. Cast out of her home in England by her own people, Iris Fisher faces a new, unexpected life in Haarlem which is located in Haarlem. Here she encounters many intriguing things like the mysterious changeling child, Clara, wealth, a broken heart, and the bewitching spell of paintings. As her life in Haarlem continues, her family and fate become intertwined with the beautiful Clara’s and Iris’s life begins to transform. When Clara is reduced to the cinders by her own choice, Iris’s position elevates. Iris’s life unfolds in the sequence of the famous tale, Cinderella, though the ending may leave you more shocked than ever.

Iris Fisher has been exiled from cottage in England by revolting villagers. Along with her mother, Margarethe and her ox of a sister, Ruth, she goes to find shelter in Haarlem where her grandfather lives. After learning that her grandfather is now dead, Margarethe and her children and reduced to begging on the streets where they first catch their glimpse of Clara, a so-called changeling child (which is a child who was swapped at birth). To Iris, Clara was a captivating beauty since everyone considered her “ugly”. After much pleading, Margarethe is taken in by a painter who calls himself the Master or Schoonmaker under the condition that she does the housework. In Schoonmaker’s painting studio is where Iris first falls under the spell of paintings. The Master is soon accompanied by his apprentice, Caspar, who Iris makes friends with rather quickly. One day, the Master receives an offer from a powerful man named van der Meer who wants him to paint his daughter, Clara (the so-called changeling child). He accepts the offer readily and paints Clara while she is holding tulips and titles the painting Young Woman with Tulips. While they are there, Margarethe decides to move in with the van der Meers since they will pay her more for doing housework. After the death of Henrika, van der Meer’s wife, Margarethe marries van der Meer herself. Iris and Clara quickly become friends. When the van der Meers lose their entire fortune due to a crash in the tulip market (where van der Meer had invested all of his money), van der Meer sinks into a depression and Clara is tossed aside by Margarathe (the dictator of the house) and Clara decides to pass time by doing housework. They have an opportunity to get the money back when the Queen of France and her godson come to Haarlem in search of a bride. Margarethe forces Ruth and Iris to try and be his bride and forbids Clara from coming. Iris and Caspar help Clara so she can come and bewitch the Prince into marrying her. Both Iris and Clara are eager for the ball but when the night of the ball arrives, things don’t quite happen according to plan.

“Is there a relative value of beauty? Is evanescence-fleetingness-a necessary element of the thing that moves us? A shooting star dazzles more than the sun. A flower splays itself into color-the lilies of the field!-more treasured than any painting of a flower. But all of these thing, women’s grace, shooting stars, flowers, and paintings, only a painting endures.” This is one of my favorite quotes in the entire book. It is the answer the Schoonmaker gives to Iris after she asks him how one beautiful thing can be compared to another. One reason I love this quote is because of the way these sentences are worded. The wording brings a unique touch to it. My favorite sentence that is uniquely worded is the sentence about the flowers and lilies. Also, there is a certain truth in this quote that applies to even the world today. An example of that would be, “A shooting star dazzles more than the sun.”

A way that this book is connected to my personal life is that Iris is introduced to a whole new setting when she enters the lifestyle of the van der Meers. Everything was bigger, richer, and more proper. Everything had to be done exactly right and doing whatever you wanted was not an option for that would cause gossip. I felt the same way when I came into Junior High because everything wasn’t as laid back as Elementary School was. Everything was at a faster rate and was a little new to me. Along with expecting the unexpected, Iris had to adapt to the new climate of Holland. When I was little and first moved to Washington, I had to adapt to (what I considered) cold, different customs, and a different language. I was pretty used to speaking in Urdu but learning English was a… memorable experience. Finally, Iris meets new people that she wouldn’t have thought she ended up befriend (namely Clara). I can relate to that because in Inglewood, I had lots of people that I didn’t know. As the year went on, I made really good friends with them.

My overall opinion of the book is that I would rate it five out of five stars. The reason I rated it this way because I loved the way that the author took a classic fairy tale and transformed it into a mystical story about an “ugly”, normal girl named Iris. The characters in this story provided a wide variety of personalities. There was Iris who was down to earth and clever, Ruth who was a dreamer, Clara who was silent and stubborn, the Master who was artistic, Caspar who was humorous and charismatic, van der Meer who was strong and decisive, and Margarethe who was not far from a dictator. The setting was different and slightly authentic to me because I liked the way the author showed the big differences between a middle-class setting and a high-class setting. I also loved the bustling marketplace where different character randomly came up (like the Queen of Hairy-Chinned Gypsies) and the noise described. The story line, even though based of a fairy tale I have heard over and over again, still captivated me. I liked the twists the author put on the life of Clara (who was “Cinderella”) and the brains and kindness that was added to Iris’s (the “ugly stepsister”) character. I enjoyed reading how different events that could happen in any family connected to Cinderella’s tale. Finally, I identified the theme as: beauty is not everything. I liked this theme because even though Clara was more beautiful, people enjoyed Iris’s company more than they preferred Clara’s. To people, Clara was a magnificent beauty while Iris was nothing. But people who got to know Iris knew that her clever, quirky personality surpassed any other external beauty.

I would most definitely recommend this book. I would recommend this book to people who enjoyed realistic fiction since the book is a bit realistic at parts. I would recommend it to fairy tale lovers, adventure lovers, and fiction lovers. That is because this book is mainly based off a fairy tale and the creativity put into this book will definitely be appreciated by fairy tale lovers. The adventure bits in this book are when Iris spends time with Clara. The trouble they get into is intense at times and simply outrageous in others. Finally, I would recommend this to fiction lovers because of the fictitious creatures Iris creates that reside in her household. Also, Clara turns from a maid to a beautiful girl in a moment as if it was magic. All in all, I would recommend this book because it gives people a chance to believe in childish fairy tales one again.