An American Plague

By Jim Murphy

It’s 1793 and there’s an invisible killer roaming the streets of Philadelphia.  The city’s residents are fleeing in fear.  This killer has a name – yellow fever – but everything else about it is a mystery.  Its cause is unknown and there is no cure…

Stars: 4.  You can learn alot but it is also scarry.

Mandie and the Holiday Surprise

By Lois Gladys Lepard

Mandie comes home for Christmas.   Her mother has a big surprise…

Stars: 5.  the book give many surprises to anyone who reads it.  Many people can relate to the story.

Review written by: Alicia

The Kids’ Guide to Pranks, Tricks and Practical Jokes

By Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt

This book was about pranks, tricks and practical jokes.  It gave directions and what you needed for the joke or prank.

Stars: 4.  I love to do pranks on people and just have fun.

Review written by: Imani

The Roar of the Crowd

By Rich Wallace

A boy named Manny plays football.  He works very hard when he gets his chances to play, but he doesn’t get many.  When will he start feeling proud of himself and feel like part of the team.

Stars: 4.  It shows what can happen when a person is determined and is willing to work hard.

Review written by: Victor

The Fire Within

By Chris D’Lacey

This book is about a man who moves in wiht a lady and her 11 year old daughter.  Hefinds a grou of clay dragons that come to life.  He and his special dragon decide to write a book that leads to a mystery.

Stars: 4.  Dragons always have fascinated me.  So I tend to like most books with them in it.  I enjoyed this book alot.  It is just as good as Eragon.

Review written by: Noah

Favorites From the Old Ones #9

Colin is a child prodigy who just graduated from high school and has just had his heart broken by his girlfriend-Katherine. He only dates girls named Katherine and has the same result eighteen previous times-the relationship never works out. He is also disappointed that he is now an adult and never did anything outstanding to prove that he was a true child prodigy.

Colin and his best friend Hassan head out on a road trip to clear their minds and figure out life when they end up in a rural West Tennessee town called Gutshot. (Gutshot claims to be home of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the person responsible for the first shot of WWI). Here they meet Lindsey and her mother Hollis, whose family runs the local textile factory that produces tampon strings and is the major employer of this tiny town.

Hollis invites the boys to spend the summer in Gutshot and employs them to visit various community members to record their personal memories of the town and factory. Colin is also busy working on his relationship theory that will predict the outcome of all relationships. He uses his past relationships with the many Katherines and with a little help from Lindsey and some realizations of the truth-Colin figures out the theorem. (Which is explained in the appendix, and is actually quite fascinating.)

Not only do Colin and Hassan have an interesting summer making new friends (and girlfriends!) and have all kinds of new adventures, but they both make some important personal decisions and learn a lot about themselves.

Never Mind

By Rachel Vail

Two twins who were enemies went to different schools.  Meg, the sister, lied and said her brother was in an awesome band.  A girl had a party and told Meg to bring her brother’s band.  Luckily, edward listened in on the phone call and created a band to play at the friend’s party.

Stars: 3  It was kinda confusing

Review written by: Taylor

The Bellmaker

By Brian Jacques

Joseph the bellmaker was warned by a dream that his daughter Mariel was in danger by the evil fox wolf.  The world must be saved from Urgan Nagru!

Stars:  5.  It is adventurous and funny!

Review written by: Rachel

Powers

By Ursula K. LeGuin

A slave from a great city named Etra escapes the city to find his homeland.  The boy has a power of memory and fortunetelling.  Along the way he meets new people and sees new towns.

Stars: 3.  The book is decent, but it has its faults.  It has a few boring parts, but makes up with its GREAT storyline and interesting characters.

Review written by: Noah

This Present Darkness

By Frank E. Peretti

This book is about a bunch of people – an investigator named Bernice Krugger, a pastor called Hank Buscite, Marshall Hogan the newpaperman, Marshall’s daughter Sandy, and many more- who find themselves in the midst of spiritual turmoil. Angels and demons are all around, tension builds, and a great battle is quickly approaching.

Stars: 5

first of all, i’m kind of an extremist- i either really like something or i really don’t like it. There’s rarely an in- between for me. i like this book because it’s just a really good God- honoring story. i have to say its quite thought provoking. There’s no Peretti book i don’t like.