This book review is part of series of reviews written by students at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School for their 7th grade English classes.

Seeing color is normal, but what Ian does is not; he feels it. Whenever something touches certain spots on his body, a color fills his vision, but that’s not all; when he sees a particular girl’s face, he tastes blackberries. Ian has an odd, rare (1 in 2000), and very real condition called synesthesia, the joining of two senses. Interesting details like this help to make Absolute Pressure, by Sigmund Brouwer, an entertaining book. Sigmund Brouwer is a well-known writer and though he focuses mainly on children’s books, he has numerous adult books as well. His earliest books date at about 1990, and he has sold over 3 million copies of his books total. Absolute Pressure was written in 2009.

For Ian, a 17-year-old boy, scuba diving is his life. So every year he comes to Key West to stay with his uncle, Uncle Gord, who owns a dive shop there. Ian is and intelligent caring boy, who is calm under pressure, which you have to be while scuba diving. Because if you panic, you don’t think, and if you don’t think, you make mistakes, which can kill you. Ian has learned to live with his synesthesia and the fact that his dad left him.

So, Uncle Gord kind of took over the fatherly position for Ian, but as said by Ian, “Uncle Gord was more like an army sergeant than a father” (34). Uncle Gord is a tough man, but he cares for Ian. Things get complicated though what with Uncle Gord’s business declining and him not having enough money to keep the shop running for long.

One of the dive shop employees is Judd Warner. Judd is a fairly big, strong, and slightly secretive man. Judd has only worked in the dive shop for a few months. So it was surprising to me that he got to stick around while Uncle Gord laid off Ian and the other employee, Sherri.

I loved the plot of this story; it was very interesting and engaging. An important part was that Ian persuaded Judd to let him dive down to place a “treasure chest” for people to look for to increase business. He was on his way up from hiding the chest and the pressure valve breaks on his tank… He can’t control the air and has to swim as fast as he can up to the surface over 90 feet above him, a dangerous risk. Later, the thing that bothers him most is that valves like these don’t just break; upon further examination, he finds that someone had tampered with the valve. This could have killed him if he had not been outside of the wreck in which he hid the chest. If you want to find out who did it and why, you need to read the book.

This all takes place in Key West, the west most island of the Florida Keys. Ian describes it as “Where people can got to escape and live without being asked questions about their lives. Live-and-live kind of place” (68). It’s a fairly small city, with warm weather. Parts of it are busy and loud, while parts of it are quiet and peaceful.

I liked this book because of the plot. It was a page-turner in more than one way. Firstly, it had a plot that had me want to read just a bit further every time I put it down. Secondly, the book was below my reading level, I think so it was easy to read and went quickly. I had a tough time finding new vocab words, but I think you should read it just for fun, regardless of assignments.

-Jadie P., 7th grade

This book review is part of series of reviews written by students at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School for their 7th grade English classes.

Never in my life have I experienced what it is like in prison and in a court session. Walter Dean Myers made me feel like I saw everything that happened from spending nights in a prison cell to being accused of murder. The story takes place in a courtroom in the city of Harlem, New York, when Steve Harmon has been accused of murdering 55-year-old Alguinaldo Nesbitt and robbing his drug store. This book was written in the form of a film script along with some parts written as a journal entry of Steve’s life in prison.

Steve and his journal entrees are the main reason why I really enjoyed this book. These entrees take you inside the prison cells and show you what’s really behind those iron doors. “Two guys said they did [share a moment of prayer], and I was just about ready to say I would when Lynch, a guy who is going on trial for killing his wife, started cursing at the preacher and saying that everybody wanted to talk to him and act like they were good when they were all just criminals” (61). It’s moments like these are what made me want to continue reading this book.

James King is another character that you will come across in this book. King is the typical gang member who, in this book, planned the robbery and murdered the drug store clerk, Mr. Nesbitt. King is the one who encourages Steve that he should join in on this stick up which points out on of the major themes in this book, peer pressure.

Peer pressure is one of the three major themes of this book. Osvaldo Cruz, a young 14-year-old gang member of the Diablos, joins in on this felony all because of Richard “Bobo” Evans, the character who planned this robbery, who threatened and encouraged Osvaldo to tag along. Osvaldo then says that he only joined because he was scared of Bobo, but that did nothing.

Another theme in this book is the idea of what young black men in Harlem, New York are like. In the book it shows that Steve has these flashbacks that wanted to put in his movie, after all it is written in a film script format. In the many flash backs it shows what Steve has grown up with, from gang threats to experiences of what a ghetto town is like filled with poverty, fights and much more.

Introspection is the next theme. Throughout Steve’s journal entrees he really thinks about who he is at the moment, who he has become and who he truly is as well as what has and hasn’t done. “That is why I take the films of myself. I want to know who I am. I want to know the road to panic that I took. I want to look at myself a thousand times to look for one true image” (281). At the end of the book Steve’s question still hasn’t been answered.

The thing about this trial is that Steve knows that he isn’t guilty yet everyone thinks he is guilty. It seems as if the jury only thought he was guilty in a racist way; because of his skin color. The jury thinks that just because he is a young African-American boy he is more likely to have been apart of the crime. They say that everyone is innocent until proven guilty but in the eyes of the jury, it seems as if Steve is guilt until proven innocent.

The setting of the book is in the state of New York and the country of the United States where everyone is treated with equal rights. In a country like this, Steve should definitely be innocent until proven guilty. If you want to know what the jury has decided and what happens to Steve and King in Monster, you’re going to have to read the book for yourself.

-Justin M., 7th grade