Monthly Archives: October 2013

Series Review: The Infernal Devices, by Cassandra Clare

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infernal_devicesThe Infernal Devices is a series written by the well known and loved author Cassandra Clare. A sister to The Mortal Instruments series, The Infernal Devices captures the lives of the ancestors of the characters we know and love.

This series is about a young woman named Tessa Gray, a New Yorker who moved to England to meet her brother. Tessa is on a mission to find her true identity, and find the truth about the life she lived before coming to England. Tessa also falls into a love triangle in which she must choose between the overconfident yet charming Will Herondale, or the sweet and caring Jem Carstairs.

The reader takes an adventure through Tessa’s Victorian England and falls in love with each and every one of the characters. Through clockwork angels and partying with demons, the books contain adventures in every chapter. Not to mention that we get to see what the well known Magnus Bane (from The Mortal Instruments) was like when he was still hanging with the Lightwoods before Alec and Isabelle.

Overall, I would definitely say this is my favorite book series I have ever read, and Cassandra Clare never fails to please her fans with her spectacular writing.

-Sara S., 10th grade

Book Review: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, by Jeff Kinney

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cabin_fever_coverLet me start off by saying I absolutely love how Jeff Kinney writes his stories! He is funny and always makes me want to read his book again and again. Cabin Fever, another of Jeff’s novels, is riveting and hilarious.

Greg Heffley is a boy who goes to Westmore Middle School. Greg is always looking for shortcuts in his life. Whether it’s money or school, he is always looking for the easy way out. Greg is always looking for ways to earn money and one day while it snows he strikes an idea. But the problem is, can he strike the customers?

He opens up a snow shoveling business. Greg goes around his neighborhood looking for jobs. He finally gets one when a guy agrees with is job. He starts to shovel the driveway doing his best job but it just seems that more and more snow is coming down. After a “short” break he finds an idea that will make him a millionaire- the only thing left is to test it out. A snow mower! He goes to his grandma’s and quickly uses her mower to find out it works great… until it freezes out! Will he ever get rid of the snow and get paid?

I would recommend this book to anyone who is 9 and up. It is really, really, really funny!

-Satej B., 7th grade

Book Review: Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan

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_206890SchEsperanza_0.tifEsperanza Rising is a great novel about a young Mexican girl’s adventure of riches to rags– quite the opposite of most stories.

Esperanza lives on a big ranch called El Rancho de Las Rosas. There she has servants, huge acres of land, her best friends and a mother, father and grandmother who love her dearly. Esperanza lives the life of a princess, she has everything. That all changes on the day that Esperanza pricked her finger on a rose thorn, bad luck was coming. And she was right.

Esperanza’s father promises to meet her in the garden that day, but he never arrives, having been killed by bandits still bent on the Mexican Revolution. From that point on, Esperanza suffers through her uncles taking advantage of her father’s recent death and proposing to Mama, the burning of El Rancho de Las Rosas, the separation from Abuelita (grandmother), the step by step process to becoming poor and the escape from the only home she had ever known. Moving to California to work (although work was never in Esperanza’s vocabulary) is a big step for Esperanza.

A revolution boiling in the background of this new life and Mama’s sudden illness all come as a surprise to Esperanza. Will she be able to save Mama’s life and her own? Is the strength of love and perseverance truly the strongest medicine of all? Esperanza learns to “never be afraid to start over” because our lives are lives of “mountains and valleys.” After all, “he who falls today may rise tomorrow.”

-Danielle T., 7th grade