Monthly Archives: December 2013

Book Review: Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen

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hatchet_coverHatchet by Gary Paulsen is a riveting novel about Brian Robeson, a thirteen year old boy whose parents are recently divorced. He flies to Canada in a small plane to see his father. During the flight, the pilot has a heart attack, dooming the plane to a messy crash. Being the only other person on the plane, Brian takes control of the plane, and unsurprisingly crashes it (duh). Fortunately, he manages to land into a lake, and escapes with only bruises.

After overcoming his shock, he gets to work building a shelter and collecting berries. In his hand is his trusty hatchet, given to him by his mother. Over the next few months, Brian defies all odds, surviving in the wilderness alone. He hunts for fish, makes fire, and scavenges food. Eventually, rescuers to come, but he misses his window of opportunity. Undoubtedly, Brian’s confidence and spirit is shaken. Eventually, he manages to turn his deteriorating resolve, and faces his new challenges with confidence. He hunts and constructs tools, along with the occasional excitement of a moose or skunk attack. Still, knowing he’s only thirteen, we can’t help but admire his clear thinking and determination.

Paulsen’s book is as much a thrilling adventure as it is philosophical. Brian’s woes are not depicted as tiny trifles the hero has to overcome. Brian faces each problem with the same mindset that a normal person does. We know his thoughts, turmoil, and desperation every day. This makes it easier to connect with him as a reader, knowing he’s an average kid rather than a superhero. Also, his physical challenges are just as hard as they would be in real life. Build a raft with logs? Easier said than done. A sense of realism gives the story a more exciting feel.

Overall, this book will be enjoyable for everyone. The vocabulary and structure aren’t difficult, so younger kids can read it. All the same, teens and adults will enjoy it for both its simplicity and detail. Give it a try! When you’re done, there’s an alternate ending and a sequel waiting for you.

-Phillip X., 8th grade

Book vs. Movie: Catching Fire – Another View

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catching_fire_book_movieThe movie Catching Fire came out in theaters on November 22, 2013. Being a Hunger Games fanatic, I thought the movie was absolutely phenomenal.

Oftentimes a movie is made about a specific popular series of novels– however, the movie is not always an absolute representation of the novels. This commonly angers the fanatics of certain series, because the movie should and could have been better. For example, many times the film industry skips important scenes or even worse- they add their own scenes in the movie. This is tragic for the series fanatics because we do not get to experience the exciting novels fully with the movie. In most cases, the novel is always better than the movie, due to its abundance of detail.

Keeping this thought in mind, Catching Fire was a fascinating movie. I have never seen a more accurate representation of a novel until this movie got released. Especially since the first movie, The Hunger Games, was great but still excluded some important scenes, I was extremely surprised by Catching Fire.

Catching Fire included all of the important elements of the series, including enough background information so that viewers who had not read the novel understood the movie. This is often a problem that a movie does not provide the viewers with enough background information. However, this is not the case with the hit Suzanne Collins series. The Catching Fire was an absolutely satisfying movie representation of the novel.

-Nirmeet B., 10th grade

Editor’s note: This book-to-movie adaptation is getting so much love on the Mission Viejo Library Teen Voice! There’s plenty to discuss, so check the previous posts here and here for other bloggers’ viewpoints and let us know what you thought of the movie!

Disney’s Frozen vs. Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen

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frozen_movie_posterDisney has remade many classics fairy tales into movies. Their latest animated feature is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story, “The Snow Queen.” Disney spun this tale into their newest movie, Frozen.

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!

In Andersen’s version, the story focuses on the relationships between two childhood friends, Kay and Gerda. In the story, trolls send an evil mirror down to Earth and it breaks into pieces and a piece of it lands in Kay’s heart which will turn his heart into a lump of ice. A piece also lands in his eye, making him aware of all of the world’s imperfections. A few nights later when it is snowing he sees the Snow Queen but she quickly fades away. The next day the Snow Queen steals him away and Gerda goes on a search to find him. The Snow Queen is made out to be the villain and Gerda, the hero. She finds Kay blue as ice and dying. Gerda’s cries and her hot tears melt the ice in his heart and Kay begins to cry, too, and the mirror comes out of his eye. The story ends when they go home and summer begins.

Disney’s adaptation, Frozen, is a much more emotional tale. It is a story of sisters, Anna and Elsa of Arendelle. The girls were best friends as children but Elsa had a secret: she had ice powers that she could not control. Once, when playing with Anna, she accidentally struck ice into her head. Their parents rushed her to the trolls and they wiped her memory of her sister’s powers and that saved her life. Elsa was from then on, forced to keep her distance from Anna to protect her. The two became estranged and enclosed. Their parents closed the gate to their castle to shelter their children. They soon after passed away, leaving Elsa to the throne. The castle is reopened for the first time in years for Elsa’s coronation. Elsa becomes nervous and accidentally reveals her powers in front of the kingdom and sets off an eternal winter. She runs away and Anna goes to find her. She tries to convince her sister to come home and bring summer back. They begin to argue and Elsa accidentally strikes Anna in the heart with ice and only an action of true love can save her.

I personally preferred Disney’s rendition of “The Snow Queen.” The movie was heart warming and magical. It brought so much emotion into the story and gave it a depth that the original story lacked. It quickly became one of my favorite Disney movies. The animation and the soundtrack to the movie were phenomenal. The cast was flawless and the film was absolutely fantastic! I’d recommend everyone to see it!

-Sarah B., 12th grade

Book Review: Eighth Grade Bites, by Heather Brewer

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eighth_grade_bites_coverAre you tired of waiting for the next Rick Riordan book to come out, or sad that the Harry Potter series is over? If you said yes to either of the two questions, then Eighth Grade Bites might be the next thriller for you.

Meet Vlad Tod, a boy who has been a vampire all his life. The only few people who know this are his dead parents, his best friend (who’s human) and his guardian (also human). However, all he wants to do is to live a normal life, even though he has to put on sunscreen every day, his teacher is too mysterious, and some evil vampire is chasing after him. Besides that, he’s just your average middle schooler who gets bullied, doesn’t have good grades, and is in love with the most popular girl in his
class.

While this book is about vampires, it’s not a gushy romance like Twilight. For one thing, there is no mention of guys taking off their shirts, since it is through a guy’s point of view and not a girl’s. Secondly, while Vlad does fall in love, it’s more like a teenage crush than soul mate sort of love.

I believe that fans of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson would love this book. First of all, Vlad believes himself to be the only vampire in existence before he meets others like him. Secondly, like in Percy Jackson and the seventh book of Harry Potter, someone is always chasing after him. Finally, he has to face the decision of being a special “chosen one” and what is happening in his mind. However, Vlad, like Percy, is very comical and pretty clueless sometimes.

This book contains some materials that are not suitable for anybody who is under 13. These materials include bullying, numerous mentions of blood, talk of what boys desire in girls, and movies that have gore in them.

I would give this book a very high rating. Brewer makes Vlad so realistic with him having average teenager enjoyments and problems, making him seem like he is not a vampire at all (except for the fact that he drinks blood every day after school). Additionally, Brewer puts in some many plot twists that it would make readers want more and learn about some important characteristics of books, especially if the reader doesn’t always read books.

-Megan V., 8th grade

Jane Austen Spinoffs Worth The Read

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I’m reviewing these awesome books by Jenni James. They are called Pride & Popularity, Northanger Alibi, Persuaded, and Emmalee. They are all modern day parallels to Jane Austen books (suprise, suprise right? Any of you who have read my blogs before probably know I’m borderline obsessed). All these books are set with characters from the same town that interact a bit in all the books. For example, the mean girl in Pride & Popularity is the best friend in Persuaded.

These books, collectively known as The Jane Austen Diaries, are amazing. They have super-good plot development and are true to the original while still adding cool plot twists. I’m going to give you an overview and little summary of each of the four books:

pride_popularity_coverPride & Popularity is all about Chloe Elizabeth Hart, redheaded, four-wheeling, fun loving teenage girl. She is just as determined not to fall in love with Taylor Darcy Anderson as he is to get her to fall in love with him. She is not going to be added to his ever growing list of girlfriends, not going to be associated with all the drama that goes along with dating Taylor. But she starts to wonder if even she can resist his gorgeous smile (even if it is really annoying sometimes).

Northanger Alibi follows Chloe’s little sister Claire to Seattle, Washington where she dreams of finding her very own Edward. As she gets caught up in the world of Twilight she starts creating crossovers she thinks make perfect sense and decides that her (kind of) crush is a vampire and she is the Bella of her very own Stephenie Meyer novel. It’s a really good book even if you aren’t a Twilight fan (Harry Potter all the way!)

???????????????????Persuaded is all about Taylor Anderson’s former girlfriend Kylie’s best friend. Amanda was in love with Greg Wentworth when her cheerleading friends told her to break up with him. That was eight years ago and Amanda still wonders what might have been. Then he shows up again, totally hot, and acting like he doesn’t even remember Amanda. To make things even worse, the same friends that discouraged Amanda eight years ago are now throwing themselves all over Greg (who can fly girls to dates in his private plane). Amanda thinks she has lost any chance with Greg when a huge tragedy draws them close. Close enough that he might even begun to forgive her for breaking his heart all those years ago.

Emmalee follows the little sister of Zach Bradford, Taylor Anderson’s best friend. She is really annoying at first, because she thinks she can get whatever she wants because she has money and a “Bradford” smile. But when something huge happens, she realizes that she needs to make some major life changes, which may or may not involve Taylor’s super hot older brother.

If you have any time over Christmas break pick these up and read them. I guarantee you won’t put them down!

-Becka O., 9th grade

Book Review: Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls

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red_fernThis book by Wilson Rawls is about a boy named Billy Colman with his two excellent coon hunting hounds, Little Ann and Old Dan. Billy gets his dogs from a magazine order, and saves enough money by determination and hard work. He always receives tips on hunting from his grandpa. On their first hunt in the river bottoms, the dogs beg for help occasionally. Then Old Dan finds the raccoon scent and heads off with Little Ann at his side. The raccoon pulls a simple trick by swimming across the river. Two hours later the pups has treed their first coon in the tallest sycamore tree in the bottoms. Finally after many hour of chopping the tree, the sycamore falls, and the hounds race off to find and kill the coon.

Near the end of the book, Billy enters a competition for hunting. Billy, his grandpa, and his dad goes to the contest. Before hunting, the judges held a beauty contest, and Billy enters Little Ann. He quickly grooms Little Ann and brings her to the tables. Little Ann wins the beauty contest. At the end of the hunting competition, Billy’s dogs win the contest. But– spoiler alert: there’s a sad ending for these dogs!

This terrific book is truly amazing. I think that the book is great for animal lovers. My opinion about the book is that the story is truly amazing and I bet everyone who reads this story will love it.

-Samantha S., 7th grade

Book Review: Eighth Grade Bites, by Heather Brewer

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eighth_grade_bites_coverFirst might I start out saying I love The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod. I read the entire series and would love to own all of them. The story follows our current eighth grade hero Vladimir Tod. He is a vampire– but he doesn’t sparkle. Vampires are hurt and even killed in the sun light in this mythos about vampires.

Vladimir has a very depressing life; his parents died when he was much younger. They died in a fire at his house and he now lives with aunt Nelly. Nelly isn’t his real aunt, but she and Vlad’s mom were best friends so he refers to her as aunt because she practically is. And the most important plot point in the early story is Vlad’s teacher– his favorite teacher goes missing and is never seen in the series ever.

Of course, Vlad is bullied and not many people besides his best friend Henry like him. That being said, he does have a crush on a girl as most boys around that age do. As she is put up to be the most beautiful girl in the school, Meredith tends to hang around Henry more, which throws up a bit of tension between the two till further in.

Down to the good old heart of this book: it’s a vampire story; but no matter how hard you look at, it’s not Twilight. It’s more for men. It’s funny, it’s mean at times, and it can be rather clever. No matter what you think of vampires, the book is at least mildly interesting, and it can be a great way to read away a late Sunday night. Personally I love these books, and it makes me very happy to read them over again.

And lastly, the most important joke of the book for me; in the first few chapters Vlad and Henry go to a Halloween party of Elm Street; clearly a reference to Nightmare on Elm Street.

There are a few problems here and there, but I really enjoyed this book. I would go more into detail, but that would spoil a lot of the book, which I think is just sick. The story works really well, and of course it’s a nice story for kids and teens. It’s more child friendly than, say, Van Helsing, but teens will like it because it is rather relatable. It has a lot of points where it can hit home for all those kids who were loners, who can sympathies with this character. Teens should give it a look even if your not sure if it’s your type of story, you will enjoy it as long as you like a good tale of vampires who hate garlic, don’t sparkle, and bite people like they are supposed to.

Vladimir Tod gets a 7/10 for his first outing in the book world, and the books only get better and more emotional. I strongly recommend putting this on your “must read” list as soon as you can.

-Cameron S., 12th grade

Book Review: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain

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tom_sawyer_coverIn the classic novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, you learn a valuable lesson about always valuing the people you love.

Tom Sawyer has many adventures along the Mississippi River! In this book, you see the life of a school boy he lives with his aunt. Tom is always getting beaten both in school and out of school so he decides to run away. He runs away with his friends Huck Finn and Joe Harper and they arrive back home just in time for their own funeral! In addition to that, they witness a murder and discover treasure that nobody could even imagine at that time! Tom also falls in love with a girl named Becky Thatcher. Although she plays a minority in the story compared to Tom, she takes up a very big part in Tom’s heart.

I would personally recommend this book to advanced readers or people that are the age fourteen and up, and students that are in eighth grade or ninth grade. There are some parts they may be a bit confusing because of the slang they used back in that time period. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic and it has to be on your must read list!

-Melika R., 8th grade

Book vs. Movie: Catching Fire – A Different Perspective

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catching_fire_book_movieDisclaimer: I know there is already a book vs. movie post about Catching Fire on here.  I just thought it would be nice to give you guys a review from a different perspective.

Attention lovers of the Hunger Games, dystopian fiction, and Josh Hutcherson everywhere!  If you have not seen “Catching Fire” the movie, or read Catching Fire the book, I suggest you run out to your nearest bookstore, and buy this book and a movie ticket to go along with it.  If you have already read the book and are worried that the movie will not live up to your expectations of this literary masterpiece, do not be afraid.  “Catching Fire” the movie was just as good as Catching Fire the book.

Now, I know what you all are thinking. “Books are always better than the movies they are made into.  Why is ‘Catching Fire’ different?”  I’ll tell you why.

#1. The dialogue in “Catching Fire” the movie is almost word-for-word the dialogue in the book.  It was like the scriptwriter had the book open next to him the entire time he was writing the script.  I really appreciated this, as I felt like the writers really took into consideration the fans of the book.

#2. Josh Hutcherson actually has lines.  Now, I know some of you are Liam Hemsworth fans.  Yes, he is attractive, but I prefer Josh Hutcherson. (Don’t judge me.)  In the “Hunger Games” movie, he barely had any lines. This sort of ruined the movie for me.  However, in “Catching Fire” he was able to live up to his full acting potential, and fully embody the character of Peeta.

#3. The arena is flawless.  Without spoiling anything for those who haven’t read the book, let me just say it was exactly how I pictured it.  My friend agrees and she is basically the harshest unpaid movie critic out there, so trust me on this.

#4.  Even if you haven’t read the book, you can still understand the movie.  This was a problem I had with the first “Hunger Games” Movie, as my friends who hadn’t read the book had no idea what was going on and were constantly whispering in my ear the entire time.  Wait, so does Katniss actually like Peeta?  Why are they making such a big deal over this loaf of bread?  Wait, seriously, does she like him or not?  Why is everyone forced to watch the games?  Just tell me already, does she actually love Peeta or not????  Needless to say, I appreciated my friends actually understanding what was going on in “Catching Fire.”

Regardless if you are die-hard fans of the books, or first time viewers, I strongly suggest you get off your butts and take a risk and see this movie!

-Amanda D., 11th grade

Book Review: I Am Nujood, by Nujood Ali

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nujood_coverAbout one month ago, my Girl Scout troop and I attended a screening of the international phenomenon Girl Rising, following the stories of nine girls from all around the world about their struggles to go to school. The movie was inspiring, and so we decided to read Nujood Ali’s true story about her bravery to escape her husband and defy the customs of her people to dive deeper into the topic of girls’ rights. At first I was hesitant to read this book because I was afraid of what she would describe. However, after finishing the book, I can say that this book took the movie to another level, and it truly is an amazing read.

The story starts when Nujood is nine, and she spends the first couple chapters describing her family, community, and daily life. Then she painfully describes the day she found out she was getting married to a complete stranger. She says that her mother never spoke out against the marriage, because her mother was one of the many Yemeni women who followed tradition and orders. Nujood tells of her hopes and dreams to one day marry a sweet and nice man and live happily ever after, and how those dreams were shattered when she met and came to understand her new husband. She tells of her wedding day, and being covered with the black niqab, since married women must cover themselves whenever they leave the house. She also talks about the horrible journey from her home with her strange husband to his home far away from her family. She tells of how her husband abused her and dishonored her family’s request to respect her. Nujood really thought there was no escape, until with the help of her bravery and courage, she made it to a courthouse where she demanded a divorce.

This book will fill you with such pride and contempt at the same time. Pride in Nujood for persevering, despite all the odds. Contempt for the people who ignored, or pretended they couldn’t hear. My least favorite part of the book was, of course, the abuse. However, I knew that this was a true story, and that is an essential part of her argument, so I read it with that thought in the back of my mind. My favorite part of the book is after Nujood is granted the divorce, and she goes back with her lawyer, who she respects and loves dearly, to her office. There, all of the women working threw her a “divorce party.” When they decide they will sing Happy Birthday, and Nujood confesses she doesn’t know when her birth date is, Shada, the lawyer, exclaims that from now on, that day will be her birthday.

This book is truly the most inspiring story I have ever heard. I have deep admiration for Nujood and all the other girls who have the same courage as Nujood to defy their fates. I definitely recommend this book to teens and adults because it does have some adult topics, themes, and graphics. Nujood is a very brave girl, and her story deserves to be shared and cherished.

-Kelsey H., 10th grade