Monthly Archives: July 2015

Nothing But The Truth by Avi

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nothingbuttruth_aviIn the realistic-fiction novel, Nothing But the Truth by Avi, ninth-grader Philip Malloy aspires to run for the school’s track team. Unfortunately, his satirical answers on his final exam earned him a failing grade in his English class, taught by Miss Narwin. Without a passing grade, Philip could not run on the track team.

After finding out his inability to join the track team, the next morning, instead off standing respectfully, he hummed along to the National Anthem in Miss Narwin’s homeroom. Dismissing his childish behavior with a reprimand, the teacher sends him to the principal’s office when he defied her and hummed again the following morning. Refusing to apologize to his teacher, Philip was suspended from school for two days by the principal.

Claiming that he was suspended for singing the National Anthem, his father told their neighbor who was running for the school board. As his story gains national headlines, the truth gets twisted and turned. Will Philip come clean and promise to tell nothing but the truth?

I had mixed feelings about this book. This book could have been much improved. The beginning seems to have promise of being a good and simple book. In the novel, Philip, the main character, is unnecessarily rude with his English teacher, who seems like a nice lady. Treating and blaming Miss Narwin, Philip fails to take ownership for his poor grades, which were his own fault. An interesting aspect of the book was how it was written in “script.” With such an abrupt ending, I did not enjoy it the novel as much as I expected. Overall the novel was below expectations, but it was a quick and easy read for anyone in middle school.

-Anmol K.

Nothing but the Truth is available for check out from the Mission Viejo Public Library. 

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

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catcherintherye_salingerSomething I am sure we can all relate to are the struggles with facing the reality of teenage life. This crucial point in our lives can be seen as the final step away from childhood, but is the adult life really as wonderful as teenagers make it out to be?

According the Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old boy struggling to cope with the death of his brother, the adult-world is full to the brim with disgusting “phonies.” His narration of his experiences begins after being expelled from school because he failed four of his five classes. Thinking he might as well experience the world before it is too late, Holden decides to leave for New York a few days before his parents are assigned to take him back home. From taking taxis, hanging in bars, and going on dates, Holden comes to realize that the adulthood is a dangerous, dark reality and is not as perfect as one may think.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a classic coming-of-age novel that depicts one adolescent’s interesting experiences with love, life, and maturity. Holden can seem a little too critical and may complain excessively at times, but I found it especially touching that even among of all of his pessimism, Holden really does have sensitive feelings and cares for the younger children, whose innocence he wants to preserve forever. Every teenager can relate to his journey that involves him finding himself as a true individual. The criticism and cynicism towards society, as well as the confusion of growing up, is similar to the thoughts of adolescents as they mature and pass into adulthood. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as I was able to connect to many of the human emotions Holden experiences. The writing is simple and easy to understand, yet the underlying meaning is so deep, empowering, and compelling. There are some mature concepts mentioned throughout, but I absolutely recommend this book to anyone over the age of fourteen. A timeless novel, The Catcher in the Rye is surely one of those books that are a must-read for everyone, teenagers and adults alike.

-Kaylie W.

The Catcher in the Rye is available for check out from the Mission Viejo Public Library.

Biggie by Derek Sullivan

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biggie_dereksullivanEvery boy dreams of throwing a perfect game in baseball at least once. So does Henry ‘Biggie’ Abbott, but there is only one problem. Even though Biggie’s dad, Aaron Abbott (who left the family when Biggie was little), and stepdad, Jim ‘The Lazer’ Kaczor, were professional baseball players years back, Biggie is not built for the sport. He’s a high school junior and weighs over 300 pounds. Early in the book, Biggie despises athletics and having his dad’s last name, all he wants is to be left alone to maintain his straight As. But after pitching a no hitter in a high school P.E. wiffle ball game, Biggie discovers he has an “unhittable pitch,” and sets out with his younger stepbrother, Maddux, to be the first person in his town’s history to throw a no hitter.

Baseball isn’t Biggie’s only problem. There’s also a certain girl that he is in love with, but the same girl steals from the gas station where he works – right in front of him. And although it’s hard to believe, Biggie’s problems still are not over.

Although this novel sounds quite cliche, it is hard to put down. Biggie is quite a page turner, and the author, Derek Sullivan, manages to throw quite a few curve balls into the plot. Biggie is a novel not only for sports lovers, but for young teens everywhere. I would recommend this book for teens ages 13-16. As school comes to and end and summer is right around the corner, with baseball season in full swing, I believe that this novel will not be a strikeout.

-Will R.

Biggie is available for check out from the Mission Viejo Public Library.

Book vs. Movie: To Kill a Mockingbird

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killamockingbird_harperleeAs a required reading book for 9th grade English, I was not too excited to read this novel. All my friends who had already read it said it was great. But to tell you the truth, I did not believe them. For my class, we had to annotate each chapter, and by chapter 2, I was already annoyed with the book.

But please don’t follow my footsteps. This is a great book! I soon found out why. I know others have written reviews on the novel, but as a brief summary, this book is about the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama. Here, Atticus, the father of Jem and Scout, is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, against the accusation of raping Mayella Ewell. Through the novel, Atticus has to guide his children who are exposed to the racial inequality felt in the south in the 1930s. The children are disgusted by what they see of the real world and look to their father to help make sense of what they experience.

The novel was wildly successful when it was published and made into a movie in 1962, starring Gregory Peck. As part of my English class, we had the opportunity to watch this film in addition to reading the book. To me, the movie and the book both offer great benefits.

Reasons the book is better:

  1. You get to know the characters better, because more description is given, and you read the narrator’s (Scout’s) thoughts.
  2. More emphasis is given to show the separation between whites and blacks in the town.
  3. The book focuses more on the other lessons taught by the novel, incorporating the visit to the Finch’s Landing and the arrival of Aunt Alexandra, whereas the movie eliminates this all together, focusing instead on Tom’s trial and Boo Radley.

Reasons the movie is better:

  1. You see a physical description of Maycomb and its inhabitants, as well as getting a better understanding of the culture in the South.
  2. ***SPOILER***The scenes with Bob Ewell and his confrontation with Atticus and the attack against the children are scarier on screen.
  3. The relationship between Scout, Jem and Atticus is more pronounced, which makes the story more touching.

So it’s up to you…for those of you who have read/watched both the book and the movie, which was better in your opinion? Normally, I would automatically say the book was better. But in this case, I don’t know which one wins in my book.

– Leila S., 9th grade

To Kill A Mockingbird is available for check out from the Mission Viejo Public Library, Overdrive, and Axis360. 

Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

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earthgirl_janetedwardsEarth Girl is a dystopian novel set centuries in the future. Eight hundred years into the future, humans are able to travel through portals. These portals allow them to conquer the furthest stars. Unfortunately, not all of humanity gets to experience traveling in a portal. A fraction of humans have a genetic defect, which prohibits them from interplanetary travel, and are forced to live their lives on Earth. Jarra, the main heroine of the story, is one of them. After finding out about their child’s defect, most parents abandon their children who are often referred to as “throwbacks.”

Despite her limitations, she does not get discouraged of pursuing her dream. Creating a feigned military background story, Jarra joined a group of students from all over the galaxy in a practical Earth study class. Jarra plans to prove to “normal” people that “throwbacks” are capable of completing complicated tasks. She wants to surprise her classmates by revealing her identity as a “throwback.”

In this class, the students excavate remains from Earth’s ancient, abandoned cities. Jarra’s skills are tested when an unstable, ancient skyscraper traps another research team under it. Having practiced excavating rocks (called “tagging” in the novel), Jarra is the hero of the day when she helps dig out the team. Her rescue has put her into the limelight of her classmates, which is not something she needed for her plan. To see if her plan of tricking her classmates worked, I suggest reading this unique book.

I picked up this book because I found the plot intriguing. Interested in how Jarra would trick her classmates, I also thought that it would be cool how her classmates would eventually react. The setting was another aspect of the story that I enjoyed. Even though the story takes place on earth, the explanation of how their world was built is amazing. The only aspect of the book I did not like was were the class excavations because the author went a bit to deep with the history and science of the process. Well wrapped at the end, I cannot wait to start the second one and see what Jarra has in store for her life.

-Anmol K.

Earth Girl is available for check out from the Mission Viejo Public Library.

Zero to One by Peter Thiel

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zerotoone_peterthielZero to One, written by  famed businessman Peter Thiel, is the essential guidebook to aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere. Short and concise, this handbook explains all aspects of problems in the business world, along with the key ingredients to create successful startups.

What sets this book apart from the dozens of other “guides to success”? The answer is its simplicity. Most books promising instant success provide convoluted plans for making money and small tricks for manipulating the business world. However, what Zero to One emphasizes is that there are no easy roads to success. There isn’t one formula or business model to instantly attain success. Instead, this book shows how to find a niche in the market and ensure a long term business strategy.

What’s more, Thiel doesn’t just explain this in a mind numbing and inapplicable way. For every single concept introduced, Thiel provided an example. When talking about long term strategies, hewrites about the Cleantech Bubble. For a short period of time, it seemed the entire world was focused on finding renewable sources of clean energy. Dozens of solar energy companies bloomed, only to be crushed in a few years. With the discovery of fracking, and the lack of innovative clean technology, nearly 40 solar companies went bankrupt in one year. Of course, successful companies are also displayed in this guide. Thiel highlights the winning moves by each startup, and the similarities between them. He also shares past experiences on starting his company, PayPal, and the difficulties he met along the way.

Even if you don’t plan to be an entrepreneur, Zero to One is still a very good read. It offers a quick but comprehensive view at where the future is headed. It shows how to find the balance between the idealistic and realistic for the most successful startup. Every startup company takes effort to run, but the hardest part is starting it—from zero to one.

– Philip X., 10th grade

Zero to One is available for check out from the Mission Viejo Public Library and Overdrive.

Required Reading: It’s Actually a Good Thing

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bookstack2Why do we have required reading? There are some advantages and disadvantages to school-chosen books that I’d like to discuss.

First off, some of the books we read in school are actually pretty good, but some are slow, uneventful stories that bore us until we can’t stand it. However, a lot of the time, the books we want to read are not always available, so at least we do get to read (for those of you who like to read), and we end up getting exposed to some new material. Also, we get exposed to higher vocabulary and harder dialogue that test our readability skills, and makes us better readers and writers. It is proven that those who read more are able to write more advanced pieces. Reading books that are “out of our comfort zone” expand our minds to become more creative and inventive thinkers, and this can help us in our lives after school.

If one does not enjoy reading as much as his or her peers, one might become irritated at the act of reading; specifically reading the kind of books that one might not like as opposed to others. As a person who loves to read in his free time, I don’t mind reading books that I probably would not have picked up on my own trip to the library.

Also as this post discusses, the advantages to required reading surpass the disadvantages by a substantial amount.

Please post a comment about your ideas on the subject whether you agree or disagree with my opinion of required reading.

-Kyle H., 8th grade

The Ghost and the Goth by Stacy Kade

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ghostgoth_staceykade

Alona Dare is the most popular girl in the school, and everyone “supposedly” loves her. When she dies in her gym clothes after being run over by a bus of band nerds (such horror), she starts to blame her mom for her death. Unfortunately, she also finds out that her boyfriend was cheating with her best friend when they started kissing the day after her funeral.

Because her “life” is ruined, she starts to cry in the middle of her old school. And that’s when Will Killian, the weirdest guy in school, starts to laugh out of nowhere. But Alona realizes that he might be laughing at her, and that he could probably see ghosts…

Will Killian is crazy, or so his mother and therapists say. Only he and his dead dad knew that Will could see ghosts. Problem is, the day that he laughed at a ghost (which is not a good thing to do) was the day that all the ghosts in his school found out that he could see them and drive him crazy with their last wishes. And who is to save him but the ghost of Alona Dare, who has a few wishes of her own. Problem is, in order to save him, she has to become his spirit guide, which means helping Will take the requests of the dead (one at a time, of course), and saving him from a vengeful ghost (who may or may not be his dad).

This book provides some very insightful views into the spirit world. There are some things we know from stories, like last minute wishes of the dead, but there are also some clever views Kade puts in, such as what happens when your wish gets fulfilled. When I read this book, I was sad when it was over. I was very excited to learn about each of the character’s backstories, including some of the ghosts. There is also some comedy, and the overall love stories involved in the plot.

This book was very good, and is recommending for those who are looking for slight mystery, paranormal activity, and a small yet sweet love story.

-Meagan V.

The Ghost and the Goth is available for check out from the Mission Viejo Public Library and Overdrive. 

Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer

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artemisfowl_eoincolferArtemis Fowl is the pinnacle series of the author Eoin Colfer. The books detail the adventures of Artemis Fowl, a genius child who already runs his late father’s criminal empire. He spends his days inventing new technologies and running illegal enterprises around the world with his trusty bodyguard, Butler. Until one day, he discovers the world of faeries hidden beneath them. Being the person he is, Artemis soon goes head to head with the Faeries’ elite LEPrecon police force as his money-making scheme involves kidnapping the Faerie officer Holly Short. Eventually, they join forces to stop a multitude of other evil forces out in both worlds.

This series is one of my favorites to read because it’s filled with action from beginning to end. Whenever there’s expositional dialogue, we can always expect it to be filled with witticisms and funny personality clashes. Also, the scenes are always fresh with new ideas, rather than repetitively showing the same fight scenes like other books. Artemis always finds solutions with ingenuity, while his friends employ bravery and combat training. The friendship and camaraderie between Artemis and Holly creates a lifetime team, which involves both life-threatening situations and everyday banter.

Over the course of the series, Artemis Fowl develops a lot as a character. Although he is introduced as a cold and ruthless genius, we learn he isn’t without some good inside. He learns to respect his closest friends, and is even willing to give his life for them. The main reason for this is that he never had any friends before that have earned his respect.
The setting for this book is also very notable. While most books are either sci-fi or fantasy, Artemis Fowl includes both. While the Faerie Folk have ancient magic, they have also developed extremely advanced technologies over the thousands of years. Their inventors have created flight suits, contact lenses with built in cameras, and other creations from our wildest imaginations. It was very creative and daring for Colfer to mesh these two genres together, and the result is a literary masterpiece.

When you have a chance, you should definitely give this series a read. Although Eoin Colfer has written many notable books, the Artemis Fowl series will always be one of his best. The fun storylines will have you burning through the books.

-Phillip X., 10th grade

The Artemis Fowl series is available for check out from the Mission Viejo Public Library and Overdrive. 

Grammar Girl by Mignon Fogarty

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grammargirl_mignonfogartyAre you a grammar fanatic? Are you annoyed when people, including adults, mix up their grammar? Well, Grammar Girl by Mignon Fogarty, a book exploring the surfaces and depths of grammar and writing, is much more than a grammar book.  And more than likely, it is right for you.  It offers easy-to-understand rules of conduct to live by as a writer, or in your case, a blogger.  Throughout this book, easy lessons are explained through quick and dirty tips.  I learned everything from gerunds to objective versus subjective pronouns to complicated conjugations.

The basic definition of a gerund is a noun made from an action verb plus an ‘ing’ at the end.  Every gerund, without exception, ends in ‘ing’.  Gerunds are not, however, that easy to locate.  For example, a name of a profession counts.  Like, ‘Acting isn’t as easy as it looks.’  In this case acting is the gerund and is functioning like a noun, yet it sounds like a verb.  Here’s another one: ‘Her singing almost deafened me.’  Singing is the gerund because it is referring to the act of her singing as an object or an idea.  But, we’re not done yet. In most cases, gerunds need a possessive or objective pronoun much like some words need linking verbs. It can be pretty easy to make the mistake of saying ‘We didn’t know that was his singing.’ This sentence could mean we couldn’t tell if what he was doing was singing or if he was making some other noise.  That was a possessive pronoun, but to clarify the true meaning of these types of sentences, sometimes you need to use a possessive pronoun.  This is the correct sentence: ‘We didn’t know this was him singing.’

In sixth grade, your English teacher probably taught you about basic conjugation.  In addition to these, there are progressive and perfect progressive. Learning these are essential to speaking correctly and formally.  Progressive means that the action is ongoing, progressing, or will be progressing.  (You can see chart below for the progressive and the perfect progressive.)  Then, perfect progressive is when the action has progressed for a while before it ended or it will end.  Perfect progressive uses the words like ‘has been’ or ‘had been’.

I would definitely rate this book a 10/10 for its complete guide on grammar and tips to keep your writing in shape.  In addition to Grammar Girl, I also would recommend checking out some of Mignon Fogarty’s online resources as well.  She has a podcast, a website (http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl), and several books for you to explore and love just as I did with this one.

– Maya S., 7th grade

Grammar Girl is available for check out from the Mission Viejo Public Library. 

PROGRESSIVE(also called incomplete and continuous) EXAMPLE MEANING OF SENTENCE
Past progressive Jack was walking. At some point in the past, Jack was in the middle of a walk, but we don’t know when he stopped or if he did.
Present progressive Jack is walking. Jack is in the middle of a walk.
Future progressive Jack will be walking. Jack will walk in the future– and walk and walk.  Who knows when it will end?
PERFECT PROGRESSIVE (also called perfect continuous) EXAMPLE MEANING OF SENTENCE
Past perfect progressive Jack had been walking. At some point in the past, Jack started walking and did so for a while, but now it’s over.
Present perfect progressive Jack has been walking. Jack started walking sometime in the past, and he is still walking.
Future perfect progressive Jack will have been walking. Jack will walk until a specific point in the future, and then he will stop.