Author Archives: emilio04vargas

The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

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The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey is the second book from the 5th Wave series. This book focuses on everything that happens after the explosion of Camp Haven. Cassie, Ben, Dumbo, Ringer, Poundcake, Nugget, and Teacup are all holed up in an old hotel. They have nowhere to go and are running dangerously low on supplies. Ringer refuses to believe Cassie about Evan Walker and how he survived the explosion at Camp Haven.

Tired of staying in the hotel, Ringer and Teacup set off to explore and look for caverns to hide in. After they have been gone for an unusually long time, Ben starts to worry.  Then Evan appears and sends everybody into a panic not knowing whether they can trust him. Then they hear the sounds of a helicopter over the hotel, which makes their worries worse. As the helicopter goes farther and farther away, a child appears in the hallway. She repeats over and over saying her throat hurts. She is taken into a hotel room to get rest and once inside, they see that her throat is extremely swollen. They look inside her throat and find what has caused it to swell. The Others had inserted a bomb into her throat which would detonate when it detected carbon dioxide. They quickly take the bomb out of her throat and leave the hotel. Meanwhile, Ringer had been captured by Vosch and was being implanted with the 12th system. She kills the nurse who is taking care of her and escapes with Teacup.

-E. Vargas

The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive.

Loot by Jude Watson

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Loot by Jude Watson is about March McQuin, the son of the famous burglar Alfie McQuin. One night Alfie falls from the roof of a building onto the ground. As he is dying, he is able to say a last set of words to his son,”Find jewels.” However, soon March discovers that his father wasn’t talking about normal jewels, but his long lost sister Jules. They meet at an airport before March and Jules are sent to an orphanage that seems very much like a prison.

Once they’re at the orphanage, they meet up with two kids called Darius and Izzy. The four of them make a plan to break out of the orphanage. Once they break out, they go on the run while committing a series of crimes to look for a set of mysterious stones. March already has one of the stones. They are offered 7 million dollars to find and bring back all the stones. They must find the stones quickly, because there are multiple other people looking for the stones. March and Jules must find the stones before anyone else if they want to be able to live by themselves for the rest of their lives.

-E. Vargas

Loot by Jude Watson is avalable for checkout form the Mission Viejo Library. 

Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck

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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is about George Milton and Lennie Small trying to find a job and settle. The reason that this is such a difficult task is because Lennie has what seems to be memory loss. He constantly forgets what George tells him. He also doesn’t understand what is right compared to what is wrong.

[Editor’s Note: Spoiler Warning]

This book tells of George and Lennie trying to find work in Soledad. They go to a ranch and speak with the boss before being told when to start working. When they are shown where they will sleep, they encounter the boss’ son Curley. Curley immediately starts trying to pick a fight with Lennie. As soon as Curley leaves, George warns Lennie about avoiding Curley at all costs. Curley’s wife, who Lennie is attracted to upon seeing her, is also a big problem.

After working for some time and getting to know other ranch hands, George and Lennie believe that they may be able to finally buy a house just for them. However, one day Curley’s wife finds Lennie alone and starts a conversation with him. She tells about how she could have gone to Hollywood and about her hair. She lets Lennie feel her hair, and he starts pulling on it. Curley’s wife cries out in pain, so Lennie covers her mouth out of fear of getting in trouble. He pulls on her hair more and more until he accidentally snaps her neck. When Curley finds out he goes to kill Lennie. George gets to Lennie first, and painlessly kills him so that Curley wouldn’t shoot him and let him bleed to death.

-E. Vargas

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded from Overdrive.

Night by Elie Wiesel

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Night by Elie Wiesel is a terrifying story of the Holocaust during World War 2. Elie was born in Sighet, Transylvania. He lived a normal age until the day that he and his family were taken to a concentration camp formerly called Auschwitz. There he is separated from his mother and sisters. He is told to lie about his age and job in order to survive.

After he tells a guard about his age, he is led away with his father. Some days after, they are taken to Buna, a work camp. They work long hours and are very malnourished. Due to the harsh conditions, the Jews must look after one another. This behavior doesn’t last long, and soon all the Jews care about is that they survive. This pushes many of them to commit horrific crimes for extra rations of bread. They quickly lose faith in God and no longer pray. This brings on a worse despair. After some months of labor, the prisoners are soon to be liberated by the Russians. Because of this, the Germans decide to move the prisoners. They are forced to march through a snowstorm to another concentration camp called Gleiwitz. Once at Gleiwitz, they are crammed into cattle cars. All 100 prisoners that hadn’t died were tightly packed against one another. Most cannot take anymore pain and die on the train. Once the train stops at Buchenwald, only 12 prisoners get off of the train. Soon after arriving, Elie’s father dies of dysentery on April 11, 1945. After experiencing so much, this breaks Elie and he is transformed into only a skeleton of a man.

-E. Vargas

Night by Elie Wiesel is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded from Overdrive. 

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

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The Maze Runner is about a group of teenagers stuck in the middle of what appears to be a maze. This book is the first of a series of four books. All the books tell the story of escaping the maze and finding out who put them there and why.

The first book of the series tells the story of Thomas and his escape. Everything seems normal when he wakes up in the glade. However, things soon change drastically. Grievers, the monsters that are usually in the maze, start entering the glade. Soon everyone in the glade realizes that they have two choices: escape the maze or die. They quickly form a plan to escape the maze.

However, some people chose to stay thinking that they would be rescued straight out of the Glade. Those that went succeed in escaping from the maze and find who put them there. It was a group of scientists called WICKED. They are then taken by a group that tells them about a sort of disease called “The Flare” that killed half the population. They are taken to some sort of camp to recover from all the results of the maze. As is revealed in the epilogue, there were lots of other Glades with other people living in them.

-Emilio V.

The Maze Runner series by James Dashner is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. 

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

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The Graveyard Book is about a kid who lives in a graveyard due to the murder of his parents. Bod Owens, short for Nobody lives in a graveyard and is raised by ghosts and mentored by an apparition neither from the world of the living nor the dead named Silas.

As the book goes on, readers learn more about the man that killed Bod’s family. It turns out that he was hired, and is part of an organization called the Jacks of All Trades. As Bod explores the graveyard and learns to do things like disappear or phase through things he comes to the realization that he will soon have to go out into the real world. This realization scares him because the man that killed his family hasn’t been caught, and is probably still looking for him.

Silas and Mr and Mrs. Owens prepare him for a confrontation with the man, and it comes sooner than expected, and with more men from the Jacks of All Trades. Bod picks them off one by one, and finally comes face to face with the Jack that was supposed to kill him. Using his knowledge of the graveyard, Bod traps Jack and escapes. After this, he starts seeing the ghosts less and less often, until he can no longer see them.

-Emilio V.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. 

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

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The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey is about an alien invasion split into five parts. Nobody was expecting the first wave to happen like it did. People saw a mothership and thought maybe the aliens were peaceful. However after the first wave, which cut off all electricity, people realized the real intentions of aliens. Now that there is no electricity anywhere on the planet, the aliens invade earth and kill tons of people.

After that, aliens dropped a massive metal rod onto a fault line with so much force that it caused lots of earthquakes and tsunamis. The third wave unleashed a genetically modified virus created by the Others to wipe out most of the earth. The virus succeeds, and 97% of the earth is killed. The fourth wave was when the aliens made contact with those that were lucky, or unlucky, enough to survive. They inserted themselves into the minds of people and took out the remaining humans.

Finally, the fifth wave takes place. This wave is about the young soldiers trained by the alien infested humans. The soldiers’ job is to wipe out any humans left that somehow survived the fourth wave. The story follows Cassie, and her journey through all five waves trying to stay alive and rescue her brother Sammy.

-Emilio V.

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. 

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

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The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is about two rival groups known as the Greasers and the Socs. The Socs, a group of rich kids with everything they could dream of, commonly pick on and beat up the Greasers. Ponyboy, the main character, learns to live with the Socs always breathing down his neck.

However, one day the Socs take things too far. While Ponyboy is at the park with his friend Johnny, Socs show up and beat them per usual. However this time, they hold Ponyboy’s head under a fountain. Johnny watches helplessly as he tries to figure out what to do. Finally Johnny gets out his switchblade and stabs the Soc that was drowning Ponyboy.

Terrified, the other two Socs flee in their car, and Ponyboy and Johnny go to find someplace to hide. They hide in an abandoned church until Johnny decides to turn himself in. His reasoning for this is that he hasn’t ever gotten in trouble with the law, and it was in self defense, so his sentence couldn’t be that bad. Before they can though, the church catches on fire and Johnny is injured saving kids inside the church. Johnny is sent to the hospital and treated for bad burns on his back. He dies, leaving Ponyboy with three last words as advice, “Stay golden, Ponyboy.”

-Emilio V.

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download from Overdrive. 

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

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The death of Harry Potter’s godfather, Sirius Black, has made Harry more grown up than ever before. Now he feels that he has to put an end to Voldemort’s reign of terror, even if it kills him. Dumbledore picks Harry up before the end of summer to go on a mystery errand. The errand is to get Horace Slughorn to teach again at Hogwarts. Back at Hogwarts for Harry’s sixth year, he is extremely excited. He is now the Quidditch team captain. However, Harry also finds out and is gloomy that Professor Snape has achieved his longtime goal of being the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Harry has also started taking private lessons with Dumbledore to learn as much about Voldemort as he can. Hopefully this information will help if Harry ever comes face to face with Voldemort. Early on in Harry’s Potions class he acquires a mysterious book that used to be the Half Blood Prince’s. The book tells Harry everything he needs to know about potions. Harry’s sudden knowledge amazes everyone. He also grows a suspicion that Draco Malfoy has replaced his father as the leader of the Death Eaters. Harry, throughout the year, keeps a close eye on Draco just in case. Ron and Hermione see this idea as a far stretch, but Harry feels like something has to be happening with Draco frequently leaving school grounds. As the year continues, Dumbledore tells Harry that he may be able to go on a special mission to destroy a horcrux. A horcrux is an item that contains a part of Voldemort’s soul. Destroying them makes Voldemort weaker. When Harry and Voldemort leave on their mission to destroy the horcrux, Draco sneaks Death Eaters into the school, and a battle between the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters takes place. Harry and Dumbledore return after getting the horcrux, but they are trapped on the Astronomy Tower. On the Tower, Draco disarms Dumbledore and Professor Snape kills him. Dumbledore’s death had a massive impact on Harry, but it helped him to see what he had to do.

-Emilio V.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded from Overdrive. 

I Am Malala

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I Am Malala is a story about Malala Yousafzai. Malala was born in Mingora, Pakistan. Mingora is a place where not many women have that many rights. Malala always wonder why this is and why she isn’t able to go to school. That rule wasn’t in place, but Mingora was taken over by the Taliban, and they enforced that rule and many other harsh ones.

Because of the circumstances she is in, Malala starts writing blogs about what has happened under the pen name “Gul Makai”. Shortly after, the Taliban start getting forced out of town by the Pakistani army. The Pakistani army force the Taliban out of town, but they still stay in the rural areas on the borders of town.

Then, someone at The New York Times sees Malala’s blogs and features her in a documentary. The documentary is about protecting girl’s rights and education. The Taliban see the documentary, and Malala becomes a target. As she’s on her way to her father’s newly reopened school, two Talibans stop the bus, and one shoots Malala in the head. Malala miraculously survives, and is taken to the United Kingdom for treatment. The news spread extremely quickly, and people around the world are now praying for Malala’s recovery. After Malala gets discharged from the hospital, she joins the rest of her family in Birmingham. She continues to this day to campaign for women’s rights and mainly for their education.

-Emilio V.

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.