Book Review: The Other Side of the Island, by Allegra Goodman

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Anmol K.

The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman is about a brave girl named Honor, born in the eighth year of Enclosure, living in a society controlled by the Earth Mother and her Corporation. Every family on island 365 lives peacefully and follows the rules– except for Honor’s. They sing songs, ignore curfew, and do not pray to Earth Mother. Families are only allowed to have one child, but Honor also has a younger brother. Despite her great effort, Honor has great trouble trying to fit in with the other girls at her school.

At her school, she befriends a boy named Helix who is very knowledgeable about the island and he reveals to Honor that the people who are not “normal” disappear and never come back. Honor has a constant fear that her parents will be caught and taken, and she and her brother would be orphans forced to live at school– and one day, she discovers that her parents are missing. She is scared and lives alone with her younger brother at her home. Eventually she is discovered and is forced to live at school. The girls in her class no longer accept Honor because of her orphan status.

Honor and Helix, both trying to escape from school, devise a plan to escape during a great storm, which happens every couple of years. After the storm comes, only Honor escapes and she runs away from the school. To see if she makes it to her parents, you need to read this book with a shocking ending!

I found this book very interesting and unique among other dystopian novels. I really liked the surprise ending and found the whole book really interesting. I finished this book in one day because it was so good and I could not put it down. Recommended for anyone with an interest in dystopian novels, The Other Side of the Island is for ages ten and up.

-Anmol K., 7th grade

Book Review: Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Sara S.

“‘Most of humanity’, he said, ‘have eyes that are so caked shut with the dust of deception they will never see the truth, no matter who tries to save them'”

Eat, Pray, Love is a memoir written by Elizabeth Gilbert which captures her journey across what she calls “the three I’s.” After a messy divorce with her first husband, Gilbert decided to take a journey to Italy, India, and Indonesia. In each of the three countries she made a specific goal; in Italy, to eat and learn the culture surrounding Italian food, in India, to learn about spirituality (hence the word pray), and finishes her year abroad in Indonesia, where she will experience love. I loved the book, and although it starts off slowly, you will fall in love with the book once her trip begins.

“People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life”

-Sara S., 10th grade

Book Review: Looking for Alaska, by John Green

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Melika R.

In the novel Looking For Alaska by John Green, you learn the true lesson of always looking out for your friends.

A boy named Miles leaves his boring life in Florida to seek his Great Perhaps. He decides that to do so he must go to boarding school. When he gets there, he meets his roommate the Colonel. The Colonel introduces Miles- who is now nicknamed Pudge- to a girl named Alaska. Pudge describes Alaska as the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life.

Pudge and Alaska spend a lot of time together and go through great adventures. Alaska has a lot going on in her life and one night she storms off and gets in a car accident. After the accident, Pudge and the Colonel go through great efforts to try and figure out what happened to her that night.

By the end of the book, Pudge believes that he has found his Great Perhaps. In this book, you capture the message to hang on to every moment and to always make every moment count. Pudge and the Colonel embrace that message after the accident. I would recommend this book to anyone above the age of 13. In the end, this was a great book and it was heart-warming.

-Melika R., 8th grade

Book Review: The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, by Josh Berk

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Megan V.

How can a fat, deaf, high school boy be the new Hardy Boy? Well somehow, Will Halpin somehow manages to do it.

With his friends Hardy Boy-loving Devon Smiley and ex girlfriend Ebony, Will Halpin (or as he is known on IM, Hamburger Halpin) must find out who killed the somewhat popular football player Pat- whether it was the depressed prom queen, the sexy math teacher, or Pat’s jealous friends. Along the way, Will wants to see if he could find the ghost of coal miner that he was supposed to be named after.

While this book is a good mystery for teens, whether you like Nancy Drew or not, the mystery isn’t the main point of the book, since the murder doesn’t happen until halfway into the book. If I had to say what the main conflict is in the book, I would say that it’s the internal conflicts that happen inside of Will. All throughout the book, Will tries to find himself, since his old deaf friends hate him, his new classmates don’t want to be friends with him because he’s deaf and friends with weird Devon, he wants to confess to the beautiful Leigha and the hot police chick who knows sign language, and he’s trying to find out why his parents have never told him that he was named after a deaf coal miner.

All in all, this was a great book. It was super hilarious, it had a great mystery that actually made you think, there were references to Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, and makes you think differently of other people, whether they are popular or weird. However, there are a few things to take note of. Some of the content is slightly inappropriate, the characters find out some not so nice histories of other people, and the murderer’s motive is just plain sad.

Even so, I suggest that you give this book a try.

-Megan V., 8th grade

Book Review: Alanna: The First Adventure By Tamora Pierce

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Sarah J.

The first book to a incredible saga of books in the mythical Kingdom of Tortall starts with a girl wanting to become a knight.

Alanna of Trebond is determined to be a knight but her father, who doesn’t care about her goals, wants to send her to a convent to learn how to be a noble lady. Without her father’s knowing, she and her twin brother, Thom, switch places. Thom, who wants to learn magic was going to be sent to become a knight, so he gladly goes to the convent, which is where he could learn magic. That is only the beginning of Alanna’s adventures.

The First Adventure is the first book of the Song of the Lioness series written by Tamora Pierce. This is the first book that started the series of adventures in the mythical Kingdom of Tortall.

This story is about Alanna’s journey of pretending to be a boy named Alan so she can become a knight. This first book is all about her Page years. She encounters plenty of other pages during training from Raoul of Goldenlake, Gareth of Naxen the Younger, Francis of Nond, Alexander of Tirragen, and Crown Prince Jonathan of Conte– some who become her enemies, and others who become her best friends. She meets and befriends the young King of Thieves, George Cooper, who becomes a important ally. Alanna has to cope with a magical power that she doesn’t want, while her suspicions of the prince’s magic filled cousin, Duke Roger, become increasingly larger.

The first of an amazing series,The First Adventure has a strong female protagonist who deals with life and troubles like anybody else. Filled with action and adventure as Alanna methodically- sometimes dangerously- goes through her first training years disguised as a boy. This I would recommend for older readers as well as the rest of the series. This book and series does deal with maturing of girls, due to the aging of the main characters. The book also contains some rather strange and maybe creepy creatures. There is also a touch on the subject of love and the difficulties between family. This is what I think, but read it for yourself!

I’ve reviewed two other books written by Tamora Pierce: Battle Magic and First Test.

– Sarah J., 8th grade

Book Review: Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe

Posted on May 15, 2014 by The Kungfu cook

This book is super awesome. I had to read this book for a school assignment so I automatically thought that it would be boring. But I was in for a big surprise! Its a little slow at first but once you get into it, it gets really exciting.

Young Robinson Crusoe doesn’t want to live the life of his father, a church clergy, so he decides to run away. As he embarks on his journey to wherever life takes him, Robinson’s ship gets devastated by a huge storm. He makes out alive along with the others but is stuck on a small harbor for some time.He later receives help from a Portuguese captain who soon becomes one of his greatest friends. Things seem to go well for Robinson until he is caught and enslaved. In his bondage, Robinson devises a plan to escape and free himself from slavery.

We all know what the book Robinson Crusoe is famous for, right? Well, a short while later, Robinson faces his greatest challenge yet. He goes on another ship where he yet encounters another storm, except that this one actually destroys the ship. He is stranded on an island which he barely manages to come to. With no food or provisions, Robinson Crusoe must fight nature and himself. He comes across many “friends” of both animal and human. But also encounters enemies– the cannibals that rule the island.

Will he survive? Will he ever get off this wretched island? To find that out, you are just going to have to read the book. I hope it gives you the same impression that it gave to me. Enjoy!

-Christina B., 7th grade

Book Review: Don’t Call Me Baby, by Gwendolyn Heasley

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Sabrina C.

Her whole life, Imogene has been known as the girl on that blog. Her mother started the blog about her daughter before she was even born. She has been blogging about Imogene’s personal life for years. Since Imogene is fifteen now, she decides enough is enough! She doesn’t want to be part of her mother’s popular and embarrassing blog. She just wants a normal life where random strangers don’t know when she lost her first tooth, got in a fight with her best friend, or even had her first crush! She wants to be totally away from the blogging world.

However, it isn’t as easy as she thinks. When Imogene gets assigned to start her own blog for her English class, she refuses it right away. She soon realizes that this may be the perfect opportunity to end her mother’s blog forever.

In my opinion, I could’ve gone either way with this book, meaning that it’s fine if I read and it’s fine if I didn’t. This isn’t a must read book. It had some good parts and some bad parts. The only thing that I really didn’t like was the nicknames for Imogene and her mother. On the blog, they are known as Mommylicious and Babylicious. I just think that’s too silly, but other than that it was okay. I wouldn’t recommend this book to people who are 13 and up, but that’s who the author recommended. Overall, I thought this book was cute for a younger audience, but again that’s just my opinion. Some other eighth graders may enjoy this book– it just came out last month, so you’ll find it in bookstores everywhere.

By Sabrina C., 8th Grade

Book Review: Moonglass, by Jessi Kirby

Posted on May 8, 2014 by The Kungfu cook

Moonglass is a really good book. Even though it looks thin, it is actually a long read.

In this book, Anna Ryan and her dad are moving to the beach where her parents supposedly met. Still faced with the reality of her mother’s death, both she and her father still mourn their loss. Still mad at her dad and herself, Anna finds out that they moved into the house next door to her mother’s old cottage. As Anna meets new friends and becomes acquainted with a very special lifeguard, she unravels the mysteries of her parents’ past.

Finding out secrets about her dad’s past and the reason behind her mother’s suicide, Anna’s life starts to make sense for once in a very long time. She fights to forget memories of her mother’s death but also yearning to be closer to her mother, she finds that balance of tranquility out in the waves. Trips on the beach searching for sea glass allow her the time to think and figure out the things of her parents’ past. But as she finds out more and more about her parents’ past, she finds it harder to cope with the pressure that she is under– except when she is in the water where the tide washes away her emotions leaving her at peace.

To find out the secrets of her parent’s past you are just going to have to read the book. Enjoy everyone!

-Christina B., 7th grade

Editor’s note: This book actually takes place in Crystal Cove, which is very local to us here in Mission Viejo! Visit and you’ll feel like you’ve stepped right into the pages of this novel.

photo by Allison Tran

Book Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Nighttime, by Mark Haddon

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Miranda C.

The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Nighttime is a realistic fiction book by Mark Haddon, telling the story of autistic teenager Christopher, who, after finding his neighbor’s dog stabbed with a garden fork, decides to emulate his fictional hero Sherlock Holmes by searching for the murderer. Christopher’s father disapproves of him investigating the case, and what was a simple mystery about a dead dog leads to discoveries about his family, neighbors, and his own place in the world.

The major strength of this book is the unique voice of the main character. Christopher is a mathematical prodigy, but is distressed by loud noises and struggles to understand the emotions of others. His narration is often frustrating to the reader, such as when he breaks off from the plot to explain a math concept or his system of counting different colored cars, but he is also very sympathetic as a character often frightened and confused by his irrational surroundings. Christopher dislikes metaphors and jokes because of their inconsistent multiple meanings, but his literal-mindedness leads to some witty observations about the irrationality of social norms. Though the book takes place in modern London, from Christopher’s perspective it becomes a different world full of distractions and absurd rules.

I would recommend this book to anyone 14+ (for language and thematic elements) who enjoys mysteries and unusual narration.

-Miranda C., 12th grade

Book Review: Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer, by John Grisham

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Satej B.

Lawyers, lawyers, lawyers… paper, work, suits. Seems boring, right? Well, try reading Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer and your prospective of being a boring lawyer will change.

The story starts of as Theo is in school. He gets a grant from the judge to bring his class to the court to see a live session. Except… something is wrong. The side against Pete Duffy, the accused, has a very, very weak argument… Is there anything that anyone can do to help them?

First, let me tell you the story of Pete Duffy. Pete has an $1,000,000 price on his wife so that if she “accidentally” dies, he will get all the money. And then coincidentally, she is found strangled to death in their own house, the prime subject is Pete. But why would he kill his own wife… possibly for the money?

Now you know the story, but during the course of the book a twist occurs. A man saw something… this would change the whole game, the whole story. It will affect everyone, including Theo……It will be big.

I won’t spoil it for you guys but this is a great book to read, hopefully you can read it. They are also more stories, because this is a series.

-Satej B., 7th grade

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