Tag Archives: high school

Generation One by Patticus Lore

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Generation One by Pittacus Lore is the first thrilling book of a new series that takes place in the same world as the best-selling Lorien Legacies series. It can be read without reading the previous series, and it starts a year after the end of it. To win the war that occurred in the Lorien Legacies series, humans allied with the alien called Garde, who used a special energy called the Loric energy in order to defeat the occupation of earth. Now, this energy has caused human teenagers across the globe to develop special powers called Legacies.

In order to control and develop these powers, and to protect ordinary people, the United Nations has set up a special academy to train them in the hopes that they can help all the people of the Earth. The book follows six teenagers from all corners of the globe and their journey to the Academy. Some of them had been there for a good amount of time, but some were late bloomers when it came to developing their powers, so they arrived later.

Taylor Cook is peacefully living her life in South Dakota on her farm with her Father, only hearing about rumors of teenagers suddenly developing powers. She does not think it could ever happen to her, but that all changes when she is able to heal her Father in a tractor accident. Sent to the academy, she meets others like her who are being trained to save the world one day. Her Legacy of healing is very rare, and it is something that makes her a target to other groups.

I have read a wide variety of science-fiction novels, and this one is definitely one of the best ones. It was a non-stop, thriller ride with the right mix of teenage lightheartedness. Generation One was able to develop and trace each character throughout the story. By doing this, the reader can see the significance of each character and how they contributed to the storyline. The end is satisfying in relation to what occurred in the book, but there is definitely room for more with the sequel, Fugitive Six.

-Anmol K.

Generation One by Patticus Lore is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. 

How We Roll by Natasha Friend

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How We Roll by Natasha Friend is a coming of age story of a young teenager named Quinn who must deal with something very few have to: she is bald. As an eighth grader, she was diagnosed with alopecia, and lost all of her hair. Unfortunately, the kids at school made constant fun of her, and she slowly lost her closest friends. She got a fresh start when her family decided to move in order to have her brother Julius, who has autism, attend a special school. In a new school now, Quinn decides to wear her wig permanently in the hopes that she will be treated nicely. Fortunately, she finds a group of girls who quickly adopt her into their friend group.

In addition to these friends, Quinn meets a boy named Nick. Once the star football player, he lost both of his legs in a car accident. In the grueling recovery process, Nick has become silent and recluse. However, Quinn and him make an unlikely bond that is strong enough for Quinn to reveal her secret and for Quinn to keep pushing Nick to the road to recovery. With a beautiful ending, I would say that this book is for anyone looking for a touching story.

Personally, I enjoy novels with either fantasy or adventure, but this one was a great contrast to my typical repertoire. Quinn’s personality was real; one could feel her happiness, anger, success, and fear. Her character was like any other teenager trying to fit in among her peers, and her ability to forgive her previous tormentors took a great deal of maturity. The friendship between her and Nick also showed how she grew as a person. In the novel, Quinn’s family was the backdrop for the story, and it was beautiful to see her interacting with her parents and little brother. Overall, I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a feel-good read.

-Anmol K.

How We Roll by Natasha Friend is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.

Film Review: Sierra Burgess is a Loser

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This teen rom-com movie was released on Friday, September 7, 2018. This movie can literally make you die from laughter one minute and cry in another. A basic rundown is that there is this girl named Sierra Burgess, played by Shannon Purser. She is an insecure yet empowering young women. One day she gets a text from a random number which she soon finds out that it’s from the most popular guy of her rival school, Jamey (played by the one and only Noah Centineo).

Sierra ends up catfishing Jamey and doesn’t tell him who she really is. This leads her down a long path of having to tutor the most popular girl in her school Veronica who also low-key bullies her in the beginning, lying to Jamey, her best friend Dan, but most importantly, herself.

The next part is sort of a spoiler so don’t read this next part: Jamey ends up finding out that Sierra was the one who was catfishing him and is so shocked that he demands that both Sierra AND Veronica stay away from him. In this process, Sierra also loses her best friend Dan (who is one of THE best characters in the movie.)

Sierra ends up making a song for Veronica called “Sunflower” which is basically an apology to Veronica for embarrassing Veronica in front of the whole school.

Overall this movie is super entertaining and has great messages behind it. I totally recommend this movie. It’s out now on Netflix.

-Phoebe L.

Film Review: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

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This amazing rom-com movie was released through Netflix on August 17, 2018. Normally, the thought of a romantic movie makes me cringe, but when I first saw the trailer for the movie, I was immediately hooked.

This movie is based on the book series To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before written by Jenny Han. I personally have not read the books (but planning to read them later). This story has everything from romance, to comedy, to the important lessons every teenager should know not only life but love as well.

The movie is about a girl named Lara Jean Covey. She is half-American and half-Korean. Her mother passed away when she was young, so her father raises her and two other sisters (one older, one younger) by himself. Basically, the main plot of the story is that Lara Jean has these five letters. She writes them when she has a crush, “..so intense, [she] doesn’t know what else to do..” One day she finds that all the letters have been sent out… all FIVE of them!! The recipients of the letters are Peter Kavinsky, played by Noah Centineo (a dreamboat may I add), who is the hottest boy in school, John Ambrose from Model UN, Lucas from homecoming, Kenny from camp, and Josh, the boy next door (who is her older sister’s boyfriend).

The rest of the movie is just about how she handles the whole situation, and the lessons she learns along the way. I totally recommend this movie. It is an amazing movie with an Asian lead– which you don’t see very often.

Jenny Han’s novel, To All the Boys I Loved Before, is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive. 

The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O’Brien

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The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O’Brien is a science fiction, dystopian novel. It takes place in the Forge School of the Arts, which is the site of a reality TV show. The school had 100 kids enter in each year, but 50 of them are cut, and do not receive this world-class education. The cuts are based on each person’s ranking, and these ranking are determined by the viewers, who watch the kids 12 hours a day. They vote, and the ones with more votes rise in rank, and make the cuts. The rest of the 12 hours are for the kids to sleep because it is believed that more sleep allows them to have more creativity. Each kid is given a pill to take, and its purpose is to help them sleep better and allow more creativity.

The main character of the book is Rosie Sinclair. She is in the school for film editing, and is ranked very low days before the cuts. Because of this, she skips taking her pill one night and goes out to explore because she does not have any regard for the consequences. In her exploration she finds a whole new world beyond the cameras. This encourages her to put more effort into staying up in the ranks in order to unearth the dark secret that the school is covering.

The premise of the book for me was interesting enough to pick it up off the shelf. I started to read it, and it was a bit difficult to get into. The story started with a pretty simple plot line, and a lot of the beginning was what I already read from the book summary. However, I loved to read about Rosie’s backstory because it made me root for her. Then, a few expected “turns” happened, and the story sort of plautead. I continued to read, and was happy to see the action pick up again. This propelled me to read the rest of the story, and I enjoyed the ending. Even though the beginning was a bit difficult to get through, I would recommend this book for an interesting, thought-provoking novel.

-Anmol K.

The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O’Brien is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. 

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus

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One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus tells the story of how deadly a rumor could end up. It started with an after school detention. Five kids walked in. Addy, Bronwyn, Nate, Cooper, and Simon all have detention. They don’t usually hang out, so they don’t talk very much. Simon has a gossip app called About That. He posts rumors about kids at the school on the app regularly. Simon gets up to get a glass of water and as soon as he finishes the water he starts having an allergic reaction and dies.

The main belief that the police had was that someone had poisoned Simon because of a rumor posted on the app. The police assume it was one of the four in detention with Simon. In the police investigation, they find peanut oil in the water. Now the four have to do their own detective work to find out who really killed Simon. At the time of Simon’s allergic reaction, the nurse had no EpiPens, and an EpiPen was later found in Nate’s locker. The police then took Nate to have him questioned. Bronwyn hears about this and realizes that their lockers were searched the morning of Simon’s death so somebody must have put the EpiPen there to frame Nate.

The three students keep looking for clues, and their search leads them to one of Simon’s only friends, Janae Vargas. They continually ask Janae if she knows anything until she finally tells them who killed Simon. She tells them that somebody made a plan to kill Simon by putting peanut oil in the water and that the person was…(spoiler warning! highlight text to read!): Simon himself. Simon planned every detail like hiding the nurse’s EpiPens and hiding one in Nate’s locker. Simon’s apparent motive was that everyone in the detention class had been rude to him so he decided to try and frame them

-Emilio V.

One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive. 

Where I Live

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Where I Live by Brenda Rufener tells the story of high schooler Linden Rose. When you read high schooler, you may have pictured someone who has a typical life with friends, homework, and a family. Linden Rose has all of these things, but no family. Homeless for about a year, she lives at school; no one knows about her secret because she does not want anybody to know.  Her two closest friends, Ham and Seung, are under the impression that she lives with her constantly absent Father at a nearby trailer park. Linden works hard in school to keep up her guise in order to have a shot at the future.

Flying under the radar is all she wants to do, and she does just that until she meets Bea. On the surface, Bea is the popular girl everyone admires. However, she comes to school one day with a bloody lip; everyone thinks it is from her boyfriend, but she vehemently denies this. This is hard for Linden to fathom because her place in life is due to domestic violence because of the various men beating up her mother, who eventually died and left Linden to live with her grandma, but she also died. In her gut, Linden knows that she needs to tell Bea’s story, but is unable to do so without revealing some secrets of her own.

This story was an emotional journey, but one thing that the reader will keep doing is rooting for a better life for Linden. Linden is portrayed in a way that she feels to be real, and the reader is able to connect to her. The story was slow-moving, but I do not think there was any other way for the story to be told. By building the story slowly, but surely, the author was able to depict the journey of Linden. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a book that takes on a different about high schoolers.

– Anmol K.

Where I Live by Brenda Rufener is avaiable at the Mission Viejo Library.

Expelled by James Patterson and Emily Raymond

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Image result for expelled by james pattersonFor anyone, whether or not you are a James Patterson fan, Expelled is not a disappointment. When four students are expelled over a posted picture, they must team up, whether they like it or not. They have to make decisions on who they can trust, in a world of guilty and innocents. But who are the true guilty and innocent people? You can’t make your decisions  on looks and past events. Theo Foster  was expelled for a posted photo on his Twitter account. He wants to find out who framed him, but where can he start, the people in the photo? His friends? Every single person in the school?

Theo goes on throughout the book, trying to figure who framed him. After all, he is expelled, and now he has a large amount of time on his hands. People in public give him nasty looks. A 7-Eleven refuses to hire him. But that doesn’t stop him. With a  group of four expelled kids, a video camera, and a small strip of property, nothing can go wrong, right?

I would recommend this book to anyone that’s looking for a new mystery or James Patterson book. There’s beautifully written plot twists, and the real guilty person didn’t turn out to be who I expected. I personally don’t read many mysteries, so this wasn’t the best Patterson book I have read, but I still like it, and it wasn’t the worst either. This book has some mature themes and it for high school readers.

-Rebecca V, 9th grade

Expelled by James Patterson and Emily Raymond is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. 

See Jane Run by Hannah Jayne

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The book consisted of two main characters that understood each other better then their parents did. Not only is Riley supposed to not interact with kids at her school, but she is also not allowed to  start having feelings for a juvenile delinquent.

It all starts when Riley finds a hidden birth certificate in her baby book. The only problem is it doesn’t have her name on it. On the birth certificate it includes her date of birth and even her parents names, but they aren’t the same as those who she thought were her parents.

Not only is Riley frightened, but she also starts getting notes in her purse and backpack everyday at school consisting of the words, “I know who you are, ” and even, “Your parents are liars.” Without having enough courage to confide in her parents, will Riley understand the consequences of living in a divided family?

-Rylie N.

One Hundred Days

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They told me high school would be a long four years, a time I would dedicate to navigating schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and a social life. A time when my stresses would only consist of getting the grades and the friends. That everything in my life had prepared me for this brand new stage.

When I was little, I used to dream of the days I would grow up into a teenager, go out with my friends, get a driver’s license, and even begin to drink coffee regularly. I couldn’t wait to join school clubs, meet more people, and bring a date to those formal dances everyone always talked about. Because this was the amazing life I had built up in my head all those years ago.

And I was told to hold on to it because it would all happen so quick. That I would soon miss the bottom lockers that no one wanted and the crowded hallways filled with people I’ve known since third grade. That I would learn to cherish it and make the most out of every second I had here.

But it wasn’t long before the time had escaped me.

Suddenly, they were telling me one hundred days. Only one hundred days until I was out of this building, out of this life, and moving on to a bigger, brighter future. Eight-year-old me, meeting my best friend for the first time on the top of the swirly slide at recess, could never have begun to imagine that my high school graduation and step into a completely life-altering environment was only one hundred days away.

Four years of trying to figure out who I was and what I liked, and I’m still not close to done. Now, I have to decide my future in one hundred days and counting. Impossible. But then again, I used to think being this age was impossible. I once believed I would always just be that girl waiting for that goal of becoming a semi-independent high school student, similar to how I can only envision myself being a slightly-more-independent college student.

Change happened fast and I didn’t realize how unprepared I was for that notice of one hundred days to completely turn my life around.

-Sabrina C.