And Then There Were None

This week I read And Then There Were None By Agatha Christie. I would describe this book as a murder mystery. At first, when my mom got me this book, I didn't want to read it, because "it was all old-fashioned and stuff.". Eventually, I just decided to read the first couple chapters, and I got totally pulled in. And Then There Were None is about eight guests who get invited to an island, called Indian Island, for one reason and another. The Island was recently bought by a millionare named U. N. Owen.   They all come, and get stranded there in the middle of a storm with the two serving people, with no U.N. Owen on the island. Slowly, they start to get murdered, following the nursery rhyme hung over each of their beds. This book is about the creepiest book I have read for a long time, and really good. The twist at the end is crazy, and the characters seem really believable- for the time period, at least. There are lots of surprises that make the book interesting, and it's one of those books that you don't want to put down. It keeps you in constant suspense. The reading level is a little challenging because the talking is all old fashioned, but it's actually not all that bad. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes murder mysteries, or anybody that is looking for a creepy book with lots of surprises to make life interesting.

See You At Harry's

This week I read See You At Harry's by Jo Knowles. I had really high expectations for this book, because apparently everybody loves it and it makes them cry. It wasn't that sad for me, but still a really great (and a really sad) book. I won't give away too much, but basically it's about a twelve- year -old girl named Fern who is trying to cope with all of the things going on in her life, including her (kind of hilarious) dad. It follows a lot of different stuff going on in her life, one in particular very tragic, and has her and the rest of her family trying to move on from it. I know my description might sound kind of boring, but this was a really fast-paced and good book; I couldn't even put it down. It is really sad and you definitely connect to a lot of the characters in the book, even the ones that you don't like at first. Even though it's really depressing, I would say that the overall message of the book is positive; that does not mean it's not sad- it is. I would recommend this book to pretty much everybody in our class, despite your age and gender. I would call the genre realistic fiction- is that even a genre? Even though I would call it realistic fiction, I would definitely encourage people who read all sorts of different genres to try this book- believe me, it's really good, you won't be disappointed.

Breadcrumbs

This week I read Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu. This book was really good. I would call it Fantasy but also gets into real life; the main character is a normal girl. This is a really great book that Linda recommended, but I would warn you that we are probably on the upper range of the reading level, not out of it though, but close. Because of that, I would probably recommend this to 6th graders,  and only maybe 7th and 8th graders. It is about a girl named Hazel going to search for this boy in the woods who has been captured by a witch thing. The story sounds cheesy, but is actually kind of entertaining and not really silly. The characters are really connectable. I would recommend this book to people who liked books like Wonder by R.J. Palacio, books by Wendy Mass, or the Apothecary by Maile Meloy. Overall, this was a really good book with a total hook ending.

13 Gifts

This week I read 13 Gifts, by Wendy Mass. This book would probably be classifyed as realistic fiction. I don't normally like realistic fiction books like this, I normally read stuff like adventure/sci-fi, etc. I read this book because the last book that I read by Wendy Mass, A Mango Shaped Space, was really good. I thought that this book was relatively good, but still a little disappointing. Basically, it's about a girl named Tara going into eigth grade who (long story short) gets sent to stay with her aunt, uncle, cousin, and (unknowingly) a whole bunch of other bizarre characters for the summer. Tara is really antisocial; she doesn't have a lot of friends at school and just doesn't really like to be around people all that much. You get the feeling that she wants to have friends, just doesn't really have good "social skills" or whatever. She likes to sit things out, and watch from the sidelines. When she gets to her cousin's house, another long story short, she realizes that sometimes you have to take a risk for there to be any reward at all. I liked this book, even though it didn't live up to my expectations from A Mango Shaped Space. It takes a little while to get going, and the end has a pretty cool twist, that you half expect is coming but don't really believe it. I would recommend this book to both girls and boys, but probably girls might enjoy it more. The reading level is really easy, and I would recommend it to all of AS. Overall, this was a great book if you normally read this type of genre, and also a worthwhile book to read even if you don't read this genre, you'll probably like it, just, well, not as much.
That's all, folks!

Bitterblue

This week (or two weeks,  or whatever) I read Bitterblue, by Kristen Cashore. It is the second book of a series; the first one is called Graceling. Bitterblue is about a queen named (guess what) Bitterblue trying to help her kingdom recover after the awful tyranny of her father. Graceling is about the events leading up to this. It sounds kind of dark, and it is a little bit-numerous people commit suicide, animals and people are tortured, and the main character goes through a lot, but it's not really anything too bad for the people in our class. The overall darkness of the book kind of surprised me, because based on its theme it sounds like it shouldn't be that dark, but it kind of is. It is probably classifyed as fantasy; but it does fit in more than one category. It is really entertaining, even though it doesn't really have a clear point. I think that girls would probably like this book more than boys; it is told from the perspective of a girl, and just fits in with what I think most girls in our class would enjoy more than the boys would. I would also recommend reading Graceling before Bitterblue. The "companion book" or whatever they call it to Bitterblue is called Fire; in my opinion it's not as good, but if you like Bitterblue, you should probably try it. You can't just read Graceling and then read Fire, you have to read Bitterblue as well, but you can read Fire first, and then read Graceling and Bitterblue. Overall, I would recommend this book to people who are looking for an entertaining book to read on, well, a six and a half hour bus ride down to Taos, New Mexico.