8th Grade Book Reviews

I enjoyed it a lot!

I read The Road, by bestselling author Cormac McCarthy. It is a book about a father and his son walking alone through a post-apocalyptic America, protecting each other from other survivors who want to steal what food and clothes the pair has left. The goal of the father and his son is to get to the coast, even though they don’t know what they will find there. Also, all they have to defend themselves is a pistol and their will to survive.The Road is a must read for anyone who loves a compelling tale of survival and adventure. McCarthy’s writing style is very challenging to read, as he doesn’t put quotation marks during a dialogue, has only one continuous chapter, and never tells the reader exactly where the father and his child are. But he makes up for this with his vivid descriptions of the environments that the dad and son trekked through during their journey. I highly recommend this book, as it is, and will remain one of the greatest, most compelling novels I have ever read. It is a story that was so incredibly hard for me to put down, and I’m sure that will be the case with anyone else who reads The Road. 

This novel is a swashbuckling classic about a young boy named Tom Sawyer that lives in a Missouri town by the Mississippi River. Tom is very mischievous and crafty, and devises plans to get out of work. Throughout the book, many zany, outrageous events occur. The beginning of the book is about Tom and his clever ways of getting out of work. The action immediately escalates from there and never stops. The boys witness a murder, are thought to be dead, miraculously reappear, testify against the murderer, save lives, and find buried treasure. That’s a lot of action to fit within 200 pages.

I enjoyed this classic adventure novel by Mark Twain. It is full of action, suspense, and intrigue. At times, the events that occur, and the pure coincidence of some of the things that happen seems a little too improbable, but in my mind, this is what defines the work from the others of a similar genre, and makes this an unforgettable adventure. I loved the breakneck pace of this book, and the language that was used made for an interesting change from today’s modern English. I would recommend this book.

Summary: Blaze is a Stephen King book about a once intelligent child who was beat so badly by his father that he suffered brain damage now he is just an unintelligent, brutish man who listens to the every word of a clever, criminally inclined man named George. Together they perform acts of petty crime, holdups, scams etc. Blaze is just the muscle of the plans while GTeorge provides the brains of the operations. As the story is introduced it turns out that George is no longer alive, and Blaze is just imagining his advice in his mind. Still, Blaze decides to complete a master plan that George had formulated months earlier, to kidnap a baby.
Review: I haven’t yet comepleted this book, but from what I have read so far, it is very funny and exciting. It is not really the horror that I have been told that Sephen King novels usually are, but rather it is just a normal kidnapping book (whatever one of those may look like), at least so far. The story has yet to develop fully, (I am around 2/3 done), and one can only guess what kinds of crazy plot twists are to come. The style of writing is very straightforward and well represents the actual interactions that typically go on between humans in the diologues. The writing is also very humorous at times. Stephen depicts the character of Blaze very well and developes him very well throughout. He is shown as a well-intentioned, kind man with mental difficulties. It also uses a very nice method of showing things that relate to the character by using flashbacks from his childhood.

Sounder is a book about a boy, his family and their dog, Sounder. You don’t find out any of their names they just call each other child or mother or father. The family is very poor and they all have to work very hard each day just to stay warm and to have a shelter. The family is too poor to have a good education and none of them can read or write. The boy’s father is taken for a crime they thought he delt and as they are riding away Sounder runs after them and gets shot. You don’t know if he lives or dies for lots of pages and I loved it because of all the tension. The boy then goes looking for his father and different places he might be working for the prison and can’t find him. After a a few years he returns and the family is devastated by his appearance. The old man then goes to hunt in the dark and does not return so the boy goes looking for him. When Sounder has found out what happens he feels so bad that he ventures off into the woods and dies. This book almost made me cry it was so sad. You get connected to this boy and his dog from having to hear about all of the work he has to do and when you read about the boy being so sad it breaks your heart too. The dog sounds so loyal and cute and you have also made a connection with him that when he dies I almost couldn’t bear it. I would recommend this book to anyone because it can meet many different people’s reading likes.

This book was about a girl named Gemma and the special powers she was given by a magical group called the Order. In the story, she is sent away to a school for girls where they teach girls to become proper women. There, Gemma starts to realize what kinds of powers she has been given. Gemma and three other of her friends, Felicity, Ann, and Pippa, start a club where they meet during the nights and have meetings where they read pages from a diary of a girl named Mary Doyle. In the diary the girls read about a realm that Mary could enter with the powers. Gemma soon finally tells her friends about her powers and they all decide that they should enter the realm together. In the realms they do whatever they dream of doing. But when they read more pages of the diary they discover how entering the realms could hurt them. Then when the girls get carried away and make a huge mistake, everything starts to go wrong. All four of the girls now must try to undo their mistake before it becomes too late.

This book was the type of book you couldn’t put down. It was very exciting. It starts out slow, but good, and then continues to get better. This book was also full of adventure. While I was reading this book I was surprised by all of the events that came up throughout the story. I recommend this book for people who have a big imagination. People ages thirteen to eighteen would really enjoy this book. I hope you who read this book, love this book as much as I did.

The book “I Am America (And So Can You)” by Stephen Colbert is a hilarious book that shows his views (maybe) on current topics such as religion, and immigrants. Each of the topics makes a chapter and at the end of each of the chapters is a game that relates to the topic. The kinds of games that Colbert includes are word searches, logic problems, and connect the dots. The book is nonfiction so there really isn’t a plot.

I would give this book a 4 1/2 stars out of 5 because I think this is one of the funniest books of 2007. Although it’s hilarious some parts are racist so you shouldn’t read this book if you don’t like racist jokes. But other than that I would recomend this book to people who like to laugh.

Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar explains philosophy through a series of jokes and gags. This is a fun read because, while one second you might be laughing out loud, the next second you are wondering about the mysteries of life. The book’s humorous illustrations were enlightening and helped summarize the stories and make them more interesting. Even though the appearance of the book might not stand out to a scholar, it changed my point of view on things. I learned theories and stories that took me awhile to decipher, but once I understood them, it felt enriching.
I recommend this book as a “coffee table book” since it is a compilation of short stories and passages, and at times it can be difficult to understand its meaty content. This is definitely a book I will revisit when I’m older and have a more sophisticated understanding of the world.

Neal Shuterman’s book Unwind explores the controversy between the pro-life and the pro-choice arguments. Set in a time when newspapers seem prehistoric, we find ourselves in the aftermath of a war fought between the pro-choice army and the pro-life brigade. To end the war the government has stopped the practice of abortion and has introduced the bill of life. Even though the practice of abortion has been terminated the government has turned towards a system called unwinding. If a child between thirteen and eighteen is unwanted by their parents, they can have that child killed, disassembled and have their body parts given away to the sick or injured. Since all of their organs are still alive. The question between life and death still remains.

Connor is about to turn thirteen and he is about to find himself right in the middle of all of the drama of being an unwind. He had been looking through his parents things when he found it, his unwind notice along with three tickets to the Bahamas. Connor decides to run away. during his escape from the juvy cops he meets a girl named Risa and a tithe named Lev. Risa is to be unwound to make room at the orphanage where for most of her life she had lived. Lev, on the other hand is a tithe, his religious family has offered him to support gods will. These three teens find there way to and underground railroad for the unwound. During their time running from the Juvy cops they encounter storking, clappers and a few courageous people willing to help them along the way.

Unwind is a really great book! This was the first book in along time that I could not put down. If you enjoy science fiction than you will enjoy this book. The simple yet vivid writing style of Neal Shuterman kept me on the edge of my seat and had me begging for more until the very end. I give this book five stars!

A Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allen Poe is one of a wicked kind. A twisted soul finds himself in a rage to kill a man. He wants to kill him, not because he has been wronged by him, but because he has one eye that is the clearest lightest blue that there is. He calls it the vulture eye. This man is old, and kind, but his destiny was picked for him by a man that did not like to be looked at with his eye. The main character schemes and plots to kill the old man with the vulture eye. After the deed is done, the man swears he can hear his victim’s heart beating right out of the floor where it was placed. Two police officers come over and sit down with him and have some tea. He is bombarded with noise of the beating heart. The character can’t understand why he seems to be the only one ho can hear it. He starts to go crazy, and some events happen with the police officers.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a mystery with some humor. The language was hard to follow, and I would find myself re reading a sentence or two to help me understand it. If you are clever and like a good challenge then you would like this book.

The semi-autobiographical novel, Crank, by Ellen Hopkins is an impelling book. Kristina Georgia Snow, the ultimate good girl daughter, straight “A” student, and loyal friend is turned into a crystal meth user, highschool failure, and promiscuous girl known as Bree. After a visit with her long time absent father, Kristina meets a boy who will supply her with non-stop crank. This is when Bree ( a made up character that takes over Kristina and becomes the fearless girl that she could never be) comes out and decides to take care of business. After using crank on her visit she comes back home and is a totally different person. The goody girl she was disappeared and is now an addict. She hooks up with some guys that can supply her with crank and as a result she gets raped by one of her suppliers and becomes pregnant. Her once problem free life turns into hell as she tries to live her life without using the monster although her addiction slows down it DOESN’T stop. Everyone around is very close to giving up on her. Kristina really needs to take charge of her life and get over this addiction.

I thought that Ellen Hopkins vividly expresses the life a young adult who hasn’t quite found herself yet and while in the process she experiments with “the monster” also known as crystal meth. I found this book very amusing because there were many events that were thrilling and had lots of excitement. Although there was lots of great parts of this book I thought some parts were repetitive however, Crank, never got boring. I never wanted to stop reading, it’s one of those books that keeping you wondering until you can read again. If you are looking for an exciting, never ending, horrifying and extremely mysterious then this book is the one for you.

After getting into a head-on car crash, Nick and Allie find themselves heading towards the light of heaven. However about half way there, they get sucked into the mysterious world of Everlost. It is a place between life and death where children and teens end up if they lose their path to heaven. However, Nick and Allie aren’t ready to die and spend the rest of their lives in this terrifying place just yet. There are rumors of a monster that lurks in the dark, and anyone that stands in one place for too long will begin to sink into the center of the earth. Determined yet fearful, they travel through the horrors of Everlost to try and find their home, but as time goes on, Nick and Allie begin to forget about their pasts and could be stuck there forever.

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading exciting fiction adventures. It is full of mysteries, excitement and long journeys. There a few slow parts in the middle, but overall I would highly recommend it.

Over the break I started reading a book called Northern Lights, which is the first of three in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. The book takes place in a world that’s like earth except different, it’s similar to earth because there are all the same places on that planet and there’s humans and there’s all the same objects (tables, colleges, ect.). What’s different is that every person has something called a daemon, which takes the form of an animal. Also kids daemons can change forms, but adult’s daemons can’t. At the start of the book a girl named Lyra (who is the main character) sneaks into a secret meeting where she learns something important. Soon after kids start disappearing, but then when her friend disappears she has to investigate. I’m not going to tell you anymore so you’ll have to find out yourself by reading the book.
I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars because at some parts like at the beginning it is kind of boring but then it gets way more interesting. I would recommend this book to people who like fiction. But I also recommend that at some point you try reading this book.

Kim Peterson aka “Just Jamie” is under a lot of stress when she gets a speeding ticket after telling her parents she was going to keep a clean record. After confessing to her Dad about this they made a deal that she will start writing an advice column for her father’s newspaper. Since Kim starting writing for this column, she has often found herself in similar situations as some of the writers to the letters sent to her. Through out the book Kim is also fighting herself about what religion she should resign to. Should she follow her Korean roots and become a Buddhist (which takes a lot of patience and perfectness) or should she become a Christian ( in which god loves you and accepts you for you ownself) like her parents and peers? Melody Carlson the author of Diary of a Teenage Girl, uses drama and humor to describe a life of a young women. She picks situations and difficulties that could pertain to a girl growing up and finding herself.

Carlson reflects on how teenagers go through phases while growing up and overtime they find themselves. I connected to this book because as a young women I have to make decisions that can impact my life for better or for worse. I thought that Carlson’s book was clever in the structure and in the dialouge. I thought that it showed a clear meaning of a “teenage life”. As we mature and are faced with difficult choices, Diary of a Teenage Girl is a great reference to seek help. I would highly recommend this book to and teenage girls.

The Sweet Far Thing, by Libba Bray, is the third book of a trilogy. All of the books are about a teenage girl named Gemma Doyle, who goes to Spence Academy, a boarding school in England. Her father is a drug addict and her mother past away several years ago. Gemma’s mother was part of a group called “the Order”. This group had ”magical powers” and could enter another world called the “realms”. When her mother died, Gemma was given these powers and could enter the unimaginable world of the realms. Gemma struggles through this fictional story with her two best friends: wealthy and free-thinking Felicity, and Ann, who is shy and unsure of herself. Together they return to the realms every night; but there is danger. The creatures in the realms want to make an alliance so they can have a share of the magic. Can they be trusted? Throughout the book, Gemma has to fight to take care of her family, watch out for her friends, deal with a complicated romance, and make a decision that could change the realms forever.

The way that the author incorporates humor into her writing makes it appealing to everyone. The European language that she uses is interesting to read when you compare it to ours. One of the intriguing things about The Sweet Far Thing is that it has two sides: life in the realms, and life in the real world. Because this book forces you to use your imagination, I would recommend it to people who like reading fiction. Also, since it is about a girl and is told from her point of view, girls would probably enjoy it more than boys. The age group that it bests suits is around 13 or 14. I would definitely recommend reading this trilogy in order, first A Great and Terrible Beauty, then Rebel Angels, and lastly The Sweet Far Thing. All three of these stories had me wondering what would happen next. In this book, Libba Bray makes fantasy seem like reality. I love how this book has a mixture of everything in it, making you never want to stop reading.

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley is set in 1948, when racism and killing are part everyday life for Ezekiel (Easy) Rawlins. Easy is a young African-American man in need of mortgage money. His friend, Joppy, sets him up with the white Mr. Albright, who gives him money in exchange for a detective job. His quest is to find a white girl in a blue dress in a photo, Daphne Monet. While trying to find Daphne, Easy is always on the brink of trouble. Whether he’s following the trail of the illegal alcohol seller, Frank Green, being inspected for the killings of several other African-Americans, meeting with the sneaky Mr. Dwight Albright, or hanging out with “Mouse”, a man that kills others for no reason, Easy is always in danger’s way.
Throughout this book I was intrigued by the story, wondering who killed who, and how the story would end. Every moment is filled with suspense, giving the reader a sense of being in the action. This book also gives you a feeling of what racism was like in the 1940’s, and is written in a unique style called “hard boiled”. I recommend this book to anyone that likes murder mysteries or stories that are set in the mid-twentieth century, but I would not recommend this book to anyone that doesn’t care for murder, blood, or hard-to-follow plot. Much of the plot went over my head, so although I enjoyed the new style of writing, I only recommend this book to people that have the patience to follow the action.

Iron and Silk is a true story about a middle-aged English teacher named Mark working at a medical collage in the Chinese province of Hunan. The book is mainly about his adventures in China and all of the people he is introduced to along the way. The story begins with him traveling to the collage, but having a very hard time because the officials there are not very happy to see a foreigner in their countryside. This continues throughout the whole book, with him constantly getting stares everywhere he goes. It was not entirely bad, because along the way he got to meet some very interesting people who he becomes friends with and help him through his time in China. He is also trying to learn martial arts while at the collage, and because of his friends, he turns out being an apprentice to the most famous martial arts teacher in all of China. These two things, martial arts and friendship, are what guide him throughout the book and lead him on the adventures he has.

The one bad thing about Iron and Silk is the lack of action. Besides him learning and practicing martial arts, there is not much action and adventure. It is a bit of a slow read at first, so you have to just keep reading, because after the first couple short chapters, it gets easier to read. I would recommend this book for anyone who likes a nice, easy-read book and likes books about different places and cultures.

The Diary of Anne frank is a story about a thirteen year old Jewish girl during World War II who is forced into hiding by the Nazis. For two years and one day she must live in constant fear of their hiding place and family being discovered and forced from her. She lives in an ongoing nightmare of eight people crowded into a small space. Anne Frank finds that she cannot relate to her family and longs for a friend. To keep herself busy, she becomes creative with ways to entertain herself. For her thirteenth birthday, she receives a diary from her family, which she refers to as her new friend “Kitty”. Being alone she is able to find out much more about herself. It is interesting to read from a young girl’s diary who had been through so much and I’m not sure I know anyone who could have done what she did. This book was very interesting and I would recommend it just because it is educational on what life was like for a Jew during World War Two but it is was not a book i would read over again.

The book ends abruptly when Nazis found Anne Frank’s hiding place in Amsterdam. Not a lot is known about what happened to Anne Frank after they were discovered because all we have from her is her diary over the past two years she as in hiding. Though she probably was taken to a camp and killed along with millions of other Jews, her story lives on from the small diary she kept for the two years she was forced into hiding.

Operation Red Jericho tells the tale of Becca and Doug MacKenzie’s journey looking for their parents. The books starts out with Becca and Doug in China aboard The Expedient, there uncle’s research vessel. Capitan Fitzroy MacKenzie identifies himself as a researcher, but when a strange, wounded man shows up on board the ship in the middle of the night, Doug an Becca suspect that there is more to their uncle and the ship than he is letting on. Through a series of midnight excursions, Doug and Becca find out that The Expedient is more than a research vessel. It its loaded with two hidden, high powered guns, torpedo stores, and an airplane. Doug and Becca are eager to find out more about there parents whereabouts and what is really going on aboard The Expedient. They have suspicions that there uncle is secretly searching for the warlord Sheng-Fat, who controls the seas. More and more strange things start happening aboard the ship, and Doug and Becca’s suspicions are confirmed.

Operation Red Jericho is a funny, interesting, and overall great book, and I highly suggest that you read it. With every turn of the page, there is a turn of events and it will keep you guessing until the very end. I would recommend this book for ages 12-14 because there there is a complicated and twisting plot, but at the same time, it is fun to read. Joshua Mowll has written a sequel to Operation Red Jericho called Operation Typhoon Shore. It continues to tell the tale of Doug and Becca aboard The Expedient in there on going serach for there parents.

Over my spring break, I chose to read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. This book follows a crazy bombardier who continuously attempts to get himself out of as many missions as possible but his superior officer keeps raising the number of missions. He tries and tries to get himself out of the army, claiming that he’s insane, but there is a catch, Catch-22. The catch is this: anyone who wants to fly endless amounts of dangerous missions is crazy, so therefore should be discharged and sent home, but the only way to get discharged is if you ask the doctor. If you are crazy and you ask the doctor if you can go home, he will say, “no” because if you no longer want to be in the army, you are no longer crazy. Basically if you want to risk your life fighting, you are crazy and can get sent home, but once you want to go home, you are no longer crazy and therefore don’t have the privilege. It is a never-ending circle that Yossarian continuously tries to defeat. He is stationed in Italy, during WWII, where he sleeps in a small tent with a random unidentified dead body and a crazy old man named Orr, who always “tinkers” with things and slowly drives Yossarian insane. He spends his days in the hospital with Doc Daneeka, a crazy self-pitying doctor, and claims that something is terribly wrong with his liver. All of his visits to the doctor are just steps in his plan to defeat the catch and return home. This book is full of obscure scenes with random characters you may never see again in the book.

“Catch-22″ is a witty book with crude, ironic, humor that you have to have patience to really cherish and understand. This is a very slow read, but it is one where you can stop and come back to and still be just as confused as you were when you put it down. While reading this book, don’t worry if you have no idea what is going on and you are worried that you aren’t getting the plot because there really isn’t one, except for the reoccuring theme which is the catch-22. You may take from it what you will, and enjoy it.