Summary: The book starts with George and Lennie, two friends and travelers, looking for work because they got into trouble with the head rancher at their last job. Both George and Lennie go everywhere together, but since Lennie can't take care of himself, George helps Lennie by taking care of him and keeping out of trouble. Both men want to own a piece of land for themselves so that they don't have to worry about earning money. Once they get to their new ranch, George does the interview alone, fearing the boss won't hire them because of Lennie's mental disability. However, George secures the job for both of them.
Once at the ranch, they meet the boss's mean spirited son, Curley and his wife, who tries to flirt with all the men on the ranch. George and Lennie make a deal with the old ranch hand, Candy, that, in exchange for his savings, they can live together on George's farm. Curly's wife tries to flirt with Lennie. Lennie pulls to hard on her hair, and she starts screaming. Lennie accidentally breaks her neck while trying to get her to stop screaming. Once the men on the ranch realize what has happened they organize a lynch party. Lenny runs away to the field where George told him to go if there was ever any trouble. George finds his friend and tells him that they will run away together to their farm. He tells Lenny to face away from him and imagine the farm. When Lennie tells George he can see it, George shoots him dead. George tells the lynch party that Lennie killed show more himself. Then, he leaves without another word.

Review: This book is one of the best I have read because of its bitter-sweet ending that makes you question the fine line between right and wrong. Even though the ending was saddening (and shocking) the more I thought about what George did it made me realize he really was a true friend. Out of love for his friend, George wants to save him from a frightening and painful death of the lynch mob. Just like a loved pet, George puts him out of his misery leaving with thoughts of their dream of living on the farm.This was one of those books I will think about for a long time. I can see why John Steinbeck was an award winning author and will look into reading more of these classic books. All of these reasons make this book and easy five out of five stars. show less

Summary: The book starts out in the the Scion Citadel of London. For the first few chapters, there was alot of explanation of the plot, A.K.A, "info-dumping". However, after those two or three chapters, the book really begins to shine. The main character, Paige, lives in the criminal underworld of Scion, an empire that sees clairvoyacy (The ability to interact with the Aether) as the highest degree of evil, which is why all of the voyants have to live like criminals. One day on the train, the train Paige was on is searched and she instinctively defends herself and kills two guards in the process. Worried what Scion security will do to her voyant friends, she stays at her father's, only to get knocked out and taken to the secret city of Oxford (renamed Sheol I) where she is captured by an alien race known as the Rephiam. The Rephiam enslave clairvoyant humans to fight off a parasidic race called the Emim. The Rephiam have no empathy or morality, and view humans as a lower-class being. Only a handful of Rephiam (Known as the Scarred Ones) try to help them and mentor the humans to become more than expendable tools. One of them, known as Warden, is Paige's mentor and helps her develop her gift to its full potential. Once the timing is right, Paige and the other voyants manage to escape the Rephiam, and to thwart their plan to enslave all of humanity.

Review: When I was first reading the book the plot was very lacking. There was alot of "Info-Dumping" and as well as vocabulary show more and terms, but no character development or plot. However, after those three chapters the plot really picked up. Lots of Rising Action. A very soild climax, even though it was near the end of the book. I really liked the characters and thought they were very believable. the setting was intriguing and believable. However, one strong complaint I had with the story was that I thought for sure Paige was going to have a relationship with Nick, but it didn't happen it seemed, like a last minute decision to have her fall for another character and not what I had foreseen. Overall though the book was promising and I can't wait for the sequel. show less

Summary:The book starts out after Jamie, the main character has won the Semifinals for the Planets Funniest Kid Comic; a contest that pits young comedians against each other for the grand prize winner. Jamie has so far made it to the final eight competitors in the competition. Since he has become a worldwide celebrity, he has abandoned his old friends and joined all the popular kids. Once he gets to the semifinals, he realizes that the other kids are treating this contest like a blood sport. After a hurricane hits his hometown of Long Beach however, he realizes the error of his ways and goes back to his friends. The Semifinals in Hollywood are postponed and after lots of preparing, he wins and makes it to the finals. There his friend Judy, who is a teenage celebrity, tries to bribe people in to voting for her.
She fails however, and only two people remain. Once there, he wins by so much it is practically unbelievable. His step-parents put half of his million dollar winnings into his college savings account and the rest of the money goes to the hospital where he lived after being in the car crash that killed his entire family.

Review:
The series in general was written very well. The main character was quite relate-able and at the beginning believable. But in the majority of this book all this new found fame seemed to get the better of him and make him a complete jerk. After that I really didn't care what happened to him. Also, the ending seemed way to good to be true and, show more frankly, after what he did to his friends (Who by the way supported him all through the trilogy) I didn't really think he deserved that kind of ending.
A disappointing ending to a book series that could have been SO much better.
Therefore, I rate this book 1 and a half out of five stars. show less

Summary: The book starts out when middle school troublemaker Donovan Curtis pulls his biggest prank yet, and finally thinks he has gone to far. However, instead of getting expelled, Donovan is sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, or ASD. He thinks he is safe until he realizes he doesn't possess the gifts that any of the other student have. After failing all his classes, the teachers and students alike begin to become suspicious. Donovan thinks he is done for until he enters the Robotics Tournament. Before the Tournament, he realizes that they do need his talents as well as their own to win. The school wins the tournament, and the gifted school understands that they do need Donovan's talents after all.

Review: This book didn't catch my interests at first due to it's slow start. However,after the first chapter, you really begin to care about the main character. Like most books nowadays, it has a moral, and a very good one at that:
Don't judge a book by its cover. Of course, in this case I think it was a bit of a stretch that a troublemaker could be an asset to the team, but everything else was pretty believable. The book switched between points of view, which I thought was a good idea. Overall, this book deserves the rating of 4 out of five.

The book starts off with all of the main characters on the Argo II to stop Gaea, the Earth goddess, from awakening and destroying humanity. To do this, they have to talk to the goddess of victory, Nike and see if she will help them. Instead, she attempts to kill them by making them fight each other. However, they manage to trick and capture her. After interrogating Nike she says that the only way to defeat Gaea is to have one of the demigods die. After interrogating her more they discover that there is a medicine that can reverse death. So they turn back to get the death defying medicine. However, once they get back to Camp Half-Blood, they realize that they are to late to stop Gaea's awakening. So, one of the demigods, Leo, gets on the ship and pulls Gaea into the sky for the others to destroy. Unfortunately, Leo gets killed by Gaea, and the prophecy becomes true. However, Leo manages to drink the medicine before he is truly dead, and comes back to life again.

Review: This book started out very well. However, I started to notice things that were never unexplained. For instance, how do you defeat victory? I found that to be very confusing. Also, I didn't like how the series ended as a stereotypical happily ever after ending. I would have liked more twists in the plot. Because of its flaws, I would give it a solid three out of five.

Summary: The Creature Department is about two kids, Elliot and Leslie. Elliot's Uncle, Professor von Doppler invites them to take a tour of where he works.
He takes them to a section of DENKI-3000 (The company he works for.) known as
The Creature Department. There Elliot and Leslie are suppose to help the creatures come up with an invention before Quazicom takes over DENKI-3000. Unfortunately, Quazicom isn't the only problem for the creatures. Evil creatures called Gorks have kidnapped Elliot's Uncle to try and steal his invention. The book ends with a battle between Gorks and the Creature department's "staff".

Review: At first, this book seemed a little cheesy. However,as it progressed, it went a little more in-depth. One of the most original ideas was that the machines needed to be powered by emotions/concepts such as hope, patience, justice, etc. The book was a pretty quick read and I felt it could have been a bit more developed since this was the first time you are introduced to the universe. However on the positive side the illustrations greatly added to the book.. This book gets a solid 3 and a half out of five stars.

The Mockingjay takes place in a secret military bunker called District 13. A place everyone including Katniss thought had been destroyed along time ago. However it now is the center of the resistance. Katniss has been choosen to give everyone hope; she is the symbol of the revolution. However the powerful Capitol has been winning the war so far. Katniss decides to volunteer as a soldier and goes deep into enemy lines. She and her squad are successful in capturing many districts. Non the less,President Snow has taken her love interest, Peeta hostage and is torturing and brainwashing him. Eventually they get Peeta back, however, he is not the same boy that Katniss once knew. The Capitol has turned Peeta against Katniss by reprogramming his brain with untrue memories. Soon after, her squad gets separated from the others, leading to the deaths of many important characters, including her sister Prim. The death toll weighs heavy on her and she falls into a state of deep depression, The story ends with Peeta regaining his sanity and the couple ending up together leaving to a very anticlimactic epilogue.

The story began very well. There was lots of action, at the beginning and key plot points that made it very entertaining. However as the book came to its close, one important character after another died, leaving no room for grief and acceptance in-between. Its no wonder that Katniss couldn't take it in the end, with no shoulder to cry on. It's a shame the series had to fall so show more hard. Three out of five stars is my rating for this end to a trilogy. show less

Catching Fire takes place just after the Hunger Games and leaves Katniss back home to find she has unintentionally started a revolution in almost all the districts. President Snow, the leader of Panem, says that if she does not stop the revolution, she and everyone she cares about will be killed by the government. When Katniss realizes that what she has started cannot be stopped, President Snow sends her to the 75th Hunger Games called the Quarter Quell where she will have to face experienced veterans of previous games,that know how to fight and impress a crowd. This Arena is also much harder to survive. Within this arena lives exotic and strange plants which are deadly. Despite all the challenges and the sacrifices of the other tributes she somehow survives and is rescued by the rebels and is sent to a secret under ground base known as District 13, and is told that her district was destroyed by a capitol bombing.

I enjoyed this book, but I thought it to be very familar to the first book because of the similarities in the games. However, I did enjoy the exotic animals and plants as well as the alliances that were formed leading to doubt and suspicion with the team of Peeta and Katniss. The ending of Katniss being taking away and no sign of Peeta definitely lead me to want to read the next book but I felt it could have been more original.

The Hunger Games starts on the day of The Reaping, or the day when two children ages 12-18 are chosen to become "tributes" in a fight-to-the-death competition in which only one person survives. However, when the main characters sister, Prim, gets chosen as a tribute Katniss volunteers to take Prim's place. She travels by train to visit the Capitol, which has control over all the districts and receives all the wealth.
Katniss goes through four days of intensive training, and does surprisingly well on her training scores. Then comes the real challenge where she undergoes all the challenges of The Arena. Katniss must watch out for traps, set by other tributes as well as various mutations that the Capitol breeds in top-secret labs. However, her most important challenge is with Peeta, the boy from her district that falls in love with her. Together, they survive and go home to live another day.

I enjoyed this book because of the fact that there is always a twist; always an obstacle to overcome. Such as the morality of killing another tribute, starvation and other physical and mental burdens/ challenges, its no wonder that the book is rated as action-packed. Five out of five stars is what I rate this book.

Summary: The book starts out with Harry going back to school for his fifth year, only to find that no one believes him when he says that he fought Voldemort last year. To make matters worse, the Ministry of Magic makes the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Dolores Umbridge, who was put their by the Ministry to make sure none of the kids at Hogwarts believe Harry and learn to defend themselves against Voldemort. As the year goes on, Harry begins to have nightmares of Voldemort attacking other people. Dumbledore thinks that Harry's thoughts could be linked to Voldemort giving him the power to manipulate Harry's thoughts and use it against him. Dumbledore decides that Harry need learn to block Voldemort from entering his mind and Professor Snape must teach Harry the art of Occulmecy. Umbridge meanwhile, is becoming even more strict and is beginning to take over the school. She eventually becomes the Headmistress of Hogwarts. During this time, Harry, who fears his godfather is in danger,breaks in the to the Ministry of Magic to stop Voldemort from hurting Sirius.

Review: This book is by far one of the best of the series and my favorite. The characters are well developed by this point and you as the reader really want Harry and his friends at Hogwarts to succeed in their quest to fight the Dark Lord. I definitely felt an emotional bond to the characters both good and evil and found it to be a definite page turner. I couldn't wait to find out what adventure Harry and his show more friends might run into and what the outcome would be. J.K.Rowling has certainly opened my eyes to what a good writer is all about. It will be sad when I complete the series and no longer can see what my friends at Hogwarts are up to. I rate this book five out of five stars. show less

Summary: The book first starts off minutes after the the end of the first book Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. After being abandoned in Carinholm during the middle of WWII, Jake and the rest of the peculiar children must find a new guardian (Or Ymbrye) to help them in their quest to stop monsters from destroying the peculiardom (Their World) from complete disaster. They stumble upon a group of strange animals that tell them the only way to reverse the curse put upon Ms. Peregrine is to find the last uncaptured Ymbrye, Ms. Wren. On their way, they meet a band of gypsies who have long ago allied with the Peculiars. After the gypsies help the children to the train station, they are caught in The Blitzkrieg, and to make it worse, the Wight's,(half human half monster) disguised as Allied Soldiers, attack them.
Eventually they find Ms. Wren, and try to cure Ms. Peregrine, only to find it wasn't Ms. Peregrine, but a spy sent by the Wight's to find the base. Unfortunately, the children get captured by the Wight's and are sent to the present.

I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel. It was just as (if not more) compelling than the last! The only complaint I have about the book is that the photos sometimes didn't really make sense because it didn't match what you were reading about which would have made the story more interesting whereas in the first book the pictures added to the reading very much. Overall though, it was a captivating read that had a great cliffhanger! I am show more keeping my fingers crossed that there is a trilogy in this series. show less

In Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children the story begins with the main character Jacob thinking back to the stories his grandfather told him about the Welsh island where he grew up as a child.
However, as Jacob grows older he merely dismisses his grandpa's stories as fiction and thinks that they were an allegory of his past. He thinks the "Monsters" were actually Nazi soldiers that were invading Poland at the time. However, when his grandfather dies and Jacob finds a mysterious letter, he begins to have doubts. His parents think he might be going insane for seeing strange creatures in the woods the day his grandfather dies. Moreover,when he and his father go on a vacation to the area where his grandfather grew up,he realizes that his grandfather's stories weren't just fables after all. Jacob finds that the peculiar children his grandfather told stories about are real children, and still alive. And so together he and his new peculiar friends fight the monsters that threaten the extinction of all peculiar kind.

I think the story was very thrilling and exciting, and the pictures in the book were a very unique edition to the story. However,there were times when it looked like the author was trying to think of any excuse to put a picture in, but overall it made sense. I also thought that there seemed to be too many characters that played a main role in the story. All in all, great sci-fi thriller for the casual reader. I will definately read the sequel!