Peace, Love & Baby Ducks: Sarah Whitt

Sarah Whitt
Peace, Love & Baby Ducks
By: Lauren Myracle
Rating: 9/10
Pages: 292

Carly is a teenage girl that has always wanted to be original and real. Her sister, Anna, is the complete opposite. Anna turned into a goddess one summer and now Carly cannot stop comparing herself to her little sister. Carly is always going to protect and love her sister but having all the attention be on Anna is not what she wants. Carly end up feeling very left out while watching her sister be admired by a swarm of guys. This brings up many weird and interesting situations in their life while dealing with their parents and of course, boys.

I learned that even if you think a girl is perfect or think that she loves her life it might not always be true. Anna did grow up to be gorgeous and she was not used to having attention from boys and dealing with popularity. Carly thought that Anna loved having all this attention but when Anna came home at nights she would cry because she could not understand why this was happening. I also learned that it is important to stand up for someone when you feel like its right to because you never know how much you could help that person that is being attacked. For example, in the book Anna and Carly took the same gym class and Anna was being yelled at by the gym teacher for not taking the final which was to dive of a diving board that was realy high up. Carly stood up for her and Anna ended up getting a second chance and passing the class.

I do not have a sister so this book made me realize how great sisters can really be. I always saw my friends fighting with their sisters and hating eachother which made me not want a sister at all. Now that I have read this book I know that there is always a diffrent side you do not see and that is the side that loves one another and always has eachothers backs.

Ryan Boquist
The Lost Hero
By:Rick Riordan
rating: 8 out of
pages:557
The book starts off with the main charater jason siting n next to Piper, a girl who appears to be his girlfriend, and a boy named Leo who says he is Jason's best friend. The bus is taking them, along with the rest of their grade at their school, the Wilderness School, on a field trip to the Grand Canyon. While they are there, storm spirits, or venti, attack the three. Jason surprises himself by using a sword disguised as a coin to fight off the spirits, and Coach Hedge is captured while defending them. At the height of the battle, two pegasi and next to them carrying strangers, Annabeth and a boy named Butch. They carry the three friends off the camp half blood. There at camp they find out that they are demigods (half mortal half go) and need to go on a quest to save Olympus and get back Jason memories. On the quest they fight numerous enemies like trolls, giants, and witches. They eventually save Hera and Olympus, everything is at peace, for now.

This book is not ussually the type of book I read but i did enjoy it. If you read the Percy Jackson series and liked those books i highly recommend reading this one. This book has a little of everything in it; comedy, romance, drama, and action. The only dislike i have is that this book is a little slow in the begging it takes a while before you get to the really action drama parts but when you do the book is very worth reading. The biggest theme in this book is friendship. The three have to stick together throughout the whole book and work together through thick and thin. Even though they might fight ant the end of the day they always can count on each other to be there.

The Secret Life of Bees by megan pratt

The Secret Life of Bees

302 pages

Sue Monk Kidd

Rating 9 out of 10

The Secret life of Bees made me realize how lucky i am in my own life. It tells the story of a girl named Lily. She lost her mother when she was young and was left with her father T-ray, who was abusive and didn't care much about Lily at all. The only friend she had was her house keeper Rosaleen. The story takes place in a time period that the Civil Rights Movement just got passed, although it didn't seem to matter because they still weren't treating black people equally. Rosaleen got thrown in jail, so Lily not having anything to risk decided to go and get her, they ran away. Lily was in search of her mother from the little bit that she left behind. So they went to Tilburon because she found an old photo of a black Mary of her mothers and on the back that's what is said. She thought maybe this would help her to know something about her mother because she had to have been there before, and she was right. Turns out the black Mary was on a honey jar at the store her and Rosaleen went to get food, after their long starving trip is where she found it. She got the name of the owner, August Boatright. She went to her house and asked to stay there, explaining how she and Rosaleen didn't have anywhere to go. She didn't tell the full truth not wanting to seem "crazy" but they allowed them to stay there. While living there with August and her sisters, May and June she discovered love, becoming close to them fast. She felt the best she ever did. While working as a bee keeper for room and board she met a boy named Zach. They fell for each other, the only problem was he is black, black and white people weren't suppose to be together. He ended up being thrown in jail. Lily rushed back to the house to try and tell June and August. She didn't want May to know because May would have gotton really upest ( May was like that ever since she lost her twin sister, who committed suicide, she was alway overly upset about things ever since then)But Zach called the house and May picked up, she found out anyway which wasn't a good thing at all. Lily told August the full truth and found out her mother did live there. T-ray found Lily and he beat her but something also hit him, that she wasn't her mother, and somehow he let her stay with some convincing for August. I don't want to tell the ending so this is where I am going to stop at. But I would recommend this book to you if you like to read about hardships and overcoming them. It was an amazing book

Ben Swift

Son of the Mob

Gordon Korman

All Pages

6 of 10

Vince Luca is 17 high school student and also the son of Boss in the New York mob. Vince doesn't want any part of his fathers business, but through out the book he is constantly reminded what his father does for a living. Things get worse when he finds out that his new girlfriend, Kendra Bightly, is the daughter of the FBI agent that is trying to send Vince's father to jail.

Vince gets more mixed up in his father's business when he is approached by “Jimmy Rat" the towns low life. Jimmy Rat has a severe gambling debt, and he owes some money to some of Vince's "uncles". So Vince being the nice guy he is ends up loaning Jimmy a small amount of money, thinking everything will be alright.

t Jimmy has a friend who also owes money a debt he is willing to pay. But he is going to pulling the plug on his great aunt in order to get his inheritance to pay it off, wow what a guy huh? Vince feels that he has no choice but to help him as well. At the same time things with his relationship are heading down hill, Kendra's father shows Kendra pictures of Vince with the two mobsters she realizes what’s happening. Then Kendra breaks up with Vince, thinking that because he was in those pictures he’s a mobster, but she doesn’t know he wants nothing to do with his father business. To make matters worse, Vince realizes that the two losers are borrowing money in order to pay back a man who is working for his father, making a never ending money circle in which his father gets richer and richer and the men get poorer and poorer. He confronts his father about this.

Later on Vince finds out that one of his "uncles" is an FBI informant. He confronts him, telling him that if he leaves that he will not be pursued if he joins the witness protection program. In gratitude, the uncle explains the situation to Kendra, Kendra feels awful and they get back together. After an explosive argument, Vince's father cannot help but be impressed by Vince's bold action in finding the mole and helping Jimmy Rat, and their relationship is saved.

Although I do like mob stories I didn’t like this one it was easy to predict and to me doesn’t really capture the whole mob life. I know the main Vince isn’t in the mob but when I picked the book I was looking for a little bit more and I was just disappointed.

Landon Allen - Zeitoun

Zeitoun

Dave Eggers

335 pgs

Rating (9-10)

Abdulrahman Zeitoun is Muslim man originally from Syria but soon moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. He and his wife own a well-known painting company in the area and work hard to provide for there three children. The story takes place before, during and after hurricane Katrina, from a point of view of a man that went through the storm. While Zeitoun’s wife and children migrated north when they heard of the arriving storm, Zeitoun demanded to stay home and protect the house. The struggles they go through as a family are unreal and it is amazing that we don’t hear about it. I cannot believe the segregation that the family received because of their religion. I have learned the how difficult it would be living in the area being a Muslim. It makes me think twice about things I would do or say about someone or something. I recommend this book to everybody interested in the history of America, even if it was only a couple years ago. What happens in this book should not happen ever again. I now have a lot more respect for the people who’s lives were changed by Katrina, I never realized how bad it actually was and how much damage it did.

Angels & Demons

Dan Brown

713 Pages

Rating(so far)- 9

So far this book has kept me intrigued 100 percent. It is about a Harvard symbology professor named Robert Langdon who receives a fax from a director of the biggest scientific research facility in the world. He flies in a futuristic airplane to Switzerland where he is blown away by the new technology the public hasn't been exposed to yet. He feels a little awkward being a religious professor in a place of science, seeing how they have always frowned upon each others theories of the creation of our universe. Over the last few years however, a famous researcher and his daughter(Leonardo and Vittoria) have been trying to connect the two saying that physics is God's "drawing board" of the universe. They successfully create antimatter out of absolutely nothing, and are about to prove the creation, when Leonardo is murdered and the antimatter is stolen. The antimatter was kept on a rechargeable magnet keeping it from touching matter, because when the two touch it releases pure energy and implodes into what they call annihilation. This is why Robert was called to Switzerland. The terrorist group that killed and stole from them is an ancient brotherhood called the ILLUMINATI, Langdon's specialty. They now have to search for the antimatter because in the wrong hands, many people will die.

I have not wanted to put this book down once. Not only is it a great read, but you learn science and theories that make it feel like you are taking a physics class...Only easier. I love thinking about possible ways this world came to be, and if you do too this book is perfect for you. This is the first book in a 3 book series, too. The others include The lost Symbol, and The Da Vinci Code. Not trying to leave anybody out, but I recommend this book directly to Dave Donovan. So many things he has said popped into my head as I was reading this book, and obviously our constant Harry Potter connections lead me to believe we have the same taste in literature.

Trevor Giroux

No Less Than Victory
By Jeff Shaara
449 Pages
Rating = 7 out of 10

No Less Than Victory is a great book about the lives of both the soldiers and their Generals during the Second World War. The book focuses on the strategic and political difficulties of the Western Front during the year 1944. The reason that I find this book to be interesting is because not only do you get to see the war from the perspective of General Eisenhower, you also see what German Field Marshall Rundstedt had for difficulties and successes. The other parts of the book try to help you understand what the front line American soldiers had to do to survive not only the war, but also the freezing cold of a winter in the Ardennes Forest. Unknown to the men on the front line, the cold will be the least of their problems when the Germans start their infamous counter attack known as the Battle Of The Bulge.

MacKenzie Fletcher

Recovery Road
By Blake Nelson

Recovery Road is an excellent book about a young girl with some serious addiction problems. Maddie is sixteen and is already a heavy user of coke, prescription drugs, marijuana, and alcohol. Her parents send her to Spring Meadows, a rehab center. The rehab is filled with an assortment of different people from drunken housewives to drugged famous movie stars. The only other person there close to her age is an 18 year old girl named Trish. They end up having a strong bond between them, and Trish becomes Maddie’s first real friend. Maddie also meets a boy named Stewart; he is mysterious and is dealing with demands of his own. When she gets out of Spring Meadows she tries to get back on her feet and wait for Stewart to join her. When he does, it’s not the ideal reunion she has dreamed of. Both of them still have serious problems. And there love seems more like a question than an answer.

Welcome!

For many of you in the class, this may be your first time blogging. For others, you've built a community as bloggers before (www.ilhsenglish9.blogspot.com). We tried other vehicles for presenting our independent reading last year, and many of you have shared that blogging was the ideal way to maintain an ongoing discussion about what you are reading. I'm glad you missed it.

This is how it works:

1. I will send you an invitation to join the blog via the e-mail address you've provided. You MUST have an e-mail account to blog!

2. Once you've accepted the invitation, you will be a contributor to the blog. You will be able to post your responses to your independent literature and respond to other's posts!

3. To post on the blog, click on "New Post" up at the top of this page. For your title, put the name of your book and your name. That way, we can follow comments to your specific post as we experience our online discussion!

Please include the following in your blog:

The title of the book
The author
Length of the book
Rating (1-10)
Include a BRIEF synopsis of the book, but focus on your thoughts and insights about your reading for the quarter. What did you learn from this book? How did it help you see an issue differently? What questions did it create for you? Be sure to consult the blogging rubric from class. Remember that part of your grade is respectfully responding to your peers' responses. Allow plenty of time to post your work and discuss the literature with others.

If you are experiencing difficulty, you may e-mail me at mdiamond@interlakes.org.

Thank you!