Smile for the Camera (2nd Review)

I liked Smile for the Camera a lot. It's about a girl at the age of sixteen who runs away from her home to New York City to hopefully become a model. We quickly learn about her abusive childhood.  This book is definitely for ages 14 and has mature content. It's not a book for the weak-hearted. It's a story about adventure, love, friendship and finding where you belong. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes memoirs or realistic fiction.

Hannah, 14

Emily the Strange: Stranger and Stranger

Hordes of obsessed fans will be flocking to the shelves of bookstores everywhere to read the third book in the Emily the Strange series, and for a good reason. If you are not one of these fans already you should be. these darkly humorous books are not to be overlooked.

Dunzton. Another town, another (avoided) school year of thwarting teachers and school staff. But this year, they are her mother and her ghostly aunt. Just when it starts to look like Emily might have a interesting school year for once, she is sent back to the 18th century by one of her insane inventions, the T.O.M (time out machine). When her only ancor to the current time is lost, Emily must learn to live with the 1790s, even if it means corsets and lacy bonnets. Just as she almost loses hope that she will ever return to her time, she discovers the ancestral secrets of the mysterious "dark aunts", the insanely useful black rock, and her ancestral enemy, Attikol.

Full of hilarious top thirteen lists, scratchy drawings and footnotes, this funny, if slightly morbid, book is great for teen readers with a dark, sarcastic sense of humor, Edward Gory fans, and all around quirky and awesome people.

Mattie, 12

The Steps Across the Water

The Steps Across the Water recounts the adventures of Rose, a ten-year-old girl,who discovers the city of U Nork, a massive metropolis similar to New York, but with all that city’s qualities magnified. U Nork is a fast paced and wild world that is in danger because of a greedy Ice Queen and Rose is called there to save the city. This is a creative story that will be especially enjoyable for those familiar with New York as well as those who simply love discovering new fantasy worlds.

Jacob, 13 

Sweet Treats & Secret Crushes

Sweet Treats & Secret Crushes is just like the fortune cookies within: light, sweet, and oddly reflective of life. It’s a good pleasure read, nothing too serious, about three best friends who live in the same building. It’s Valentine’s Day, a day when school is fun, and Olivia, Kate, and Georgia each have plans to enjoy it. There’s one problem: it’s a snow day! The girls decide giving fortune cookies out to the people in their building is a good way to cheer their neighbors- and themselves- up. As they deliver, the fortune cookies begin to come a little true.

Alix, 13 

Smile for the Camera

I really enjoyed Smile for the Camera, which is actually a memoir. I usually don’t like memoirs, but this one was very different from the ones I read in the past, it was told in a very fast paced manner. It is about a girl, Kelle James, who goes to New York City to get away form her abusive father. She wants to be a model, but once there she realizes the city is tougher that she thought. While there she deals with a lot of exploitations by men and cruelty from people in general. But it also is an uplifting book and I thought it was great. I would recommend it to people who like realistic fiction.

Jenna, 14 

Pathfinder

Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card is just as magical as Ender's Game or Seventh Son. It is well up to Orson Scott Card standards. Rigg has been able to see the paths of where living creatures have passed. He thinks that he is alone, but when his father dies, he discovers that there are others with similar powers. On his quest to find his sister and collect his inheritance, he joins with Umbo, a boy with the power to slow down time. Combined, their powers have shocking effects... Meanwhile, almost 20,000 years in the past, Ram Odin, a starship pilot, pilots a craft full of colonists from earth through a dangerous space jump...This mind-boggling story about time and space travel is a feat of sci-fi worthy of Orson Scott Card. The two part narrative of Rigg and Ram, that clicks together in the end is enticing. This book leaves all Orson Scott Card fans anticipating his next book.

Mattie, 12

The Sweetness of Salt

I really loved The Sweetness of Salt. It has just the right mix of sadness and joy, so that though it is a sad book, the end result makes you feel uplifted. I would recommend this book to people who like realistic fiction.  It is about a girl named Julia, just graduated from high school, who has her whole life mapped out. But suddenly everything is thrown of coarse when her older sister, Sophie, who she hardly ever sees comes for a visit. Suddenly family secrets are thrown into the open and Julia flees to Vermont with Sophie to help her fulfill her dream of opening a bakery. But well she is there Julia comes to realize somethings about herself, and that life, and the decisions it forces you to make, are not always as black and white as they look from the outside.

Jenna, 14 

The Mockingbirds (2nd Review)

The Mockingbirds is an amazing story of finding life after a horrible act. Alex, a junior at Themis Academy is date-raped, and the story is about what happens after. A secret group at the school, called the Mockingbirds helps her: a group that fights for justice, something that the "perfect" school refuses to do. With references to To Kill a Mockingbird, and good writing, The Mockingbirds is not your typical High School Story. It's so much more: so much deeper, so much more realistic. If you like Speak, or other books like that, you will love The Mockingbirds. 

Emily, 16

The Mockingbirds

The Mockingbirds, by Daisy Whitney is a bittersweet story of a girl gathering the courage to fight for the truth. When Alex, a junior at an elite boarding school, is date-raped, she consults a group of vigilantes known as The Mockingbirds to punish the student who hurt her. I learned so much about date rape from the novel, and the power of students when they put their minds to it. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a realistic fiction novel that is by no means a cookie cutter romance.

Orly, 13 

Vincent Shadow: The Top Secret Toys

Vincent Shadow: The Top Secret Toys is the sequel to The Unusual Mind of Vincent Shadow, which I have not read but is about Vincent entering and winning a contest for a summer internship at Whizzer Toys. So in this book he starts his summer internship at Whizzer where he meets the staff and faces new problems upon his arrival. Unlike my previous reviews, this book does not have the length or cloak and dagger feel to it, and seems to be more light-hearted. Can he survive the whole summer?

Julien, 10