The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Thief is about just what the title says, A thief. He begins in jail and gets taken out of jail by the kings Magnus and swept up on a mysterious journey. All he knows is that he is needed for his theiving skills and will go free if he is successful. He meets Pol, the body guard, Sophos and Ambiadies, The apprentices, and The Magnus. They travel far across countries to find, what he doesnt figure out until later, Hamathies Gift, an ancient stone from the Gods that means who ever has it is the ruler. It is hidden in a secret and almost magical cave/temple of the Gods and Gen is supposed to go and steal it. From the Gods. This mission has been attempted many times before, but no one has ever made it back. Gen however is very skilled and for some reason has favor with the God Eungenidies, who he is named after, even though he is stealing from Him. Gen starts out hating all of his companions but by the end finds that he has grown close to almost all of them. His companions find out really who Gen is when they are captured and brought back a kingdom that Gen is very familier with. I didnt really enjoy this book very much. It was a little confusing and I when I finished the only thought left in my mind was "So what?". I didnt really see the point of it. I was surprised to feel this way too because I have heard so many LOVED these books, so maybe I just missed something...

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Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow! What a great book! This was one of those warning-against-too-much-governent books. It was very interesting. It is about a boy named Luke who is a "Third Child" which is against the law. Population law strictly states that families can only have two children and Lukes family already had two boys before him. Luke loves his family and knows they love him, but is beginning to go crazy stuck in the house hiding all the time since the government took away the forest that was their backyard that he used to be safe in. Luke's only form of entertainment was watching the new neighbors out a slit in the side of his room until he spots someone that shouldn't be in the neighbors house; another third child. Luke risks everything to go investigate and gets swept up in a fight for freedom against the government.

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The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really like this book! It was about a homeless girl who had been homeless and alone ever since she could remember. The only name she knows for herself is Brat until the people in this new village find her sleeping in a dung heap (yes a heap of dung, gross...) for the warmth and start calling her beetle or dung beetle. At first the little bully boys of the village find her, but then the villages mid-wife comes across them and commends her for being smart enough to know that the dung heap would provide heat and says she can come and do little chores and things for her for food and shelter. She ends up helping more and more and becomes known as the Midwifes apprentice. She finds a sickly cat and makes friend with it, gives it cheese to eat and talks to it. Her only friend. The midwife is not exactly a kind individual. She makes friends with one of the bully boys by saving him when all his friends leave him and at another time helping him deliver his beloved cows calves (twins). They become almost secret friends. Beetle also starts learning more about midwifery and gets the oppurtunity to help someone birth a child. She begins thinking that maybe she is smart and of value. She gives herself a new name; Alyce. When she messes up another birth she feels like a failure and runs away. This is a great story about growing up and learning to be yourself, and learning to deal with mistakes. I thought it was a very sweet story!

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Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars Oh my goodness! I did not know this was a series! A mystery series non the less! I was quite angry at the end. But I really enjoyed the rest of the book! It is about a 16 year old girl named Scarlett Wakefield. She is a gymnast and not in the "cool" group at her very trendy and very expensive private high school. One day she gets invited to join the group and come to a party. Her decision to leave her real friends and make herself more like the "cool" kids in appearance and behavior (she tries very hard)... will change her life forever. Everything seems great when it looks like her biggest wish is about to come true; A kiss from Dan McAndrew, the hottest guy from the boys school next to theirs. Everything goes wrong though when Dan suddenly pulls away from the kiss. She thinks she has done something wrong and starts to get very embarrassed until she sees is face and his hands groping for his pants pocket. He is suffocating to death and dies in her arms. Scarlett is traumatized and everything with the ambulance the police and her gaurdian and friends is pretty much a blur. She is sent to a new school and sets out to solve the mystery of Dan's sudden death and to figure out herself and if she will ever be able to trust herself to kiss another boy again (without him dying that is...). Lauren Henderson's writing easily grabbed my interest and kept it the whole time. This was a very fun, dramatic mystery. There are some content warnings however. There is some language throughout the book, and talk about subjects that most guys probably wouldnt appreciate. 260 pages. View all my reviews >>

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was a very, very quick read. It was very cute, about a boy named Jack coming to terms with poetry, and, it seemed, at the same time learning about himself, his potential, and life in general through the assignments from his teacher, Mrs. Stretchberry. He was a very endearing little narrator and it was really interesting to have the story be told in poetry form and strictly from the one character. I very much enjoyed this cute book of Jacks poetry. 86 pages. Favorite Jack Poems: "Sometimes when you are trying not to think about something it keeps popping back into your head you can't help it you think about it and think about it and think about it until your brain feels like a squashed pea." "LOVE THAT DOG (Inspired by Walter Dean Myers) By Jack ......." The rest would be too much of a spoiler though... View all my reviews >>

Missing May by Cynthia Rylant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was such a great short book. A sad, but somehow happy story, cathartic. It was about a little girl who's parents had died as a baby and she was passed around from Aunt to Uncle, back and forth, never feeling completely welcome or loved until Aunt May and Uncle Ob came to visit. They decided right then and there to take her back to their humble trailer home in Virginia. For six years she lives with Aunt May and Uncle Ob before tragedy falls on their little family; Aunt May passed away leaving the two of them to try and figure out how to live with out her. This is about Summer and Ob's journey to find May in their lives again. Summers quirky friend, Cletus Underwood comes along and helps with his strange, but confident and happy ways. It is an unexpectedly feel good story about life, loss, moving on, family, acceptance, and love. It is 89 pages. View all my reviews >>

Getting Away with Murder by Chris Crowe

Wow, this book was incredible. I did not know that story. This was a very well written historical book. Emmet Till was a 13 year old black boy from Chicago who went to visit his cousins in Money, Mississippi. In not understanding the "Jim Crow" laws of the south, even though his Mother, Mamie Till Bradley warned him, he made a deathly mistake of talking to a white woman in a way that was just not done in those days and in that area. Mrs. Bryant, the woman he "molested"- in her words- decided to not tell her husband but the word got out among the community and when her husband got home he was outraged. He got his brother and went over to the home of Mose Wright, where Emmet was staying, and demanded to see him, kidnapped him, took him out to scare him and beat him, and killed him. After finding his body and identifying him, and his mother fighting for his body to be sent home to her, then came the accusations and the court procedings. As Chris Crowe says in the book, "Justice, racist style, was done". The men were let off scot-free from both kidnapping and murdering charges with a smile on their face. This case however enraged the nation black and white, especially after Millam and Bryant sold their story of how they tortured and kill the boy to a magazine. Emmet Till was a brave boy, raised by an amazingly strong woman, who knew who he was and stood for what he believed. He was childishly impulsive but was a child who should not have been killed. However his death made him the boy who started the civil rights movement and eventually gained freedom for black citizens of our country. A freedom that they should have had a long time before this. A freedom they were born with. This was a great book and a great story, one that should never, ever be forgotten. As a young adult book however, Im not sure how I would recommend it. I definatly think young adults should know this story, but I think that even though it is real life, it is a little graphic and disturbing. I think that it depends on the young adult, but I think that it would be a bit too much detail and imagery for some young people. Such an amazing story.

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Incantation by Alice Hoffman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was so great! I love historical fictions because they sometimes can teach you more than just studying a time period or event because they put you, personally, in that time. You can feel it all around you, depending on how well it is written and how accurate. Alice Hoffman wrote quite an amazing historical fiction. She just jumps right in with getting to know this medieval character instead of giving much background of the time. Estrella de Madrigal is a young girl about 15ish living in Spain with her grandparents and mother. Her best friend is Catalina. As Estrella begins to grow up she is forced into a realization of what the world can really be like. A family secret is revealed to Estrella and as Catalinas cousin, Andres, comes to stay with her and causes the hidden rift that had been forming under wraps between Catalina and Estrella to take shape. Catalina feels betrayed and in turn betrays her best friend by telling a secret that she wasnt even supposed to know. This causes a series of events that has life changing, life destroying consequences for the Madirgal family. It was so easy to get involved in this book and the characters and to learn a little of the terrible things going on at the time. It gives you a different perspective of the world.

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