The Son of Neptune

Reviewed by: Kevin

By Rick Riordan

Hyperion Books 

521 Pages

The book The Son of Neptune is about three friends named Percy, Frank and Hazel. They are on a quest to defeat a giant who was working for the gods' worst enemy. Percy is a son of Neptune, Hazel is the daughter of Pluto, and Frank is the son of Mars, all of whom are demigods, or half human and half god. Percy has lost his memory, Hazel is supposed to be dead, but the god Thanatos is locked up by the giant, who controls the dead. Frank does not know who his father was in the beginning but later into the book, Frank finds out who he really is. They travel around looking for ways to defeat the giant, and they have to face many challenging obstacles to get that information. Frank has a secret that he keeps from his friends in the beginning but, considering that Frank and Hazel are really close, Frank trusts Hazel and Percy enough to tell them his secret.

You would enjoy this book if you like quest type books, especially if you like how friends join forces to defeat a stronger opponent and if you like the danger/exciting atmosphere in books.

Howl's Moving Castle

Reviewed by: Jacey

By Diana Wynne Jones

Greenwillow Books

329 Pages

     

     Howl's Moving Castle is a very riveting story about the wizard Howl who takes in an old woman out of the cold into his mobile floating castle. The ninety year old woman, Sophie, is really a young girl who was cursed by a witch to live in the skin of an old woman. Howl and Sophie go on an amazing journey with the fire demon Calcifer, and Howl's apprentice Michael. Sophie spends the duration of the book trying her hardest to get the Witch of the Waste to turn Sophie back into the girl she once was. This book was an amazing read and I could not put it down. Every chapter held a new adventure and a different twist to the plot line. The setting is absolutely darling and every common household item now holds the power to do something magical. I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 10. Some of the story gets slightly dark and the plot may be hard to follow for youngsters. All in all, this book was one of the best I've read so far and I would love to have somebody my age to discuss it with. 

Percy Jackson the Lightning Thief

Reviewed By: Hunter

By Rick Riordan

Disney 

375 pages

The quest begins when Percy's mother is taken by a monster. Percy has little knowledge about how he is a son of a god. Percy does know about camp Half-Blood, which he goes for help. At camp Half-Blood Percy meets Anabeth who is the daughter of the goddess Athena. Percy also finds out at camp Half-Blood that he is Poseidon's son. Poseidon's lightning bolt is stolen and people blame Percy for stealing it. So Percy, Grover, and Anabeth go on a journey to clear his name and find the lightning bolt. People that would enjoy this book are people that are interesting in Greek mythology. There are also a lot of action filled fight scenes in this book that some people would enjoy. This book is fiction and is not based off any real Greek mythology stories, so if you are wanting to read about real Greek mythology stories this is not the book for you.

Gregor and the Marks of Secret

Reviewed by: Isaac

By Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press/Suzanne Collins

343 Pages

This is the fourth book in a really great five book series. The book has a lot of great action, intense moments, and mystery. People who would this book are people who really love the dystopian novels like the Hunger Games series, Harry Potter series, and Divergent series. The book has a lot more elements to it than just the action part of it, it has a little bit of romance, it has a lot of drama and shows a lot of how the poor struggle, and it also gives a great lesson of how a poor kid can rise up to be an amazing hero in a completely different world. People who like an underdog, love action, find mysteries interesting, and like a little bit of romance and drama this is the book for them.

For some background information since this isn't the first book of the series, its about a kid who has a very poor family and lives in a apartment complex in New York. One day when he is down in the laundry room of the complex with his little baby sister she climbs into a vent and falls down and he goes after her. Down in the vent he gets caught by a gust of wind and find himself in a completely new world. He then finds out from the underlanders that he is destined to complete a number of different prophecies. In this particular book he is helping the queen of the underlanders, Luxa, to help find out what is happening to the mice in the Underland. The rats have been moving them around and Gregor and Luxa are trying to figure out why they are finding the mice dead with a weird specific mark that they have been finding by the dead mice's body. So it is just about them trying to figure out the mystery behind the disappearing mice and get to the bottom of the rat's plan.  

The Maze Runner

Reviewed by: David

Written by: James Dashner

375 pages

  The Maze Runner is a story about a kid names Thomas. He wakes up in an elevator and he can’t remember anything about his past. The elevator is going up and it reaches the top and at the top he is in a giant a stadium type thing. There are other boys there and none of the other boys remember anything either. The place they are at is surrounded but huge walls. Beyond the walls is a very dangerous maze. The maze opens in the morning and closes at night. None of them know why they are there or what is going on. After a few weeks Thomas wants to know why so he talks to some of the guys and tells them he wants to figure the maze out. They think he is crazy and don’t want to go with him. Then they all decide to go and they make it through the maze only to find out that a group called Wicked is behind all this and they don’t know if they are good or bad but Wicked tells them that there was an apocalyptic event called “The Flare” that wiped out half of the world’s population. Wicked now is taking them to a safe haven where it ends and starts the second book.            This book would be a good book for many different type of readers! People who like reading Sci-Fi type of books or fiction would love this book! This book isn’t real and wouldn’t happen because of all the creatures in it so that’s why sci-fi book readers or fiction book readers would like it. If you liked to read non-fiction books and true stories you wouldn’t enjoy this book because it isn’t based off a true story and couldn’t happen in real life.

Breathe

Reviewed by: A Stuffy Librarian

 by Sarah Crossan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is your basic tyrannical government preventing uprising through suppression and civilian ignorance. Beware of some spoilers. As I'm sure you can guess, there is a secret resistance and our main characters get caught up in it and start a civil war. The writing was entertaining but everything was highly predictable.

View all my reviews

Powerless

Reviewed by: Kizer

Written by: Matthew Cody

277 pages

Powerless is a very dramatic book about the new kid on the block Daniel. He had moved in to a new city called Noble's Green. But this is no ordinary city. it's called the safest town on earth. In the book Daniel tries all he can to find out why. He is a child version of Sherlock Holmes. He finds a band of people who save people from bad things, super heroes. There's a lot of peril, mystery and action. I couldn't put it down for the longest time.     

I would recommend this book to any middle school-high school students. My sister (a middle schooler) read it also and she loved it.