Jason Fisch

Jason Fisch
Th1rteen R3asons Why
Jay Asher
Realistic Fiction
Just Right

1. Clay the main character is sitting on a curb in a neighborhood near his house. He is listening to the tapes that Hannah Baker, a girl who committed suicide about two weeks ago, left for 13 people that she believes are responsible for her death. In the tape that he is listening to now, Hannah is explaining how and when she is going to end her own life. He is hearing on the tapes that she is going to kill her self tomorrow by overdosing on pills.Clay is upset about hearing that Hannah will no longer be here and he also is curious to know who the thirteenth person is.
2. This book is very suspenseful. I want to keep reading more and more to find out what happens in the end. When each person receives the tapes, the plot twists more and more. Once I think I figured the plot out, it turns out that there's more details revealed. The way Hannah describes her last few weeks on the tape pull me into the book because I know that eventually we will find out who drove her over the edge.
3. Since my last blog post, I have agreed with Paige that the theme is innocence. I think that Hannah did  not deserve the way she was treated in all of the instances. She was a victim of the other's hurtful ways for no reason. The theme appears mostly in the character because Hannah was innocent. 
4. My favorite character is still clay because he is very nice. Even though he is not a big part in Hannah's story it is still important to him to listen to all the tapes. Also even though he could have thrown out the tapes, he didn't because he wanted to know what happened.
5.  My least favorite character would be Marcus. This is because he doesn't seem to care that he was a part of Hannah's death. He also jokes about it and thinks it is it the other peoples fault he was a big part of Hannah s death.

John Fulton

John Fulton
Crocodile Tears
Anthony Horowitz
Action
Just Right
Just Finished

1) The book Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz ends when the main character Alex Rider rolls out of the helicopter that he took to go capture McCain but he injures his ankle and is about to killed but then he rolls a gasoline barrel towards McCain and the explodes it with the explosive gel pen Smithers gave home. Smithers is the technology expert and creator for the British intelligence agency MI6. He then returns to London to heal from his injuries he suffered.

2) I loved the book this was awesome. The plot was clear and kept my interest and also never left me confused you never knew what was gonna happen because so much spur the moment things happened like Alex hurting his ankle or when Alex is dangling over the crocodile infested river and only hanging on by a thread. The book was tremendous. I would recommend this book to anyone who was looking for a great read.

3) I think the theme of this book was good vs. evil. I chose the them good vs. evil because I thought that this book is about the struggle of a good kid and good organization against against an evil force that being McCain and his organization which portrays the greatest evil in the world which is a cheating murderous group of people.

4) My favorite character in this book was of course Alex Rider. The reason I say this is not just because he is the main character and protagonist it's because the traits has. These traits include his honorablility, his courage, his smarts ,and his resourcefulness. The reason I say these is because he never kills anybody that he doesn't have which shows honor. Then when he is in the face of death like when he falls out of the helicopter he stays calm and uses his resource and his gadgets to defeat McCain showing resousefullness, smart. and courage.

5) My least favorite character in this book was McCain. The reason I chose him as my least favorite character was not because he is the main antagonist it's because of the traits he shows I the book just like why I chose Alex but for totally different traits. The traits shown specifically by Mccain are merderous, dishonest, and mercilous. I chose these because he shoes his merderous and mercilous nature when he killed Rahim. Then he showed his dishonesty when he faked his charity organization.

6) The end of this book really surprised me as a reader. The reason I say this is becausce when the rest of the book had many events spaced out in one big event but this all happened relatively fast. The helicopter landed and then Rahim was shot then Alex rolled out and killled Desmond McCain. This ending was still a very good ending because of the suspense leading up to it and the book overall as I gave already mention was great.

Kate Sinclair

Kate Sinclair

Point Blank

Anthony Horowitz

Action

Holiday

Just Finished 274

 

1) At the end of this book tension was rising and I didn’t know if Alex Rider, a fourteen year old super spy would be able to complete his mission it just got too complicated. At a Swiss boarding school on the top of a mountain and  extremely hard to get to children are dying and or coming back to their families different but looking the same Alex enrolls into the school to investigate . Except getting enrolled into this school is harder than it looks all the children there are from wealthy families that need to get an attitude change. The MI6 found Alex a “family” who were wealthy and would go along with the plan. Next Alex changed his attitude and got a new look, a fake earring and sloppy clothing. When Alex gets accepted and goes to the school he realizes this school is not just a school. The man running the school is a scientist who will clone the boy and then kill the real boy. The clone comes out as an overly polite smart boy but who has an evil side. His mission becomes harder and harder as the boys he trusted get cloned and are a whole new person now. Also that the school is a total trap and Alex has no way out.  Alex figures out that Dr. Grief, the crazy scientists plan is called the Gemini project and soon Alex could go through that process, cloned. Alex must make fast action he finds the real children kept downstairs and tries to help them escape but gets caught and now Dr.  Greif knows Alex Fried is actually Alex Rider. Next Alex is stuck in a cell with no food or water.  Alex uses his ear stud gadget to break out and save the other children. Dr.Grief not suspecting Alex’s escape was behind giving Alex time to get to the other children. He next got help and MI6 shutting Point Blank down.

2. I thought the book was really good and never lacking detail or excitement. I really enjoyed all of Alex Rider’s gadgets that were small and unexpected but made a huge help to Alex. The book was always full of suspense making me think Alex would never make it out and then he would do something crazy and unexpected to just barely survive. Also the book had a really interesting concept that I could not have thought of that made me wanting to read the book more and more.

3. I think the theme of the book was good vs. evil. I thought this was the theme of the book because it was the good Alex Rider and all of the non-cloned children against Dr. Grief and his employees and the clones. They all are trying to keep the secret of their cloning and become rich and powerful while the few boys and Alex have to fight for their lives. Alex has to figure out all of  the building and the different tricks and small little problems with the school to figure out the major problem.

4.My favorite character is Alex because he is always taking risks and is never afraid to try something out of the ordinary like make an ironing board ingot a snow board. He is also extremely smart figuring out all about the building and that the floors are identical and that he could find secret passage ways. He also has a good sense of people he could tell that after his friend was cloned he was not the same person and could tell that he got a bad vibe from  Dr. Grief.

5. My least favorite character was Dr. Grief because he was so evil he was so smart but instead of using that for good he used it to do horribe horrible things. He had this huge idea and got too indulged in having power that he started doing really bad things for it . He had no control and  almost went crazy. The way he treated people was not accepteble and he took advantage of people. He took advantage of his emplyes by threating death and also he would bribe them with money that he stole. He took advantage of the children by acting nice teaching them Latin and other subjects and acting as a mentor but really wanted to take advantage of them .

6. The ending was a bit of a suprise to me I thought that he was not going to be able to save the other children but eventually he did. I also thought that MI6 would not be able to find Alex or be able to help him because of the exotic location that is incredible hard to find and to get up to not to mention the horrible weather conditions. I was pleased with the ending however because Dr. Grief had everything figured out I didn't know how it would be able to stop with the Gemini project especially because he had clones of himself but im happy MI6 figured it out and that theres more books so I can figure out what Alex's next adventure will be.

Isobel Morrison

Isobel Morrison
The Carrie Diaries
Candace Bushnell
Realistic Fiction
Just Right
Just Finished

1) In the ending of the book, the protagonist Carrie ends up living her dream and moving to New York for the summer. She has always wanted to be a writer and now she is going to be enrolled in an elite writing program. She resolves the issues she was having with the main boy in her life Sebastian and said goodbye to her friends. The ending leaves the book open for a sequel, when Carrie calls a lady unknown to the reader when she has difficulties her first day in the city. Her bag is stolen, along with her money and all of her belongings. She does not know what to do, so she ends up calling this woman who lives in the city.

2) I loved this book. It was very relatable. With the protagonist being a teenage girl, she endures many of the issues that my friends and I have been going through at the moment and will be in the upcoming years. I loved reading about Carrie's dreams to live in New York and her issues with her boyfriend and then ex, Sebastian.

3) A big theme in this book is trust, and the meaning of trust. Trust is broken many times in this book. Carrie's boyfriend Sebastian ends up ruining their relationship when he breaks the trust by cheating on her with Carrie's best friend. Carrie can no longer trust both Sebastian and her best friend who she would have trusted with her life.

4) My favorite character is the "mouse". It does not state in the book why Carrie's girl friend the "mouse" has that nickname. She is very funny and wise. When Carrie goes through many issues and difficulties, the mouse is one of the only girls that Carrie can truly talk to and trust. She helps Carrie through her situations with grace and optimism.

5) My least favorite character in the book is Sebastian. In the beginning, I really loved Sebastian with his charm and romantic ways. Then, Sebastian breaks Carrie's trust when he cheats on her with Carrie's best friend. This made me hate him very much. I think that cheating in a relationship is one of the worst things that you can do.

6) The ending of the book was very predictable. Knowing that it has always been Carrie's dream to write in New York, it wasn't that crazy to find out that she ended up living there in the end. I also knew that this book had a sequel to it, so I wasn't surprised when the ending was very open for the next books.

Mark McVeigh

Mark McVeigh
The Lightning Thief
Rick Riordan
Action/Adventure
Hard
Just Finished 384

1. In the book he Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, Percy is off on an adventure to recapture Zeus' lightning bolt. Percy is the son of Poseidon and a mortal woman making him a demigod. Being a demigod Percy is sent to a Half-Blood camp to learn how to control and use his powers properly. During this time, Zues' lightning has been stolen and he believes that it is Percy that has stolen it. Percy then sets off on an adventure to the underworld to reclaim Zeus' lightning bolt and restore his families name. After a treacherous travel through the underworld Percy finds the bolt and has to fight Ares to obtain it. He then travels to the Empire State Building to return the bolt to Zeus and clear his name. At the end of the book Luke, Percy's camp counselor, reveals that he stole Zeus' lightning bolt and attempts to kill Percy and fails. Luke did not do this by himself he was overtaking by Kronos and forced into his actions.

2. This book was full of action and really interesting to read but really hard to follow. The amount of gods and goddesses and demigods there are in Greek mythology is overwhelming and is even more overwhelming when put into a story. I had a hard time following who was who and their role. Although it was hard to follow, it was extremely entertaining and I would recommend the book to everyone that can follow a complex book.

3. The most predominant theme in The Lightning Thief is identity. To be more specific throughout the book Percy is trying to find his identity and know just who he is. Being a demigod he has the troubles of being human and being a god at the same time. At the beginning of the book Percy had no idea he was the son of Poseidon and thought he was just like any other kid. Then as the book develops he learns more and more about him and his family.

4. My favorite character is Percy. This is because he is brave and willing to do things most others would not. He also tends to keep a good attitude upon things and has a great sense of humor even if it is the worst of situations. Percy also does not let fear get in his way of the things he knows he needs to get done.

5. My least favorite character is Kronos. He is a brutal man even though he never actually appeared in the book as a person. He overtakes Luke and leads him to steal Zues' lightning bolt which sets fire to the whole adventure that Percy goes on. He also does thing such as lure Percy into the underworld. He was cast out by Zeus years ago and I think he wants his revenge badly.

6. The ending of the book was great. The last person I thought to steal the bolt was Luke. Although it was Kronos that made him do it I was not expecting it to be him. The ending also gave a really nice wrap up to the book. It was fast paced just like the rest of the story and it answered questions you had throughout the whole book and left you with even more.

Daniel Yang

Daniel Yang
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
Realistic Fiction
Just Right
89

1. It has just passed Christmas time in my book. Scout and Jem both got air rifles for presents. They spent their Christmas with relatives such as Auntie Alexandra and Uncle Jack. Auntie Alexandra feels like Scout swears too much and is tom-boyish. She also thinks that Atticus, Scout and Jem's father, is not raising them very well. For example, she is blaming Atticus for Scout's swearing and boy-like attributes. On the other hand, Uncle Jack seems like the nicer relative in the family. But he is not too lenient. Scout seems to favor him. Besides the relatives, there was also a boy named Francis who is 8 years old. Scout and Francis were just talking then Scout mentions that she is going to marry Dill. Francis asks why and says that he is poor and moves from house to house. Scout disagrees but Francis explains that every so often, Dill changes houses and that's why he's only here for the summer. Francis then starts making Scout angry by calling her dad a nigger-lover. Scout tells him to stop but he doesn't and runs away. He hides in the kitchen and Scout waits there for him to come out. Later, Auntie Alexandra comes over and asks Scout where Francis is. Scout says that he's in the kitchen and Auntie Alexandra says that he knows that he is not allowed in there, then yells his name into the kitchen and asks why he's in there. He replies, saying that Scout is trapping him in there and won't let him out. This,  I think, makes Alexandra even more disappointed in Scout; I can imagine her giving Scout the evil eye.  Anyway, Alexandra orders Scout to let Francis out so she does. He taunts her again and she chases him outside. This time when she caught him, she punched him square in the face after he said it one more time. All the adults came over, comforted Francis, and scolded Scout.

2. I felt that the book had a slow beginning. Right now, the book is a bit more exciting with the house fire but other than that, the book hasn't been very interesting. Although, I feel like some characters have been very well thought out in the author's part. The others aren't very unique. I think Scout has the best characteristics. They are very unusual which is not a bad thing. I like how she is very curious about many things and tom-boyish. She is also very tough for her age, even if she was a boy. But Jem's attributes aren't as 'fun' as hers. He has the attributes of the average older brother. Although I could be just missing out on his characteristics. Atticus has maybe one 'fun' characteristic, he goes with the flow of life and just lets things happen because he knows it will fix itself, if it's bad, in the end.

3. A strong theme in this book is courage. Boo Radley has been treated very badly during his childhood and yet he still has the courage to go out and try to befriend the children. He constantly gives them presents as a sign of friendship. He even had the courage to go out into the streets and put a blanket on Jem and Scout during the fire. He knew he might've been seen but he still did it. If he was caught he could have been punished. 'Boo' had enough courage to try and befriend the children even if they only thought he was a frightening myth. This was done even after his inhumane punishment.

4. My favorite character is Atticus. He may only have one trait that I like but it is a very good trait. I like how he just goes along with what life gives him. He knows that swearing is a period of time that Scout will overcome during her age. He never strikes his children and he is also very to the point with them. When they ask him a question, he'll answer it no matter what. For example, when a child asks their parents about the birds and the bees, they just say something like the pelican dropping a bag with a baby inside it at the parents' room. I would imagine that Atticus would be strait forward with his children and just tell them; he'll tell them even if it might be inappropriate. His reason for being so direct with them is because if he doesn't, they'll just be curious until they figure it out - which is very logical.

5. My least favorite character is Francis. He may be important but he is very mean. Scout was being nice and asking him what he got for Christmas, and somehow he started talking about how Atticus is a nigger-lover right to Scout's face. Scout also describes him as a boring character, and I really don't like being bored. I don't even know why he started a fight with her. They were just talking then he started calling Scout silly for wanting to marry Dill since she didn't know he moved from home to home yet and started to insult her dad. Another reason why I don't like him is because he made Scout so mad that she broke her word about not getting mad at someone for insulting Atticus.

6. I think that Uncle Jack will tell Atticus that Scout only hurt Francis for calling him a nigger-lover after Scout made him promise not to tell him. His explanation for doing it might be because he thinks Atticus is so strait forward to his children and that they should be the same to their parents. I think that Atticus will then confront Scout to tell her that he knew that she would break her word at some point due to her age or an explanation similar to that. He will also tell Scout that she can tell him anything she feels necessary. Scout will then respect Atticus even more and so will Uncle Jack for being such a good parent.

Scott Nichols

Scott Nichols
The Kill Order
James Dashner
Science Fiction
Just Right
Just Finished (327)

1. I have just finished The Kill Order by James Dashner, and the ending was both sad and confusing. Mark, Alec, Deedee and Trina were on a Berg on their way to Asheville so that they could give Deedee to the PFC in the hopes that she could help make a cure for the Flare because she is immune to it. On their way, a man manged to infiltrate their Berg and steal Mark's Transvice, a weapon capable of making people disappear into thin air. Mark, after a chase across the Berg finds the man, who has been infected with the Flare and is insane. Mark tackles him before the man can shoot, and wrestles the man to the ground. Mark drags him to a window of the Berg which is cracked because of an earlier battle, and attempts to throw him out of it. However, Mark himself nearly falls out and is hanging on the edge of the flying ship by his legs, with the man holding on to his arms and trying to climb up Mark and back into the Berg. Mark decides to take a risk and he jumps down to a rung on the Berg, sending the man flying into the thrusters of the ship. After a short rest, the group arrives in Asheville, where Mark, Trina and Deedee jump into the building they were looking for, which contains a Flat Trans, a machine that can transport them to Alaska, head of the PFC. They let Deedee go through, just before the Infected enter the building. Alec, in one final sacrifice, sends the Berg flying into the building to kill the infected and stop them from going into Alaska and destroying the PFC. However, at the same time Mark and Trina, holding each other in one final embrace die during the collision, along with Alec. The Epilogue depicts the hero of the other three books, Thomas, with his mother before he departs into the Maze.
2. I like this book, but not quite as much as the others. The new characters aren't that well introduced, and three die in the first hundred pages, three disappear soon after that, only to have one of the three die and another get the Flare and forget everybody, including herself. Mark and Alec are the only true characters and both become pretty annoying. However, the plot is incredible and it's great seeing life in the eyes of non-immunes who are just trying to survive, as opposed to the other books.
3. A theme that I have noticed is sacrifice. All of the characters sacrifice themselves to let the others survive or to let Deedee get to the PFC. First, Darnell sacrifices himself by quarantining himself to prevent others from receiving the Flare, and then Alec must make a sacrfice and kill the Toad, one of his friends who went insane with the Flare. Lana throws herself into a fray of infected to let the others survive later on, and Alec must make another sacrifice and kill her to end her suffering. However, the biggest sacrifice is Mark, Trina, and Alec's at the very end of the book. Alec, in order to prevent the PFC from falling and letting Deedee help WICKED find a cure, sends his Berg into a building of Infected, and Mark and Trina, with a Flat Trans inside of it so that Deedee can leave and the Infected can't enter it and ransack Alaska.
4. My favorite character is Alec. He was previously my least favorite character, but after learning his story and the sacrifices he has to make, he becomes a much nicer, relateable and easier to like person. My favorite part of Alec is his determination. He would do anything to get Deedee to the PFC, and in his final moments, he was infected with the Flare, in incredible amounts of pain and was borderline insane, yet still managed to, indirectly, save humanity, by letting Deedee, who would become the Teresa of the other books, live and help Thomas and his friends.
5. My least favorite character is Mark. Mark is the main character, and while his character developed, he became progressively more irritating.While the thing that cause me to dislike him was because he received the Flare, he was still pretty immature and selfish even before that. Mark, twice, killed someone in a more painful way than he needed to because of his anger, and he even killed someone who was cowering and had already been beaten by Alec. Mark also wouldn't accept failure or insubordination, even though Alec was the leader of the group. He would get very angry at someone who wanted to do something that he didn't want to, and the only time he showed any tenderness was with Trina, his girlfriend, and even then, after she got infected, he went on a rampage because she didn't know who he was.
6. The ending of the book wasn't much of a surprise. Once the trio of Mark, Trina, and Alec received the Flare, it was obvious that they would all die in the end, and that Deedee would survive, because she would go on to be Teresa. What did surprise me was that the ending was even sadder than I expected. Mark's final goodbye to Alec was very sad because they had been through so much together, and I really liked Alec. But the final ending of the story, with their deaths seconds away was heartbreaking. Trina, who was infected with the Flare and forgot who Mark was for awhile and didn't love him, remembered who he was with seconds left to live. The two embraced and died together, with the final word of the book being Trina's realization of who he was, when she says "Mark." The Epilogue was also sad, because it showed Thomas leaving his mother to enter the Maze, and the two experience great anguish.