Review: Hunger Games Trailer

Hi Readers!
If anyone remembers - our Library Club read the hunger games series last year. We are so excited that the movie is coming out soon and I watched the trailer for the first time a month ago. It seems as though they may have gotten the casting right afterall! At the beginning I wanted to switch Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson so their hair color matched with  my image of Peeta and Gale...but after they dyed their hair in the trailer i knew they were perfect for the parts! Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) still seems to be a little too old and intimidating, but Lawrence does a good job of playing her. Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket is absolutely perfect! so are the two girls that play Rue and Prim. Overall, I think the casting was done really well and so was the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S9a5V9ODuY&noredirect=1
what do you think?
- Sara C.

Review: The Odyssey

Hey Readers!

I haven't had much time to read lately, so I'm taking a queue from Sara and reviewing a book I read in school. In english class, we just finished reading "The Odyssey," by Homer, the Greek epic story. I was really looking forward to reading it, because it's such a big challenge, and it looks interesting. It was a little slow at first, and some parts were hard to understand, but overall it was a great book. You'd think it would be boring, but it reminds me of a literary soap opera. Tell me what you think if you read it! I recommend it, but I wouldn't read it unless you really want to give yourself a challenge or if it's for school. I also have a favor to ask you guys: My school is having a read-a-thon, and we get to vote for what book we want! The only requirement is it has to be a classic book (Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc.). Any suggestions? Whichever one wins at our school I'll be reviewing on this blog. Also, as an insight to what might be coming, I'm in the middle of reading "Matched," and "Looking for Alaska," and they're both amazing. So far I really recommend both of them. I miss you, other bloggers!
-Alice

Review: A Tale of Two Cities

Hi Everyone!
Well I guess we've all been a little to busy in high school to focus much on the blog, but we still have time to post! In english we've been reading A Tale of Two Citites by Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities is a marvelous book focusing on London and Paris during the french revolution. It follows the story of Doctor Manette, his daughter Lucie and her husband Charles. Manette had been a prisoner of the Bastille in france for 18 years and did not know of the existence of his daughter until she was fully grown. Lucie, his daughter, is married to Charles who, in turn, has had his fair share of imprisonment. The family struggles to kep an upbeat outlook during the revolution while they navigate the bloody streets of Paris. No one is quite sure who is innocent and no one can comprehend the terrible threat of a mob of confused badly treated people. I had to read this book for english, and we were told to read one or two chapters a night. I ended up not being able to put it down it was so good! Highly reccomend it! and my fellow bloggers out there - miss you guys!

- Sara C.

Review: Boy's Life

Hey Everyone!!
I am SOOOOOOO sorry that I haven't posted in so long!!!
I feel so terrible about it!!!!
But school has started, and that's why I haven't had any time... 
Anyway, I have been able to read a bit, though the book that I am going to talk about now is one that we are reading for school. The book is called "Boy's Life," and it is by Robert McCammon.
It is a good book about a boy who is growing up in a small town in Alabama in 1964. The boy's life becomes harder when he and his father witness a car plunge into a lake, and his father goes to save then man, but finds him brutally beaten and chained to the wheel. As the father slowly becomes wrapped up in his terrible thoughts of the murder, the boy, named Cory, struggles through all of the events that are happening as he grows up, such as his friendships, school, summer, fairs, his incredible ability to write, and also the superstitions that surround his hometown. 


It is a great book for anyone who really likes superstitious things, but also is interested for mystery stories and a bit of adventure and stories where the main character is growing up throughout the book. 

Look into it!! 


See you all later!!


And this time, I promise not to stay away for so long.... :D


~Anne Shirley

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Thanks for reading! And again, sorry for the advertising, but expect more reviews soon!

Review of The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Hey, Readers!

As you probably know, a movie version of The Help (by Kathryn Stockett) came out in August. I found out about this book last year when my mom read it, and at first, I thought it was a book meant for adult readers. I changed my mind about two months ago, when my sister said that she had read it at camp. The Help is a really touching story of the relationships between white women and their black maids in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi. Skeeter Phelan, a 24-year-old white woman who wants to be a writer, has a big idea that could either put these black women in serious danger, or spark a big change in their racist society. Skeeter wants to interview black maids in Jackson and publish a book about their experiences working for white women. Aibileen and Minny, who are both maids, become involved in Skeeter's idea, and are very prominent characters in the story. For each chapter (or few chapters) in The Help, one of those three characters (Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny) is the narrator, and it switches back and forth as the story goes on. The reason I liked this book so much is probably these three female protagonists. They seem so much like real people, and as the reader, I felt connected to each of them. Though they are very different from one another, their friendship and support of one another allows each of them to have a voice.

Sorry that was kind of long!  All in all, even if you have already seen the movie, this is definitely a book worth reading.                                   

                                                          --Dorothy :)

Review: In the Time of the Butterflies

Right now Wendy and I are sitting on My (Mary's) bed. We were talking last night and really want to visit our school again!!! So, we are going to do it around Thanksgiving time. If you would like to join us, you may. We would love the company...

What I really came here to talk about is the book i am reading, In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. It is a pretty good book, but is pretty slow in the beginning. Even though it is not my favorite book, you should read it because it is a very educational read. It is about the dictator Trujillo and 4 sisters. A few of them are part of a group of leading opponents of Trujillo's dictatorship. They are known as Las Mariposas, which means butterfly in spanish. It is a very fascinating book and I recommend it! Well I have to go finish reading it, but i just wanted to say that i am very excited to go to my high school in a couple of days!!!! Wish me luck and good luck to all of the others who blog here as well!!!! <3

Mary L.