The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Thomas has no last name and no memories. He comes to consciousness in a cold, dark, metal elevator, making a slow and noisy ascent to the Glade, acreage surrounded by 100-foot-high stone walls that grind closed each night, keeping the occupants in and keeping out the nocturnal monsters known as Grievers who roam the enormous Maze outside the Glade.

In the Glade, he finds teenage boys like himself, boys who don't know why they are there, cannot remember where they came from, or who they used to be. All Thomas has is questions, and all the boys in the Glade have to offer is a rigidly controlled life of survival with strict rules. Rules for which there are harsh penalties for breaking. The biggest rule? Don't go out of the Glade after dark.

Each boy in the Glade has a job, and Thomas is supposed to spend his first weeks in the Glade rotating from occupation to occupation until he finds his niche. But, he knows right away what he wants to be. He wants to be a runner, one of the boys who leaves the Glade each morning and runs the miles of the Maze, trying to uncover the exit that will mean freedom for the boys of the Glade.

From the very first, readers of this book will be filled with questions, the same questions that Thomas has. Why do the Glade and the Maze exist? What happened to the boys' memories? What are the Grievers? Why are the boys imprisoned there? The promise of answers to those questions keep you turning the pages. The ending will have you smacking your forehead and eagerly searching for the sequel, The Scorch Trials.

Rating: 4

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones

You would think from the title of this book that it is completely depressing and darkly dramatic, but the author uses humor to lighten the basic plot line, which is that fifteen-year-old Ruby's mother does indeed die a horrible death from cancer, and Ruby does have to leave her beloved aunt and her best friend and her boyfriend to go far away to live with a father she has never seen before BUT. . .

Her father is a handsome movie star who is amazingly rich and lives in a fabulous house next door to Cameron Diaz. He has a collection of incredibly cool vintage cars and buys Ruby all sorts of trendy and expensive clothes and gadgets. He enrolls Ruby into an exclusive school where the children of other movie stars go and where Ruby's elective is dream interpretation, of all the kooky "California" things. So even though you feel sad for Ruby for losing her mom, and she goes through tremendous grief trying to deal with it, you have the comic element of Ruby dealing with this impossibly fantastic life that most kids would love to live.

Told in the first-person, in engaging free verse, the reader sees what Ruby sees and learns what Ruby learns as soon as Ruby herself does. And the end is a surprise. So, get over the title and give it a read.

Rating: 3.5

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Susie Salmon was murdered. In heaven she watches life on earth continue without her. Her family tries to find out what happened to their daughter. After a few weeks pass the neighbor’s dog finds Susie’s elbow in a field near her house. The police searched for Susie for months but after a while they gave up.

Susie’s sister Lindsey has a feeling that Mr. Harvey, a neighbor, had killed her sister.  Mr. Harvey behaves suspiciously.  Lindsey wants to know if he is really the killer of her sister. She decides to search Mr. Harvey’s house when he goes to the market. While she is walking in his room she sees a crack on the floor, so she looks at the floor and sees that it could open. She opens it and finds a book. In the book, Mr. Harvey had drawn horrible pictures of Susie and the other girls he had murdered .

You will not believe what happens when Mr.Harvey finds her in his room.

   

Mariana Umana , 8th grade

Miss Spitfire by Sarah Miller

Miss Spitfire will make you cry or be happy for the girl named Helen Keller. When Helen was born she was healthy and fine. When she was 18 months old she got a really bad fever that caused her to be deaf and blind. Her parents knew she needed help so they hired a woman named Annie Sullivan to teach Helen Keller sign language and Braille. Annie Sullivan helped Helen. They find out that they get along together. Helen grew up and went to college, she wrote her biography, and became a hero to other people. Annie stayed with Helen for many years.

At the end of the book is a list of places to get more information about Helen Keller.

Linnette Chavez Bravo, 7th grade

Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Bethie had a older sister named Elizabeth who died at age 13. Bethie actually never knew anything about her sister. Bethie is now 13 and her mother calls her Elizabeth. Bethie's mom is having a mental breakdown, and her parents drive Bethie to her aunt's house in a different town and they leave her there. Bethie starts wondering why they left her there.

Her aunt, her cousin, and people in the town act strangely around her. Bethie tries to figure out why. What she finds out confuses and angers her.

I felt as puzzled as Bethie when she was left at her aunt's house without knowing what was happening. I would be shocked also to know that I had a sister that I didn't know about for 13 years.

Nimsi Canales, Grade 8

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Have you ever wanted to travel back in time so you could change something bad to good?

Miranda and Sal have been best friends since they were little, but everything changed when Sal got punched in the stomach. After that, Sal acted like he didn't want to be friends anymore, Miranda's extra house key goes missing, and her father's shoe disappears. Then a mysterious note comes for Miranda that says, "I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own. I ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter." The notes keep coming and they say things that no one else knows, events that happen in the future. Miranda does as the notes say and she begins writing the letter, but she doesn't know who the letter is for until the end.

When You Reach Me is also related to a book called A Wrinkle in Time. Miranda is reading A Wrinkle in Time, which is also about time traveling. A Wrinkle in Time is a book you can check out in the library.

Jason De Leon, 12 years old, 7th grade

The Misfits by James Howe

Bobby Goodspeed is a misfit at Paintbrush Falls Middle School. Not only is he a misfit but his friends are too. Skeezie is like a small version of Elvis Presley, Addie will do anything to stop injustice, and Joe is a gay boy who changes his name at least twice every week. The other kids call them names like marshmallow fluff, lardo, stupid, idiot, know-it-all, etc. In order to stop the name-calling, Bobby, Joe, Addie, and Skeezie start a new political party for the school student council elections. The election doesn't go as they planned, but they actually made an impact at school and no one is name calling anymore. But there is more to the ending and if you want to find out read the book. It really got my attention. The book relates to people at school right now.

Juan Garcia, 8th grade, 13 years old