The Night Gardener book trailer

The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington

Jade Kelley wasn't the most popular girl in school. She had moved from her old home in Massachusetts to her new dream home in Boston. Being 17 years old and in her senior year in high school didn't make it easy for her to make friends. Finding out that her house was part of a murder scene was horrifying but discovering that her dream house was being haunted by Kayla, the girl who had died in the house, was unbelievable.

Her five-year-old half-brother, Colby, was the first to see the ghost of Kayla. Kayla possess Colby to find out who murdered her. Jade tries harder to find out who murdered Kayla so she'll leave Colby alone. Jade deals with her stepmother who won't believe her, a love triangle that involves the boy who was in a relationship with Kayla and a boy who was Kayla's best friend and her investigation of the unsolved murder.

Kim Harrington has created a book worth reading. Just like her series of books called Sleuth or Dare, it is filled with suspense, mystery, and horror but also with a touch of romance. Expect to read a book that you won't be able to put down.

Rating: 5

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Cassie isn't your typical "run for your life" teen, but evaluates her next moves mindfully, anticipating danger around her as she fights for her survival. This book takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth. Extra-terrestrial beings invade Earth to exterminate the human race through a variety of attacks we humans call Waves--the worst thing next to death is surviving these waves when all hope is lost.
 
In this book, Yancey exceptionally expresses hopelessness, desperation and loneliness. He is a brilliant story-teller with the ability to make readers experience the story first-hand because he uses the first-person point of view. I love how the book is set in a wartime-like setting--broken buildings, fallen ceilings, cracked floors, and rotting corpses that lay unburied. The author makes death seem ubiquitous to the Cassie's environment. The mystery of finding out what the fifth wave is, is what kept the fire of my attention burning bright.

Rating: 4

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

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