A few years ago at a school book fair, I saw this book called Heir Apparent that stood out. The cover was different. There was a picture of a girl half in and half out of a video game.  I asked around and one of my friends had read it before. The more I talked to him, the more I wanted to buy the book. I like this book a lot and I am happy I bought it. 

     This book, which takes place in the future, is about a girl named Giannine who gets a gift certificate from her dad to go to a video game store. Giannine notices the group of protestors outside, but decides to go in and play the virtual video game anyway. Once she is in the game, she begins playing different roles including a farm girl and a princess. She soon finds out that there is a problem with the game. The only way out of the game is to win. If she dies in the game, she will die in real life too. From this point on, she is tangled in love affairs and battles.

     This was a very interesting book that kept me wondering until the end, especially since Giannine’s life is at stake.  This is also a good book if you are interested in the Renaissance period.

In a world where animals can talk, Mistmantle Chronicals is the story of a squirrel named Urchin who washes ashore an island called Mistmantle.  Mistmantle is ruled by a king and queen who are hedgehogs. One day, during a ceremony, the prince of the island gets stabbed and dies.  Soon the King and Queen mysteriously and tragically die as well.  Urchin is falsely accused of the murders and forced to leave the island.  When a new ruler takes over, Urchin tries to take back the island.  Is he the one who will fulfill the prophesy that one day someone will arrive to save the island?  Can he save all of the animals from evil and destruction?

The good thing about this novel is that there are a lot of twists and there are many suspenseful parts. Just when you think something doesn’t make any sense at all, the mystery is soon revealed. There was a very good story line and the author’s style of writing is great.  I would recommend this book to anybody who likes adventure and surprise endings. 

*****

This story is about a civilization that doesn’t have light from the sun. They illuminate their city with lightbulbs. This is the way they have lived for hundreds of years, oblivious to the potential for distaster.  The light won’t last forever. The light bulbs are burning out and they’re running out of replacements.  Blackouts are becoming more and more frequent. Without light, how will civilization survive?  It’s up to two kids, Lina and Doon, to save the entire civilization, but Lina and Doon get more than they bargained for.

This book is very well written, and will keep you captivated until the end. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially to people who are interested in mystery and adventure because this novel has elements of both. There are also two sequels The People of Sparks and The Prophet of Yonwood and a fourth book is on the way.

I give this book four stars.

This story is about the Heap family’s never ending quest to find out where their son is.  Septimus was taken away by a red witch and never seen again. Years later, the family finds a baby girl with purple eyes in the bushes and brings her home. Everyone wonders about the identity of the little girl. They soon find out that the baby is the princess, the daughter of the queen that passed away not so long ago.  When the baby girl grows up, the family tells her the truth and she immediately wants to go searching for their missing son. As the Heap family goes on their long adventure, they come across creatures, monsters, and a dark necromancer named Dom Daniel. Will they find out what happened to their son who was the legendary seventh son of the seventh son? With twists and turns everywhere, you won’t know what will happen.

The plot of finding the truth through adventure is a classic. The characters and mispelling of words show the humor the author put into this story.  I recommend this book to people who like fantasy stories with dragons and wizards. It’s also for people who like a little bit of comedy in their books.

       In Built to Win, John Schurholz and Larry Guest go in depth about baseball economics and how to run a successful major league team.  Schurholz tells the story of his life starting as a high school teacher in Baltimore to his days as a glorified “golfer” in the Orioles system. He started with the Orioles then went to the Kansas City Royals. As the assistant GM, he learned from the best in the game. His final decision to go the Braves was his best decision. Little did he know that his low wage job would turn into a General Manager job. Today he is one of the most successful GM’s in baseball. Whereever he goes, he seems to win. 14 division titles in a row are just the tip of the iceberg for John. 

      Built to win is a great book that’s very insightful. Schuerholz teaches life goals and how to be successful in every day life.  Everyone has a life goal no matter how big or small and Schuerholz tells the reader how to accomplish their goals. This book keeps the reader intrigued. Every reader who has finished this book has picked up useful knowledge.  I couldn’t stop reading it. I would recommend it to any baseball or non-baseball fan.  

       I give this book five stars. It was the best book I have read this year and probably the best book I have ever read.

The Outsiders is a story about two groups of rival gangs and the adventures and hardships they face. The Socs are a group of rich kids who get all the breaks with their madras shirts and mustangs. The Greasers a group of “hoods”  who are barely getting by.  From rumbles to robberies, these kids have done it all.  One day Ponyboy and Johnny were walking in the park when some Socs were looking for some unlucky Greasers to jump.  After that everything goes downhill as Johnny and Ponyboy are forced to go on the run.

The author portrays the two “worlds” of the Socs and Greasers very well.  The characters all blend in well with the plot.  This novel has people and events that everyone can relate to.  It also has a great message.  The only weakness is this novel is that the terms they use in the book have different meanings today and some things they did around their friends may have been more common than it would be today.

I’d recommend this book to most people. The only people I wouldn’t recommend it to would be people who are afraid of confrontation.  I give this book 5 stars.

This book is about a girl named Bella who moves to Forks, Washington to live with her dad.  Bella’s not looking forward to life in Forks, but then she meets Edward. Bella notices that something is strange about Edward and his family and soon learns they are vampires. Edward and his family don’t drink human blood, but other vampires do. 

As Bella and Edward become close friends, he begins showing her some of he things that the does, including a special baseball game. At this game, a vampire shows up pretending to be friendly, but he really likes to drink human blood.  He wants Bella and will do anything to get her; and Edward will do anything to prevent that from happening. As he chases her across the country, Bella wonders if she should listen to his commands before anyone she loves gets hurt.

This novel has very good descriptions. You get a clear mental picture of the characters and scenes. After a while, you even feel as if you are really there in the book. The plot is also very entertaining. Once you start reading it is hard to stop. You keep reading because you can’t wait to find out what happens next.

I don’t think that this book could get much better. There are no weak points in it.  I would recommend this book to anybody. It is a well written story that would interest anyone, even people who don’t like to read. All people would enjoy the suspense and entertainment that this book provides.

I would give this book 5 stars.

This trilogy takes place in London, England where the government is controlled by magicians.  A magician’s power comes from the djinni (genie) or spirits from another world.  The stronger the djinni, the stronger the magician has to be to summon and command it.  There are several non-magical conspirators battling against magicians for power of the government.

This series is mainly about a young prodigy named Nathaniel and his rise to power from an orphan to one of the most powerful magicians.  Through his rise to power, he has to deal with much conflict including the tension between other magicians, especially with a 5000 year old, powerful djinni called Bartimaeus.  Although Nathaniel and Bartimaeus absolutely loathe each other, they eventually grow to respect one another other as they find themselves in many life-threatening situations.  I can relate to both of these characters because the author does an excellent job of presenting both sides of the story. 

The author’s writing style is ingenius in the way that he describes the cunningness of the characters, and how they scheme and plot for their own benefit against others.  The author also provides descriptive details of the environment in the cities including the artifacts, tools, and social gatherings. The three books written by Jonathan Stroud are called The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golems’ Eye, and Ptolemy’s Gate.  I’d highly recomend them to all fantasy book lovers.  It’s fascinating to see how real life can be mingled with fantasy.

     In the Naruto Volumes by Masashi Kishimoto, a ninja named Naruto is striving to be the best ninja ever.  He trains extremely hard and completes many missions of strength, speed, and complicated tactics.  When Naruto finds out that he has a very powerful demon in him, he is approached by the Legendary Shinin, one of the strongest and best ninjas, who offers to train him.  Because of the strength of his demon, Naruto becomes one of the most wanted by the Akatsuki, the strongest and most evil ninja alive.  Naruto soon finds himself in a war with Akatsuki. He knows that if he doesn’t train and fight hard, he could die.

     The story has cool ninjas with extrordinary powers and an awesome good vs. evil theme. The pictures in these books help you to see the action and understand the words even more. One of the weaknesses these books have is that the pictures don’t have color.  I would recommend these volumes to people who like adventure and action stories. People who like comics may also like these books.

The Pretty Committee Strikes Back by Lisi Harrison is the 5th book in The Clique series. The series is about a group of weathy teenage girls known as The Pretty Committe who are used to getting their way and pretty much whatever they want.  The leader of the click is Massie, and when friends of Massie’s parents move into her family’s guesthouse, she has to accept their daughter Claire into their group even though Claire does not quite fit in with them.  The first four books of this series were very good, so I was attracted to this story, and so far, this is my favorite. 

I really enjoyed this book because the characters were very easy to relate to.  Many were like my personal friends. In this book of the series, the girls are very excited about their school camping trip with their brother school. Although one of the friends Kristen can not go, Massie, Claire, Dylan, and Alicia have a lot of adventures during the field trip mostly involving all of their crushes. The author’s writing style kept me wanting to read more.  The plot was very suspenseful and exciting while the setting was in nature which was relaxing. This book kept me excited to read more to find out what would happen next in the characters’ lives.

I think that parts of this novel could have used a little bit of improvement, but overall it was very well written. The author could have probably put more of a twist into the plot because some of it was a little predictable, and she could have put in some new characters to change the feelings of some of the characters and make the story more exciting.

I might recommend this book to any teenage girl who enjoys books about drama and friendships. Many girls who are in middle or high school can relate to this book because it has romance, laughter, drama, and friendships. When I read the book, it was as if i was there which made it better.  It almost felt like real life.  I understood a lot of the small details as would other girls and i think they would enjoy it.

I would give this book 4 stars.