![]() In middle earth, 2941, an inconspicuous hobbit named Bilbo was met by a travelling wizard named Gandalf. When Gandalf leaves, He marks the door of Bilbo’s underground home. 13 dwarves come to his door, Their leader Thorin Oakenshield asking to come in. Bilbo reluctantly lets him in. Thorin and his troupe of dwarves need Bilbo to be the thief of the troupe. Bilbo had never thought of leaving his home, but Some adventurous side of him decided to go. The dwarves had their gold taken over by a dragon, and needed to get it back. Bilbo soon realizes that he has bitten off more than he could chew. The troupe gets chased by orcs, attacked by goblins, and almost eaten by trolls. Bilbo finds a peculiar ring. This ring can help him turn invisible, and assist him on his thieving missions. Lucky, right? Maybe it’s all part of a greater plan… I came across this book as I was reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lord of the Rings was one of my favorite series when I was in middle school, And the Hobbit keeps the energy of childhood imagination turned into a young adult series, the same energy from the lord of the rings. This book made me almost relive some of my childhood, from my dad and I reading Lord of The Rings together in 5th grade, to Watching the Hobbit movie on the plane to Italy. The Hobbit has a great, absorbing story with twists and turns that I got lost in a I read. It is truly a wonderful book and a classic that everyone should read. -MW, grade 10 CATEGORIES: Fantasy, Literary classic, Quest, Young Adult.
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![]() Four sisters (Meg, Joe, Beth, and Amy) and their Mother, Marmee, live in a small neighbourhood Massachusetts in poverty. With their father away fightin in the civil war they must each learn to be responsible. They each have to grow as a person and learn from mistakes they make. One of their first issues is having to spend their first Christmas without their father. They also face other obstacles in life they must get through. I’m not usually interested in reading novels, but I heard alot about this book so I wanted to read it to see what it was about. I usually go for sci-fi or fantasy books, but this is one of the few novels that I actually enjoyed reading. Every chapter had a lesson in the end and every single chapter and event that occured was interesting. You can really see how each of the four girls grow towards the end of the book and how their characters develop -ZA, grade 10 ![]() From award-winning author Margaret Atwood comes the thrilling modern classic, “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Set in a dystopian future in which the president was shot, Congress was massacred, and the Constitution suspended, the human population has drastically fallen below replacement level due to pollution and nuclear accidents. To repopulate, the republic of Gilead has designated certain fertile women as “handmaids”, young women who are society’s last chance. Dressed in blood-red, they each undergo training to forget their past lives as regular women, wives, and mothers. They serve only one purpose now - bear children or die. Offred, a handmaid, tells a first-hand recount of her harrowing experiences as she tries to comprehend the now commanding patriarchy. Simultaneously, she reminisces about her old life with her daughter and husband. Filled with captivating language and sinister plot twists, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, like George Orwell’s “1984”, is a haunting warning to humanity and its future. I had heard about this book from numerous sources, most often by reference to the TV show available on Hulu. However, I never had the opportunity to read it until the Pioneer Reads book club chose it as the Science Fiction/Fantasy book of the year. There were several raving reviews that went along with the descriptive words “dark” and“graphic”. I dove into its pages and was surprisingly quite disappointed. I found it to be a jumble of narratives, most of which were monotonous and seemingly irrelevant to the plot. I felt that there was hardly any character development generated by Offred herself and that the ending was inadequate. The sequel, “The Testaments”, was recently released, but I do not plan on reading it in the near future as I predict it will be very similar in structure and writing style, which was definitely not my favorite. It is possible that after reading “1984” in 7th grade, I now find it harder to be shocked by dystopias. Honestly, I think I was simply expecting more from the story. -KT, grade 10 ![]() Jeremiah and Ellie are star-crossed lovers in the big apple, struggling to navigate their relationship, high school, and their parents. In this modern-day Romeo and Juliet, Woodson weaves in several 21st century hot topics to bring the story up to date. I got this book from the district (Thanks, Sarah!) and I already have a few other books by Woodson in my classroom library, so I gave this one a read. While Jeremiah and Ellie are lovable and relatable, I personally love stories that go a bit deeper than this one. Definitely recommend for a little romance and a little heartbreak. ![]() A Clockwork Orange is a book that takes place in futuristic Great Britain. Citizens in Great Britain are used to a passive life but are oblivious to the fact that the youth are growing extremely violent. The main character Alex, leads a gang that roam the streets committing many crimes and robbing and beating men. Alex is caught and arrested after a failed robbery and is sentenced to fourteen years in jail. Alex has to struggle with his life in jail until one day he kills a cell mate and is chosen to be the guinea pig of an experiment that erases his memory and hopefully changes his lifestyle for the better. I originally heard of this book simply because it’s a movie too. I would recommend this book but it’s got some pretty graphic stuff in it so some might not enjoy it. It does have some comedic relief in it so some parts can be very random. All in all this is a good book that I would recommend. -AM, grade 10 ![]() Slaughterhouse V, by Kurt Vonnegut, is an anti-war novel with a unique idea that it's center around. The 4th dimension, the main character, Billy Pilgrim claims to have met these aliens called the Tralfamadorians. Who explain them their perception of time where they see time all at once, so they would generally focus more on happier moments in time. Also, death isn't as big as humans make it be, Tralfamadorians explain that if someone were to die they're simply dead at that moment, but alive in another, which is why Billy Pilgrim always says "so it goes" at every death of the book to prove the insignificance of death. As the reader goes through the book they explore Billy Pilgrim's life out of sequence because of how he's "unstuck in time". So one chapter can be taking place at the battle of the bulge then transition to him being in a plane crash. I chose this book because I kept getting recommendations from friends to read stories by Kurt Vonnegut. So I picked this book and Cat's Cradle. I love the way Slaughterhouse V is told it's so light-hearted and the serious moments in the book are taken more relaxed than they should be. This is mainly due to the central idea of the 4th dimension which is a very brilliant way of telling a story, and could be interpreted in two different ways, a PTSD victim or someone who actually had an alien encounter. This is a solid 10/10 book. -AD, grade 12 ![]() The Giver by Lois Lowry is about this utopian society where they are exposed to certain events in life. There’s only one person, called the Giver, in the society where he knows everything. For example, he would know the worse event that happened in life to the best thing that could happen to you. The society has limited things they can see, hear, and touch. If they are exposed to anything that was not supposed to be obtained, they were to be punished in different ways. The Giver is the only one that knows about everything, affection, wars, color, and many other things that the community doesn’t know. Jonas, the main character, was chosen to be the next Giver, but no one is allowed to know that he has all these memories being transferred to him through the original Giver. Jonas would ask why the community doesn’t know any of these memories he is obtaining, and they should know. Later in the story, no one is allowed to leave the community, but Jonas wanted to. If he leaves the community, his memories will be released to the society and they would learn about the events that Jonas did. I chose this book because I wasn’t into the first book I was reading in class. This book was on my parent’s bookshelf. Overall, I thought it was a good book even though I felt like there should have been more. I would give it a 4.5/5 stars. Five stars being the best book. I gave it a 4.5 because I didn’t like the ending of the book and I thought that there should’ve been more to the ending. There’s also a movie to this book and it showed a different ending. All in all, I think this book was a great book. -RV, grade 12 ![]() Dante's Inferno in Modern English, written by Douglas Neff, based off of the translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, follows the classic story of The Inferno by Dante Alighieri. The first third of the Divine Comedy follows poet, Dante, as he wakes up one day in the middle of his life to discover that he is lost in the wilderness and surrounded by dangerous creatures. Eventually, rescue comes in the form of the ancient poet Virgil, who has been sent from Heaven to lead Dante back to the true path. Virgil must lead Dante through the nine circles of Hell where he begins to learn the wisdom that will lead back to life. Each circle in Hell is the final resting place of souls who have died in their sins, the punishments at each level being suited to the sin that defined the earthly life of the soul. Being partial to classic literature, I've wanted to read Dante's Inferno for a long time. Seeing as many translations of it are so elaborate that they can be as difficult to read as the original Italian version, I found Neff's translation to be incredibly convenient. Neff successfully captures the vivid imagery of the original while omitting the obscure verbiage often used in other translations. Overall, Dante's Inferno in Modern English makes it easy and entertaining to read for anyone interested in getting a good understanding of the original book without the extra hassle. -LS, grade 10 ![]() The Prince is a 16th-century political novel written by Italian Renaissance political philosopher and statesman Niccolo Machiavelli. In the book, Machiavelli writes about the philosophy of politics and what it takes to rule over a principality, a state ruled by a prince. Having this to be considered the first modern novel, it deals with what we today would often be concerned about like the preservation of ethics and virtuous and prosperous political figures and how based upon what they’ve done to attain their principalities, will be either loved or feared by their people. What got me into The Prince was my dad and his political and philosophical influence over me. It was only until recently that I took interest in politics so it only made sense that I would want to read the most famous political book of them all. The thing that I most enjoy about the book is how preservation and power are conveyed. The greatest example of this is when Machiavelli writes about whether it's safer to be feared or loved as a prince, “it is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.” This quote states that if you can’t be both feared and loved, the best option would be to be feared because of the dread of punishment that you, as a prince, would want to avoid at every cost. Overall, I don’t have any negative comments about the book except for the fact that it can be difficult to read but I recommend this book to anyone that finds interest in political science. -LF, grade 10 ![]() Lord of the Flies is a fictional novel about a group of young school boys stranded on an island with no adult supervision or native people. They are initially overjoyed by their seemingly carefree circumstances but as the book progresses the boys start to turn savage, making you question humanity’s natural state. It's a very thought provoking and well written book that is set in an absolutely fascinating setting. I originally saw my older brother reading this book and then my twin, so I decided to give it a go as my brothers had enjoyed it. This book is a heart racing and fast paced book about survival and order that leaves you thinking about the book long after you’ve turned the final page. It does have some graphic scenes, so it’s definitely not for everyone, but I recommend it for anyone who can handle that. -PC, grade 10 |
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