Song for a Whale

 

Author- Lynne Kelly

Rating-⭐⭐⭐⭐

BOOK DESCRIPTION 

                    From fixing the class computer to repairing old radios, twelve-year-old Iris is a tech genius. But she's the only deaf person in her school, so people often treat her like she's not very smart. If you've ever felt like no one was listening to you, then you know how hard that can be.    

     When she learns about Blue 55, a real whale who is unable to speak to other whales, Iris understands how he must feel. Then she has an idea: she should invent a way to "sing" to him! But he's three thousand miles away. How will she play her song for him?

WHAT I THOUGHT

        I thought this was a super good book and I just loved the main character Iris and her journey to see the whale that she loved so much. Iris is so passionate and determined to meet this whale and she is so inspiring. Iris has loved whales and had a special relationship with them since the day she was born. So when she hears about a whale named Blue 55 and his story, she wants more than anything for him to know that he is not alone.  If you liked this book you might also like The Thing About Jellyfish.

The Mighty Heart of Sunny St.James

 

Author- Ashley Herring Blake

Rating- ⭐⭐⭐⭐

BOOK DESCRIPTION

    When Sunny St. James receives a new heart, she decides to set off on a "New Life Plan": 1) do awesome amazing things she could never do before, 2) find a new best friend, and 3) kiss a boy for the first time.

Her "New Life Plan" seems to be racing forward, but when she meets her new best friend Quinn, Sunny questions whether she really wants to kiss a boy at all. With the reemergence of her estranged mother, Sunny begins a journey to becoming the new Sunny St. James.

WHAT I THOUGHT

This was a good book about a 12 year old girl named Sunny who needs a heart transplant. After it's over she wants to be a brand new Sunny. She wants new clothes, new friends, and even new hobbies. And when she meets Quinn, her new BFF her plans start to come together until she gets to number 3 on her list. Sunny is such a good character and is curious, funny, and caring. If you liked this book you might also like Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World.

Blended

Author- Sharon M. Draper

Rating-⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

BOOK DESCRIPTION

                      Eleven-year-old Isabella’s parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week: One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son, Darren, living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend, John-Mark, in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves.

                     Because of this, Isabella has always felt pulled between two worlds. And now that her parents are divorced, it seems their fights are even worse, and they’re always about her. Isabella feels even more stuck in the middle, split and divided between them, than ever. And she’s is beginning to realize that being split between Mom and Dad is more than switching houses, switching nicknames, switching backpacks: It’s also about switching identities. Her dad is black, her mom is white, and strangers are always commenting: “You’re so exotic!” “You look so unusual.” “But what are you really?” She knows what they’re really saying: “You don’t look like your parents.” “You’re different.” “What race are you really?” And when her parents, who both get engaged at the same time, get in their biggest fight ever, Isabella doesn’t just feel divided, she feels ripped in two. What does it mean to be half white or half black? To belong to half mom and half dad? And if you’re only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole?       

WHAT I THOUGHT

This was a great book about a girl who felt like she was torn in two because her parents are divorced. One of the only things that both of her parents can agree on is that Isabelle is great at playing the piano. She has piano at both houses and that is one of the only things that relieves Isabella's stress. But on the way to a piano recital something big happens and Isabella may never be the same again.

Wish

AUTHOR- Barbara O'Connor

RATING-⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has been making the same secret wish every day since fourth grade. She even has a list of all the ways there are to make the wish, such as cutting off the pointed end of a slice of pie and wishing on it as she takes the last bite. But when she is sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to live with family she barely knows, it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true. That is until she meets Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly Charlie is in serious danger of discovering that what she thought she wanted may not be what she needs at all.

WHAT I THOUGHT
This was a very good book and I really liked the character because every day she found a different way to get her wish to come true. The cover was a little misleading and made me think that this book was going to be about a girl and how much she loves her dog and how she always has always wished for one but it's actually about this girl who doesn't have a loving family and has to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle and Charlie has a very bad temper and gets in trouble a lot but in the end she ends up with a happy family that loves her. 

The Hunger Games

AUTHOR-Suzanne Collins

RATING- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

BOOK DESCRIPTION

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

WHAT I THOUGHT

This was an amazing book and I loved the characters. It was a little scary and violent and I don't recommend reading it before bed but over all this book was really good and kept me reading for hours. If you liked this book you might also like The False Prince by Jennifer A Nielson.

Terror At Bottle Creek

AUTHOR- Watt Key

RATING- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

BOOK DESCRIPTION

When his dad disappears, thirteen- year- old Cort is caught in a battle against a Gulf Coast hurricane. Cort's father is a local expert on hunting and swamp lore in lower Alabama and has been teaching his son everything he knows. But when a deadly Category 3 storm makes landfall, Cort must unexpectedly put all his skills - and bravery- to the test. One catastrophe seems to lead to another, leaving Cort and two neighbor girls to face the storm as best they can. Amid miles of storm-thrashed wetlands filled with dangerous, desperate wild animals, it's up to Cort to win -or lose- the fight for there lives.

WHAT I THOUGHT

   This was an amazing book that was a bit scary and sooo suspenseful. I had to read a couple chapters to get into it but then I finished in like 2 hours. If you liked this book then you might also like Hatchet by Gary Paulson.

Things Not Seen

AUTHOR- Andrew Clements

RATING- ⭐⭐⭐⭐

BOOK DESCRIPTION

It's a Tuesday morning in February , and I get up as usual, and I stumble into the bathroom to take a shower in the dark. Which is my school-day method because it's sort of like an extra ten minutes of sleep.

It's after the shower. That's when it happens.

It's when I turn on the bathroom light and wipe the fog off the mirror to comb my hair. It's what I see in the mirror. It's what I don't see.

I look a second time, and then rub at the mirror again. I'm not there. That's what i'm saying. 

I'm. Not. There

WHAT I THOUGHT

This was a pretty good book and I really liked the characters but there wasn't a lot of action and the only reason I kept reading it was because I wanted to find out the cause of the situation.