Sophie's World

by Jostein Gaarder

Genre: Science fiction? Realistic fiction? Nonfiction? It's hard to classify. Let's just say it's nonfiction and fantasy combined.
Age group: 12+ (but older is fine too. If you read it at 12 you might want to read it again at, say, 22 and see if you notice anything new.)

One day, a perfectly normal 14-year-old girl called Sophie gets a letter in the mail. The letter has no return address—it's just a simple white envelope, and inside it contains a piece of paper with two questions on it: Who are you? and Where did the world come from? Sophie, who has never thought about these things before, suddenly finds herself asking these questions too. And soon another envelope arrives, with the start of a philosophy course inside.
But as Sophie is learning philosophy from the strange professor Alberto, she's also finding mysterious letters with cryptic messages addressed to a girl named Hilde, c/o Sophie. Who is Hilde, and why are these letters turning up? This is only one the questions Sophie must ask as she journeys into the world of philosophy.

My dad strongly recommended I read this book, but I put it off for a while. When I finally did start reading, I actually found it very interesting. Be warned; there's a lot of philosophy and talking about philosophy inside. It can seem daunting. But Jostein Gaarder does a really good job of making philosophy accessible for young people. He uses comparisons and allegories and metaphors and similes and whatnot to make concepts easier to understand. He often has Alberto say something and then demonstrate it, or have Sophie restate it in simpler terms. Sometimes certain sections require re-reading, but I learned a lot and enjoyed the story too.
The sub-plot with Hilde is AWESOME. At first it can be really confusing, and for a while I had no idea what Hilde had to do with anything. But in the middle of the book everything changes and everything falls into place and you understand! It is just remarkable. This book was very different from any of the other books I have ever read, fiction and nonfiction alike. It is very aware that it is a book. I think that is probably the aspect of it that I most enjoyed.

Running Wild

by Michael Morpurgo

Genre: Realistic fiction
Age group: 10-11+

Will's dad died in the army, and it's been haunting his family ever since. Now it's just his mom and himself, and they're living with Will's grandparents in the shadow of his dad's death. But one day, his grandparents suggest that maybe Will and his mom should take a vacation, and relax a little bit. So they travel to the tropics.
But while Will is on the beach taking an elephant ride, the elephant suddenly runs away, into the jungle. Will soon finds out why: A huge tsunami is coming, and it almost certainly will kill everyone still on the beach.
Now Will is in the jungle, with only an elephant and the other animals to keep him company. He bonds particularly with the orangutans he meets—the babies and the mother, and the large male he calls Other One. But with the peace of the jungle comes conflict and chaos from the poachers who want to kill the animals—and the orangutans—and sell them.

In general Michael Morpurgo's style of writing is (in my opinion) really, really good. He writes clearly and simply and also incredibly descriptively—he doesn't overstate things or go into too much depth, but has just the right amount of detail. He shows that in reality, writing is an art. It's actually quite beautiful. I like how the story starts in one place, but by the end, you've been taken to places you never knew would ever end up in. It's not the most predictable of books. I also like how Morpurgo is not afraid to face the hard truth. People do die; the world is not always a wonderful place, and he is very realistic in his stories in that sense. He has written a lot of other good books, including War Horse and Private Peaceful, and many others besides. If you've read Morpurgo's other books and enjoyed them, I encourage you to try this book, and similarly, if you read this and enjoy it, I encourage you to try his other books.

Candyfreak

by Steve Almond

Genre: Memoir
Age group: 11+ (But it's really versatile. An adult could read this and not get bored. A 10 year old could probably handle the language as well. (I don't mean bad language! He uses a lot of obscure words))

Throughout his whole life, starting at a very young age, Steve Almond has loved candy. He's kind of relied upon candy to help him through hard times. He eats at least one piece EVERY DAY without fail. But not all candy is available anymore. For example, one of his absolute favorite chocolate bars, the Caravelle, was discontinued. Why do smaller candy businesses close down? How are candies and chocolate bars like the Caravelle even made? These are just some of the questions he's trying to answer as he journeys through "the chocolate underbelly of America" to find out the sweet, sticky truth.

The topic of this book is just amazing. I mean, a whole book about candy, where you actually get to see what goes on inside real live candy factories and read about the marvelous tastes and fillings and chocolate enrobers and nut applicators involved with the making and consuming of these candies? It was awesome! Steve Almond uses many big and/or obscure words that younger readers may have to look up the meanings for, but other than that, the language is pretty easy to understand. The memoir aspect of this book was made clear in the beginning, a little in the middle parts, and again reinforced at the end, but sometimes the "So What" was a little unclear or hard to make out. However, you, the reader, still get that candy has been his crutch in hard times and that it is very important to him. This book was filled with awesome descriptions and inspired me to eat more candy, especially the ones described in great detail in this book. Before Candyfreak, I never realized how much I was missing out on.

Moment of Silence

There is no author, because this is not a book.
Recently Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over the border of Ukraine and Russia. Nobody has yet been pinpointed as the perpetrator, the person who actually did the missile shooting. It might not even have been intentional. Maybe it was a case of misidentification, and they thought the plane was something else. But all 298 people on board that plane were killed. I would like to observe a moment of silence for those people right now.











Thank you.

The School for Good and Evil

by Soman Chainani


Genre: Fantasy
Age group: 11/12+

In Sophie and Agatha's town, every year, two children are kidnapped. Well, not so much kidnapped as just taken—for they are not taken to be ransomed, but taken to be trained at the School for Good and the School for Evil. And after every year, new fairy tales show up with those two children as the hero and the villain. This year, it's Sophie and Agatha's turn. Sophie loves pink and spends hours each day on beauty treatments and makeup. She's sure she's going to the School for Good, to be turned into a perfect princess. Agatha dresses in black, misshapen dresses, and lives in a graveyard with her cat, Reaper. It's likely that she's heading for the School for Evil, where students learn Uglification and Special (Evil) Talents. But when the day actually comes, and Sophie and Agatha are finally taken, Sophie's dropped in the School of Evil and Agatha at the School of Good... Surely there's been some mistake! ...But the School Master doesn't make mistakes. If they really are in the wrong schools, is there some way to put things right? Or could Sophie and Agatha actually be in the places they're meant for?

Though this book might have some cliches and whatnot, it's so excellent that stuff doesn't really matter. I started it one morning, and I literally could not think about anything else for the whole day. I found myself picking this book up and reading another chapter—or two, or three, or the whole rest of the book—whenever I had the chance. It was that good. I liked how the characters interacted with each other: It was so real! Soman Chainani really understands how people work, and he uses many of these types of relationships between two people in this book. I also really enjoyed seeing how the characters changed over the course of the book. This is a kind of story where the characters' changes are a huge part of the plot. I can't say too much about the changes, for fear of spoiling the book, though. However, I will say that Sophie and Agatha's friendship is a very important part of the book, and that changes a LOT. I loved this book a lot, and I highly recommend it to everyone. Not everything is what it seems in this book—in fact, many of the characters are clueless to or are hiding things from themselves—and all of this secrecy wrapped in a magnificent display of storytelling makes for an extremely exciting read.

The Wig in the Window

by Kristen Kittscher

Genre: Realistic fiction/mystery
Age group:10/11+

Sophie Young and Grace Yang are—almost—spies. Well, they're trying to be. They're erring on the old-fashioned side, and use walkie-talkies rather than smartphones, and they like to sneak out in the middle of the night to spy on any of their neighbors who might still have their lights on—you never know who in your neighborhood might be a serial killer. But they're not really serious about it. It never escalates to anything more than a fun game... until they peek inside the window of Charlotte Agford, the middle school guidance counselor.
Sophie and Grace always knew there was something up about Agford. What's with the weird wig, and her posse of students who are always ready to do her bidding, S.M.I.L.E.? When they see an unsettlingly red liquid spattered all over her kitchen counter, and overhear a suspicious phone call, they know something's up. The police dismiss it after they find evidence to show that it was just beet juice, Sophie and Grace think there's more to it, especially when a mysterious blue car and a strange man with a unibrow show up. There's more to Agford than meets the eye... And it's up to Young & Yang to figure out what's going on.

This was a really great read. It was entertaining, and kept me completely on my toes (not literally). I think it's an excellent mystery book. Usually when I read mystery books, every time I get a new clue I guess who the criminal really is, and then at the end I see if any of my guesses were right. This book has so many red herrings that partway through the book I just gave up trying to figure out who was the bad guy. It's not confusing, though. It's just really, really hard to point fingers because there are multiple situations which would work. Besides the main plot, where Sophie & Grace are trying to solve the mystery of Charlotte Agford, there are also some friendship problems which makes it more relatable (and slightly more believable) for middle-grade readers. This book is intense, exciting, and sometimes even scary, and the story is not only a great idea, it's written really well. My only problem is the cover: it doesn't really fit the characters the way they're described in the book. But that's just a cover.

Ender's Game

by Orson Scott Card

Genre: Science fiction
Age group: 11-12+

It's hundreds of years into the future, and aliens, buggers, have attacked Earth multiple times... Earth's resources are running out and her army commanders are running out of options. The buggers are strong, and seem to share one mind—they communicate almost instantaneously. It will be hard for the humans to beat them. They've taken to breeding military geniuses to defeat the aliens, and are waiting for the one who will end the buggers once and for all...
And they want Ender Wiggin, a boy of only six. They want him to skip ahead to battle school and become the one they want. He's stronger than his compassionate sister Valentine and more composed than his psychopath brother Peter—the government believes he is the one. And Ender is going to try to be that.
Battle school isn't easy for Ender, but he excels in everything he does. Colonel Graff, the principal of battle school, has taken a shine to Ender, and he gets promoted and promoted. But when he faces the Simulation, a series of games to help him train and get better at fighting, he is sometimes forced to do things he doesn't want to do. As Ender is pushed further and further into this new world of competition, danger and desperation, he tries to hold the pressure... But little does he know, the worst is yet to come.

As I usually do, I really liked this book. Firstly, the end is so surprising. I was totally not expecting what happened to happen. It works so much better than if the end part was just cut off and everything was happy ever after. The end goes deeper than that. Some people might say this book is a giant cliche, what with the aliens attacking and all that. IT ISN'T. Ender's Game still focuses on saving the world, but it's also about human nature. Through the action and fight scenes, we get to see inside Ender's head and watch as he's handling the pressure in the only way he knows how. Sure, this book may not be as action-packed as other books, but that doesn't make it boring. It just means that it goes deeper than the superficial violence and romance. (There isn't really much romantic stuff in Ender's Game, though.) This could be considered a book about aliens and exploding starships—or it could be considered a book about ethics and human nature. It's really up to you.

Revolver

by Marcus Sedgwick

Genre: Historical fiction
Age group: 11+

Sig was a normal boy in Alaska... that is, until his father, Einar, drove across the frozen lake outside their house and froze to death. And to make things even more unusual, a man called Wolff came to Sig's house looking for Einar's gold... Einar's gold that Sig knows nothing about. But even though Wolff knows that Sig has no clue where this gold is, he is determined to stay until Sig's stepmother and sister return home from a trip, and maybe even past then. Wolff is dangerous, and there's nothing Sig can do about him. Except... there's a revolver in the pantry. If Sig could get that gun, he could win. He could get rid of Wolff. Can he—or will he—do it? Or will his memories of his dead pacifist mother get the better of him?

This book skipped back and forth between the present (actually the early 1900s in Alaska) and the past (before the early 1900s in Europe). The present is told from Sig's point of view and the past from his father's. Admittedly, getting both of these points of view gives you a lot of information that you otherwise wouldn't get and need to know in order to understand the story. However, it's slightly confusing the way it switches. I was reading and suddenly it switched from present to past. I was really confused and had to go back and start over, using a higher level of concentration than usual. However, I got used to it after maybe 50 pages, and then the story started to get more interesting. It's a little sparse, and Marcus Sedgwick does not waste words on beautiful description, but that works in this case because Alaska is also sparse. Not all stories are cut out for vivid imagery. This is not one of my favorite books and I did not love it, but it wasn't bad. It's an interesting type of mystery/historical fiction that makes you wonder who really is the bad guy.

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

by Jonathan Auxier

Genre: Fantasy
Age group: 10+

Today, there aren't many blind thieves. But there was a time when there were. Peter Nimble was the best of them all—an orphan, trained to be a thief by his cruel master who forced him to steal jewelry for him, who one day met a haberdasher and stole a box from him. He, naturally, opens the box, and finds inside three pairs of eggs that when cracked reveal—three pairs of eyes. But they aren't normal eyes. There is a pair of gold, a pair of onyx, and a pair of emerald. When he tries the gold pair, he is suddenly transported to another place in another time and finds himself floating in the ocean, next to a ship. He is lifted aboard, and meets Sir Tode, a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate mix between cat and horse. He also meets the haberdasher, who explains to him the eyes and tells him their purpose: to help Peter as he embarks on a trip to discover his one and only destiny.
This book was pretty good. The writing sounds oldish—no, that's a bad way to put it. It sounds not modern, it sounds like it was written by, for example, Merlin. YES, that's what it is. It sounds like it was written by Merlin or some other famous wizard from way-back-when. That's not a bad thing. It's the right style of writing for this book; I think any other way would ruin certain parts of it. It makes the book more whimsical. I also liked how there are so many new obstacles popping up all the time—it adds a lot of excitement. Unfortunately, the fact that so many obstacles are popping up all the time can be a bit overwhelming and feels almost naive, and at times I felt as if this book was written by my 5th grader friend. However, it's a really interesting story, and is carried off pretty well. Maybe it's not as well-written as some of the other books of this genre, but it's certainly a great and entertaining read.

Doll Bones

by Holly Black
NEWBERY HONOR WINNER!!!

Genre: Fiction. Possibly realistic fiction. Sort of horror, I guess... Maybe thriller. Perhaps even fantasy.
Age group: 11+

Poppy, Alice, and Zach have been playing their game for years. In this game, they play different characters (who are actually figurines) who go on quests for the Queen, the old china doll who sits in Poppy's closet. The characters have lives, and it feels real to Poppy, Alice and Zach. But now they're getting older, and it's getting harder to play. Alice's overprotective grandmother freaks out and grounds her at the smallest things, and Zach's dad thinks he shouldn't be playing with dolls—he should be tough. When his dad throws away all of his figurines, Zach is forced to lie about why he's quitting the game. His friends, especially Poppy, are bewildered and hurt, and Zach feels upset too. For a little while, it looks like the game is over.
But then Poppy starts getting dreams—dreams about a girl whose bones were turned into the bone china in the Queen, a girl who wants to be buried in her grave. Zach and Alice aren't sure if Poppy's telling the truth or not—after all, their group just broke up, and she might just want attention. But the dream came with a threat, and it's not as if anyone wants to take a risk that could end badly. They set out on a final quest to return the Queen to her rightful burying place, but nobody knows how well this one will end.

This book was excellent because of two main reasons. 1) The suspense. Holly Black knows how to write chillingly. She throws in red herrings and creepy comments about certain events, which make you suspect one thing, but you never really know for sure what's going on. It's GREAT! 2) The fact that you never really know for sure what's going on! The book is totally unpredictable that way. While I was reading, I was constantly re-evaluating what I thought was happening. One minute it was: Poppy's lying. The next: Poppy's telling the truth. The next: Poppy's being influenced. The next: What the heck is going on here?!?!?! There is one flaw that kind of relates to this: You never actually find out exactly what was happening. You suspect, but you never know for sure. Because of this, the end can be considered annoying, but it's also hopeful and exciting as well. It leaves lots of ways for the story-beyond-the-book to continue, and signals more excitement and suspense to come (though not necessarily in another book).

The Short Seller

by Elissa Brent Weissman

Genre: Realistic fiction
Age group: 10+

It all started when Lindy Sachs got sick with mononucleosis and had to stay in bed for weeks. She couldn't ice skate, couldn't go to school, couldn't hang out with friends... so her dad introduced her to the stock market. Soon Lindy was hooked. School math made no sense to her, but this actually did. She understood how stocks rose and fell, and how you could sell them to make more money. To keep her busy, her dad gave her $100 to spend on whatever stocks she'd like, and soon Lindy's money is growing and growing. She's actually doing pretty well, and getting into the swing of things, when she clicks back to her parents' account page on the stocks website and sees how much capital (money in the account but not currently being invested) they have. And then Lindy starts to get greedy. Surely it will be okay if she borrows just a little of that money... after all, her parents have so much of it. But then the stocks began to fall drastically. In just one day, Lindy has lost a ton of money, and she needs to find a way to pay it back. Fast.

This book made me really, really interested in the stock market, because it brought all of that big information down to a simpler level and made it easy for younger people to understand it. It showed how stocks and bonds are not necessarily only for adults or economists. In addition to the main storyline of Lindy getting in financial trouble, there's also a smaller subplot about her relationship with her friends Steph, Howe, and a girl who isn't exactly a friend, Cassie. These parts of the story make it more relatable, and make it more appealing overall. It would be much less believable if the friendship subplot were taken out. The writing is also very good at adding suspense as the problems pile up and up and up. I think The Short Seller is really well-crafted, and is not only a good introduction to economics, it is an engaging and interesting novel about a new topic.

Austenland

by Shannon Hale

Genre: Realistic fiction
Age group: Maybe 13+? It didn't seem remarkably inappropriate but you need to be above a certain age to understand some of the things. I'd say you should be 13+ to truly understand everything, but really this book is geared towards adults.

Ever since she watched the BBC TV version of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Hayes' obsession with Colin Firth playing Mr. Darcy is legendary. She is kind of embarrassed by it, but in her eyes, no other man could ever compare to Colin. Then, her great-aunt passes away, and leaves Jane a vacation in her will. But it's not an ordinary vacation to the Bahamas—Jane is going to Pembrook Park, where the time is not the twenty-first century, but 1816, and Jane Hayes can be transported to the time of Jane Austen. Jane decides to give it a go, and soon she is surrounded by handsome gentlemen, cute gardeners, and fine ladies. At first Jane knows it's only a game, and none of it is actually real. The people starting to pay attention to the other visitors are just paid actors. But as Jane gets more and more involved in Pembrook Park and its inhabitants, the line between reality and pretense get blurred, and she isn't really sure of things anymore.

I just read Pride and Prejudice, and I think that reading that helped a lot with understanding this, though having not read any other Jane Austen, you could probably be okay if you haven't read any Jane Austen at all.
This book was funny. This book was unpredictable. This book was quite intriguing. It's kind of hard for me to explain why I liked it... The protagonist, Jane, was very likable. She is relatable and the way she handles the situations she is put into is very interesting because it's not always what others might do, especially others in this book. Also, there were plenty of plot twists or things that happen that add to the interest/suspense level of the book. The characters become believable as you get to know them, and you feel Jane's confusion when she is trying to discern the actors from the characters they are playing. Not everyone is exactly what you think they are. A great follow-up to any Austen novel.

Smile

by Raina Telgemeier

Genre: Memoir/Graphic novel
Age group: 10+

Raina is a normal girl... But one day, on her way home from Girl Scouts, she trips, falls, and knocks out her two front teeth. She's quickly taken to the dentist, and is treated immediately, but the result is less than perfect. So Raina embarks on a journey of dental visits, mouth pain, and sets upon sets of braces. It's not fun, and her friends aren't exactly supportive. As she grapples with crushes, friendship troubles, and oral surgery, Raina is also searching for her place, where she can fit in and finally smile.

I TOTALLY LOVED THIS BOOK!!!! I think it was just really perfect, and having it as a graphic novel added so much more interest. Without the pictures... this book would just fall apart. There's so much shown in the pictures that if they weren't there not only would Smile be so much more confusing, it would lose about three-quarters of its charm and excitement and interest. Also, because there are so many kids today who have braces, this book is great and fits this time period really well. Kids can relate to Raina's experiences, and might even feel better about their own because Raina goes through so much that is so common nowadays. Besides the dental part, Smile also addresses tons of other issues that may come up in schools, such as bullying and crushes. So kids can relate to those as well. This book makes so much sense for this day and age. It is real, and the author obviously remembers a lot about her experiences in middle school because those experiences are so true to life. AND it's funny. There are serious parts, but also humorous parts. I think this book should be required reading for at least all kids with braces.

Flora and Ulysses

2014 NEWBERY AWARD WINNER!!!
by Kate DiCamillo

Genre: Fantasy, I guess... It feels less like fantasy and more like just fiction, but it really is more fantastical.

It all started with a vacuum cleaner. When Tootie Tickham received an all-terrain one for her birthday and tried it outside (yes, it works on grass too), she accidentally sucked up a... squirrel?
Yes, a squirrel, and Flora, a natural-born cynic who loves reading comics, saved it from certain death. At first it just appears to be a regular, everyday squirrel who has just been sucked up into an all-terrain vacuum cleaner... But then it lifts up the vacuum cleaner. With one paw. The truth finally dawns on Flora: This squirrel is a superhero!
Flora names the squirrel Ulysses, and they become excellent friends. Ulysses, Flora soon finds out, can fly, write poetry, and of course, lift vacuum cleaners. But every superhero comes with an archvillain. And sure enough, Flora's cheesy-romance-novel-writing mother (who, by the way, cares more about a little shepherdess lamp than about Flora) hates Ulysses as soon as she sees him. She's convinced he's diseased, and is eager to get him out of the way and dead. Can Flora save Ulysses? Can Ulysses save himself? Can either of them save the world? Maybe they can't do it alone, but they can definitely do it together.

This book had a theme of friendship and love all the way through it. And, wonderfully, it was not between a boy and a girl or even human and human—it was between a girl and a squirrel. It's such a different idea... And Kate DiCamillo wrote the idea awesomely. She has dropped a lot of interesting characters into Flora and Ulysses. Another thing I like about this book is that there are some pictures. Sometimes there will be a comic strip illustrating part of the story. Sometimes there are full-page pictures to go along with the words. Sometimes there are small pictures next the words that show one thing they are talking about. Anyways, the pictures help the story a lot, especially the comic strips, because Flora likes comics a lot. Oh, and another good thing is because sometimes Kate DiCamillo writes in a somewhat roundabout, whimsical way, like she is writing for younger audiences, which isn't bad but sometimes it can be a little bit distracting, and in this book she writes in a more straightforward and clear manner. However, I stand firm in my belief that the best aspect in this book was the friendship and love theme. It was just carried off so beautifully!

The Time-Traveling Fashionista on Board the Titanic

by Bianca Turetsky

Genre: Fantasy
Age group: 9+

Louise Lambert is your average middle school student, with the exception of one thing that really sets her apart from the crowd—Louise loves fashion, especially vintage. She'd much rather go to a vintage clothing store than a glossy shop at the mall, and is working on building her soon-to-be extensive collection of vintage clothes. So when she one day receives an invitation to a pop-up vintage clothing store, she absolutely can't wait. 
The store is perfect for her, filled with wonderful finds, and when Louise discovers a beautiful pink dress, she can't resist trying it on. But when she does, a strange thing happens—the store around her disappears and she is transported into the past. Now she's Alice Baxter, stunning teenage movie star, aboard a luxurious cruise ship... and Louise is loving it. Until she finds out the name of the cruise ship. Turns out, Louise is on the Titanic, which is fated to crash into an iceberg and drown hundreds of its passengers. The only way for her to get back to the present is to put the dress back on... but it's gone missing! Can she find the dress and go back to her normal life, before it's too late and she's stuck in the past forever?

I really liked this book for two main reasons. 1) The pictures. This is one of the rare novels that has full-color pictures every so often, which is AWESOME!! Also, the pictures are of beautiful dresses, which I think are very nice. 2) The plot/story idea. It really is amazing nobody thought of this before, because this is a really fun idea, and Bianca Turetsky could really have fun with this. It's surprisingly action-packed. While this book may not be as interesting for some people, it's a really great book for fashion-lovers and people who are just looking for something new and fresh.
This book is actually part of a series, The Time-Traveling Fashionista, and Louise has, as of today, 2 other adventures: The Time-Traveling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie Antoinette and The Time-Traveling Fashionista and Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile.

The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green

Genre: Realistic fiction
Age: 13+

Hazel has cancer in her lungs. She uses an oxygen tank. Her parents hover over her at her every waking moment. Her mom wants her to get out more, and so she's been forced to attend a depressing cancer support group for kids like her - kids whose days are numbered. She tolerates the support group, and doesn't really enjoy it. But one day a boy called Augustus Waters shows up, a friend of her friend Isaac's. He used to have cancer, and now has one prosthetic leg, and he and Hazel immediately like each other. They start to spend time together, and Hazel makes Augustus read her favorite book, and he makes her read his. But soon they discover that they like-like each other.
But Augustus has been keeping a secret from Hazel. And when he decides to tell her, both of their new lives are going to change.

At first, I expected this book to just be very overrated. Then I read it.
It was AMAZINGLY GOOD. This is a new type of love story, with many more obstacles specially created for a book about cancer. It has so many emotions, tightly packed into a thick-with-thoughts novel, told in the slightly sarcastic (but definitely unique) voice of Hazel. And then a plot twist occurs nearer to the end of the novel that for me, at least, changed everything. My friends who read The Fault in Our Stars cried at the end. That is the level of the storytelling and plot in this book. In other words, it is EXCELLENT.

How to Rock Braces and Glasses

by Meg Haston

Genre: Realistic fiction
Age: 10-11+

Kacey Simon is the most popular girl in the whole of Marquette Middle School. She's scored the lead in the school play and gets to kiss Quinn Wilder, has her own program, Simon Says, on the Marquette Middle TV Program, and always makes sure to tell people the cold, hard truth. Whether they like it or not. Truthfully, Kacey's pretty harsh. But nobody's going to challenge the coolest girl at school.
One day, though, she gets an infection from her brand-new contacts - and gets stuck with huge, clunky glasses. Then she trips and needs - GASP! - braces!! And to top it all off, she's suddenly developed a hideous lithp. She goes from top of the pyramid to the very, very bottom in a few days. And that does not bode well for her social life. She soon overhears her best friend planning to ditch her, and loses her spot in the school play. But then she becomes friends again with Paige - one of the least popular girls in the school - and they start a plan to get Kacey right back where she belongs - at the top. But when she meets a new boy called Zander who has his own band, and becomes their lead singer, she starts to wonder if she really, truly wants to be super-popular again.
This book is not only funny, it's new. There are so many books out there that have a tyrannical mean girl who rules the school, but this one takes that idea and changes it up - because how many books out there have a tyrannical mean girl who drops to the pitiful, somewhat-nice girl? The point is, it's a new idea that's really very appealing. There are spots of humor, and Kacey's sarcastic voice makes for a great narration. Also, Kacey has to make lots of choices and decisions throughout the course of the book, and you sometimes find yourself urging her mentally to go with that choice! Overall, this was a great read, especially for middle-schoolers. :)

Son of the Mob

by Gordon Korman

Genre: Realistic fiction
Age: 11+

Vince Luca just wants to be normal. He dreams of dating Angela O'Bannon, the most popular girl in school. His big brother Alex keeps trying to hook Vince up, because he thinks Vince's love life is his love life. He's trying his hardest in football at school. Only, the chances are just about zero of Vince ever being truly normal - especially since his dad is a powerful mafia boss.
His dad already knows Vince wants nothing to do with the family business, but his work keeps sneaking into Vince's life. Then Vince meets Kendra Bightly - a girl who he really, truly falls in love with. It should be easy, but it isn't. It would be hard to explain his father's occupation to any girl, but it's particularly hard with Kendra... especially seeing as her dad is the FBI agent who wants to get rid of Vince's dad once and for all.

Just like most of Gordon Korman's books, this one is HILARIOUS!!! Vince is in a sticky situation, which allows for tons of humor, and Korman adds a generous helping. Even my mom, who rarely laughs at books, found herself laughing just about every five seconds. Also the plot is really great - it's sort of like Romeo and Juliet, only modernized, less tragic, and nobody dies. But the idea of people in love from two families who (in this case, somewhat indirectly) hate each other is the same. Overall, though, even if the plot was really bad (though it isn't), the humor would save it from collapsing. Actually, if you like humor, read lots of Gordon Korman. He's really great for that kind of thing. He also wrote No More Dead Dogs, which I reviewed also on this site.