Lincoln's Grave Robbers by Steve Sheinkin

I read the book, Lincoln’s Grave Robbers, by Steve Sheinkin. The story takes place in the 1880s in Springfield and Chicago, Illinois. It centers around an undercover police officer who is originally sent to bust an undercover fake money ring. However, he stumbles onto something way more intense than that. 

In this book you will experience laughs and many intense moments. If you like historical fiction, this is the book for you. This book is a quick read for the casual reader. I recommend this book if you want to have a book to read during your free time, like a nice relaxing Sunday morning with eggs and a hot cup of coffee for breakfast. I highly recommend this book.  

I myself don’t really care for books but once I got into this book I couldn't put it down. Page after page I found myself wanting to read the book even more. Steve Sheinkin did a very good job of giving descriptions in the book; the detail was very vivid. I highly recommend Lincoln’s Grave Robbers to people aged 13 and up who would enjoy a good historical fiction book.

Mark S.

Child Called It by Dave Pelzer

Dave Pelzer’s book, A Child Called It, is a work of fiction. If you have ever seen young boys who had a bad childhood because of their uncaring mothers, you would enjoy reading A Child Called It. 

This book is a real life event about David, a nine year old boy, who gets beaten by his alcoholic, mad, heartless mother. She would not feed him for days! Many times on his way to school David would either stop by a store or he would have to steal his classmate’s lunches. His mother was so evil that one day she tried burning him in the stove! Thankfully, his father came home or else she would have burned him to death! 

His father was usually away because of his work. The father was miserable with the mother too, as she was an alcoholic, lazy, angry woman. David was so horrified of his mother he could not ask for help. Sadly, he had to deal with all his mother’s unfair games. 

If you would like to find out what other crazy things David’s mother made him endure, I recommend you read A Child Called It.

Deicy A.

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

The novel, War Horse, made me understand more about the way horses contributed in a war and  the       hardships they shared with their caretakers and the solders.


Joey is the name of the famous horse that lived to tell his stories of the war and his return home to his owner, Albert. It’s amazing how many people can have a part in a horse’s life and make changes for an animal that you wouldn’t believe. Joey made and lost friends, horses and people alike. The suffering these horses endured really shows how strong a horse’s will is. Albert was the young owner of Joey who taught him the ways of running a farm. Then out of nowhere Albert’s drunken father sold Joey to the Army and this started the new life of the War Horse.

Yazmine M.

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

The book, House Rules, by Jodi Picoult is a fiction novel. I read this book during the winter for a class.

The book is about an 18 year old boy, Jacob, who has Asperger’s Syndrome. Jacob is an extremely intelligent boy. He is very interested in crime scenes and forensic shows. He watches a crime scene show on the television all the time and then tries to figure out the crime before the end of the show. Jacob also sets up his own crime scenes and has his mom and brother figure out the crime.

One day when Jacob was supposed to meet his tutor for a session, he showed up to the location and finds her dead. He freaks out, runs home and does not speak for almost a whole day. The police suspect it was Jacob who killed her but no one knows for sure. He gets caught in the middle of an accident even though he did not even intend to get involved.

I won’t say any more about the book. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone to read. It is extremely interesting and keeps you on your seat. I learned a lot more about what a person is like when they are living with Asperger’s Syndrome.

Kayla G.

Thirteen Reasons Why by: Jay Asher

Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why is about a girl named Hannah who had committed suicide. Before she committed suicide she made thirteen tapes that involved all the people who made her life go from great to terrible all in one month. The main person in the book is Clay. One day when Clay came home from school there was a box sitting on his front stoop. Clay was very confused because it didn't have a return address on it so he didn’t know who sent it. Clay opened the box and there were 13 tapes inside. He was very confused about them so he took tape one out and began to listen to it. As he hit play, he realized it was Hannah's voice. Clay was very confused about why she would have sent the tapes to his house. As Clay listened, he heard about all the people who made Hannah's life terrible. As each tape played, Clay found out what the people did to Hannah that made her life so bad. Toward the end of the book, Clay finished up the tapes. He felt very guilty and thought Hannah's death was all his fault but in reality it wasn't. Hannah was actually thanking Clay for being such a good friend to her when everyone else was putting her down. Hannah asked one thing of Clay and that was he would pass the tapes on to whomever was next on the list. At first Clay thought it wouldn't be right. After Clay thought about it, he decided to send the tapes to the next person. He figured if Hannah really didn't want people to know what happened then she wouldn't have made the tapes. So Clay sent the tapes to the next person wondering if the next person would feel the same way he felt after listening to the tapes. After reading this book, I have realized calling people names may not affect you but it sure is affecting the other person. Even though you might have meant the comment in a joking way, the person you said it to just might take it very seriously. My opinion is always to think before you speak, because you never know how someone else is going to take what you say.

Kelly R.

Million Dollar Baby By: Clint Eastwood

The book Million Dollar Baby is based on the movie. It starts by telling about Frankie Dunn who has trained and managed some incredible fighters during a lifetime spent in the ring. The most important lesson he teaches his boxers is the one rule to always protect yourself. Maggie Fitzgerald is a poor thirty-one year old waitress from Southwest Missouri who has been a waitress since she was 13. She sees boxing as the one way she can escape being a waitress for the rest of her life. Maggie just wants a shot at making it in the ring. In the beginning, trainer Frankie does not believe in training women what so ever but Maggie doesn't give up. She is determined to learn from the best and to fight before she gets too old to stand a chance against younger competition. Maggie is a perfect example of a woman who doesn't give up and does the impossible to prove all the potential and strength she has to offer in the ring. Trainer Frankie Dunn is a man who at first does not want to do anything for this woman but ends up doing everything he can for her. Later on, trainer Frankie takes on his first female fighter when he trains Maggie. He does not feel so sure about this but he decides to give it a shot. Maggie is determined to become a champion and trainer Dunn is determined to make her that champion. I would really recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the sport of boxing. Most importantly, I would really recommend this book to all those people out there who don’t believe a woman can succeed in the sport of boxing.

Jadira Z.

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Ellen Hopkins’ book, Impulse, is a book about three troubled teens whose troubled lives have landed them in a hospital where they are attending therapy to deal with their close encounters with death and harming themselves. The book tells the main stories of three of the patients. Tony tries to forget about his painful childhood and being a gay guy who tried to commit suicide. Vanessa keeps a secret from the group and her own family that keeps her going back to cutting herself to try and forget. Conner, the perfect boy, seems to have the perfect life but hides his struggles with his parents, his friends, himself and his obsession with a young girl that led him to try and pull the trigger. These three teens try to deal with their issues and try to let go of all their bad and dangerous habits. This helps them deal with trying to forget their painful lives and save themselves. Here in the hospital they are given a second chance to start over and learn how to cope and deal with their issues and go back to the real world and start living their lives once again in a healthier way. If you’re interested in finding out more in detail what led these teens to go to such extremes just to end their lives then read the book Impulse.

Jazmin A.

Enrique's Journey Sonia Nazario

Many of us have relatives who also live far away from us and sometimes we go years without seeing them. Enrique’s Journey is about a teenage boy who is left behind in Honduras located in South America. His mother, Lourdes, is an illegal immigrant who makes it through to the U.S. and starts taking any cleaning services position. Years pass and Enrique grows older without his mother. He lives with his grandmother and his aunt and uncle. Each time Enrique receives a phone call from his mother he gets upset because he doesn’t get a firm answer from her. He wants her to come back home or to take him where she is because he misses her. Years pass and Enrique is not 13 anymore; he is 17 and he is getting worried his mother might not care about him anymore. So he makes a decision and leaves Honduras and heads up North. I feel he made the right decision because back in Honduras as he was getting older he began stealing from people and doing drugs. His journey wasn’t easy because he got robbed, hit and caught by the Mexican patrol a lot of times. When he finally made it to the U.S. he changed a lot. At one point he did not feel the love from his mother anymore so he was a rebel. I think he acted this way because his mother was gone for almost four years. He just went through a lot of things without her. At the beginning of the book his father was an alcoholic and he abandoned Enrique and Becky for another family. His mother leaves but not to make him suffer because she really wants the best for her kids. Yet many people out there still live this way and for many kids a mother’s love can’t be compared to anything.

Maria P.

House Rules by Rachel Sontag

Through the book, House Rules, Sontag tells the unbelievable story of her family and their struggle trying to deal with her father’s obsessive and controlling ways. If you've read the book, A Child Called It, by Dave Pelzer and found it to be an incredible book, than chances are you would enjoy reading House Rules as well. However, unlike the book, A Child Called It, House Rules does not involve physical abuse but instead emotional abuse. Rachel Sontag is writing about her family’s struggle while also demonstrating emotional abuse can be as severe as physical and sexual abuse. House Rules tells about the life of Rachel Sontag, a ten year old girl living with her sister, Jenny, her mother who is a social worker and her father who is a well-respected doctor. Rachel is the type of daughter any parent would love to have. She respects others, does well in school, is involved in activities and does everything she is told to do. While she would be the perfect daughter to one, her father wishes she was never born. Rachel’s father is extremely strict even on topics most wouldn't notice. She is forced to have short hair and nails because, according to her father, it gives her a more respected view from others. If she ever disobeys, she must write him a well written apology letter. This is one of the few unbelievable things he does that makes Rachel feel as if she is in a prison with no escape. If you are curious to find out what else her father makes her go through, I recommend you read House Rules.

Ariana E.

Right Behind You by Gail Giles

Gail Giles’ book, Right Behind You, is a tragic story with a happy ending. It is a fictional book but I am sure this situation has happened before. What this book taught me was there is always another side to the story. Kip, the main character of the book, kills another child with fire. The book talks about his time in a mental hospital and fighting the reality of what he did. Once he does get past that, he decides to start fresh and get a new life. He then has the high school life many kids desire. He is the popular, good looking jock with the pretty girlfriend and popular friends. Yet Kip still has trouble getting beyond his past life. He feels he does not deserve this and that feeling is what I liked about the book. The author did give away his happy ending right there. She made the character really fight for his freedom and made him realize he deserved to be happy. One day he told everyone what he had done and his perfect life was gone. He then had to start again and believe what he did was in the past and it was a mistake. That made me really like this book. It is just like in the movies when you think the happy ending is coming and then something bad happens and you think everything is done. But then you see the light in the tunnel. The author took her time to show the hardships Kip’s family had and what he went through to get to that happy ending. Plus, the whole plot is great. It is a book about something we do not hear about often and it made me realize when things like this happen maybe we should be more understanding.

Elizabeth M.

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Sold is a novel about a 13 year-old girl (Lakshmi) who is sold into prostitution. She faces many challenges and obstacles she has to overcome. Lakshmi is forced out of her comfort zone during almost the whole story. During this time, she grows not only in knowledge but as a person herself. She learns many different things about herself in this experience she was forced to endure. Lakshmi‘s story begins in a small rural town in the country. Her family is used to living in poverty to the point where they mix water and dirt in order to trick their minds into believing it is food. Lakshmi has always been able to endure the toughest of times. Things took a turn for the worst when her step father could no longer support their family and sold Lakshmi. Lakshmi had no say in this but was told she would be a house maid. She didn't seem frightened by the idea of being stripped away from her family because she knew it was for their own good. She would now be able to buy her family that tin roofed house about which they always dreamed. Lakshmi was sold for 10,000 rupees, which translates to a whopping 185.25 US Dollars…fair trade right? Lakshmi’s childhood, dreams and aspirations were changed all for under 200 dollars. Read the book to find out more about Laskima's story.

Erika M.

Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Truth Edited by: Michael Cart

The book I’ve read this semester is Love Sex: Ten Stories of Truth. I think this is a perfect title for this book because every story was either about the different types of love or sex. It says that every story is true but I don’t believe that because there’s one story called Lighting Bringer and it’s about a boy who can see people’s sexual aura and the guy known as Lightning has the aura to take sexual advantage of males and females. I know that story had to be fabricated in some way. Every other story besides that one seemed to be a real story about real people but after I read the Lightning Bringer story I questioned if any of the stories were real. At the end of every story there is an author follow up note about the writers of each story and it just talks about what happened to them after their stories were in the book. This book was very detailed and sometimes uncomfortable to read when certain topics about sexual preference and abortions came up. But I think, even though topics were uneasy, the wording was great to at least ease someone into the story so you knew what to expect from each story.

Tavion J.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, by Heidi W. Durrow, is a realistic fiction novel that tells about the life of Rachel. Rachel and her family fell from the rooftop of a Chicago apartment building but Rachel was the only survivor. She was sent away to live with her grandmother in a town much different than her own. She struggles to find herself after the incident and learns to not let the disaster define who she is. This novel discuses themes of coming of age, race and discrimination. I recommend this novel to people who like mysteries, adventures and love stories. This book can be categorized into many different genres and would appeal to a variety of people.

Sarah W.

Room by Emma Donoghue

Don’t judge a book by its cover is a correct statement. At first I thought it would be something not of my interest because it is in the point of view of a five year old boy, I gave it a try and I was proved wrong a few pages into the book. I really enjoyed reading this book. It is about a little boy named Jack who finds out he is the son of a kidnapper. His mother was actually taken by his father when she was fifteen. Jack does not know this man is his father but at first believes he is a man who rents a room to his mother and him. Little by little Jack’s mother tells him of their real family (her parents and brother) and how she has tried escaping from her past. The love and strength these two have is incredible. The mom’s strength is from being captured and living this way for so long but still not despising her son even though he is a child born due to rape. Jack’s strength is because he is so young but has to comprehend so much like an adult. I believe others would enjoy this book as much as I did. It is a fiction book but can be said to be somewhat real. There are people who are kidnapped and trapped as prisoners. This book shows the mentality one might have in that situation and makes one think what they would do if they were in a position like that. Room does a very nice job at always keeping the reader’s attention.

 Viviana F.

The Chocolate War By Robert Cormier

This book, The Chocolate War, might make you ask why it has that title. I know it sounds funny but when you read this book you will know why it is titled that. Well, I do recommend this book to all levels of readers because it talks about three boys and how their lives changed as they get older and older. I think this book was called by this title because they talk about these three boys wanting to sell 1,000 boxes of chocolate. If you are interested in reading a book about bullying this might be the perfect book to read because it talks about Jerry who is one of the boys. He got bullied when he was trying out for the football team. Every player made fun of him and his personality. If you read this book you will like it more and more so I recommend if you want to read this book you should do so. One more thing, it takes place during the years of 1972 and 1973 and I know that is quite a long time ago but it is a really good book.

Rabely B.

Why I Fight by J. Adams Oaks

This exciting novel is about a boy named Wyatt Reaves who starts out life not so good since he is weak and scared. Wyatt grows up in a poor family. His parents don’t really care for him or about him. He is adopted by his uncle, Spade. Spade has a problem with gambling and when he finds out about Wyatt’s great ability to fight, he gets money hungry. He begins to bet on Wyatt as he fights on and off the street. Wyatt Reeves is a rather sad character. He got dumped off by his parents to be taken care of by his uncle. After that tragic day he needed to be smart and stay out of trouble without any contact with his real parents. This book made me feel as if I was actually in the book. When Wyatt was in the fight I felt his pain with every punch given to him. I would recommend this book to sports readers who like a bittersweet ending and to those who are into risky things.

Jonathan O.

I Will Save You by Matt de la Pena

I Will Save You by Matt de la Pena is about a teenage boy named Kidd who was left to be a foster child in a place called Horizons where he got daily counseling. Kidd was mentally scarred because his father was abusive and his mom died. After a few years he felt it wasn’t necessary to stay there anymore and he took it upon himself to run away. He lived on a beach campsite for the summer with an old friend named Red who watched over him at Horizons. Throughout the summer Kidd started to grow more confident and learned to be accepting of who he was and he started to come out of his shell. He learned not to let himself get brought down so easily by others like Devon, his old friend, who ended up coming to the campsite. He gained confidence to talk to a girl and hangout with her throughout the summer. Toward the end of summer though, things took a wrong turn and the truth came out. Devon wasn’t the person we really thought he was but Kidd wasn’t either. I really liked this book because not only is the author unique but the plot and story line are as well. It does include a love story but it’s not your typical teenage love story. There’s action and situations which keep you on the edge of your seat wanting to read more to find out what happens next. This is a novel  you want to finish because it’s extremely surprising and has an unexpected ending. I would recommend this book to everyone because it is so unique in the way it is written. It is not your typical chapter by chapter book. Instead each section tells its own unique part of the story and the suspense and drama that happen throughout the book are really interesting.

Becky C.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult is a fiction novel. Like many of Picoult's other novels, this one covers a possible real life situation. Many of her books are about controversial topics which is why I believe she is such a brilliant writer. Nineteen Minutes is about a school shooting. A student named Peter goes into his high school with a gun shooting everyone who has bullied him. As the book jumps between the past and the present we learn what Peter's childhood was like and his relationship with friends at school. After reading about all  the hard times Peter endured you can understand why he thought it would be a good idea to murder his peers. A situation like this could have been avoided if teenagers weren't so cruel. If you want your attention to be locked on an amazing book that has just the right amount of suspense, read Nineteen Minutes.

Sarah P.

A Child Called By: Dave Pelzer

Dave Pelzer’s book, A Child Called It, is a work of non- fiction. This book is a great book to read if you’re one of those persons who likes to read about people’s lives. You will enjoy reading A Child Called It because it tells a story about child abuse in California caused by his own mother. He had to clean or wash dishes or whatever his mother told him to do to get something to eat. If he didn’t do whatever she told him to do he would get punished for not doing it. He was treated so badly and experienced terrible abuse when he was just a little child. While talking with his mother when doing dishes to acquire something to eat he was rewarded with the left overs of his brother’s cereal. In fact, after that he got help from his school and was removed from his home. Since then his life changed completely. There was no more abuse for him which was great because he had a better life, more safety, was healthier and was treated better. This book is a great book to read. I really recommend it to people to read because although it is a sad story involving violence and sad moments, you will love to read it. It is an emotional story that makes you think many things and react in many ways. It is a powerful book to read and I think you will enjoy it. I totally recommend this book.

Bianca E.

No Easy Day by Mark Owen

No Easy Day by Mark Owen is a fantastic book to read. If you want a book that is action-packed and you are fascinated about the assassination of Bin Laden, then read this book. It gives all the details from the eyes of one marine. 


Mark Owen is the main character of the book. He does talk about the other men who are on each mission with him. Each mission has different men alongside him. Mark starts out by describing what training he went through to get to where he is now. Before he was assigned the mission to assassinate Bin Laden, he had to go through other missions first. Usually each chapter tells about each new mission. 

The book is a timeline from when Mark first begins his training to the killing of Bin Laden. The book even gives you two sections of pictures to better explain and make sure you understand what weapons were used and what tactics were used. This book is high on detail and very good at description. I really liked this book because of the description and that it’s all real. 

If you want to feel like you’re the one that’s on the field right there with Mark, I highly suggest you read this book.

Vincent W.