THE RAIDERS by: Jorn Reil and Helen Cann

Rane and his army are invading Leiv, Naura, and  Apuluk's new home.  The three kids are trying to defend their new home. Can they help defend their new home from the raiders?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           The main character was in conflict with another character                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 The raiders were raiding the three teenagers new home                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Apuluk and Naura were rescued by a northern family teaching them that not all Northernmen were bad.  they all found their strength against the raiders and defeated them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     The three friends stuck together and protected each other when ever danger rose.                                                                                                                                                                                                              RATING****                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

MEET KAYA by Janet Shaw

Kaya (main character) is a Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) native american, Kaya has a wonderful Appaloosa mare, Steps High.  Since he is so wonderful Kaya tends to brag. Then she gets into a bit of trouble.

Kaya is the character who is mostly in conflict with herself. Kaya bragged about her horse then she finds she has a race while she is supposed to babysit her brothers .

During the course of this book Kaya changes and is more careful about what she says about Steps High.
This book reminds me about a cousin.  He is an only child, he can brag a little.

RATING: :****

Audrey

THE DOLL IN THE GARDEN by Mary Downing Hahn

This is a story about a mysterious child crying in the night. And how 2 girls are determined to find out where these creepy noises are coming from. Oh and an adventure through the backyard and other times. Will the girls get so creeped out and scared they will love the garden?

The main character is Ashley

Ashely and Kristi (her new next door neighbor) are not welcomed anywhere in the yard at Ashley's house because of the awful Miss Cooper, the old woman who lives downstairs from Ashley. Soon Ashley and Kristi find a doll while digging in the garden even though they are forbidden from going into the rose field, a dark magical world.

Ashley had moved into a house with her mom and hated the woman downstairs, Miss Cooper. In the beginning  and then Ashley met her neighbor and they became very good friends and they found a doll. Then they fought over the doll and Ashley got mad because she wanted the doll. At the end Kristi and Miss Cooper became friends with Ashley and played and shared stories about Louisa.

It reminded me of when my brother and our neighbors and I found keys while digging in the front yard and it turned out they were my Dads.

I rate this book *****

Ani

JULIAN SECRET AGENT by Ann Cameron

              Julian and his friends Gloria and Huey want to start their own detective agency. They rescue a dog from dying and a kid from drowning. They find a man who looks just like a man who is wanted and the reward is $25,000. Will the man be him? Or is he just a fake?

            Julian wants to find a criminal so that he can get the reward money.

            Julian couldn't find any criminals and he really wanted the reward money.

            Julian changed from being an amateur to telling a police chief that there was a criminal right in town. First he went from rescuing a dog by telling the owner to open up his car windows. Next, there was a child drowning, and they saved him from dying. He gets so good at detecting, he actually gets involved with the police for one of their crimes.

            I relate to Julian because I like to be a detective too. For example, I like doing scavenger hunts.

RATING: ***

CAPTURE THE FLAG BY Kate Messner

A secret society steals the flag that inspired the well known song the star spangled banner. Three

 kids Anna,Jose and, Henry go to find it.All of their parents are part of a art protecting society called the silver jaguar society and all of them are related to famous artists and engineers.Will they find the flag in time?

Anna,Jose and,Henry struggle with who might be the biggest art thief EVER.

The biggest conflict they go through is with snake arm a man with giant muscles and a snake tattoo.When they get chased the are about to get caught when they find a giant bottle of shampoo and squirt him in the face!

Henry definitely changed from being a mad kid who hogged an outlet to a crime fighting kid.

Their struggles did not remind me of any of my ordeals in real life

I rate this book ****

 Logan

THE ROCK JOCKEYS By Gary Paulsen - 16

   

 3 boys are on a rock climbing trip and decide to break the rules go on a straight up smooth wall of rock... and nobody that's gone up ever came down. Well their up there they find a crashed B-17 bomber plane. The path is hard from the high brushes and the close trees. All the clear paths have booby-traps. If they fall in will they make it out?

The three boys Spud, Rick, and J.D. are all troubled  with each other and nature.

The boys argue on which way to go. The boys explore further and further into the forest arguing and saving each others lives. The bushes are so tall and trees so close together, and all the paths that are clear have one or two booby traps.

The main characters change from arguing to helping each other in the wild forest on a mountain. Of course there's complaining and saving from life-death situations.

I related to this characters because I get annoyed by my sister and we always get in to arguments. I love walking in the woods so some times I have to go through some tough places.

RATING: ****

ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS by Scott O'Dell

Tweleve year old Karana lives in a tribe with her six yer old brother Ramo. When searching for roots a ship full of aleuets , lead by a Russian names captain Orlov arrives. When Orlov gets in a fight with the chief of Karana tribe, her dad, a war happens. Many lives were lost on each side including her dad the chief.

Karana has a problem with another character.
Karana has a problem with Captain Orlov because they killed her father.

Karana changed because first she hated the wolf because it killed her little brother when they were alone on the beach, But now she has a change of heart when she meets the leader of the wolf pack named Yellow Eyes. She was able to tame him.

Karana and I are alike in the way that we first can be very wary of animals and not want to be around them. After a while and getting to know them I ,like Karana get to know the animal and get along with it.


Rating ****

Eyva

LEXI'S TALE by Johanna Hurwitz

This book was about Lexi, and how her friend, Pee Wee, meets a human who is very cranky but nice at the same time. But when Lexi makes a wrong turn, every thing turns the wrong way. Lexi gets in a lot of trouble , by Pee Wee. He yells at Lexi for hurting him in public,She tries to apologize to Pee Wee, he doe forgive her, but is still angry at Lexi for hurting  him.

Lexi, and PeeWee because she was in a lot of conflict with the HUMAN!

Lexi was struggleing with PeeWee, for yelling at her ,and started a fight with PeeWee. After, Lexi , and PeeWee were becoming nice and never yelling agian . They learnd a lesson NEVER to yell agien.

Lexi changed from nice to mean and rude. Here is a exsample - ONE ACORN WILL NOT FILL YOUR BELLY !PeeWee was crying .

No . Lexi  doesn't act like me.

RATING: *****
I would recommend this book to both boys and girls ages 10 -29

Maria S

LEXI'S TALE by Johanna Hurwitz

    The main idea is about a squirrel named Lexington (Lexi for short). He has a friend named PeeWee that finds a human named Stefan Klopot. He was homeless and couldn't speak English. Lexi and PeeWee had decided to help this stranger by riding in a police car and hunting for food.
    Lexi struggled helping Stefan Klopot.
    Lexi struggled helping Stefan Klopot because squirrels came by asking Lexi what he was doing. Caring for Stefan also meant looking for extra food. Lexi also needed time to practice for the great big squirrel circus.
    Lexi changed by instead of being a squirrel that doesn't help humans into a rare squirrel because he helped Stefan.
    This book related to me in kindergarten that my friend could barely speak English so a 2nd grader helped her with class work that could speak her language
    Rating ***
   
Noy

TUMTUM AND NUTMEG by Emily Bearn and Nick Price

The book was mostly about Tumtum and Nutmeg are two mice who live in  Nutmouse hall in rose cottage.When Aunt Ivy arrives who hates mice, then a whole disaster starts.  When the general comes to help defend Aunt Ivy from spraying her hair color that will kill mice, they try to scare Aunt Ivy But will they

The main characters in conflict were Tumtum, Nutmeg, The General, Lucy, and Arthur VS Aunt Ivy.

The conflict was that it was hard for Tumtum and Nutmeg to not get found by humans. Also Aunt Ivy was going to kill them. They had to fight her off in the end.

The main characters changed through out the story. In the beginning Tumtum and Nutmeg were trying to hide every thing including there identity. For example when they go to help Arthur and Lucy they have to leave a note that claims they are fairies. At they end they don't mind about getting seen. But, they still need to be careful.

My connection to these characters struggle is sometimes when i'm angry I try to fuss with my brothers. Then for the next hour or so I try to avoid them and not talk to them.

I give this **** rating

Max

BEYOND THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES BY: Tony Diterlizzi

This book is about two kids named Nick and Laurie who one day find these little creatures called nixies, and giants. Nick and Laurie communicate to one of these creatures and the creature named Talaa give them their mission to find their sisters from the pond. While on their mission to find these sisters they awake a giant. This sis a special giant. When it is awoken, all of the other giants of its kind awaken. When all of the giants are awoken the tempt to destroy houses, farms, forests and many other important places.

The saddest part of the book is when Laurie loses her locket which has the only picture left of her father.

I would recommend this book to both boys and girls ages 5-11

RATING *****

Astrid

PIXIE TRICKS: THE ANGRY ELF by Tracy West

This book is about Violet Briggs. She just met someone who's really out of this world. He's a fairy named Sprite and he has a secret...

My favorite funniest part was when Violet through  something and it bounced up and landed in his sandwich. I would recommend this book boys/girls who are ages 7 - 10.

 rating:***

Stefon                                                                                        

THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED FLY GUY BY Tedd Arnold

One day buzz went to see his grandma Fly Guy came with him.Grandma was happy to see him so she came running to see him. Gulp grandma swallowed fly guy !What will she swallow next?



The funniest part was when grandma swallowed all of the animals just to catch fly guy


i would recommend this book for boys and girls ages 5-9

Rating ***

Sydney

ROWAN OF RIN by Emily Rodda

The people of Rin were running out of water. The flow from the mountain had stopped. They made a small team of villagers to go up the mountain  to fix the problem. They got a map from an old woman named Sheba.
Rowan is one of the members of the team. He's the main character of the book. He's a young boy who people thought was weak. But he had to go on the journey because only he could make the ink on the map appear.There were seven people going on the journey.At each challenge that the mountain had for them to face one of them turned back.Only Rowan made it to the top to face the ultimate challenge.The hole team and all the people of Rin realized how brave Rowan really was.

 The funniest part of  the story was when Rowan was afraid to change his clothes in front of another team members even though he had survived deadly challenges.

I would recommend this book to boys and girls who are ages 9-15

*****

                                                                          Tyler
                                           

JUDY MOODY:THE BAD LUCK CHARM by Megan McDonald

Judy Moody is on a lucky streak ever since grandma lou gave her a lucky penny. Jessica Finch gets to go to a spelling bee in D.C.Judy is jealous. Because Jessica needs a pig sitter Judy gets to go to D.C. During the bee, Judy and stink lose the pig!!! But the pig's journey ends in an elevator ride. When Jessica gets back she shares the good news. She one the spelling bee. In the end Judy becomes a good luck charm for Jessica.

The funnest part of the book was when Judy and Stink chase P.G the pig ride in the elevator.

I would recommend this book to girls 5-11.

RATING:*****

DINOTRUX by Chris Gall

Well this book is about the civilization of DINOTRUX! This was long before humans. Their were cave men though but these dinosaurs were made of steel and were trucks. Almost any truck you could imagine would be in this book but changed into both dinosaurs and trucks. The cave men were scared of the dinotrux. At the end the dinotrux helped out the cave men.                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   My favorite part of this book was when the cave men were cooking their fish with the FIRESAURUSES hot flames.

I would not recommend this book for both boys and girls ages 10-20


RATING  ***

Koa

OLIVIA by Ian Falconer

Olivia is a book about a young-hearted pig with the most girliest life a pig could have!
She has big dreams of becoming a ballerina and opera singer.
She would do most anything to become more girly!


My favorite part of this book was when Olivia daydreamed at the museum with her mom.

Rating.*****

I would recomend this book for girls ages 9-11


-eva

GREEN EGGS and HAM by Dr. Seuss

 Sam character from the book Green Eggs and Ham wants to persuade an unnamed character to eat  green eggs and ham. Sam asks the if the unnamed character likes green egg and ham.  He said no. Then, Sam asks if he likes it here or there. Still he says no. Sam keeps asking if he likes it in many more places or with many things. Sam keeps going about things and he keeps saying no.



My favorite part is when he starts asking and keeps going about things.


I would recommend it to both boys and girls at the ages 1+ anything higher.

Rating *****

ZEN SHORTS by Jon Muth

summary:

In this story there are three kids. the kids names are Karl, Addy, Michael. One day they meet a panda bear named Zen. When they woke up that morning Karl looked outside and sitting on their font lawn was a bear. They played together and enjoyed tea time with each other. One day during summer vacation Karl decided to gather all of his pool toys and walked over to Zen's house. Zen's pool wasn't big enough to hold all of the pool toys and Zen and Karl so they took some of the pool toys out.


My favorite part of the story was when Karl, Addy, and Michael woke up and spotted a panda bear sitting on their front lawn.


I would recommend this book to both boys and girls ages 5-11.


rating: ***

Amber 

CHOCOLATE FEVER By Robert Kimmel Smith

The book chocolate Fever is about a boy named Henry Green. He loves chocolate & has chocolate on every meal!! But one day, he noticed that he had some little brown spots that smell like chocolate.....

My favorite part was when the robbers were hijacking the truck that was full of candy bars. But they thought that it was filled with expensive furs. My other favorite part was when all of the dogs came running into the robber's hideout.

I would reccomend this book for people of ages from 7 to 14 years old.

Rating:   *****

Sam