Introduction

          First of all I would like to extend a warning to all those who would read this book… It is the best book I have ever read. In addition to the aforementioned warning I feel it is necessary to issue this second warning… There is copious amounts of sexual content and gratuitous use of the “F” word in this book. Now without further ado I present to you… King Dork by Frank Portman

Synopsis

Tom Henderson is your average high-school dork. he has been taunted for his entire life and could never seen to escape the “Psychotic normals” or the “Sadistic administration” in short, Tom is a victim. But when Tom is taken to a party on the other side of town by his “Alphebetical order best friend” Sam Hellerman he is sent into a spiral of events that inspire a radical change in his life. Even more when he discovers his father’s Copy of The Catcher In The Rye. Scrawled with notes the book sends Tom on a great adventure… And that is just fantastic.

Number of pages: 325

Rating: 10/10

Praises

I love this book. I found myself completely absorbed in the story every time I picked it up. The protagonist is such a diverse character you will find yourself realating to him quite often. Tom Henderson’s wit and sarcasm are intergated perfectly throughout the story, so it doesn’t feel like a bitter novel. Frank Portman so acurately portrays the mind of an adolecent put in stressing and diffucult situation.  From his ever changing band name to his his funny sarcastic view of the world Tom Henderson is an amazing character. I give this book my highest rating and I highly recomend it to everyone and anyone.

Critiques

I just really wish that it could have been longer I just loved that stinking book.

Tired of the boring vampire novels that have been coming out recently? I mean, Twilight was one thing, but ever since then, everyone has been producing their own vampire books… Well I’m personally sick of all the gooey romance. If you’re with me, and prefer the general action/horror vampire novel, then try out Peeps, by Scott Westerfield. Peeps is a book about vampires…but with a new twist. Instead of the classic Dracula setting, the story turns to parasites. That’s right, parasites. The story starts out with a character named Cal, who is hunting down his girlfriends that he accidentally turned into crazy vampires when he kissed them. Cal, of course, is partially immune to the parasite, which means he can avoid all the negative “being crazy” parts, and skip right to the superpowers. He’s super strong, has a huge metabolism, and…did I mention he’s constantly attracted to girls? I mean, more than the average teenage boy. The parasites in his body release hormones that causes him to always want to kiss people. Convenient, right? Well, the parasite has to be passed along somehow. But the question that has Cal stumped is; who created him? As Cal digs deeper to discover the haunting truth about his past, hidden mysteries taunt him on his quest for the truth. Can he discover the real reason behind his ex-girlfriend’s disappearance? Or will he be doomed to be left in the dark forever?

Praise

Peeps was a very unusual book. It is a sci-fi book that is based on real science. It’s sort of like a biology lesson and a good story all in one. The characters are realistic, they use real-life examples of parasites…which is pretty awesome if you ask me. It’s like a science fiction book for people who aren’t into science fiction!

Critism

Eh, I thought a lot of the story was a bit over dramatic. There was a lot of…what I consider inappropriate material. It’s for older teens. Finally, some of the parasites literally made me want to vomit.

Christian Perspective

Don’t read this book. Please. Not if you don’t want to be offended. This book is based on the principles of evolution, and even goes so far as to on the final page, taunt people who DON’T believe in evolution. There was a lot of sexuality. The story’s based about when Cal loses his virginity and is infected by the parasite. Oh, and some of the scenes are pretty graphic. I honestly hated the book, but I know that some people will be into it. It was a good story, that sent all the wrong messages.

2/5 Stars

Introduction

Twilight is, at its base, a romance novel. If you don’t like sappy mushy lovey-dovey stuff, than I strongly suggest you don’t read this book. If you like novels with complex style, than I strongly suggest you don’t read this book. If you like more than just a great story, I strongly suggest you don’t read this book. And finally if you get offended when mythologies are twisted, than I strongly suggest you don’t read this book.

By now you probably believe that i did not enjoy reading “Twilight.” You are wrong. Twilight is a love story for someone who likes a little action. Its theme is timeless and its ideas are good. The story of Edward and Bella is one of action and above all, love. It’s very obviously a story with a demographic in mind. I’m not going to rate this novel because it is a novel that will only appeal to a certain type of reader and it’s not fair to rate something that is so easily argued.

Critiques

This list is long but most are trivial and don’t distract from the story. The writing is awkward. Stephanie Meyer uses language that is very pedantic. She uses words that don’t fit with the style in order to create the appearance of incredible intelligence. The characters are shallow and easy to predict. I HATE BELLA SWAN!!! Edward is so full of contradictions that I don’t think Stephanie Meyer Knows who Edward is. The dialogue is cliché and cheesy…. Whew!…. Now that that’s over… Let’s move on.

Praises

This story is great for young girls, or young men if they prefer a tale of love over a tale of action (Like me). It’s very easy to become sucked into the story and not want to put the book down. It is engaging. the themes are very timeless and easily comprehended. It’s a darn good story with some excitement and some suspense.

Finally

Read this book if you are a young girl, a Romantic, or love a great story.

Do not read this if you hate mushy love, hate simplicity, or hate twisted mythology.

Synopsis

This story details the adventure of Bobby Pendragon, a normal middle school basketball player thrown into an epic adventure through time and space. He encounters strange creatures and must save a society on the brink of collapse.

Genre: Fantasy/ adventure

Length: 375 pages

Rating 1-10: 9

Details

The story is written in two ways. Bobby tells his story through journals that he sends to his friend Mark. Bobby’s personality is largely written in through his story, he explains events, people, places, as he sees them. This allows for a easily comprehendable story that engages you, and makes you feel a bond with Bobby. The other way in which the story is relayed (which is also integrated into the story) is through a third person point of view of earth. Bobby is off fighting a battle in a different world, but we still get to view Mark’s story as he lives life normally while he waits for Bobby’s next journals.

Praises

This story is incredibly fun to read, easily read yet fully functional. The characters have a depth that engages the reader to never put the book down. Bobby is easy to relate to as he is a normal kid. The character of Bobby is also incredibly dynamic, changing and developing through the entire story. This story is a great introduction to “Halla.”

Critiques

The story is good and is also written for younger teens. The more mature themes are not present until further into the series.

And Finally

A great read for any adventure fan. It is filled with action,engaging characters, and is an all around awesome story. Plus… it’s right here at the school library!!!

          Creepers are urban explorers that infiltrate abandoned buildings, but the book is about more than just that. It has more twists and turns than a maze, and will certainly keep you on your toes. Morrell writes with a captivating suspense that will keep you reading into the late hours of the night. He incorporates the possibility of a long lost treasure in a forgotten hotel, but then he throws in a devious captor and his captive not to mention the burglars that follow the creepers into the hotel. The Paragon hotel, lost and forgotten on the streets of the equally forgotten Asbury, New Jersey, is filled with the haunted memories of a hemophiliac peeping Tom that owned the hotel. He was an agoraphobic, scared of the outside world.  So he lived in his hotel and watched all of his guests through an elaborate maze of hidden staircases; it was as if he lived out his own life through theirs.

Benjamin Boulden, a reviewer from Amazon, says “The action sequences are done so well they will make you heart rate rise. They are written with a stark and bleak realism. They do more than tell the story, they show it in clear detail [.]” Boulden likes the way that Morrell uses “simple language” to create the illusion of the past. Scott N. Nicholson an astounding author of many books such as: Scattered Ashes, Skull Ring, and they hunger states that Morrell is a “master of pacing” he says “Morrell deftly deals out the details and characterizations while propelling the reader through the subterranean tunnels and up the rickety stairs of the abandoned Paragon hotel, where a wealthy peeper kept a penthouse.” Clearly he approves of the way that Morrell lays things out. He goes from a group of people going through a hotel just looking at the past to a group of people trapped in a penthouse by the “son” of the “wealthy peeper” that owned the hotel.

Wes Lukowsky from Booklist.com says that the book is “an unabashedly entertaining thriller that has blockbuster movie written all over it.” He says that the book is “cherry picked” from several genres such as crime, horror, adventure, and western. He approves of the way that Morrell “blends them into a violent, claustrophobic nightmare.” And who wouldn’t be terrified if they went to “creep” in a hotel and they find that the son of the crazy man that built the hotel, still lives there and has a sex slave that he keeps locked in a vault were there is supposedly hidden treasure?

Nicholson says “[the] action scenes are vivid, with the hotel itself brought to a musty decrepit life in the reader’s mind.” Nicholson doesn’t always have the best of things to say about Morrell’s writing. “Morrell occasionally gets a little lazy, though. At one point, his characters are under peril of immediate death but [he] spend[s] several pages casually relating the history of the hotel.” He also states that “Morrell relies too heavily on “…ly” adverbs. Especially with words like “suddenly” and “quickly” which actually make the action less sudden and quick because another needless word has been inserted.” Even though there are some things that Nicholson does not particularly like about Morrell’s writing for the most part he approves. As do all the other reviewers that I have mentioned.

Morrell is an all around good writer that deserves more recognition than what he gets. As Nicholson said occasionally he can get “lazy” but he makes up for it with his use of colorful language and his consuming suspense. He has a way of hooking you so deep you end up at the point of no return; it’s a book that you have to finish in one sitting. With well rounded characters and a phenomenal plot line, you will read until your eyeballs fall out.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is an intense, action-packed novel that follows the life of Percy Jackson. Percy started out as a normal, ADHD, dyslexic boy who just can’t seem to stay out of trouble at school. However, a sudden and chilling event soon twists his life upside down as he discovers that everything is not as it seems. Percy learns that the Greek gods are more than myth, and that his father is the mighty ocean god, Poseidon. Soon after Percy is rushed to a camp for “half-bloods” like himself, he meets an obscure person called the “Oracle”. The Oracle reveals to Percy that he needs to return Zeus’s Lightning Bolt which he believes Poseidon has taken. When Percy is set off to complete his quest given to him by the mysterious Oracle, he is accompanied by his two friends Grover and Annabeth. Can the team band together to finish their quest? Or will they be stopped by unseen forces?  The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan, is a curious novel that takes ancient Greek characters and re-introduces them in a refreshing style. 

Praise 

The Lightning Thief is a modern book that features characters from the ancient Greek civilization. This book, though meant for entertaining purposes, also unintentionally educates the reader. It encourages teens to read, and makes for an interesting read. There are five books in the Percy Jackson series, and they all feature Percy as the main character.

Criticism 

Though I found the series entertaining, there was the matter of maturity. The series starts when Percy is 12, and ends when he is 16. I hoped that the character would increase in maturity along with the books. However, I was sadly disappointed, as Percy seems to maintain the same, casual, blow-it-off, attitude as
displayed in The Lightning Thief. I believe that the intended audience is for middle schoolers; 5th-8th grade.

Christian Perspective 

When first reading this book, I had my doubts. Whether or not you should read these books is up to you. My personal opinion is that these books are quite moral and fairly non-offensive. There is no vulgar language, obscene content, or questionable issues. The only item to consider is that the Percy Jackson series is focused on the Olympian gods. It is up to you whether or not to try it out.

Rating 

3.5/5

Unwind by Neal Shusterman is book which will stay with you long after the last page has been read.  The year is sometime in the future.  The location seems to be the United States.  A second civil war has been fought – abortion rights advocates on one side, and pro-life advocates on the other.  Because even a war could not resolve this issue, a compromise is reached.   Aborting a pregnancy is outlawed; but parents are given an option of having their child “unwound” between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.  This option is available for parents who no longer want their child or who wish to sacrifice their child based on religious principles. The unwinding process involves the harvesting and distribution the child’s organs and tissue.  So technically, the unwound child is not killed; but the rather the child is kept alive as individual pieces and parts.  Once an unwinding order has been initiated, there can be no going back. 

 Connor, who can be a trouble-maker, discovers he is to be unwound when he finds plane tickets to the Bahamas for everyone in the family except him.  Risa is an orphan and the orphanage is over-crowded.  Only those who excel and have something special to offer society, “live” past adolescence.  Lev is actually solemnly excited about his upcoming unwinding which has been planned since his birth. 

 The events which intertwine the lives of these three teenagers are put into place when Connor decides to go AWOL and escape from his intended unwinding.  Together they fight for their survival and the survival of other teens like them.  If they can only stay alive until their eighteenth birthday, they will beat the unwinding.  Can they?  Do they?  Read Unwind to find out.

 As someone who typically doesn’t enjoy reading books which are science fiction or futuristic, I found I couldn’t stop reading Unwind.  I had to know what was going to happen to Connor, Risa and Lev.  I had to understand what was really meant by unwinding.  The premise upon which the plot is based is too realistic, too probable for it to not hit home.  When you read about the real-life shooting of abortion doctors in 2009, it is not at all difficult to think ahead to a time and place where “unwinding” could occur.   This thought-provoking book will force you to contemplate the meaning of life, what gives our lives value, and what it means to be alive?  Even after you have read the last page, you will find yourself contemplating weighty issues.   Can you be alive if you are no longer whole?  From where does life originate?  Do we have a soul?  Does the soul continue to exist if there is no longer a body? 

 While I haven’t read anything that would indicate one is in the works, Unwind begs for a sequel. 

 5 Stars!

R-PHS Reads Needs You! 

Do you like to read?  Would you like to share your thoughts about the books you are reading with other R-PHS students?  Would you like an opportunity to disucss the books you are reading?  Then the LMC’s new reading oriented blog is for you.

If you are interested in being a contributing reviewer to R-PHS Reads, attend an organization meeting in the LMC on Friday, February 5th during both lunches.  If you are unable to attend these meetings, then see Mrs. Vincent in the LMC for participation details.