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Showing posts with label historical fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label historical fiction. Show all posts

Friday, May 10, 2013

The wave by Kolton

wave-thbTitle: The Wave
Author: Todd Strasser
Format: Soft cover
Price: $6.99
Pages: 138

This book is about some kids in high school who watched a video about what the  Nazis did to the Jewish people. The kids suddenly get very interested in it and wanted to do a little classroom experiment, but it gets way out of hand.

I thought that this was a really good book. It was a historical fiction book that was based on an incident that took place in a high school history class in Palo Alto, California, in 1969. One of the book's strengths was how the author makes it seem like the time period, like using the older words. I liked it because the book had lots of words on one page, so it was a longer book, not a really short book. I think longer books have a better storyline. My favorite part of the book was when things go back to normal in the end because it seemed like everything was better after that. Laurie Saunders was one of the main characters, and she seems like she would be a really nice person. I would recommend the book to people who are from the ages of 11 to 18, people who like real stories.

Rating: I give this 5 out of 5 chocolate bars.
Appropriateness: There are a couple of swear words, but that's about it.
Cover Thoughts: I like the cover because it's orange, and I like orange, and it has the Wave symbol.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

The Ministers Daughter: A Review By ArwenPond

Title: The Minister's Daughter
Author: Julie Hearn
Format: Hard Cover
Length: 272 pages
Price: $7.99

"Powers of the air, be here now. So mote it be." Nell is a wild child. Conceived on May Morning, she is claimed by the piskies and faeries as a merrybegot, one of their own. She is the village cunning woman's granddaughter: herb gatherer and healer, spell-weaver and midwife...and, some say, a witch. Grace is a Puritan minister's daughter: beautiful and refined, innocent and sweet-natured...to those who think they know her. But she is hiding a secret -- a secret that will bring everlasting shame to her family should it ever come to light. A merrybegot and minister's daughter -- two girls who could not have less in common. Yet their fates collide when Grace and her younger sister, Patience, are suddenly spitting pins, struck with fits, and speaking in fevered tongues. The minister is convinced his daughters are the victims of witchcraft. And all signs point to Nell as the source of the trouble....
--Summary from Google Books

The story is told in a really interesting way; every other chapter is told in third person and the others are told as a witch trial confession of Patience Madden, the younger of the two minister's daughters. You always know what's really happening with this book and you never really get confused, which is nice. If you weren't quite sure what was real and what wasn't, then the story wouldn't be as good. My favorite part was the end, not because it was the end, but because it ties it back to Salem (the story takes place somewhere in England, I think). It shows the beliefs of people back then and the traditions they carried out, which is really cool.

I give this book 5 out of 5, because it's amazing.
There's nothing inappropriate in it at all.
The cover shows Grace, the older of the Minister's daughters.

ArwenPond