Hide in Plain Sight, a review by Zombified Unicorn

Title: Hide in Plain Sight

Author: Marta Perry

Format: I read this as an e-book on the kindle library

Price: Free on the kindle library

Hide in Plain Sight is one of those books that you probably shouldn't read in the dark at night… It was a great book to get lost into the plot. The two main characters are Andrea Hampton and Calvin Burke. Andrea’s younger sister gets hit by a car, and Andrea is forced to move in with her grandmother (where her sister Rachel was living and working). They were working at turning her grandmother’s mansion into The Three Sisters Inn. But with Rachel’s accident, their chances at finishing by their opening date are now slim. But as word gets out about Rachel, and the Inn, and the opening date, strange things start to happen. Andrea and Calvin have a hard time figuring out who is out there, and it takes a while to get their final answer.

            

If you asked me to pick my favorite part of this book, I honestly wouldn’t have an answer for you. The entire book is full of cliffhangers and suspense. It’s a great book to just pick up and read. 

            

Rating: five chocolate bars

Appropriateness: I think it might swear ONCE. So if you’re freaked out about it, I’m sure it won’t be a problem.

Cover Thoughts: The cover was a great example of the book. There are a lot of Amish families in the book, and the mansion looks very realistic

Wednesday Wonderings

We at In the Middle (Of a Good Book) are a curious lot.  As in, we have a lot of questions.  And we thought, hey, we are an inquisitive bunch of people, and we also have access to entire classrooms full of middle school students who might have answers.  So each Wednesday, we are going to try to pose some questions about books and reading to our fellow middle school students and choose the most awesome answers to post for you.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

You, too, may have questions about books and the reading habits of middle school students...and we would be more than happy to survey our guinea pigs test subjects classmates with your questions.  Leave any questions you have in the comments, or you can email them to us at inthemiddlereading (at) gmail (dot) com!

NEXT WEEK: Our first post will explore what makes a compelling villain!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part time Indian: A review by: cece07

Book Title: The Absolutely true Diary Of a Part time Indian

Format: paper back

Author: Sherman Alexie

Length/number of pages: 230

Price: $8.99

Short Summary:  
This book is about a boy named Junior who gets picked on.  He feels confined on the reservation where he lives, and his grandma tells him to take a big step.  He transfers schools to a place where he is the only Indian there.  He meets this attractive girl and falls for her right at that moment.  When he moved schools, all the people on the rez ( reservation..) hated him, even his best friend Rowdy, because they think he is betraying them by moving to a white school. His grandma  was proud, and his parents didn't care. Along the way Junior makes a couple of friends, gets into a couple of fights, and is faced with a big decision. 

Sherman Alexie is the king sitting on his jewel-encrusted throne (meaning he is a FANTASTIC writer...) writing this book. You can tell it came from his heart. It is a terrific book...you will read one page and you can't stop. It's hilarious, heart crushing, enthralling, and sad. Check it out!

Strengths: very poetic, awesome cartooons, has a lot of meaning, and it's hilarious.

Rating (out of five chocolate bars)5 (all the way.)

Appropriateness:  for 12 & up

Cover Thoughts: It fits the book ( once you read it.)

Title:  The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Format: paperback
Price: around $9

The Hunger Games is about Katniss Everdeen being chosen to fight at the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a televised fight to the death between tributes. A ceremony called the reaping decides who those tributes will be. The country they live in, Panem, is divided into 12 districts, and each district randomly draws two people to go fight in the “games“. Katniss ends up volunteering to go because her sister Prim got chosen. She goes to the Capitol to train and get ready for the “games”. When the games begin it is a suspenseful book and a thrill ride with a lot of action.

Katniss is very emotional in this book because she is torn between her best friend and hunting friend Gale Hawthorne and the other tribute Peeta Mellark. Gale Hawthorne is the hunting partner and best friend of Katniss, he has to provide and take care of his siblings like Katniss must do for her family as well. And Peeta Mellark is the other tribute from district 12 with Katniss, he declares his love for her before the games begin which angers her because she thought it would make her look weak, when in fact it made her more desired.
   
To me I thought the theme of this book was Rebellion because Katniss defies the Capitol and tries to change the system. It can teach you to rebel if you think something is unjust or unfair.
   
I thought the ending was satisfying and makes you dying to read the rest of the series. I think I'd enjoy reading the other books by this author because this book already made me keep turning those pages.
   
I thought the book cover represented the book very well, it has the “Mockingjay” symbol, which symbolizes being against the capitol, and the old, failed, revolution.
   
I think the level of appropriateness in this book wasn’t too bad. There is some violence during the “Games” but nothing too graphic.

Out of five chocolate bars, I give this book a 3 ½ chocolate bars.

The Graveyard Book, a review by Joza

Title:  The Graveyard Book

Author: Neil Gaiman

Format: Hardcover 

Price: $17.99

Summary:

At the beginning of the book a murderer is killing a family. The main character, Nobody, is the only member of the family that survives. He makes his way to a graveyard and is raised there. At the end of the book, Nobody confronts the man that killed his family. 

Nobody is a young boy who can do things that normally only ghosts can do. His major motivation for the last part of the book is finding the man who killed his family. The main character Nobody, “Bod,” becomes more mature as he grows up in the graveyard and goes from being scared of the man who killed his family to wanting revenge on him. 

This book teaches you to live life to the fullest because you only get one chance to do it. 

It is a children’s fantasy novel. 

The graveyard book is an amazing read. I was completely absorbed in it the entire time I was reading it. I really didn’t like the ending to this book -- it seemed too abrupt like it should have kept going. I would enjoy reading other books by this author.

The cover of the book is very interesting and very cool-looking. 

This book has almost no violence I don’t think this book is inappropriate for anyone of any age.

My rating for the book is 4.5 chocolate bars.

  

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, a review by Maggie

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood; a Review by Maggie

Title- The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Author- Ann Brashares

Format- Hardcover

Price- $15.95 (U.S.) / $23.95 (Can.)

Plot Summary- In book two of a four book series Bridget, Carmen, Tibby, and Lena go off on their second summer passing around these “magical” pants that, even though the girls are not the same size, the pants fit all of them. Tibby decides that working at Wallman's isn’t how she wants to spend her summer again so she gets into a college film making program. Carmen starts to worry that her mom may possibly be going “boy crazy” especially when her mom wears the pants on a date. In not liking her mom’s new boyfriend, David, Carmen manages to break the two up but then realizes it was a big mistake. Bridget decides to go to Alabama to secretly find information about her dead mom from her grandmother and ends up meeting up with some old friends she used to play soccer with when she was younger. Lena dreadfully misses her Ex, Kostos, who she met on her trip to Greece the summer before and when Kostos surprisingly shows up in the United States they do some things and then he suddenly disappears back to Greece leaving Lena determined to find out why when she returns after her grandfather’s death.

Character Analysis-  

Bridget- the summer prior Bridget had spent quickly falling in love with her soccer coach at camp but in realizing how she had acted Bridget quits playing soccer, and becomes very quiet. After spending her summer pretending to be a girl named Gilda helping her grandmother around the house Bridget learns a lot about her dead mother and grows a strong relationship with her grandmother.

Tibby- Tibby is what most parents would call a rebellious daughter but finds her joy in filmmaking and goes to take a college course. Not realizing it, she starts to cause damage to the people who really love her when trying to make new friends but when she steps back at looks at what she is doing she turns herself around, leaves her new friends to make things better.

Lena-  Lena is a very pretty yet quiet girl who misses her ex living back in Greece a lot. When she finds out that he is now getting married to a women he doesn’t love it hurts her a lot. Then she meets Carmen’s stepbrother, Paul, and they really like each other.

Carmen- Carmen is very sensitive and when her mom gets into a more serious relationship she feels like he is getting more attention from her mom than she is. After causing the break up between them, and her mom becoming depressed she realizes her mom deserves to be happy and tries to fix things.

Theme- 

The theme to really all four books would be that no matter how far or how close you are from the people you truly love you will always still love them.

Strengths, Weakness, favorite parts of the book-  

I think the strengths of this book would really be the message sent out with the girl’s friendship. I feel there were no real weaknesses but that’s just me.               

My favorite part of the book would probably be the ending because everything that had gone wrong during their summers turned out alright.

Ending- 

The ending of the book is really about all four girls realizing what is best. With Lena, finding someone new, Bridget, gaining a relationship with her grandmother, Tibby, fixing what she had broken, and Carmen, getting her mom and David back together.

Rating- 5 out of 5 chocolate bars!!! (Now to watch the movie J )

Book cover- I think the book cover fits the story 100% because the books are really all about these magical pants that travel with all the girls making memories they all will never forget so having a picture of the pants is perfect.

Appropriateness- I would say this book is definitely a young adult book. The book uses some sketchy language and does reference sex but otherwise it has a positive message to it.

Be More Chill, a review by Nico

Title: Be More Chill
Author: Ned Vizzini
Format: Paperback
Price: $7.99

The book follows the life a high school student named Jeremy.  Jeremy is, well, kind of a loser.  He has what he calls humiliation sheets, so when anyone makes fun of him, he marks it down.  Jeremy hears of a pill that makes you smart and cool.  The pill is called a "squip," and so Jeremy goes to buy it.  He swallows the pill, and it changes his life, but is it for the better, or worse?

Jeremy is the main character in Be More Chill.  He is not popular at all until he takes the squip.  His motivation to do what he does is that he wants to be cool.  Michael, Jeremy's best friend, is another character.  He has a big Afro.

I think the theme of this book is to be careful what you wish for.  Jeremy wishes to be more cool and popular, and when he finds out about the squip, he thinks he's found the perfect thing.  The squip makes some large life changes for Jeremy, and it turns out to be not exactly what he had hoped for.

I really don't think there were any weaknesses of the book, but it was very strong.  The moral of the book was very strong, and it had a strong entertainment value.

I don't think the ending was that great because of the problems that the squip causes and then how Jeremy fixes it.

Appropriateness: sexual content, mature themes, and language

The Art of War, a review by Benjy

Title: The Art Of War

Author: Sun Tzu, Also with editing by Dallas Galvin, and translated by Lionel GilesFormat: Paper back 

Price: $7.95                 

Plot summary: Because of how it is written, the book has no plot.  It is essentially a guide on how to wage war. The book has also been compared to The Book Of Life, as it is describing how to combat any opponent of any kind. This book is written in a way that it seems to apply to any type of conflict. The book is split up into sections based on the type of actions that need to b preformed as to win the succeed.

Theme: The theme is essentially you need to deceive the enemy.

I rate it 4 out of 5 chocolate bars.

        

The cover of the book that I have is a a army of soldiers, It looks like a very old painting. I would like it to have a cooler cover.

This book has no inappropriate content, it has slight references to killing, but that's it. 

The Bearers of the Black Staff, a review by Cullen

Title:  The Bearers of the Black Staff: Legends of Shannara Book 1)
Author:  Terry Brooks
Format:  Hardcover
Price: $7.99

Summary: The magical barrier that has protected the valley for over 500 years is eroding.  Evil creatures from the world outside have entered the valley, but there is still disbelief that the barrier is gone.  Sider Ament is the bearer of a magic as old as the barrier, the Black Staff, and he knows the valley won't be safe for long.  Panterra Qu and Prue Liss have grown up together and have become expert trackers.  They believe that Ament is correct and the barrier won't hold for long.  Panterra and Prue are tasked by Sider to gather support from the Elves so they can defend the passages into the valley.  Panterra and Prue cross the barrier and go into the world beyond.  Unwillingly, they cause an army of Trolls to take an interest in the valley.

Panterra and Prue escape the Trolls and go to tell Sider what happened.  The Elves and humans race to defend the passes.  As the Troll army approaches, the defenders see that the Trolls are vastly superior to their inexperienced warriors.  The only advantage is Sider Ament and his Black Staff.

Characters:
Sider Ament is a solitary man who has very little contact with civilization as he helps protect the valley.  He is torn up over the loss of teacher and the loss of his love.

Panterra Qu has heightened senses that help him as a Tracker.  He is driven by feeling like he left Prue behind.

Prue Liss can sense danger before it happens.

Theme: One theme of this novel could be that all good things come to an end.  The People of the valley are shocked when the barrier fails.  They don't expect it to end, but it did, and they weren't prepared.  If they knew this lesson, they would have been prepared.

My Thoughts: Overall, this was a very strong book and I enjoyed reading it.  I think Terry Brooks is a good writer, having read most of his other books.  I enjoyed this one the most.

I didn't really like the ending, but I guess it had to happen in order to set up the second book.  I enjoy reading this genre and reading other books by this author.

Rating: 4 out of 5 chocolate bars
Cover Thoughts: I like the cover.  I thought it helps you visualize the setting as well as Sider Ament.
Appropriateness:  There is some violence in the book but nothing really that graphic.

All the Mountains of Madness, a review by Beren

Title:  At the Mountains of Madness 

Author:  H.P.Lovecraft.

Format: Hardback copy containing many writings of different books, so it is a large volume, but costing the low price of  $12.95.    

A team of scientists goes on an exploration into the antarctic looking for ancient fossils and rock, and after some time a giant mountain range is found, taller than the Himalayas. While drilling for rock they uncover a cave filled with fossils of the ancient past, and after exploring the cave discover several preserved creatures unlike anything ever before seen: gray, tubular, tentacled, vile looking things of anatomy unlike anything seen before. 

Contact is lost with the group exploring this area, and once help from the rest of the expedition arrives, they find the area in shambles from a storm, but more disturbingly several of the creatures are gone, and several are seemingly buried in a grave. Everyone who was at the camp is found mangled and dismembered, and a dog and a human are found to be dissected in the camp. 

The remaining members go on an expedition over the mountains to explore what no one else ever again find, and discover a vast ancient city, seemingly entirely  abandoned, with architecture unlike anything else seen on Earth. They then enter the city, and soon find horrors they will never forget...

William Dyer is a professor of geology at Miskatonic University, and the story is told from his point of view, addressing the reader about what happened on the expedition. His motivation is for finding fossil and rock samples and gathering information, though ultimately it is curiosity. The writing of his is an informative narrative, and it seems the only growth he has had is through his gained knowledge and viewpoint. 

Another major character is Danforth, a graduate student from the university who is also on the expedition. He and Dyer are the only humans to see the city. He is shaken after the story and has never quite recovered from the expedition, feeling paranoid and often breaking down, and having trouble speaking about the events that occurred. There are no other major characters, as it is mostly Dyer documenting what happened and trying to dissuade future explorers. 

The theme seems to be on human curiosity and the unknown, although it is written mostly to present a interesting narrative, and it could be considered horror to an extent as well. 

I enjoyed the book very much, particularly the ending, which I found to be a very good way to wrap up such a story. The writing is very unique, and is very well written; I cannot find any weaknesses to it. I have a collection of works by this author, and will definitely read more stories, I am glad to have learned about this author. 

The cover is interesting, but has nothing to do with this story in particular, as the book contains many of Lovecraft's writings. 

The book is slightly horror, but I would say if you have the reading level to be able to understand the writing you are certainly mature enough to handle it. 

I would say this book is five out of five.