Sunday, February 21, 2010

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

You are looking at the cover for the third and final book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Scholastic made this announcement Feb. 11th. Read what others have to say on the Scholastic blog, On Our Minds. The book will be on store shelves Aug. 24th. I have preordered copies for BHS so they'll be here waiting for you when we return to school in September.

What are your predictions? Will Katniss successfully start a revolution? Will District 9 rule Panem? Will the ultimate hero be the mockingjay? Has the mockingjay been gathering information that it will communicate to Katniss? What are you wondering?

Review by Mrs. Boehm

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Hunger: A Gone Novel by Michael Grant

I started to read Hunger: A Gone Novel by Michael Grant and realized that I was reading the sequel, so make sure you read Gone first.

The book begins three months after the events in Gone and as the title suggests, food is running out. Sam has been elected Mayor and things aren’t going so well. Tensions between the “muties” and “normals” begin to rise with the prospect of war. Lana “the healer” has moved far away from the town to escape the constant bombardment of requests to heal minor injuries such as scrapes and paper cuts, however, she is still plagued by her memories of her encounter with “the Darkness”. Cain, also weakened by his encounter with “the Darkness”, is suffering from the bombardment nighttime fits of “hungry in the dark”. As “the Darkness” grows stronger, it’s control drives people to do unthinkable acts of insanity that help it to it’s ultimate goal of everlasting darkness there by allowing it to do as it pleases.

If you liked Gone you’ll love Hunger and since both books are incredibly long, it will keep you busy for the third installment, Lies, coming in May 2010.

Review by student Noah K.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Types of Books We've Read To Date

Chartle is a web-based tool for creating simple & interactive charts. I wanted to try it. How do you like this pie chart of the books we've read to date? How would you use it? Besides this pie chart, you can create many others - bar, line, Venn, scatter, tables, maps, and more. Take Chartle for a test drive!




By Mrs. Boehm

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Gone by Michael Grant

Well for starters, I ended up reading a quarter of the way into the sequel before realizing that it was the sequel. As I do with all books before reading them, I read the inside cover for a short synopsis to help me decide whether I wanted to read it or not. This one seemed interesting to me so I decided I would try it. As it turns out, Gone, by Michael Grant, is about a town called Perdido Beach that out of nowhere has all of its adults and kids over the age of fourteen disappear. This is in fact where the book actually starts, right after the main character Sam Temple and his class watch their teacher disappear. Sam, his friends Quinn, Astrid, and Edilio, and Astrid’s younger, autistic brother “Little Pete” form a group and work to survive in a world ruled by bullies and without any type of help that adults can offer such as fire departments, police, and government. If things weren’t bad enough, the whole community is surrounded by a giant bubble called the FAYZ (Fallout Ally Youth Zone). Eventually people begin to develop supernatural abilities such as the ability to shoot fire from their hands. Matters get worse when a large group of rich kids lead by Cain, his psychopathic right hand man Drake, and seductive left hand Diana move in to take over.
The book is really engaging and there are a lot of plot twisters that you may or may not expect as well as a few minor “power” struggles all leading up to… Well you’ll just have to find out.

Review by student Noah K.