Kids Books - New

If you like books that have a twist and are between the age of 8 to 12 I recommend the book 11 before 12 by Lisa Greenwald. Kaylan Terrel, the main character in the book is 11 years old and about to turn 12. She and her best friend Arianna Nodberg are going into middle school. Arianna and Kaylan decide to make a “Eleven Fabulous Things to Make Us Even More AMAZING Before We Turn 12” list. For example, they have to kiss a boy, undergo an image makeover, and highlight their hair. Arianna and Kaylan both think Jason, the boy who moved next door to Arianna, is cute. They have started to hang out as friends. However, Kaylan likes another boy named Tyler. Tyler is Kaylans brother Ryan’s best friend. Tyler is always over Kaylan’s house. Every time Kaylan sees or talks to Tyler, she doesn’t know what to say. A few weeks before school starts, Arianna and Kaylan got their schedules for school and they did not have any classes together, besides lunch. They have been at school for a little while now and things have started to fall apart. They haven’t been talking and they’re now in a huge fight. There is a lot more crazy stuff that will happen in this book, but I think it is time for you to read it yourself and find out what happens next. Will Kaylan and Arianna make up and be friends again? Will they complete their whole list? I hope you enjoy reading the book 11 Before 12 as much as I did.

Ada, Jamie, Susan, Lord and Lady Thorton with their son and daughter, Maggie and Jonathan...And an German girl, Ruth, has came to live with other people...Billy White, Ada`s friend, Stephen White`s younger brother, has tragically passed away at such an young age...and Jonathan has also tragically passed away, he was in Air Force, his caused of death was burned so badly that he...*shudders* died... At first, Ruth doesn`t trust any people in the house but in the middle and end of the book, Ruth has starting to trust other people but with Lady Thorton...not yet really...This book sequel, "The War That Saved My Life" has really good but the sequel, SUPER GOOD! It`s so rare when book sequel are super good than the first one! Anyway, I`ll not be spoiling this very good book for you guys!! But I would def recommend this book! ^_^

The book The Secret Garden was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett in 1911. It is about a rude and spoiled little girl named Mary. She came from India but isn’t Indian. When she was born she wasn't wanted By her father or mother, so they gave her to a lady to watch over her. Mostly, servants took care of Mary and had to do whatever she asked of them or demanded because people didn't want her to throw a fit or cry. This made her grow up, having everything her way and done for her. One day, a great number of people in the household had died from sickness or had fled away in terror and most everyone had seen to disappear. People later found Mary in her nursery and came to take her to live with her Uncle, who is depressed and ends up having no time to pay attention to or love her. Over time she slowly learns to do things on her own and not to rely on everybody else to do things for her. She finds out that there is a secret garden that her uncle’s wife used to love, but she passed away, Which devastated him. So, he shut away the garden and never wanted to see it again. He buried the key to the garden, and no one has seen it for 10 years. Mary later learns to like people other than herself and to enjoy nature and what it has to offer. She meets a kind boy named Dickon, who teaches her a lot about gardens and helps her learn about them. She starts to enjoy plants and animals and has the desire to learn more about them. She starts to spend more time playing outside and sees the beauty of nature. I truly enjoyed this book and rate it a five out of five. I would recommend it to anyone passionate about gardens/plants and classics. Thanks!

Warning! This review contains spoilers (not that it matters because there's absolutely no suspense in this book whatsoever). There's this little girl named Heidi, and both of her parents died when she was a baby. So went to go live with her aunt and her grandmother (on her mom's side). But then her grandmother dies. So, her aunt sends her to live with her grandfather (on her dad's side). Her grandfather lives in the mountains, and everyone who lives near him says he's really mean. But Heidi's aunt doesn't care and sends her to live with him anyway. Heidi then makes friends with a boy named Peter and his grandmother. After Heidi has lived with her grandfather for a few years, her aunt comes back. Then she basically takes her to live with some random rich people, so there daughter will have a companion. What I thought of it: This book was extremely boring. Heidi was an extremely irritating character. She basically prances around bringing joy and sunshine to everyone she comes in contact with for no apparent reason. It's like everyone loves her and no one knows why. Then, eventually, in addition to going around bringing joy to everyone, she starts going around and preaching to everyone. She's probably no more than 10 years old, and suddenly (after one talk with a girl's grandmamma) she knows everything about God. It's absolutely ridiculous. Also, she just magically learns how to read in two seconds. One minute she's completely illiterate, and the next, she's the world's best reader. What up with that? Not to mention the fact that she's a total jerk. Once some of her new friends come to visit her, she starts completely (and pretty much without a reason), ignoring her friend Peter. This causes Peter to become VERY angry. I mean some of his reactions were a bit extreme, but he definitely had a right to be mad. And Heidi just continues to prance around as if nothing has happened. I mean she never even addresses the fact that he's angry. Ever. But there was one thing that REALLY bothered me about this situation. When Heidi wanted Peter to do something, and he refused, she had the nerve to threaten him! And he listened! I really couldn't believe it. But for now, I'm going to take break from talking about Heidi, and talk about the other characters. Heidi's grandfather was completely inconsistent character. He was said to have been really mean, but he's never portrayed doing anything mean. As soon as Heidi shows up he pretty much welcomes her with open arms. Then when she leaves, he says he never wants to see her again. But then she comes back again, he's perfectly happy to see her. People are always saying how terrible he is, but we never see him do anything terrible. I mean the writer meant to write him as one of those "Don't judge a book by it's cover" character, but did a really bad job. I also didn't like the fact that Heidi's friend Klara just came to the mountains and magically got better. I mean the girl couldn't walk her entire life, and then she comes to the mountains and has the ability to walk by the end of the summer. Yet another unrealistic thing that happened in this book to add to the list. I could go on forever picking out the flaws in this book, but I think I'm going to go ahead and wrap this review up. I can't help but feel that this entire book was just completely dedicated to making Heidi seem like she was a perfect little angel, when in reality, she was a total brat. I mean they never addressed any of her flaws. But instead, they tried (and failed) to completely cover them all up. The morals of the story seemed to be: Trust in God and he will fix all your problems (which isn't a bad thing, but they could have portrayed that in a way that wasn't completely preachy. I mean they pretty much had the same conversation over and over with different people.), The mountains are a magical place and if you go there all your health issues will magically disappear, and Heidi is the best thing since sliced bread. You should love her with all her heart even though she doesn't really have any really good character traits. Overall, it was a very boring and preachy book, and I have no idea why this is a classic. On second thought, it being boring and preachy is probably the very reason it's a classic.

Jess's parents travel all over the place. It's their thing as archaeologists. But when Jess's parents get the opportunity to travel to Belize in South America, Jess insists on coming along. What will happen to Jess in Belize? I liked this book, because it's got a touch of adventure, and a lot of fun in the mix. Definitely recommended.

Double Identity is a enjoyable book with slice of life with a little bit of drama, mystery, sci-fi, and a unique story. The book starts slow but it gets more interesting later on, so even if it starts off boring, don’t stop reading it. Sometimes the story gets melodramatic but the drama goes away faster than most books and just having time to relax. If you have ever been interested in Margret Haddix’s books, then I recommend Double Identity first, if you are a fan of Haddix’s books but you haven’t read Double Identity, then I recommend it. I thought this was a good book, but I did have a few problems with it, the first one being is what I mentioned earlier about how it starts off slow, I was really bored at the beginning and I stopped reading it, but I decided to give it another chance and read the book, Another thing that bothered me was that there was like supposed to be a shocking truth and were supposed to be all shocked but everyone saw it coming, the hints were everywhere that you could already find it out in the middle which you find this out near the end of the story, my last problem with this book is some of the characters, their okay but I found a lot of characters useless and they didn’t really help anything, but overall, this book is worth checking out, and I really enjoyed Double Identity, so you should try reading it

This book is incredible! It is sad, happy and heartbreaking all at the same time! I read it a while ago, and I want to read it again! Definitely recommended!

I really love the author of this book, Alan Gratz, because he writes wonderful historical fiction stories on hard topics, like wars, refugees, and depression, but he tells the truth and doesn't play it down like most books for kids. When you read his novels you just have to expect that there will be violence and sadness, but once you finish one of his books, you will be changed and more aware of the problems we still have on our earth, and you will want to help solve them, that is how impactful Gratz's books are. This particular book is about the American invasion of Okinawa in World War 2 and is told from two characters perspectives, one from each side of the war. It follows the progress of Ray and Hideki as they travel across the island of Okinawa through the war, seeing many things they never thought they would see in their life. Hideki is an Okinawan and was drafted into the "Blood and Iron Student Corps" and with only about two days of "training" the Americans arrived and he is given two grenades and the instructions "Don't come back until you've killed an American soldier." Ray is an American Marine who ran away from home to join the army, but it is not anything how he imagined it. He arrives on the island with a gun and an over-sized helmet and is told "Stay low, don't bunch up, and run." They learn many things about themselves and others as they make their way through the battlefield and the wreckage that ensues. They start to question what they have been told by others and make many decisions that they regret afterwards. I cannot even put into words how wonderful this book is, it raises awareness on all sorts of topics that aren't usually even mentioned in most books for kids. It had a wonderful message though it may seem a little violent or harsh at first. I would recommend this to 7th or 8th grade and up, since it does have lots of violence, but even if you may not like it even from the first few chapters, I encourage you to keep reading to the end, because I guarantee that you will put the book down and say, "I am glad that I kept reading that book."

A kid from an inner city school longs to go to art school, but his parents want him to have opportunities and they send him to a prep school that's private where he is a minority among wealthy kids. It's the classic fish out of water, having to find your way in school story. It's well done and he makes friends and eventually he likes his new school. He has to figure out how to fit in to all the different parts of his life. This might be part one and we might get the 2nd year soon. I look forward to it. The art style is full of energy and a dichotomy of the two worlds. Jordan is an artist and his little cartoons are blended in with the story. This won the Newbery and I don't know if the Newbery should give out awards to graphic novels, it does deserve awards. I really enjoyed this and I most definitely recommend this to middle graders.

Nice and a bit funny.