Kids Books - Social

What can I say about Struck by Lightning? First of all, it's nothing like what you would think. The book isn't the fantasy of a high school nobody; it's the struggle of a young adult fighting his way through his messed-up life. This book is the diary of Carson Philip's sorry life and the things he does to make it better. It's hard, though; his dad left his mother when Carson was ten, his mother is an alcoholic junkie, and his grandmother, the one person he truly loves, is in an assisted-living facility because of Alzheimer's. Not only that, but the world seems determined to make sure that Carson can't get into his dream college. Even his school life is terrible. In his words, Carson knows that he is "the only person in this town whose IQ is larger than [their] shoe size". His school newspaper is failing; the seniors that took such great care of it left the previous year, and the new members don't care enough to actually write anything. But after a humiliating incident at homecoming, Carson has had enough. Apparently, the college he wants to go to now wants more than clubs; they want a full literary magazine. Carson isn't popular. He can't make people do things himself, and so he turns to the one tool he has left: blackmail. Yes, this book may have some things that younger kids can't handle. But for anybody who is a teenager or high-schooler, this book is a funny, dark, and relatable story of Carson Phillips' journey through senior year of high school. And trust me: you will not believe the straight-out-of-left-field ending. This book changed the way I looked at life, and I'm pretty sure it'll change the way you look at life too.

Mr. Gutman and Mr. Paillot are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! I love their books!!!!!!!!!!!!

This book sounds very suspenseful! I LIKE IT!

JJ is hilarious! She and her friends in London are playing keep away at Daphne's and Jordan and Caroline are stuck with only the security guard. Luckily they escape in the morning after sleeping in the bed department. Ahhh nice and comfy... Many more adventures await JJ and her friends including catching a jewel thief, exposing a cheater, and getting revenge on Caroline. I totes recommend this book!!! :)

A good book for young readers. My brother loves this author. Overall a funny book. I recommend it for age 7+

This book is a great book I love it sooo much

This one is super cute :)all those little uniocorns, haha :) like who doesnt like unicorns? i do, and this book is awesome!

There is a town called Remarkable and what would you guess, everything inside it is remarkable. Except one girl named Jane who was just an ordinary girl. Jane goes to an ordinary school, and she’s the only one that goes there. Other kids go to a gifted school called Remarkables school for the Remarkably Gifted. Her brother is gifted at painting, her sister is good at math. But, a lot of things change when the two Grimlet twins get into Jane’s school and cause tons of havoc. It all starts when a pirate named Captain Rojo Herring comes to live in the Town of Remarkable. He plays the fiddle one night with Jane’s grandpa and out comes Remarkable’s greatest attribute, they're Lucky! Lucky is a ‘’Sea Dragon’’, if you don’t really know what that is, look up Nessie the Loch Ness Monster. Well I wouldn’t like to call it a monster but you know…This is a big, big deal. The city would tell everyone and people would try putting her in a museum. Now, the people of Remarkable were creating a bell tower that made amazing music. While all this was happening the Grimlet twins asked their teacher, Ms. Schnabel, to teach them to be pirates. When this happened, the twins deeply regretted it, Ms. Schnabel turned into a mean pirate and made them do all the work that a real pirate would do. Jane and the twins weren’t able to tie any of the knots because they were too big. So, she asked her Grandfather if he could get her some knots and he did. Grandpa (Jane’s) didn’t know what to do because if Lucky hears the music from the bell tower then she will get seen. So, he took the ropes that made the music and gave them to Jane. When the city heard this, they put him in prison. Just before that, Jane was talking to Ms. Schnabel’s sister and found out that Ms. Schnabel was really the mean an ferocious Captain Penzing the Horrific. Jane’s grandpa got out of jail because there was no more room for him. Ms. Schnabel left, and left a package for Jane on the way there. It was a tiny puppy named Dirt! I really liked this book and hope I’m as Remarkable as Jane.

I love when my mom reads the stories to us before bed.

I rate this book as fair since I appreciate that the author, Wendy Lichtman, made the protagonist, Tess, teach readers a lesson after Tess learns a lesson. “After I paid for a bag of chips, I waited for Lucia to get some candy. ‘Want one?’ she asked, pointing to the tamarind. ‘No thanks,’ I said, shaking my head. I didn’t think for one second that Lucia was going to slip the candy into her pocket without paying...But she did slip it into her pocket...Some people who run stores are mean to kids my age, but the man who owns that one isn’t. He’s friendly and nice, and it bothered me that Lucia would steal anything from him. He’ll have to pay for that candy himself…” Later in the book, Lucia steals more candy from the same store, so Tess confronts her and asks her why she does it. After that, Tess does not hang out with Lucia as much anymore. This teaches readers that stealing is not right and that they should not surround themselves with those types of people. I do not appreciate Wendy Lichtman teaches this next lesson, which is also through Tess. This happens when Tess discovers math patterns of graffiti on the wall by her school and she responds to them in number codes, which is illegal. Her conversations with this mysterious person are about who started the fire in her computer teacher’s classroom. Even though Tess is trying to help discover who is behind this arson case, she additionally brings her best friends into this situation, which could make them suspended from school. Although Tess is not trying to do anything harmful on purpose, because she is caught, she becomes suspended for four days, influencing readers by telling them that it is alright to do illegal actions and just deal with the consequences. When Tess’s mom asks her if anybody else is involved with writing graffiti, Tess lies and responds no. This teaches readers that it is more important to lie to protect friends instead of telling the truth and learning what is right, which reminds me of morals versus values.