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The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer

How do you imagine the "City of the Future"? For me, it is a place where we've figured out how to stop harming ourselves, our environment, and each other. But knowing how far technology has come in such a short time and how it has dominated all our lives, it isn't hard to imagine a world like Satellite City, a super city of 25 million. The Satellite controls everything from news, traffic, to rotating the location of buildings. But the Satellite is going haywire and creating chaos.

In this future world, orphans, known as no-sponsors, are taken in by places like the Clarissa Frayne Institute for the Parentally Challenged. In order to keep its doors open, the Institute must make money by any means necessary including risking the lives of the no-sponsors, who don't normally live past age 15, due to all the food and drug testing they undergo. Cosmo Hill is a no-sponsor who doesn't want to die at Clarissa Frayne, so he is always on the lookout for an escape.

When a Satellite malfunction provides Cosmo with an opportunity, he takes it. But his escape is less than perfect and as Cosmo lays dying, he sees a mysterious blue creature land on his chest and begin to suck the life from him.

Before he blacks out, three teenagers appear with weapons pointed straight at him. Cosmo later awakens in their warehouse and learns that this group, who call themselves the Supernaturalists, can see these blue creatures and are trying to destroy the Parasites.

Can the Supernaturalists be able to defeat the Parasites and continue to evade capture from the government? Is anything really what it seems to be?

Why I picked up the book: I'm rereading it for my middle school book club. I read it once about five years ago.

Why I finished it: I kept wondering if this really what the city of the future will be like and hoping it won't. I also really wanted to know what these Parasites really were all about.

I'd give the book to: anyone, especially fans of adventure or futuristic/dystopian sci-fi.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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19 minutes

Name: Eric

Grade: 12

Book: 19 Minutes

Author: Jodi Picoult

America was rocked by the Columbine shootings, and later, those of Virginia Tech. These are events that are perpetually evil in our eyes, and seen as the simplistic good vs. evil. Jodi Picoult, however, explores the idea that the monsters we see on TV and in the news are not always what they seem, in her novel, 19 minutes. A story on one level about a school shooting, but more accurately, about the social ties and nuances that drive human behavior every day. 19 minutes captures the story of a boy and a girl(as every good story does), and how their paths intertwine into one climactic moment, when as a reader, you begin to question your world around you.

Jodi Picoult is known for her romances, and in a way, this novel is also a romance. Yet is not a romance in the traditional Lover style, it is more the love felt between Friends, Family, and That Person You Once Knew. I am not a fan of mushy books; I find them to be lacking in body and cheap. But this story is deep, meaningful, and impacting. I enjoyed it immensely, and would recommend it to any and all students especially.

I picked this book up because I won it in a contest, and decided to give it a shot.

I finished this book because of its power. It pulls you in, as you begin to feel for the most unlikely of subjects.

I'd give this book to any and every student. Shootings are a part of life now, and are a very serious matter in today's school systems. But this book brings a whole new light to that area, and acts as a method of prevention for such tragedies.

Rating: *****

Kaitlin's Review: The Noticer by Andy Andrews

Name: Kaitlin
10th grade
Book Title: The Noticer
Author: Andy Andrews

Seventeen-year-old Andy had just lost everything, his parents, his home, his friends. He was living under a pier by the ocean when one day, an old man saw him laying there in his sleeping bag, and told him, "Son, step into the light." Come to find out, Jones, the name of the old man, knew everything about Andy. Andy had never seen this man in his life before and was sure of it. This man carried and briefcase and called himself a Noticer. Throughout the book, Jones gives Andy, and a number of other people, a new perspective on life and the situations they are in. No one knows where he came from or where he goes every time he is not with them, but they think of Jones as a blessing. This was a real eye-opener for me and really changed my perspective on life. Pick it up if you need a moral booster.
Why I picked the book up:: It was recommended by a teacher.
Why I finished it:: I wanted to know what happened in the end.
I'd give this book to:: Anyone who needs a new perspective on life.
My rating for this book:: **** Really Liked It

Coffeehouse Angel by Suzanne Selfors

Katrina wasn't looking for a reward or even a pat on the back. She just did the right thing, a random act of kindness. While emptying the trash on a cold morning outside her grandmother's coffee shop, Anna's Old World Scandinavian Coffeehouse, Katrina sees a homeless man curled up in the alley asleep. So she places a hot cup of coffee, day old pastries, and a bag of chocolate-covered coffee beans on the doorstep for him. What happens next isn't so ordinary. The man shows up at Katrina's school, during an assembly and announces to the whole school that he must reward her generosity and selflessness. Not only is Katrina embarrassed but she refuses to accept the reward.

It turns out the man, Malcolm, is a messenger angel. He is between missions and can not/will not be able to leave until Katrina lets him grant her wish and give her the thing she most desires. Is this guy for real? Would you be able to refuse the charms of a cute "Coffeehouse Angel"?

Why I picked up this book: I love books about coffee and the cover grabbed me as well. This has been on my to-read list for a long time. I've probably checked it out a dozen times and never had a chance to read it. Started it this time because I was looking for something fun, easy, and light. Fits the bill and might work into a great book club.

Why I finished it: It is a sweet story about friendship, family, and forgiveness.

I'd give it to: fans of light romance, teens and adults.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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Lockdown (Escape From the Furnace #1) by Alexander Gordon Smith

What is your worst nightmare? I would be willing to bet that you could never dream of a place as horrible as Furnace. Furnace Penitentiary was built following the "Summer of Slaughter" when teenage gangs reigned, terrorizing and murdering, sending society into a state of fear and panic. Now it is a state of zero tolerance. You do the crime, you will do hard time, forever. If you are convicted, you are sentenced to life in this underground prison, where horrors beyond your wildest dream exist. Muscular, meat-eating guard dogs. A warden with black eyes like vortexes that seem to suck out your soul. Guards who wheeze due to the gas masks covering their faces, the gas masks that appear to sewn into their skin, the guards that come for you in the dark of night.

In exchange for safety and security, the government and society have turned a blind eye to the prison. If they only knew what was really going on, would they allow the teenagers prisoners, who are children really, to be treated this way? Don't they deserve a second chance, especially if, like Alex, they maintain their innocence?

Welcome to Furnace, where there is no escape. Or is there?

Why I picked up the book: My alternative high school book club picked it. It had been recommended to me before but I'd never made the time to read it.

Why I finished it: I was hooked from the first page as Alex is running up the prison stairs to avoid whatever monstrous thing is chasing him and the other prisoners. I'm underwater claustrophobic so I know the threat of spending my life in an underground prison would do me in. I will definitely be picking up the sequels (will be 5 in the series by 2013).

I'd give it to: fans of horror, like Stephen King or Darren Shan. In fact I gave it to my King/Shan fan the minute I saw her. Definitely teen boys, especially those looking for a new series, although I've had girls like it too.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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Hater

Name: Serina

Grade: College

Title: Hater

Author: David Moody

It all started on an exceedingly normal day when a seemingly harmless businessman suddenly impaled an elderly woman with an umbrella. No one saw it coming, nor could they possibly fathom why he attacked her out of nowhere, and why he looked so utterly terrified of her while he did it. What seemed like a singular freak incident suddenly becomes an epidemic of violence. People everywhere, no matter what age and gender, are suddenly becoming murderers, and their targets are just as diverse, but all are killed in shocking, bloody ways. A girl smashes her friend's head in with a rock during a leisurely walk in the park. A guitarist of a popular band suddenly flies off the handle during a concert and bludgeons a fellow band mate with his guitar. The media begins to call the onslaught of aggressive people 'Haters' and the Haters could be anyone, a stranger, a best friend, or even a loving family member. No one is safe, either from becoming a victim, or from becoming a Hater themselves...

I picked this book up because it had a very interesting cover.

I finished this book because I had to know what was happening!

I'd give this book to anyone who can stomach it.

Rating: **** Really liked it!

Double Identity

Michelle Sherwin
12th Grade
Double Identity
This book begins with a girl, by the name of Bethany, who has been sheltered her entire life being suddenly dropped off with a relative she had not even heard of before. The woman she is dropped off with, her Aunt Myrlie, is left with no phone number and no knowledge of where her Bethany's parents are going. Throughout the novel she begins to learn about her aunt, her cousin and her sister Elizabeth as well as learning more about her parents. Thought the entire book as Bethany finds more out about her relatives she discovers why her parents dropped her off in this place, why she had been so shelter her entire life and why she did not know any of these relatives she was now staying with. I enjoyed the new arising questions with every one which was answered. I also enjoyed unexpected twists that came each time she met a new person.
I picked this book because I had read several other books by this author and had enjoyed many of her other books.
I finished it because up until the very end there was always another question to be answered and more to be asked.
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy suspense, mystery and excitement.
Rating: ****