The Door in the Wall by Marbuerite De Angeli

Title: The Door in the Wall

Author: Marguerite De Angeli

Stars: 4

Description: The bells clang above plague-ridden London, as Robin lies helpless, cold and hungry. He calls, but the servants have fled, and no one answers. Then in the passage he hears strange steps... This is the story of Robin, a Noble's son-a crippled who can never ride a horse to battle, like his father.

Robin is helpless, lying there with nothing to do because he can't walk or run like the other boys. But then Robin meets Brother Luke. And as Brother Luke helps him through this hard time Robin feels better about himself. He used to feel sad because his father always expected to be a knight and ride his horse out to battle. But Robin is not able to because he is crippled.

This book will take you through adventure and more. Robin, even though is crippled, is very brave and do mostly anything. But the power of God and his friends will help him through this hard time.

Who Is Your Favorite Character and Why? Out of all of them, I would have to say Robin. Why? Because he is brave even though he cannot do everything else that other boys can. He does wish he could run and swim and everything else, but knows that even though he cannot walk he will be ok.

What Is Your Favorite Part and Why? This one would easily be when Robin gets to see his mother and father again. Why? Because it is just a good moment between their family. I would be filled with joy if I hadn't seen my parents for more then a couple of months and I finally got to see them

Are You Like the Main Character Why Or Why Aren't You? I don't really know. Why? Well, Robin is very brave for one thing but it one part he has to go and tell some people about a army and he has to be very brave. Now right now I think I would be like him, but it would only be if I was in that situation.

4 stars

Natalie

Sweet Dreams (Christy Miller) by Robin Gunn

Title: Sweet Dreams

Author: Robin Gunn

Stars: 5

Description: Christy Miller's senior year is delicious, especially the time she spends with Todd. But her best friend, Katie, is struggling-she's realized she needs to break up with Michael. Ti's not easy! Fortunately both Doug and Disneyland help Katie to cheer up. Christy is learning to let go and get out of the way so that her friends can become who they're meant to be...even when it jeopardizes her own sweet dreams.

Christy is glad to have her best friend, Katie, back. She broke up with that non-Christian guy Michael and Christy and her are best friends again. But Katie is still getting over Michael and it is really hard for her because they were in love.

But going to Disney-Land and having a good time with Doug cheers her up and brings the old Katie back. Christy is trying to spend every weekend with Todd. But sometimes you have to let go to let that someone do their dream.

5 stars!

Natalie

The Graveyard Bok by Neil Gaiman

Title: The Graveyard Book

Author: Neil Gaiman

Stars: 5

Description: Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack-who has already killed Bod's family....

This book is VERY good. I LOVE it. Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. This book is about this boy, who's family was murdered one night and he survived when we was just a little baby. But now he is being raised by ghosts.

In this book you go through all kinds of adventures, the Sleer, the ghouls and meet all kinds of ghosts. If you like a really good adventure and a scary book, this is for you!

In this book there is some violence. Jack, the murderer, explains how he killed Bod's parents, not gruesomely though. And then there is some violence at the end of the book also.

5 stars!

Natalie

Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning by Danette Haworth

Title: Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning

Author: Danette Haworth

Stars: 4 1/2

Description: Spunky, headstrong Violet Raines isn't scared of much; she's lived in the sleepy Florida town of Mitchell Hammock all her life, and things are just the way she likes them. But Violet's world changes in a flash when Melissa arrives from big-city Detroit. All of sudden, Violet's supposed to want to wear make-up and talk about boys? It'll take the help of Violet's friends, her momma, a few run-ins with lightning, and maybe even Melissa for Violet to realize that growing up doesn't have to mean changing who you are.

Everything is perfect for Violet, she has her best friend Lottie, even though they are about to go into Junior High it isn't a big deal, everything is just right...until Melissa comes along. Now Violet is having to dream about cute boys, wear make-up, and other stuff.

Violet does a kiss on a dare and Violet likes to say Oh My Lord and Lord Almighty for expressions kind of like saying OH My Go*.

4 1.2 Stars!

Natalie

A Time to Cherish by Robin Gunn

Title: A Time to Cherish

Author: Robin Gunn

Stars: 5

Description: For Labor Day weekend, Christy Miller is on a houseboat at Lake Shasta. What could be better? She's about to find out! Before they know it, both Christy and her best friend Katie are receiving some unexpected male attention. But somehow these best friends are at odds just when they should be having the most fun together. Christy soon realizes that sometimes you have to stand back and let people make their own decisions, even when they;re headed for a fall. And although life is never perfect, this is definitely a time to cherish.

Christy, Katie, Todd, and Doug are on a houseboat for Labor Day. And pretty soon Christy and Katie all of the sudden are getting male attenion. Katie just met a non-Christian guy named Michael. And Christy is trying to tell her it isn't a good idea to be falling in love with him. But she has to figure out that she needs to let Katie figure things out on her own.

Natalie

A Night in Terror Tower Goosebumps by R.L. Stine

Title: A Night in Terror Tower

Author: R.L. Stine

Stars: 4 1/2

Description: Sue and her brother, Eddie, are visiting London when they run into a little problem. They can't find their tour group. Still, there's no reason to panic. No way their tour guide would just leave them. All alone. In a gloomy old prison tower, No way they'd get locked inside. After dark. With those eerie sounds. And a strange dark figure who wants them...dead.

Sue and Eddie are going on a tour through a tower that people we tortured and killed. And all of the sudden, they don't know were their tour group went. But they wouldn't leave them there, in a dark tower, locked in, after dark.

And this can't be real, how can there be a dark person wanting them dead. And how can they be pulled back into the past. That can't happen...right?

Natalie

The Secret of Shadow Ranch by Carolyn Keene

Title: The Secret of Shadow Ranch

Author: Carolyn Keene

Stars: 4 1/2

Description: Nancy arrives in Arizona, looking forward to a fun-filled vacation at Shadow Ranch, but abruptly finds herself involved in a baffling mystery.

Nancy is going to her best friend's aunt and uncle's farm for a little vacation. But what she doesn't know is that there is a mystery at hand. Just what is the mystery? There is a phantom horse on the ranch, and every time it appears something bad happens.

Nancy and Dave and her best friends go to a dance with some boys and they refer to them as cute. There isn't anything more then that.

Natalie

Goosebumps Monster Blood by R.L. Stine

Title: Monster Blood

Author: R.L. Stine

Stars: 4

Description: While staying with his weird great-aunt Kathryn, Evan visits a funky old toy store and buys a dusty can of monster blood. It's fun to play with at first. And Evan's dog, Trigger, likes it so much, he eats some! But then Evan notices something weird about the green slimy stuff-it seems to be growing. And growing. And growing. And all that growing has given the monster blood a monstrous appetite.

Even has no choice but to stay with his deaf, and weird great-aunt Kathryn. He doesn't like her, and she doesn't like him. Even meets Andy, a girl that lives around the corner, and go to this old toy store.

There Even find the monster blood. Its gewey, warm and fun to play with. And then his dog, Trigger, eats some. And Trigger and the monster blood keep growing, and growing, and growing, larger, and larger, and larger.

This book isn't has scary as some of the other Goosebumps books I have read. This one is a little scary not really though. The author is a very good writer. He has written a lot of books. The bestselling series, Goosebumps, Fear Street, and Give Yourself Goosebumps. Fear Street is a little intense, my mom is going to try it first. About murders and stuff. In this books there is only one bad word, Oh my Go*. I don't think there is a lot of bad words in his teen books.

Robert Stine has written The Babysitter books, and Dangerous Girls. I do think that those are more intense, and I won't be reading them. Well, for right now anyway.

I am a fan of Goosebumps though!

Natalie

Whispers Down The Lane (SummerHill Secrets) by Beverly Lewis

Title: Whispers Down The Lane

Author: Beverly Lewis

Series: Yes, SummerHill Secrets

Stars: 4 1/2

Description: Merry Hanson doesn't know which is worse: harboring a runaway or being interrogated by the police. Actually, neither situation is too appealing, but when her friend Lissa shows up at the Hanson house looking bruised and beaten, Merry knows she has to help. When Merry confines in her Amish girlfriend, Rachel Zook, the two devise a daring plan to rescue Lissa-but will they be able to avoid the man who is after her? And will Lissa ever find peace she so desperately needs? With a runaway in her bedroom and the police out in the woods, Merry is ready for a full-scale panic attack!

Merry is asleep one night when there is a whisper outside. She finds out that it is her friend Lissa and she is beaten and swollen. The only way Merry knows how to help Lissa get away from her abusive father, is to take her into her bedroom and keep her hidden. Merry has to trust in Jesus to help her through this.

I like this book because it shows that you have to trust in Jesus and God to help you through ruff things. Merry shows this by praying to God for Lissa to be safe and to be healed from all her bruises and her hurt. Not only fiscally but also in her heart.

Natalie

Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata

Title: Weedflower

Author: Cynthia Kadohata

Stars: 4

Description: Twelve-year-old Sumiko feels her life has been made up of two parts: before Pearl Harbor and after it. The good part and the bad part. Raised on a flower farm in California, Sumiko is used to being the only Japanese girl in her class. Even when the other kids tease her, she always has had her flowers and family to go home to. That all changes after the horrific events of Pearl Harbor. Other Americans start to suspect that all Japanese people are spies for the emperor, even if, like Sumiko, they were born in the United Staes, As suspicions grow, Sumiko and her family find themselves being shipped to an internment camp in one of the hottest deserts in the United States. The vivid color of her previous life is gone forever, and now dust storms regularly choke the sky and seep into every crack of the military barrack that is her new "home." Sumiko soon discovers that the camp is on an Indian reservation and that the Japanese are as unwanted there as they'd been at home. But then she meets a young Mohave boy who might just become her first real friend...if he can ever stop being angry about the fact that the internment camp is on his tribe's land.


Sumiko has a very good life. She lives on a flower farm, and her dream is to to own that flower farm one day. But everything changes when she is shipped of to a internment camp. Her mother and father died a long time ago so it is just her, her brother Tak-Tak, Bull, Ichiro, Auntie, Uncle, and Jiichan.

The more she is in the camp, she feels like this place his more of her home then the flower farm. And now she has some friends, well, one lies a lot, Sachi, but then she has Frank. A Indian boy who is not happy that the internment camp is on his land.



Who Is Your Favorite Character and Why? I would have to say Jiichan. He is Sumiko's grandfather. Why? Because he has a good sense of humor probably.

What Is Your Favorite Part and Why? I think it would have to be when Sumiko is leaving and she is saying goodbye to Mr. Motto and Mr. Motto says,"I always wanted a daughter." Why? Because it shows how much Mr. Motto loves Sumiko.

Are You Like the Main Character Why Or Why Aren't You? Um..... I don't know. We are very I think. Why? First of all, I am not Japanese. And Sumiko loves flowers, and I don't really care about them. So I would say no I am not.


Natalie