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The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor

Review by Ella; dreamer, ski racer, writer, and rock climber. Ella lives in SV, Idaho with her mom, dad, cat, dog, gecko, and fish.

Mason Buttle, the main character of the Truth as Told by Mason Buttle, is a big sweaty boy. He doesn’t seem intelligent but he hides many secrets. His life is full of mystery. His best friend, Benny, showed up dead in the Buttle family orchard just a year before the story takes place. Mason is made fun of at school and receives many taunts because of his near illiteracy. The only safe place Mason has is the guidance counselor’s office, the SWOOF. There he starts working on the dragon, a device which turns his words into writing to explain his life story. This is valuable to the police officer that comes to his house and questions Mason weekly, still trying to discover what happened to Benny.

At the SWOOF Mason meets Calvin, an extremely small and tech savvy kid. Running from bullies, they quickly become friends and go on many adventures. They start to build a hideout just for them in an old root cellar on the Buttle property. They stop into the Buttle house or as Mason calls it the “crumble down” every day for banana shakes before heading out to work on their secret lair. Everything is starting to get better for Mason and he is finally starting to feel somewhat at peace. But when Calvin goes missing, Mason is dragged back down into the mystery and terror that he felt when Benny died.  I loved this book and would recommend it to someone who likes a warm, heartfelt mystery book.

Find it in print, ebook and eaudiobook here.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

I am Essence. I am in 9th Grader. I enjoy reading historical fiction and fantasy..

Mare Barrow is growing up as a lower-class citizen in the Kingdom of Norta, segregated because of the color of her blood. The Red bloods are the workers of the kingdom while the Silver Bloods live in amazing bliss, all of them under the rule of the Silver-blood king Tiberias Calore the IV. Mare grows up in the slums of the kingdom; living off of her family’s rations and stealing whatever she can get her hands on. When her best friend loses his apprenticeship with a fisherman in town, he is going to be conscripted into the military. She goes on a mission to save both of them from what almost killed her father and had taken her brothers to fight in the century-long war against the just as powerful Lakelanders. She stumbles upon an offer that can potentially save her and her best friend’s lives. When attempting to scrounge up the payment for the life saving offer she is caught in the middle of a big rebellion put on by fellow Red-bloods against the Silver bloods in the kingdom. In Red Queen, you discover how Mare deals with betrayal, self-doubt, and self-preservation when reading the first in this six-book series. For those who love action and a little thriller, this book is perfect for you. It has plot twists you would never expect written beautifully by Victoria Aveyard. I loved this book, the layout was fantastic and the descriptions of the book made you really believe you were there and watching what was happening to the characters.

Find it in print, ebook, and eaudiobook here.

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

I am Essence. I am in 9th Grader. I enjoy reading historical fiction and fantasy.

Avery Grambs is living the life. Not.  Ever since her mom died she has been cared for by her half-sister Libby and Libby´s on-again-off-again boyfriend; Drake. Libby and Avery share the same dad who has been out of the picture for years, and so it is just them facing the world. Avery´s goals are to graduate and do something with her life to hopefully be able to stop living part-time with Libby and part-time in her beat-up old car. Suddenly her life changes when she gets notified that she has received almost the whole inheritance of the legendary self-made billionaire Tobias Hawthorne, whom she has never met, nor communicated with, ever. In shock, she is rushed into the life of the heir of the inheritance and faces the different personalities in Tobias Hawthorne´s family who barely got anything from his death compared to Avery. She must keep her head high and be careful about who she trusts with the extremely expectant kin of Tobias Hawthorne. 

Inheritance Games is an incomplete series of currently two books leaving you on your toes and guessing whodunnit in this mystery and fiction book. This book will get you hooked within the first pages and make you want to read the next book as soon as you finish.

Find it in print and ebook here.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Hello, my name is Allen I am in 7th grade. My favorite book series is Harry Potter closely followed by Harry Potter. I enjoy Hunting, Fishing, Skiing, Football, and Golf.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling is the fourth of seven books in the Harry Potter series (Do NOT read this book until you have read books 1,2,3). In this book, we get to experience what the wizarding sport Quidditch is really like. I love the detail that Rowling puts into the campground and what the wizard tents are like. As the students arrive at school, we find Harry in a very sticky situation when his name unexpectedly comes out of the Goblet of Fire. Everyone is angry and suspicious that Harry put his own name in the Goblet. While Harry communicates back and forth with his newfound godfather, he tries to work out who and why someone put his name into the Goblet of Fire, all while also trying to stay alive through the deadly wizarding tasks. In this book we also see drama unfold when Harry sees the girl he likes go out with the “pretty boy” of the school. 

I really enjoyed this book for the suspense and the detail. I love how Rowling leads you through Harry’s life at Hogwarts and what he goes through as a young wizard. I find it amusing to compare yourself to the characters that Rowling brings to life and to think about what you would have done in their situation. I like how we get to see wizards from other countries and what they are like. This book is the turning point in the Harry Potter series. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. 

Find it in print, ebook, eaudiobook, CD, and DVD here.

The Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.

The year is 1878, and after her aunt’s death, Tessa Gray, headed from New York to London to live with her brother, finds herself in a vastly different situation than the one she expected. Kidnapped by her an organization called “The Pandemonium Club,” she spends six weeks forced to perfect a skill she had no prior knowledge of: the ability to shapeshift into someone else, living or dead, using an item of theirs. This is an ability the ruler of the club will stop at nothing to possess. 

This is only the first in a series of life-changing events. Tessa’s trip to London becomes an introduction to the world of the Shadowhunters: part-human, part-angel warriors on an endless hunt to defeat the Downwolders, demons and monsters that haunt the shadows of the human world.

The appearance of Tessa, the likes of which is unheard of, at the Shadowhunter institution is unprecedented, and none are more confused about it than Tessa. But when a series of clockwork automatons cloaked in human skin begin pacing the streets of London, Tessa joins the Shadowhunters in untangling the complicated thread of truth… and finds that the world she always knew isn’t the world she lives in. 

This satisfyingly complicated book is the perfect entrance to a new world, layered just underneath the one we know. With a morally diverse cast of characters, twists around every corner, and an antique setting, Cassandra Clare writes the perfect book to devour—and leaves you hungry for more. 

Find it in print here.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.

The year is 1938, and World War II is brewing in the faraway land of Europe. For five-year-old Peekay, it’s a thought as foreign as the ocean when all he has ever known is the South African lowveld where he grew up.

Peekay has a life as challenging as it is fortunate: a childhood marred by humiliation and torment, serving as a place from which to rise with aspirations of a brighter future. It is a life of opportunity: from lessons in music and botany to more informal ones of boxing and scamming. It is truly, wholly, a life of discovery: discovery of humanity, in a world divided by the prejudice of war and the seeds of apartheid; discovery of self, of finding ones’ own ambitions in a sea of expectations—a discovery of the power of one: that “in each us, there is a flame that must never be allowed to go out. That as long as it burns within us, we cannot be destroyed.”

While it was one of the most challenging books I’ve ever read, I truly enjoyed this story, if only for how different Peekay’s experiences are from my own. Bryce Courtenay weaves an epic, coming-of-age account of how one boy’s life is shaped by those he encounters on his way to maturity. It peeks into the beginnings of Apartheid in South Africa and ultimately provides such a different way to see the world that is well worth the read.

Find it in print and ebook here.