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The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

Hi! My name is Madeline, I am in 9th grade and live in Hailey Idaho. I love politics, philosophy, writing, and playing the violin. I could talk about these topics all day. I also love reading, my favorite books are The Lord of The Rings, anything written by Tolkien, and Fahrenheit 451.

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain is a humorous historical fiction story that will keep you glued to its pages.

Nine-year-old pauper Tom Canty and Prince Edward look exactly alike.  By chance, they meet each other, and they decide to switch places for fun. But, in an unexpected turn of events, they are stuck in each other’s places. Prince Edward, who is accustomed to servants and finery, is cast out into the streets and treated like an outcast. Tom, who is used to beatings and rags, is suddenly waited on by hundreds of servants and is the second most powerful person in England.

The boys are both miserable in their switched roles and try to find some way to switch back. Edward and Tom try to tell people that they have traded places, but everyone thinks they are mad. A few days after their switch, the old King dies, and Tom becomes King. He has no idea what to do and feels overwhelmed.  Edward learns his father has died and tries to get back to the palace to reclaim his throne. Finally, on the day of the coronation, Edward manages to get back to the palace, but the royal family won’t believe him. The only way they will believe his story is if he brings the royal seal. The trouble is, he has lost it.

This is one of the best books I have read, and I recommend it for 7^th grade and up.

Find it in print, ebook, and eaudiobook here.

The Thing about Leftovers by C.C. Payne

Hi, my name is Cora. I love to read and play sports, especially soccer. I also love to read and also play with my cats, Vanilla and Bean. My favorite color is blue.

The Thing About Leftovers is a wonderful heartwarming story written by C.C Payne. There is a lot of humor and also hope in this story. The Thing About Leftovers is about an 11-year-old girl named Fizzy.  All Fizzy wants is to be perfect and to follow her passion of winning the southern living cook-off but things don’t turn out as planned. Fizzy’s dad remarries and he and his new wife eventually have a baby. Meanwhile, her Mom falls in love with a neat freak man and also eventually gets married. The baby and stepdad seem to take over her world and life. Fizzy feels like a leftover and what’s to like about leftovers?.

Confusion and anger take Fizzy over and she has no idea where to turn to. Her mom and stepdad? No, He’ll just kick her out of the house. Her birth father and Suzanne? No way, they are way too busy taking care of the new baby and are too busy to deal with Fizzy- the leftover. Counting on her new friends to help Fizzy starts to realize what is really important and that there are some things you can’t control. You can just control how you deal with it. I definitely recommend this book and hope you find it as good of a read as I did.

Find it in print here.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

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.

Theodore Finch is a boy who is constantly changing, shifting, unpredictable, spending his time doing anything he can to stay Awake. He is fascinated by death and constantly ponders every way he might die—and manages to find something, every time, to keep him alive. 

Violet Markey is a girl who is predictable—the girl who writes and completes her assignments, stays in the popular crowd and isn’t reckless. She lives for the future, counting down the days until she can graduate and leave town. But now, reeling from her sister’s death in a car accident, that life seems like a distant memory.
Then, 154 days before graduation, Violet and Finch find themselves at the top of the school bell tower, both with their eyes trained on the ground. It sparks an unlikely friendship that is the buoy to them both, each keeping the other afloat. Violet starts to live again, to drive and write and find herself. Finch feels more than happy, and so, so, awake. But it can only last for so long. As Violet’s life expands, Finch’s begins to deflate.

Jennifer Niven weaves a heart-wrenchingly beautiful story that captures life lived and loved, while perfectly entangling the emotions of two teens standing on the edge. 

Find it in print, ebook, and eaudiobook here.

Alone On the Wall by Alex Honnold

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.

Imagine clinging to a solid granite face, 2,000 feet in the air, the first two digits of your fingers jammed into a crack and your feet smeared on invisible footholds, mere dimples in the rock. The wind rustles across the cliff as you reach for the next hold, unprotected, with nothing connecting you to the rock and preventing a plummet. Nothing but the rock and the climber. Rock climbing at its purest.

Alex Honnold lives this reality most days, all around the world. A rock climber at heart, he has accomplished feats unthinkable in the climbing world. In Alone on the Wall, these are chronicled and laid out in a way easy for even the non-climber to understand and appreciate, intermingled with humorous day-to-day events that give a wholesome view of these gargantuan climbs. The up-close and personal way he describes these feats, coupled with climbing history and explanation, make this biography a truly fascinating read. The action sequences can leave you hanging at the edge of a precipice—literally—but are presented in a way that reminds you that even the famous, remarkably talented among us are human too. In Honnold’s case, it’s doing what he loves and dancing on the rock all around the world.

Find it through Interlibrary Loan here.

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

Hi, I am Sophie. I like to mountain bike, water ski, snow ski, and do about every other sport. But, I also love to read. My favorite author is Dusti Bowling.

Imagine that you are a runner, that is your thing. Then, suddenly you learn that you might never run again. That is exactly what 16-year-old Jessica Carlisle had to go through. On her way back from a track meet, a drunk driver crashes into the school bus. The accident takes away the part of her leg below her knee and the life of one of her teammates. 

After getting out of the hospital, it takes Jessica a while to get back to normal. She has a really hard time adjusting to going back to school. When Jessica finally accepts that she will never be able to run again, her coach proposes a plan to save the money to get Jessica a running prosthetic leg. The team tries to accomplish this by doing bake sales, and car washes. Finally, they reach their goal of $20,000 with the help of an anonymous donor. 

When Jessica gets her running leg, it takes a while to get used to and to figure out how to use it. But no matter what, Jessica keeps trying. In this book, Jessica faces many obstacles and struggles. Including, figuring out how to walk, function, and how to get her friend, Rosa Brazzi to cross a finish line. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

Find it in print here.

Framed by James Ponti

Hi, I am Sophie. I like to mountain bike, water ski, snow ski, and do about every other sport. But, I also love to read. My favorite author is Dusti Bowling.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could work for the FBI with your best friend and solve cases when you’re only 12-years-old? That is exactly what Florian Bates gets to do. In this book, Florian Bates and Margaret Campbell work with the FBI, to solve a case in which 4 paintings are stolen from The National Art Gallery. Florian makes this all possible by using T.O.A.S.T (the Theory Of All Small Things). This is when you concentrate on the small details instead of the big things and they add up to the big picture. In this book, not only do they solve a case, but they also find out some information about Margaret’s birth parents, who she has been looking for since she was born. When they think things can’t get any weirder, the two find a stolen ring, then Florian gets kidnapped. It sounds fun and exciting and a good excuse to get out of school but when the FBI needs their help, Florian’s mom always makes sure that school comes first. Margaret and Florian create a strong bond with each other and with Marcus Rivers, the FBI agent they work with. Florian and Margaret experience many hardships and struggles but they push through them together.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery book.

Find it in print and eaudiobook here.