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It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

Hi, my name is Kate. I am in 11th grade at Wood River High School. I enjoy hanging out with friends and playing soccer in my free time when I am not at school.

In the book It Ends With Us, by Colleen Hoover, Lily, a young girl in the city of Boston, meets a man. Neither of them knows anything about the other or how to contact them, yet they end up running into each other multiple times. Each time becomes more intense, soon leading to a romantic relationship. With Lily’s past experiences with abuse, she will learn more about things she wished she didn’t and have more appreciation towards others in her life who have been through those experiences.

I really enjoyed reading this book. As I have grown up, I shifted out of reading but this book has made me realize how much I enjoy reading. Lily was a really good main character. She is smart and independent and loves challenging herself. The decisions that she would have to make involved abuse vs. love and what choice she would have to make, were even hard for me to make as a reader. I liked how fast-paced this book was, I was always looking forward to reading more. I recommended this book to multiple other people and all of them have loved it and read it in less than 3 days. By far, this is one of my favorite books that I have read. The ending left me thinking “what would I do in this situation?” because of how complex the situation was. I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes reading romance and quick reads

Find it through Interlibrary Loan here.

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Hello! My name is Tess and I am 12 years old. I live in Ketchum and love to ski, bike, fish, and get lost in my books.

In The War That Saved My Life, the struggles young Ada went through were like nothing you could ever imagine. In this sad, hair-raising novel you will experience the troubles of having a disability in a difficult living environment. When you open up the pages of this beautifully written book you might question whether you’ll want to read it, but once you start you’ll crave more.

Ada suffers from clubfoot, a medical condition that prevents the foot from being flat on the ground. She has never been treated fairly or kindly until she runs away and meets Susan, a loving, single woman with no experience with children. Susan cares for Ada and her brother Jamie and teaches them that there is more to life than a small apartment flat. Ada finds a love for horses and meets some friends along the way, and she learns more about her past as her future doesn’t seem so bright. As Ada becomes more involved with the real world, you will want less of it, so you can read this breathtaking novel.

Find it here in print and ebook.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My name is Jasmine. I am 11 years old and live in Ketchum, Idaho. I love ski racing, snow/winter, and many other fun things.

Powerful, unforgettable, and thrilling, this astonishing final installment of Suzanne Collins groundbreaking trilogy of The Hunger Games will keep you up at night wondering what will happen.

In Mockingjay, Katniss Everdeen is alive against all odds. She has survived the hunger games twice. Now that she has made it out of the bloody arena twice, she still isn’t safe. Will the game last forever? The Capitol is angry. They want revenge. Who do they think should pay for the rebellion? Katniss? However, Katniss is also angry, coming back from the Capitol’s beloved horror games to find her home destroyed and her loved one Peeta tortured in a way that’s impossible to imagine. What’s worse is President Snow has made it clear no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, friends, or district 12. 

So many questions are asked. Will Peeta recover or ever be the same again? Will Katniss be their Mockingjay? And remain the face of the rebellion? Will she survive the pressure and continue to lead on? Will she kill President Snow or lose hope throughout her journey? Katniss and her crew are forced to see the worst of days. Just how many will survive in what could be their greatest adventure?

Find it here in print, film, and ebook.

Endangered by Eliot Schrefer

My name is 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. 

Sophie Biyoya-Ciardulli knows she’s got it luckier than most.

With her Italian-American father and Congolese mother, she attends high school in Florida and spends the summers at her mother’s bonobo sanctuary in Congo. She has money and opportunity and an escape—because Congo is a dangerous place, even for those who are trying to do good.

But the summer she turns sixteen, she rescues a sick and orphaned bonobo from a trafficker and nurses it back to health, christening it Otto. For the first time, Sophie understands why her mother has stayed in Congo, caring for the bonobos, instead of coming to America; why she always seems to put them before her family: she now knows what it’s like to feel responsible for another creature, and she and Otto are inseparable.

But just before she must leave, war breaks out in Congo. Foregoing the UN transport getting the American visitors out, she chooses to stay with the bonobos, risking her life to protect Otto in a society that doesn’t seem to care about humans, much less the empathetic apes that share 99.8% of their DNA.

Told with harrowing detail and care, Eliot Schefer weaves a story about the relationship between a girl and an ape—but really, it’s a story about much more than that. It’s the story of a country, of a species, of a war and a hope and a mission. And it all began with Otto.

Find it here in print.

Early Departures by Justin A. Reynolds

My name is 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. 

Sixteen-year-old Jamal Anderson knows loss. He’s known it ever since the car crash that killed both of his parents and marked the last time he called Quincy Barrantes his best friend. He knows how it simmers inside of him, coats him in apathy and anger and grief and doesn’t let go. 

But loss has never felt like this.

When Quincy drowns trying to save a little girl, Jamal starts to feel the waves of grief and regret creeping over him once again: this time with the knowledge that Quincy died thinking Jamal hated him, that he died when they were still angry at each other, that the bitterness between them had never been cleared.

But then a new healthcare technology gives them a chance to make up: the ability to reanimate Quincy, bring him back to life… for a short time. 

So now Jamal is faced with a new conundrum: he has a former best friend who doesn’t know he’s about to die—again. And there is no way that Quincy’s mom is going to let anyone ruin the last days Quincy has on earth by telling him that. Jamal has this second chance to fix everything between them… and he can’t mess that up.

With brilliant, heartfelt clarity about the terrible pain that comes with loving someone, Jason A. Reynolds shows that no matter how much it hurts to lose someone, it is forever worth it to love them while they’re with you. This book will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you yell, and it will break your heart—but that’s what love is: whatever happens, it’s always, always, worth it. 

Find it here in print.