Book Beat Reviews

The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen

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

This book, The Rest Of The Story, written by Sarah Dessen, is meaningful, powerful, and adventurous. A young girl, Emma Saylor, spends the summer with her deceased mother’s family on a lake, a little ways from where she lives with her dad and grandmother. Emma’s mother always used to tell Emma a bedtime story about a never ending lake with clear water, and a creaky old house with uneven floors. Emma’s original plan, spending the summer with her best friend, Bridget at the pool, gets interrupted when Briget’s grandfather has a stroke. Hoping to save her father’s and new stepmother’s honeymoon to Greece she offers to stay at the lake with a bunch of strangers she met only once when she was four, and doesn’t remember anything.

When she arrives, she doesn’t realize that there are basically 2 different lakes, even though there is just one. Lake North is where her father’s family spent most of the summer in a fancy resort where the rich people lived. North Lake is the community completely opposite from Lake North, where her mother and the rest of her mother’s family lives. Saylor is what her mother’s family calls her, and Emma is what her dad uses as a name, this book is all about discovering who you are when you are torn between 2 things.

During her time at her Mother’s family home, she finds out things she never knew about her mother. Hoping to connect her history she befriends Roo, her best friend when they were younger, and finds out things she never knew about her family. Throughout the book, Emma tries to understand her family better, and not just be the rich kid they know her to be. Emma must learn to confront her fears and learn her past to find the rest of the story. I really liked this book because it was about finding your past and who you are without other people telling you.

At times this book would get really slow, and then dramatically speed up, so I think the flow could have been better at times, but other than that I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good adventure.

Find it in print here.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Hey, I’m Finn; I’m a 17 year old in the valley who loves to read, and loves writing about what he reads just about 10x more. The analysis and application of literature is the second lyric in a duet between reader and author, and I love being a part of that!

How many of us have the “it hurts too good” feeling for a spoiled ending? The “edge of your seat, just push me off, but not yet!” feeling? The affectionate thrill of knowing what
happens before you appropriately get there is an equally exhilarating and infuriating feat. Few will venture to the final page of their novel, and fewer will be satisfied with the jarring jump ahead. However, Rainbow Rowell captures the sweet spot of ‘knowing the ending’ in her striking fantasy novel, Carry On.

Acting as an implied finale to an on-going story, Carry On follows the ferocious and rambunctious life of the magical world’s ‘Chosen One’, Simon Snow. Within this beautifully
crafted story, discover striking fantasies of spell casting, creature killing, and classical heart-throb vampires, all wrapped up in Rowell’s exquisite romance skills. Forgo the exhausting, overdone plotlines of dreamgirls and love triangles, and embrace the innovative allure of falling in love with unlikely soul-mates, authentic queerness, and discovering a way to exist outside of the expectations of being the protagonist.

Simon must defeat the Insidious Humdrum (a malicious evil with a familiar face), talk to
spirits, attempt to control his overpowered magic, and differentiate between killing or kissing his
newly made, and most unlikely, partner, who happens to be a vampire, a room-mate who eats
Salt and Vinegar chips in bed, and a whole lot more Simon never expected to reveal. Lose
yourself in the magical mystery of it all, and then find yourself all over again in the captivating
weaving of real connection, all in Rowell’s incredible novel.

Find it in print, eaudiobook and CD here.

The Manny Files by Christian Burch

Hello! My name is Lexi. Some of my favorite activities are skiing, baking, crafting, and volleyball. I love reading great books and sharing my favorites with others.

The book I am reviewing (that I have read three times) is The Manny Files, by Christian Burch. This book is a funny and sweet story about the life of Keats Dalinger (a 3^rd grade boy.)

Keats has had many female nannies, all of whom enjoyed dressing up his sisters and painting their nails, but they were never really interested in Keats. Keats never connected with the nannies because they didn’t really care about him and all they ever gave him “was dental floss.” One day a new nanny shows up at Keats’s door, “except it was a man, a male nanny, a manny.” Keats is thrilled about his new nanny and so are his sisters India (4^th grade) and Belly (preschool), but not so much Keats’s 8^th grade sister, Lulu. Over time, Lulu keeps a secret notebook of all the so-called immature things the manny does. Then, Lulu reports the contents of the notebook to their parents. In Lulu’s attempts to fire the manny, Keats must highlight all the manny’s great qualities to convince his parents to let the manny stay.

In The Manny Files Christian Burch captures the fun of 3^rd grade, the downsides of teenagers, and the laughter that the manny brings to the Dalinger family. If you enjoy this book as much as I do make sure to check out the sequel Hit the Road Manny, in which the Dalingers go on a family road trip and decide to bring the manny along.

Find it on CD here.

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline London

Hi, I am Simi. I love reading because it lets me travel to other places and times that I wouldn’t otherwise see. I also love to play lacrosse and hockey, and write.

The Last Bookshop in London is a heartbreaking yet hopeful book set in the streets of London during World War Two. It follows Grace Bennet, a hardworking woman who has suffered the loss of her mother, as she moves from small town Drayton to the bustling city of London on the brink of World War Two. In an attempt to find a job without a letter of recommendation, Mrs. Weatherford, the wonderful woman who has offered Grace and her friend a place to live, calls
up an old friend and gets Grace a job in a rundown bookstore with a grouchy owner. Grace, previously oblivious to the wonders of books, falls in love with the books, the bookstore and even grouchy old Mr. Evens, the owner of the bookstore who, as it turns out, isn’t that grouchy after all.

Throughout the book Grace struggles with the perils of the war, the loss of family and friends,
the destruction of precious possessions, such as books, and soul crushing hopelessness. She
also grows in ways that feel impossible; she learns compassion, she saves tons of lives both
physically and mentally, she falls in love and she finds confidence in herself.

I highly recommend this book, which is fascinating and thoughtful. It made me think about that
time with a totally different mindset. If you’re looking for an entertaining book that is also
educational and thought provoking, this is the book for you.

Find it in print, eaudiobook and ebook here.

City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau

I am Thijs. I enjoy reading (maybe a little too much) and being outdoors. I have a younger brother and my favorite dessert is root beer floats.

I loved this book since the beginning of the first page. I was so into the book the first night I brought it home from The Community Library that I lost track of time and stayed up reading until 10:26pm.  The author did an amazing job creating a mystery that draws readers into the book.  I liked the story line and how this could potentially happen in real life.  It was intriguing to me that the characters were all alone and did not know how to figure many things out on their own.

The beginning of this book is in a city surrounded by complete darkness in all directions. This city is called The City of Ember.  The main characters in the book are three kids named Doon, Lina and Lina’s littler sister Poppy. This book started on Assignment Day which came every year on the last day of school for the kids in the highest class. Lina was hoping to get the job as a messenger. She loved the idea of sprinting down the streets delivering one message after another. On the other hand, Doon wanted to become a pipeworker to see if he could come up with a way to fix the generator and save the city from all the power outages. When the Mayor of Ember finally arrived with the sack full of jobs everybody was nervous to see what job they would receive. When Lina sat up to draw her job her hands were shaking uncontrollably so she hoped for the best and dove her hand in.  To find out what assignments Lina and Doon are given and what mysteries lie beyond, check out this book for a good summer read!  

Find it in print, ebook and DVD here.

Ground Zero by Alan Gratz

I am Thijs. I enjoy reading (maybe a little too much) and being outdoors. I have a younger brother and my favorite dessert is root beer floats.

I loved how the author used two different characters to tell the story.  It was interesting to have one character talk about his 9/11 experience and the other character tell about the war in Afghanistan to make this book work as one story.  If you enjoy reading this book, I highly recommend reading some of Alan Gratz’s other books like Refuge and Projekt 1065.  Most of Alan Gratz’s books have two or more main characters telling their story that eventually connects with the other main character in a surprising way. 

In Ground Zero, the first character, Brandon Chavez, and his father were on their way to the World Trade Center (The Twin Towers) on September 11, 2001.  Brandon recently had been suspended from school so he had to go to work with his dad.  His dad was working at Windows of the World, which was a restaurant at the top of the North Tower.  Brandon was in an elevator headed down to the mall at the bottom of the North Tower.  When a plane smashed into the North Tower.  Brandon was luckily able to get out of the elevator.  He still had many challenges ahead of him.  Read this book to find out what happens to Brandon and his father. 

The other character in the story is Reshmina, and she lives in a small village in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.  For her whole life Afghanistan have been at war. The American and Taliban had been fighting for more than eleven years. One day an American soldier and the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) search Reshmina’s village because a rumor has spread that the Taliban has a secret weapon in the village.  After the search nothing is found.  Then the ANA and the American soldier start heading back to the base when the Taliban attacks them.  All of the ANA soldiers die.  Later after the attack Reshmina finds the America soldier laying on the ground.  He can not see.  Will Reshmina help the soldier or take revenge for her sister that was killed on her wedding day?

Find it in print, eaudiobook, and ebook here.