Book Beat Reviews

Tales of Tin Can by Michael Keith Olson

Hi my name is Parker and I’m a 7th grader and love reading non-fiction historical books. I also enjoy playing soccer and hanging out with friends.

Tales of a Tin Can is about the sailors aboard the destroyer USS Dale during World War II. It is written by Michael Keith Olson and portrays the day-to-day life of the crew of a small destroyer during the war. The name “tin can” is a term used by sailors for destroyers, as their armor was so thin, some joked it was made out of cans. The USS Dale would serve from December 7, 1941, until the signing of the peace treaty in Tokyo Bay in 1945. The book switches between the perspectives of the crewmembers and it is very cool to see into the day of a sailor.

The USS Dale was a Farragut class destroyer built before the war and was top of the line at the beginning of the war but was out of date by the end of the conflict and was moved to convoy escort. The ship fought from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to the treacherous waters off Guadalcanal, and fought kamikaze raids around Okinawa and eventually, Tokyo.

The book is written in a first-person account and shows the individual thoughts, feelings, and fears of the sailors who fought. In all I would highly recommend this book for its historical accuracy and how cool it was to see the troubles and the fun times of being a sailor. It was a great read and got me staying up every night to read it.

Find it through Interlibrary loan here.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Janet and Geoff Berge

My name is Judah. I like to play soccer, alpine ski and x- country ski. Some of my favorite books are the Golden Goblet and A Night Divided .

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is an historically accurate book written by Janet and Geoff Benge. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born to a German family on February 4^th, 1906. Dietrich grew up with many siblings, being one of eight to grow up in the Bonhoeffer house. At age twenty-one Dietrich Bonhoeffer went to the University of Humboldt Berlin. Although having a theology degree, Bonhoeffer was used by the Lord to teach and help pastors to stay strong in times of trouble under Hitler. Dietrich would also go on and work with many others in a secret attempt to kill Hitler and end his evil dictatorship. Although they came up with several assassination attempts, none of them proved to be successful.

Sadly, Deitrich and some others were found out and were taken to prison where they would stay for over two years before being put to death less than a week before Germany surrendered to the Allies. In his time in prison, he wrote many prayers and a theological interpretation of Genesis 1-3. Through this book, there are many close encounters, escaping the Gestapo and showing how much Dietrich Bonhoeffer was able accomplished under heavy pressure.

Find it through eAudiobook here.

Five Survive by Holly Jackson

My name is Bria, I am a ski racer, swimmer, and dancer. I love reading in my free time.

I think that Five Survive by Holly Jackson is the best mystery book I have ever read. I think I read it in just a couple of days, I couldn’t put the book down. This book easily made it into my top three books.

This book is about a group of friends Red Kenny, Maddy Lavoy, Oliver Lavoy, Reyna Flores-Serrano, Arthur Moore, and Simon Jinsun Yoo. They are planning on going from Philadelphia Pennsylvania to Gulf Shores Alabama over their Spring break. They are taking a 31-foot RV. They had been driving for about eight and a half hours and were driving through a small town called Morven Townships North Carolina when their directions started to cut out. They start to guess how to get to their campsite, and end up at a graveyard when one of their tires pop. They all get outside and fix it and then it happens again, but this time it is all four tires and they can’t fix them they are trapped. Then Red finds a bullet hole in the back of the RV. There is a shooter outside and they are trapped in an RV with nothing to fight back with and no service to call anyone for help.

This book takes you on a journey, that shows fear, loyalty, lies, and everything in between. This book has so many plot twists, and I would certainly recommend this book to everyone who likes murder mysteries because this is one of the best.

Find it in print, ebook, and eaudiobook here.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

My name is Bria, I am a ski racer, swimmer, and dancer. I love reading in my free time.

I found the book The Giver to be an interesting and engaging dystopian novel. Not only is it captivating, but it also has a film adaptation. I enjoyed this book because it explores themes of adventure, hope, joy, love, power, and more.

The story is set in a future community where people do not experience color and emotions are suppressed. Life seems idyllic, as everyone is the same, eliminating inequality, conflict, and injustice. Each year at the Ceremony of Twelve, children receive assigned jobs based on their birth year and start training. Jonas, the main character, anxiously waits for his name to be called to receive his assignment. However, he is different; he is chosen for the honored position of Receiver of Memory. In this role, he will receive memories of the past from an elderly man known as the Giver. The community consults him when facing problems to avoid repeating mistakes.

As Jonas becomes the Receiver of Memory, he realizes how much the community has kept from its people—experiences like love, snow, dancing, and Christmas. This realization leads him to plan an escape from the community. Throughout the book, readers feel as if they are part of Jonas’s journey, accompanying him as he navigates struggles and seeks a different life. Overall, I appreciated this book for many reasons.

Find it in print, ebook, and eaudiobook here.

Alebrijes by Donna Barba Higuera

Hi my name is Kire. I am in 6th grade and I love to read. Other than reading I like to do gymnastics and play viola.

Alebrijes is an odd and interesting book that is set in the future. For 400 years, the world has been a wasteland in which there is only one settlement of people living on Earth as far as we know. This settlement is called Pocatel. The story follows a thirteen-year-old boy named Leandro who lives in this town as a poor Cascabel. The Cascabels are the descendants of those who worked in the San Joaquin Valley. The Cascabels are frowned upon by the rich Pocatellon people. Leandro and his sister live a horrible life in Pocatel and want to leave to find a better place to live. They want to find a way to leave Pocatel.

Little did Leandro know that his sister would steal a strawberry from a fruit stand. In Pocatel when someone steals, they are exiled by walking across a bridge where there are wandering spirits and wyrms which eat anyone who walks across the bridge. Leandro took the blame for stealing the strawberry and ended up getting a different punishment than exile. His soul was put into an animal drone from before the world collapsed. Leandro ends up meeting other souls who were put into drones and together they all find a way to escape Pocatel with the rest of the Cascabels. The story ends in the Cascabels moving and finding a better place to live in peace.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is into dystopian books or people who just want to read an awesome book. As you can see, I really enjoyed reading Alebrijes.

Find it in print here.

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Meijia

My name is Bria, I am a ski racer, swimmer, and dancer. I love reading in my free time

We Set the Dark on Fire is a captivating dystopian tale set on an island ruled by two brothers: the God of Salt and the God of the Sun. The story unfolds with Constancia, the clever daughter of Medio’s King, whom the Sun God marries. While wandering his Moonlit Garden, the Sun God encounters the Moon Goddess, a beautiful woman, and soon falls in love, leading to his indecision. Torn between Constancia, and the Moon Goddess. He decides to marry both Constancia, his equal, and the Moon Goddess his opposite, sparking a devastating war and resulting in the God of Salt’s banishment and curse.

The narrative follows Daniela, a student at the Medio School for Girls, where young women are groomed to become ideal wives—Premera (the smart one) and Segunda (the beautiful one). As Daniela nears graduation to be a Premera, she grapples with feelings of insecurity due to her family’s illegal immigration status. When faced with a choice to join the rebellious group La Voz or risk exposure, she chooses rebellion.

The book takes readers through Daniela’s journey with La Voz, filled with unexpected twists and turns. I enjoyed this original plot that kept me engaged. Although the first-person perspective is compelling, I would have appreciated hearing from different viewpoints. Overall, this book offers an intriguing, plot-twisting exploration of identity and rebellion in a dystopian setting.

Find it in eaudiobook here.