Book Beat Reviews

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

My name is Rya. I am in middle school and I enjoy reading, writing, swimming, and backpacking.

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell is an incredible book based on a true story about the survival of a girl stranded on an island. When a battle leaves the chief’s people helpless and destitute, they are all grateful when a ship full of white men comes to take them to a promising country where their chief has gone. Once aboard the ship, Karana realizes that her brother Ramo’s restless and fearless spirit has left him stranded alone on the island. Karana jumps off of the ship to retrieve her brother, but once back on the island, the ship has sailed far off on the horizon, leaving the two siblings stranded alone. Not long after, Ramo is killed by wild dogs, leaving Karana to fend for herself on the vast Island of the Blue Dolphins. This survival story follows Karana as she nimbly crafts survival tools, hides from the Aleuts, and encounters unlikely friendships. 

The most interesting aspect of the book to me is that it is based on a true story. Juana Maria was stranded on an island off of Los Angeles for 18 years in the 1800s. Little is known about her, but reading this well-crafted book brings her story to life, making it that much more fascinating. I have read this book twice, once when I was 6, this time I am 13. Both times, I loved the story. Although the writing is easy to follow, it can be enjoyed by a variety of ages.

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

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

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.

Thomas wakes up to darkness. Harsh scrapes of metal against metal echo around him as the lift lurches upward. The only thing he can remember is his name. 

    The lift stops. The doors open. Hands pull him up, out of the Box, into the Glade. A safe haven, inhabited by fifty or so boys, in the dead center of an ever-changing maze, full of nocturnal bio-mechanical monsters. All of the boys have no memory of their life before being sent there. All are searching for a way out. It’s been two years, and no one’s found one.

Walls changing. 

Doors closing. 

Haunted. 

Lethal. 

There are many words to describe the maze and the things within it. 

Then a girl arrives in the Box. The first girl ever. But that’s not all. She carries with her a note bearing news: everything is going to change.

And change it does. As Thomas adjusts to life in the Glade, the mysteries that the massive maze surrounding it hold present themselves in a tantalizing fashion, begging to be solved. Why were they put here? What’s out there? Why does it change? What’s happening out in the world, beyond the Maze? And most importantly: How will they ever get out?

James Dashner weaves a masterful story, full of suspense and action, leaving you at the edge of your seat. This post-apocalyptic, dystopian young adult novel is made up of well-built characters, keeping it real even in the face of impossibility. It is original and bold, presenting a future that people will do anything to avoid. Dive into the world of the Maze, because once you’re in, you won’t want to come out. 

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

A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

Katie is an 8th grader living in Ketchum, Idaho. She loves skiing, reading, and doing anything outdoors related.

A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass is a story about 13 year old Mia. Mia sees colors and shapes, but not like how’d you expect. She sees brown rings when a door slams and sees the letter ‘a’ as sunflower yellow. Up until third grade, she thinks everyone sees the world this way. It comes as a shock when nobody believes her when she tells them that the number two is cotton candy pink. She is ridiculed, laughed at, and called a freak, leaving her thinking something is wrong with her.

Mia learns from this experience to hide her color-seeing abilities from the world. 8th grade proves to be a huge challenge for her. She’s failing math and struggling to understand Spanish. Mia at least has her cat, Mango, and Jess, her best friend and partner in crime. But when Mia tells Jess about her colors, things don’t go according to plan and suddenly the entire school seems to know about Mia’s apparent freakishness. 

Mia must learn to embrace who she is and not be ashamed, regardless of what others think. This heart-wrenching story offers a unique perspective on the world, seen through the eyes of someone who doesn’t fit in. You will find nothing short of an amazing book when reading A Mango Shaped Space.

Find it in print, eaudiobook here.

Surviving Adam Meade by Shannon Klare

My name is Olivia. I like to read in my free time. I think books are a way for a person to escape into a whole different world.

Surviving Adam Meade by Shannon Klare is a complete page tuner and relevant to any highschooler. When Claire moves to a new town because of her father’s football coaching job she can only look on the negative side of things. No friends, new teachers, a whole new town and the worst one of all it’s her senior year. One of the football players named Adam only makes it worse. During their first interaction he calls her the ¨water girl¨ and demands that she gets him ice. They are both very strong willed people so Claire refuses. The first friend she makes the next day at school is also friends with Adam; to her it seems like he´ll never go away.  To make things even worse her brother decides to befriend Adam. Now Adam is always at her house. She gets very annoyed seeing him constantly. Whenever they see each other they are mean to one another, but under that  both of them are hiding feelings for each other.

When Claire finally tells Adam she likes him and he says football is important. He soon disregards that and they start dating. They are happy until they realize that they want to go to different colleges. So they break up. Claire then realizes that she can’t live without him and they get back together agreeing to figure this whole college thing out.

This book is a very good book and I would recommend it to anyone that likes a good page turner.

Find it in print here.

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

My name is Rya. I am in middle school and I enjoy reading, writing, swimming, and backpacking.

The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend is an incredible introduction to the Nevermoor series. Every misfortune in the town of Jacklefax is blamed on Morrigan. This is because she is on the Cursed Child list. Her fate is to die on Eventide on her 12th birthday. When Eventide comes earlier than expected, Morrigan is going to die even sooner, until a strange man shows up at her door and gives her a second chance.

The man takes her to Nevermoor, which becomes her new home. She spends her days unlocking random doors in the Hotel Deucalion, spending time with her newfound friend, and of course, preparing for the upcoming trials. Children will be eliminated in each of the five trials. Only nine children will win and be promised a place at the Wunderous Society, a place where they are guaranteed to have a promising career, friends that are family, and an opportune future. But if Morrigan does not succeed in any of the trials, she will have to return to Jacklefax where the Hunt of Smoke and Shadow will be waiting for her to bring her to her doom, getting their revenge after she “cheated death.”

Even though this book is directed towards younger readers, ages 8-12, it was a clever and well-thought out story that used descriptive language. When reading books, I rarely give them five stars, but this one definitely deserves as much.

Find it in print and CD here.

The List by Patricia Forde

My name is Rya. I am in middle school and I enjoy reading, writing, swimming, and backpacking.

The List by Patricia Ford is a beautifully crafted adventure story about the shortage of something that most of us wouldn’t think would be possible to have too little of. But in the city of Ark, there is a shortage of words-only 500 to go around. John Noa, the leader of Ark, claims this protects the usually arrogant human species from redoing something like the Melting, a tragic event that left Ark as the only safe place left on Earth. There are, however, exceptions, such as the wordsmith and his apprentice who know many more words that were known to man before the Melting. Foreign words like “apples,” “ask,” and even “hello.” Non-list words.

Letta, the wordsmith’s apprentice, finds a strange boy in her home one day. He does not speak list, instead he knows the foreign tongue that speaks of a world long ago. She soon learns he is a Desecrator, an enemy of the New World. If anyone finds him Letta will certainly be banished. This is not the only pressing matter Letta has to be concerned about. When her beloved master, Benjamin, goes missing on a search for words, she finds out things she never knew before about Noa and the city of Ark, and a faint hope she has that something will still appear on the horizon after so long.

This story, which is a perfect combination between fantasy and science fiction, was an incredibly written story about hope, love, fear, and trust.

Find it in print and ebook here.