The Book Beat fosters reading and writing among students in grades 6-12. Read their thoughtful book reviews below.
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
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.
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?
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.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
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.
Race.
Not the running race kind, no—the other kind of race. The societal construct used to gain and reign over others, to assign roles and ascribe stereotypes and ultimately, greatly shape the history of America.
Race: a very complicated subject.
In this remix of Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi, Jason Reynolds masterfully illustrates the history of racism, and by association, race. From the world’s first racist, Gomes Eans de Zurara, in 1415 to the Black Lives Matter movement current-day, this book explores the nooks and crannies of race and how it molds itself into history. It explains what it means to be racist, what it means to be antiracist, what assimilation and segregation is and why. It tells the intricate politics that race creates, why it benefited some and caused relentless suffering for others; how it was used as a power play and a curse word and a battle cry. It brings stories from the slave ships, the rise of the Black Panther movement, Jim Crow Laws and the communist party. It doesn’t bury the past, it reveals it: the flaws of uproars, the evilest parts of history rearing their ugly heads.
It’s a book full of pain and despair, but also one of hope: friendships made and battles one and how far we’ve come from declaring some of our brethren subhuman. It’s a manifesto, full of aspirations for an antiracist world, a world in which everyone is treated equally, where race doesn’t define your identity.
“To know the past is to know the present. To know the present is to know yourself.” – Ibram X. Kendi. This is not a history textbook. This is the story of where we’ve been and how far we’ve come. This is a story that everyone needs to hear. This is the story that we must listen to in order to create a better world for everyone in it, in order to dream of a future better than the past we’ve had.
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.
The Immortal Boy or El Inmortal by Francisco Montaña Ibáñez, translated by David Bowles
My name is Zach. I am in 9th grade and live in Ketchum, ID. I enjoy playing board games, reading, mountain biking, Nordic and alpine skiing, playing with my family, snowmobiling, and being outside.
The Immortal Boy, or El Inmortal, by Francisco Montaña Ibáñez, translated by David Bowles, is a difficult and frustratingly average book. It follows two different stories, one about a family of kids struggling to eat enough and survive in Bogotá, Columbia. The other story is about a girl in an orphanage in Bogotá who meets this mysterious “Immortal Boy.”
This book is frustrating because of the fact that it was translated from Spanish. This makes reading it awkward and takes away from the story a bit. For example, the way that the sentences are formed doesn’t seem to flow well to me. Furthermore, I also was more invested in the story of the girl in the orphanage than of the family, but the author spent much longer developing the story of the family. This may or may not be a negative thing.
I also do not like the way that the story ends. It builds up to a climax, and then only has three pages of resolution. It is an unsatisfying ending and leaves you feeling really bad inside. The way that the two stories intertwine is fairly obvious and way too gross, as there is a part of the story where I literally threw up in my mouth. One character goes against what the first half of the book made him out to be, and it didn’t seem natural.
Overall, this book has a ton of potential, and it isn’t horrible, but it did not flow well and wasn’t my favorite book. I would only recommend this book if you are okay with feeling nauseous and can get past a couple of weirdly worded sentences. Otherwise, you can skip this one.
Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez
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.
Camila Hassen is the cautious daughter of her timid mother and abrasive father, making as little space as she can under her brother’s rising soccer stardom. She keeps up her grades, works on her English, working on going to medical school and become un Doctora. She keeps her big mouth shut and tries not to make waves.
Until she’s on the field.
Furia, she’s called, a talented fútbolera, where her dreams explode and her feet have wings, where her world is the ball and its trajectory, where she can be anyone and do anything.
Where she can be a girl in Rosario, Argentina and play fútbol. But it isn’t that easy. In her wildest dreams, she gets to go to a school in North America on an athletic scholarship, to go on and play professionally. When her team qualifies for a South American tournament, she gets that chance… but she needs her parent’s permission, and they don’t know about, nor would they approve of the double life she leads. And to complicate things further, the boy she once loved-turned-international-soccer-player is back in town, and she can’t let herself be distracted by her feelings for him. She has one goal, and one goal only: to be La Furia in a world that doesn’t have room for a girl like her.
Yamile Saied Méndez has written a powerful story about a seventeen-year-old girl making a place for herself in a place that doesn’t want to accept her, a story of love and passion and dreams and hurt and soaring through it all, in a blur of black and white—fútbol.
Outside In by Sarah Ellis
My name is Elizabeth. I love reading, and my favorite book is My Sister’s Keeper. I am in the 8th grade and enjoy dance.
Outside In is about a girl named Lynn, and her friendships. Her family is very different. Her mom is a very free spirit and has a hard time keeping jobs. Her mom had a very serious relationship with a guy named Clive, and they had a very big fight, causing them to break up. Since Lynn was the happiest she had been in a very long time with Clive, this causes Lynn to have to come back to the reality of her and her mom living paycheck to paycheck and searching for jobs. One day while she was waiting for the bus, Lynn meets a girl named Blossom. Instantly Blossom seems very odd to Lynn, and Lynn wants to learn more. Lynn learns that Blossom lives a very abnormal life: under a water reservoir. Blossom also has a very abnormal family. As Lynn learns more about Blossom’s way of living, she learns what it really means to be a friend and to keep promises.
I liked this book, but I thought it lacked lots of details and context. There were times that I didn’t quite understand where the setting was or who the characters were. I thought the characters were really interesting, and that is also how I would describe this book. The plot was totally unlike anything I had ever read before, and I did like that about this book. I think this book could be read by anyone because there is no inappropriate content, however, I think you should be 12+ to be able to understand some of the plot lines.
With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
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.
Emoni Santiago has magic fingers. Get her in the kitchen with some food and a few spices, and she can make a dish to serve a king; a dish to pluck a tune on your heartstrings, to uncover your deepest memories, to leave you licking the salty taste of your happy tears.
In the kitchen, Emoni feels free.
Free of the responsibilities of navigating her senior year of high school and caring for her daughter, of choosing what she wants to strive for in this life or to sacrifice it for her child, to steer through the struggles of being part grown-up and part still growing.
When her school begins a culinary arts program with a final trip to Spain, Emoni knows she shouldn’t apply. She knows she doesn’t have the time. She knows she doesn’t have the money. She knows she has responsibilities that make being just a normal high schooler with dreams and ambitions more complicated.
But she can’t help her magic fingers, and the talent that explodes inside.
Written with her trademark beauty and care, Elizabeth Acevedo digs deep into the complicated world of one girl, and yet gives voice to many—she gives voice to the kids with responsibility, to the children who bridge cultures and people, to the high schoolers with sons and daughters to care for, and most of all: to anyone and everyone who’s ever had a dream.
Yes, No, Maybe So by Becky Albertalli
My name is Elizabeth. I love reading, and my favorite book is My Sister’s Keeper. I am in the 8th grade and enjoy dance..
Yes, No, Maybe So tells the story of two teenagers who work on a political campaign in Georgia. For those who don’t know, Maya is Muslim, and Jamie is Jewish. Since they are not old enough to vote, they participate and help the campaign by canvassing, making posters, and spreading awareness. They become great friends through this, and they start to become more than friends. Since each chapter alternates between Maya and Jamie as the narrator, we see the world through both of their eyes. The reader gets a glimpse into how each of them feels about their world. They start seeing each other outside of working on the campaign, and they start to become more passionate about what they are doing.
I really liked reading this book. I loved that the story was told from two different perspectives. For example, we learned about Jamie’s sister’s bat mitzvah when Jamie was the narrator, and we got to hear about Maya’s parent’s divorce when she is the narrator. I thought there was so much detail and context, and there was a lot of good vocabulary. I really liked the plot, and I thought there was just enough surprise and mystery. I thought the characters were great, and the reader can really relate to them. I also really liked it because I really like a lot of books from one of the authors, Becky Albertalli.
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
Hello I’m Josy, I love to read and I’m very opinionated when it comes to books. I read all books from Historical to Fiction..
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo is the third and last book in the “Grisha Trilogy” released on June 3, 2014. It is a young adult fantasy novel that hit the New York Times bestseller list. This book continues after Siege and Storm.
The capital has fallen and The Darkling, king of Ravka, rules all. Alina the Sun Summoner, the second army, and friends barely escape to an ancient network of tunnels and caverns with the help of the Apparat and the zealots.
Now Summoner lies weak and powerless, trapped by those who want to help her. She must form new alliances and find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers with the help of a disgraced tracker, her life long best friend. In order to regain her strength, the firebird amplifier is the key to her power and to saving Ravka from ruin and destruction.
The characters in this book are memorable and seeing this chapter of their stories’ end is stirring. The pacing of the book is slightly slow and can be monotonous. Although it is not my favorite book in the series, I sincerely think it is a great ending to a great story.
Ciudad de las Bestias by Isabelle Allende
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.
La vida de Alexander Cold se esta cayendo a pedazos: su madre está enferma con cáncer, y su padre necesita cuidar de ella y no tiene el tiempo para cuidar de Alex y sus hermanas en su casa en California. Así que sus hermanas viajan para vivir con su abuela materna, y Alexander van a dar con su abuela estricta y el opuesto de cariñosa: Kate Cold, que es un escritora para Geographica Internacional.
Pero cuando Alexander va a vivir con su abuela, viaja a la jungla Amazona por un proyecto de su abuela: encontrar la misteriosa Bestia de la selva. En la selva, Alexandar conoce una nueva amiga que se llama Nadia Santos, y juntos, los niños exploran la selva y su gente. En el proceso, aprende mucho sobre sí mismo.
Isabel Allende escribe un historia de dos partes mágica y emocionante, pero con mensajes muy importantes y reales en este mundo. Con personajes interesantes y un historia que tiene clímax tras climax, Ciudad de las Bestias es un libro bien escrito. Este es un libro para leer cuando quieres una historia con acción, amistad, y, por supuesto, una ciudad de las bestias.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
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.
A celestial consuming microorganism. A fifteen percent decrease in solar energy in the next ten years. A promised wipeout of half of humanity, best-case scenario.
Sounds like an apocalypse, right?
Yeah. Welcome to Project Hail Mary.
When a mysterious alien organism suddenly “infects” the sun and poses an extreme threat to all life on earth, Ryland Grace, a scientist-turned-middle-school-teacher with infectious enthusiasm, suddenly finds himself in space, the sole survivor of a last-ditch mission: save humanity and—by extension—Earth itself.
But no pressure, right?
After waking up from a coma that got him safely through the four-year trip, Ryland’s left with a spaceship, a mission, and no memory of how he got to a solar system light-years away from Earth. But as things start fuzzily returning to him, he begins to realize the indomitable task looming ahead of him—a heavy responsibility he must take on alone.
Or does he?
Andy Weir’s newest sci-fi novel is a highly entertaining, well-written, science-filled thought experiment that thoroughly portrays an original, fascinating—albeit terrifying—apocalyptic scenario that doesn’t fit any sort of alien invasion boxes of conventional literature. It wholly exceeded my expectations while taking me on a thrilling intergalactic journey, bouncing through the magnetic fields of cosmology and microbiology and physics and anthropology in a way that was clear, entertaining, and all-around mind-boggling.
Ready for a science-filled adventure? Climb aboard the Hail Mary—and fasten your seatbelt. It’s a wild ride.
Isabel of the Whales by Hester Velmans
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.
Eleven-year-old Isabel has never been anything special. She’s just a plain old girl from Provincetown, Massachusetts, with two older brothers, two ordinary friends, a passion for whales. But despite that, she’s always believed—scratch that, known—that she’s destined for something special. Something extraordinary.
When her fifth-grade class gears up to go on a whale watch, Isabel is beyond excited. To have the opportunity to see the whales she’s pined after her whole life is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to her. Maybe she’ll get to see, in person, a breaching humpback, or maybe a right whale, with its magnificent baleen… she dreams and dreams and dreams, and suddenly she’s on a boat surrounded by whales and then she’s in the water.
Encircled by the whales she’s read about her whole life.
And somehow, she can understand them.
The whales tell her that she’s a Chosen One: a human with the ability to turn into a whale. It is her destiny to land here, to live with this pod of humpbacks, and to learn their ways while she teaches them hers.
Hester Velmans spins a captivating story about life under the sea, using migration patterns and feeding habits through the eyes of an impassioned young girl, a girl with a gift and a mission.
And so begins Isabel’s journey with her newfound pod—a journey in which she learns more about whales than she ever could have known, and even more about herself: discovering just how much she will do to help these creatures that she loves so much more than she ever thought possible.
Crewel by Gennifer Albin
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.
There is a place where the golden strands of time run forward, the horizontal threads in the weave of the world; where shimmering, glittering threads make up the elements and the people, the tapestry of this place; where girls called Spinsters are called upon to weave it.
In this place, called Arras, lives a sixteen-year-old girl called Adelice.
Adelice has trained her whole life to be clumsy. She has practiced and perfected her skills until she can drop something with ease, until any threads tangle in her fingers despite their burning urge to weave them. She’s maintained her purity standards and stayed segregated and obeyed her parents, but she—and by extension, her family—is determined not to become a famed Spinster.
But nothing can hide the fact that the strands of time bend themselves for her fingers alone.
And so begins Crewel—the story of Adelice Lewys, a girl who will not bow down, roll over, and play nice. She has the power to weave this world, a world she isn’t sure deserves weaving, and her potential leaves it up to her to choose whether her contribution will lead to the continuation of Arras, or her abstinence will destroy it. In this deliciously tangled sci-fi, Gennifer Albin spins a brilliant tapestry about one girl in a world that needs her but does not want her—a girl who has the power to make a decision that will change it forever.
And somehow, she can understand them.
The whales tell her that she’s a Chosen One: a human with the ability to turn into a whale. It is her destiny to land here, to live with this pod of humpbacks, and to learn their ways while she teaches them hers.
Hester Velmans spins a captivating story about life under the sea, using migration patterns and feeding habits through the eyes of an impassioned young girl, a girl with a gift and a mission.
And so begins Isabel’s journey with her newfound pod—a journey in which she learns more about whales than she ever could have known, and even more about herself: discovering just how much she will do to help these creatures that she loves so much more than she ever thought possible.
One Last Stop by Casy McQuiston
My name is Rory. I’m going into eighth grade, and enjoy Nordic Skiing and Hockey.
A love story that could only end horribly? One Last Stop takes place in the New York
borough of Brooklyn, sometime after the turn of the 20th century. Written by author Casey McQuiston, who wrote Red, White and Royal Blue, One Last Stop encompasses the difficulties of being broke and queer in your 20s, an uncommon topic among writers.
August Landry moves to New York trying to escape her past and survive in a new city
when she encounters “punk rock activist” Jane Su on the Q train. The two’s friendship and
romance grow over a few months when August notices that Jane does not belong to that time period. August, a girl who had been raised by a detective and solving some of her own, sets out to help Jane escape the Q train, which has held her prisoner for at least thirty years, while also trying to find her uncle and pay rent. Will August and her roommates succeed, in both saving Jane and their own romances?
One Last Stop is a New York Times bestseller book and a favorite among queer teens
and adults. Author Casey McQuiston wanted to make it clear in their interview done by CBS that One Last Stop is meant for Young Adults and Adults, not children. I would rate this book 10/10 because of the skillful way the author weaves the real world into the story.
Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg
My name is Elizabeth. I love reading, and my favorite book is My Sister’s Keeper. I am in the 8th grade and enjoy dance.
Silent to the Bone tells the story of a young boy named Connor, whose best friend is in a lot of trouble. His best friend, Bramwell, was involved in an accident with his baby sister, Nikki. The caregiver of Bramwell and Nikki claimed that Bramwell dropped Nikki. When this event happened, Bramwell stopped talking. He was taken to a juvenile behavioral center, and Connor was able to go visit him about once a week. Since Bramwell couldn’t talk, they developed certain ways of communicating with each other. As the story progresses, Connor uncovers clues so he can save his best friend and figure out what really happened on that day of the accident.
I really liked this book. I got sucked into the story and read it very quickly. It was very interesting to read about a young kid trying to tackle a really big task in the adult world. I thought the language was simple, but I would only recommend this book for someone 13+. There weren’t many mature topics, but the whole plot was pretty mature. Overall I would give this book an 8.5/10 because I really liked it, especially the plot, but I didn’t love the characters or descriptions. I thought Connor’s character was very plain, but that might have just been that we didn’t see much of his life because he was more of an information carrier.
