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These books have been reviewed by students and are listed alphabetically by title.

The Lake Of Souls
Cristina Apgar

To live or not to live? In this exciting novel by Darren Shan, this is one decision that must be made by one of Darren’s old friends.

Tenth in the thrilling, horror-filled, vampire saga, this book rocks! Although most people would consider this book fantasy, I believe that it could also be considered mystery. Shan builds up more suspense than in any of his other books, while you wait anxiously to find out who Harkat used to be, Darren friend who used to be dead, used to be.

Shan also uses excellent descriptions that bring you the reader into the setting. “Staring over my shoulder to see what he was babbling about, I found myself gazing into murky blue water, in which swam hundreds upon hundreds of shimmering human figures…” Though you are in a totally different world, you the reader can still “see” it.

True, you really have to have read the first nine books, but it’s definitely worth it!

The Landry News
Review by Cristina

The Landry News was an excellent book. It was filled with action and suspense. I liked the way the author had Clara really fighting for what she thought as right. I think that The Landry News really demonstrates the meaning of freedom of the press. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading realistic fiction.

Review by Meghan

This is a book about a girl named Cara Landry. She is always getting in trouble in school. Somehow she always offends people unintentionally. When Cara's teacher Mr. Larson doesn't really act like a teacher Cara takes action. She creates a newspaper with an article about how her class wants a real teacher. The class goes nuts and everyone wants to participate in the newspaper. Although Mr. Larson is offended by the newspaper, he thinks it's a great project for the class to be involved with. So the class creates a weekly edition of the Landry News. But the principal is angry with Mr. Larson's bad judgment of academic time use. Can Cara still print her successful paper without risking Mr. Larson's occupation and still please everyone?

The Last Dog On Earth Dell, 2003, 230pp
Daniel Ehrenhaft
Review by C.E. - 2004 - 2005

Logan Moore is a kid that no one wants. His real father abandoned him. His stepfather is trying to make him an ideal son, but that is not working. To top it off, his neighbors are perfect. They have money, a pool and a perfect kid, everything that Logan’s stepfather wants. As one of his inventions, Logan makes a master remote. It is supposed to turn on anything electric. He ruins his neighbor’s party by using the remote to crash everything electric. That’s when his stepfather gets mad. He gets Logan a dog named Jack to teach him responsibility, which it does. However, there is a disease called POS that turns dogs into raging animals. After running away from Boot Camp, Logan quickly gets Jack and they start their adventures in Portland, Oregon. Will Logan survive the harsh conditions? Will Jack survive the deadly disease?

I liked this book because it is action packed and has a new adventure on every page. But it still has emotion, love and commitment. If you like action, survival and dogs, this book is definitely for you.

The Lays of Beleriand - By: J.R. Tolkien
Julia
4 stars

The Lays of Beleriand was a book not so different from The Lord of the Rings. They were written by the same author, J.R. Tolkien. The Lays of Beleriand naturally had a nice rhythm to it, not that books have rhythms. What I mean is, it has a nice flow to it. He picked just the right choice of words, each of them being very descriptive. Some of them were hard to understand but I looked them up and then continued to read.

I liked how the book told me how every little imaginary country in Middle Earth came to be, how everything evolved. I loved knowing how the Shire was found and how all of the Hobbits settled in it. I also liked how J.R. Tolkien included all of the beautiful elvish chants and poems that were heard when the wind blew and when something important arose. In The Lord of the Rings, there were many creatures with weird names and legends about them. In The Lays of Beleriand, J.R. Tolkien told how those creatures were made and the first creatures to walk Middle Earth.

It took me only a short time to read the book because it was so interesting. The only thing that I didn’t like about the book was that it was so long. That is why I give it four stars.

The moral of the book was that everything starts from one thing; something has to start the growth of one thing. I liked that moral and I liked how he wrote a book about the start of Middle Earth.

The Lays of Beleriand made me think a lot. It also made me feel like I wanted to be in Middle Earth. I felt so interested and sucked into the book that I bought the book from Barnes and Noble so that I could read it as much as I wanted.

The book was really good which is why it will stay in my bookcase forever. I will never give it away. So, I hope you will read the book and share the love of it with me.

The Lost Boy
Sarah

I recently finished the book, The Lost Boy, by David Pelzer. This Book is a sequel to A Child Called It. It is a true story about the author.

The book is about a boy, David, who is physically and mentally abused by his alcoholic mother. Even though this book was very good, it was also disturbing. His mother would do horrible things to him, like make him barf to make sure he didn’t eat any food. She would make him sit on the hot stove and put his hands in sweltering water. Throughout the book, he goes through many different foster homes. He gets made fun of at school for being a foster child. He gets labeled as being the "foster child." But he eventually grows up to be in the Air force and become a successful writer. If it wasn’t for his courage, David would have never survived the abuse from his mother.

I really liked this book. It’s very suspenseful and interesting. I would give it a 9 out of 10. It is one of the best books I’ve read. This book is hard to put down. If you liked, A Child Called It, Then The Lost Boy is the book for you!