CHS Library Booktalk Blog

The Last Shot by John Feinstein is a teen fiction mystery. This book is about a 14 year old boy and girl that won a writing contest and got to go to the final four NCAA championships as reporters. When they are looking around they over hear someone blackmailing Chip Graber, the best player in the NCAA league. Both of them decide that they can’t trust anyone so they go to Chip to try and help him, but it goes deeper then they thought.

I thought the book was very good. I liked that it didn’t give anything away until the end of the book. I rated this book an 8 out of 10 because it held my interest until the end. I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next.

Reviewed by Zach (Boyer)

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is teen fiction. This book is about four girls who are all best friends. The four friends share a pair of pants to keep in touch with each other, because each one of the girls goes away for the summer. The four friends think the pants are magical because they fit all four of them, but the girls are all different shape and sizes. In this story each one of the friends goes though something that will change their lives and how they feel about their friends and family.

I thought this book was ok. It had a lot of detail. I rate this book a 6 out of 10 because it’s kind of a chick book. It’s slow at first, but I got into it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes books about with a lot of drama friendship.

Reviewed by Shalana B.(Boyer)

The book Cheating Death Stealing Life by Eddie Guerrero is about a well known wrestler in the world wrestling entertainment. This book is about Eddie’s life and his alcohol addictions. The book tells about his childhood, his family and wrestling career.
I would recommend this book to any person who likes reading about wrestlers. I rate this book a 4 out of ten because it is too long.Reviewed by Octavio M (Boyer)

In the book Monster there is a teen named Steve Harmon who is accused of being involved in a robbery at a liquor store which resulted in the owner’s death. The book focuses on the trial of Steve Harmon and two other teens. You get to hear the story of both sides of the defense and the prosecutors. You don’t find out the verdict until the end.

I thought that the book Monster was really good. I really liked the topic of the story. I also enjoyed how the book was written like a movie script.

Reviewed by Ramon ( Boyer)

The main character of this book is Jean. She is seventeen years old. She has planned a trip to Hawaii with two of her friends Mandy and Michelle. On the plane a man dies. Jean thinks that he died of a heart attack. But once she is in Hawaii with her friends she discovers that the guy Mike was already dead before she met him on the plane. Now she has to discover who killed Mike and if the person is going to strike again and who?

I rate the book an 8 out of 10 because I really enjoyed reading this book. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read mystery books. It’s very suspenseful.

Reviewed by Stephanie H. (Boyer)

The Lost Boy explains the story of a child named Dave who is in foster care because he was abused by his mother. This is the second story of the trilogy by Dave Pelzer. He gets put in foster care going from foster home to foster home meeting new people and losing old memories. He is in foster care from 3rd grade to the age of 18 in this book. In this story you’ll get to read about what his life is like in foster care and you’ll also learn how he got through it.

I would recommend this book to other readers if they would like to learn about how life is for foster children. I would rate this book 10 out of 10 because as I was reading this book it really touched my heart and I learned a lot.

Reviewed by Cynthia R. (Sue Boyer)

Aquamarine by Alice Hoffman is about two best friends, Claire and Hailey, who always stick together. During the summer they find a mermaid named Aquamarine in the Capril pool, where they spend their summers. They become close friends with her. Aquamarine spots this guy Raymond who works at the Capril pool. They fall in love but they have to separate when summer is over.

Aquamarine wasn’t too good of a book to me. It kind of taught me a little about love and how people can’t always be together. I recommend this book to younger children because it’s a simpler story. Overall this book was ok; I give it a 4 out of 10.

Reviewed by Gabrielle R. (Sue Boyer)

Charlie, the main character in this book is mentally challenged. Some professors do an experiment on Charlie to help him become smarter. Charlie was smart for a short time of a period. Charlie meets a mouse named Algernon who also had the same experiment done on him. Algernon became Charlie’s best friend. Unfortunately, something happens to Algernon and Charlie wonders if the same thing will happen to him.If you are looking for a great book to read I wouldn’t recommend this book. I thought it’s was boring. At the end it was sad because of Algernon but otherwise everything else was boring.

Reviewed by Mariela D. (Boyer)

Wasted : a memoir of anorexia and bulimia by Marya Hornbacher, was a fascinating book that begins in her childhood and tells the tale of her fall into both anorexia and bulimia. It takes us through her life into her college years, when her obsession with thinness led to starvation, drugs, and hospitalization.

I liked how honest Marya was in depicting her life and her journeys, and the interactions she has with other characters.

Excellent book, I highly recommend it!

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, is a factionary story about a boy getting stranded in the middle of the forest by a lake. He learns how to fish, hunt, and create fire with a hatchet and rock. He gets beaten up by a the forest animals and manages to learn from his mistakes so he can survive in the long run.

This kid gets in a plane crash and manages to survive but the pilot doesn’t. He learns how to survive on the land. For the first few days he starves him self because he doest know how to fend for himself. In a week or so he learns how to fend for himself and survives. He gets a transmitter from the plane and turn it on then he gets rescued. I guess I thought this book was ok to read it was kind interesting but short. I recommend it to people that like this kind of story line about survival.

Reviewed by Mike (Ms. Clemens)

The book, Fight Club, is a book that has a lot of struggles in it. It’s about a stranger that is bullied by others; he had to fight to get what he wanted. He seemed to get stuck with the consequences of his friends, and had to solve their problems himself. In an attempt to overcome all the struggles he was going through, he created a boxing club. He wanted to show everyone that he wasn’t scared of anyone. He had become a man that was able to fight back for his respect.

Fight Club is a good book. It has some weird phrases that you have to read twice to understand. The language of this book is a bit difficult to understand. The book was well written and I rate this book an 8 out of 10. I recommend this book to high school and college students because it has good vocabulary, and it is challenging.

Reviewed by Ricardo A. (Ms. Clemens)

Running with Scissors is a memoir, which describes the life of a teen boy who is dealing with a dysfunctional family in a house full of chaos. The memoir is about Augesten Burrogus and his life up to the age of 17. He is an extraordinarily descriptive writer and I would recommend this book only to a mature audience. He deals with topics or sexuality and substance abuse and is very graphic.

I would rate this book a 10 out of 10, and #1 on my best book list. Due to his superb writing skills, and hilarious writing style, I will be reading his second book Dry.

Reviewed by John (Ms. Clemens)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is an autobiography of Hunter Thompson. In the story Hunter refers to himself as Duke, and the supporting character is Dr. Gonzo his attorney. Thompson recollects an assignment that he had from a sports magazine to cover the Mint 400 and a narcotics officer conference. They are sent on a wild trip to Las Vegas where they get sidetracked with the hopes of finding the American dream while under the influence of possibly every drug known to man, and of course never end up getting the stories.

It’s surprising that after that brain frying weekend the author was able to remember anything at all, but he did and managed to write it down, too. I rated this book an 8 out of 10, it was able to capture my attention right from the start and there was never a dull moment. I recommend this book to anyone who just wants a good read.

Reviewed by Nicole (Ms. Clemens)

During the dark years after the war of souls, chaos threatens the once mighty empire of Solamnia. Goblins raid even the most fortified of cities, and bandits rule great sections of the vast countryside. All the wile at defining moments, the lords, dukes and knights bicker and backstab. While Jamyes Markham, a power fugitive with a high price on his head traverses the countryside with the aid of his steadfast dwarven companion; he seeks revenge on the knights of Solamnia.

I would strongly recommend this book to any fantasy/action reader. I would rate it about an eight out of ten, just because it gets confusing in certain areas and you might get confused about certain key characters and points in the story.

Reviewed by Craig B. (Ms. Clemens)

Lords of Chaos is a type of research book. It has all the information you need to know about Black Metal music. It gives readers a chance to almost relive the events in this book. The book gives great detail and doesn’t leave you asking questions. Everything you wanted to know about Black Metal music is in this book. The book deals with events like; the beginning of black metal music, church burnings, Murders, and other exciting things. Some of the quotes on the back of the book really gave me a good idea of this book, so I’ll share one with you. “ He died from one stab to the head… through the skull. I actually had to knock the knife out.”I personally do not like reading, but this book was very good. It is a bit long at 405 pages, but it was totally worth every page. The only thing I didn’t like about Lords of Chaos was that because it had so much detail, I lost my place and got bored from time to time. Besides that, the book was very well written and I would give it an 8 out of 10.

Reviewed by Ken B. (Ms. Clemens)

The book Five Years To Freedom is an autobiography about a POW (prisoner of war) who was captured in Vietnam. He was tortured and tormented for five years, but he never gave the enemy any information about the United States. If you like survival novels, you should read this book to see if he was rescued from the depths of Vietnam.

Five Years To Freedom is a great book. You have to have a little military background to read this book because it could get confusing with all the military abbreviations. Once you get past the first chapter, you will not want to put this book down. If you like adventure, survival, and war novels this is the book for you. I would give Five Years To Freedom a 9 out 10 because it shows how lucky we are in America. If this author had any other literature, I would definitely read it.

Reviewed by Nicholas T. (Ms. Clemens)

This book is about teenagers getting into the world of drugs and violence. This story started out with two blood brothers, Jesse and Rise. As they both grew up, Rise starts to drift away from Jesse. One day Rise asked Jesse to write a biography about him, because Jesse has the best brain on the block. As the story goes on, you get the feeling of where it’s going.

I enjoyed reading the book when the action took place. I just couldn’t stop reading. If I was to rate this book, I would rate it an 8/10, because it isn’t that hard to read. I would also like to recommend this book to teenagers around the age of 12 or older just to give them an early look at the life as a gang member.

Reviewed by Meng V. (Mrs. Clemens)

The book is about a gunslinger named Roland; Roland is tracking an evil sorcerer through a desert trying to capture him. Roland needs to extract information from the evil sorcerer a.k.a. the man in black; the information Roland need has to do with his fate and the location of the dark tower. Capturing the man in black would not be an easy task for the gunslinger he has to overcome some difficult situations that cross his path.

My opinion about this book is that it’s an all right book to read; I like the bits of action that occurred through out the book. My rating for this book would have to be a 6 out of 10 mainly because it was real easy to read, but it didn’t have as much action as I thought it would. I would recommend this book to everyone. The author Stephan King writes great books and if you read one of his books your going to want to read more of his books.

Reviewed by Anthony T. (Mrs. Clemens)

The book I read was called Hearts Blood. The book is a fantasy fiction. The author’s name is Jane Yolen. The story is about a boy and the dragon he raised, the girl that he loved, and stopping the rebels, but that is just the start of this fascinating trilogy. This book is the second book in the trilogy and may later have a fourth book. The story is about another planet, so you can expect to hear some strange terms.

I think that this is an excellent book for those who have a taste for dragons and a little science. If you read the Dragon Riders Series By Anne Mccaffry and liked it, then this book is definitely for you. The book has a few parts that confused me but later I understood it. I give this book a 7 out of 10. I would read the first book before you read this book or you may get confused in the middle of the book. This would not be a book for light readers. If you are not fully into dragons then you may want to read anther book, however, if you love dragons then come to the library and check it out.

Reviewed by Randy (Mrs. Clemens)

A Brother’s Journey is an autobiography of Richard Pelzer. Richard Pelzer is Dave Pelzer’s younger brother, (Dave Pelzer wrote A Child Called It), and he wrote about when David was taken by child services, Richard took his place as their mother’s punching bag. It’s the same story as David’s, but from a different viewpoint. Did the Pelzer’s mother treat Richard different from David?

Richard’s books are inspiring and heart-wrenchingly great books. They will make you cry, but learning his story was something I recommend to everyone. I rate this book 9 out of 10 because I read his brother’s books first and loved them. I had just happened to stumble upon Richard’s books, they are my second favorite.

Reviewed by Heather G. (Mrs. Clemens)