To All of our Fast-Reading Readers...

We know a lot of the readers of this blog are REALLY, really fast book-consumers. So, one recommended book a week probably isn't enough. This week, we're shaking it up a bit and we're going to give you the top ten novels that you MUST READ A.S.A.P. Comment and tell us what you think about each one! Happy reading!

10. Bounce by Natasha Friend

9. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli 

8. Swindle by Gordon Korman

7. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

6. Flush by Carl Hiaasen 

5. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer

4. Leap by Jane Breskin Zalben

3. Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen

2. Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel 

1. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan 

All of these books are really intriguing and language-appropriate. Enjoy!

Walking Backward by Catherine Austen

Ever since his mother died in a car accident at the beginning of summer, twelve-year-old Josh's family and life has been totally messed up. First his father has retreated into a fantasy world where the idea of time travel is possible and he can save Josh's mother before she is killed. Josh's little brother Sammy has apparently gone "wacko" believing he can communicate to his dead mother through a plastic power ranger, and has taken to walking backward so he will remember other people i they die too. Josh himself can no longer handle much; he spazzes out over things involving his mom's death, and begins to feel insecure and misguided as his family is in mourning.

The summer after the tragedy and with no faith to lead the way, Josh takes the responsibility of finding out about the mourning rituals of various religions, being a parent to his little brother interviewing people who knew his mother and discovering the culprit who put the snake in the mom's car, causing her to drive into a tree because of her fear.

At last, Josh's dad becomes a father again, and Josh's family each figures out their own way to remember his mother. Told from the monotonous and repetitive perspective of Josh, readers will not know what exactly to think of the book from beginning to end.

Before I give you any details I'll tell you straight off that this is NOT a good book. First of all; it lacked many things. Where do I begin? Walking Backward was a book that you keep waiting for the plot to be fully revealed, but it never fully is. It was narrated very drone-like, and when certain things happen in the plot the reader will not experience them; they will merely watch from a distance. There was also no emotion in the novel. When Josh tells us how he freaks out when his mother is buried, he might as well be saying he walked his dog this morning. It was that mediocre. Another thing Walking Backward lacked was believability. The author failed at her attempt to capture the impact of grief on her characters. Instead, she mangled it and twisted it up. The book was not concluded well, either. The ending was sort of scatterbrained. There was no foreshadowing or clues left for the reader in the middle of the book; everything came totally out of the blue and almost didn't make sense. 

Finally, I will mention the last flaw in this book: the undefined and lacking in genre.  Walking Backward could have been a realistic fiction novel, except nothing, really, about it was realistic. It could be a mystery novel, except there was no foreshadowing or opportunities to make a prediction in the story. Or, even, Walking Backward  could have been a dramatic, heartbreaking tale, except the story lacked enough emotion. You probably noticed that Walking Backward's biggest flaw was how much it didn't have. I will advise avid readers to steer clear of this novel at all costs.

To Read  Not to Read

Freak by Marcella Pixley

2007, Douglas & Mcintyre ltd.

I tried to make sure Artie could see my tongue when I brought the spoon to my lips. Sometimes I licked the rim of the spoon all the way around and breathed heavily so my breath would fog up the silver. 
"What's wrong with you?" said Deborah.
"I like the texture of the spoon," I panted. "It feels good in my mouth."
"Jenny Clarke is right," she muttered. "You are a FREAK." (51-52)

Miriam Fisher is about the world's least popular girl, according to how the "watermelon girls" treat her. With glasses, greasy hair, and pimples, Miriam is named a freak by the kids at her school, and even her own sister.

One year, Artie, friend of Miriam's family and her supposed "soul mate" comes to stay with them for his senior year while his parents are off digging wells in some third-world country. The big thing that Miriam and Artie have in common is their passion for poetry. Artie reads romantic poems at the table to Miriam's sister Deborah, and Miriam herself is an aspiring poet with an over sized vocabulary for her age.

All year long, Jenny Clarke and her crowd of popular friends target Miriam for liking Artie and for writing in Clyde, her personal poetry book and diary. Miriam has Rosie, her only friend by her side, but everything seems to get worse and worse.

When Miriam is pushed over the edge, she is forced to unleash a side of herself that nobody else knew before, and pay Jenny back for all the wrong that was done to her, only to discover that she and Jenny have more commonalities than differences.


Freak was, like few others, one of my favorite novels. It consists of everything teen readers will look for in a book: vivid and easy-to-relate-to situations and characters that are debatable, and heartbreaking, and a unique ending with a twist.

Many kids and teens have been bullied, and Freak showcased some very accurate problems in a normal child's life. Written heartbreakingly from the perspective of Miriam Fisher, the main character tells us about her experience being bullied and the effect it has on herself and her family. While narrating her novel, Marcella Pixley writes in such a way that tears will nearly be brought to her readers eyes.

Some of the events in the book cause the readers to ask themselves the following questions: "Is Jenny good or bad?" "Has Artie really been trashing our innocent protagonist behind her back?" Nobody hates a book that leaves you pondering over what you will read next long after it's lights out.

The best thing about Freak, linking to its questionable happenings, is the very twisted and kinky ending. The problems in the story are wrapped up all together in an extremely satisfying way that instead of begging the author for a sequel you will shift to your next novel and look back on this one fondly.

I strongly recommend Freak to any girl around 11-14 years old, and I hope fellow readers will enjoy the book as much as I did.

To Read  Not to Read

That Summer by Sarah Dessen

For fifteen-year-old Haven, one ordinary summer turns into an epic journey as the days go by. It all starts with her father's remarriage to the "Weather Pet": Haven's mother's nickname for the local weather lady. Then Haven's sister Ashley's old boyfriend turns up at a pasta restaurant one day and at almost every other one of Haven's haunts, sparking her memory of the past. The biggest part of all is that Haven's sister is getting married to a guy who seems to hardly suit her and everything begins to revolve around Ashley.  On top of everything, Haven's best friend Casey thinks she's met her soul mate and Haven herself is six feet tall and still growing. It's all way too much this summer for Haven, and she is pushed over the edge to breaking point very quickly.

I know that you might think my summary for That Summer was a little choppy, but if you thought that, you must have thought the same thing about the book itself. Even though That Summer is Sarah Dessen's first novel, I have obviously read other books of hers before. I believe I've said this in the past, but I find that Sarah Dessen's novels are always slow and too descriptive for the first few chapters and turn out to be amazing later on. Naturally, I expected the same from this book, and got even less. That Summer was one of the slowest books I have ever read and I was greatly disappointed in it.

Normally in a book the characters are somewhat vivid and easy to relate to, the problems of the plot are all solved by the end, and most occurrences in the book seem to foreshadow the conclusion or support other happenings. In That Summer, the characters actually weren't so vivid. I found when Haven was narrating the story from her point of view, it was told rather drone-like. The characters were just there. The events just happened in a way that it didn't seem there should be a necessary order for them. When Haven actually reached "breaking point" in the story, it was surprising to me that she actually had feelings; the characters were so mediocre.

I know that Sarah Dessen is a terrific author otherwise, so if this is the first book you've read by her, don't be turned off. But all in all, this book disappointed me. I really would not recommend it to anybody. My final decision for That Sumer may shock you, or you may agree with me. Please comment on this post , or vote on the book below.

To Read  Not to Read

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Ruby and her mother have been constantly moving around together, ever since her parents got divorced and her sister left for college. Although it may seem strange, it's normal for Ruby to be left alone for weeks at a time by her mother. But when Ruby's mother leaves for the final time and does not return, she has to illegally fend for herself in the small yellow house she loves so much without heat or running water.

When the landlords discover the absence of Ruby's mother, she is sent to her sister Cora's mansion to stay until she can legally and comfortably be on her own. Ruby hasn't seen her ten-year-older sister for a decade, but after settling in, Ruby and her sister learn that they are still as close as they were before.

In the months that Ruby stays with her sister and brother-in-law, she is befriended by Nate, the rich boy next door, tutored by a twelve-year-old genius in calculus, and is taught how to accept help when she needs it and the true meaning of family.

With a stunning plot, well-crafted world readers will lose themselves in, and yet another batch of vivid, believable characters, Sarah Dessen presents to teen readers one more book you will be incapable of putting down.

What exactly is so good about Lock and Key? Despite the reference to drugs in the novel, the story is just so unpredictable you simply have to find out what happens next in the story. It's impressing how Sarah Dessen could gracefully switch the mood of the novel from serious and a bit depressed to warm and humorous.

If you have read any other of Sarah Dessen's novels and enjoyed them, then I guess you already know what to expect from her eighth book. If you haven't read any of her novels, then pick this one up and brace yourself for your new favorite author!

To Read  Not to Read

Chat Room by Kristin Butcher

 Linda is a lonely ninth grader with one friend: Janice "Beastly", the school bully and least popular girl. When Linda's high school introduces chat rooms to the school website, she is sucked into chatting and is soon addicted to the computer, despite Janice's persistent warnings. In the school chat rooms Linda (aka Roxane on the Internet) meets another anonymous student nicknamed Cyrano; a character from her favorite move. The two quickly get to know each other while chatting online.
When Cyrano finds out who Roxane really is, Linda receives flowers, poems, chocolates and finally a ticket to the school dance, and assumes that Cyrano is her secret admirer and he has invited her to the dance. But when Linda misses her bus and is walking home from school in the pouring rain and a twelfth-grader offers her a ride home, she finds out that this guy is Cyrano. He mentions nothing about liking her or the gifts he sent, so Linda still thinks he likes her.
The night of the dance, Linda finds out that it was not Cyrano ( Marc Solomon in real life) who has been sending her gifts, but the shy, younger and less popular Chad Sharp. That night, the two learn the hard way how the Internet can trick people; or get them into some serious situations. Linda is forced to tell Chad she does not like him, and Chad has to convince Linda that he is her secret admirer.

I can't say I completely enjoyed this novel. I never expected it to be so good when I picked it up in the first place, but I found many things wrong with it.

The first thing I'd like to mention about Chat Room is how unrealistic it was. Sure, lots of people participate in chatting online and find themselves caught up in some serious issues even greater than the ones addressed in the novel, but Kristin Butcher made Linda into a character who hadn't ever really been interested in the computer. Linda had to psyche up just to join a chat room on the school website, where these days basically everybody has Facebook and/or Twitter and doesn't give a second thought to signing up. And I know that if my school website had chat rooms and forums on it, nobody would take part in them because by the time you're twelve and older, it's not cool to visit your school website unless absolutely necessary. I think the story should have been based on something involving more peer-pressure and a more popular social networking website.

Another thing I saw wrong with Chat Room was how it was written. The characters were constantly talking about the dangers of the Internet, blah blah blah. No teenager and/or child wants to read something they already have to sit through their parents telling them. Chat Room was the kind of book your parents tell you to read and hope that you'll obliviously learn something and recommend it to your friends. The characters were phony, and the dialogue was too mature for their ages. I support these two opinions of mine with the following quote: "Chat rooms are nothing but hangouts for perverts. Anybody who visits them is asking for trouble." -Janice (8)

So now after stating and supporting my opinions that Chat Room is unrealistic, too educational to be attractive to the average teen reader, and phony, my final conclusion is that I will not recommend this novel to anybody I know, for I believe it is not by far the best book I have ever read.

To Read  Not to Read

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Publisher: Speak
Copyright: 2009

Auden expects a long, hot, boring two months, when she chooses to spend her summer with the stepmother she isn't too fond of, and her dad's selfish attributes. Not to mention a constantly crying half - sister that's just been born.
But this particular summer, Auden gets way more than she expects to. She gets a job bookkeeping at her stepmother Heidi's store, meets new friends, and is helped to catch up on the childhood she never had.

Ever since Auden's parents divorced when she was little, she never slept at night from having to listen to their fighting. When Auden lived with her no-fun, nagging mother nearly all her life, she was expected to be the little adult, never doing anything fun, never having many friends, and never doing anything as basic in her childhood such as learning to ride a bike.

But all that changes when she meets Eli in the small town her father, stepmother and half-sister calls home. Eli is a former BMX star that quit doing what he loved when he and his best friend Abe were in a car accident and he was the only one of the two that survived. When Auden and Eli become friends, they change and teach each other what they both need to learn. Eli to come out of his grief and trauma; Auden to come out of her shell and experience some simple things included in a childhood, much less learning to live a proper social and academic life. Overall, they both learn the value of taking risks and living life.


I loved Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen's latest novel published in 2009. From the beginning, I found the characters and storyline attractive, despite the sluggishness in the plot during the first few chapters. Sarah Dessen put everything into this novel that I expect from a good book: humor, vividity, attractiveness, and most importantly, an interesting and gripping, dramatic plot.

I have only read a few of Sarah Dessen's books, but this one inspired me to embark on my 'quest' to read all of her novels, if people who have already read this book know what I mean. I think a lot of other teenagers who read this book will be able to relate to many of the themes and parts in the story of this masterpiece. Anybody who is looking for a good book to read, I strongly recommend it; it will be one of my favorites for years.

Another reason to read Along For the Ride was that it was also clean. I have read a few books before that had mature content, etc. in them that made me question whether or not I should continue on to the next chapter. Readers will find Along for the Ride a satisfying, appropriate, recommendable adventure.

To Read   Not to Read

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic Press
Copyright: 2009

In the second book of The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen is all the rage back home, in District 12, after miraculously winning the 74th Hunger Games with her partner, Peeta Mellark. Being a victor guarantees you out of the reaping for life, and that's all Katniss needs. But as the 3rd Quarter Quell approaches, several districts have started rebelling against the Capitol, using Katniss' act of defiance in the arena as a prime example. Plus, the mockingbird pin that Katniss sported in the Games has become a symbol used by rebels all over Panem, even in the fabled underground city of District 13.

But on reaping day, Katniss is shocked by the selection of tributes. One female and one male victor must participate in the Games. This means that Katniss is going back in. This time she believes that she'll never see District 12 again, so she focuses on keeping Peeta alive in the arena at all costs. Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta's mentor, have given them an unsuspected ally, Finnick Odair of District 4. Finnick, being physically muscular and good looking, becomes useful in the Quarter Quell.
After arriving in the arena, Katniss soon finds out that it is divided into 12 sections. Each one loaded with a different deadly surprise every hour. But after a few days, the remaining tributes are transported out after a deadly bombing. And Katniss survives with Peeta by her side. When Gale visits her in the hospital, he brings her news. "There is no District 12" (391)

I found this book very thrilling, addicting, and intriguingly violent. Catching Fire was cleverly written to keep you at the edge of your seat. Suzanne Collins creatively illustrates a story that is so realistic, it seems believable. I would recommend this novel to anyone with a taste for action, romance, and suspense. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone with a faint heart for it is quite violent; "I load an arrow as I twist and get a glimpse of a dripping-wet Gloss letting Wiress slide to the ground, her throat slit in a bright red smile. The point of my arrow disappears into (Gloss') right temple, and in the instant it takes to reload, Johanna has buried an ax blade in Cashmere's chest. Finnick knocks away a spear Brutus throws at Peeta and takes Enobaria's knife in his thigh." (333)

To Read  Not to Read

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic

Copyright: 2008

Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen's life seems to be falling apart at its seams. 

Not that it was easy in the first place. Her family is one of the many in her District

that are extremely poor. Katniss lives with her twelve year old sister, Primrose

and her mother, who has been sunk into a deep depression ever since Katniss'

father passed away in a mining explosion five years ago. Katniss lives in District

12, the mining district and also one of the twelve districts in the country of

Panem. Panem is ruled by the Capitol, a city that knows how to keep all of the

districts in line. Every year the Capitol makes every district put forth one boy and

one girl between the ages of 12 through 18 to compete in the Hunger Games. The

Hunger Games are a nationally televised event which all competitors (tributes)

must compete in an arena in a fight to the death in harsh environments.

The annual reaping is near and Katniss can't help but feel scared. Why shouldn't

she? This year her name can be drawn twenty times and her closest friend,

Gale, has his name in forty two times. But the one unavoidable thing is that

Primrose’s name has to be entered this year. When the reaping arrives everyone's

afraid. Everyone gathers in the square, waiting to find out whose name will be

drawn. Effie Trinket, the escort for the District 12 walks up to the ballot where

all the females put their names into. Katniss is extremely lucky, her name hadn't

been drawn. But the name that had been drawn is "Primrose Everdeen."

Katniss couldn't allow her sister to compete in the Hunger Games, so she takes

her sister's spot in the Games. The male tribute from District 12 is, Peeta Mellark.

Katniss has only encountered Peeta once before. But it had left her in his debt.

Soon Katniss is in the middle of the most eventful Hunger Games in history.

There will be alliances and definitely betrayals. When the Games pit life against

love things get a lot more complicated. The only question is if she will live to see

the end of it.

I loved this book. I could feel as though this could actually happen sometime in

the future. It shows the trials and tribulations of a teenager with an adventure –

esqe point of view.

Suzanne Collins uses descriptions in such a way that it seems as though the

characters are real. One of the things that I love about this book is that it’s filled

with twists and turns. You can never predict what’s going to happen next. You

may find yourself searching the definitions of a few words but I would definitely

recommend it.

To Read  Not to Read

Night Of The Howling Dogs by Graham Salisbury

Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2009

Dylan's scout troop has decided to go on a camping trip, and Dylan is pretty excited to go. until he remembers that Louie, an older boy is the newest member of the troop. Dylan has had a past run in with Louie and tries not to remember it when he finds out that Louie will be going on the trip.


Then a few days after the troop has set up a large earthquake (7.2 they found out later) scatters the troop in the early morning, and Dylan and Louie are forced to team up and help the rest of their troop to safety.


The most amazing part of this story is that it really happened to scout troop 77 in Hawaii. Although in the book nobody from their troop or the near-by camping horseback riders was killed, in the real event a passing fisherman (on his boat) was never found and one of the adult leaders was killed in a rock slide made by an aftershock.

Since this book was based on a real event, the author wrote the story just like the it but nobody died in his version. This book was written mostly from Dylan's point of view and he included a lot of dialogue from the other characters so you got to hear their experience too, not just Dylan's.

I liked this book even though Graham based it on a real event so, he I guess he didn't have to think up a lot of the story. The book was very vivid especially when the earthquake came it was like watching a movie inside of my head!

To Read Not to Read