4.5 Stars - Great start to a suspenseful trilogy

Chloe just wanted to be accepted.  After her mom died when Chloe was just five years old, she had moved frequently - one luxury apartment after the next...never making friends or feeling like she really belonged.  It wasn't until she started attending a boarding school for the arts that Chloe finally felt like a regular teenager....normal...until she had a mental breakdown.

 Admitted into Lyle House, a group home for mentally troubled or disturbed teens, Chloe tried to forget about the corpse....the man who had appeared to her at school, grabbing her, chasing her....insisting that she help him.  She was hallucinating, right?  Just like when she was younger and would go to the basement in her childhood home.  The voices....the ghosts...the spirits...all part of her active imagination, noone else saw them...they weren't really there.

Chloe accepts her doctor's diagnosis of Schizophrenia.  She faithfully takes her meds...jumping through the hoops so she could be released and move on with her life.  It didn't stop, though.  Chloe still saw them...they cried out...lurked around her...would not stop begging Chloe to help them pass....to finally be at peace.

When Chloe admits her secret to another teen patient, she learns that several of the teens who had been admitted seem to also have unusual powers or supernatural abilities - abnormal strength and heightened sensory preceptions, the ability to move things with their minds, to start fire spontaneously without ever striking a match.  Chloe finally realizes her supernatural ability enables her to communicate with the dead - she was a necromancer. 

Why were all the teens there?  Was it a coincidence?  Or were they being held there to suppress their powers - kept prisoners, labeled "mentally insane," never to be free again?  What secrets were the teachers and doctors of Lyle House hiding?

When Chloe's friend Liz becomes too outspoken, she suddenly disappears from Lyle House.  The staff claimed Liz was discharged and released. Why then was Liz appearing to Chloe in the form of a spirit....as if she had died?

Chloe and her newfound friends soon realize the greatest dangers they face are by staying complacent, accepting their mental "diagnosis," and keeping quiet.  They know that they must somehow escape - before it's too late...  

Sunday, June 05, 2011

4.5 Stars - Must read for middle school students

     Eric hated being the new kid in middle school.  To his surprise, though, he is asked to join a popular group the first week of his 7th grade year.  Griffin seemed to be the leader of the group - he was goodlooking, charming, popular, and all the parents and community members seemed to love him.  It wasn't long, though, before Eric saw Griffin's dark side.

Griffin loved to bully others - hurt them, scare them, steal their most treasured possessions.  Being in Griffin's circle came at a cost.  You were expected to participate in Griffin's "fun activities" or look the other way.

When Eric sees how Griffin tortures David, a 7th grader labeled an outcast, he finally decides to take a stand.  Eric tells Griffin he's antics are stupid and mean.  Eric will no longer be a bystander and watch Griffin run all over everyone.

Griffin has a lot of buried anger.  He doesn't like being confronted by anyone.  Now Eric has decided he want be a bystander anymore, Griffin decides to make him his next target....

*Recommended Read Aloud

Thursday, May 26, 2011

 

Summer Reading Book Reviews

Students may post their summer reading book reviews here!  Just select the comments link and include your first and last name (do not include your email address).  The blog post should be a minimum of 3-4 paragraphs and include the following:  summary paragraph, description of major characters, setting of novel (if relevant), and the novel's theme.  The book review should include enough specific details which indicate that the student has read the novel in its entirety.  Please note that it may take several days before the book review becomes published onto the blog's site.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

D.R. Hill Middle School teachers love reading our Top Tiger book titles, also!  Select the comments link below to read their reviews of the 2011-2012 Top Tiger Books~!

Monday, May 23, 2011

 4 Stars - Not as suspenseful as The Compound, but still a good read

      Mason has been plagued with problems his entire life.  At the age of five he was viciously attacked by a dog and still had the scars left behind from his face being savagely ripped and torn.  Mason's mother drinks too much and her job frequently doesn't provide enough money to cover their bills.  The only connection Mason has with his father is a faceless video recording of him reading Runaway Bunny to Mason when he was just a toddler. 

     Despite his past, Mason is determined to have a better future.  His classmates were used to seeing the scars and no longer reacted much when they saw him.  Mason was hopeful that his grades and an athletic scholarship would provide the tuition needed to one day attend Stanford University.

Things quickly changed, though, when Mason's mother discovered his application for the summer program at TroDyn Industries.  Mason didn't understand why she demanded he stay away from TroDyn.  After all, the industry owned half the town and the facility was established for a worthy cause after all - to sustain our environment against the threat of global warming. 

Mason learns his mother has her reasons.  A former worker at the facility, she had inside knowledge about the horrific  experiments using young children, the children of their own employees, nevertheless.  TroDyn scientists claimed their work would eventually sustain life during an environmental crisis and the seemingly cruel experiments were designed to ultimately save future populations.  But what about the young children they were sacrificing today? 

Mason knew his mother had left her prestigious job in order to save him from also becoming part of the experiments, but he didn't understand why she ignored what they were still doing to the other ones left behind.

Mason takes matters into his own hands when he meets the impossibly beautiful young girl who was being locked up in the nursing home where his mother currently worked.  Despite what they said about the girl being catatonic due to a brain injury, Mason knew otherwise.  The young girl could speak and think, and she's desperate for him to help her escape, to hide her from "The Gardener".....

What had they done to her?  Who was the Gardener?  How could he save the girl who had captured his heart?

Readers will be amazed when they, like Mason, learn the shocking truth...

Friday, May 13, 2011