Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys

 

“That’s when I saw it. A tiny sliver of gold appeared between shades of grey on the horizon.” The excerpt is from the last chapter of the novel, Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys. The book is set in the year 1941. It is about a young girl named Lina Vilkas. Lina, along with her mother and brother, is abducted by the Soviet Union. Through out the story the reader gets a taste of how it was for those taken by the Soviets. It shows the hardships those people went through. It shows how badly the soldiers treated the people. It wasn’t fair for them. Lina’s father was separated from her and the rest of his family. He was taken to a prison because he was thought to be a criminal. In fact, Lina’s father was an upstanding citizen and a very good man. He was taken because the soldiers found out that he helped his brother and family escape to Germany. When Lina heard all of this, she was confused by why her dad would risk his own family’s life to help his brother’s. Since Lina’s father was taken before the rest of her family, she tries to communicate with him through drawings. Every time a person would leave the camp, she would give them a handkerchief or a piece of wood on which she had drawn a picture of the place that they were at the time and she would tell them to pass it along. Her hope was that the drawings would eventually reach her father. Later in the story a soldier informs Lina that her father has been shot by a guard in the prison. 

       Death wasn’t a surprise in this book. Life and death in this time were not easy on Lina and her brother, Jonas. Jonas is only ten and doesn’t understand everything yet. At the end of the story, Lina is told that the person who reported her that her father had been killed may have been lying. The book ends with the excerpt at the beginning of this summary. It ends with a feeling of hope, with a glimmer of light. Although it might not inform the reader with all the outcomes of the tragic events, it hints that there may be some good.

            I loved this book! This book is definitely one of the best books I have ever read. The book was very hard to put down. The main character, Lina, is very bold and courageous which makes the book even more interesting, and the story is not only entertaining but also informative--showing how the people were treated during the war. This book has some mature themes in it so I would recommend it to 13-15 year old girls. I say girls because the main character is a girl and it may be easier for girls to relate to some of the events that happen to the protagonist.  This book was a joy to read and I strongly recommend it!  

Reviewed by Corinne              

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Imagine walking through the hallways all alone on the first day of high school. No one is friendly anymore. Old friends reject. People look and whisper. They say “Remember that girl who ruined the party? There she is.” 

But they don’t understand. That is the everyday life of one unfortunate teenage girl. Speak is a realistic fictional novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson. This story takes place in Syracuse, New York during a school year. It is about a thirteen year old girl named Melinda Sordino. She and her friends were invited to a high school end of summer party. The bash was filled with senior boys, inappropriate dancing, and tons of beer kegs. As a naive incoming ninth grader, Melinda drank one cup of beer from the keg. Later on, she wanted more and then she felt nauseous. As she went away from the hectic scene to calm herself down, a popular incoming twelfth grade boy named Andy Evans gave Melinda a gentle kiss. What was meant to be an innocent gesture turned out to be an attack that left Melinda helplessly under Andy’s heavy body. Once he left she called the police. People thought she called to report the underage drinking. Once the officers came, they broke up the party, arrested people, and disappointed party going teenagers. With the students knowing that Melinda caused the end of the party, she was shunned by everyone. She was abandoned by her “best friends.” They didn’t want anything to do with the girl the ruined the best party of the summer. The problem was that Melinda wasn’t brave enough to speak up about what Andy did to her.   So much fear was bottled up inside that she barely talked and always got in trouble. During the school year, she figured that if she couldn’t tell anyone about her problem, she could easily forget about the incident. She met a new girl named Heather who later rejected her because she felt that Melinda was too much of a bummer to be around. She had no friends once again. Although she didn’t have friends, she still managed to hear her fair share of gossip. Her old middle school best friend, Rachel, started dating the boy Melinda feared the most, Andy Evans.  Melinda saw that she wasn’t close to Rachel anymore but still felt like it was her duty to watch out for her. Melinda told Rachel about the calamity between her and Andy. Rachel refused to believe her. Rachel was positive that Andy was too perfect to do such a thing. Andy later invited Rachel to the prom and he tried to force her to do things she didn't want. After his ruthless actions, Rachel finally believed Melinda. Then, Andy came to Melinda and told her she had a big mouth and that she was ruining everything. He again tried to attack her but this time, she screamed NO and caught the lacrosse team’s attention. She finally spoke up. 

      When I was initially reading this book, I felt that it was random and all over the place. Then as I got closer to the end, everything started to make sense. Everything tied together.  I liked this novel because it was realistic. It was something people my age could understand. I think this book is suitable for readers ages thirteen and up. Overall, the book was fantastically written with specific details that made the visual picture of this piece of writing extremely vivid.  For this reason, it is not suitable for younger readers.    

Reviewed by Adaora

This Youtube video is for a trailer for a movie based on the novel.  It stars Kristen Stewart before her Twilight days.

Speak is often a controversial book because of the subject  matter that it covers.

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

Roy Eberheart’s family had been moving around the country for as long as he could remember. When he finally found home in Montana, the Eberhearts had to move away again. This time they traveled to a small, uneventful town called Coconut Cove, Florida. At first, Roy did not enjoy his new surroundings, and he missed the rugged mountains of Montana. At his new school, another reason for disliking the new town existed. He got bullied on the bus, and almost everybody was reluctant to befriend him because of his unfamiliar demeanor. One day, while riding the bus to school, he spied a barefoot boy sprinting and leaping his way on the sidewalk and into people’s backyards. Roy became interested in the running boy. He wondered why he didn’t go to school and where he was running to. So, Roy kept an eye out for him, looking out the window each bus ride to see if he could spot him.     

On the bus one day Roy got into a fight. The infamous bully almost choked Roy to death, but Roy punched him in the nose in self-defense. During the fight, Roy spotted the running boy out of the corner of his eye. To spare never seeing the boy again, Roy hopped off of the bus and chased down the boy in hope of asking him some questions. The boy’s stamina was incredible and Roy never caught him.

Back at school the next day, a girl named Beatrice confronted Roy and told him to forget about the boy. Roy wanted to know what tough Beatrice’s relationship was with the running boy. While Roy was mulling this over in his head, another situation was occurring in a different part of town. A pancake company named Mother Paula’s was introducing a new restaurant to the Coconut Cove community. The construction foreman struggled to get the operation started because of the acts of vandalism that were committed in the construction zone. These acts included pulling out all of the survey sticks, putting alligators in the portable toilets, putting poisonous snakes on the property, and taking out the seats of the bulldozers. A policeman named Officer Delinko tried to target the vandal. They bumbled around and tried to solve the case while they were the ones being duped and tricked by the criminal.

Back at Roy’s school, Beatrice revealed that the boy was her stepbrother who ran away from home. His wicked mother sent him off to military camp, but he was unable to be tamed by civilization. Roy finally got hold of Beatrice’s stepbrother, and Roy learned that he was fearless and had a real connection with nature. The unruly boy would stop at almost nothing to keep wildlife safe from humans. He was particularly concerned about a certain group of owls. They were burrowing owls that lived underground in holes made by other animals. The owls were endangered by bulldozers at a construction site for a future Mother Paula’s. Once Roy learned of this, he wanted to help in every way he could, and so Beatrice, her stepbrother, and Roy teamed up to help save the owls. Beatrice’s stepbrother vandalized the construction site which slowed down the building process, but the pancake people were determined to continue the operation. So, at the official announcement that there was to be a new Mother Paula’s in the area, Roy and his friends protested and spoke about how it wasn’t right to destroy these poor defenseless birds. Roy had also learned that it was illegal to carry out the construction of the building unless there was a paper that said that it was environmentally okay to build there. They, in fact, did not have this permit. The project was shut down and the owls were safe all because three people agreed that sometimes humans have to consider animals before themselves.

            Hoot is an excellent tale of how people should care for the environment and the living things in it. This story is suitable for students for grade six to grade eight. Its easy-to-follow plot is well-done and magnificently written. Hoot is funny but substantial, and many people will enjoy it. The characters in the book are amusing to imagine. The story also involves how one adjusts to his/her surroundings through faith, family, and friends.

Reviewed by Fernando