Tell Us We’re Home by Marina Budhos

Tell Us We're Home
Marina Budhos
Anthem Books for Young Readers
2010

Tell Us We’re Home is an exciting and decent reading book. It’s about a girl named Jaya and her mother Mrs. Lal. Jaya wants to go to a dance but they don’t have much money to spend. So Jaya begs to get a new dress. Often Jaya hangs out with the boys. Mrs. Lal is a nanny. Jaya is a helpful, generous young girl. She goes through a lot of struggles like having to help her mother clean wealthy peoples’ houses and she gets made fun of. But most of all she is strong and she doesn’t let it get to her!! Mrs. Lal is a hard working mother.   I liked how Jaya and Mrs. Lal were always close but sometimes throughout the book got in arguments. Then she goes through many struggles.  I disliked how the author didn’t explain some of the parts clearly, but in general I liked this book. I recommend this book to any 7th grader that likes slow and mysterious books.

Reviewed by Sarah 7th Grade

Johnny Hangtime by Dan Gutman

Johnny Hangtime
Dan Gutman
Harper Trophy 2000

Johnny Hangtime has been “run over by trucks, hit by machine gun fire, thrown through plate glass windows, and drowned in quick sand” (113). He is a stunt kid in Dan Gutman’s exciting, adventure book, Johnny Hangtime. Johnny lost his dad three years ago when he died doing a stunt at Niagara Falls. Now Johnny does stunts for a movie star named Rickey Corvette. He is going to follow in his dad’s footsteps and go over Niagara Falls. Johnny hasn’t gone to Niagara Falls since his dad died. His director, Roland, wants to do a stunt movie from start to finish.  This dream is coming true and Roland asks Johnny to do a Niagara Falls gag.  They went to Niagara Falls and then an accident happens again.

I recommend this book to kids who are in middle school.  But remember one thing.  Don’t try these stunts at home!

Reviewed by Evan 7th Grade

IceFire by Chris D’Lacey

IceFire
Chris D'Lacey
Orchard Books 2006

Icefire by Chris D’Lacey is a about David and his new dragon G’reth that is a wishing dragon. David uses a wish to find the fire tear of the last living dragon. Which someone else wants and will do a lot of things to get it.

The writing style is a hard to understand, but the vocabulary makes the writing interesting.  It also makes the dragons look real in your head.

 Chris D’Lacey is a great author at writing dragon books because of his great    imagination.

I would recommend this book to friends that are 12 years old and up that are good readers with a big imagination.

Reviewed by Trevor 7th Grade

Zach’s Lie by Roland Smith

Zach's Lie
Roland Smith
Hyperion Paperbacks 2003

Roland’s book “Zach’s Lie” just mesmerized me with its mystery and crimes, Zach (aka) Zack and his family are in a particular situation where they have to hide from the FBI and the other people who think they are trying to help them but the lives of the Granger (aka) the Robinsons aren’t falling for it they know that there dad is in a Mexican detention center. Zach, Wanda and their mom Neil are being watched, and Zach and Wanda (aka) Joanna hope to be able to rescue their dad. Zach might be going back to school, but he is really wondering if he might be able to get his dad out of jail for drug dealing.

“Zach’s Lie” has a very unique style, it’s like a secret within a secret and a mystery at the same time. The type of person I would recommend this book to would be 13 or older because it has a lot of suspense and disappearing.  I want to read it again when I’m a little older because then I could get to understand it a little better.

Reviewed by Samantha 7th Grade

Devoured by Amanda Marrone

Devoured
Amanda Marrone

Megan can see ghosts.  Well, technically she can only see her twin sister, Remy, who died when they were in second grade in a car accident. Her dad was injured in the accident but he never woke up from his coma. For the past 10 years he has been surviving in a nursing home with a feeding tube. Since the accident, Remy started showing up every once in a while, maybe once every two months. However, recently Remy has been showing up a lot with scary words like “she is going to die” and “hurry Meggy!” Remy shows Megan the future, and once Megan pieces all the clues together, will it be too late? Will there be time for a budding new romance? Will taking away her father’s feeding tube help Remy move on? Find out in this paranormal fiction book by Amanda Marrone.  My rating is 9/10 because it was very unpredictable. Amanda takes a Disney fairy tale and turns it into something scary; you never know how things will piece together until the very end.

Review by Marissa 7th Grade

The Romeo and Juliet Code by Phoebe Stone

The Romeo and Juliet Code
Phoebe Stone

The Romeo and Juliet Code is one of the many secrets in this World War 2 setting. When Felicity is shipped off to Bottle Bay, Maine to stay with her dad’s family that she has never met, she finds more and more secrets rather than answers. One of the main questions is “why is my dad sending letters to Uncle Gideon and not me”. When a secret person named Mr. Donovan shows up asking about the letters only to her uncle Gideon.

The writing of this book was done extremely well however, the plot leaves the reader with questions that made the book not really have an ending in the end. This book would be so much better if there was a sequel that tied up the loose ends of the book. Finally there the cover was very misleading to what the book was going to be like. My rating is 4 out of 10 because of the ending and the cover.

Review by Kaysee 8th grade

Choker by Elizabeth Woods

Choker
Elizabeth Woods

This book is about 16-year old Cara who is really kind of the loser at her high school. Cara dreams about her best friend, Zoe, whom she moved away from when they were in 5^th grade. But suddenly, Zoe shows up at Cara’s front door saying she ran away from home and she needed a place to stay. So while Zoe is hiding out in Cara’s bedroom, mysterious murders and disappearances are occurring to girls at Cara’s school. Is Zoe responsible? This book is fantastic; I read it on one night. My rating is 9/10. 

Review by: Marissa 7th Grade