During last week, I finished three YA books.
Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson
Titanic: Voices from the Disaster is a retelling novel that covers the experiences of passengers on the Titanic the night it sank. I am sure by now we all know the story of the Titanic either from school or young Leonardo DiCaprio stealing our hearts. The experiences talked about are ones that I already knew about so with that said it was a boring read for me. However, it was very informative so if you are looking for a good history book and are interested in the Titanic, I would highly recommend this one! On my Bingo card, this crosses off Sibert Medal or Honor winner.
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Carry On is about Simon who is the chosen one in a wizarding world. Sound familiar? There are parallels in this book that reminds me of Harry Potter but I still enjoyed the story. I do not want to spoil too much of the book but it is important to know that Simon is fighting against a creature who looks and sounds just like him. On top of all of this, he is trying to avoid his enemy Baz and fix his relationship with his girlfriend Agatha. This is an LGBTQ book so that is what I counted it as on my Bingo card. A review I found on Goodreads is this book is basically if Draco Malfoy was in love with Harry Potter. That is very accurate! Overall, I loved this book for the relationship that is formed and the quirkiness of the world and Simon’s friend.
Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by Gregory Neri and Randy DuBurke
Yummy is about a young kid who is in a gang. With wanting to be seen as a more serious gang member, he shoots someone and it causes a lot of uproar in the community. This book was great. It is a graphic novel and the images go along with the story perfectly. This book shows Yummy as the criminal that people believe him as but it also shows him as a young kid who has had so many problems and just seems lost. If you have not read this, please do! It was probably my favorite read this week.
This coming week, I am planning to read Monday’s Not Coming and Sing, Unburied, Sing. Once I finish these two, my Bingo list will be complete!
Happy Reading!
This series follows a young wizard named Harry Potter. Harry lives with his aunt and uncle after his parents died in a “car crash”. Strange things always happen to Harry which he cannot explain but it all makes sense when he is told he is a wizard and has been accepted into Hogwarts Wizarding School. Harry also finds out that he is a survior of a dark wizard attack that caused his parents to die. This dark wizard is Voldemort who disappeared after he could not kill Harry. When arriving at Hogwarts, Harry meets multiple new wizards but one, in particular, is Ron Weasley. Ron and Harry soon become best friends but they also make a new enemy, Draco Malfoy. I do not want to spoil everything in this book but it basically covers different situations Harry, Ron, and eventually, another classmate Hermione Granger go through during their first year at Hogwarts. These include three-headed dogs, giant trolls, irritating professors, and numerious life treatening situations. If you have not read this series, I would highly recommend. They are not very difficult to read but towards the end books, they get pretty long. However, the story is very interesting and comes with a few surprises.
The Crossover is a verse novel that follows Josh Bell. Josh is twelve years old and has a twin brother named Jordan. Both of the brothers are wonderful at basketball and this could be partly credited to their father, who was a professional basketball player. The brothers are usually very close but this changes when Jordan gets a girlfriend who seems to be taking up all of his time. Josh gets pretty annoyed with this which leads to some tension between him and his brother, on and off the court. While this is going on, their father seems to be having some medical issues but refuses to see the doctor. I won’t spoil anything else but the ending is pretty upsetting but also very predictable. I would recommend this book because it is a very short read but has a very cool story. Since it is a verse novel, there is always the worry of losing information but that does not happen here!
Rachel's Mind 