Teen Readers Write

Follow my new blog at addicted-to-reading.blogspot.com/

2011-01-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since the last post on Teen Readers Write. I've started a new blog for my book reviews and other thoughts at addicted-to-reading.blogspot.com. Please come visit!

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

2009-11-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

When 15 year old Liz is killed in a bicycle accident (always wear your helmet!), she goes to Elsewhere. She holds on to the life she used to live , not accepting that a life in Elsewhere can be a full one. Can Liz fully embrace this new, backwards life with new friends and never met family members, or will she keep holding on? This book is a realistic fantasy about friends, family, and how to live your life (or death).

The Elsewhere page on Gabrielle Zevin's official website

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

2009-11-03T20:35:00.000-08:00

Grace has loved her wolf ever since she was attacked by his pack. She watches him all through each winter, and in each Summer she mourns his mysterious disappearance. Although Grace has no idea, this yellow -eyed wolf leads a second life each summer- as a human whose name is Sam. Grace and human Sam meet when Sam is shot by hunters as a wolf and they fall into an undeniable love, but Sam must fight the oncoming cold to stay human and be with Grace.This fantasy is well written, almost poetically romantic, and perfect for people who need a break from vampires.

Maggie Stiefvater's website

Stones of Power by Mira Singer

2009-09-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

The Ultimate Power seems like a great thing. But when the wrong people have it ,it could lead to disaster. It's up to a rag-a-tag group of children to stop them and prevent them from destroying the world. They must stop 3 great wizards from getting all the Stones, stones that unleash a person's power. When someone has all of them, they get the ultimate power. These children must decide if they want to risk their and their friend's lives and stop them. A great read with a plot that keeps you reading by an amazing young author that Tamora Pierce fans will love.

The River Whispers, by Pamela Pizzimenti

2009-07-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing book. Our take:

When Evie moves to a small town called Turnsville she feels insubstantial. She knows no one and no one, save her mother, knows her. It all goes downhill on the first day of school when a boy, a cute boy no less, has to drag her to the nurse's office thinking she is insane. I mean who knew that she could see ghosts and that someone would sit down through one? This book is filled with drama, mystery, romance, and a quest for a white car.
--Mags

Can Evie see ghosts or is she going crazy? When a boy has to drag her to the nurse's office on the first day of school in a new town Evie is more than embarrassed. In a small town, everything seems interconnected, even the death of the ghost. Does she really want to unravel this mystery? A powerful look at death and life.
--Marie

Don't Judge a Girl By Her Cover, Ally Carter

2009-07-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Cammie "The Chameleon" Morgan is a spy and student at the best school for spies in the world, Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. When Cammie joins her roommate in D.C. she thwarts a kidnapping of the potential vice-president's daughter, a Gallagher Girl herself, and realizes that everything is not as it seems. The ring on the finger of the kidnapper was not a mistake, her Aunt Abby is in fact alive and well, and that white haired man seems all too familiar......

This is an amazing book with many twists and turns.

Ally Carter's website.

Five Books That I Read on Vacation

2009-07-22T13:39:00.003-07:00

1.Dancing on the Edge
by Han Nolan
Miracle McCloy is not a normal girl, nor does she live a normal life. But when her father dissolves and she is sent to live with her psychic grandmother, she becomes even less normal then ever. A haunting and deep story. It helped me ignore turbulence on an airplane.

2.A Wizard of Earthsea
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ged has learned all the magic there is to know in his village--barely enough to stop the invaders. But Ged hungers for a greater power. This is the story of how Ged overcomes the results of a deadly experiment. I read this on a bus ride with frequent stops so I could ponder the twisty plot.

3.Owl in Love
by Patrice Kindl
Owl. That is who she is. An owl at night and a student at day. She is in love with her middle aged science teacher. Is this love or is something more waiting around the bend? Another airplane read.

4.Beyond the Burning Time
by Kathryn Lasky
29 dead. The Salem witch trials are a deadly affair. Is Mary's mother really a witch? Mary and her brother will have to decide. A dark and vivid account of the Salem Witch trials. Do not read this before bed.

5.Gathering Blue, (Companion to The Giver)
by Lois Lowry
Kira's Mother is dead. It was a disease--or was it murder? Kira lives a new life as an artist.Did they save her or trap her? A beautifully done companion.

Wacky Comments

2009-06-18T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
I was NOT ignoring your comments, I just couldn't get them to publish. :(
But we're working now! So please encourage your friends to comment! Thanks for your patience. Hurray!

Favorite Book Lists

2009-05-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
I am organizing a top 100 books list. If any of you want to put your top 10 or 20 favorite books on a comment and publish it here, I will try to organize the lists and post a list of the top 100. Please tell everyone you think would be interested!

P.S.
I am expecting these lists to be lists of teenage boys' and girls' favorite books.

The Uglies Series, by Scott Westerfield

2009-05-22T17:26:00.000-07:00

Tally Youngblood is an Ugly in a world of Pretties. She is a tricky Ugly, one who sneaks across the river at night even though Uglies aren't allowed to. When her best friend, Peris, gets the operation that makes you pretty on your 16th birthday she feels abandoned. So when she meets another tricky Ugly named Shay they become best friends.
It all goes downhill from there when the night before the operation Shay runs away and leaves Tally direction on how to get to The Smoke, a community of runaways who didn't want to be pretty. Tally doesn't understand this since it's her life's dream to be pretty. The day of the operation Tally gets called into Special Circumstances and embarks on a long journey that ends in her finding out the biggest secret of all time.

Melting Stones, by Tamora Pierce

2009-03-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

Evvy has spent four years off the streets, training as a stone Mage. Now she travels to the battle Islands with the still recovering Rosethorn, and Fusspot, commonly known as Myrrhtide. The People of the islands called Rosethorn, who is a plant mage, and Myrrhtide, a water mage, to see why all their ponds are turning to acid and all of their plants are dying.

Evvy is not a people person and the people on the island are no exception. But when she finds out the root of the problem, she realizes that she may have to save the islands.

This suspenseful novel is full of magic, and is one Tamora Pierce’s best.

P.S. This book uses characters from Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic Series

Kiki Strike, by Kristen Miller

2009-03-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

Kiki Strike wishes to be dangerous. When she suddenly appears at Anaka Fishbien's school, Anaka is intrigued. This intrigue turns to need for information about this four foot tall and almost albino girl. When Kiki tells Anaka she is starting a group of geniuses and delinquent girl scouts and asks her to join, Anaka says yes.

Little did she know--this group of girls would soon be running from smugglers, discovering a city, and trying to keep Manhattan's biggest secret ever.

Paisley Hanover Acts Out, by Cameron Tuttle

2009-03-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

Paisley Hanover is the top of the B+ list at her school, Pleasant Hill. That is until she is voted off Yearbook and into drama, her "best friend" abandons her to be popular, and she spastic jazz hands her way into "indie darling" territory.

Paisley starts hanging around with other people and realizes, maybe, "un" is more fun.

Definitely a must-have book. Talk about true high school, and gossip.

Big Kiss
Class dismissed

Find Paisley Hanover Acts Out in your local library

Visit the Paisley Hanover website

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

2009-02-27T16:08:00.000-08:00

Melanie Stryder refuses to let her entire being be taken over by an alien. Our earth has been invaded by "souls"-- silver beings able to enter and take over a "host". Melanie was part of a resistance against these invaders, one of the hand full of true humans left.

The world, overrun by this unseen enemy becomes a brutal place. True humans must steal and hide so not to be discovered and implanted with a soul. The problem is, the only way you can tell, for sure, someone is not a soul is to see if their eyes are reflective.

The soul implanted in Melanie is called the Wanderer. She had been to nine planets throughout the universe, all taken over by the souls, but had never experienced the color in such definition as through a humans eyes.

Melanie puts up a wall protecting her memories from the Wanderer so she can not tell anyone of the people or location for the resistance. Instead she fills the Wanderer's mind with pictures of her brother and Jared, the man she loved.

This was a very interesting book. It's definitely not a light read but if you are a fan of science fiction or Twilight you will love this book.

Find The Host in your local library

Visit the Stephenie Meyer's website

The Seer of Shadows, by Avi

2009-02-18T20:32:00.000-08:00

It is 1872.The art of photography is a fine thing to be an apprentice in , as Horace Carpetine is. But later in life he swears to never take another photograph. “Why is this?” you may ask

Well , that is a long story. It all starts out when wealthy Mrs.Von Macht orders a portrait. The greedy Mr.Middleditch decides to double expose the photograph to show the “ghost” of Eleanora , the Von Machts’ cruelly treated deceased daughter,in order to become a more well known photographer. Horace is ordered by Mr. Middleditch to take photographs of portraits of Eleanora , but when he does, strange things begin to happen.

This is a beautifully written, haunting story about early photography and the shadows that lurk in everyday life.

Find The Seer of Shadows in your local library

Visit the Avi website

Heat, by Mike Lupica

2009-01-25T12:51:00.001-08:00

Heat is a great book about a boy who loves to play baseball.

Yes, I know it sounds like it has "boys only" written all over it, but Heat is a book anyone will love.

Twelve-year-old Michael Arroyo has just come to the United States on a boat from Cuba with his brother, Carlos, and his father, who he calls Papi. After Papi has a tragically dies from a heart attack, Michael and Carlos go to live alone in an apartment in the Bronx, near the Yankee Stadium. But you are probably thinking, "A boy who loves baseball? This sounds more like a tragic situation!"

Don't worry. From the time he was seven, Michael has been an outstanding pitcher. Now, he's on a Little League all-star team called the Clippers. Not only is he their best pitcher, but their best catcher and pretty much "their best everything," or so his friend Manny says. But as he gets better at baseball, he draws more attention to himself. If Social Services finds out, then Michael and Carlos could be separated, or worse, sent back to Cuba. One day, the Clippers play the Westchester South team, and their star player is a particularly obnoxious kid named Justin, who practically throws a tantrum if he notices anyone's better than him. When he encounters Michael, he has such a fit that he tells his dad (who is his coach) that no twelve-year-old could ever pitch that good. They demand to see his birth certificate, but his father seemed to have left it in Cuba. Michael doesn't know what to do, and the fact that he has no birth certificate just draws even more attention to his situation.

Meanwhile, Michael is banned from the team until he can prove his age. Will he ever play baseball again? Will Carlos and Michael be separated by the foster-care system?
If you want to know more, read the book!

--L. S. E.

Find Heat in your local library

Visit Mike Lupica's website

Twilight Series, Stephenie Meyer

2009-01-19T18:52:00.000-08:00

Twilight, which is a book many people have read, is filled with suspense and romance. After Twilight comes New Moon, in my opinion a severe disappointment after Twilight, which you shouldn't read if, at that moment, you want to feel happy. Eclipse is better than New Moon but not as good as Twilight. Breaking Dawn is by far the best.

Stephenie Meyer is also the author of The Host.

Find Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series in your local library

Visit "His Golden Eyes"--a popular Twilight Series website

Top 8, by Katie Finn

2009-01-18T17:25:00.000-08:00

When Madison MacDonald goes to the Galapagos Islands for spring break, she has an awesome time. Little did she know, while she was away, and while she had no connection to the outside world at all (away from the Internet and her beloved computer!), her Friendverse profile was hacked. Now, everyone at school hates her!

How will Maddie find out who did this to her?

This was a really good book with a lot of twists.

Find Top 8 in your local library

Visit Katie Finn’s website

Hattie Big Sky, by Kirby Larson

2009-01-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

This story starts out in Iowa. Then Hattie moves to Montana, to inherit a claim from her uncle. Montana has rolling skies, and a feeling of vastness that Hattie has never found anywhere else.

Hattie is a sixteen year old girl. She is an orphan, and has spent a good part of her life switching between family members. At the beginning of this story she is living with her strict Aunt and kind Uncle. She is eager to learn and is not good at knitting socks.

Soon after her friend Charlie enlists, Hattie is told by her Aunt that she is being sent to work at a boardinghouse and will not be able to finish high school. She is distressed at the idea.

But then she is thrilled and saddened to hear that her mother’s brother has passed away, leaving her some land in Montana. She packs her bags and her cat and boards the train to Montana.

In Montana, Perilee, a German woman, along with her family, help Hattie get settled in a shack. It is wintertime and Hattie has to work hard to survive the freezing winter, with the task of laying a lot of fence and ploughing and cultivating four acres of land looming ahead of her in the spring.

This book was long but definitely worth reading. It gave me a new view of the discrimination against the Germans during World War Two.

Find Hattie Big Sky in your local library

Visit the Hattie Big Sky website

Obernewtyn Chronicles

2009-01-11T19:55:00.000-08:00

The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody is one of the best series I have ever read, right up there with Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Magic Tree House. :) The main character is alienized for her abilities unearthed by an atomic apocalypse. She and others like her are either killed or sent to work with radioactive materials. When she is sent to the mysterious Obernewtyn high in the hills she is surprised to find it not as terrible as everyone had said, that is, until she unearths a deadly plot to find the machines that caused the terrible apocalypse.

So far the books in the series include:

Obernewtyn: The Obernewtyn Chronicles 1

The Farseekers: The Obernewtyn Chronicles 2

Ashling: The Obernewtyn Chronicles 3

The Keeping Place: The Obernewtyn Chronicles 4

Wavesong: The Obernewtyn Chronicles 5

The Stone Key: The Obernewtyn Chronicles 6

Find the Obernewtyn Chronicles in your local library

Visit the Obernewtyn.net website

The Dragonfly Pool, by Eva Ibbotson

2009-01-11T19:12:00.000-08:00

When you think of an English boarding school, you think of a place where teachers are often so strict they make children cry. But when eleven year old Tally gets a scholarship to Delderton,she finds it is not like a normal boarding school. Delderton is a simply lovely place in the English countryside where creativity is encouraged. It is 1939 and The Second World War is revving up its engine. Tally sees a film about the small European country of Bergania which stands up to Hitler, and she deeply longs to visit.

Coincidentally, the annual International Folk Dance Festival is being held in Bergania and Delderton is invited to go and perform a folk dance to represent England. Tally sets her heart on going.

This book is very exciting. I got completely absorbed in the plot. Eva Ibbotson has also written many other wonderful books including The Star of Kazan, Which Witch?, and Journey to the River Sea.

Find the The Dragonfly Pool in your local library

Browse Our Store of Favorite Books

2009-01-06T20:25:00.001-08:00

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Welcome to Teen Readers Write!

2009-01-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

We are two teenage girls who love to read, and want to share our love of reading with you! We will try to publish at least two reviews every week, and feel free to comment on the books we write about. Check back often!