Spring 2005 Authors and Titles

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    In the Shadow of the Ark by Anne Provoost is a heretical retelling of Noah's Ark that chronicles Re Jana, a young woman who is not among the chosen for salvation from the flood because she is an outsider: her family migrates from the marshes to landlocked territory after her mother is crippled by a water accident. Re Jana's lover Ham pleads with his father Noah to allow her on the Ark even though as a concubine, Re Jana is excluded from Noah's family.

    This novel entices thinking outside the box about a well-established story: what god could be cruel enough to drown the very instruments that created its sacred vessel? Through Re Jana's alien status in the culture of a desert people, the reader examines the self-righteous, malicious actions of the chosen versus the naive struggles of the unknowing during the disaster. Setting aside the catastrophic circumstances, the characters, who are multi-dimensioned, interact believably, and the problems in the story are well-presented; however, the prose is overly simple and dry, which distracts the reader from the story's merit. In addition, the events can easily be predicted by deductive reasoning coupled with the amount of pages left in the novel. Due to content and style, this book is best suited for advanced middle or early high school students. Overall, In the Shadow of the Ark is not a page-turner, but few people should find themselves asleep over it.     

~ Sarah Lewis, grade 11, Girard High School

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I think that Hitler Youth by Susan Campbell Bartoletti was an extremely good book. The Hitler Youth was somewhat like boy and girl scouts except that all kids learned were things about war and how to be a good soldier. According to what age you were, kids learned different things like how to ride motorcycles, shoot guns, throw grenades, dig trenches, and fly airplanes.  Personally, I think the youth got out of hand. There were kids so dedicated to the program that, even if one of their parents said something bad about Hitler, their children would turn them in and the parents would either be sent to jail or even get the death penalty.  Some parts of this book were kind of weird, like right at the beginning this kid who was in the Youth was killed.  But, besides that and some other awkward thinks, this book was really educational and exciting.  Also, I liked the book because it told a lot of cool stories about kids who rise up and go against the Nazis and try to convince others to do the same.  Overall, this is a very great book and it is worth getting.  Not only is it educational and action packed but it has a nice hard and nice looking cover. Hitler Youth was a very good book and I am glad I took the time to read and you should read it too.

 ~ Joe Carothers, grade 8, Boardman Center Middle School

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        Naked without a Hat is a book about a 19 year old boy named Will who decides to leave his home to be on his own to get away form his future step-father and his mother.  His mother constantly nags him about his knit hat the he never takes off, which is one of the reasons why he decides to leave. He moves in a house with 3 other people- Chrissy, who owns the house, Rocco, a VERY BIG man who likes colors and wears a lucky hat of his own, and James who thinks he is James Bond. Will is enjoying his life away from his mother (even though she constantly calls to make sure he is all right) and being an individual. When he gets a job, he meets Zara, a gypsy who is camping on the plot next to his work illegally. He immediately falls in love with her and plans to marry her. He takes Zara to his “home” to meet his mother. Disaster strikes when Will is caught stealing cream from a store and Will’s mother blames Zara for it. She forbids him form seeing her but he doesn’t listen. It is then that his mother takes him back home telling his friends about a secret Will was never supposed to revel. Zara finds out and then she and Will must decide if they still want a life together. All in all, it is a good book. 

        This is a book that would suit kids grades 8-12. It is a good book, but there seems to be no plot to the story at all. Will just does his own thing and it can get very random. There might have been a type of message there at the end but I really didn’t see it. However, the book has some good points. It points out certain things about real life, such as prejudice and lying. It caught my interest really well and I would recommend reading it. 

~ Vincent Calautti, grade 9, Boardman High School

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        The Party Room: Get it Started is the first in a series of books by author Morgan Burke. This is a book about a girl named Kirsten who is trying to solve the mysterious and brutal murder of her best friend Sam. At the beginning, Sam is seen leaving the party room-a night club-with a strange red headed man that no one has seen before. Sam soon is missing and is found about a week later dead…with a Talcott tie, a prep school on the other side of town, binding her hands together. This leads to a connection between this murder and a murder that occurred at Talcott a few years back. Now Kirsten must find out who killed her best friend. As she begins her search, she meets a man named Kyle who helps her in her quest…only to discover that he is the man who they convicted of murdering the Talcott girl. He claims he is being framed for everything that is going on and he wants Kirsten to give him an alibi. Now Kirsten must choose to either believe Kyle or to stay away from him. A very fast paced book that keeps you in suspense the entire time. 

        This is a book that would suit kids grades 9-12. It is a fast paced, heart stopping book, one that should be read by kids 15 or up and aren’t afraid of the dark. This book will creep you out. It throws many twists and turns at you so that you end up not trusting anyone except Kirsten in the book. Kirsten sticks out her neck a little too far sometimes in this book, which leads me to believe that she will be dead by the end of the series. The plot thickens as the book moves along. It is one of the best I have read in a long time. I can’t wait for the next one in the series to come out. 

~ Vincent Calautti, grade 9, Boardman High School

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    Gregory had just gotten an invitation from his Uncle Max and it said he could bring one friend. He asked his friend Brian to go with him, Brian agreed and so did their parents. So they set of to Gregory's Uncle Max's house, and Gregory even warned that his Uncle was a little on the wacky side. Uncle Max picked them up in a horse and buggy. Brian was stunned, especially at the house! It was an old Victorian styled home, huge, and very easy to get lost in. Brian met Gregory's cousin Prudence, who seemed to him to at least be normal.
     After dinner they found their way to their room and found an ancient game board. The board said The Game of Sunken Places and Brian and Gregory were stunned. They vowed that in the morning they would go out to explore the places the game board had on it. In the morning they did just that, but they split up, something they vowed not to do again. They found various things on the game board, and Brian even met a troll. They became friends with the troll and solved the first puzzle. The friends continued on little by little day by day. One day they just could not take it any more, they demanded to know what was going on.
     Uncle Max started to explain some things but was not allowed to say much, or he would break the rules. Eventually he did go to far, and the people that Brian and Gregory, or they thought they were playing against, came.  These creatures were like the rule keepers of the game and if something went wrong, they came. Brian and Gregory fled the house and only returned for supplies. They continued their adventure, though closely followed by someone they were both afraid of: Jack Stimple. Jack Stimple followed them everywhere he could.
     The two eventually cracked all of the codes but one. This was the most important one. If this was not solved by the two friends, or so they sought, they would lose the game and suffer like the people of the mounds, for who they were playing for. Brian and Gregory met Jack Stimple at the City of Gargoyles, where there was almost a lot of damage. Brian and Gregory found out things they never thought they would, as in who Jack Stimple really was, and what he was there for. They found out many more mysteries, ones I cannot say, for I will break the rules of the game.
     This was an EXTREMELY AWESOME book! It was full of adventure, risk, torture, horror, and death around EVERY corner! I would recomend this book for students in an enriched sixth grade English and reading class to ninth grade. This is because it is a very hard book to follow and students in lower grades may give up easily.
 

~ Ashley Aldan, grade Six, Boardman Center Middle School

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       Nolan had just gotten interrupted when he was making some adjustments to his website, shredderman.com. His dad had come to tell him that he got to interview the person who played Gecko in The Gecko and Sticky, Nolan's favorite TV show. Since Nolan's dad was interviewing on Nolan's birthday, he asked to bring Nolan to the interview.
     At the interview, Nolan was extremely happy to see that Chase (the person who plays Gecko) had something in common with him. They were both obsessed with Tekken 3. They played a couple of games, then Chase was interviewed. Chase also explained why he does not like to go out into public. There is a photographer, who every celebrity knows as "the Mole." He is known as this because he looks and acts like one: sneaky. If a celebrity pets a rabbit and he catches them he says they kill animals! Nolan said he would try to do something about the Mole. As the two guests were leaving the Mole was hiding and snapped a picture of them, not Chase.
     Later at home Nolan went straight to work on his computer. He made an E-mail and sent it out to all of those who hated the Mole. The E-mail even got to South Africa! The next day when he was in school he over heard Bubba Bixby saying that he was going to meet the Gecko. At home, Nolan's mother told Nolan that Chase had invited him to watch them film one of the episodes. They left right away and watched until a distraction came. Bubba had tried to get on to the set, but had not succeeded. At the very last moment, Bubba spotted Nolan. After the distraction, they lost Sticky, which is the real animal gecko. The set had to search for the gecko but had no luck. Eventually they had a break, and the Mole was there. Nolan caught him in the act. After the second disturbance, they finished the filming and Nolan went home.
     At home, Nolan went to his room to put his movie clip of the Mole on to the computer. When he was looking through his book bag, he found Sticky. Nolan was talking to Sticky about his website when his parents walked in. Right then and there Nolan knew he had made a HUGE mistake! Sticky is kleptomaniac which means he cannot keep a secret, and he steals top secret things, or just anything. Nolan returned Sticky to Chase and Sticky told Chase everything, including Nolan's identity.
     I found that this was a really awesome book. It was full of mystery, adventure, and risk. I think this book would be good for grades 4-6.

 ~ Ashley Aldan, grade 6, Boardman Center Middle School

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~ Lillian Ayana, grade 7, W.S. Guy Middle School

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    Heartbeat is about a 12-year-old girl named Annie.  She loves to run, but not for sport.  She loves the feel of running -- barefoot.  She doesn't believe in having a winner in running.  Her mother is pregnant, and her grandfather, who lives with them, is becoming old and forgetful.  Her best friend, Max, is becoming different and is always moody. 

    The track coach at Annie's school wants her to join track, and she keeps on pressuring Annie, but she doesn't want to join.  Her friend Max cannot afford to buy the running shoes that he needs to, so he becomes sad.  So, Annie takes out the money she has been saving for art supplies, and buys him running shoes.  She leaves them with an anonymous note.  Max finds them and is ecstatic.  Annie sees him lose a race, and immediately learns her mom is about to have the baby.  Also, Annie is assigned in her art class to draw one hundred apples, one each day for one hundred days.

    This story is very well written, and after reading many of Sharon Creech's other books that are written in free verse poetry, I have top say that she is an absolutely amazing writer.  She has her own unique style, which is deeply poetic, age appropriate, imaginative yet serious, and also very amusing.  This book was great, but I think the plot could have been developed a little more.  The book was a quick read, and I really enjoyed it.  I though Creech's Love That Dog and The Wanderer were better, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I cannot wait until her next book hit the shelves, because she is truly an amazing writer. 

~ Jon Gluckner, grade 8, Boardman Center Middle School

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The book Scorpia, by Anthony Horowitz, is about a teenage spy named Alex Rider who is vacationing in Venice when he becomes involved with things much bigger than him. The story begins with Alex relaxing with a friend but the book leads you through several adventures Alex gets caught up in; from taking down thieves with birdseed and then chasing a mysterious boat through the numerous twists and turns of Venice. The story then takes you to a costume party where Alex searches a cavernous palace and then gets attacked by a Siberian Tiger and a martial arts master named Nile.

He wakes up to find himself in a room filled with water and he swims through the floor and nearly dies in the process. He then parachutes onto the roof of a company named Consanto. Inside he meets up with Nile who then kills a man and takes Alex with him right before a programmed bomb that destroys the building. Alex then finds himself dining with a woman named Mrs. Rotham who shows a video that shows his father being murdered. Alex then decides to join the criminal group called Scorpia that Mrs. Rotham heads.

The story continues with Alex training at the group’s secret camp. He is then sent to kill the woman who was supposedly responsible for his father’s death. But he fails the mission and is captured by MI6 the British secret intelligence service. The story ends with Alex battling Nile over London atop a platform that was carrying a weapon that could kill thousands of English school children. Alex destroys the devices and Nile falls of the platform doused in burning gas 1000 feet to his death. A strange thing happens at the end of the book but I won’t spoil it for you.

        The characters in the book were very believable and you can identify with Alex’s situations. My favorite part in the book was when Alex fought Nile atop the platform. The book was very suspenseful but it was easy to read and understand. The action keeps on coming all the way up to the end. I recommend this book for 8^th grade through 10^th graders. If you like the book you should read the others in the series, their titles are Storm Breaker, Point Blank, Skeleton Key, and Eagle Strike.

~ Abel Ayana, grade 9, Liberty High School

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    The book’s theme is about wrestling. You will like this book if you like wrestling or any other sport. The books story is about two wrestlers named Ivan Korske and Bobby Zane. The story revolves around their lives, problems and how they will face each other in the New Jersey State Wrestling final.

    Ivan Korske is what you could say a loner. His mother had died before and he became emotionally closed inside. He lives with his father and they lead a mostly okay life. His life revolves around wrestling and because of this he has very few friends. His only friend is a girl named Shelley Peterson, who he confides in.

    Bobby Zane’s life also revolves around wrestling, but he is popular at school and has many friends. He comes from a good family but his parents are going through a crisis and end up divorced in the end, which makes the lives of Bobby and his brother Christopher difficult. Bobby also has a girlfriend named Carmelina, and they also have emotional problems.

    As the book progresses it takes you through the season of both players as it culminates at the final. You witness the highs and lows they go through. They also face struggles on and off the wrestling mat. They have to deal with their families, pressures with wrestling, making weight and dealing with their peers.

    This book is readable and easy to understand. The characters portrayed in the book are very believable. This book also draws you in with suspense and action. Even if you do not like wrestling you probably enjoy the book for its action. At the beginning I thought I was going to hate the book but in the end the book was all right.

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This book is about three siblings that deal with the parent’s planned trip to Paris to renew their wedding vows. Their names are Tine who is 11, Vince who is 9,and Aidian who is 7. When their parents tell them that they are leaving, they start to complain, but when their parents tell them that their Aunt Marsha is going to come and care for them they nearly pass out. Their Aunt Marsha is terrible. She is very mean and she can’t cook at all. Their dad, who is Aunt Marsha’s brother, doesn’t get along with her either. The day Aunt Marsha comes she already starts trouble.

She complains about the food and fuses over which car to take to the airport. Then she says that their dad, her brother, drives badly. When they get home after taking their parents to the airport, she won’t let Tine sit in the back seat with Aidian. And that’s not the only thing. During the 3 weeks that she is there she won’t let them have friends over, did not allow them drink grapefruit in the morning, and made them read books that are boring and too confusing. She won’t even let Mandy, the family dog, sleep in the house.

She doesn’t get along with Aidian the most because he is always reading books she doesn’t approve of. She says that they should be reading Dickens’s books. Once Aidian bit her and once he kicked her. She was hurt physically and emotionally. Tine being the oldest always had to do the right thing. Sometimes when she wanted to say something she knew she had to do the good thing even if Aunt Marsha would just yell back. It was like that until one day when Aunt Marsha threw Aidian`s comics in the trash and took them to the dump. When Aidian found out he ran out to their tree house and wouldn’t come down. Aunt Marsha yelled at him to come down but then felt bad and so she tried to climb the tree house but what happened next changed their relationship with Aunt Marsha forever.

I liked this book it was very funny and it was written as though this was the life of someone. It’s really interesting how Aunt Marsha is the villain from the beginning and then it changes over one event. I would recommend this to 5 and 6^th graders.  

~ Lillian Ayana, grade 6, W. S. Guy School

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The House on Falling Star Hill is a great book. It has excitement, suspense, intrigue, everything combining to make an interesting and genuinely fun to read novel.

The story begins with the teenage narrator, Tim Swift, and his dog, Josh, arriving in the odd town of Enton. They are met by mystery which surrounds the village: a weeping woman roaming about at night, the absence of flowers, the legendary Falling Star Hill and its grumpy owner. Suddenly Tim meets Sarre, an extraordinary girl with amazing powers, and they are swept into a stairway leading to Tallis, a strange fantasy world with floating leaves, huge birds, fantastic, intricate crystal flower blossoms, and many other crazy treasures. Danger abounds, though, and Tim finds his way into an adventure which could reveal the secrets of Enton and ruin or save all of Tallis.

I thought this book was really fun. It was well crafted and thought out, fast-paced and thrilling. Its vivid descriptions of details gave me a great picture of the magical world of Tallis, and the characters really seemed to come alive. Though it was a little slow starting off, I loved how the mysteries intertwine with the plot only to be revealed at the end through hints and foreshadowing. I recommend this book for ages twelve and older, even for adults looking for a creative, enjoyable novel. I had a great time reading it.

 ~Ellyanna Kessler, Grade 8, Boardman Center Middle School

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Counting the Stars by David Almond is a collection of short stories that are loosely based on the author's childhood experiences. The stories are basically all science-fiction, and I do not understand how they can be based on the author's life. The only decently good story in the whole entire book is called "The Baby". It was actually the only remotely good story in the book, and the only one that actually made any sense. For me, none of the stories made a deep connection with me; probably because my least-favorite genre is science-fiction.

I would recommend this book for high school students because I think that it is so advanced, confusing, and without a plot, that only students of this caliber (maybe not even them) would even begin to understand the meaning of this story. At first, the book sounded like I would really enjoy it, but I struggled trying to finish it. I wanted to stop reading it but I didn't. When it was over, I couldn't believe how utterly meaningless it was in my mind. It made absolutely no sense to me, and I am still puzzled by it.
 

~ Jon Gluckner, grade 8, Boardman Center Middle School

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~ Alex Allegretto, grade 8, Boardman Center Middle School

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~ Alex Allegretto, grade 8, Boardman Center Middle School

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“Gregor twisted around in the air, trying to position himself so he wouldn’t land on Boots when they hit the basement floor, but no impact came. Then he remembered the laundry room was in the basement. So what exactly had they fallen into?” -from Gregor the Overlander, Chapter 2, page 14.

 Gregor is an ordinary kid who lives in a small apartment in New York with his two sisters, Lizzie and Boots. His mother and his grandma also live there. It is summer and Lizzie has gone off to camp. His mother is at work almost constantly, his grandma is starting to have memory problems, and he didn’t get to go to camp because he has to watch his sister who’s a toddler and likes to get into things. The strange thing about his family is that about a year ago, Gregor’s father disappeared. There were many frantic calls to the police, but he could not be found.

One afternoon while he is washing clothes in the laundry room of the apartment, his little sister falls in to a laundry grate so he jumps in after her. Instead of landing in the basement, they end up in a mysterious underground world where there are huge insects that talk. Soon, the insects take Gregor to the humans that live there and Gregor learns that the menace rats have his father here and are forcing him to help them create weapons. Gregor is determined to find his father and take him back to the Upperland no matter what the cost. His new friends help him and he embarks on this epic quest.

In book two of the Underland Chronicles, Gregor must go back to the Underland. This time another prophecy tells of a white rat known as the Bane; this prophecy calls Gregor back to the shadowy realm. This new adventure reunites Gregor with his old friends. Gregor must face the possibility of his greatest loss yet, and make difficult decisions that will change the Underland.

I thought both of these books were excellent. They were written excellently and have a variety of imaginative characters. These books are best suited for people above the age of 10. I hope Suzanne Collins keeps on writing these marvelous books because she has great ideas.

~ Stelios Theophanous, grade 9, Boardman High School

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  Bird, a thirteen year old girl leaves her home to search for her stepfather. She ends up in a small town, and lives in a small shack on the edge of a wealthy family's yard. Every Sunday the family leaves to go to church for three hours. In that time span, Bird goes into the house and eats food which is laid out for her by one of the children. Bird will take a bath, or spend time exploring the house, or just spending time in one of the rooms to amuse herself. Bird restrains herself from thinking about her family, the family that she left behind just to look for her stepfather.
     Later on, she becomes friends with a boy named Ethan. When Bird looks at him, he reminds her of her step-dad, Cecil. Bird finally realizes that she should leave after she finds Cecil, and it doesn't take long. Cecil is Ethan's uncle, and Bird wants to go talk to Cecil. Bird decides against it and goes to thinking about how she is going to get Cecil to come with her. She doesn't want to go up to Ethan and tell him that she wants her stepfather back, and she doesn't want to confront him. Nor does she want to leave without Cecil, she finds her answer from an elderly women who she lives with for a little while before she goes back home.
     I really enjoyed this book because it showed devotion, and persistence. I would recommend this book for middle school students because it talks about how some people will do anything just to get someone back, and I think that would inspire them.
 

~ Ashley Aldan, grade 6, Boardman Center Middle School

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    Fourteen year old Becca takes a job as Peggy Shippen's personal maid. Becca did this only to be "finished" but you always loose your pieces. Becca enjoyed being Peggy's maid, somewhat. She hated the British officers that were always at the house, going and buying more dresses with Peggy and more. She eventually fell into the routine and she became used to everything. Mr. Shippen soon fell into debt, and Peggy could not stand it, especially when she couldn't go to the Meshiana and when the British troops left the area. Soon the American troops came into the area and took control. Benedict Arnold, the general soon fell in love with Peggy, and the soon got married. Becca went with Peggy and Benedict to be a maid but was soon fired because of a small mistake, the mistake of eavesdropping on the couple during an important meeting. Becca then went home to live the rest of her life on her parent's farm.
       I found this book very enticing and full of treachery. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would recommend this book for 7th to 9th graders. One reason is because of the dialect and the 18th century vocabulary.
 

~ Ashley Aldan, grade 6, Boardman Center Middle School

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    Maya Mukherjee is of Hindi and Bengali descendants and lives in Canada around the 1960s. She is constantly criticized by a group of boys and thinks of herself as the ugly duckling. Her cousin comes to visit and brings a god that many people from India believe in and she prays to this god and asks for everything she could ever want. Everything goes the exact opposite way she wanted and ends up enduring a journey to India to find her cousin’s statue of the god who made her life exactly the way she wanted wrong. Along her way she meets people who are so happy for what they have and what they have is nothing compared to Maya’s life. In the end she was perfectly fine with what she had, she just had to realize what she didn’t have wasn’t what she wanted.

    I would recommend this book for anyone and everyone. It was a wonderful book and really puts a perspective on life. You really didn’t know what would happen next and if anything would ever be the way she wanted it to be.  Although this book is set in the 1960s and written today the message is put across well and everyone should really enjoy this book.

~Kendahl Kreps, grade 8, Boardman Center Middle School

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    Thirteen year-old Neema lives in Australia with her parents. As a new year seven student everything is new at her school. Her great-grandmother, Kalpana, has come to visit, and she is from India and speaks Hindi. Only Neema’s mother can speak Hindi and she cant always be there to translate. After Kalpana arrives Neema tries to avoid her after several uncomfortable conversations with her. Although one thing brings these two different people together, a boy named Gull Oliver. They are interested in him for different reasons, but he creates a relationship between a great-granddaughter and a great-grandmother that will last forever.

    I absolutely loved this book because it so believable and I could really relate to the characters. You could get a sense of their feelings and actually feel like you were in their situations. I recommend this book mostly for middle school and high school students, although many others would also enjoy this book. This is story is one many people can enjoy.

~Kendahl Kreps, grade 8, Boardman Center Middle School

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Varjak Paw was never considered a true Mesopotamian Blue. He didn’t have the green eyes of his family, the name, or the interests of the others. He was not considered to be worthy of the name of his infamous ancestor, Jalal Paw. But when a mysterious man with two deadly black cats shows up at the Contessa’s house, Varjak must go Outside and find a dog to help his family. The Elder Paw teaches him the beginning of the Way of Jalal, a secret martial arts for cats. Varjak’s newly learned Skills lead him onto a quest to save his family in the world of street life, where survival of the strongest is the only way to live. Through huge metal monsters, tough toy cats, gangs, Vanishings, betrayals and tears Varjak must manage to survive to talk to a dog and save his family and keep the Way alive.

I thought this book was mediocre. I wasn’t really interested in the topic, and the story just didn’t grasp me. I liked how the author described Varjak’s emergence into the Outside world, and the way he had to learn from scratch about the way of life. Also, I enjoyed the secret message in the Way of Jalal, which I thought was important but I won’t ruin it for the readers. It was just a simple book, with pictures and large print, a quick, cute read. I would recommend it for sixth to seventh grade readers. It gets slightly violent at times, but the message is a good one and the writing style is consistent and fun. I didn’t particularly like this book, but for younger readers looking for an amusing, life-on-the-street type, easy read story, Varjak Paw is just the one.

 ~Ellyanna Kessler, grade 8, Boardman Center Middle School

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~ Darla Conti, grade 9, Struthers High School

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~ Darla Conti, grade 9, Struthers High School

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~ Darla Conti, grade 9, Struthers High School

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    Elizabeth is an emotionally unstable person. She has undergone pure tragedy in her lifetime, including the death of her mother and the disownment of her father. Towards the beginning of the book, she is in an American airport on her way to England to live with her Aunt. While in England, she falls in love with, of all people, her cousin Edmund. After getting very close to him, she is forced to leave their house and go into hiding. War has broken out. She is separated from Edmund and has to be with her younger cousins. She and Edmund both survive and live to tell about their horrible experiences.

    I thought the book was very interesting and left me on the edge of my seat, turning every page with awe. It wasn’t possible to predict what would have happened next in the book. Although morally wrong, the romantic twist made the book very fascinating to read. Some aspects, such as their adventures in hiding from the war, made How I live now a mystery. Rosoff created the main character, Elizabeth, in a lighthearted manor. Elizabeth, also known by Edmund as Daisy, didn’t care what people felt and valued her own opinions. I would recommend this book to mature, high school students who value a good read. Overall, it was a very high-quality book

~ Darla Conti, grade 9, Struthers High School

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~ Kelley Bonder, grade 11, Girard High School

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~ Katie Smith, grade 8, Boardman Center Middle School

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Spring 2005 Reviewers

Index by Title

Index by Author