My Brother’s Keeper

Most of the people avoid truth or problems; they try not to deal with it by doing something else, like watching television, or going out. The good example of this is My Brother’s Keeper. Toby Malone has two brothers, one is older, Jake, and one is younger, Eli. His father left for California, his mother works in the hair salon and tries to make ends meet. She goes out with one of her clients and it seems like she is never home, which upsets Toby, but makes Jake happy because he can go out with out her asking where he is going. Toby is really proud of Jake for being the softball star, and helping their team win the championship.

Jake on the other hand is not interested in the things he did last year, and does drugs. Toby tries to cover for him all the time. He sprays ‘Citrus Magic’ whenever Jake smokes weed, he cleans up after Jake and his friend, and even lies to their mother. Here is an example of Toby covering: ‘Jake opened the front door, but it was raining outside, he closed it and went into the downstairs bathroom. Jake opened the window and started smoking weed. When Toby saw it, he got a Citrus Magic and started spraying it around once Jake was done.’

Toby is really tired of covering for his brother, and his brother doing drugs, but he doesn’t want their mom the get hurt. What will he do? Will he keep their mom from hurting, and Jake from drugs, or not?

This book is very well written. It shows how people want to get away from the problems by not solving them, but avoiding them. I think this book is really good, and interesting. You should read it because it gives a good example of how you shouldn’t avoid your problems. For example, Toby’s mom went out with her client every night and pretended not to notice what was going on with Jake, instead of just dealing with him.

Girls love romance, and most of the guys need to know more about it. This book will satisfy both categories.

Edith Wheeler is a sixteen years old girl who got moved from her friends into Manchester, England, and surely she doesn’t like it. Edie wants to go back, but when she visits her old friend, she knows that she is left behind. Edith doesn’t have new friends yet, but she already is losing her old once.

When Edie goes to her new school she sees Dylan and falls in love with him. She doesn’t know that Dylan’s life is too complicated for her, although she really wants to be in it. They kiss a few times, and she falls for him even more, but he doesn’t want to ask her out.

Edith meets Josh through the two of her new friends, and he asks her out. She says ‘yes’ only because she wants to forget about Dylan. Her photography teacher arranged a field trip to France. Many people are going, but the most important one is Dylan.

Edie has a tough choice to make, and there is not too much time. Who will she pick? This book is just great. I was reading in until four in the morning even though I had to wake up early, I just couldn’t stop. You just have to read it, it’s the best book you will ever have in your hands. Guys, this book would be really helpful for you. It will be your guide for romance.

The Girlfriend Project

Many people would think ‘what kind of project is it? And how can you do it?’ Well it cannot be done on the paper, only in the real life. The problem with Reed is that he never had a girlfriend. He was a short dork with braces. He once tried to ask a girl out and she just laughed at him, and this scared him for life. To help Reed, his best friends, Ronnie and Lonnie, create the girlfriend project.

Reed is a senior now; he grew a few inches, got his braces taken of. Now he is handsome, and almost every girl wants to go out with him, but all he can think about is that he didn’t really change, only on the outside, and it is not fair that girls didn’t even care about his existence until now.

Who will Reed end up with? This is really interesting question, because until the end of the book I thought he would end up with one person, but I was very wrong. This book is really intriguing and interesting. When you open it, you just cannot close it until you find out who is Reed’s one and only. This book shows that when you fail something, you should try it again, and never stop on the first thing you try.

Dangerous Minds

Dangerous Minds is a very famous book, it also is a movie based on the book. Both are really good, even though in the movie they shortened the story a lot, and changed many events. For example, in the book Raul, the Mexican guy from her class, needed to pay a guy from the street for the jacket $100, and Ms. Johnson found out about from him in the class. While in the movie, he told her that he needed $200 when they were sitting in the restaurant, eating dinner. There are many changes, and short cuts like this. Those changes weren’t very good. They should have just shortened the scenario, but leave the story the way it should be.

When Louanne Johnson got hired as a teacher in Parkmont High, she was very scared because she never taught kids by herself. They assured her she could do it, but didn’t give any information about her new class. Louanne wasn’t prepared for students not caring about anything, or even worth, them throwing books at her. She ran out, but in a few minutes was back, prepared for anything.

The class she got, never tried to study. They didn’t even care whether they would graduate or not. Louanne Johnson bribed, scared, and threatened her students to do their work. She made them understand, that no one makes them come to school, and that it was their own choose.

Dangerous Minds is a really great book. It is really emotional. While reading it, I experienced excitement, happiness, sadness, joy, and satisfaction. It can easily take your mind of everything else. The only confusing thing about it is that it goes in order it happened, but the most important event goes first. I think that people should read the book, and watch the movie, it would give a better understanding of the story.

Head Games

When people see the words ‘head’ and ‘game’ combined, they think that it’s either about some crazy person or someone is messing with someone else’s mind. This is not the case though. In this book the main character actually plays “the game” in her head.

Judith is a teenager, but doesn't have any friends. Her best friend ditched her so she has a new best friend, “the game.” She thinks that people that play “the game” with her are strangers that live far away from her, but she is wrong. Judith leaves “the game” because it occurs to her that it doesn't have fair rules. A few days after “the game” ends for her, Judith finds out that one of the players actually lives right next to her.

Judith confronts Jonathan, her next door neighbor, in playing the game, but he doesn't admit it. The same evening he comes to her house and proposes to make up their own game. They can be whoever they want to be. Judith really loves the idea, even though she knows that her mom would not be thrilled with her hanging out with Jonathan, the trouble maker.

As usual Judith picks a male character, Gareth. Gareth is in the military academy, and Evans (Jonathan) is his teacher. Sometimes they don't even play in their characters; they become someone else, like a governor, or governor’s wife. Usually their game is on the roof of their building, but because of the winter, they changed the place to play the game, to Judith's house. Judith doesn’t realize that games don’t last forever; they either end or it grows into something bigger.

This was a really great story, and very well written. It kept my attention very well, and nothing could get me distracted. I felt like I was there, and just watched from the side. This book is like a love-action story. I have never read anything like it. The greatest thing about this book is that it doesn’t have any confusing words in it, and it is really easy to follow.

More info:
http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/068985532X.asp
http://www.mariahfredericks.com/books/head_games.php
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-068985532x-0