Teen and Staff Reviews

Teen Review
Cover photo of the book Wench

Wench

By Maxine Kaplan
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by
Grace L.
Nov 23, 2020

Wench was a promising title that ultimately fell short for me. I loved the idea of following a tavern wench as she tried to get back her tavern and found it was really interesting. I was also pleasantly surprised by the role magic played in the story. However, the book ultimately failed to please me. Tanya was the only character who had a real arc. Other characters felt unimportant and under-developed. They had very little backstory and served no purpose beyond helping Tanya. They didn’t feel like real people.

Teen Review
Cover photo of the book Maxi's Secrets

Maxi's Secrets (Or, What You Can Learn From a Dog)

By Lynn Plourde
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by
Sriha P.
Nov 20, 2020

Timminy, not Timothy, is moving into the country to some boring town, and has to start middle school there. He knows that middle school will be hard, because he has the height of a 2nd grader.  As a surprise, his parents get him a dog named Maxi. They discover that Maxi is deaf. Timminy also makes a blind friend named Abby. Abby does not let her being blind stop her from being a middle schooler. Will Timminy get through middle school without being made fun of for his height, or will he start living in a gym locker?

Teen Review
Cover photo of the DVD Avengers Infinity War

Avengers Infinity War

By Marvel Studios
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Gautham S.
Nov 19, 2020

Do you love action movies? Do the superheroes Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Black Panther, and many more bring joy to you? Do you follow movies created by Marvel Studios and the Avengers’ movies? If yes, Avengers Infinity War is a must-see movie for you!

Teen Review
Cover photo of the book Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing

By Delia Owens
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Ava P.
Nov 18, 2020

Where the Crawdads Sing ​by Delia Owens is a fiction novel about a girl named Kya Clark and the townspeople living in Barkley Cove, a small North Carolina coast town. The novel alternates between two different timelines: one following Kya throughout her childhood, and the other detailing the progression of a murder investigation in Barkley Cove. As a child, Kya is left to fend for herself living in her family’s shack located in a marsh on the outskirts of the coast town.

Teen Review
Cover photo of the book Scythe

Scythe

By Neal Shusterman
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by
Delaney M.
Nov 16, 2020

Scythe​ is the first book in ​Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe series. It is young adult dystopian fiction and the story follows Citra and Rowan, two teenagers living in a futuristic world in which humanity has conquered death. Citra and Rowan’s Earth is ruled by the benevolent Thunderhead, an evolved form of the Internet that has eradicated all of the problems that once tormented humanity (war, sickness, hunger, etc.). Even death is impossible thanks to revival centers that cover the planet.

Teen Review
The Code for Love and Heartbreak by Jullian Cantor

The Code for Love and Heartbreak

By Jillian Cantor
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by
Alisha M
Nov 12, 2020

Emma Woodhouse is a coding genius who appreciates numbers more than most people; numbers were simple and easy while people were just messy and over-complex. When her sister sparks an idea, Emma decides to build on a code that would determine the person of best compatibility to date as a submission to a coding competition. While some were skeptical at first, who could believe a code could tell you the best person to date, Emma was certain that her code was flawless.

Teen Review
Cover photo of the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

By J.K. Rowling
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by
Sriha P.
Nov 9, 2020

Harry Potter thinks he is just a normal ten-year old boy living at his uncle and aunt’s house. Harry thinks that his life is terrible, but what he does not know is that his life is about to get a whole lot more interesting. Harry finds out he is a wizard! When he goes to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he becomes friends with Ron and Hermione. The Sorcerer’s Stone is moved, which gives the wizard immortality. The Dark Lord is trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter is trying to protect it. Will Harry defeat Voldemort, and save the Wizarding World, or will he fail?

Teen Review
Cover photo of the book Mind and Matter

Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football

By John Urschel
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by
Raghu P.
Nov 5, 2020

John Urschel played professional football and is completing his Ph.D. at Harvard University in Mathematics. This memoir reveals John’s challenges of living with divorced parents, trying to become a math major and earning a Ph.D., and making it to the National Football League. Mr. Urschel’s biography is heart-warming and shows the ups and downs of his journey of making it to the NFL and earning a Ph.D. Urschel was interested in math at a very young age and loved solving math problems. It wasn’t until later in middle school that Urschel became interested in football.

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