The House of the Scorpion

This book is about this clone named Matt. He is the clone of El Patron. Everybody doesn't really like him at first but later on people like him. There is this girl name Maria that helps Matt and stuff. Was basically Matt's only friend. Matt trys to learn all these thing and about El Patron. Turns out he is just like El Patron in the past. But when El Patron died because he was really old, Matt became the new El Patron and meant he became the richest and most powerful "person".

I really like this book because it was the longest book I ever read. Also talk about clones and if you read it it seems really cool.

Author: Nancy Farmer
ISBN: 0 - 439 -57782 - 9

Farmer, Nancy. House of the Scorpion. New York: Scholastic, 2002

Stephenie Thompson

James and the giant peach

When poor James Henry Trotter loses his parents in a horrible rhinoceros accident, he is forced to live with his two wicked aunts, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. Then three years later he becomes the saddest and loneliest boy ever until a wizened old man in a dark-green suit gives James a bag of magic crystals that promise to reverse his misery forever. When James accidentally spills the crystals on his aunts' old peach tree a peach started to grow until it gets so big James goes in it and the peach falls down and rolls into the beach. As James was in the peach he met new friends such as a grasshopper, centipede, earthworm, and Miss Spider. Then when they are on the beach they try to figure out a way to fly out of the beach so they use birds and silk from the silk worm to fly across the ocean. When they are up high in the sky they meet cloud men and traveled all the way to the Empire Statebuilding and landed at the top of it. They came down and James and his friends ended up living in the seed of the peach tree.
This book was a great book although its a low level book i still enjoyed this book because it was one of the first book i finished when i was younger.

-Minsoo Kim
Author- Roald Dahl
ISBN- 0-14-037424-8

SPEAK

Title: Speak
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
ISBN: 0-439-64010-5

Melinda Sordino called the cops at an end-of-summer party so now her old friends won't talk to her. What her friends don't know, however, was why she had called the cops which even she doesn't want to think about. The book is written almost like a diary, she writes her feelings, thoughts, and all the emotions that go along with what happened at the night of the party and now being the most-hated person in the school. Since the party Melinda barely speaks and her lips are ruined from her constantly biting them because of her anxiousness. The only place she feels comfortable and safe is in the small janitor's closet nobody uses that she found while avoiding her social studies teacher who she calls "Mr. Neck." There she is hidden from all the pain of dealing with her secret, her ex-friends, and especially, IT. IT goes to her school, IT was at the party, IT ruined her life, IT is disgusting enough to make her want to puke.

I thought this book was really sad. Melinda had to go through so many hardships, I felt so sorry for her. The pain of dealing with what happened at the party is something I hope I never have to go through. Her friends hated her because she was too scared to tell them the truth of what happened. There were parts that were entertaining and funny but it was mostly sad. You can really feel how hurt she is and how much her secret affected her.

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1999

--Nicole Eggerman

Stone of Tears

Title: Stone of Tears
Author: Terry Goodkind
ISBN: 0-812-55148-6

After the first book, the Wizard's First Rule, Richard destroys Darken Rahl by using the Wizard's First Rule (which was that people are stupid and can be easily misled).
After he kills Darken Rahl and starts living a normal life, he starts to get headache. The headache grows worse everyday and he tries to find out why he has the headaches. Three women, who are called the Sister of the Light, come to take him to a place.
He finds out that he started getting the headaches because of his powers. He was just learning to use his powers and he didn't yet know how to control them. The Sister of the Light promise to teach him how to control his powers and get rid of the headaches, but while they are there, they discover evil Sister of the Light who try to kill Richard. I don't want to tell you anymore because it is a good book and I don't want to ruin it for you.

I liked this book and i thought that it was really good. I thought that it was better than the first book. The series is called the Sword of Truth. Again, I like how the author explains and details the story and the characters. Just reading the first few chapters, the book caught my attention and I couldn't keep myself from reading it. I love this book and I consider you reading it. If you read it, I hope you like it.

Goodkind, Terry. Stone of Tears. New York: Tor Fantasy/Tom Doherty Associates,LLC, 1997.

-Posted by Barnabas Yoo