A Child Called ”It”

This is a horrible story about a boy named David, written by David Pelzer. David grew up in a family with a loving father, three brothers and a mean mother that treated David like he didn’t exist. This book is based on a true story about David Pelzer’s life.
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The story begins backwards, with the part were David gets saved from his mother. His teachers start to notice that he is hungry all the time, he has new scars and marks on his body every week and he always tell the same lies how he got them. David can not believe that he actually is saved from his evil mother. The mother that beated him, humiliated him, never gave him food, made him wear the same clothes in school everyday, threw his littlebrother’s diaper on him and even more sick things. David’s brothers was treated like normal children and his father left the family after all the fights he had with the mother about the way she treated David.

You can not read this book without getting ”a lump in your stomach”. I was blown away by the book. David Pelzer has written two more books about hos life and I will definitely read them.

I give this book 5/5 possible.

/Jasmina Kunic Ek13

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

Do you feel like witness a bittersweet love story about true love? Even though years passed their love lasted.

A man with a notebook starts to read a romantic story from his notebook to a patient. She doesn’t understand her morning routines until he starts to read. The Notebook is a story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will stay with you forever. The story he reads is about Noah and Allie who was spending a wonderful summer together.  her family prevent them from being together. Although Noah tries to keep in contact with Allie after they are forced to separate, his letters go unanswered .He goes off to war and after Noah has been serving his country he returns home. When he arrives home he starts to renovate an old farmhouse.  Allie sees an article about his work on the house. And 14 years after she left Noah, she returns to see him. The only problem is that she is engaged to another man. After spending two wonderful reunion days together, Allie must decide between the two men that she loves.

The thing that I enjoyed most about this book is the quotes, some of my favorites are  “I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day.”, ” when she left three weeks later she took a piece of him and the rest of summer with her”, “you are,  and have always been, my dream” and last but absolutely not least “You are my best friend as well as my lover, and I do not know which side of you I enjoy the most. I treasure each side, just as I have treasured our life together.”

This is a pretty special book written of Nicholas Sparks, his books are usually pretty much the same but it’s something special about this book. Find out yourself!

I give this book 5/5 points.

Vanessa Franzén Lennestål, EK13

The Fault In Our Stars- John Green

Do you want to read a really good book? Then I have a good tip about a book that has the most.

The Fault In Our Stars is about a teen age girl named Hazel who gets thyroid cancer at the age of 13. At 16, she now suffers from fluid build up in her lungs and is forced to use an oxygen tank to breath. She goes to a cancer support group for teen agers and meet a guy named Augustus, who is in remission from osteosarcoma, which left him with only one leg. At first, they just begin as friends, but then they both realize there is something more than friendship.

However, Hazel realizes that she is probably not going to be around for long. Her diagnosis is terminal and her lungs can’t continue to support her. She is afraid to become close to Augustus for the fear that she would leave him behind and he would be attached to her.

However, they continue their relationship and Hazel and Augustus embark on a roller coaster ride of emotions, including love, sadness and romance, while searching for the author of their favourite book. They travel to Amsterdam in search of Peter Van Houten,  the author of An Imperial Affliction. However, their encounter with Van Houten is disappointing as he is a delusional drunkard who doesn’t even realize they are coming. None of their questions really get answered, but they still get a wonderful trip in Amsterdam. While on their trip Augustus tells some heartbreaking news to Hazel and both of their worlds fall apart around them.

If you enjoy young adult books, full of witty humor and heartbreaking events, this book is perfect for you. Expect to laugh, cry and smile throughout this masterpiece by the amazing John Green. I highly recommend this book!

I give this book 5/5 stars!

Linnea Hedberg Waara

The Last Song-Nicholas Sparks

 

Do you love Nicholas Sparks and his books as much as I do, then I think you should read this book! The Last Song is the story of the 17-years old Veronica ”Ronnie” Miller, who is a troubled teenager wanting to live her own life and is trying her very best to ignore her divorced parents: Kim, her mother with whom she lives in New York, and Steve, her father who lives in his home town of Wrightsville Beach. Her mother decides that it would be in everyone’s best interest if Ronnie and her 10-years old brother, Jonah, spent the summer in Wrightsville Beach with Steve. Jonah is excited, while Ronnie is not as excited to spend the summer there. She is particularly annoyed that she is being forced to spend the summer with her estranged father, with whom she has not spoken for three years. She is so angry that she has given up the one thing that she and her father used to share, playing the piano. She has no desire to spend the summer in North Carolina, she has no desire to get to know Will Blakelee, the good-looking beach volleyball player who literally bumps into her during her first day. And she has no desire to reconnect with the father who left her, her mother, and her brother. However, a day with the wrong crowd combined with a nest of endangered loggerhead turtle eggs results in Ronnie’s unexpected maturation. The summer that she thought would be the worst in her life turns out to be an opportunity to learn about faith, family and love.

Before I read The Last Song I had seen the movie, so I had high expectations on the book because I liked the movie very much. And the book fulfilled my expectations, the book was also so much better than the movie. I really like books about love and the fact that Nicholas Sparks has written this book does not make it worse. He has written several really good books with this theme. The book is also a bit sad, because the relationship between Ronnie and her dad is not so good. It takes in the heart when her dad is really trying to talk to her and make it better. As in most love stories, everything ends happily, but also awfully sad, I do not think there was a dry eye in the end. So if you have read any of Sparks’ books or you like books about love I consider that you should read The Last Song!

I give the book 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

Mathilda Hansson

 

Girl, Missing and Running for her Life- by Sophie McKenzie.

Lauren Matthews is an adopted child and have been in her adoptive family since she was three years old.  Lauren´s mom and dad refused to tell about her childhood before she was adopted. She is curious about that and wants to know. Lauren had been searching on different websites about missing children. She had found a girl whose name was Martha and somehow she got the feeling that it was her at the picture. Lauren tried to get her mom out of the house because she knew that she had diaries in the attic.  Jam was a friend to Lauren. Jam’s mom had invited Lauren´s mom for coffee, so now Lauren had the opportunity to search in the diaries.

Lauren asked her mom and dad if they couldn’t go on a holiday to USA. In the diary she had found what the name of the adoption agency was and she also found a woman called Sonia Holtwood, that was engaged in the adoption. The adoption agency was in USA so Lauren had to trick her parents on a vacation to the USA. The whole family was about to go on a vacation but then Lauren´s dad said that he couldn’t be away from his work. After some fights about whether to stay home or go without the father, they decided that Jam was going to take her dad’s ticket.

Lauren´s plan was to get to the airport then she and Jam walked away and took another plan and so they did. Jam and Lauren had turned off their phones and went to the adoption agency. She talked to a Mr Tarsen and he said that he couldn’t help her. She had to be eighteen or have her parents´ permission. Lauren wanted so badly to know who her real parents were or what had happened when she was little. Jam and she took in on a motel and they planned to break in to the adoption agency. They did it at midnight and they found her file at the adoption agency but it was empty, the only thing that was in it was a note with an address. They took the note and then they heard footsteps in the corridor. Jam and Lauren ran down the stairs and jumped out of the window that they had thrown a stone at. When they jumped out of the window they saw Mr Tarsen stand in the window staring at us. He knew that Lauren and Jam were going to get the file with the information about her adoption.

The day after Jam and Lauren went with the bus to the address they found.  They walked in to the stairwell and found the apartment they were looking for. They and rang at the door. It wasn’t Sonia at the door. Sonia didn´t live there any more. When they came out from the apartment a police started to talk with them. She asked where they were going and if they needed a ride. She was going to the Boston Airport just like Jam and Lauren. They jumped in to the car and she offered them juice. Lauren and Jam took it and they fell asleep.

When Lauren and Jam woke up they couldn’t find their cellphones.  Lauren started to feel that something was wrong about this “police”. When she stopped the car it was dark and cold outside. Sonia got mad and left Jam and Lauren to die outside. They were out in the middle of nowhere and none of them had a cellphone so they couldn’t tell anyone where they were. So what were they supposed to do?

The book jumped directly in to the story and I think it was easy to understand the book.  The story line was good because it happens things all the time so I didn’t feel anytime that the book was boring. The book is exciting and the author is good at describing incidents, persons and environments. That way it is it easier to get your own picture of the story. The book has 300 pages and 43 chapters. It is short chapters but that was just an advantage.

I recommend this book for other to read because it’s a good and exciting book.

I give this book four of five Easter eggs.

The day I met Suzie – Chris Higgins

16166098“My boyfriend could get into trouble if he gets caught. He could go to jail.” I moan softly. “So could I.”
“Anything you tell me is completely confidential.” I sigh deeply. What have I got to lose? “I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
“At the beginning?” she says. “In your own words.”
So that’s what I do. I start at the beginning like she says.
The day I met Suzie.

***
Indigo (Indie) calls the Samaritans. She is frightened and desperate with no one to turn to. Over one long night Indie tells her story to the person behind the phone.

The story begins with the first day of Indie’s second year at Hair and Beauty College. This is also where she meets Suzie for the first time and helps her out. This meeting is an important event because it is here that Suzie captures Indie’s attention.

Indie can’t stop thinking about Suzie. Suzie with her bad posture and shabby look looks so lost and miserable, like a sad little puppy. She becomes curious and wants to know more about her story. Indie feels sorry for her and wants to help her. Therefore, as a favor she gives her a makeover. Here she starts copying Indie’s look with not just the same haircut but also with the same makeup, clothes – everything.

While Suzie gets more and more involved in Indie’s life, more and more things go wrong for Indie. Her boyfriend Rick starts to mess up making bad choices and get in to problems with the police. At this point Suzie lives in Indie’s house and they have become good friends and Indie begins to rely more and more on Suzie. While, Indie’s life start to collapse, Suzie’s life starts to improve with a place to stay, a new job, and new friends (Indie’s friends).

When Indie contacts the Samaritans that night, she is not the same girl as you get to know early in the story. The bubbly, outgoing and well-behaved girl is gone. But once she starts to share her story with the Samaritans things starts to change. The Samaritans open Indies eyes and now she starts to see things more clearly.

I really enjoyed this book. I didn’t have any expectations on this book and was surprised how good the story is.  It’s pretty obvious from the start that Suzie has done something to cause big trouble for Indie when she gradually steals her life. An important part of the excitement is that we get a glimpse of this from the start and then struggles to put the pieces together.

I love Indie’s character. She is adorable and I think many people can relate to her. This book shows the back side of being too trusting and kind-hearted and how some people can make use of these characteristics to their advantage. I also think that the relationship between Indie and Rick is entertaining but also very realistic for a teenage couple.

Overall, I would really recommend this to anyone looking for an exciting book to read. I give this book 4/5 possible.

Lina Hedberg, Ek13

Eragon – Christopher Paolini

One stone, one boy and the world in his hands, so many things can change over a night. The poor farm boy finds a blue stone when he is out hunting, the stone turns out to be a dragon egg so just over a night his life changes drastically. Soon he is thrown in to a life of adventures and power struggle.

Eragon is the first book in a series of 4 different books, so the story doesn’t really end before that last one. The plot in this is about Eragon who is a poor boy who live in village called Carvahall and he finds a dragon egg. When his uncle is killed, he and a man named Brom need to flee. When that happens the book really takes off and he needs to get to the resistance movement called Warden who is fighting the evil king who rules the world named Algaesia. Eragon has to make a lot of hard decisions when they try to make it to Warden and at the same time Eragon needs to be trained in both magic and fighting skills.

The story is a science fiction and you get to meet a lot of different characters and that’s one of the reasons I like it and the creativity from the author who was only fifteen when he wrote Eragon. I liked the book because of the story and I can’t wait to pick up the next one but I think you need to be in to science fiction and it’s really made for early teenagers. At last I give this book 2,5 out of 5 apples because it’s not the best book and it´s written for a bit younger people I think but it is not bad at all, so that’s why it gets two and half apples.

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William Heikki EK13

A Walk to Remember – Nicholas Sparks

There was a time when the world was sweeter…when the women in Beaufort, North a walk to remmebrCarolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats…Every April, when the wind blows from the sea, Landon Carter remembers his last year at Beaufort High. It was 1958 and Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had never once been in love. Certainly the last person in town he thought he’d never fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town’s Baptist minister. A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her father and all people who needed her help.

No boy had ever asked her out. Landon would never have dreamed of it. Then suddenly Landon asked Jamie to be his partner for the homecoming dance and Landon Carter’s life would never be the same after that. Jamie made him to a better person and they fall in love. But suddenly she told Landon a huge secret, she had cancer. London’s heart got broken and Jamie died some weeks after.

Their story is unforgettable and as you wipe your tears away, you come to an unbelievable end — the sort of story that only Nicholas Sparks can tell. A walk to remember is one of the best books I have read. I have watched the movie as well and the movie and the book are both very good so I can recommend to read and watch a walk to remember to everyone.

I give the book 5/5 stars

By Jessica Bäckman EK13

 

 

The Last Song

“Truth only means something when it´s hard to admit” – Nicholas Sparks

17-year old Veronica´s (also called Ronnie) world was turned upside down when her parents divorced. She now lives with her mother and brother, but one summer her mother decides that Ronnie and her brother is going to spend their summer with their dad. She doesn´t have a good relation with her father and that’s one reason why she´s being forced to go to his beach house in North Carolina. Before she gets to North Carolina she expects that this is going to be the worst summer ever, until she meets Will. Will is the last person she thought she would be attracted to but she is wrong. In the end of the book something really terrible happens, that is going to change everything. The whole book is about different kinds of relations, to her father, brother, friends and Will.

I have read a book named “The Last Song”. When I got the chance to read a book in English, I immediately chose “The Last Song”. At first I had really high expectations on the book. I think many people have seen the film, but not read the book. You who haven´t read the book should do it because the book is at least as good. I love this book because the story is so good. The book is pretty easy to read. The text I quite big and the language is not hard to understand. If you are a girl in the age 13-20 and love books about teenage love I think this is the perfect book for you.

I think Nicolas Sparks is an amazing author. He has written several other books and I love them as much as I love this.

I give the book 5 of 5 stars

Elin Jonsson

Pretty Little Liars

bildEveryone has something to hide and secrets to keep. Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna are willing to do anything to avoid revealing their secrets.

Spencer covets her sister´s boyfriend, Aria´s fantasizing about her English teacher, Emily´s crushing on the new girl at school and Hanna uses some ugly tricks to stay beautiful. But they have all kept an even bigger secret since their friend Alison vanished, and one day they begin receiving various messages from someone using the alias “-A” who threatens to expose their secrets and get revenge.

“How do I know? Because I know everything about the bad girls they were, the naughty girls they are and all the dirty secrets they´ve kept. And guess what. I´m telling” -A

This book is the first in the series and these are created by the TV-show “Pretty Little Liars”. I read this book mainly because I wanted to see how similar the books are in comparison with the TV-show.  Although the principle was the same, it was still very much that was different. I think the book is good because it´s exciting, but it also deals with some serious issues such as bullying, murder, drug addiction, underage drinking, eating disorder, homosexuality, infidelity and mental illness. These books are directed at young people and I think it´s great that these problems are mentioned because they are particularly common among adolescents.

The book is easy to read and the language is also understandable with not too difficult words which make the book even better. If you have watched Pretty Little Liars on TV, the book could possibly be a bit annoying because there are so many things that are not similar to the TV-show, and I think that is the only disadvantage. But maybe it becomes an advantage if you read the book first, and then watch the TV-show.

I give the book 4/5 stars!

Amanda Renberg

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