Kategori: SA13

 Review of    Teen Idol

By Meg Cabot

Teen idol was first released 21^st July 2004.The book is translated in a lot of languages like Swedish , Germany , Thai and so on. It has won a lot of awards like “ New York best Seller on its Children`s Chapter Booklist” and “New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age” It is not difficult to understand why it is so popular, because when you read it you recognize yourself many times. It is about a girl named Jen Greenley, she is a girl that everyone likes because she always help people with their problems. She studies at High School and she is the person who is “Ask Annie” at the school. “Ask Annie” is a website where you can ask for advice and you are anonym. She was asked by the teacher if she wants to take care of the famous movie star Luke Striker, who`s coming to clayton to research a new role. Jen cannot say to anybody that Lukas Smith, that he is called in school, is Lukas Striker. Jen`s best friend is a huge fan of Lukas Striker and that makes it even harder. The story is set present day in America. The book’s main audience is teenagers because the main character is a teenager who goes to high school and the text is very easy to read. The book message as I interpreted was that sometimes you have to save yourself before you can save others. The book was good, one thing that was good with it was that it had a really unexpected ending because then you can never foresee what is going to happen when you are at the beginning of the book. If there was anything that could be improved with this book, then it would be to cut down on some of the details that sometimes were too much. Because in some cases it made it could be a little bit tedious to read. If I would rate this book on a scale from one to ten I would give it a strong eight.

Elev SA13

This book was first published in 1996 but this edition was published in 1998. It is an amusing book in form of a woman´s diary. Bridget tells us about her day, her love life, friends, work and also about what she eats, drinks and how much she smokes. Because it is a diary you get to know everything she thinks and all of her feelings about everything she is thinking about.

The main characters is Bridget Jones, Daniel Cleaver who is her boss that Bridget has a little crush on and there’s also Mark Darcy who her parents are trying to set her up with. Bridget`s friends are also a big part of her life, they give her advice, probably not always the best ones but she talks to them a lot and hang out with them too.

Bridget lives in England in an apartment by herself. When you read the book you can understand that she is very messy because she always runs around looking for things she lost in her own apartment or she is late for her own party. You get the feeling that she does not really know what she wants to do with her life except that she wants to find someone that she will love and who will love her.

The book is written like a diary so the chapters are all the months of the year, and the date she is writing in her diary is like small chapters in the main chapter. It is written in British English and it contains some British slang that can be quite hard to understand if you are not from England but you can still get the main part when you keep on reading.

This is a good and entertaining book and you get to giggle a lot. It is probably mostly girls and women who would like this book and connect with how Bridget feels and connects with all that is on her mind.

By: A.H SA13

The Gift

By: Cecelia Ahern

The gift is a book about a man who is given one of the greatest gifts of all time, the gift of time.

The main character of the book is Lou Suffern. He is a man that is always trying to be in two places at once and he is in a constant rush to get to some other place. One day he meets Gabe. Gabe is a homeless man that has been sitting outside of Lou´s office building. Lou had never notice that Gabe had been sitting outside by the door, but so one day when Lou is on his way in to the office Gabe said something to Lou that made them talk. The things Gabe said really stuck to Lou´s mind so at the end of the day Lou gave Gabe a job in the post room in the basement. At this point Lou did not really know Gabe but he had a strange feeling about him. It almost seemed that Gabe where at two places at ones. This made everybody at the office like him because he got things done really fast and he was a really nice guy. Lou started to get annoyed at how easy everything was for Gabe and how Gabe could just pop out of nowhere right in front of Lou and start giving him some big speech on how to live his life. One day Gabe gave Lou some pills. He said that the pills would make Lou´s life much simpler because he would not have to choose between his family and his work all the time. The pills made his life easier but not so much better because like they say in The Gift “Time can’t be given. But it can be shared”. The quote means that you can not just give someone time the only thing that you can do is to give hope and to give hope is exactly what Gabe did to Lou even though Lou himself did not know it at the time. In the quote it says that time can only be shared and that means that you cannot give a person a new life if it goes tough, you cannot just give up but you can give them some hope that things will be okay.

The Gift is a really interesting story and does not go the way you may have predicted it to go in, but in the end it is an easy read romantic book that captures you into their world of what almost seems as magic.

On the second to last page in the book it has a quote that really stood out: “Time is more precious than gold, more precious than diamonds, more precious than oil or any valuable treasures. It is time that we do not have enough of; it is time that causes the war within our hearts, and so we must spend it wisely.” This quote summarise the book really well and it leaves you to think of how to live your life. Because like it says, the most precious things cannot be bought or given, it is what you do with what you have that all counts.

By: Sa13a

In L.A. Candy you get to follow the two best friends, Jane Roberts and Scarlet Harp, when they move to L.A. One night at a nightclub they are spotted by a TV producer who offers them to start their own reality show, like a reality version of ‘’Sex and the City’’, with two other girls named Madison and Gaby. Jane and Scarlet do not have any high expectations about the show, but it becomes a really big hit. Before they know about it, they are famous all over L.A. They get to live a life any young girl would dream about, a big apartment with their own pool, VIP at popular nightclubs, guys and much more, and they get paid for it! Jane becomes the big star of the show and soon she is loved by everyone in L.A, which creates jealousy in others. Maybe all the fame is not as great as it first seems, and the girls need to think about who they really can trust.

Just like the plot, the language is funny and suited for teenagers. They way Lauren writes is just like the way we talk and think today, which makes the book even better. You can relate to the persons in the book by the way she writes: ‘’OMG, Jane thought as she struggled to keep her enthusiastic, positive, worker-bee smile plastered on her face. I’m so screwed.’’ (p. 41)

In L.A. Candy we get to read about how it is like to be famous, the real side. Especially Scarlett feels like her privacy has been taken away from her, wherever she goes there are cameras filming her, producers telling her what to do, fans screaming and so on… Lauren Conrad is famous herself and she can really describe what it is like. With this book she shows us that it is not always glamorous to be a famous, it is also hard and mentally demanding.

Picture source: http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/qOSafV24gNH/Lauren+Conrad+LA+Candy+Book+Signing/5m4s0c5Vcax/Lauren+Conrad

Julia Hedström SA13

 

Sweet little lies came out in 2010 as a sequel to L.A candy. The genre is young-adult fiction and the trilogy is about young love, friendship and big dreams. Conrad, the author of the book is a famous American celebrity who has been on TV for instance in a reality show, called the Hills.

It is not hard to find a connection between the trilogy and Lauren Conrad’s own life, to move to L.A and to get caught up in a reality show is something that happened in her own life. The story is about two girls, Jane and Scarlett who move to L.A and become stars in a reality show. The first book ends with a scandal and the second book starts just after the incident, Jane just wants to escape and she needs a shoulder to cry on. Madison Parker offers her help and unaware of Madison’s scheming Jane happily receives Madison’s helping hand. Jane´s and her best friend Scarlett´s relationship goes through a tough time, Scarlett feels that something is not right with Madison but Jane will not listen to her. Jane and Jesse move forward and they start dating again but something bugs Jane. When Jesse gets really drunk, he cannot control himself and sometimes he is acting like a real douchebag to her. You get involved in Jane and Scarlett’s life and it feels like you have known them for a long time, and this is something Conrad has done really well.

The character- and setting descriptions are really good in this book and it is rather easy to read. The chapters always end with a little twist and you just want to keep on reading. Here is a quotation that illustrates the author’s way to do it: “…the cameras had her profile in their sights, and not Jane´s. Monopolizing the frame was hard work, almost as hard as coming up with clever lies. Fortunately for Madison, she was really good at both,” (167).

Sweet little lies ends with a lot of question marks, you do not know what is going to happen with everyone and that is why it is a trilogy, there is a third book to come. The second book in a trilogy can sometimes be the worst of them all but not in this case. It has everything that the first book has, excitement, problems, love and friendship and even more.

The name of the book can be a hint to the message of the book and also for the whole trilogy. On the outside everything can look so perfect and wonderful but underneath, behind the cameras you can see all the Sweet little lies. Looking forward to read the last book of this wonderful trilogy! I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Maria Nilsson SA13

Source to the photo: http://larasbookclub.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/sweet-little-lies_552x402.jpg

 

 

This book is about a girl, Maxine Moody, and her missing brother, Derek. He has been missing for ten months and no one knows why. Maxine’s parents are very sad and show no attention to Maxine, she feels forgotten. Maxine’s dad had identified Derek’s body and he had the same clothes as when he disappeared. He was now dead and not missing. But the weird thing was that Maxine had received a call from someone who called himself “Derek”, and she always felt someone was watching her. Maxine chose to not tell her mother, that should just make her crazy, what if it was not Derek and just some stupid kid joking? Maxine wishes that Derek was dead so her mother and father could pay some attention to her, something that they never had done in ten months. Derek was bullied in school, was that a reason that he disappeared? Or not?

Maxine was a girl that not had many friends. Her” friends sympathy had turned to annoyance at her behavior” (Page 21). Maxine’s teacher, Miss Ross, was the only one who understood Maxine and her feelings.  She was always there for her. Maxine did not spend so much time at school, which her parents were very disappointed, she spent more time thinking. Why did her parents avoided her? And why is her mother in her own bubble? Maxine had a lot to think about so the school was not her first priority.

The writer, Catherine MacPhail, is a Scottish writer. The thriller, called “Missing”, was written in 2000, she writes books for young people. Catherine has won many prices, it proves what a good writer she is. Her first book, 1994 – Run, Zan, Run, she received inspiration from her daughter who was bullied. Most of the books she has written, she got the inspiration from her home town. She describes very well, you can easily get a picture in your head. Here are two examples: “he was laughing as the photo was taken, his face was full of mischief” and “Mum’s eyes lingered on it, remembering too. Her mouth turned up at the corners, a faint hint of a smile”. (Page 27).

The reader will not want to stop reading the book because you always want to know more about what will happen. The chapter usually ends up with something exciting, which is good for you as a reader. The reader will find it easy to understand the story and will easily feel compassion for what is written.  The book is about an incident that you as a reader can relate to reality.

Elev SA13

Delerium By Lauren Oliver

 Delerium, the second part in a trilogy, is a story about forbidden love. It was first published in 2011. By then the first book had already been out for one year. Before I fall, as the first book is named, has been given 4 ½ stars by RT Book Reviews and they also nominated it for their 2010 ”Best Young Adult Paranormal/Fantasy Novel”. Since the release of Delerium it has received a lot of mixed response by the readers.

You can see why the feelings around the book are blended.  It is that kind of book you either love or hate. The idea of seeing love as a disease feels new and when Lena, the main character, falls in love with Alex in a city with zero tolerance of love, it makes you wonder how it possibly could end happily. The story of the book has a great contrast that makes you constantly torn between love and hate, happiness and sadness, tension and boredom.

Even though it seems impossible for the book to have a happy ending you can, through the whole book, feel an undertone of hope. The author also gives her descriptions weary beautifully. ”The butterflies are working their way up from my stomach into my head, making me feel dizzy, and I try to calm myself by imagining the ocean outside, its ragged breathing, the seagulls turning pinwheels in the sky.” (p. 17) is a perfect example of the poetic descriptions that is given to us.

Delirium is, as mentioned earlier, a part of a trilogy, but besides that there are also four midquels named Hana, Annabel, Raven and Alex. Those books are written so they are enacted in the same period of time as the original book. Since the character that has been given a book is such a big part of the trilogy it is fun to read more from a book you, hopefully, cannot put away once you have start reading it.

It is kind of funny how the people who are the closest to Lena tell her how life really should be, but in the end they never listened to their own opinions. Even though they have seen what the real disease is they chose to live their life as they have been told. That is what Lauren Oliver is trying to tell us with the book; sometimes we have to find our courage to break free and follow our heart to find happiness.

Elev SA13

 

Twilight is the first of four vampire-themed fantasy and romance novels by the American author Stephanie Mayer. Twilight was first published in 2005 and since the release, the book and its followers has become extremely popular and it has been sold in over 116 million copies worldwide.

The book took place in the small town Forks, Washington, and it is about Isabella Swan who moves to her dad in Forks to make it easier for her mom, when she has to travel around with her baseball playing boyfriend. She soon meets Edward Cullen, a mysterious but beautiful vampire, and it does not take long before they are deeply in love. But the fact that Edward and his family are vampires makes their love to each other hard and they have to face many difficulties.

It is quite easy to understand Twilight’s excessive popularity. The mixture of mystery, romance and thrill is probably something we all cannot get enough of. And not only that, the book is written in an incredibly skillful manner and creates a sense of that you actually are the characters in the book. Stephanie captures the feelings into words in an extraordinary way and events like Edward and Isabella’s first meeting, her run for her life or something just as easy as their conversations, becomes so much stronger since it feels like it’s you who is feeling all those feelings.

Also, we often feel passionate for a person or a couple in books and we are tirelessly following that person’s journey. Exactly what it is that makes us so fixated is probably hard to put into words but Isabella and Edward undeniable have something that catches the most of us. That is another factor why the book has become so popular all over the world. From the moment Isabella comes to Forks and meets the mysterious vampire Edward people became like spellbound.

The book is so well done and if you have not read it yet you should definitely do it in a soon future. You will not regret it at all. The story is fantastic, and even thou Edward and his family are vampires the book and its story does not feel unreal at all. Stephanie puts in so much reality into the book, videlicet, problems and issues that we “normal” people can have and struggles with sometimes in our lives. In that way, many more can actually relate to the book and that it’s a thing that have contributed that the book feels so reliable. So, if you have not read it already, do it. But be careful. As soon you have opened the book, you won’t be able to put it away.

Elev SA13

Slumdog Millionaire By Vikos Swarup

Slumdog Millionaire is a book who is based on the film with the same name. The book was published in February 2009, a year after the film who won three Oscars. The book is set in India where also the writer comes from.

The book is about a boy who competes in India’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”, and to everyone’s surprise, he answer correctly on all the hard questions. He is being accused for cheating. What does a tea boy know exactly?? But then he explains how he knows all the questions. Behind all answers it is a story behind it, which he somehow has experienced through his remarkable life. It is not hard to feel for the boy who is called Ram Mohammed Thomas (in the film, his name is Jamal). He first loses his only parent (his mother) and from the age of four, Ram and his brother Jamal is set to fend for themselves. After a while his brother Jamal becomes criminal. Jamal wants Ram to join him and his criminal friends but Ram refuses. Ram is now all alone…

The book is very smart written and the book is really never losing its pace. It is a lot of twists and turns in the book. An example is when Armaan tricks the kids that have lost their parents…

Slumdog Millionaire is the story about the boy who became millionaire thanks to his life experiences. The book is for all ages and it is a book I recommend.

Elev SA13