This book isn’t anything like a fairy tale. It isn’t a thing like any of the other basketball books and movies I’ve seen before. Through a murder mystery, it teaches a lesson through the harsh experience of a teenage boy named Mackey.

Mackey was a boy who never got to meet his father; he died before he was born. His mother didn’t have many words of advice to give Mackey about anything, and his step-dad wasn’t much help either. His only friend was J.R., and the only person who helped guide him through life was J.R.’s dad, Stove.

Mackey and J.R. were offered a chance to play on the Greenbacks basketball team. This was not only Mackey’s dream, but J.R.’s especially. They played extremely well throughout the season, and right before they play Fat Anthony’s team in the tournament, J.R is killed. The book then focuses on who did it, how and why.

The entire book is based on foreshadowing, and some of the best I’ve ever seen too. You know that J.R. is going to be killed when reading the prologue, and that it is somehow Mackey’s fault. Once you figure out who did it and how, you will have an “Ohh… That makes sense!” moment.

All of the parts fit together really well. My favorites are when you here from the view of a different character of the book for about a page at a time, and then it goes back to Mackey’s view. It can really reveal a lot of the hidden parts of the book. I highly suggest that you read this. It teaches a great lesson, and you’ll want to read it again to look at all of the hints that it gave you about who did it.

BOOK NAME: Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures That May or May Not Exist 
AUTHORS: Kelly Milner Halls, Rick Spears, and Roxyanne Young

Overall, my favorite cryptid described in the book is the giant squid because they
eventually determined it was real and it’s large enough to kill a whale. I found this entire
book very interesting and highly recommend that you read it.

BOOK NAME: Stuck on Earth 
AUTHOR: David Klass

Stuck on Earth is about an alien that gets the mission of coming to Earth to study human
beings and and decide whether or not they should be exterminated. To do this, the alien
takes over the body of a 14-year-old boy named Tom, who is such a misfit at this school
that he already has the nickname “Alien.”

The alien becomes confused by the random acts of hatred that humans constantly do
to each other like bullying at school, teasing of siblings, and warfare. However, the alien
becomes intrigued by the humans’ strange talents, like the ability to make money.

The alien believes Earth is a beautiful planet compared to the others, but is upset that
humans aren’t treating it right. He finds out that a company is dumping waste into a river
where an endangered species of fish lives, and he is determined to put an end to the
pollution.

What makes this book hilarious is the little things that we take for granted that the alien is
confused by, like reality TV shows and junk food. It was also funny how he describes those
things and the way he speaks to others. For example, when he takes over Tom’s body, he
starts talking with an advanced vocabulary that most people wouldn’t use, like referring to
everyone else as a “homosapien” all the time.

I highly recommend that you read this book because not only is it funny, it will help you see
and think about the world in a new way.

BOOK NAME: Project Jackalope
AUTHOR: Emily Ecton

When I first saw the cover of this book, I thought it would be boring and about talking animals with the main character being a jackalope–a jackrabbit with antelope horns. But this book really was something else.

This book reminded me of a past book that I’ve read called Boom! Both books have a kid who feels that he can’t trust anyone, and both include creepy guys in suits. One of the main differences is that Boom! went from realistic fiction to extreme sci-fi, and this book went from realistic fiction to minor sci-fi.

This book is about a kid named Jeremy who has a crazy full-grown neighbor named Professor Twitchett, who is still into the little kid spy stuff that I liked when I was in third grade. He left a jackalope that he created at Jeremy’s apartment, which immediately brought a government agency to his door. Obviously, Jeremy wasn’t big on an organization, the FBI for all he knows, chasing him, so he contacted Agatha, who knows Professor Twitchett way better than Jeremy. She panicked and said the Jackalope was her idea, and it all went downhill from there. Who knew the guys chasing them had puke-ray guns and man-eating robots? These guys never do give up!

My favorite character is Agatha because she always had a plan. I highly recommend reading this book. It will make you want to keep reading.

BOOK NAME: Mason Dixon: Basketball Disasters
AUTHOR: Claudia Mills

This book is about a fourth-grader named Mason Dixon who never wants to try anything new, and
describes himself as someone who “isn’t really a sports type of person.” It sounds like the only time he
tries something new is when his best friend Brody talks him into doing it.

Well, this time Brody talks Mason into playing basketball. You would think that since Mason is tall, that
would be easy, but he has no basketball skills of any kind, or at least he keeps telling himself that. The
thing is, Brody is the complete opposite, trying everything he can.

Overall, I didn’t exactly like this book because it keeps switching between basketball and what Mason
is learning about in school, as if all readers care about his fourth-grade social studies class. It also talks
too much about the old lady who lives next door to Mason and how she hates dogs. The book’s title and
cover would make you think it’s all about basketball, but it is only around 60 percent about the sport.

Depending on your age, you might think this book is better than I do. I’m in sixth grade and I found it off
topic at times, but it actually might be much more interesting to fourth graders or younger readers. My
favorite parts of the book were when it was about Mason and Brody playing basketball.

MOVIE NAME: The Hunger Games
BASED ON: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I loved the book The Hunger Games and couldn’t wait to see the movie. The story takes
place in future North America, where the government randomly selects a boy and girl from each
District to compete in the Hunger Games. The goal for them is to kill one another and become
the last one standing.

Many of the scenes in the movie were exactly as I imagined them when I first read the
book. But there were a few changes. First off, the District 12 mayor’s daughter gave Katniss the
Mockingjay pin in the book for good luck. However, in the movie, an old lady gave it to her. The
time that Katniss spends with her District 12 friend Gale is shortened quite a bit, but that is
obviously done because of the time constraints of a movie. The only huge part left out is Peeta
losing his leg in the end of the Games. President Snow was much older than I had thought, and
he has many more parts in the movie than in the book. The head Gamemaker also had no scenes
in the book, but he has many in the movie. Ceaser, Katniss, Effie, Gale, Cato and Haymitch were
exactly as I imagined. My favorite character in the movie is Haymitch, mainly because the actor
who portrays him makes the scenes entertaining.

Some scenes in the Hunger Games movie actually are taken from Catching Fire, the
next book in the series. One example is when the people in District 11 start
rebelling and are quickly out-numbered by the armored police ironically known as the
Peacekeepers. This actually happened in District 8 in the second book. President Snow’s reaction
to Katniss and Peeta’s threat is also in the movie but
doesn’t come until the second book.

I loved both the book and the movie and am looking forward to watching Catching
Fire and Mockingjay on the big screen.

BOOK NAME: Boom!
AUTHOR: Mark Haddon

This is the first eBook I have ever read, and I have got to say, it makes reading a lot easier. I read it on a Pandigital Reader that I received for Christmas. What’s great about it is you can annotate, quickly do Google searches of words in the book, look up the meaning of words, highlight, and even put in multiple bookmarks. The eReader also is lighter than most books, and it can still hold way more than just one book. I highly recommend that you get some type of eReader.

Boom! begins as a realistic fiction story told by a kid named Jimbo and his overconfident, but genius friend, Charlie. His teenage sister has a redneck boyfriend nicknamed Craterface, for obvious reasons. One day, Jimbo and Charlie decide to listen to what the teachers are saying at a staff meeting at school. After the meeting, they hear two of the teachers speaking a language even the police couldn’t decode.

Everything realistic stops here. I am afraid that I can’t tell you anymore without giving away what’s so fun about this book.

I will say that my favorite character in this book is Charlie. He kind of reminds me of Ferris Bueller. (If you haven’t seen that movie yet, I strongly recommend it.) They are both overconfident and always seem to have a plan for everything.

BOOK NAME: The Westing Game
AUTHORS: Ellen Raskin

I have got to say, this is one of the most clever books I have ever read. At the very beginning, you are introduced to so many characters, but only by name. You come to know the characters better as you read on. I suggest that you read through the beginning of the book without any interruptions to avoid confusion later and to understand each character. My favorite character is Sydelle Pulaski, who will do anything to get attention including pretending that she’s crippled by walking everywhere on crutches.

It starts with sixteen people getting a chance to buy an apartment at Sunset Towers, on the shores of Lake Michigan. It is an old hotel that most people thought went out of business because of how long it’s been since its last use. Most of the individuals were invited to the Westing House, an old building that a wealthy man by the name of Sam Westing lived in before his death, to hear the reading of his will. But this wasn’t a normal will. Westing, who was an amazing chess player, set up a game to see who should become the heir to his fortune. The answer to the game was simple: Who killed Sam Westing? But you will learn that the answer to Westing’s game is far more clever than just “Mr. Green did it in the ballroom with a revolver!”

If you like mysteries, you’re going to love this book.

BOOK NAME: Tall Story
AUTHOR: Candy Gourlay

This book is about a boy named Bernardo who was very short for much of his childhood and then magically grew to be eight feet tall when he was teenager. When he suddenly grew that tall, the earthquakes mysteriously stopped on the island in the Philippines where he lived with his aunt and uncle. When he was told he could move to England to live with his mother, step-father and half-sister, Andi (who are all pretty short), the people on the island begged him to stay because they were afraid the earthquakes would return with him not there. Bernardo’s sister was both surprised and disturbed by how tall he was. She was an exceptional basketball player, and wouldn’t let her below-average height bother her because she never missed a single shot. Meanwhile, Bernardo could just stand there and tip the ball into the hoop without trying. Life became very hard for Bernardo in school and at home, including his relationship with his sister. He eventually told her the story of how he became so tall and she found it very thrilling. You’ll have to read the book for yourself to find out how he grew so fast.

I liked how the book was written from both Bernardo’s and Andi’s perspectives. Every other chapter was from the other’s perspective, which gave it a lot more voice than if the author hadn’t done this. It was better than just writing it in the third person.

BOOK NAME: 1862: Fredericksburg: A New Look at a Bitter Civil War Battle
AUTHOR: K.M. Kostyal
PHOTOGRAPHER: Lori Epstein

When I first read the title of this book, I knew that the Battle of Fredericksburg was just that, only one battle, so I wondered how it was possible to fill an entire book with information about it. But as I started reading, I realized that this book just isn’t about one battle, but is much more.

The book explains everything from the culture of the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, to why they even fought the Civil War, and it ends with the description of the battle and how the town was eventually rebuilt. It also explains many of the battles leading up to the Battle of Fredericksburg, such as the Battle of Bull Run and Gettysburg. It even provides parts of real journals written by people who were in the war, including a Union soldier and an enslaved Virginian named John Washington. My favorite journal entry is the one written by Washington that describes the moment he was freed from slavery.

To be honest, the journals were my favorite part of this book because I got to hear the voices of real people who lived the war. I also really liked all the detailed color photos throughout the book.

You don’t have to be a historian or a fan of social studies to enjoy this book.