New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Bella is still living in Forks, with her dad Charlie. She spent a dreamy summer with her vampire love, Edward. She turned eighteen and Edward refuses to turn her into a vampire. She is worried that she keeps getting older every second that passes by and Edward will stay young and handsome for the rest of his life. The Cullens throw a birthday party for Bella. But clumsy as always she accidentally paper cuts her finger and Jasper attacks her. Bella fell down and ends up with a bigger wound on her arm. If only Edward had turned her into a vampire this accidents wouldn't happened Bella thought. Edward keeps getting flashbacks from the accident and feels like he puts Bella in danger. The Cullens decide to leave to give Bella a more human-like life. He tells her "It will be as if I'd never existed." and takes off. Bella realizes that when she does reckless things, she can hear Edwards voice very clearly in her head. Bella's need for a mechanic causes her to renew her relationship with Jacob Black. On a visit to the meadow Edward once took her, Bella meets with Laurent a vampire of the same coven as James. He tells her that Victioria wants to kill her to take revenge for Edward killing James. But Laurent is blood thirsty as well and decides he would kill her instead. But before he can attack, wolves appear and chase him away. Genre:
Tatiana Rojas
Grade 9

A Child Called It by David Pelzer

"A Child called it" is an autobiography. It is about a small boy named David that is torturtured by his mother. He looks back on "good times" he had with his mother to relief his pain. His mother was once loving, but now is a mean, grumpy lady that just wants to torture David. He has emotionally and phisically hurt by his mother. David just tries to survive throughout the book. He shows that he has a lot of courage, and will to survive. This is a very emotional book.  Genre:
Paola Chavez  Grade 9

The Magician by Michael Scott

The Magician is about Josh and Sophie's escape from an evil necromancer named Dr John Dee who is trying to assasinate them. He thinks that they are the twins of legend who have the power to destroy the world. If Sophie and Josh are gonna have any chance of surviving the upcoming war between all magical beings they need to learn all the elemental magics(air, water, fire, and earth). And the chase begins again but this time they might not get away so easily.
Genre:
Michael Chan Grade 9

Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan

I finish reading this book Homeless Bird.  It is about a young Indian girl forced into a tragic marriage with a terminally ill boy, through the experiences of widowhood, discovers the truth about who she is and what love is really means. Koly, the main character which is the young Indian girl who has just reached the age which tradition dictates she is eligible to be married. She will have a difficult life because it is not easy for her to take care of person who has tuberculosis. What I take out of this book is all about tradition and religious beliefs.  I have a great time reading this book and I hope all of people who read this book will enjoy as much as I did. Genre:
Linh Chieng
Grade 9

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

This book- which I am almost finished with- is way funny and true.  I really like Junior, the main character, and his funny/smart perspective on life.  He is something of a misfit, and I think since most teenagers feel that way at some point or another, this book holds a lot of wisdom and humor for kids who feel out of place within their own communities, schools, and skins.  The book starts by describing Junior's life on the Indian Reservation in Washington (the state, not the city) and how he was born with an enlarged brain.  Junior is small and skinny, so he gets beat up alot, but he has a best friend- Rowdy- who protects him.  However, because Junior decides to go to school in the "white" town outside of the reservation, his friendship with Rowdy is jeopardized.  In order to find out how it all turns out ok- you should read the book yourself.  Junior is an aspiring cartoonist, so the book also has his drawings interspersed throughout, which breaks up the reading and gives you a glimpse into his active imagination.  This book appeals to people who like to laugh while they are reading and want to identify with a protagonist who doesn't always have it so easy.  I HIGHLY recommend this book. Genre:
M. Crabtree

13 going on to 30 by Christa Roberts

My second independent reading book is called 13 going on to 30 by Christa Roberts. I am reading this book because it caught my attencion. It caught my attencion because of the title of it. In fact this book is a very interesting book. It is about a girl named Jenna and it was her 13 birthday and she invited the coolest people in her school and the coolest people in the school took advantage of it and told Jenna that they would go but they had to do a school project. So because Jenna really wanted them to go to her party she told them that she would do there school project so the cool kids took advantage of that. At the party they tricked Jenna and they left right after she gave them the school project Jenna felt really sad and disappointed and she kept on repeating i want to be thirty, flirty, and thriving then some of her wishing dust fell on top of her head and the next morning she was thirty and she was in shock and very confused. She went from being 13 to 30 in one day. Genre:
Marisol
Grade 9th

Killing Britney and A Child Called It

My first independent reading book was called, "Killing Britney", and my second book is called, "A Child Called It". These two books do not have much in common becauce Britney is dealing with a murder and solving crime scenes while David is getting abused by his mother. "Killing Britney" has to do more with mystery and murder than "A Child Called It" isn't really a mystery because you can see that he is being abused and know that how he feels and everything is straight forward; no mystreries. The one thing that these two books have in common is that they both have the same hatred for their mothers. It's pretty obvious that they feel that way because Britney's mother had never really shown affection and for sure David's mom doesn't show affection every now and then, in fact, rarley she shows any emotion except for hatred and annoyance towards David.

Genre:
H.Duong
Grade 9

Cirque Du Freak Lake of Souls by Darren Shan

The book Cirque Du Freak Lake of Souls by Darren Shan is book number 10 in the Cirque Du Freak series. In this book a character named Harkat Mulds  is having nightmares. Mr. Tiny appears and tells him to get rid of his nightmares he has to find out who he was before he became Harkat Mulds. Darren Shan, the main character goes with Harkat Mulds into a portal teleporting them to a gray world to start the journey into finding Harkat Muld's past indentity. They have to perform a bunch of tasks like fighting panthers, giant toads, and dragons. Darren and Harkat both get taken down by a dragon, but got rescued from a man named Spits. Spits joined their journey and helped them, but ends up betraying them and fails. Darren and Harkat finally completed all their tasks and they found out who Harkat was before he became a Little Person. He was... :O This is a horror,suspense, and a vampire book. I recommend it to people that like reading a book with a lot of actions, and twists and people that like killing,blood,and gore. I rate this book in a scale of 1-10 8.782 out of 10. Genre:
Johnny Vandal
Grade 9

Cirque Du Freak:The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan

 CIRQUE DU FREAK:THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT by Darren Shan is about a boy named Darren, who gets bitten  by a vampire named Mr.Crepsley. Mr.Crepsly decides to become his mentor, and teaches him everything that he needs to know about being a vampire. He lives throughout all these new obstacles in life, and faces the most vicious man, Mr.Tiny. It's the dreaded battle between life or death, So now you ask yourself, what happens next?
Genre: Fantasy
Danniel Rosales Flores  Grade 9

Jesse by Gary Soto

Jesse by Gary Soto is where two Mexican-American workers named Abel and Jesse try to move out proverty by doing field works. Jesse leaves home and moves into an apartment with his older brother, Abel. Both Jesse and Abel have to balance out school work with field work. They try to find stuff in the dumpster and sell it in the flea markets. Jesse and Abel only make about sixteen dollars a weekend. Nixon's speech causes Jesse to stuff that breaks the law. Will Abel and Jesse go to college? Genre: Realisitic Fiction
D. Lum Grade 9

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Monster takes place in modern time. The main character is named Steve Harmon and he has been accused of taking part in a murder. He says he had no doing in the murder, but little does the judge know, that Steve was going to take part in it. The whole book is narrarated by Steve and he is writing all that is happening in his journal. His style of writing it down is as if he was filming a movie. Steve could be locked up in jail for 25-LIFE. He is only sixteen and this is his story. Genre: Realistic Fiction
Cesar Vargas Grade 9

Sliding into Home by Kendra Wilkinson

The book "Sliding into Home" is written by one of my favorite reality-tv show celebrity Kendra Leigh Wilkinson or better known as the former girlfriend of Hugh Hefner. From a scale from 1-10 I would give this book a 10. The best theme to describe this book would be "There's a dark secret behind every successful person". This book talks about Kendra's early life as a teen drug addict. At the young of 13 Kendra began to use Cocaine and was very rebellious. Kendra would lie to her mother often and was not trusted, eventually at the age of 15 after going into counsiling Kendra became Suicidal and began to harm her body doing things such as cutting her vains and other harmful things. Years after using drugs Kendra got a minimum wage job at a restaraunt and began improving her lifestyle. Minimum wage seemed like a little pay so instead Kendra decided to become a stripper, even though her mother strongly disagreed. Although Kendra hit many rocky roads she later recieved a call from Hugh Hefner the founder of playboy and was asked to move in with him, after meeting at a party this was only the begining to her career she then became a part of the tv show "The Girls Next Door" and a playboy model. After four years of living at the Playboy Mansion Kendra decided it was time to spread her wings and began to date NFL Superstar Hank Baskett and after a few month got married, they actually married at the Playboy mansion making them the second couple ever to get married there besides Hugh Hefner who's first marrage was there. A year later Kendra found out she was pregnant and gave birth to her first son Hank IV Baskett. Genre:
Carmen Rivas
Grade 9

Dark Angel by David Klass

Dark Angel is about a boy named Jeff who has a great life until he learned some bad news. His brother Troy was being released from prison and is going to live with them. When Troy comes to see Jeff play soccer he gets in to a fight with Tommy Fraser. The next day, the cops show up at their house and tell them that Tommy Fraser is missing and Troy is a suspect. Jeff is trying to find out what happened to Tommy and he will not be ready for what happens the closer he gets to finding out what happened to Tommy Fraser. This is a great book that shows both   sides of good and evil.  Genre: Realistic Fiction

Bryan Solis

9th Grade

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dracula is an intriguing novel that tells a dark story through a collection of journals. Jonathan Harker leaves on a business trip to Transylvania to help a mysterious man, the Count, find an estate. He soon discovers a bone-chilling secret, revealing a hideous monster. He plots ways to escape the medieval castle, but when out finds the Count gone and on his way to London where Jonathan's dear Mina Harker awaits. With Van Helsing's help the couple and other friends will seek to destroy the blood-sucking monster. Genre: Fantasy
Jenifer Salazar
Grade 12

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Nora Grey is a really intelligent girl and not to mention very beautiful. Yet, she has never been interested in any guys in her school until a mysterious and dark boy transfers to her school.  He is bitter and very rude but his bad boy attitude make it more difficult to ignore him.  After being attacked by a stranger and threatened a couple of times, she starts to question reality and herself.
Genre: Fantasy
Roxanna Rodriguez
Grade 12

Love Sick

Love Sick by Jake Coburn is a novel about two very troubled teens who fall in love. Ted York was an all star basketball player until a car wreck ruined his dreams of a scholarship of playing college ball. He is approached by Erica's father who is willing to pay all of his college expenses and in return he must spy on Erica who has an eating disorder. As the school year goes on they become closer with each other sharing their innermost thoughts and Ted contemplates with the growing guilt he has of spying on her. When the truth comes to light everything is revealed and the two are never the same again. I really like this book because not only is it romantic but it also has comedy in it. It is also dramatic and intriguing. It has everything you could ever want in a book. Romance

                                                                                              Susana Perez

                                                                                         Grade 12

Doctor Illuminatus by Martin Booth

Doctor Illuminatus is about two children, Pip and Tim, both brother and sister moving to a new home on the countryside with their mom and dad. During their stay, they come across a boy named Sebasitian, who is an alchemist. Together both Pip and Tim fight along side with Sebastian to stop an evil alchemist who is bent on taking over the world. For all those chemistry and engineer lovers out there this book has it all.  Fantasy
Richard Nea
12th grade