Rosie's Reviews

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern   (YA F HAL)


This book is about a girl named Jessie who is in the smart classes in school. Her life is turned on its side when her two best friends turn punk and one of them throws herself on Jessie’s bad-boy crush. At the same time, her brother Barrett gives up being a punk, shaves off his orange mohawk, and starts dating the prom princess. Then, Jessie makes some new friends who enjoy Dungeons and Dragons and finds that it’s not so bad to be a nerd, which she had feared. She even realizes that she likes one of the boys in the group.

I thought this book was pretty good, even though it contained what I would consider to be very inappropriate language. It was an interesting plot because people always assume that all nerds are basically the same, but (as Jessie found) they aren’t. Also, I liked Jessie’s brother because he was supportive of Jessie and he really wanted to protect her, which I thought was a really good thing for an older brother to do, even though I don’t have an older brother myself. On the Teen Reading Scale, I would rate this book as “rockin.’” I don’t know if I would recommend it to my friends, but it’s an OK book to read.

Rosie's Reviews

Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz
This is the eight book in a series about a boy named Alex Rider who repeatedly finds himself involved with MI6. In this book, Alex agrees to investigate a man working at a genetic engineering lab. While he is there, he sees that there is a structure entirely devoted to poisons. He also learns that the wealthy founder of a charity known as First Aid, Desmond McCain, is working closely with the scientist. After reporting his findings to MI6, Alex is kidnapped and taken to Kenya, where he finds out that Desmond McCain is plotting to create a disaster in order to get funds for his charity, which he then will keep instead of putting them towards helping with the disaster. After escaping death, Alex must stop the disaster from happening by halting the spread of a substance that will activate a poison grown into much of the wheat in Kenya and a few surrounding countries.

I really enjoyed this book because I enjoy adventures and Anthony Horowitz is a good adventure writer. This book is just as good as or better than the other books of the series. It was a real page-turner because it was full of suspense and I finished it in one day, as I do often with books I really like. I like Alex’s character because he is only 14 but he is clever and good at getting things done, like escaping, hiding, and sneaking around, and sometimes his insolence makes me laugh. I also like the fact that he always has the good fortune to be able to escape death, whether it is by his own means or with the help of others. On the Teen Reading Scale, I would have to say that this book is mind-blowingly amazing and I would definitely recommend the whole series to those who like adventures.

Rosie's Reviews

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

This is the story of Sleeping Beauty, but with a modern twist. In this book, the princess, Talia, is cursed and pricks her finger on a spindle. Almost 300 years later, a 17-year-old boy named Jack stumbles upon her kingdom, Euphrasia, after it had been hidden from the rest of the world by a dense forest of thorny plants. He finds the princess and kisses her, and she wakes up. However, no one thinks that Jack is really her ‘true love,’ the only one capable of breaking the curse. Since Talia’s family is mad at her, she runs away to Florida with Jack, causing an uproar at home. While Talia is with Jack, she learns about the modern world while secretly trying to make Jack love her. Not satisfied, Malvolia, the faerie that cursed Talia takes her back to her cottage in Euphrasia. She originally plans to kill Talia, but then she decides not to and instead chooses to have Talia prick her finger on another spindle, only to be woken up if she is kissed by her true love. Jack and his father hurry to Euphrasia to save Talia, and Jack finds the hill with Malvolia’s cottage on top. However, he must pass some tests to get to the top, and another test inside the cabin. He kisses Talia and she wakes up. They go back to her father’s castle, where Jack’s father has been talking with the king, and find out that Jack’s father and Talia’s father have decided to turn Euphrasia into a tourist attraction in order to exist in the modern world.

I thought this book was pretty good. It was a little cliched and I generally don’t like books that mimic fairy tales in this manner, but it wasn’t actually that bad. The plot didn’t really go anywhere and there weren’t really any really cool twists in the story. It was a good story, but it was also kind of lame. The characters in this book are OK, but not really awesome. Jack is kind of rude a lot of the time, and Talia is rather bratty. They get over it eventually, but it is present throughout most of the book. On the Teen Reading Scale, I would give this book a score of ‘cool.’ I probably would not recommend it to other people to read, because it’s not really worth it and there are a lot of other books out there that are a lot better.