Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle: A Memoir: A Review by Charlotte!

*This review features a book not available in the Longfellow Library, but nonetheless enjoyed by a Longfellow student!*

Jeannette Walls lives with her mom, dad, sister and brother, although they don’t have a rooted home. They are always moving during the night, “the skedaddle” as her dad calls it. Jeannette learns how to be her own parent. When she was three, she was cooking hot dogs herself, she burns the side of her torso, but she’s okay. Her dad teaches her not to run from fear, but to face it, unless it’s  the police. As she grows, her family falls apart. The Glass Castle: A Memoir is an incredible novel about family, struggle and surviving. One thing I liked about this book was how she writes the book in stories about her life, not in chapters. You might enjoy this book if you like books about struggle and making it to the end.

John Grogan's Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog: A Review by Leo!

*This review features a book not available at the Longfellow Library, but nonetheless enjoyed by a Longfellow student!*

The main characters in the book Marley and Me, are Marley, the dog, the narrator/John, his girlfriend/wife and later on in the book his kids.  One important event early in the book was when they went to go admire and pick out a little Labrador puppy. When they arrived to the small breeding farm, the mother of the puppies and the owner came out to greet them. Where was the dad? Later on when Jenny and John are about to leave, they finally get to see the father. He emerges from the woods, his coat is covered in mud running at top speed towards the house. Another important event in the book is when Marley begins to act strange and not himself.  After a few days of being like this John takes him to the hospital to find out that Marley has a stomach torsion condition that does not allow him to eat because of all the pain in his stomach.  One of the main themes in this book is family.  One thing I liked about this book was that it was based on a true story and that I also have a Labrador so I can relate.  You might like this book if you like emotional and funny stories based on true events.

Felicia Pearson's Grace After Midnight: A Review by Brianna edited by Ms. Hernandez!

*This review features a book not available in the Longfellow Library, but nonetheless enjoyed by a Longfellow student!*

To begin, it starts of where she is very young.  She is about 9 in the memoir.   It never reveals her real age so we have to base it off from the information given.  When she was born she was born a miracle baby which means that her mom was on crack when she was in her mom's womb.  She was put into the foster care system so, ever since she was young she had a tough start.  One day her mom supposedly changed and stopped taking crack and she was allowed to visit her mom again.  To Felicia this is one of her biggest mistakes because when she got there her biological mom told her to strip down and to go lock herself in the closet.  When this happened her social worker found her there crying for her life.

Once she went through that she had another struggle coming to her.  She didn't know her sexuality and she had to do some “experimenting” and found out that she was a lesbian.  One day there was a parade and she decided to go and because she was African American, this one girl came swinging at her with a bat and she had a gun in her back pocket.  Felicia decided to pull it out and shoot the girl in self defense.  Once she realized what she did she needed some help, so she asked her favorite uncle and eventually there was nothing he could do in the end so she had to go to jail.  She found her girlfriend in jail. She started going out with somebody that worked in the jail and broke up with her later.  Her uncle dies and she is very depressed.  Once she got out she started changing, making the right decisions and changing [her life] so it's very positive.  It was to hard for her and she couldn't do it so she changed back to the person she was.  She turned back into a drug dealer and the top pf the streets.  Right then the memoir ends. 

One thing I liked about this book was the fact that she realized what she was doing wrong and she changed for a while, but she did quit the bad things she was doing.  You may like this book if you enjoy exhilarating pieces of writing.  [This is a book] that makes you question what's going to happen next?

Ni-Ni Simone's If I was Your Girl: A Review by Didi!

The protagonist is Toi.  She is a young girl finishing up her last year in high school.  She and her twin sister Seven are applying to Stanford University.  The main college for Tori is who is going to take care of her kid and who will she be with: the father of her son or a boy she recently met but really liked.  The theme of this book is you shouldn't have a baby at a young age because it messes up your future.  One thing I liked this book was when the two "baby mamas" fighting over the same boy.  You might like this book if you enjoy teen stuff, drama, sadness and excitement.

Jacqueline Woodson's Behind You: A Review by Didi!

The main character is Jeremiah.  He died and all his friends have memories of him.   He was walking in the park at night time with his hood on and two white cops shot him in an identity mix-up.  All the chapters are about all the stuff he and his friends did.  The main challenge is when everyone has to try to get over his death.  The theme of this book is when someone dies and leaves you, they're really not gone--they're still in your heart.  One thing I liked about this book was that it kept me wanting more and that all the chatacers were telling from the heart about Jeremiah.  You might like this book if you enjoy drama and sadness.

Douglas Rees's Vampire High: A Review by Didi!

The main character is a gadje (human) named Cody Elliot.  He failed all his classes at his old school Cotton Mather, but that all changed when he became a student at Vlad Dracul Magnet School.  He was looking for a totally "different" school.  The main challenge in this book is for Cody to get good grades and play water polo.  The theme of this book is don't judge a book by it's cover.  One thing I liked about this book was when the girl Illean put the mark on Cody's face to keep the vampires from eating him.  You might like this book if you enjoy Twilight and if you love mysterious books.  You might enjoy this book if you like the book leaving you with more.

Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Review by Lucas!

In A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare there are six main characters: Hermia, Helena, Lysander, Demetrius, Puck and Oberon.  The main challenge faced is love and the theme is that love can be challenging.  First, everyone love each other and is happy except for Demetrius and Helena.  Demtrius isn't loved by Hermia and Helena isn't loved by Demetrius.  Then Lysander and Hermia go out into the night to live happily away from  Athenian law.  Finally Puck messes around with Lysander, Hermia, Helena and Demetrius (who followed Hermia and Lysander into the wood).  Puck makes everyone love everybody that hate eachother and the battle of love rages on.  One thing I liked about this book was that it had very challenging words and it was fun to figure out what those words mean.  You might like this book if you enjoy acting, Shakespeare, and hard, hard words.