Somers Library Blog

Stanford Wong is the best basket ball player at his school. And he is joining a basketball summer camp for the best basketball players. There are 2 weeks left until school ends and his ELA teacher told him that he failed the class. Because he failed he now has to take summer school and he can not go to the camp. Stanford's mom gives Stanford a tutor and it is Millicent Min. Millicent Min is a genius. Also, Stanford has to hide that he has to go to summers school because he does not want to look dumb in front of his basketball team. I liked how the book was a mix of funny and seriousness. I think that makes a great combo that makes it easy for people to like the book. I think kids in middle school and early high school will like this book. The book made me feel good because it is a funny story that is relatable to many. It made me think about why it is important to try hard at school during the real year because you do not want to do it during the summer. Also you do not want to m...

Mare Barrow lives in a world where having red blood means poverty and having silver blood means having supernatural abilities. Her red blood inheritance gave her a life of stealing from wealthy Silvers to survive, or that is until she met a man one night and her life changed forever. That night Mare goes from living in the Silts to working in the Silver Palace. When she is working a worldwide Silver event, she and the rest of the Silvers discover that Mare also holds a supernatural power of her own. With the balance between Silvers and Reds now disturbed, the royal family announce Mare as a lost Silver princess and betroth her to their youngest son. Despite knowing that one mistake can end in her death, Mare works alongside a resistance group and the only thing certain is that there's going to be trouble. Trouble and blood spill, both Red and Silver blood spill. Red Queen is the perfect book for when you want to get swept into a world full of action and mystery. With multiple plot ...

Ever wondered why consciously thinking about breathing causes you to run out of breath? Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman explains this, and more. Eagleman, a neuroscientist, spelunks (explores)  the depths of the subconscious to explain phenomena that no one would have noticed, including why you have a “gut feeling” about certain decisions and why people whose names begin with J are more likely to marry others whose names also begin with J. "One thing I admire about this book is that it has a similar narrative structure to Freakonomics, by Levitt and Dubner. Like Freakonomics, Eagleman takes case studies and uses them to explain larger phenomena, an excellent method of organization. For example, when explaining why former Supreme Court Justice William Douglas denied that he was paralyzed due to a stroke (when he clearly was in a wheelchair), he cites case studies of other people in similar situations before attributing it to anosognosia, a condition where...

Guy Montag is your ordinary fireman. He hops on the salamander (fire truck) to a house and burns all the books. He loves what he does, it’s pure joy to pour the kerosene on the disgusting little books and light it on fire. This book takes place in the future, where books are outlawed, and thinking things thoroughly is almost a crime. There are firemen who, unlike present day firemen, don’t go to houses to put out fires... they start them. Guy is one of them. Constantly referred as Montag throughout the book, he used to like lighting books on fire. Until one day a new neighbor moves in next to his house. Clarisse, the girl that just moved in, meets up with Montag on his way to work one day (he walks). Montag and Clarisse get to know each other and become friends. But along the way Clarisse gives Montag her opinion of how life is. She talks to him about how people should think and learn more, process their feelings, and most importantly, read books. This completely changes his perspectiv...

In this book Kamran smith is the best - he is a star football player. His brother Darius is a part of the army. Darius is being accused of being a terrorist, but Karman knows that he can't be. Darius is filming treat videos against the USA. In those videos Darius puts secret messages that only Kamren knows based on a game they played when they were little. Kamran has to decode the videos and help save his brother who is being held hostage by the terrorist. During all of this their parents are sitting home getting a lot of hate.   What I liked about this book is how the siblings where there for each other. In most books the siblings hate each other. What I did not like was how the parents did not seem to care about Kamran and they let him leave by himself to try to save his brother. It does not seem realistic to me. Any one in middle school will love this book. When I read this book, it made me think about the people in the army who are risking their lived for us. I was happy t...

Jessie Holmes isn't ready to start her junior year at a new high school where she knows no one but her rude stepbrother, Theo. Jessie doesn't want anything more than to be at home with her best friend but instead she's in Wood Valley. And if that isn't bad enough, she's living with her dads new girlfriend, who he met way to fast from her mothers death for Jessie's liking. After a day of upperclassman bullying and homesickness, she gets an email from one of her peers addressed S.N. (Somebody Nobody), the only problem is Jessie doesn't no which one. Julie Buxhaum takes readers on a love story in which Jessie learns more about herself, her new family, and more about the mysterious and hilarious S.N. Tell Me Three Things is a perfect feel-good relatable young adult book. Its the plot that you look for in every romance book when you want to get swept away into another world. At first Jessie seems like any other girl but as the story progresses you see that she...

Want an interesting sci-fi read with many twists and turns? Look no further than The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. It follows the journey of Malachi Constant, the son of rich businessman Elijah Constant. He squanders away his father’s money in fruitless enterprises such as nightlong parties. Invariably, he loses all of his money. Now homeless, Constant enlists in the Army of Mars, and his journey after that is filled with twists and turns through time and space, including visits to Mercury, back to Earth, and finally to Titan where the entire purpose of this journey is revealed. The entire narrative is propelled by the actions of a mysterious Dr. Rumfoord, who became entangled in a “chrono-synclastic infundibulum” while traveling as a private astronaut from Earth to Mars, and subsequently materializes on Earth once every two months. Rumfoord’s actions, however, are themselves caused by a mysterious force; you’ll need to read the book to find out what it is, though! The Sirens of Ti...

During daily hour-long car drives, Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief was a friend who kept me company. The moment I flipped open to my bookmarked page, the windows, roads, and lights that surrounded me disappeared. I was suddenly standing on a street in front of Himmel Street 33, watching young children, particularly a skinny boy and a blonde, aggressive girl,enjoying a muddy game of soccer. Then, I sensed a feeling of sadness, knowing that those very children, their parents, and their friends would all collapse among hundreds of others under a single explosion and the unprecedented flattening of Himmel Street, Molching – except for that one blonde girl who would stand and mourn above the others to tell their story and hers during the devastating Holocaust era. Of course, in other World War II stories, I watched the characters suffer, their homes fall, and their loved ones die; but in The Book Thief, I felt it: the sharp sting of a merciless soldier’s whip, the sudden grief of spying a fri...