Whitefish Community Library

Reviewed by Cami Matern, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

This is a review of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. The book, written by Holly Jackson, is a YA murder mystery trilogy. The story takes place in a small town in Connecticut called Fairview. This book is one of my favorites. It’s fine to read only this book, but the story is way more interesting when you read the next two books. I would 100% recommend this book. It is a YA mystery, so I would recommend this book to people of the age of 14 and up. You can read this book at a younger age, but only if you are comfortable with reading about more mature and serious topics.

My favorite character is the main character, Pip. In this book, she is a senior in high school that has a huge interest in crime. So for her senior project, she chose to solve a murder case that happened in her town. In the book she is described as a pleasant, blonde girl with muddy green eyes.

My favorite scene in the book is when Pip is questioning a suspect and she gets drugged and put in the woods by the murderer while the murderer confessed to the sad murder she commiteed. It was a very shocking ending. I would’ve never guessed who the killer was. If you love murder mystery thrillers then I would definitely recommend this book to you.

Reviewed by Solas Noftsinger, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

This fantasy book based on Greek mythology in modern day U.S. is exciting and thrilling! The main character, Percy Jackson, realizes he can control water. He is then sent off to Camp Half Blood to find out he is the son of Poseidon. For this reason he is sent on a quest to retrieve Zeus’s master bolt. He faces many struggles through his journey. An example of this is when he faces Hades’ minions to try to stop him from succeeding. My favorite part of the book is when Percy fights an enemy that is very gripping and reveals a big part of the story. I would recommend this to people who like fantasy and action. I would give this book 5 stars.

Reviewed by Avery Orme, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

This review is on Spy School Goes South. The author if this book is Stuart Gibbs he is also the person who created this whole book and the rest of the series. This book takes place in Mexico and a few other places that are for you to figure out. A few main characters are Ben Ripley, Erica Hale, Cyrus Hale, Murrey Hill, Zoe Zibal, and Mike Brezinski, these characters are most of all the main characters. Ben Erica, mike, Zoe, and Murrey go on a mission in Mexico.

I loved this book except for how Erica acts toward Zoe and Mike when she finds out they came on the mission without permission. I would recommend this book to people in grades from fourth to twelfth grade. I would give this book a five out of five stars and I would want to read it over and over again. This book is in a series of ten books.

This book is the sixth book in the series and it is personally my favorite other than Ski Spy School. I love this book because it has very interesting parts but it also has some very suspenseful parts. I can also relate to some of the characters in this book. I can mainly relate to Zoe because of the way she acts toward people. This book is a fantasy book and a mystery book combined and I love that part of the book. My two favorite characters are Zoe and Erica. This book is great and I hope you decide to read it.

Reviewed by Reston Pruitt, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

I like this book because it’s a family just trying to go on a nice family vacation, but every time they go to a new place, something goes wrong. But it seems like the family gets a lot of family time and it seems like an adventure.

One of my favorite scenes is where there are teenagers firing watermelons with a slingshot at Greg and some of his friends, so he goes with the gang and gets some water guns and gets the teenagers all wet with the water and they run away. Greg is my favorite character or Manny is. Greg is cool and funny, but Manny is really funny. Well they’re both equal. My second favorite scene is when theis guy takes the family’s locker keys and puts him in his house, so they sneak in and try to and find them, it was really good. I would recommend this book for you and your friends, you shour recommend this book for all your friends because why not it’s so good, couldn’t you tell by just listening or reading my paragraph. The main thing I like about this book is that it’s basically all an adventure and the familly is trying to go on a vacation but they just don’t realize that they’re spending a lot of time together, they just don’t realize it yet. If I had a lot of friends I would recommend this book to every single one of them.

Reviewed by Sienna Weistram, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

The One and Only Bob is a heart-lifting story about a stray dog who is the best friend of Ivan, the silverback gorilla we have come to know and love but we don’t know Bob. But if you read The One and Only Bob, the author Katherine Applegate has given us the story of Bob. As Bob travels to and quests to find his long-lost sister, he travels through a sad past to find her. This story is an emotional tail for the ages and is so good you might not want to stop reading. It is a book that I think can be good for yound and old readers. It is a tail of courage, love, and family. It will make you want to hug your animals.

I personally thought that Bob was a kind dog in the first book but others just thought of him as a sneaky dog that would sneak into the gorilla enclosure at night. With this book your thoughts about Bob might change. I would definitely recommend this book to all readers.

Review written by Gianna Mitchell, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

I honestly really liked the book Bud, Not Buddy. It was a very detailed book that taught my whole class a real lesson on segregation. For books I like I very much pay close attention to and this book was one of those books. The book is by Christopher Paul Curtis. The genre made the whole book better and fun, it was historical fiction. I think the best character was definitely Bud because he was a wise, independent, and young man. Some of my favorite parts of the book was when Bud ran away towards Grand Rapids to try to find he “father” who ended up being his grandfather. On the way over to Grand Rapids Bud ran into a guy who he thought was a vampire and in my opinion I thought that was really funny. He also finally got something to eat from the “vampire” and something to drink. Bud seemed so happy when he finally ate/drank something and that made me happy. I would honestly recommend this book toa anyone who wants to learn about segregation and who is in the grade 5 or 6. Overall I would rate this book a 4.5/5 and it was a very good and detailed book.

Reviewed by Wesley Wyatt, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School

The author is Christopher Paul Curtis. Bud, Not Buddy takes place in Michigan. Bud’s mom is dead and his dad is gone. Bud’s goal is to find his dad. He gets sent to a foster home and escapes due to the bad foster family.

He tries to hop a train to Grand Rapids but doesn’t hop the train. He decided to try and walk there and gets picked up by Lefty Lewis. He gets a drive to Grand Rapids and finds a man named Mr. C. who he thinks is his dad. Mr. C. turns out to be his grandpa. I think this book is very detailed and interestingly coolish.

Reviewed by Zane Valazza, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

Bud, not Buddy by Christopher Paul Harris is a book. It is historical fiction and it takes place in Michigan. After his mom died, Bud, the main character, is trying to find out who is dad is. The only clues to who he is are the newspapers his mom had kept and left behind. Bud is really independent and able to survive a lot of terrible things that happen to him. One of my favorite parts is when he breaks out of the shed after aggravating all the bees. I would rate this 5 stars out of 5. I recommend this book to anyone that can read.

Reviewed by Calvin Lerud, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

The author of Bud, Not Buddy is Christopher Paul Curtis. The story takes place in Michigan. Some characters in the story are Bud, Lefty Lewis, Mr. C., the Amoses, and more. What happened to Bud: Bud ran away from the Amoses’ house to Grand Rapids to try and find his dad because before his mom died that’s where he said to go but instead he found his grandfather. I liked the story. I liked it when he ran away from the Amoses’. I rate it a 4 out of 5.

Reviewed by Zander Kamm, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

The author of this book is Christopher Paul Curtis. Bud is my favorite character in the book because he is funny. My personal favorite part of the book is the end where the conflict is resolved. I would personally recommend this book to other people because it’s exciting and adventurous. Another reason I would recommend this book is that it also has a Newbury prize. And also it has so many twists and turns, that are cliffhangers. And I would recommend this book to people who like adventure stories.

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Reviewed by Landon Jennings, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

Brandon Sanderson’s book Skyward is an amazing work of sci-fi art. It totally deserves its best book of the year award. I would give it a 4 out of 5 stars because it was a really good book with the right amount of action to keep it exciting and a minimal amount of non-action peacetime stuff that the book didn’t get too boring in parts. One of my favorite parts in Skyward is when the main character, Spensa, finds an old AI-controlled ship that had crashed in a cave sometime in the past.  Spensa becomes friends with the AI and names it Mbot and fixes up the broken parts of the ship that had been sustained from the crash. I liked this part of the book because it introduced my favorite character which is Mbot. I like him because he is sort of a know-it-all and tries to act human with humor and emotions which sometimes yields funny results.

While I really enjoyed the book overall, there were some characters and their actions that I really didn’t like. The one thing that I did not like about this book is how many people die for no reason. I think the book would have continued just fine without so many people dying. But even with that, I would definitely recommend this book to people 9 and up to read and enjoy.

Reviewed by Aubree Clark, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

This story takes place in Manhattan called North River Heights and in Auggie’s new school. Auggie Pullman has a facial difference that has prevented him from going to school up to now. Auggie is in 5th grade and at a real school, not at home. All Auggie wants is to be treated like a normal kid. Because he does normal things.

Wonder is one of my favorite books. It shows that everyone is different and you should not judge people by how they look and everyone has a story and things going on in life. My favorite character in the book is Olivia Pullman because I can relate to her and she is really understanding because she has to be. This book is really good and funny in some parts. I really love this book and give it a 10/10. I think if you like a good family related book you should read it.

Reviewed by Avery Britz, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

This realistic fiction takes place in Westchester New York and starts in June when Nikki the main character is about to go into a new grade and is nervous to start and her first day is ruined by her rival MacKenzie she gets to her locker and she has been placed right next to MacKenzie. All through the books and this book Nikki has been asking over and over for a iPhone. She meets her new best friends in the library and is friends with them all the way to the end of the books, but there has been bumps along the way.

There are 14 books in all with different names and endings. Each book is in a different month. My favorite character is Nikki because she is nice and seems likable. Nikki has a hard time being in 8th grade but she makes friends and she keeps thinking that she is going to lose them. Nikki is embarrassed a lot of times by her dad and sister and all of her family. I give this book a 4 out of 5.

Reviewed by Eleanor Parsons, grade 6, Whitefish Middle School.

12 year old Maxine Chen doesn’t just want to go to the Olympics, she knows she will. But first, this figure skater has to juggle her problems – on and off the ice. Between dealing with bullyingt, placing at regionals, and Hollie, a new skater who might just be better than Maxine, will she pull it off, or will she fall?

This is one of my favorite books. It has realistic character, and interesting plot, and made me want to read more. Maxine’s perspective was well developed and helped me understand her as a character. I felt sympathetic to her problems and was cheering for her the whole way. There was lots of suspense and excitement throughout the book, making it an enthralling read.

I was intrigued by this book because I am a figure skater, but I would recommend this book to anyone who likes sports and realistic fiction. The author did a great job illustrating the life of a figure skater.

I would rate this book a 9.5 out of ten. Readers will not be disappointed, This page turner will make you feel for the characters and rush through the book as fast as you can.