Author: Susan Cooper
Title: Over Sea, Under Stone
LSU
Rating: 3
Summary: This book follows Simon, Jane, and Barney Drew as they help their great–uncle search for the grail from King Arthur’s time. It is a race to find the grail before the dark side finds it. This is the first book in Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series.
Author: Judy Blume
Title: Are You There God? It's Me Margaret.
LSU
Rating: 4
Summary: This book is about Margaret, an 11 year old girl who moves from New York City to New Jersey. She has to make new friends, go to a new school, and deal with issues of growing up.
Author: Delmer Davis
Title: Teaching Literature A Seventh-Day Adventist Approach
LSU
Rating: 3
Summary: This book offers an interesting look into what SDA’s actually believe about reading literature.
Author: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Title: The Agony of Alice
LINK+
Rating: 3
Summary: The first in the Alice series, The Agony of Alice follows Alice through the sixth grade. She is growing up, but only has her father and brother to help; so what is the one thing she seeks out––a mother. Through many blunders we get to know Alice and watch as she slowly grows into a young lady.
Author: Judy Blume
Title: Blubber
LSU
Rating: 4
Summary: In this Judy Blume book Jill learns what it is like to be the bully and to be bullied. With the help of her best friend Tracy, Jill learns how to overcome bullies.
Author: Judy Blume
Title: Deenie
LSU
Rating: 4
Summary: Deenie is a girl who has just started seventh grade, and it is her mother’s great aspiration for her to be a model. The problem is Deenie has been diagnosed with scoliosis and has to wear a brace for the next four years. Throughout the book we watch as Deenie, her family, friends, and school come to terms with her condition.
Author: Robert Cormier
Title: The Chocolate War
LSU
Rating: 4
Summary: This book follows the boys of Trinity school and their school chocolate sale. The Vigils (like the school mafia) give Jeremy an assignment–don’t sell the chocolate for 10 days then accept the chocolate and sell. However, Jeremy has plans of his own. Things begin to unravel as this freshman attempts to stand up to the Vigils. Overall a very well written book, I was disappointed with the anticlimactic ending.
Author: Judy Blume
Title: Forever
LSU
Rating: 3
Summary: Reading this book it is easy to see why so many would challenge it. Full of sex, drugs, and alcohol, Judy Blume paints the picture of a real relationship in the 1970’s.
Author: Alice Walker
Title: The Color Purple
LSU
Rating: 5
Summary: This book is written in the form of letters from the main character Celie to God. Following her from the time she is a teenager to old age, we see all of the hardships and joys that Celie encounters. It is one of the most touching books I have read.
Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Title: A Wrinkle in Time
LSU
Rating: 5
Summary: This is a wonderful fantasy novel, mixing real life with science and magic. Meg and her brother Charles Wallace go in search of their missing father. With the help of Mrs. Which, Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and their friend Calvin, the Murray siblings are able to save their father from one of the “dark planets.”
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Title: Breaking Dawn
LINK+
Rating: 4
Summary: In the final book of the Twilight series, Bella and Edward finally marry, and Bella gains immortality. However, this does not happen before giving birth to a daughter. This book chronicles the Cullen’s journey to keep the peace between themselves and the Volturi; trying to keep their “happily ever after.”
Summary: In the third Twilight novel, Victoria is back for Bella and she is bringing an army of new–born vampires to help.
Author: John Steinbeck
Title: Of Mice and Men
LINK+
Rating: 4
Summary: A mixture of beautiful prose with simple, early 1900’s dialogue, Of Mice and Men is a great story of friendship. Lennie and George make a great pair trying to save enough money to have land of their own–a dream not many could achieve at the time. Right before their dream is to become a reality things go a rye, leaving the reader to sympathize with the main characters.
Author: J. D. Salinger
Title: The Catcher in the Rye
LINK+
Rating: 1
Summary: This book seemed completely pointless. There is no real plot, and the protagonist is someone that cannot be liked. Described as the “great American novel” I am still struggling to figure out why.