Reviews by Category: Fiction

Greg Heffley has never been good in sport, nor has he ever been very interested in them.

In fact, he has decided that he shouldn’t have any affair with sports at all. However, everything

changes when Greg’s mom gets him to try out for basketball, and he somehow makes the team

despite his bad performance. Now Greg has to try and make it through the season, but things aren’t

looking so good for Heffley and his team. Will Greg awaken the inner athlete inside of him, or

will he mess everything up?

It starts off with an abnormally short kid named Matt Baker. Baseball is everything to him

because he doesn’t have to talk much on the field. Matt doesn’t like talking because he stutters.

Matt wants to win the championship of the All-Star league. His team name was the Astros and

he loved the actual Astros because Jose Altuve was short like him and George Springer also

stuttered like Matt. Ben Roberson and his dad stand in the way of the Astros winning the

The Outsiders by Francis Ford Coppola is a classic coming-of-age movie. In this movie,

Ponyboy finds himself caught up in the middle of a few too many conflicts. Ponyboy is a

greaser, and being a greaser isn’t easy. He knows he can depend on his brothers, Darry and

Sodapop, and the gang. He also knows not to trust the socs. When Ponyboy’s friend, Johnny,

kills a soc in self-defense, the two boys are forced to go on the run with the help of Dally. Being

Divergent is about a girl named Betrice Prior who lives in a society made up of 5

groups that will determine which group she will be apart of for the rest of her life.

Beatrice learns she is classified as Divergent, but she cannot tell anyone. She joins a

group but only the top 10 can stay. Tris (later on changing her name as well) realizes

there are many challenges to face, and that she must obey to keep herself alive.

The Selection is about a teenager named America Singer who is entered into a

contest to see which girl can become the prince’s bride. But America wants nothing to

do with it, she wants to be with her love, Aspen, who cannot provide for her. He is a

caste lower than her and is worried she needs someone else who can take care of her.

America is sad but as she meets Prince Maxwell, she starts falling in love with him. He

Monday’s Not Coming is about Claudia, a girl who is the only one who cares about

where her best friend, Monday, disappeared. Claudia, coming back from summer break,

was looking forward to seeing Monday, but Monday never shows up. School, church,

her own home, nowhere to be seen. Whenever Claudia asks for answers, no one

seems concerned and tells her to mind her own business. But Claudia is concerned that

Unleashed, by Sophie Jordan, is a novel about a girl named Davy Hamilton, who is

diagnosed with HTS, Homicidal Tendency Syndrome. Everyone ghosts her; her family,

boyfriend, and even her best friend. Davy is unsure of who she is anymore even when

she is shipped off to a place with teens just like her. She and her friends, Sean, Sabine,

and Gil, attempt to escape to find a better life. But then she gets separated from them

Cast Away is a great movie about a plane crash that leaves Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks)

stranded on an island, fighting for his survival. I think Tom Hanks was perfect for this role and

delivered an excellent performance, making it feel as if he really was alone on an island. The

progression of his loneliness was also very well portrayed, making for a dramatic scene when

the water pulls Wilson, the volleyball, out to sea. Besides a few gruesome scenes, I would say it

Red Kayak by Priscilla Cummings is an excellent book for adolescents about friendship and

trust-- for when thirteen-year-old Brady and his best friends J.T. and Digger get entwined in a

tragedy, Brady has to decide between company and right and wrong. I love this book because it

teaches kids to do the right thing and to tell the truth no matter what. I also enjoyed this book

because of its surprising twists and turns, keeping the reader on their toes.

1984, George Orwell, Realistic Fiction