Finding My Voice by Marie Myung-Ok Lee focuses on17-year-old Ellen Sung, the only Korean girl in her small, all-white school in a small, all-white town. While grappling with her parents’ high academic expectations, Ellen also experiences blatant and implicit racism. Time and time again, she catches hissed remarks or sly smirks from other students, yet she doesn’t seem able to speak up against them.
The first time I saw this book was online while I was browsing through the Johnson County website. I was interested in this book because of the cover. As I read further into this book I understood that it was more than an adventure story but also a way of going on the journey with Karr. This book has the highest of commendations because it shows how Karr, a kid, journeys throughout the entire galaxy to find out how his powers work only to find out that he was predestined to do something else. This book will help people find how to find themselves because it helped me in that way.
Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy, the first book in a series of the same name, was excellent. After running away from school, Lissa, a Moroi princess, and her unofficial guardian/best friend, Rose, are caught and forced to return to St. Vladimir's Academy. There, the two girls must figure out who's after Lissa, all while trying to navigate a high school filled with vampires.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a very exciting and funny movie. In the movie, the main character Ferris Bueller decides to fake being sick and have one last extremely fun and eventful day off of school before graduation. He sneaks his girlfriend out of school and convinces his friend, who actually is sick, to join the adventure. The movie details the memorable day from performing in a parade to deceiving the principal.
One of Using Is Lying, by Karen M. McManus, is a Mystery/Thriller novel. The story unfolds around four teens after their classmate, Simon Kellhelro, dies. Brownyn, Nate, Addy, and Cooper become suspects in the murder. The four suspects each had a motive to kill Simon. Slowly by slowly, the supposed murder reveals the secrets of the four students. The four suspects become closer and vouch for each other.
After letting her insecurities ruin her experience at a Halloween party, Olivia "Liv" James decides to make a F*ck-It List to never let her insecurities get to her again. This leads Liv to get a part in the school musical, gain new best friends, as well as attractions to 3 different boys. The list seemed to change Liv's life for the better, until one rule of the list led to a series of misunderstands to unfold in this inspiring novel.
The Battle for Room 314 by Ed Boland, published in 2016, tells the compelling story of his year teaching in an inner-city high school in New York City. As a young man, Boland worked for Project Advance, a non-profit working to place low-income, inner-city students in elite boarding schools and eventually Ivy League universities; however, he begins to feel unfulfilled and wants to widen his impact to help more deserving students.
Not knowing how her family has landed in witness protection is driving seventeen year old "Meg" crazy. But she knows the two rules of being in witness protection... be invisible and don't make friends. Easier said than done, and after six placements in the last year she is bound and determined to make this placement stick as the constant moving and stress of learning new identities and back stories is tearing her family apart.
After famed dragon slayer, Lottie Thorskard, is injured on the job she takes early retirement and moves to the small town of Trondheim to escape her notoriety and the big city. She brings her partner Hannah, and nephew Owen, whose father is out fighting the carbon eating dragons that have plagued Canada since the dawn of time.
