Friends become enemies because one falls in love. That is the only happy part of this story. For Noor everything is hard. And for Salaudhin everything is wrong. The loss of one person changed the lives of two people. And now they both don’t know what to do.
Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why is a Young Adult Fiction novel that tells the haunting story of Hannah Baker—a teenage girl who recently committed suicide and left behind thirteen self-recorded cassette tapes in the hands of the novel’s main character, Clay Jensen. Clay’s intense desire for closure drives him to seek out the truth regarding the events that contributed to her decision to take her own life.
Nicola Yoon’s The Sun Is Also a Star details the relationship between teenagers Natasha Kingsley—a Jamaican American faced with the threat of deportation, and Daniel Bae—a Korean American struggling to live up to his parents’ expectations. Natasha hopes to stay in the United States; she spends her final day in New York City seeking legal help to avoid deportation. The two meet in New York, and Daniel decides to miss out on a potentially life changing interview to spend the day with Natasha.
Marieke Nijkamp’s This is Where it Ends is a young adult fiction novel that depicts the tragic events of a school shooting at Opportunity high school. The novel’s main characters Claire, Tomas, Autumn, and Sylv serve to represent the intricacy of each individual life affected by school shootings; they represent that each life affected is more than a name or a number—that they are human, too.
Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief is a Young Adult Fiction novel that tells Liesel Meminger’s story—a young girl living in Germany during World War II. Constantly faced with loss and tragedy, Liesel hopes to find meaning in her life—she does so through her fascination with books. Occupying her time with words and as many books as she can find, she is faced with the reality of the war—the oppression in Nazi Germany, losing the people she loves, and the consequences of doing the right, but dangerous thing.
John Green’s Looking For Alaska is a Young Adult novel that tells the complex story of the relationship between main character Miles Turner—also known as Pudge—and Alaska Young. Pudge’s fascination with searching for deeper meaning in life leaves him fascinated with Alaska Young when he transfers to her high school. Miles struggles with attempting to understand both Alaska and the world around him as he encounters the complexities of relationships, friendships, and simply being human.
None of This True, is a cozy gripping thriller that will keep you guessing. Josie Fair is celebrating her 45th birthday at a local pub. There she meets Alix Summers, a podcaster who shares the same birthday. A birthday twin! They bump into each other days later. This time Josie talks about her idea of making a podcast about herself. She convinces Alix that she's going to make a big change soon. Alix has uneasy feelings about Josie but she can't resist the temptation of her curiosity.
Ground Zero is a very well written book about the incident during 9/11. It focuses on two different characters, Brandon and Reshima. Both characters have to go through many hardships and challenges such as being trapped in the world trade center. Overall, I give this book a 5 out of 5 because it is a very engaging book and is very easy to follow. I highly recommend reading this book if you like historical fiction or enjoy any other Alan Gratz books.
Soul Lanterns by Shaw Kuzki is about a twelve-year-old girl named Nozomi. She lives in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The city she lives in was bombed 25 years ago and caused many deaths of innocent people. During a certain time of the year, people from Hiroshima put lanterns in water and let them float as a memorial for the loved ones they lost during the devastating bombing that took place 25 years ago. As usual, during the holiday Nozomi's mom was placing two lanterns in water, a colored one and a white one.
Daughter of the Deep written by Rick Riordan is about a girl named Ana Dakkar she goes to Harding-Pencroft Academy there are four houses: House Dolphin, House Cephalopod, House Shark, and House Orca each house specializes in something Ana’s brother Dev Dakkar is a senior Harding-Pencroft Academy he is House shark and specializes in the offense. Ana is a house Dolphin and specializes in leadership but feels like she is not confident enough to lead.
