Teen and Staff Reviews

In the historical fiction novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the legend of

the scarlet letter, a story of three Puritans' path toward penance for their sins. The story starts

with the main character, Hester Prynne, suffering a great ignominy before the entirety of Boston

after becoming pregnant with a child that was not her husband. Due to Hester moving to Boston

ahead of her husband, everyone thinks he is dead, so instead of being killed, she's forced to

In the historical fiction novella The Pearl, John Steinbeck details the destructiveness of

human greed through the view of an uneducated native Mexican after Spain colonized Mexic.

Before the native, Kino, discovered “the greatest pearl in the world”(Steinbeck 20), he lived what

seemed to be a fulfilling life; he had a faithful wife, a beautiful child, a reliable older brother, and

a way of life: pearl gathering. This life surrounded him with the pleasant “Song of the

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a powerful coming-of-age book told as a series of

letters from freshman in high school Charlie. He’s endured difficult experiences, and he feels

distant from his peers but yearning to participate. Through Charlie, Chbosky gives a stunning

account of the experiences of anxiety, awkwardness, and depression. He also demonstrates the

propensity of life to change and to improve, and the beauty of relationships. After Charlie begins

I have never heard about the story of Wilhelm Gustloff. I think that this story talks about a very

important event in history that we should all know about. And this book fantastically incorporated the

story of Wilhelm Gustloff in this historical fiction novel. The author shows you such diverse, different,

characters that are so unique and love able. The book describes the tragedies that happened in one of

many of the heartbreaking events that happened in World War 2. This book rotates between several

Four girls are known for being liars at their boarding school. They often played a game

called the Lying Game where the objective is to tell lies without getting caught. When they get a

text from a friend within the group, the girls are reunited when those lies come back to haunt

them in their adult life. is book kept me on the edge of my seat until the end. ere were so

many plot twists that let me questioning everything I originally thought. Make sure you have a

A Thousand Splendid Suns follows the story of two women between 1960 and 2000. ese

two women have different upbringings and are from two different generations but still end up in

the same place. They endure many heartbreaking events and sufferings. However, they learn

and teach each other their ways, ultimately forming a loving relationship. Before reading this

book, I knew nothing about Afghan's history or current events. However, it opened my eyes to

Almost-thirteen year old Lemony Snicket just graduated from his training at a secret

organization, and for his apprenticeship, planned to steal an artifact from a museum

with his trusted associate. However, things didn't go as planned, and instead he was

taken to a fading town called Stain’d-by-the-Sea, where he and his incompetent

chaperone, S. Theodora Markson, have to solve a mystery regarding an allegedly stolen

statue. The problem? The statue may not have been stolen to begin with. Moxie

“Love doesn’t require a future” (Serle 230).

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is a stunning fantasy novel - filled with every element a

good book should have: mystery, rivalries, magic, battle, and love. Jude is a human girl, whisked

away from the world she knew at age seven and thrust into that of the fae. Despite her mortality,

she wants to make it in this world of magic and war - which means gaining protection from the

cruel Prince Cardan, a classmate of hers and the most powerful and horrible member of the

Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah, is one of my favorite autobiographies. However, I do not

think I can even call this book an autobiography. He doesn’t talk at all about his future life, all he

talks about is his childhood and funny stories from it. Therefore, I like to call it a collection of

memoirs. This book takes place in South Africa during the 80’s, and this is when racism played a