Teen and Staff Reviews

Rogue One was an amazing movie that had action, mystery, adventure, and new knowledge towards the watchers. Rogue One is about a band of rebels who are led by Jyn Erso to obtain information to destroy a secret weapon that the Empire is building. This movie takes place between the 3rd and 4th movie of the Skywalker Saga and could be called the 3.5 Star Wars movie. It is entertaining to watch and spectacular to listen to.

I loved how Star Wars: The Force Awakens introduced new and different characters into the main roles for the next 3 movies. The appearance of Rey, Fin (FN2187), and Kylo Ren was amazing. After the fall of the Empire, the rebels took control of the galaxy and helped its people. There were a few who still believed in the dark side of the force, the First Order, and took it upon themselves to attack the Resistance. There was a confusing point throughout the movie to whom the new Jedi was going to be.

Solo begins with Han and Qi’Ra, a friend, escaping their home world. They get separated and Han goes on his mission to gain enough money to save his friend. This movie is my favorite Star Wars story and is a lot different than what you would expect from Han Solo. If you have not seen the original 4-6 Star Wars films then Hans Solo is an overconfident weasel who tries to talk his way out of debts that he gets into.

Star Wars The Last Jedi was my favorite movie in the 7-9 Star Wars films because it was in the format of The Empire Strikes Back. After the conclusion of The Force Awakens, Rey journeys through the Galaxy to find Luke Skywalker. While Rey is on her own mission the Resistance is attacked by the First Order.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins is a prequel to the famous Hunger Games series. The novel follows President Snow during his youth, before he became a ruthless power-hungry leader. Coriolanus Snow is an eighteen year old boy living in the Capitol. The Hunger Games is a new concept in which the twelve districts are punished by having to sacrifice two children to fight to the death amongst the other eleven districts.

In the prequel to The Hunger Games, the reader gets accustomed to the notorious president of Panem, President Coriolanus Snow, through his adolescence in the 10th annual Hunger Games. Coriolanus, a student at the Academy, becomes a mentor to the District 12 darling, Lucy Gray Baird.

The main character, Waka, is a straight-A student from Kansas who is sent to Tokyo for five months to focus on her Kanji, when her parents suspect she can’t read nor write basic Japanese. She is forced to live with her strict grandmother, and has to say goodbye to her friends for the summer. While she’s in Japan, Waka gets made fun of by her classmates and struggles to make true friends.

“You are wanted. Big, small, tall, short, pretty, plain, friendly, shy. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, not even yourself.”

Once famous for being “America’s Fattest Teen,” Libby Strout becomes the laughingstock of her high school. Struggling to get by, she unwantedly encounters Jack Masselin, getting them both tangled up in a mess of misunderstandings. However, when Jack uncovers to her that he has prosopagnosia, a condition in which he cannot recognize people’s faces, they are able to connect through embracing each other’s imperfections while also embracing their own.

In the young adult novel Holding Up the Universe, Libby Strout and Jack Masselin live two separate lives with the same goals: to be wanted in society. Libby, formerly known as “America’s Fattest Teen” who was cut out from her house after a massive panic attack, and Jack, a high school boy living with Prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces, even the people he loves, come together through a demoralizing prank.

Obsidian, the first book in Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Lux series, was shamefully addicting. This book fits the typical YA paranormal romance plotline, but I couldn’t put it down. Katy, a typical girl next door character, moves to the middle of nowhere in West Virginia, where her neighbors, Daemon and Dee Black, are aliens. Forming a relationship with the Blacks places Katy in the middle of a timeless rivalry between the Luxen and their evil alien counterparts, the Arum.