Teen and Staff Reviews

Teen Review

We Were Liars

By E. Lockhart

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jun 30, 2017

Cadence is part of the incredibly wealthy and distinguished Sinclair family. She has been spending the summer on a private island with a group of her four friends. She has amnesia. She can’t remember their revolution. She can’t remember the accident. Everyone is keeping a secret from her, how can she remember the truth?

Teen Review

My Sister Rosa

By Justine Larbalestier

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jun 28, 2017

Rosa seems like a charming and brilliant young girl, she makes it look like there is nothing wrong with her. But her brother knows better. She is so talented at deception and persuasion, he is certain she is a diagnosable psychopath. She hasn’t hurt any people yet, but he is sure it is only a matter of time. Ever since their parents moved them to New York City, Rosa has been playing increasingly complex and disturbing games. Can he protect Rosa from the world, but more importantly, can he protect the world against Rosa?

Teen Review

Give A Boy A Gun

By Todd Strasser

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jun 26, 2017

Brendan and Gray have been relentlessly harassed and bullied by the jocks at Middletown high for as long as they could remember. But not anymore. They decide enough is enough. They take all their classmates hostage at a school dance with an arsenal of stolen guns. It soon becomes clear to the students during the chaos that the only thing that matters to Brendan and Gary is revenge. At points along the story, there are statistics about gun violence, further educating the reader's understanding of the backdrop of this story.

Teen Review

The Wave

By Todd Strasser

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jun 22, 2017

This book is based on a true incident that occurred in a high school class in 1969.

When history teacher Burt Ross’ students can not seem to understand the powerful forces of group pressure that helped create the rise of Nazism, he decides to create the Wave, with its rules of “strength through discipline, community, and action.” It quickly spreads throughout the school. But as almost all of the students join in, Laurie Saunders and David Collins recognize its frightening momentum and must stop it before something awful happens.

Teen Review

Everything, Everything

By Nicola Yoon

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jun 19, 2017

Madeline has a rare disease that basically makes her allergic to the world. She never leaves the house and the only people she sees are her mom and her nurse. But then one day, a neighbor boy moves in next door. Olly shows her what life is all about on the outside and she begins to fall in love with him, even though she knows she shouldn’t. Will they ever be able to make it work?

Teen Review

City of Bones

By Cassandra Clare

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jun 8, 2017

When her mother disappears, Clary is attacked by a demon, and is drawn into the world of the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. But why would demons be interested in normal people like Clary and her mother? How can Clary suddenly have the sight, these beings are invisible to everyone else. The Shadowhunters would like to know...

Teen Review

Paper Towns

By John Green

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jun 6, 2017

Quentin Jacobsen has spent his life loving the magnificent and adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from next door. So when she crawls through his window one night dressed like a ninja and summons him for a genious campaign of revenge, he of course follows. The next day at school, she has mysteriously vanished into thin air. But he learns she left him clues to find her, and the closer he gets, the less he sees the girl he thought he knew.

Teen Review

The Maze Runner

By James Dashner

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
May 30, 2017

Thomas wakes up in the lift with no memory except that of his name. He is surrounded by other boys whose memories are also gone. They are in the glade, and it is surrounded by towering stone walls that make an ever-changing and limitless maze. It is the only way out, and no one has ever gone through it alive. But then a girl arrives, the first girl ever, and she carries a terrifying message.

Teen Review

The Great Hunt

By Wendy Higgins

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
May 25, 2017

When a dangerous beast begins to terrorize the kingdom, fear panics the citizens. But soon a proclamation is sent out: kill the creature and win the ultimate prize: the daughter of the king’s hand in marriage. Princess Aerity understands her duty to the kingdom, but she can not bear to marry a complete stranger, until a mysterious young hunter catches her eye. She can’t deny her attraction to him, or his strange resentment against her. As they both continue to surprise each other, Paxton’s perilous secrets he has so meticulously buried begin to surface.

Teen Review

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

By Jack Thorne

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
May 23, 2017

Nineteen years after the end of the Harry Potter series, Harry is still struggling to put the past behind him and be a good father to his 3 children as well as work at the ministry of magic. His youngest son, Albus, is struggling too, with the burden of a family legacy he never asked for. But as darkness lurks still in the wake of Lord Voldemort’s destruction, father and son must learn to accept their differences and disappointments to defeat it.

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