2018-2019 Waltham Hawks Honors Freshman Book Reviews

Siella Agostino Book:   Speak  by Laurie Halse Anderson All of us have experienced the day to day problems of being a teenager during their freshman year of high school. From what I have read of the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, that has mostly been all that this book is about. The story centers around a teenage girl Melinda who had just started her freshman year in high school. She is an outcast, who unfortunately has drifted away from her group of friends that she had in middle school. She is a girl who doesn’t belong anywhere in a place where everyone else belongs to one group or another. She eventually makes a new friend, Heather, who soon becomes a new member of the Martha’s - one of the main friend groups in the school, and tries to include Melinda, who feels very left out. Melinda then encounters a boy who she knows from a previous encounter. He makes her nervous and knows something she doesn’t want him to. She then sees him while skipping school for the firs...

One Piece Eiichiro Oda Fahim Sekamate What is your dream? This story is called  One Piece and in a world of pirates, the greatest and most legendary are remembered. One of these pirates, after being held by the navy before being executed, said that they could have their treasure -- the “One Piece”... if they found it. This began the biggest treasure hunt in history. For Monkey D. Luffy, however, the dream is something that may take a lifetime: to become the king of all pirates. He’d always heard of stories from a pirate named Shanks about their adventures as a child and couldn’t wait to become one. But one day, Luffy was at a bar with the rest of the pirates and begged to join their crew, but they laughed it off and told him no. Then, all of the sudden, mountain bandits came into the bar wanting some drinks, but the waitress told them that they ran out, and that the pirates drank them all. Shanks offered the bandits’ leader a bottle that wasn’t open, but the leader smashed it...

Alexa Vongsy The Hate You Give                                      T.H.U.G By Angie Thomas “Brave doesn't mean you're not scared. It means you go on even though you're scared...why should I be ashamed of what makes me, me?” Fight for what you believe in and don’t be ashamed of where you came from as this book portrays on making a difference in your life and society. The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas sends a very powerful message of how 16 year old African American girl named Starr Carter seems to live two different lives and identities. Starr attends a private school of a white dominated environment and comes home to her predominantly black neighborhood in Garden Heights. Starr Carter had lived a typical life but then changed due to one night when she had witnessed her childhood friend Khalil get shot and killed by police brutality. They portray Khalil as a thug and bad guy after th...

Ashley Marquez The Longest Ride By Nicholas Sparks “We shared the longest ride together, this thing called life, and mine has been filled with joy because of you”(Nicholas Sparks).  In the book  The Longest Ride written by Nicholas Sparks a 91 year old man fights for his life with his wife by his side. Ira is a war veteran who went through a terrible car crash but during his recovery he remembers why he fell in love with his late wife named Ruth even though it took him a long time to get the courage to talk to her. Eventually they talked and fall in love, but they faced more problems than a normal relationship would. Despite their struggles he remembers all the happy memories he had with her; he subconsciously brings her back and that's what is keeping him alive. His wife appears to him while he lies helpless in his car, urging him to live longer. They end up reliving tales of their life, otherwise known as the longest ride. Their love story isn’t the only story in the ...

Thara Belony Three Dark Crowns By Kendare Blake How far would you go for something that you want? “Three dark queens are born in a glen, sweet little triplets will never be friends - Three dark sisters all fair to be seen, two to devour and one to be Queen”. (epigraph) On the island of Fennbirn, one set of triplet girls are born. These girls are special in a way that no others on this island are, for they are all queens. The twist in this story is that only one of the queens are able to reign. Each of them is born equal and with a gift from the island’s goddess, either the elemental gift, the naturalist gift, or the poisoned gift. Mirabella (the eldest), Arsinoe (second born), and Katharine (the youngest) are required to fight to the death for their crown. Who will be the last one standing? Personally, I had mixed feelings about this book. The characters were engaging but there were a lot of slow parts. I enjoyed how the reader was given the perspectives of each of the sister...

Grace Scheufele The Start of Me and You Emery Lord Dealing with loss is never easy. It’s different for everyone, and it can often have ups and downs along the way. The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord follows a 15 year old girl named Paige Hancock and her journey to coping with the loss of her boyfriend. She’s classified as a planner, someone who has their life plans and expectations set out in front of them, so the unexpected death affects her in a large way.  In attempt to feel like herself again, she decides to make a list of goals to complete before her sophomore year comes to an end. The story follows her as she tries to achieve each of her goals, and displays the struggles and triumphs she faces throughout the year. The book is classified as fiction as well as romance, and the romance aspect is portrayed very well. It doesn’t take away from the main message of the book. If anything, it helps to show that it is possible to learn to love after loss. I would definitely reco...

Catherine Perez Alone By Cyn Balog Have you ever felt as if someone was watching you? Seda’s life took a drastic turn when her mom announced they would be leaving Boston. She was forced to leave everything that she had behind, including her friends and school. Seda’s mom inherits an old haunted mansion that she was supposed to put on the market to sell but she had a change of mind and decides to renovate the mansion instead. They were only supposed to stay there a couple of weeks until the mansion was sold but with this change, Seda fears she will never get back to her old life. The life where she communicated with kids her age and did things that normal people did. Seda feels trapped inside the mansion. Seda and her siblings don’t go to school since her mom doesn’t believe they need to and says it’s a waste of time. When a group of teenagers gets stranded at the mountain, where Seda and her family live, they come to the mansion to seek help. Seda refuses to let them stay beca...

Jack Hazel Fake ID By Lamar Giles How would you feel if you were constantly on the run, moving from city to city, all because of someone else’s bad decisions? Nick Pearson, whose real name is Tony, was put into this situation in the first half of Fake ID by Lamar Giles. At the beginning of the story, the reader sees the protagonist on his first day at a new high school who introduces himself as Nick Pearson, hiding his real name from the reader. He runs into bullies, girls, and potential friends all while acting strangely secretive for some unknown reason. At the protagonist’s home, the reader learns that Nick and his family are in WitSec, which is short for the Witness Security Program, because of his father’s criminal activity and his relationship with Kreso Maric a criminal that has been on the run for a quite a while. This is the reason for all the constant moving that he and his family have to go through and the reason for their fake names. They have moved a numerous amou...

Ava Lourie Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer             A normal life is all Miranda has ever known, until everything changes with one asteroid. Nobody in the entire world expected what happened, and this situation was a complete shock to all.             In Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Miranda lives an average life with her brothers, Matt and Johnny, and her mother. When they hear the news that the largest asteroid known to record is going to hit the moon, everyone, including Miranda’s friends and family, are extremely excited. But the second the asteroid hits the moon, everything that could have possibly gone wrong, went wrong. The moon is knocked out of orbit and it looks a lot larger than before. Miranda, not really knowing how to react, says, “I looked out my window just now. I tried to look at the moon, but it just scares me” (26). Miranda and her family have to figure out the best way to surv...

Bella Dagostino Project 17 by Laurie Faria Stolarz Exploring places can be fun, but exploring a haunted place is even more fun. Exploring abandoned places can uncover dark secrets and uncover the dangers lurking in the shadows. Project 17 by Laurie Faria Stolarz is about a group of teens that go and explore an abandoned mental hospital. Things take an unexpected turn from when they first got there to when they leave. They only went there to film for a contest but ended up solving a mystery about a girl named Christine Belle who took her own life while in the asylum. The asylum had many dark secrets that were hidden. During their stay at Danvers State Hospital, they found a girl named Christine Belle’s journal, after they found it, weird occurrences started happening. While exploring the dark asylum the group came across a room with a doll hanging from the ceiling as someone had just placed it there. The scary thing about it was that it was swinging like someone had touched it befor...

Anja Brooks Long Way Down By Jason Reynolds ¨No. 1: Crying Don't No matter what No 2: Snitching Don't No matter what No 3: Revenge Do. No matter what¨ Would you want to follow these rules, all the time, and not break them? The main character, Will, found out his brother just died. He was shot. Will debates whether or not he should follow the rules that everyone in his neighborhood knows. His brother taught him the rules, his brother learned from Will's dad. The rules are passed down from one generation to the next. If he takes revenge he can kill the guy who killed his brother. If he does not take revenge he will just sit there and not do anything about it. Will gets a gun that his brother had and puts it in his pocket. He gets into the elevator of his apartment building, on his way still debating. As the elevator goes down a floor a visitor comes. He recognizes each and every visitor, but he does not know why. He talks to the visitors and they help ...

Sylvie Budzinski Between Shades of Gray By Ruta Sepetys Imagine being taken from your house in the middle of the night, with only minutes to pack a bag, not knowing why or for what you were being taken for. That’s what happened to Lina. Rewind to 1930, when the Soviet Union and NKVD captured innocent Russians and transported them across the country. In Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, Lina, Jonas, and their mother hear a beating against their door in the middle of the night, while the father is away. They are told to gather their things, and are immediately removed from their home, and thrown into a train car filled with people. With absolutely no idea where they were headed or why they had been taken, Lina and her family travel through Russia under direction of the Soviets, who threaten to kill them with every step. Lina briefly connects with her father, and then though the rest of their journey continues to attempt to reach him, with hidden drawings and code that...

Kayla Konstantopoulos I'll See You Again By Jackie Hance Everything seems normal when three girls go on a camping trip with their aunt, until the unexpected happens. In the book I’ll See You Again , Jackie Hance tells her story of how she and Warren are just two ordinary parents with three daughters until a tragedy happens and leaves everyone heartbroken. Jackie and Warren Hance have three daughters, Emma who is 8, Alyson who is 7, and Katie who’s 5. They are involved in lots of sports and activities, especially Emma being the lead in a musical. Alyson was the kindest and most popular girl in her class and little Katie was the baby of the family, she’s super close with her mom because they get to spend alone time together while the girls and Warren are at school/work. The girls were so excited to go on a camping trip with their Aunt Diane, Uncle Danny, and 2 little cousins, Bryan and Erin. They went last year and had a blast so they were filled with excitement while packing their ...

Diego Horta Taken Erin Bowman What significance would you put on your life if you knew how and when you would die? Would life even matter to you anymore? In the small, and mysterious town of Claysoot completely surrounded by imprisoning walls, Gray Weathersby has to face just that. The town has had its history of people vanishing out of nowhere, but soon they come to realize that it only happens to men on their 18th birthday. The sudden event of men vanishing has come to be called the Heist by the townspeople. Gray, after losing his big brother to the Heist, starts to question how much time he has left before he gets taken from the Heist, but he soon finds something that makes him question a lot more than his years left before the Heist, a note. This note, written by his mother for his brother, makes Gray wonder about the world outside of the walls of the town leaving him with many questions about everything around him. Based on the part that I read, I really enjoyed this book bec...

Rylie Warren  Room  by Emma Donoghue  Imagine growing up in one little room: not experiencing the rest of the world, and being in there for the first six years of your life, with no exposure to anything else but what you know in “room.”   The breathtaking true story, Room by Emma Donoghue, narrated by a five-year-old boy, is about a mom and her son, living in an eleven by eleven foot shed that they refer to as “room”. At the beginning of the story, Room is the only world that Jack knows of and has given it a name as well as chair, table, bed, skylight, and other inanimate objects in Room. Six years ago his mother was kidnapped from who they refer to as “old Nick;” she was severely mistreated and has been held hostage ever since. Every day she tries her best to teach Jack about what other five-year-olds are learning about, she tries to explain how there is life outside of Room but he just doesn’t believe it. He thinks everything that he sees on T.V. is...

Violet Forney Traumatic Violence The Female of the Species Mindy McGinnis What are the consequences of traumatic experiences on the human psyche? In, The Female of the Species, the protagonist, Alex Craft, struggles to deal with the loss of her sister who was kidnapped and murdered three years prior. Her killer was never caught but Alex knows who it was. Although she gets distracted from her main goal of finding the killer by new friendships and a love interest, the violence that is inside of her remains. Throughout the story, the reader views Alex’s fight to control the anger and darkness inside of her while trying to find justice for her sister. This book may be a good read for any avid mystery fan that is comfortable reading dark and tragic stories. The story itself was interesting and Alex’s relentless chase of this seemingly evasive killer was exciting. The book requires a certain level of maturity to see through the irrelevant and distasteful parts of Alex’s journ...

Kaleigh Walsh Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks “ That’s the thing about life. A lot of the time it isn’t easy at all. We just have to try to make the best of it”. Life isn’t about rushing through everything or about how easy things are. It’s about taking things slow and making the best of every moment which was a central theme in this book. Safe Haven is all about a girl named Katie who comes from the Boston area to South Port, North Carolina in hopes to escape an abusive husband. She gets a job working at the local diner and moves into a small rental house with the money she has saved. She meets Jo her new neighbor and the become good friends. One day when Katie was doing her grocery shopping at the local store she meets a widowed Alex and his daughter. Katie visits the store often and one day at the store something happens to Alex’s son and Katie watches his daughter as he tries to help his son. Eventually both Katie and Alex discover the feelings they have for each other and star...

Mohaned Aljundi All the bright places By Jennifer Niven A boy longing to die, and the popular girl who hides her emotions- Could this strangely be a perfect match? In All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, the two main characters, Violet and Finch met when they were both coincidently thinking about attempting suicide on top of a bell tower of their school. Finch doesn't have many friends and a lot of people tend to stay away from him, while Violet is very popular and one of the last people you would think would attempt suicide. Finch has a lot of experience with having suicidal thoughts and when he sees Violet up there with him, he calmly talks her out of jumping off. When they go back into school, the students and teachers are under the impression that Violet talked Finch out of jumping off and neither Finch or Violet confessed about what had really happened. This caused Violet to become the “hero” of the school. Because of Finch’s encounter with Violet, he becomes ...

Cole Gaynor George R.R. Martin A Game Of Thrones You Win Or You Die "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.”  In both fictional works and real life events, the question of who rules has been a complicated, messy thing. Why wouldn’t it be? High stakes are always in place, and nothing but death befits the loser of such a game when their adversary is crowned. In the opening book of George R.R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series, A Game Of Thrones , these are precisely the stakes.  The first drop of the series is tinged with a horrifying sort of mysticism: three men, alone among a wintery wasteland, encounter the reanimated corpses of people they saw dead with their own eyes. After Martin’s chilling entry, the story moves away from the magical for a while, and the slightly overwhelming multitude of characters begin to stream. We are introduced to the Starks of Winterfell in the North, of which there are the family’s two parents, two of their d...

Sarah Toole Carry On Rainbow Rowell Of the many books I have read in my life, Carry On is assuredly my current favorite, with magic, mystery, and an adorable love story subplot. Simon Snow is the protagonist of Carry On, the “Chosen One”; the one who will save all wizards from some unspeakable evil, known as the Insidious Humdrum. Simon, however, is pretty awful at magic. The story begins at the start of his eighth and final year at Watford, where he has to make his way from the children’s home he has stayed at during the summer back to school. He is attacked by a goblin, disguised as his taxi driver, but defeats it and walks the rest of the way. Once he arrives at Watford though, things aren’t much better. His roommate Baz is missing, Agatha, his longtime girlfriend, breaks up with him, the Mage- who’s the Dumbledore equivalent to Watford- is rarely around and isn’t very helpful when he is, and he’s being Visited- the term for when spirits come back through the Veil of th...