The Last Olympian

The Last Olympian is the final installment in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. Throughout the 400 pages, Percy and his friends must fight the Titans while the gods try to rescue the world by fighting Typhon ( a giant with 100 heads and each eye shoots lava) who got out of the volcano he was trapped in. Percy and friends fight the Titans led by Kronos by making Percy almost immortal in the same process that Achilles almost became immortal, dipping him in the river, Styx. In the end, it comes down to Percy and Annabeth in the throne room against Ethan Nakamura, the son of the goddess of revenge, Nemesis, and Luke who has been taken over by the almighty Kronos. Percy finds out by Ethan's dying breath that Luke had been dipped in the river, Styx, as well. Then in an instant, Luke gains enough control of his body to complete one action-kill himself. Percy has a tough decision, either to kill Luke himself or give Luke the dagger to commit suicide. Percy chooses the latter because he believe that that was what Luke wanted. In addition to killing himself, Luke also kills Kronos who possessed his body. Finally, the gods defeat Typhon and everyone is safe. But Percy has one last demand for saving the world. The gods must all take claim to their children.

Eye of the Forest

In P.B. Kerr's fourth installment the twins protect an ancient Inca secret throughout the 384 pages. They meet Zadie Eloko a good djinn with a bad master and promise her she can come on their next adventure. John accidentally releases a ten thousand year old djinn from a spirit board. Dybbuk lost his power so he helps Finley Macreeby's father Virgil, who is a magician that wants ultimate power from the secret. John and Phillippa go to the Amazon and have to fight Natives and too big to be true monsters made by a secret marauder they go to the lost city of the Incas and stop an accidental destruction of the world. I enjoyed the book because it had many twists in the plot and more action in the story.

Day of the Djinn Warriors

Day of the Djinn Warriors tells the story of the next adventure John and Phillippa embark on. In the 373 page novel by P.B. Kerr, John and Phillipa must discover why ghosts are being moved from the spirit world. Iblis plans to use millions of children's souls to power terracotta warriors so they can live and do his bidding. The twins get help from Marco Polo and Genghis Khan's grandson. The twins Mom had to leave to fulfill her destiny. But will the Children be saved a horrible fate or will the twins and their friend prevail? Read to find out. I reccomend this book just as much if not more than the other installments. It breathes suspense, with an accomplice of constant action, out of every page.

The Winter Room

The Winter Room by Gary Paulsen is 103 pages long. It tells the story of Eldon and his family in Minnesota. during Winter the family stays in the living room listening to Uncle David's stories of other places. Wayne becomes mad at Uncle David, who he usually idolizes, for telling a story about himself and what he could do when he was young. Wayne does not like this because he thinks Uncle David is lying and being a braggart. David does what he said he could have done when he was youthful. He does not know that Eldon and Wayne are watching his feat of amazement. I like this book because of the funny things Wayne and Eldon do together.

Dragon's Gate

"Dragon's Gate" is a 333 page book by Laurence Yep. In the story Otter a young Chinese boy from Three Willows village wants to join his adoptive father and Uncle Foxfire in America, The Land of the Golden Mountain, so that the people may learn how to overthrow the Manchus, who invaded and took over, with technology like trains and other gadgets. When Otter finally goes to America unlike everyone in China's belief he finds out that his uncle and dad are not at the top but rather almost like slaves of the railroad contractors where they work 8 to 12 hours a day chipping away at the mountain the workers call "The Tiger" so that the railway can go through the mountain itself. At the end Foxfire dies, his father is blinded, and Otter is a hero for saving the camp from an avalanche so he can get off the darned god forsaken mountain and back to his pampered ways in China but he carries on his Uncle Foxfire's dream of studying the American tech for the aforementioned overthrow of the Manchu invaders power over China.

The House of the Scorpion

The wall slid open at Matt's touch.The House of the Scorpion is a 373 page science fiction story by Nancy Farmer that tells Matt the Clone's story of life. Growing up Matt lived a poor life with Celia, his adoptive mother, in a house lying in a field of poppies, but all that changed when Mateo Alacran,El Patron, the real Matt reveals his clone. Written for seventh and eighth graders, the characters Celia, Tam Lin, Matt, El Patron, Felicia, Tom, and Maria are warm but a little devious or just plain evil. It takes place in Opium and Aztlan, which are future broken up Mexico countries.
I recommend it absolutely for many reasons. First, the author was hinting at things the whole time so that the reader could guess what would happen next. I liked the fast paced, action filled plot with secretive yet lovable characters like when Matt escaped from the house in the poppies or when Matt escapes Opium to go to Aztlan. When Matt finds the secret passage he doesn't tell anyone proving that he is secretive.
That is why you should read The House of the Scorpion if you enjoy a great Newberry honor book for proficient readers.

Maus

Art Spiegelman wrote Maus, a 298 page comic book about the holocaust from his father's point of view. But the characters instead of Jews, Nazis and Polish people, are mice, cats and pigs respectively. In the book, Art Spiegelman's character is interviewing his father about the holocaust for his book. I liked this book because of the interesting drawings and because Art's father didn't want to talk about certain parts of the holocaust like people in real life. The choice of the comic book format was interesting because the drawings reinforce the ideas presented in each comic book text box. The animals as the characters were good choices because cats eat mice but also it made it kind of a children's book, too. It was pretty realistic and I recommend it because I learned a lot about the holocaust from it.