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.

Battle of the Labyrinth

In the fourth installation of the Percy Jackson series, Battle of the Labyrinth which is 368 pages, Percy finds out that Nico DeAngelo is the son of Hades from the past. He was stuck in the Lotus Hotel and Casino and although time passed, Nico did not age. Luke gloats about attacking Camp Half-blood through the labyrinth. The whole camp decides to guard the entrance after a capture the flag game in which Percy finds the entrance to the labyrinth. Percy, Tyson, Grover and Annabeth go looking for Daedalus's workshop in the middle of the labyrinth so they could take the string of Ariadne before Luke does. In the labyrinth, Percy and the others find a hundred-handed one whose race is a cousin of Tyson's race. They also find a demon jailer that has poisonous swords and is a dragon woman. When they find Daedalus, they discover they knew him all along. Daedalus's dog, Mrs. O'Leary, leads them back to camp. Meanwhile, Daedalus battles Luke who comes to take the string. Daedalus dies in the battle and Luke succeeds in taking the string. When Luke gets to camp with tons of Kronos's men and the dragon woman who they falsely thought they had killed, there is a giant battle because the camp is defended by dryads, nyads, and the campers who utilize traps. The camp wins after sustaining many injuries and deaths. After the battle, Annabeth uses Daedalus's computer to make many advances in weapons and technology. This is the best book in the series by far because there is a lot of action, betrayal and surprises. Rick Riordan did a great job on this book!

The Titan's Curse

Titan's Curse is a 312 page book written by Rick Riordan. The third installation of the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series introduces two new demi-gods, Bianca and Nico DeAngelo. When the hunter goddess, Artemis, shows up with her cult of maiden warriors to help Percy fight a manticore, Bianca joins Artemis's hunters. Percy speaks with Artemis and having been told that there is a monster that she must track alone, Percy leaves with the hunters. However, Artemis is gone for along time and during her absence, her lieutenant, Zoe Nightshade has a dream about Artemis being trapped. When Artemis's hunters call upon Camp Half-blood for help, Annabeth, Thalia, Bianca and Percy set out to find Artemis and discover that she is being held captive by Atlas, Kronos's war general. Normally, Atlas would hold up the sky but he tricked Artemis into holding it for him. After a gruelling battle with all of Luke's men, the good guys get Atlas back under the sky and Luke falls off the mountain. I liked this story because it was full of action.

The Sunflower

The Sunflower is a 98 page novel chronicling Simon Wiesenthal, a Jew, during the holocaust. He is sent to Auschwitz where a dying Nazi soldier confesses his sins and tries to repent to Simon. He tells of when they set a house on fire with Jews corralled inside and he was to shoot anyone who tried to escape the fire. when he gets to the part where he shot a family he asks for absolution from Simon. Simon does not say anything and this is absolutely wrong.

Simon is wrong for not giving forgiveness. Simon should have given Karl, the dying Nazi, absolution from his crime because he was dying. He should have humored the SS man who had converted back to his Cristianity despite the teachings he had absorbed.It reminded me of Terrible Things an allegory where the woodland creatures are like the Jews and the Terrible Things are Nazis. The main character is a rabbit that wonders throughout the story if he did the right thing like Simon did after the disturbing deathbed experience. I reccomend it because it has a great twisted plot.