The Bad Beginning

            You will notice that this book is not entitled The Littlest Elf.

            There is a very good reason for that. First of all, nothing in this book even closely resembles an elf, or anything elf-like. Secondly, The Littlest Elf is a happy story filled with singing and dancing helpers of Santa who happen to be vertically-challenged, while The Bad Beginning is a terrible novel filled with terrible people who do terrible things to three smart and resourceful children.

            You will also notice that this book begins with a warning, which you’d better heed if you value anything in this life we are given. This book should not be called The Bad Beginning. The words “the” “bad” and “beginning” placed in that order infer that there is only a bad beginning. But no. There is a bad beginning, a bad middle, and a bad end.

It all began on a bad morning on Briny Beach, where three children receive word that their parents had died in a terrible fire, and their mansion melted into a pile of rubble. Newly orphaned Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are shipped off to their relative at the request of their deceased parents, only to find a series of unfortunate events waiting to attack the orphans. Their sly and sneaky guardian, Count Olaf, plots to get his grubby, dirt-under-the-nails hands on the famous Baudelaire fortune Violet is to inherit when she is of age. The children are forced to perform ridiculous chores for their guardian and his terrifying theater troop, receive abuse at the hands of the villainous count, and try to remain optimistic while their life slowly dwindles down the drain.           

 But when things can’t get possibly any worse, they do. The children know Count Olaf is plotting something, but they can’t find out what it is. They must rely on their inventing, reading, and biting skills to uncover their vile guardian’s plot to seize their stack of cash in the bank. But heed my warning: the dreadful, addicting lives of the Baudelaire orphans will compel you to read for days without stop until you have completed every miserable volume.

(Readers looking for happy books...don't look here.)

Flipped

Back of the Book:

Bryce: My mom didn’t understand why it was so awful that “that cute little girl” had held my hand. She thought I should be friends with her. “You like soccer. Why don’t you go out there and kick the ball around?” Because I didn’t want to be kicked around, that’s why. And although I couldn’t say it like that at the time, I still had enough sense at age seven and a half to know that Julianna Baker was dangerous.

            Julianna: What did a kiss feel like anyway? Somehow I knew it wouldn’t be like the one I got from Mom or Dad at bedtime. The same species, maybe, but a radically different beast. Like a wolf and a whippet. Only science would put them on the same tree. Looking back, I like to think it was at least partly scientific curiosity that made me chase after that kiss, but it was probably more those blue eyes.

Bryce Loski’s impossible dream is for the girl next door to simply leave him alone. From the day he moved in, she’s been a thorn in his side. And he cannot shake her, no matter how hard he tries. He’s done every play in the book to try and shake her off his trail, but nothing seems to work. From pitching out her chicken’s eggs every day for a year (wouldn’t want to get salmonella) to dating the popular girl Juli hates, he frantically tries to escape her. But what happens when he realizes that maybe, just maybe, he likes her too?

The second Juli Baker saw Bryce Loski, she flipped. Ever since then, she’s desperate for his attention. But no matter how hard she tries, Bryce just can’t seem to notice. He shoots down every one of her attempts to reach out to him. But as the years pass, her eyes slowly begin to open until she realizes what a jerk he is. Bryce finally seems to take an interest in her, but could she only have flipped for those big blue eyes, not the person within?

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen is a must-read for teens. This book is packed with laugh-out-loud humor, and the reader will sympathize with Juli’s desperate crush on Bryce, and his desperate need to escape her. Told from the perspective of both next-door-neighbors, the truth of life and love are conveyed through each chapter. The novel Flipped is the perfect fast, funny, romantic, comedic summer read.

The Lightning Thief

        Back of the Book:
        Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.
        Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.
        With cover art from the major motion picture, this first installment of Rick Riordan's best-selling series is a non-stop thrill-ride and a classic of mythic proportions.

            Percy Jackson knows he’s not normal. Not only does he have ADHD, but he’s also a dyslexic with a bad rep of getting kicked out of every school since Pre-K. He doesn’t feel like he’s good for anything, but everything changes one night when he discovers who his father is: a god. More specifically, Poseidon, god of the sea.

            Oh, the gods are real alright. And they’re angry at him. They think he is the lightening thief, the boy who stole Zeus’s legendary lightening bolt. Soon he finds himself leading a dangerous quest with his friends Grover and Annabeth (satyr and daughter of Athena) to recover the bolt and save his mother, who is the prisoner of Hades. If he succeeds, he will finally mean something to the gods and his father. But if he fails…his mother spends eternity with the lord of the underworld, he will be hunted down by every divine being, and the world will be at a war with itself as Zeus and Poseidon destroy everything fighting over his innocence.

            Fans across the world have been raving over this fantastic series by author Rick Riordan. The Lightning Thief is a perfectly paced, action-packed, mind-blowing series for anyone and everyone. High adventure, excitement, and suspense entice you in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Each chapter is an action-packed suspenseful glimpse of Greek mythology in the modern world. Just one sentence of the book reveals its true identity as a perfect passage into the life of a very special teenage boy.