Fiction

Breaking News! 32, 12 year olds from around the country were invited to create a brand new candy to enter on this highly respected hundred-year-old competition. 4 children: Philip, Miles, Daisy, and Logan the son of the owner of Life Is Sweet Candy Factory.None of them knew it yet, but that there lives were about to change forever.

“ It’s the annual candy making contest!!” says the owner of Life is Sweet Candy Factory. 4 kids. 1 girl & 3 boys. 1’s the candymakers son.Competing against 32 other kids. 4 days to make a new candy that the judges will love to death. In 4 days to learn all about candy making that you need to make your candy. If you don’t put all the ingredients down on the paper for the contest you are disqualified.The CandyMakers is a book full of suspense and kept me on the edge of my chair. What would you do if you had 4 days to create the world's next best candy? While learning about candy and the process of making it, readers may have a tough time figuring out the theme. Though I think the theme of this book is Trust and Friendship. While reading this book the main characters: Daisy, Logan, Miles , and yes sad but true Philip learn about trusting one another and making true friends.

Wendy Mass brought me on a exciting but very mysterious ride in her book The CandyMakers. Masses way of writing made the book IMPOSSIBLE to put down. This book is filled with twists, action, and lots and lots of facts about candy. This book was so good in made me hate to have to put it down. I recommend this book for kids ages 10- 14 or grades 5-7 if you enjoy action and mysteries. If you knew what was good for you, you would run to the store and get this book right now because this book earns............ a well earned CUPCAKE!!

For the young runner, Jessica, breaking a running record at a school track meet was everything until the ride home. When the tragic car accident, that included Jessica’s bus, cleared up it left one dead and one without a leg. As Jessica struggles to even get up the stairs she constantly wonders if she will ever run again.

After the accident Jessica hasn’t been the same. Without running her life is boring. Then finally one day her best friend talks her into going back to school. She is invited to a track meet where her coach talks to her about a fake leg that will allow her to run, the only problem is the cost of the fake leg. As her school track team tries to raise money to get their fastest runner back on the track Jessica never gives up.

I recommend this amazing story full of hope and dreams to young adults because of the mature topics. Readers should be mature and not looking for a humorous book. Will Jessica get back on the track or give up on her dreams? Will the students on the track team pull through and get the money? Will Jessica ever run again? Read The Running Dream to take a look at Jessica’s thoughts on the possibilities on her running dream coming true.

Great book! This book treats a delicate subject masterfully. Astrid is in high school and she is really enjoying philosophy class. This makes sense because she is smart and a thinker and feeler who is just trying to make sense of her world. She has a job at a catering firm on weekends where her major responsibility is deveining shrimp. And she likes to de-stress by laying down on the picnic table in her backyard and sending up love to the airplanes flying overhead--she likes to send love to the passengers who are traveling on the planes. Her landscape is populated by some not very supportive people: her mother who is self-involved and critical of Astrid; her father who is coping with their new small hometown life by abusing marijuana; her sister Ellis who is very eager to fit in and is also homophobic; her friend Kristina who is pretending to be the popular girl at school; her friend Justin who is pretending to be the popular boy at school; the love of her life, Dee, who is being too physically aggressive. Astrid ponders when she feels comfortable and when she doesn't; when she feels most like herself and when she is happy. The reader is rooting for her all the way because she doesn't want to be pigeonholed especially when she sees how much effort the people around her put into keeping up appearances (and how detrimental that can be). There are gems throughout this book but the final description of passenger #587, at the very end of the book, is very poignant and thought provoking. So good!

Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.  In the Matched trilogy we follow the journey of the up and coming generation and their reaction to their changing Society.  There is a need for change, for freedom of choice, and for freewill and creativity to be unleashed from the stifling control of the Society.  The Rising takes up this charge and forces change.  They unleash a disease into Society that they do have the cure for and are ready to rush in and be the hero of the story.  Unforetunately, no one had the foresight to consider what might happen if the cure caused the virus to change.

Through the progression of Reached I enjoyed following the different directions that our main characters pursue.  We discover new things about who they are and what they are capable of as individuals.  Creativity, caring, and considering others before yourself are all traits that rise to the top as you read this book.