Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women is a classic book that I believe is a must read for all young girls. This novel not only takes place in the late 1800’s, but was also written in the late 1800’s. It follows the lives of the March girls, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Jo, tomboyish and an aspiring author. Pretty and kind Meg. Loving and quiet Beth. And the youngest of the family Amy, artistic and babyish. This story takes on feminism in the 1800’s, how women were perceived and what they had the potential to do if the the world let them. Romance, friendship, family, and artistic freedom are all elements in this beautifully written story of these four little women. I personally love this story because the characters in this story are so easy to relate to, in their fears, passions, and problems.

This story is one of the only stories I would say is a difficult read because of the different way of speaking but, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t read this story over and over again. All girls all over the world can find one sister to relate to and love. I firmly believe that this book is an important piece of literature. I would recommend this book to 10 year olds and up because of the reading difficulty. I rate this book a 10/10 because it is one of my all time favorites and if I could read it for the first time again I definitely would.

Nishika Y. – Rust Library

Night of the Living Dummy by RL Stine

In one of the best goosebumps books ever written, R. L Stine introduces one of the most iconic characters in goosebumps history named Slappy. The book follows Lindy who finds a ventriloquist dummy and names it Slappy. Kris gets jealous of her sister, as her sister basically showboats the ventriloquist doll and is getting attention. However, things go wrong when they find creepy stuff going on, and the doll seems to be involved…and they find out its alive and has a mind of its own.

One thing I liked about the book was the creation of the iconic character called Slappy, who was created with perfect character development. I didn’t think anything could’ve been better in this book, it’s a goosebumps classic. I would recommend this book to early teenagers because it has horror and one of my favorite fictional characters. Potential content/trigger warnings include violence and horror. Overall this is probably one of my favorite goosebumps books written because I love Slappy.

– Anirudh Balaji, Brambleton Library

The Girl Who Cried Monster by RL Stine

This Goosebumps book puts a twist on classic tall tales that are told commonly, especially the ‘Boy Who Cried Wolf’. In this horrific story, Lucy is basically the boy from the tale. Lucy is over-repetitive and keeps telling monster stories, so much so that everyone is annoyed of her and doesn’t believe her at all. However, similar to the tale, Lucy finds a real monster and is trying to tell anyone but no one believes her. What’ll happen to her?

One thing I liked about this book was that it was a clever and horrific twist on the ‘Boy Who Cried Wolf’. I didn’t think anything could’ve been better, in fact, the twists in this book were so good. I would recommend this book to early teens because of the amazing plot twists and horror, its just a really enjoyable book to read. Potential content/trigger warnings include violence and horror. R.L. Stine did  a great job in twisting an already existing plot line to make it filled with more creepy stuff and plot twists.

– Anirudh Balaji, Brambleton Library

Welcome to Camp Nightmare by RL Stine

In yet another amazing book by R.L. Stine, Welcome to Camp Nightmare follows a boy named Billy who gets sent to Camp Nightmoon, and their transportation takes them to the middle of nowhere. There, Billy and his few friends he made during the transport discover scary things, nearly get attacked by creatures, meet the weird camp staff, and soon encounter a lot of dangerous and scary things, making their camp feel rather like a nightmare. In a series of events, Billy finds the real truth of the camp and goes through crazy horror.

One thing I liked about this book was that it had one of the best plot twists I have ever seen in a book. I didn’t think anything could’ve really been better in the book. I would recommend this to early teens because of the suspense, horror, and amazing plot twists. Potential content/trigger warnings include horror and violence. This was one of my favorite goosebumps books after I had read the twist and began to understand more things about the camp. The book made me keep turning its pages as it was extremely interesting and new developments that were quite scary would take place. 

– Anirudh Balaji, Brambleton Library

The Haunted Mask by RL Stine

In this Goosebumps book ,R.L. Stine introduces one of the other legendary horror items in the Goosebumps series that becomes a classic, the haunted mask. This book follows a girl named Carly who gets a scary Halloween mask that scares everyone. Carly loves the mask so much and finds interest in scaring people with it. However, as she continues to wear it and scare people, her voice changes, the mask almost absorbs itself onto Carly, and changes her demeanor. Its almost like the mask is controlling her for some time and she is puzzled and scared. The mask eventually wont come off and everyone is horrified as Carly tries to go back to the shop owner to get it off, where she discovers a great many things.

One thing I liked about the book was the amazing twist at the end and the suspense. One thing I thought could’ve been better was that the whole idea of how to get the mask off was cheesy (you’ll know it when you read it). I would recommend this book to early teens as the suspense and horror is sure to entertain a younger teenager and it’s a good pass time. Potential content/trigger warnings include horror and violence.

– Anirudh Balaji, Brambleton Library

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi

Unravel Me is the second book in the Shatter Me series and it takes place almost immediately after the events of the first book. Adam and Juliette have found refuge in a sort of organization, Omega Point, that helps people with powers just like her. They all have different sorts of powers and all work together to stay hidden from the government. After escaping, another military man who worked with Adam before, Kenji, is revealed to have powers and leads them to Omega Point. There, they meet Castle who helps them adjust to their new lives underground. Warner continues to search for Juliette as he wishes to use her powers again. 

Mafi does an exceptional job expanding on her world and how the countries as we know them now changed to what they are in the series. We start to see cracks in Adam and Juliette’s relationship when we learn that even though he can touch her unlike other people, the consequences are him internally being in pain as a result of his immune system acting up. These cracks eventually lead to breakups and lots of whining and drama. Kenji and Juliette develop a great friendship. We see Juliette start to train and learn the true vastness of her powers and how much she truly holds in her. Warner is still in the book, not as much in this book as the other ones, but we do still see a good amount of him and even learn more about his father, the “president” of the Reestablishment and find out secrets about Warner’s childhood. 

I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to find out what ended up happening with Juliette and her adventures after escaping the military base and Warner. I found this book significantly better than the first one because we got to see Adam’s true colors and what ended up happening with their relationship. 

LK, Gum Spring Library

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me, the first book in the Shatter Me series, takes place in a dystopian world where the protagonist, Juliette, struggles with a curse: her touch kills. This obviously has led her to live a life of complete isolation, and the book begins with her in an insane asylum that her parents decided to put her in. It had been almost a year in the same room without having interacted with anyone. One day, another person, Adam, is placed there with her. Later on, we find out that Adam works in a military force whose leader, Warner, wishes to use Juliette and her powers for his own purpose. 

Mafi has a very unique style of writing because she uses strikethroughs, lots of metaphors and similes. She portrays the feelings of Juliette well and she is perceived as a naive, innocent girl because that is what she truly is. She doesn’t know the world around her and Mafi explains it well. She is seen to be gullible and stubborn, and that slowly changes throughout the book as she learns more about the world around her and the truth of everything. Adam later becomes a love interest as their relationship grows, and Juliette and him work together to help her escape from the military base because she no longer wishes to work for Warner. I personally have a dislike for Adam because it felt like he used her as a cure for his loneliness, but I do find him sweet at times. 

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, I have read it more than three times by now and I don’t find myself getting bored. The plot, romance, and world are all very intriguing and kept me on my toes at all times. Warner is a wonderful “villain” who I found very misunderstood and had hope for his development arc.

LK, Gum Spring Library

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince is the first book in the Folk of the Air series. It follows two twin mortal girls in a magical world of faeries. The protagonist, Jude, continuously struggles through the difficulties of being a human surrounded by faeries, particularly one faerie by the name Cardan. He is the son of the High King and is a textbook bully. He and his friends repeatedly taunt and belittle Jude and her sister. Besides the fact that he makes her life miserable, the killer of her biological father is also currently her adoptive father. The story really begins when Jude is recruited to be a spy for Cardan’s brother, Prince Dain. 

Black did a very good job with building her world by using a unique method of communicating with the reader using a second person point of view. She explains how the “government” of Faerieland works essentially and how the characters interact with each other. We learn important information easily, but the book can definitely be hard to follow sometimes. There are new terms and ideas being introduced constantly and while the author presents them well, the reader needs to pay attention and understand in depth in order to comprehend the rest of the book. The protagonist had little development from the start of the book because we see her form her own opinions and rather than dreaming of her goals, she  makes moves to accomplish them. Cardan was introduced as a potential love interest and that relationship seems to develop at an extremely slow rate until the last few chapters. 

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a not-too-long read with good characters and exciting plot points. Keep in mind, however, that the book belongs to a trilogy and the plot follows into the next two books, so anyone in the mood for a standalone should stay away from this book.

-LK, Gum Spring Library

Ungifted by Gordon Kormon

Donovan Curtis, a student of Hardcastle middle school, isn’t a very good kid. One of his bad traits is that he is very reckless. One day at school, he recklessly causes the globe of an atlas statue to fall out, roll, and then crash into the school gym, dealing a lot of damage to it. As a six result, the superintendent of the school district, Dr. Schultz, sends him to his office. After dismissing him (without Donovan receiving a punishment yet), he realized that he doesn’t have Donovan’s name. Later, Donovan miraculously gets a letter. It’s an invitation to an academy of very smart and talented students. Donovan accepts the offer. Now this very ungifted student has to fit in and find his place in a school of very gifted kids. While this is all going down, Dr. Schultz is trying to find out who is guilty of dealing the damage to the gym. 

I found this book very compelling and interesting! The way the chapters work is that it switches between different character’s POV. I like this because it gives the reader different viewpoints, perspectives, and opinions on events in the story, which gives the narrative more depth. Furthermore, the book has an amazing hook, with the major consequence with Donovan destroying a lot of property by knocking over the Atlas Statue. I would recommend this for anyone who likes realistic fiction. 

Siddharth Dale, Gum Spring Library

Zero Tolerance by Claudia Mills

A girl named Sierra Shepard accidentally brings her mother’s lunchbox to school. During lunch, she opens it and sees that there is a paring knife in it. Because her school doesn’t permit weapons, she lets the school know that she has a knife. However, due to their zero-tolerance policy on drugs and weapons, regardless if it was brought to school by accident, she gets suspended. In a couple days, she will attend a hearing that will decide whether she will get out of trouble or be expelled. 

I loved this book. It was an absolute page turner primarily because the potential consequence of Sierra getting expelled is prevalent throughout the entire book, and it really kept me on my toes.  One thing I didn’t like about this book is that some of it felt like filler that wasn’t pushing the plot forward. I would give this book a 8.5/10. I recommend you to check out this book immediately! 

Siddharth Dale, Gum Spring Library