This Is Not A Drill by Beck McDowell *Spoiler*

In, This Is Not A Drill by Beck McDowell, there are two students, Emery and Jake.  They are tutoring in a first grade classroom.  The book is told from the point of view of Jake and Emery.  It is a very suspenseful book. 

Right when Emery and Jake are about to leave to head back to there high school classes, a man comes to the classroom and asks to take his son Patrick. Emery, Jake, and the teacher tell Mr.Stutts that he cant take his son without going through the mainoffice first.  Mr. Stutts takes a gun and threatens to shoot so Emery, Jake, the teacher, and all 18 students are held hostage.

Soon into the book, the teacher passes out from lack of insulin, as a diabetic. Even though Mr. Stutts does not want anyone to leave the room, the kids beg him to allow the teacher medical attention, so eventually he lets Jake carry the teacher down the hallway to the principle. 

During the book, Emery does a very brave thing and talked to Mr. Stutts, revealing to the reader some of his past.  We find out Mr. Stutts is a soldier who is suffering from PTSD.  It almost makes you feel bad for him because really, he only wants to be with his son, which his wife wont let him do. 

In the end, Jake and Mr. Stutts get into a fight with the hand gun, resulting in Jake getting shot, the class pet runs into the hallway, followed by Patrick who gets shot, causing Mr. Stutts to run into the hallway after his son, getting shot himself. 

All three characters lived, and the other 17 first graders were all okay.

Shut out byv Kody Keplinger

Recently, I finished Shut Out, which is about a group of girls, led by Lissa, that have boyfriends on both the soccer team and football team of Hamilton High. The two teams hate each other and are constantly pulling pranks on one another. So the girls decode to go on a "strike" where they vow not to show there boyfriends any attention.  The boys catch on to the plan and try to outsmart the girls.

I think an issue in this book is sexism. A lot of the characters underestimate girls. I noticed some of the teachers are sexist and favor boys in the book.

I also noticed that sometimes the girls are prejudice against themselves. They often underestimate themselves, especially when it involves the strike.