Rebel Spirits by Lois Ruby

This week, I started reading Rebel Spirits which is about  girl named Lori who has to help a ghost named Nathaniel solve a murder mystery before he has to leave forever.  The two only have about a week to solve the mystery.

So far in this book, one thing I noticed is definitely the romance between Evan, Lori, and Nathaniel.  Evan is one of the maintenance workers at the inn that Lori and her family own and live at.  Evan likes Lori but Lori likes Nathaniel (even though hes a ghost) and Nathaniel likes Lori but Nathaniel had a fiancé before he died in the Civil War. 

I think that romance is an issue/ idea in this book because it basically builds Loris relationship with everyone around her.

For example sometimes Lori could be flirty with Evan.  And Evan always helps Lori.

Also, Nathaniel and Lori spend some of there time being a couple and stuff but they also need to put there feelings on the side and focus on the murder mystery. 

I predict that Lori and Nathaniel will both be said on June 3rd which is when Nathaniel has to leave for good.  It might be the last time Lori can ever see him.

Calico Joe *Spoiler Alert*

This week,I started reading Calico Joe.  It's mostly about Warren Tracey (A mets picher) son named Paul Tracey who like Joe Castle who plays on the Cubs.  His father ended Joe's career after beaning him in the head with a fastball.  The book goes back and forth from when Paul is a kid and having very little time with his father, and the time spent with him was used in an abusive way.  And when Paul is an adult, and married with kids, and finds out Warren has terminal cancer and only has a couple of more months to live.  Paul decides before his dad dies, that he wants Joe and Warren to talk about what happened between them. 

I think through out this book, Paul shows a lot of determination.  For example, when he was a kid and his dad hit him after not pitching "properly" in one of Paul's youth baseball games, Paul didn't go run and cry to his mother or anyone. And he didn't want to leave the house until his black eye faded. I think that this shows a lot of determination because Paul could've cried over it and other things but instead he just acted natural.

Another point where I think Paul shows determination is when he finds out his dad has terminal cancer.  I think by this point, Warren realized that he raised his son wrong, but Warren also didn't try to do anything to fix it.  He just let the years pass without having any contact with his family.  Warren tried to use having cancer as an excuse to get sympathy from his son but Paul showed determination and didn't fall for it.

One last point where I saw Paul showing determination is when Paul traveled repeadedly to Arkansas just to try to set up a meeting between Joe Castle and Warren Tracey.

In conclusion, there are many points in Calico Joe that show Paul Tracey is a determined person.  I have not yet finished the book, but I think that there will be other points where Paul shows determination. 

Catching Jordan by Miranda Keanelly

Recently, I finished reading "Catching Jordan" by Miranda Keanelly.  And it is about a girl who is starting QB for her high school football team.  Everyone is jealous of her.  The boys are jealous because she is an amazing football player but the girls are jealous because she gets to spend so much time with the football boys.  Then a new quarterback named Ty comes and Jordan likes him.  They compete for starting QB.  Jordan's best friend, Sam gets jealous and feels that he is starting to lose Jordan because suddenly she spends all her free time hanging out with Ty. 

I think Catching Jordan was basically about Jordan finding her place.  In between chapters Jordan would write poems that were about her life and feelings.  There is a lot going on in Catching Jordan and all the characters play an important part.  For example, Ty adds to the emotion of the story with his family history and Jordan has problems with her dad because her dad plays professional football so he has seen many injuries and doesn't want Jordan getting hurt. 

Another issue was that all the high school kids in the story were seniors so they were waiting for their acceptance letters and it added a lot of emotion to the the story because when a character was anxious or stressed the reader could really feel that.

Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans

I recently finished reading "Level 2" and it was mostly about a girl named Felicia who dies and find herself now living in "Level 2" Which is like an afterlife.  It is technically in the middle of living and death.  There are other people in Level 2 and everyone can bond on reflect on memories from there lifetime.  Felicia meets a guy named Julian who I think likes Felicia.  Felicia thinks Julian is very mysterious and I agree with her.  He often pops up out of no where.  Julian thinks he can help Felicia become reunited with someone from the living life but Felicia doesn't want to trust him.

I think an issue is Felicia needs to learn to trust people.  She thinks Julian is mysterious but he could also be very helpful but that will only happen if she can trust him.

If I were Felicia I would probably trust Julian because, like, you're already dead so it's almost like you can do whatever you want. 

I thought it was a very good book because as the book goes on, we learn more and more about Felicia.  We learn a lot about how she lived her life and who was very important to her. 

Hooked by Liz Fichera

In this book, Fred is the only girl on the boys golf team.  The boys don't like Fred, especially this one boy named Ryan, whose best friend got kicked off to make room for Fred.  I thought that Fred was really passionate about golf and reminded me about how me and my friend Ashley act towards softball.  Not only can we be compared to Fred, but I think we can also be compared to Ryan.  I think this because Ashley and I can get a little competitive when it comes to new girls trying out for the team. 

One of my favorite characters was Fred's dad.  I liked Fred's dad because he was very supportive and trusting in his daughters decisions. 

I also liked Fred's older brother because the author set him up in a very mysterious way, revealing little by little about him, throughout the book. 

I think both Fred's dad and brother were very trusting in Fred.

New Girl by Paige Harbison

 I felt bad for two characters in this book.  I felt bad for Callie because everyone was being mean to her and Dana was trying to control her life.  I feel that Callie did good because she didn't let it bother her that much.  Callie knew that she could live her life the way that she wanted to.  So even though Max was Becca's ex, Callie still had the right to go out with him if they liked each other, which they did.

I also felt bad for Becca because even though she was popular and amazing, some people were mean to her and she had a hard time fitting in any school, let alone Manderley.  I also realized that Becca realized that she was mean.  She made Max stay with her by making him feel guilty and when she got pregnant she just wanted to be alone for a little but that turned out to be her death.  She did not know about the storm.

I also kind of feel bad for Dana because Becca was her BFF and she saw Becca die and she blames herself for not going after her when she fell in the water.

I thought that New Girl had a really rough beginning which took a something to get into but I'm glad I continued reading because it was a really nice book about a boarding school, with a mystery that the seniors are trying to solve via Facebook and history.

Blog post on Rebecca's blog

http://beccadoodles.blogspot.com/
This week, I reviewed Rebecca's  blog post on the book "Stay" by Deb Caletti. I think Rebecca started her post of in a good way by saying how she thought it was a complex book.  In Rebecca's post, I think she did a good job of adding in how she thought Clara felt.  Rebecca also added how she thinks she would've felt if in Clara's position which makes her post seem even more relatable and realistic.

Rebecca's post really makes me want to read this book and I think it is because of the intense details she used and the positive way she described the book. Rebecca used good structure for her post.   This post stands out compared to some of her other ones because I think Rebecca put a lot more ideas into it.

In some of her other blogs, she focused on one idea and found three or four details from the book to support it. In this post, she had a more broad idea and it was easy for her to add in her feelings and her thoughts about the authors choice on the dads perspective.