Book Reviews

review by Jacob Chon, age 14 Spill Zone by Scott Westerfeld Summary: Nobody’s ever really explained the Spill. Was it an angelic visitation? A nanotech accident? A porthole opening from another world? Whatever it was, no one’s allowed in the Spill Zone these days except government scientists and hazmat teams. But a few […]

review by John Chon, age 14 Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman Summary: This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded. The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than […]

review by Madison Comick, age 14 Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist     Let me start off by saying this contains spoilers. You have been warned. Now that you’ve been cautioned, let me begin by stating the obvious.     If you are reading this, you can see. If sixteen-year-old, blind-since-birth Will Porter had this […]

review by Nina Dinan, age 13 Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History by Karen Blumenthal     While Hillary Clinton is likely best known among young people for her most recent presidential campaign, her public life has spanned decades and is laid out for readers in Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History. This […]

review by Alicia Zhang, age 13 The Best Kind of Magic by Crystal Cestari     In the novel The Best Kind of Magic by Crystal Cestari, teenager Amber Sand is overwhelmed by the intensity of the two worlds she straddles—one of magic, which is not as glorified as one may think—and the other regular […]

review by Alaina Joby, age 14 City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson     A good mystery book is always fascinating because of the slight hint of what one might call “the otherworldly”. There is a moment when intuition is the only thing leading the protagonist towards the final answer. Some of […]

review by Kristina Yin, age 17 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood     The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian classic. American government and way of life have been taken over by extreme Christian fundamentalism due to a scarcely mentioned nuclear war (this book was written in the 50s under the Reagan administration, so the […]

review by Jacob Chon, age 14 The Lost Causes by Jessica Koosed Etting and Alyssa Embree Schwartz     A mystery book for the YA genre, The Lost Causes is a fairly unique book and stands out against the majority of the YA genre. It follows five high school students with psychological problems so […]

review by John Chon, age 15 Dreamfall by Amy Plum Summary: Cata Cordova suffers from such debilitating insomnia that she agreed to take part in an experimental new procedure. She thought things couldn’t get any worse…but she was terribly wrong. Soon after the experiment begins, there’s a malfunction with the lab equipment, […]

review by Alena Kunjumon, age 13 The Last Days of California by Mary Miller     The Last Days of California, written by Mary Miller, discusses the journey that Jess, the narrator, undergoes both internally and externally. On the outside, her and her sister are two teenagers preparing for the rapture that will take […]