This was a well paced book that was even better than the first. I look forward to the third. This book mixed suspense with a little bit of comedy. It was a thrilling book to read. I didn’t want to put it down. I can’t wait to find out what happens next. Even though most sequels aren’t as good as the first book, this one pulled it off! Keep it up!
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Hoorah for new reviewers, thanks to Zach for his first contribution! You, too, can review for this blog. Send us your reviews today and next thing you know, they'll be up here on the blog. You might even get lucky and get the chance to review an ARC like Zach did.
Zach reviewed an ADVANCE READER'S COPY (ARC) of this book, meaning he got a chance to read it before it was published. (FIVE MONTHS before it was published!) and he had a chance to let the library know if it he thought we should purchase it for our shelves or not.
Do YOU want a chance to read and review books before they're published? Do YOU think you could give your opinion on if the library/other people should buy these books? If so, you can ask at youth services or send us an e-mail for more information on how you can get a chance to be an advance reviewer.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Taken by Norah McClintock (reviewed by Alanna Cover)
Stephanie Rawls is a normal girl with an average girl. She is the daughter of a widowed woman who hasn't understood her for a long time, she has good friends that worry about her, and a goofy and annoying stepfather.
When reports of missing girls come closer to their town, many people lock up, terrified of whatever monster there might be out there that is killing these girls and burying them nearby. But Stephanie is skeptical about these reports, and believes, as many of us would, that it could never (I mean, absolutely NEVER!!) happen to her. But she is VERY wrong. Because one night while walking home from her average weekend shopping trip with her best friend, she is caught from behind and knocked out with some kind of drug injected into her arm.
She wakes up, tied ankle to wrists, and begins her freaking out stage. When she pulls herself together, she finds an outcropping of nail in the wall and cuts herself free. Taking what she can from the empty little abandoned shack that she was placed in, she runs into the endless woods. Taking sight of a far off town, she uses her survival skills her grandfather taught her to get there.
Except for many problems along the way which include a horrifying fear that whoever it was will come after her, hunger, dehydration, a heavy cold, and a badly sprained ankle. She's terrified that she won't get help soon enough, or that she'll die along the way. Eating what is under the bark of birch trees, she gets along as well as she can without a stove or any other food.
One morning, the day after she fell into a hole and sprained her ankle, she runs into a bear. Almost literally, too! It runs after her, and she knows that she's dead, she won't make it to safety because she cannot run, until a gunshot sounds loudly. Is it the man? The man is gruff to her, but kind. Finally, she believes that he's not the serial killer. This man is a ranger named Zeke. He carries her to a nearby cabin which is residence to a police officer named Les Adruksen. Les informs her parents, and she gets checked out and questioned, and she is sent home.
And then something weird starts to happen. She still has the chain which she pulled from the man's neck. And Gregg, her stepfather who is a slob, leaves some really messy clothes in the bathroom the night she gets home. His socks are muddy, the collar of his shirt is bloody, and his pants aren't too pretty either. She dismisses it at first. But then, she looks at his running log (he does these runs to get more money, getting to machines and emptying the money from them and coming back with what he has, it's not much, but it helps him get by.) and on the days that the girls before her were taken, his running logs went for a day or two. On the day that she went missing, the log was also a longer period of time. She makes some calls, and finds that he was late to the call he was supposed to make the day she was gone.
She calls the officer immediately. They have the chain, and ask questions on the necklace her mother gave him. It turns out it was the chain around his neck, and he is taken into interrogation.
Gregg kidnapped her.
Unfortunately, he wasn't the serial killer. He had used the instances with the other two girls her age to make it seem like it wasn't him who had kidnapped Stephanie. He just wanted Stephanie's mother and his relationship to start from scratch, without her daughter in the way, like they had first met. He is put in jail. Stephanie's mother vows never to date anyone else (Which, honestly, is a little rash.) and Stephanie vows never to walk home alone at night.
This was an amazing story of courage and fear. The thing that will always be in my mind is the rules she went by: Give up or go on.
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Wow, Alanna, that sounds like a complete page turner and too scary to read alone at night! ^__^ Thanks for the review!
Click here to check our catalog to see if Taken is on the shelves.
When reports of missing girls come closer to their town, many people lock up, terrified of whatever monster there might be out there that is killing these girls and burying them nearby. But Stephanie is skeptical about these reports, and believes, as many of us would, that it could never (I mean, absolutely NEVER!!) happen to her. But she is VERY wrong. Because one night while walking home from her average weekend shopping trip with her best friend, she is caught from behind and knocked out with some kind of drug injected into her arm.
She wakes up, tied ankle to wrists, and begins her freaking out stage. When she pulls herself together, she finds an outcropping of nail in the wall and cuts herself free. Taking what she can from the empty little abandoned shack that she was placed in, she runs into the endless woods. Taking sight of a far off town, she uses her survival skills her grandfather taught her to get there.
Except for many problems along the way which include a horrifying fear that whoever it was will come after her, hunger, dehydration, a heavy cold, and a badly sprained ankle. She's terrified that she won't get help soon enough, or that she'll die along the way. Eating what is under the bark of birch trees, she gets along as well as she can without a stove or any other food.
One morning, the day after she fell into a hole and sprained her ankle, she runs into a bear. Almost literally, too! It runs after her, and she knows that she's dead, she won't make it to safety because she cannot run, until a gunshot sounds loudly. Is it the man? The man is gruff to her, but kind. Finally, she believes that he's not the serial killer. This man is a ranger named Zeke. He carries her to a nearby cabin which is residence to a police officer named Les Adruksen. Les informs her parents, and she gets checked out and questioned, and she is sent home.
And then something weird starts to happen. She still has the chain which she pulled from the man's neck. And Gregg, her stepfather who is a slob, leaves some really messy clothes in the bathroom the night she gets home. His socks are muddy, the collar of his shirt is bloody, and his pants aren't too pretty either. She dismisses it at first. But then, she looks at his running log (he does these runs to get more money, getting to machines and emptying the money from them and coming back with what he has, it's not much, but it helps him get by.) and on the days that the girls before her were taken, his running logs went for a day or two. On the day that she went missing, the log was also a longer period of time. She makes some calls, and finds that he was late to the call he was supposed to make the day she was gone.
She calls the officer immediately. They have the chain, and ask questions on the necklace her mother gave him. It turns out it was the chain around his neck, and he is taken into interrogation.
Gregg kidnapped her.
Unfortunately, he wasn't the serial killer. He had used the instances with the other two girls her age to make it seem like it wasn't him who had kidnapped Stephanie. He just wanted Stephanie's mother and his relationship to start from scratch, without her daughter in the way, like they had first met. He is put in jail. Stephanie's mother vows never to date anyone else (Which, honestly, is a little rash.) and Stephanie vows never to walk home alone at night.
This was an amazing story of courage and fear. The thing that will always be in my mind is the rules she went by: Give up or go on.
--
Wow, Alanna, that sounds like a complete page turner and too scary to read alone at night! ^__^ Thanks for the review!
Click here to check our catalog to see if Taken is on the shelves.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (reviewed by Bear Schacht)
If you take an intriguing setting and a cool space station training camp, then you mix it with a lot of tension and a zero gravity combat game and a twelve year old boy who saves the world, then you put a big surprise at the end and you get one of my favorite science fiction books, Ender’s Game. Ender’s Game is a very intense, keep the pages turning kind of book, but is fairly easy to read, and being just over 300 pages it is not all that long. I would recommend Ender’s Game to any science fiction fan looking for a good read.
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And what a surprise it is! ^___~ This is one of my classic favorites!
Click here to check our catalog to see if Ender's Game is on the shelves.
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And what a surprise it is! ^___~ This is one of my classic favorites!
Click here to check our catalog to see if Ender's Game is on the shelves.
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (reviewed by Adam Sayre)
The curious mind of Terry Pratchett has produced yet another Discworld novel. This is the tale of Moist von Lipwig, criminal and con artist. After being hung, he comes back and is offered the job of Postmaster General. Problem is, the postal service hasn’t run in decades, what with the clocks transmitting messages at the speed of light. Ever since the postal service shut down, letters have been piling up. Literally. What Moist thought would be an easy job turns out to be more than he expected. What will he do?
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MORE Terry Pratchett, huzzah! Believe it or not ... this is Adam's last submitted review. O_o Can it be?! Until he submits some more reviews (sooner than later, right?) I want to thank Adam for being a top reviewer. He always had something to say and that always made this blog better. (and for being a top reviewer, he got lots of perks, like the first peak at many books and lots of advance reader books . . .) Just think YOU could also be a top reviewer ... if you just start writing some reviews for this blog.
Click here to check our catalog to see if Going Postal is on the shelves.
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MORE Terry Pratchett, huzzah! Believe it or not ... this is Adam's last submitted review. O_o Can it be?! Until he submits some more reviews (sooner than later, right?) I want to thank Adam for being a top reviewer. He always had something to say and that always made this blog better. (and for being a top reviewer, he got lots of perks, like the first peak at many books and lots of advance reader books . . .) Just think YOU could also be a top reviewer ... if you just start writing some reviews for this blog.
Click here to check our catalog to see if Going Postal is on the shelves.
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