Category: The Word On Books

The three sisters’ book reviews.

Deep Water – A Book Review

by Svara Jayasinghe

(Image by amazon.com)

Deep Water by Watt Key is a realistic fiction book about a scuba dive gone awry where two enemies must work together to survive.

After her father becomes sick, Julie Sims, a 12 year old girl, must take charge in taking two of her father’s clients on a scuba diving trip. Trouble begins when the clients become reckless and disregard the instructions. The scenario worsens when the trio surfaces to find one of them in critical condition and the boat nowhere to be found. Sticking together while. drifting away with the current waiting to be rescued is the only option. The trio loses a little hope with each passing day that goes by without food or water. It is Julie’s job to keep her clients alive, but only so many days can pass without resources before time runs out.

I would rate Deep Water a 9 out of 10. The book is funny, sad, and it has a good writing style. The characters could have been written in more detail, but overall I enjoyed the book and highly recommend it.

Shadow – A Book Review

by Svara Jayasinghe

(Image by amazon.com)

Shadow by Michael Morpurgo is (tbd). The book tells the touching, heartfelt story of a boy called Aman and his mother who lived in Afghanistan and tells the reader the struggles they went through to get to England. On the way to England, they are accompanied by a courageous friend, who is an English Springer spaniel. Just as they make it into England, they are taken to prison, where they will be sent back to Afghanistan.

Will they be saved? Will Aman and his mother be forced back to Afghanistan, or will they find a way to get back to England? Read the book to find out!

I would rate Shadow a 7 out of 10. I would rate it a 7 because it was a sad, heart-wrenching story that was perfectly written. My only complaint is that it could have been clearer with some of the terms. I thought it was a great book and highly suggest reading Shadow!

The Maze Runner — A Book Review

by Kiran Jayasinghe

The Maze Runner is the first book in a series of five.

The Maze Runner focuses on a boy named Thomas. He arrives at a place called the Glade, with no memory of who he was. He and several other children who have lost their memories are trapped inside the Glade. The only way out is a giant maze that nobody has been able to exit yet. People called Runners run through the maze every day, hurrying to map out the maze before the doors to the Glade close at night. If the doors close, the Runners are stuck in the maze, surrounded by monsters called Grievers. Grievers sting anybody close enough and they turn Runners mad. Thomas manages to be the first one to survive a night outside the Glade — and from there, it’s up to Thomas to save the rest of the kids, because Thomas seems to be more involved in this trial than anybody else.

The Maze Runner is a captivating book that I couldn’t put down! The book keeps you in Thomas’s perspective, which keeps you in the dark just like the children in the Glade — and also keeps you on the lookout for clues that Thomas doesn’t find. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Before We Were Yours – A Book Review

by Simran Jayasinghe

Before We Were Yours follows two stories, generations apart, linked together through long-forgotten events. One story is set in Memphis, 1939, while the other is set in present-day, Aiken, South Carolina. 

Memphis, 1939 – Twelve year old Rill Foss, her four younger siblings, and her parents, live aboard the family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. One night, their father must rush their mother to the hospital in the middle of the night, and Rill is left in charge. Strangers arrive and forcibly remove Rill and her siblings from their home on the river. They are thrown into Tennessee’s Children Home Society’s orphanage, and are told that they will be returned to their parents as soon as is possible – but the children quickly realize that the explanation they are given is far from the truth. Rill must do everything a twelve year old can to keep what is left of her family together and safe.

Aiken, South Carolina, present-day – Avery Stafford has a successful career as a federal prosecutor, and has just gotten her life in order. But when Avery returns to her home, to help her father through a health emergency, she happens to stumble upon a little piece of information that leaves her with a boatload of curiosity and not enough answers. She starts to question her perfect, privileged life, and against her better judgement, takes a journey through her family’s secretive and long-lost history, to uncover the truth that has been buried for generations.

Before We Were Yours is a historical fiction novel, based on true events. The story is based on the Tennessee Children’s Home Society scandal of 1924. To the general public, The Tennessee Children’s Home Society, led by Georgia Tann, was an adoption agency, that tried to find the perfect home for the orphans and abandoned children in their care. In reality, the adoption agency kidnapped children, mostly from poor families, and selling them, as orphans, under new names, for the highest price they could find. This went on for twenty-six years, from 1924 to 1950. Over that period of time, around 5,000 children were sold through this system, and around 500 died because of poor care and abuse. Georgia Tann was able to keep the business running by bribing officials, and by keeping good relations with wealthy, influential, families. In 1950, the incoming Governor of Tennessee caught news of the scandal, and launched an investigation. Georgia Tann, however, passed away, from cancer, just before the illegal operations were revealed to the public. The Tennessee Children’s Home Society shut down a couple of months afterward. 

I would definitely recommend reading this book.  I really found this book interesting, as I had never read a book about the Tennessee Children’s Home Society Scandal before. I thought it was interesting and different that most books that I usually read. Sometimes I found it a little challenging to keep track of all the characters between the two different story lines, but it wasn’t a major issue for me, as the story went on. I would rate this story a 10 out of 10, because it was an interesting read, and I loved it!

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind – A Book Review

by Simran Jayasinghe

William Kamkwamba lives in a starving, dry, village in Malawi. Crops fail, food runs out, and electricity is sparse. His family is struggling, unable to adequately provide for 9 people. William and his family have to make sacrifices in order to live.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba

His family go down to having one meal a day, and then down to four handfuls of food a day. William is unable to go on with his schooling due to the fact that his family doesn’t have enough money to pay his school fees.  This is a real let down for William. He loves learning, but suddenly, he can’t. He worries that he won’t be able to be anything other than a poor farmer if he can’t get an education. This is important to him because his biggest fear is being stuck working fields like his father. William and his friend go to the library constantly, learning about different concepts through books. One day, William learns about converting kinetic energy in to electricity and is immediately drawn to the idea of making a windmill. William and his friends work together, collecting scrap metal and other odds and ends to make his windmill. He doesn’t give up, even when everyone he knows says he is crazy to try. Read the book to find out more about his story!

This book is a true story. The main character, and author, went on to study at Regents Language Institute in Cambridge UK, and got accepted to Dartmouth college (from which he graduated in 2014), gave a TED talk appearance, and, eventually, became the author of this book. Even though this is a challenging book, I really enjoyed it. Fiction books are usually what I read more, but I really enjoyed this book even though it was nonfiction. I thought it was interesting to follow the author’s story and I really recommend checking this book out if you get the chance!

The Life of Pi – A Book Review

By Kiran Jayasinghe

The Life of Pi takes us through a young boy’s thoughts as he becomes stranded on the ocean. It’s centered around a boy named Piscine Patel. Piscine (also known as Pi) is intrigued by religion and God and disturbed by his father’s way of taking care of his animals. Pi’s father decides to sell their belongings and move his family to America for a fresh start. Traveling in a Japanese cargo ship alongside several cargo animals, Pi enjoys his first time on a cargo ship, let alone any vessel capable of floating on water.

During the journey, however, Pi’s excitement is drowned as the cargo ship takes on water. The cause is unknown, but the ship sinks,  and Pi is thrown overboard by the crew onto a lifeboat. Pi must leave behind his family, instead accompanied by a hyena, zebra, and a tiger. The story follows Pi for 227 days on the ocean, as he survives with limited food and water. Pi goes blind from the sun, tames a tiger, experiences delirium, meets another stranded sailor, and kills a living animal – a fish – for the first time. As Pi continues to face hardships on the sea, he turns to religion as a source of stability. Pi prays to God to keep himself from going mad, as Pi starts losing hope in finding land.

This work of fiction is definitely worth reading! I was surprised at how unusually normal Pi was, and yet how surreal and impossible the books contents really were. I would rate it a 10/10 because of it’s funny but hopelessly depressing journey. The storyline explores Pi’s mental stability and shows us a hilarious version of events through Pi’s mind.

City of Ember – A Book Review

(Image by wikipedia.com)

by Simran Jayasinghe

We could not live in the dark. We could not live on canned food for our whole lives. We wouldn’t think it was fair to be assigned jobs. But the people living in the city of Ember live without a sun. They’ve all been living on canned food. They think it’s normal to be assigned jobs – when they’re twelve.

When Lina Mayfleet, the main character, turns twelve, she is assigned a job. She is assigned the job “Pipeworks”. To Lina, this is the worst job she could have gotten – working underground fixing pipes wasn’t her kind of thing. Luckily, Doon Harrow wants to work in the Pipeworks, and he doesn’t want to be a “Messenger” – but Lina does. They trade.

Lina is curious. Why would Doon want to work in the Pipeworks? He says he wants to fix the generator, which provides energy for all the lights that light up Ember. The generator has stopped working from time to time recently, leaving the city in complete darkness. But that’s not the only problem. The canned food that the people have been living on for 200 years is running out. Supplies like light bulbs, pencils, and paper, are also running low. Lina and Doon work together to find out how to fix these problems.

Eventually, Lina and Doon realize they need to leave Ember. They spread the news, but the mayor is unhappy with it. He orders them to be chased by the guards. Lina and Doon decide to escape on their own. Will they escape safely? If they do, what will happen? What will they do, and where will they go? Read the book to find out!

The City of Ember is the first book in a series of four. The series is written by Jeanne DuPrau. The plot was really easy to follow and understand, and I think the book has just the right amount of suspense, just enough to keep the reader interested. I like how the Lina and Doon don’t give up, even when people put them down.  I also liked how they don’t just accept the jobs they are assigned, while other people just accept their jobs, even though they may have no interest in doing them.  This shows that if you put your mind to it you can accomplish many things.  The story ends with a cliff hanger, so I’m sure you’ll be looking forward to the next book!

The Watsons go to Birmingham – A Book Review

By Simran Jayasinghe

watsonsThe Watsons go to Birmingham is a book about a family named the Watsons and their trip to Birmingham. Their neighbors in Flint, Michigan call them the Weird Watsons, because many things that they do seem weird and mysterious to their neighbors. The Watson family consists of Kenny, who is the person telling the story, Byron, and Joetta. Byron is Kenny’s older brother and is thirteen. Byron is an ‘official juvenile delinquent’ according to Kenny, and Kenny is bullied by Byron and his friends. Joetta, who’s nickname is Joey, is Kenny’s younger sister. Joetta strongly supports Byron and even tries to stop their mother from disciplining Byron when he is caught playing with matches. The family owns one brown car which they call the Brown Bomber. The family travels to Birmingham in this car to see their Grandma Sands. They hope that Grandma Sands will help Byron calm down a little bit. They go to Birmingham in the summer. When in Birmingham, scary things happen that do indeed calm Byron down. To learn more about these scary happenings, read the book!

This story is about a loving family and their triumphs, scares, travels, and difficulties. I would give this book a 6 out of 10 because the vocabulary could have been better, and the point the book was trying to get across was a little hard to understand at times.

Hoot – A Book Review

hootBy Simran Jayasinghe

Hoot! Screech! Screech! That is what I think about when I think about the book Hoot. The book Hoot is written by Carl Hiassen. This book is about a boy called Roy Eberhardt and his adventures with his two friends, Mullet Fingers and Beatrice Leep.

It all starts when Roy sees a boy with no shoes, socks, backpack or books running down the sidewalk on a school day.  Roy decides to try and figure out who this mysterious boy is, and why he didn’t have shoes. Roy wants to give the boy some shoes he got as a birthday present with hopes that the boy will not run around barefoot. Roy also wants to know why the boy was running away from the school bus. Roy thinks that surely a normal kid would not run away from a school bus.

The first part of this book is about Roy getting used to living in Florida (Roy recently moved to Florida from Montana), Roy trying to find out who the running boy is, and how Roy gets bullied every day on the way to school. The second part of this book is about Roy, Mullet Fingers, and Beatrice trying to save a group of burrowing owls that have made their homes at a construction site. The construction crew is going to bull doze the owls’ burrows and habitat to build the shop, and Roy and his friends have an adventure trying to stop them.

Do the owls get buried? Find out by reading the book!

I really liked how Roy and his friends were adventurous and courageous.  The book was exciting and I had a great time reading it.

The Egypt Game – A Book Review

By Kiran Jayasinghe

TheEGyptGameBookCoverThe book “The Egypt Game” is an amazing book. The author, Zilpha Keately Snyder, creates 6 main characters, three boys and three girls, who become friends,create, and play the Egypt Game. The characters are: April, Melanie, Marshall, Elizabeth, Toby, and Ken. There is also a mysterious supporting character, called the Professor.

April lives with her grandmother at the Casa Rosada, a old apartment building. Her mother is an actor, and travels all over the country. Melanie, April’s best friend, also lives at the Casa Rosada. She is dark skinned, and can understand April’s homesickness. Melanie’s brother, Marshall, is four and cannot let go of his stuffed octopus, Security. Marshall is smart and is the only child who notices the strange Professor watching the children play their game. Elizabeth Chung is in fourth grade, and just moved in to the apartment building. April and Melanie have no intention of inviting Elizabeth to their game, but one day they see Elizabeth sitting on the bench, and realize that she looks just like the Egyptian goddess Nefertiti, and readily tell her all about the game. April and Melanie clean out the old storage yard behind the professor’s junk shop. The yard becomes the land of Egypt. The friends hold ceremonies, make sacrifices, and write sacred records in hieroglyphs. Toby and Ken are best friends and are famous for their jokes at their school. They learn about the Egypt Game when they follow April and Melanie to “Egypt” on Halloween.

The game ends when a child is murdered. After about a week, the children are allowed to play outside again. But after a few days, when April and Marshall return to retrieve April’s books from “Egypt”, April is almost murdered herself. The professor rescues her. In the end, the murderer is found. I really enjoyed this book and, on a scale of 1 to 10, give this wonderful story a 10. “The Egypt Game” is and exciting, and terrifying tale that will capture your eyes for hours!

If you would like to buy the book, check it out on Amazon.