Tag: Book review

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!

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.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – A Book Review

By Simran Jayasinghe

RollOfThunderBookCoverThe book “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” is written by Mildred D. Taylor. This book is a wonderful story written in 1977. The book is mainly about the Logan family, an African American family of seven who live in a town called Strawberry, Mississippi, during the Great Depression. The narrator of the story is Cassie Logan, a nine year old fourth grader. Cassie’s siblings are an older brother named Stacey, and two younger brothers, Christopher-John and Clayton-Chester. Cassie is just beginning to realize the dangers of being a different color. For example, there is a school bus driver who would always swerve on purpose just to try and hit the kids with the bus while the kids were waiting at the bus stop. The book describes many other examples of how life is dangerous for african americans in those days. Cassie doesn’t like how she has to treat some white children. Cassie has to address some white children very formally. For example, she had to call Lillian and Jeremy, two white children in the book, Ms. Lilian Simms or Mr. Jeremy Simms as if they were grownups. Her mother says that there isn’t anything she can do about it.

In the story the Wallaces live in the same town as the Logan’s. The Wallaces are ruthless. The leader of the Wallace family is a terrible man called Kaleb Wallace. One day they hurt T.J. Avery, another African American character in the book, and broke a few of his ribs. The Wallaces hurt innocent people in brutal ways that are really terrifying. They bother the Logans and the other african american families. When the Wallaces hurt Stacey, Cassie’s father has to start a wildfire as a distraction. The book describes how people like the Wallaces hurt african american people like the Logan family. Cassie’s family goes through a lot of suffering but they stick together.

The author expresses the feeling the Logans must have had in a very exciting way through Cassie and her family. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate this book a 10. The story is sad because it describes how people get hurt, exciting because it talks about what the Logan family had to go through and how they survived, and terrifying because it talks about how people hurt the Logan family. You will be stuck to this book for days and will not want to put it down.

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