Student Voices: Book Recommendations from Ava G., Ana T., Aaron D., 8th Graders, & Shantal G., 7th Grader

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Book Recommendations

Top 8 Reads by Ava G., 2022-23 8th grader

17-year-old Avery inherits billions from an old man that she has never met. This series has been my favorite YA series i have ever read. First of all, the mysteries and riddles are totally not predictable and the romance is AMAZING. Also all the characters are so well-written (my favorite is Max), especially their character development.

Two high school boys meet, they both have feelings for each other but are too scared to say anything. . I loved this series because it’s so adorable! The character development that goes on with the main character and the side characters are realistic and heartwarming. This  definitely deserves to be in my top 8 reads.

Kids around the world get recruited into MI6 into a secret project to save the world. Together… they are City Spies.  I love this series! It was an amazing read and I love all the characters. The twists were really good and the action was great. I would highly recommend it!

A boy and a girl who have totally different lifestyles meet. One on a mission to kill the other, the other just wanting to keep his family safe. But they may not be as different as they think. This series is AMAZING. The twists, the romance, and the characters are all so excellent ! I loved the entire series, and I would totally recommend this series.

Pip is about to graduate high school but for her end-of-the-year project, she investigates a case that closed 5 years ago.In the process, she finds out something that might change the case forever. This book is so good! The amount of twists and turns this series has is crazy! The development of the mystery is extremely well written. I loved this book,  I would recommend it to fellow mystery lovers a million times over.

Christine meets her new neighbors, Moon and her family. Christine is unsure about Moon because Moon is different from the other kids. Maybe Moon is more than meets the eye. The book is so adorable and the character development is amazing. I loved how it talked about how differences aren’t a bad thing. This book was honestly so heartwarming.

Kid randomly gets invited to attend a spy school that trains kids for a future in the CIA but why would they pick him out of all the others that were probably way better than him. This is a great series too! I like how the stories all connect in some way or another. The characters are also amazing.

Allie releases a new app and she finally has a chance to win a coding competition with it, but a glitch might ruin it all… The plot of this book is so good! The pace was really good and the characters were so well written. So I would totally recommend this book and its sequel.

Books to Get out of a Reading Slump by Ana T., 2022-23 8th grader

This book follows the story of Anna, who is from Atlanta. When Anna enters her senior year of high school, she is unexpectedly sent to a boarding school in Paris. Anna is not thrilled at all to be leaving behind her high school, her best friend and this boy who’s she’s had a crush on for the longest time.

This book is perfect for getting out of a reading slump because it is fast-paced and entertaining. You may get scared by the number of pages but once you read it, it’s such a quick read and a great rom-com when you read it it feels like you’re watching a movie.

This book follows the story of sixteen-year-old girl Belly Conklin, who spends every summer with her mother and brother at her mom’s best friend’s beach house. But this summer Belly is all grown up and is excited to go back to the beach where her longtime crush Conrad aka Susanna’s son is there along with his brother Jeremiah. 

This is one of my favorite trilogies. It’s such a quick read and a great summer read. This is the type of book that once you  start reading you can stop and you’re imagining yourself in the book.

Princess Alosa, daughter of the pirate king, intentionally gets herself kidnapped by pirates aboard the Night Farer. While she’s their “prisoner,” Alosa uses her extra time to explore the Night Farer searching for a missing piece of an ancient map. But first-mate Riden isn’t making things easy for Alosa. He seems to understand her better than most, and he quickly suspects Alosa may be more than she appears.

This is such a good fast-paced read it’s an enemies-to-lovers trope which is great for those who like that! But besides that, it’s just such a great book to get back your love for reading.

When 17-year-old Lina loses her mom to cancer, she honors her mom’s dying wish that she spend a summer in Tuscany. Lina travels halfway around the world to meet and stay with her mother’s friend, Howard, who is the caretaker of an American WWII cemetery just outside Florence.

Love a Gelato is one of my favorite summer books it’s such a fun an amazing book it’s like watching a movie because you get so in the book that you actually forget you’re reading.

Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself and that was everyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town and people are still scared. But something is telling her there was more that happened that day…

Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a great thriller book for people who like mystery and suspense. I LOVE THIS BOOK. It’s such an entertaining and fast-paced book, and I love the huge plot twist it has!

Top 5 Books I Read This Year by Aaron D., 2022-23 8th grader

This is the first book in the Young Elites trilogy and introduces the protagonist and also antagonist, Adelina Amouteru, a girl who was affected by the blood fever when she was little and was given the special power of illusions. She lives in a world where she and other people who were affected by the blood fever are hated because of their powers. She is then founded by the Dagger Society, a group of young elites that were also affected by the blood fever and are out to overthrow the king of Kennetra to give people who were affected by the blood fever the good treatment they deserved. She is invited into it and throughout the book she goes through all sorts of problems and hardships with the group and meets enemies and friends along the way, making the book very interesting and unpredictable. This book is filled with all sorts of twists and turns and is perfect for people who love fantasy and a bit of romance.

This is the second book in the Young Elites trilogy and continues the story of Adelina Amouteru, a girl who has the power to control illusions. She is out for vengeance after getting kicked out of the Dagger Society and is aiming for the crown of Kennetra. She created her own society of elites to help her called the Rose Society and goes through all sorts of hardships to get what she wants. The characters are all unique and have very interesting backstories that will surely make you fall in love with them. This book is filled with all kinds of twists and turns and has a very unique and interesting plot that makes it unpredictable and a very good read and is perfect for people who love fantasy and a bit of romance.

This is the second book of the Legend series and continues the story of June and Day where they are now on a mission to rescue Day’s brother, Eden, from the Republic. On their mission, they made the decision to go to the Patriots for help, but in order for them to help them they made a deal with June and Day to have them help them assassinate the elector of the Republic to make a change in the nation for the greater good. In exchange, the Patriots will agree to help them rescue Eden from the Republic. Both sides agree and they carry out the mission together with a plan, but throughout the book, some unexpected things happen that make the plan not go the way they planned. This book is perfect for people who love dystopian fiction and romance that is filled with twists and turns that make it a very good read.

This is the first book in the Magisterium series and introduces the character, Callum Hunt, a boy whose father hates magic and the Magisterium, the magic school he went to, because of a dark past there with terrible memories. Even though Callum’s father hates the Magisterium and magic, Callum was still admitted into it and went. There Callum met a lot of friends, but also people he didn’t like, and started learning magic with his friends. As he continues through the school year and feels more acquainted with it some unexpected things happen that completely change Callum’s life and reveal that he isn’t who he really thinks he is. This book is full of unexpected twists and turns that make it very interesting to read and is perfect for people who like to read fantasy books. 

This book introduces the protagonist, Katrina, a girl who changes her name constantly and doesn’t know anything about her past besides that she is part of the Witness Protection Program. She and her parents are constantly on the run from the people who want her and her family dead because of her dad’s secret past, but when her location was accidentally leaked her mom got kidnapped and her dad mysteriously disappeared. Now she is on an unexpected rescue mission to save her parents, and along the way she meets Parker, a young computer hacking genius, who decides to help her, and together they go and meet Agent X, a mysterious guy that is allegedly an ally to Katrina’s parents who can help her save them. As they continue on the mission and get closer to her saving her parents she uncovers some dark secrets about her and her past that change everything. This book is filled with unexpected twists and turns that make it a great book and is perfect for people who love a good mystery and thriller book.

Favorite Reads This Year by Shantal G., 2022-23 7th grader

This book is so relatable. It’s about a girl that goes to Honduras with their mom, dad and two sisters to visit their other family. There’s not much internet though, so it means no phone or communication through the phone. Sue’s mother wants to make a party for her for her quinces, but Sue doesn’t want that. It’s very entertaining to read this book and a lot of Hispanic readers will relate (including me).

I loved this book so much I took the time to read it in both English and Spanish and it was great! Twelve-year-old Malú violates the school’s dress code with her punk-rock look and disappoints her mom. Her dad, who lives really far away, says that everything will get better for her if she follows the first rule of punk, which is to be herself. Malú loves rock music and starts her own band and finally feels like she belongs somewhere and she will do anything to keep her rock band and stand up for herself.

This book is very entertaining. It is about a teenage Hispanic girl that lives in Chicago and is discovering herself, her family, and her culture. I won’t say more about it because I don’t want to spoil the whole book.

This book is about a girl named Callie who loves the theater. Even though she can’t wait to be in the musical Moon Over the Mississippi to be performed at her high school, she sings terribly. But when the students of the drama club offer her a position as a set designer, she doesn’t hesitate to accept. Her mission will be to create sets worthy of Broadway, but she doesn’t know anything about carpentry. To top it off, when two cute brothers enter the scene, things get even more complicated

This is my favorite book ever; it is so fun to read the different characters point of view. This book is about five very different kids who have to try and get along so they can complete the school community services and at the end they have more things in common than they thought. All of the characters are Hispanic and the characters speak Spanish in some situations.

Thank you so much to my students for their recommendations!

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