Catching Fire - Book Review by Janae

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SERIES, THE HUNGER GAMES







  Catching Fire (second book in the Hunger Games Series) by Suzanne Collins

 After Katniss and Peeta have won the Hunger Games, everything has changed. It seems like everyone is on edge in District 12 and for good reason. The Capitol is very angry with the outcome of the Games and is seeking revenge. And when the Quarter Quell, the Hunger Games of every 25 years, comes around, the Capitol gets the revenge they have been hoping for: Katniss and Peeta are casted back into the arena. Catching Fire started off slow, but then captured my attention almost instantly. From then on, I couldn't put the book down. This is an awesome book, and I can't wait to read the next, and final, book in the series. 

Book Review by Janae

"Own the Night" Teen Summer Reading Program

All teenagers  in Bossier Parish, between the ages of 13-18, are invited to participate in the Teen Summer Reading Program at the Bossier Central Library in the History Center!

Own the Night Program Schedule

                                                   

Wed., June 13, 2 PM - 4 PM

Wed., June 20, 2 PM - 4 PM

Wed., June 27, 2 PM - 4 PM

Wed., July 11, 2 PM - 4 PM

Wed., July 18, 2 PM - 4 PM

Fri. - Sat., July 20, 7 PM - 7 AM (Lock-in)

Wed., July 25, 2 PM - 4 PM  

*There will not be a weekly program the week of July 4th.

If you would like to sign up for the program or find out more information, please contact Tonya Oswalt at the Bossier Central Library at (318) 746-1693.

How the Program Works

If you read 3 books, you will get a small prize and a raffle drawing entry.
(*You will get a prize for every three books you read, up to five prizes)

If you read 15 books, you get a grand prize entry.

If you attend a weekly summer program, you will get a raffle drawing entry.

*You must attend the final program to win raffle drawing prizes.

MECHANICS:

The Teen Summer Reading Program is geared towards youth between the ages of 13 to 18 years old.  The program usually consists of crafts, games, theme related activities, and special guests. The weekly program lasts approximately 1 ½ - 2 hours.

 Each teen will fill out a reading log with his/her name and age.  The teen will take the reading log home and record the title of each book read during the summer program.  For every three books the teen reads he/she will receive a small prize and a raffle drawing entry (up to five prizes and five entries).  If the teen reads fifteen books, he/she will receive an entry in the grand prize drawing.  Each teen will also receive a raffle drawing entry for each weekly summer program they attend.  All raffle drawings, including the grand prize drawing, will take place at the final program.

Any teen that wants to attend the lock-in program must read at least three books and return a permission slip signed by a parent.

Books to be counted on the logs may be library books or personally owned books, including fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, and magazines. 

Teens do not have to attend each weekly summer program in order to participate in the Teen Summer Reading Program.

If you have any problems or questions, please ask our library staff.  We are here to help and assist our patrons.  Thanks so much for your cooperation and participation in this year’s fun-filled Teen Summer Reading Program!

Pretty Little Liars - Book Review by Lindsay

Pretty Little Liars  by Sara Shepard

High school juniors Aria, Spencer, Emily, and Hannah are 4 pretty girls with some ugly secrets. Hannah had low self-esteem because her own father called her overweight, but after making herself eat greasy, fatty food, then throw up, she's one of the prettiest, most popular girls in school now. She stopped for a while, but after some stressful things happen, all she wants to do is eat. Is she going to fall back into her bad habbits? Aria has always been the unique one but very unsure of herself. She contantly tries out different personality types, to see which one is most pleasing to other people, and make her popular, so she won't be just the weird girl with the pig-puppet. But when she meets an older man in a bar, was pretending to be someone she's not the best idea after all? Spencer is always surpassed by her older sister Mellissa, from school, to boyfriends. Spencer is always a little envious. And when Mellissa brings home her new super cute, British boyfriend, will Spencer be able to push aside her jealousy and resist temptations? And Emily, her life is going pretty well, she's doing good in school, and one of the stars of the swim team. But things shake up a little when there's a new girl, Maya, moving in across from her. Emily is very intrigued by Maya, and soon learns some secrets about her, and maybe herself. But are Emily's feelings for Maya a little more than friendly?

What do all these girls have in common? They were all best friends in 7th grade, along with their "pack leader", Alison. But the summer 7th grade ends, Ali goes missing, and nobody knows what happened to her. All the girls are really confused and creeped out by this, and since it happened, their friendship broke off. But there's something even scarier happening now, the girls are getting messages from someone who obviously knows secrets about them, the mysterious person only signs their name with an "A". Is it Alison? No. She's been missing for 3 years. She has to be dead by now, and ghosts can't send texts and emails, right?

I liked this book; the plot is really interesting and suspenseful! I liked how the book is told in switching view-points between Aria, Spencer, Hannah, and Emily. It made it easy to stay interested when there's 4 kinda seperate stories, and I like how they all tie to each other. It did get a little confusing at first, but other than that it's a really light read, no big complicated words, it's written pretty simply.

Book review by Lindsay

The Summer I turned Pretty - Book Review by Lindsay

The Summer I Turned Pretty  by Jenny Han

This book is about a 15 year old girl named Isabel, or Belly, as she goes by, who pretty much lives for summer. At the beginning of every summer, Belly, her brother Steven, and her mom go to a place called Cousins beach, where Belly's best friend's mom lives. Her mom's friend, Susannah, has 2 sons, Jeremiah, and Conrad. Jeremiah and Conrad have been just friends with Belly since they were little kids, but that doesn't mean Belly hasn't been crushing on either of them... And this year is different. In more ways than Belly knows at first. For one; She's matured a lot over the past year, this is the summer she turned pretty.

I was a little hesitant to read this at first; it sounded cliche, predictable and kind of boring. But it most definitely was not. (Well, some parts were, but it was still really good.)  I'm so glad I decided to give this book a chance because I really, really loved it! It's one of my favorites. I literally read it in a day. Belly is such a relatable character, and you can really connect with her emotions. And I loved most of the other characters too. I liked how there were little flashback chapters, where you could learn about some of Belly's past, it makes you almost feel like you grew up with the characters. This is the first book in a trilogy; I'm about halfway through the second book and I can't wait to read the third!

Book Review by Lindsay

Matched - Book Review by Lindsay

Matched by Allie Condie

In a "perfect" future society, the government controls absolutely everything. What you eat, what you wear, who you marry, when you marry, ect. When you're 17 years old, the society holds a "matching" ceremony for you, an event where they match you with the person that you will eventually marry. The society uses algorithms to find your perfect match, it's guaranteed you'll get along great, dating made easy, right? Not for Cassia. Cassia is both shocked and happy when she finds out that she's matched with her best friend since childhood, Xander. They give her a microchip that contains information about Xander that she's supposed to look at later. But when she does look at it, something extremely strange happens, something that's never happened before. Instead of Xander's face showing up on the computer screen, it's a different boy's, a boy Cassia recognizes as Ky Markham. Cassia is confused, shocked, and worried. A society Official tells Cassia that it was just a glitch in the system, Ky shouldn't even be in the matching system, she gives her a new microchip, and says she should just forget about it. But Cassia is too intrigued by this "glitch" to pretend like it never happened.

Matched is a great book, and very unique. It has a great plot with tons of twists and mysteries, and interesting characters. It's a real page-turner that you can't help but stay up late reading! 

Book Review by Lindsay

Liar - Book Review by Lindsay

Liar  by Justine Larbalestier

Liar is about a 17 year-old girl named Micah, who is a compulsive liar. Micah is the narrator of the book, but she swears that she'll tell nothing but the truth for once while she's telling you her story. When her boyfriend goes missing, everyone thinks that with her history of lying, she should be a major suspect in the crime.

I did not really like this book. Micah is just a really annoying and bitter character. There are lots of twists and stuff in the story but half of them don't even make sense. When you get about halfway through the book, there's a really random plot twist that just makes you go like, "Whoa, where did that even come from?!" I won't spoil it, but it just makes no sense. This book messes with your mind a lot, and it can be pretty hard to follow. You know how Micah says she'll tell you nothing but the truth? Yeah, well she's a compulsive liar. She wasn't even being honest when she said that. She says one thing, and then later she tells you that it was a lie. Eventually it gets so annoying, and you don't even believe that anything she says about the story is true anymore. Because it's probably not. The ending is terrible, it feels like the author got really lazy. it makes no sense, It really gives no conclusion, and it just leaves you guessing.

Book review by Lindsay

Fallen Angels - Book Review by Janae

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

Fallen Angels is a Vietman-War story full of action, comedy, and drama.  It is told from the point of view of a soldier named Richie Perry, a black man just out of high school.  He had dreams of playing basketball until he injured his knee during a game.  In order to keep his family out of the poor house, Perry joined the military, hoping not to get into too much combat due to his injury.  That did not work out in his favor... By being sent to Vietnam, Perry gained some great friends and got a few more injuries on his plate, and learned many life lessons in the process.  But the question is if he can survive until the end of the war?  Surprisingly enough, Fallen Angels was a great book (in my opinion).

Book Review by Janae