William


 * Red Kayak by Priscilla Cummings (Summer Reading)**

 **The Red Kayak is the book that is being reviewed. It was written by American author,Priscilla Cummings. This mystery story reveals how a little kid, named Ben, died in a tragic boating accident.**

 **The story is set on the Chesapeake Bay. Priscilla Cummings lives in Maryland and therefore I presume she chose to base the Red Kayak on the Chesapeake Bay as this is a place she would be familiar with. Obviously since the story is about a boating tragedy it needs to be near a stretch of water.**
 * The main characters is a young teenage boy called Brady. The plot of the story is based upon the tragic death of a young boy called Ben who lives next door to Brady. Brady discovers that perhaps Ben’s death had not been an accident after all. Brady has to decide whether or not he should tell the police of his suspicions that his friends had some involvement in the boating tragedy.**


 * The moral of The Red Kayak is that it is better to tell the truth if you are in a difficult situation whatever the consequences.**


 * I was able to identify with Brady. I felt for him because he was stuck in a situation and he wasn’t sure what he should do. In the end he chose the right decision and told the truth. I think that Brady matures during the story because he has to make some important decisions. I also sympathized with Brady. He has good friends but he realized they can make mistakes and in response he has to make the right decision so they learn what they did wrong.**


 * There were a few surprises but the main one was when Brady found his fathers’ missing drill behind the shed. I don’t think that any of the chapters ended with cliffhangers because all of them just keep carrying on with the story line. I think that the dialogue is natural and believable for all the characters.**


 * The quote that I chose to grab a reader is “Tragedy hits the DiAngelos when their kayak overturns in the bay. and Brady’s left wondering if what happened was more than an accident”**


 * In my opinion The Red Kayak is an excellent book. I really enjoyed it. It was written in a way that just made you want to keep reading. The plot is very memorable because it is a long sad story which ends in justice. I would recommend it to anyone who likes mystery books.**    [[image:http://dborck.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/red-kayak.jpg height="461"]]   **The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth (Summer Reading)**   The Day of the Jackal, a book categorized in the genre of ‘thriller’, was written by Frederick Forsyth in 1971.

Frederick Forsyth is an English author who was born on 25th August 1938. He was one of the youngest pilots ever to qualify in the Royal Air Force. At the end of his flying career he became a journalist and started to write novels. He is now the author of nine bestsellers.

The main theme of The Day of the Jackal is a plot about an attempt by a French terrorist group to assassinate Charles De Gaulle, the then President of France.

When I first began to read the book I found it difficult to get absorbed. The author set the scene in different locations and there seemed a lot of characters. However, after a while I began to understand what was happening and really enjoyed the main body of the plot. There was a lot of action, and because The Day of the Jackal is set in locations that exist in real life it made the story very credible. The story is based in Europe during the years of 1963 - 1964. Since the story is about the assassination of the President of France it gave the author a very obvious choice of settings.

My chosen quote to be used to entice someone to read the book is “ It seems that there is no power on earth that can stop The Jackal.”

Overall I enjoyed reading the book. It was action-packed at the end, and the buildup to the assassination attempt created good suspense.

Since the opening chapters of the novel were a little confusing, I would recommend this book to a more mature reader who would be willing to persevere to get into the story line. In addition the prospective reader should enjoy thriller/action books.



 The Trouble With Lemons Daniel Hayes

 The book The Trouble with Lemons by Daniel Hayes is about a boy called Tyler finding a dead body and having to figure out who murdered the person and why. The book is set in Wakefield. A quote that I would use to grab the reader is “ Two shadows, two murderers, who might now be looking for him...” Personally, I think the book tells a really good story because it has multiple parts of the book that you just want to keep reading to see what is going to happen next. It is also very good because it has a very good buildup to the climax so it is very interesting. I think that the plot was not forced at all and it was very well developed, the book has many clues within the story so you can guess at what happens but sometimes it is different so it is even more exciting. But it did not make things so obvious so you had to keep reading and wait to see what happens. I thought while I was reading the book I could concentrate very well on it because the author just makes you want to keep reading it so when I’m I completely block out everything and just read. I think the setting of the story makes it quite exciting because the setting is what makes the story possible and it really shapes the characters personality in the end. The problem during the story is that Tyler and his best friend, Lymie, went out late at night and found a dead body in a quarry. But they soon find out that the dead guy, BooBoo Anderson was actually murdered and Tyler finds out who it was. But so do the two murderers so Tyler is extremely scared they are going to kill him also. I think the book taught me that if you know that someone has done something bad to someone or something you should tell someone responsible enough to handle it straight away so the whole thing can get solved. I would suggest this book to young teenagers because I feel it would get boring for a younger kid because there are parts in the book that I think would bore them so they wouldn’t enjoy the book as much. This book would be a very fun book to read if the person enjoyed mystery books because that is what kind of book this is. Personally, I really enjoyed the book because I enjoy mystery books so that is a big reason and also the book has many cliffhangers so it makes you want to keep reading and I really enjoy those kind of books.


 * [[image:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_-e9JAGEm40dZ6DbVR_Ra55SPhG0Cq9JdSbcdJzs9IPtEuP1IE2mmCKK5hZqxpx-o4eCAIF-NmG5BRvcn54wM7nua7ONSfwWpQENdBScaLDlJpJimg]]*<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">* ||

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[|__http://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Lemons-Fawcett-Juniper-Daniel/dp/0449704165/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289352219&sr=1-1__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lord of the Flies by William Golding Book Report by Will Blake  <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of English school boys who get stranded on an island after their plane is shot down. They don’t know what to do because there are no adults on the island so they quickly elect a leader. The name of the leader is Ralph and the way he gets them to join him at the meeting place on the beach is by using a conch shell he found. All the boys join together to make one society. Every person has a job to do around the island. But later in the book the boys start getting a little crazy because one of the boys claims to have seen a beast.

One of the older boys called Jack gets tired of being under the control of Ralph so he creates his own tribe and all the boys leave Ralph to join his tribe. The only boys that stay are: Piggy, Simon and the twins. But soon the twins switch side and join Jack’s tribe. Soon after the twins switch side Jack’s tribe kill Piggy and Simon which leaves Ralph on his own.

At the beginning of the book I found it hard to catch onto because it was all about them exploring the island and setting up a society but once it got past that it got really interesting and good. I thought the author chose a great scenery for it and the island was very well described. All the characters were very well made and all of them had a big impact in the story and they are what made the story very interesting and exciting. I would suggest this to a reader who likes adventure/mystery books and books that have a big meaning. I enjoyed the book but it is definitely not the best book I have ever read before. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">[]

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A long way gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By Ishmael Beah

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Book Review <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Will Blake

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For my third trimester reading book I read A long way gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. A brief summary of what it was about was the childhood of Ishmael Beah in Sierra Leone, Africa. Rebels attacked his village and he had no choice but to run away leaving his family and belongings behind. The book is about his journey from leaving his village to coming to America and going to college. This book is an autobiography of his early life.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I thought the book told a really good story because it told the reader about what he had done in good detail and at times it was really exciting so I didn’t want to put the book down. At times the book was kind of boring because there wasn’t anything that exciting going on. But I liked when he was fighting because I like guns and violence so I would be interested in those parts. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The story is set place in Sierra Leone in Africa during 1993 to 1997 and then he moves to New York in 1998. The setting does make the story exciting because there are things in Africa that aren’t anywhere else in the world so that really helps to make the book good.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem for Ishmael in the book is that his village was attacked by rebels so he had to leave and then he ended up being recruited in the governments army to fight against the rebels so Ishmael was in danger of getting killed. This book really rose my awareness about how their are lots of kids in Africa that have to fight against each other. I think that is one of the reasons Ishmael wrote this book so I think he accomplished what he was trying and is trying to do. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think someone who enjoys autobiographies or someone who likes to read books about violence and adventures. If I was to pick an age group to read this book I would say from 14 - 16 years old. Personally I liked the book because I like these kind of books because they are interesting to read and I like when there is violence in books.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><span style="color: #003399; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">[] <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">