Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

By Ally Carter

Summary:

This summer, Cammie is ready for a break from the Gallagher Academy and is dying to see her friend Macey who is in Boston with her parents. Her dad is there to accept the vice presidential nominee. In the middle of the summer, Cammie receives an invitation to spend the rest of her vacation with Macey and her parents in Boston! Cammie accepts right away and is excited to meet the man who may be the next vice president of America and of course to see Macey. Cammie will have  a chance to observe the President's security men and learn how they act and use their secret code names (like they do at the Gallagher Academy). There will be so much to do and maybe, if she is lucky, very lucky, she and Macey will have a mystery to solve. Or an adventure to go on. Anything.

This time, however, Cammie might have wished for too much, because, when she and Macey are kidnapped, she knows that the adventure has only just begun...

Review:

This is the third Gallagher Girl book and out of all of the Gallagher Girls books this one is by far my favorite. It had the best mystery hidden inside it. The other books were about her life at the Academy and mysteries at the Academy. This book is about her life outside of her school and about a mystery in a busy city. The fact that it is in a big city with many things going on makes the mystery more complex, and at the same time, more interesting.

A lot of Cammie's other mysteries were done with her best friend Bex (Rebecca) but this one was with Macey who has a very different personality compared to Bex so it changes the way the mystery progresses.

I liked how the book was set in the summer so that Cammie wasn't at school so we could see what she was like when she wasn't under all the stress of school.

Another thing that made me fall in love with the book is that this time it is just Cammie and Macey who solve the mystery and experience the adventure. In the book the author talks about how the relationship of the two friends is developing, and it makes me want to have a best friend to experience everything that life brings with it: to have someone else helping you and always being there for you.
It is a great story mixed with friendship and mystery with a twist of adventure.

Ally Carter has done it again; she has created another Gallagher Girl book to remember. A lot of tweens will enjoy this quick-to-read, well-written book. And, if you're a Gallagher Girl fan you'll find that the Gallagher Girls are full of surprises!

This is the last book review of summer 2011. I chose this book to review because, it was after I had finished reading this book that I fell in love with reading: I started reading tons of different variety books and became addicted to reading.

I hope that you all enjoyed the summer reviews and had a wonderful summer in 2011. (Don't worry, the weekly reviews will still becoming out!)

263 pages

Back To School Booklist

Hey Bookworms,

Only a week (or two, for some people) until back to school! Whether we like it or not, we need to get into the working mood. So, I have made a back to school booklist of books that I think all of my Bookworms would enjoy reading. Some of the books are about girls at boarding schools and the other books are books that are just enjoyable to read. All of theses books, however, are ones that I think you will love and appreciate curling up with after a long day at school. Theses are books that will take your mind off your bad (or good) day at school and let you escape into a different world of different people. They will help you relax.

Here is my list:

#1. The Daring Game by Kit Pearson.

#2. Malory Towers by Enid Blyton (It is a series of 12 books and I would recommend that if you want to get the most out of the series you should read the books in order.)

#3. At the House of the Magician by Mary Hooper (Strongly recommended!).

#4. The Unrivalled Spangles By Karen Wallace.

All of the books on the list are books that are about 200-250 pages long. But trust me, once you get into the story you will be reading it very quickly!

Also, another book review will be coming out (very soon!) on the last day of August to mark the end of summer. I hope that you all find your ways back into your work habits quickly! 

Have a great start to the school year Bookworms,

-Gia

Enjoy your books, love your life and ADORE yourself. You are the best thing that ever lived.

The Wheel Of Surya

The Wheel of Surya

Jamila Gavin

Summary: 

It's 1947 and Punjabi children Marvinder and Jaspal Singh are 9 and 6 years old. They live with their mother Jhoti (age 22), and the family of their father, Govind, in the Punjab. Marvinder and Jaspal have only met their father twice because he travels so often and rarely returns home to his family. Everyday Jhoti struggles to provide and care for her children because she works from dawn to dusk as a kitchen maid. Since Marvinder is a girl she must stay home and amuse herself all day, every day and she is not allowed to help her mother with her work. Jaspal, though, must attend school all day because he is supposed to follow in is father's footsteps and become an international businessman. Jhoti and her children long to live a different life.

When Jaspal and Marvinder are separated from their mother and their father leaves for England without them, they are scared but know that their father's family will take care of them. But when a fight in their village turns into a fire and the entire village (including many people) goes up in flames, Marvinder rescues Jaspal and is determined to leave India and go and find their father in England.

Marvinder and Jaspal are soon taking on the biggest adventure on their lives, traveling on a cruse ship, arriving in a new, strange culture and trying adapt to a different life style. The two children soon find out that there is more than a new culture waiting for them in England, there is betrayal…

Review:

I love The Wheel Of Surya for lots of reasons, but I have main two reasons why: #1- the timeline. I love how we follow Marvinder and Jaspal at different time periods of their lives. I feel like I grow with them. #2: the characters. Since Govind has a HUGE family there are a lot of characters and we are introduced to ALL of them and I love how the author made tons of characters in the book. I am an only child so I love reading about big families because it makes me think of what it would have been like if I had brothers or sisters (not that I want any, judging from the way my friends talk about their siblings!). All of the characters in the book are all their own person and all have a different sense of humor, and are each fun to read about. Some characters are bad, some are good, some are always confused and cluedout (which is always funny to read about!) and some are just trying to survive and 'get by' in life.

Now let's talk more about the actual story:

I think that the time period that was chosen for the story was a good choice. The time period is just after the Second World War ended and they still have ration cards (in England), so we get to learn a bit about them and that is interesting because we don't use ration cards today! I also liked learning about how Marvinder and Jaspal adapted to the English culture. Indians have a very different culture and way of doing things compared to the English and in the book we learnt about both cultures. Another interesting bit about The Wheel of Surya is that we learn about how people travelled and commuted just after the war had ended.

The Wheel of Surya touched my heart a lot for one other BIG reason, and that reason is that my grandmother was born in India and lived there for a short time when she was a child, then she traveled to England to go to school. She was in England on her own, so I feel like Marvinder's feelings are a little like my grandmother's. I would also like to mention that my grandmother read the book and thought that it was fantastic and portrayed a bit of her childhood life (since she also lived in the Punjab)!

Please note that this book was a required summer reading book for my school, so I did not choose to read it. Although I'm happy that I did read it!

Again, I am SO sorry for making you wait so long for another review, but I will tell you that I have a back-to-school must-read booklist coming out this weekend!

288 pages

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

By Wendy Mass

Summary:

One month before Jeremy Fink's 13th birthday a mysterious box shows up at his house. The words The Meaning Of Life : For Jeremy Fink To Open On is 13th Birthday are engraved on it. The box was from Jeremy's dad. He had made it for Jeremy before he died, 5 years ago. Jeremy and his best friend Lizzy Muldon are shocked to find the box. Lizzy begs Jeremy to open the box and Jeremy agrees because he realizes this may be all that he has left of his beloved father.  The two best friends are eager to open it right away but when they realize that the box has four keyholes they don't know what to do. They know that they have to find the keys, but how? Where?
Manhattan is a big city and they can't just walk up to every antique store in the city and try all of the keys in the store in every keyhole. They have to do something different, they have to have a plan, a good one, and they will need to be prepared to do anything in takes.
Before they know it, the two best friends are racing across Manhattan trying to find the keys of the box.  Jeremy and Lizzy don't know it yet, but the adventure of lives is lying in front of them...

Review:

I loved Jeremy Fink because the story was very enjoyable to read. The book was about a mystery but at the same time about a boy's life without his dad around. Also, the mystery is about finding the missing keys for a box, and that is not a very common topic for a mystery. Usually a mystery is about finding a murdered, or a robber and other things of that kind. So, after having said that, I think that Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life is almost like a one-of-a-kind mystery.

Lizzy, who is Jeremy's best friend, is a very fun character to read about. She is always inventing plans that are destined for failure and is always stating the obvious. She makes me laugh on every page and she makes the story seem more 'alive'. She bring life to the story, but at the same time she brings life to Jeremy and I think that that is important since Jeremy's dad has died and he is always sad. She is always excited and ready for adventure and she injects the same energy into her best friend.
This is the first book that I have ever read by Wendy Mass and I must say that I really like her writing style. She has a way of making you really want to find out the answer to the mystery from the end of the first chapter. She doesn't want you to stop reading, and I really appreciate authors who try to do that.

This review is short because this book is absolutely indescribable, and I just can't tell you how wonderful this book is. Wendy Mass has written a story that many, many, many tweens will ADORE. It has a very interesting plot and is an adventure with two unforgettable best friends. Go and buy Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life right away because this is a book which should not miss the opportunity to pass through your hands.

I also wanted to mention that I am so sorry for the delay in the posting of the review. It should have been posted last weekend. On the bright side, the next review will be posted even sooner!

289 pages