Jared's Book Reviews

Someone is Always Watching by Kelley Armstrong is horror novel and classified under Young Adult fiction from the publishing site (Penguin Random House, 2024). Amazon lists the reading age between 7th and 9th grade (Amazon, n.d.). The book follows friends Blythe, Gabrielle, Tucker and Tanya who are torn apart when Gabrielle seems to have killed their principal, but had no memory of the event. This one instance begins to tear them apart as they try to piece together what is happening to Gabrielle. I typically stay out of the horror realm despite liking horror and have never touched a YA  horror book. So, this was a good chance to get acquinted with it. I didn't find this through any particular list done by the ALA but it was a book recommended to me by a fellow library that has seen some traction by mainly high school girls. I wanted to familiarize myself with an unfamiliar genre that seems to be a popular genre for young readers that gives me the impression of something like Pretty ...

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo is a novel in verse and is marketed towards young adults ages 13 and up. This is taken from the HarperCollins publishing site (2024). Following Xiomara Batista a young girl from Harlem who writes down her poetic thoughts in a journal. As we explore her thoughts we see her frustrations, wants and dreams which stand in opposition with what her mother wants for her. In trying to find another book to cover in doing my research is discovered that The Poet X has become required reading in some high schools for its themes especially and digging farther I found it on a list of the 100 Best YA Books of All Time from Times Magazine. I have never read a YA book done in verse and am unfamiliar with the genre outside of knowing it exists especially being aware of the Crank books in middle school. I chose this becaus of its uniqueness and came to find it was als a National Book Award Winner as well. (Times, 2024). For this book I will be examining style and language, ...

  Alone Out Here by Riley Redgate is a 2022 science fiction novel targeted a Young Adults between 7th and 12th grade. The novel follows fifteen year old Leigh Chen in the future of 2072. When Leigh and her friends are touring a new spaceship that will take them to the stars the apocalypse happens and they along with those on board are the last survivors as they try to make for a new home among the stars. tensions rise as alliances are drawn and the future of the human race lies in the balance. For this book I decided to read on my kindle as I've gotten a lot more used to it recently. I still prefer flipping through pages of a book, but it is helpful being able to highlight sentences and lines without damaging a book and you come away with a similar experience reading a physical book. However, I will always prefer reading from a book rather than kindle. The book was selected for appearing on the ALA and being awarded the John Steptoe New Talent Author Award. (2023) With this novel I...

  Murtagh by Christopher Paolini is a YA Fantasy novel and can be read by readers between 7th and 12th grades. The book is classified under YA by Penguin Random House (n.d.) The story follows Murtagh after the events of the original Inheritance Cycle series where he is an outcast and must atone for his past sins after being a major antagonist. Wanting to find redemption it takes him to unknown lands where he must face off against a witch that mas much more planned for the land of Alagaesia. I chose this book because I grew up reading the Eragon books as a kid and they were a big part of developing my love od reading, but I haven't read them since childhood and have never touched this book until now. YA fantasy is a very popular genre and selecting from a long running series felt appropriate to examine. For this one in particular I chose to listen to an audiobook which is completely out of my comfort zone. After listening to it, I can't really say I comprehended it it. There...

Jinxed  by Amy McCulloch is a science fiction children's book written for kids 9-12 years old (Sourcebooks, n.d.). This book follows Lacey who lives in a sci-fi world and hopes to one day be an engineer. However, she is rejected. In her sorrow she finds a broken "baku" a robot with all the functions of a computer or smartphone. baku named Jinx is able to get Lacey into school and soon learns that Jinx is far more than a normal baku and might end up being something much larger than she expected. I chose this book because children's sci-fi and fantasy are very popular genres for early reading and connect kids to other worlds and larger ideas outside of their everyday lives. It was also selected after finding it listed on ALA's list of 2021 excellence in children's sci-fi list where it was put under the Eleanor Cameron Notable Middle Grade Books List Lace (ALA, 2021). For this book I wanted to focus particularly on these three aspects, plot, setting, and point of...

Who Was Michelangelo? is a biography written for young readers and Penguin Random House places the age of the intended readers between 8 to 12 years old (n.d.). This book is more or less a book of facts about the real life artist, Michelangelo and forgoes the traditional narrative but records the events of his life from childhood to his time painting for the Catholic Church, in particular being commissioned to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. he would go on to sculpt many important pieces and he would be remembered through those works far after his death. Again, my justification for selecting this book doesn't come from it being on any list but rather the popularity of the book series published by WhoHQ. Working in a library beside a elementary school, many students use these books for projects and early level research and they are a great source of information for young readers by selecting the key moments of a persons life without bombarding readers with too much complex ...