
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
A girl with a passion for art and trivial boy problems sounds pretty normal for any teenager, right? For Karou, a 17 year-old art student, these are the least of her concerns. She lives in two worlds it seems. One, her “normal world” is a world filled with a flighty yet loveable best friend, and ex-boyfriend that still pesters Karou and knows exactly which buttons to push to make her skin crawl. The other is within Karou’s sketchbook, filled with mythical, magical creatures only her imagination could conjure up; or could it? The serpent-like character and bat-winged creature that Karou sketches are the very family that she adores and would do anything for.
Her alternate world, only described as “Elsewhere”, is filled with the creatures of her sketchbook turned real life family members. Brimstone is her father-figure who keeps Karou busy by sending her on errands all across the world. The dark purpose of these errands is to collect the teeth of any and every creature our worlds have to offer for a seemingly dark purpose.
Upon the discovery of peculiar handprints singed into the doors of certain passageways, Karou is fatefully introduced to a dark angel who could change her world forever. Not only is she drawn to this creature for reasons unknown, and vice versa, he will also face her with a choice. A choice of freedom from her other-worldly, dark life with the family she has grown to faithfully love and respect or to be forever thrown into the life she has always dreamed of; normalcy. Giving her the ability to choose freely, love unconditionally and live for herself alone. The choice Karou makes could potentially send her into a world of euphoric joy and happiness or send her to the pits of her own personal despair. Sometimes even the most evident decisions can be hard to see.
“Daughter of Smoke and Bone” is an excellent read for anyone willing to enter an alternate universe with the turn of every page. A story where creativity and imagination flourish beyond comparison, this novel will keep you intrigued until the final word.
Review by Katie

Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark
1. Name two characters and give brief personality descriptions.
Mr. & Mrs. Frawley. Mr. Frawley was depressed and stressed-out. As for Mrs. Frawley, she was the same.
2. Write a sentence or two about what happened in the plot:
Mrs. 7 Mr. Frawley’s twin girls (age 3) were kidnapped and they had to pay a $8 million ransom.
3. Write two sentences about what it was that you enjoyed about this work (or about what you didn’t enjoy):
I enjoyed the part when they had go the twin girls back. And when the kidnappers had got caught and put in jail.
Review by Towanda
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