Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman

This book is about a girl named Lara. Lara just got told off on Facebook. She thought that Christian liked her, that he was finally going to ask her to his school's homecoming dance. It's been a long time since Lara's felt this bad, this depressed. She's worked really hard since starting high school to be happy and make new friends.

Bree used to be BBFs with overweight, depressed Lara in middle school, but constantly listening to Lara's problems got to be too much. Bree's secretly glad that Christian's pointed out Lara's flaws to the world. Lara's not nearly as great as everyone thinks.

After weeks of talking online, Lara thought she knew Christian, so what's with this sudden change? And where does he get off saying horrible things on her wall? Even worse, are they true? But no one realized just how far Christian's harsh comments would push Lara. Not even Bree.

As online life collides with real life, the truth starts to come together and the backlash is even more devastating than anyone could have imagined. I recommend this to people that like mystery because its interesting book and also grades 6-8 would like this book.

Reviewed by Amy ~ 6th Grade

Lexile 770

Timmy Failure We Meet Again by Stephan Pastis

Timmy is a middle schooler with a polar bear as his best friend. Their hobby is being detectives and solving mysteries around their community. For example, one time they had to catch the thief that stole his classmate Carl’s bag of candy. Within that same school, Timmy has a friend called Rollo. Their relationship is a love-hate kind. Timmy gets jealous of his good grades. One day, their class got assigned a nature project. Basically, they had to collect rare objects like flowers, sticks, or leaves and present their origin to the class. The teacher paired Timmy with “the beast” also known as Corina Corina. Timmy hates her, because she’s his rival detective. He doesn't like the competition she gives him due to her high quality detective gadgets, but he’s glad that she ended up doing all the work for the project. 

On an infamous afternoon, Rollo was helping his teacher clean his classroom when he stumbled upon an old pile of papers from a previous class. In the pile he found a report that had an A+++ on the paper. After he read it, he realized that it was the same nature project his teacher assigned to the class the previous day. Seeing a selfish opportunity, Rollo took the paper from the pile and left. A week passed until the teachers realized that the “Miracle Report” was stolen. The principal thought that it was Timmy, and he called him into his office for an interrogation. In reality, Timmy was innocent. By the time the school went on a camping field trip, the rumor of the stolen report had all the students trying to find the report themselves and claim it as their own for a good grade. Timmy was determined to find out who the real thief was, although he also wanted the report for himself. Meanwhile, Corrina Corrina also tried to find the report but just to turn it in to her teacher. 

[Spoiler ALERT]

On the second night in the woods, Timmy went to the bathroom because he couldn't sleep. He saw Rollo there with the miracle report in his hands. Rollo was freaking out at the trouble he has caused for himself and the whole school. Before Timmy could react, another student walked in and stole it from Rollo’s hands. Immediately, from fear, Rollo ran into the woods. Timmy and Corrina Corrina, who was spying on the boys, ran after Rollo for answers. Unfortunately, Rollo ran into a tree and fell unconscious to the ground. Corrina Corrina and Timmy sat in a log beside him to talk and share an awkward kiss. Back at school, the current thief tried claiming the “Miracle Report” as his own, but obviously got caught. At the end, the miracle report got returned, Corrina Corrina shared her credit for the project with Timmy, and Rollo ended up with his first ever B grade.

Reviewed by Anthony ~ 6th Grade

Lexile 480 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney is about a boy named Greg and his family. In the story a big blizzard hits town and Greg’s dad might not even be home for Christmas. The genre is realistic fiction. I enjoyed this book because this book was really interesting to me. I recommend this book to people who like diary of the wimpy kid books.
In my opinion this is one of the best diary of a wimpy kid books.

Reviewed by Wiktor ~ 6th Grade

Lexile 1060

Famous Last Words by Katie Alender

This book grabbed my attention with the front cover. A girl is lying on a bed looking at the reflection of the ghost that haunts her house. In this story, a girl named Willa moves in with her stepfather Jonathan, a famous movie director. Willa’s mom and him got married and moved to Los Angeles. The night they moved in Jonathan tells Willa and her mom about the Hollywood Killer that’s terrorizing their town. The Killer reenacts murder scenes from famous movies. But he does not just murder anyone, he murders actresses – and all his victims so far were the same age as Willa. In this murder mystery Willa meets Wyatt a super-smart guy that does not like her. When she ends up with his personal notebook, she finds out a big secret. Along with all this, she has to deal with the ghost that was murdered in her new house. When Willa is in danger she has to confront the ghost. Her best friend Marnie goes missing, and Willa finds the most important information, which puts her at a huge risk of being the next victim. In Famous Last Words, Willa can’t trust anyone but herself and Wyatt, who she soon befriends. If you love murder books or suspense books, then you’ll love Famous Last Words. The genre is mystery and suspense.

Reviewed by Amy ~ 6th Grade

Lexile 660

Emmy and The Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell

The book Emmy and The Incredible Shrinking Rat is about a girl whose parents recently inherited lots of money and a house (from a relative), and are now traveling all the time without Emmy. They don’t seem to want to be around their daughter anymore. Emmy’s nanny, Miss Barmy, tells Emmy that if she is a good girl, then her parents will love her and want to be around her more. Emmy tries very hard to be a good girl, but she is ignored by everyone except the class pet, the Rat. Ever since the rat bit Emmy she can hear him talk, and he is very sarcastic. So one day at school Emmy wrote a note, rolled it up tight and pushed it between the bars of the rat’s cage just as the bell rang. Emmy didn’t bother to make sure no one was looking at her, well because no one ever did. A boy in her class named Joe went up to Emmy and started to talk to her; but that was a first for Emmy because nobody talked to her. Anyway Joe finds out the rat can actually talk, and they get caught up in a conflict with Miss Barmy.Will Joe help Emmy with Miss Barmy? Will Emmy’s parents ever really notice her? Read the book to find out.

Reviewed by Jasmine ~ 6th Grade

Lexile 780

Goosebumps HorrorLand: Help! We Have Strange Powers! by R. L. Stine

Goosebumps Help? We Have Strange Powers

Jillian and Jackson are twins, yet they're quite different. Jillian is an athlete, while Jackson hates any kind of exercise. In one way they're alike: they despise the new kids at school. Nina and Artie Lerner are also twins, but they're bumbling, clueless, and just plain difficult to be around. So Jillian and Jackson are not exactly pleased when Nina and Artie show up at the movies, joining them and managing not only to ruin Jackson's new sweater but to get all four kids thrown out of the movie theater. And Jillian and Jackson don't even get to see the superhero movie they've been dying to catch.

Both Jillian and Jackson are in foul moods after they are ousted from the theater. But they perk up when they see a fortune teller's booth with a wooden fortune teller inside. They can't resist. They put a quarter in the slot, but the old fortune teller's hand doesn't reach the opening in the booth. So Jackson reaches way deep inside the booth, while Jillian pushes on his shoulders to extend his stretch. And that's when they get zapped with electricity --- so hard that Jillian actually bites her tongue. When they finally manage to recover, they read the fortune teller's card: "Welcome to HorrorLand."

The twins have no idea what that means, so they just forget about it --- until much later. Meanwhile, life continues for the twins, but it's not exactly the same. For one thing, they can't help but notice that Jillian can read everyone's mind (which means she's answering questions people are just thinking). Jackson can suddenly levitate objects, such as a bottle of syrup during breakfast along with a waffle or two. He even makes one of the school cafeteria chairs float in the air. The twins decide they need to figure out more about their newly acquired powers, although Jackson can't resist freezing the clock to avoid a quiz in class.
HELP! WE HAVE STRANGE POWERS! is another enjoyably frightening installment in the ever-so-creepy Goosebumps HorrorLand series, topped off with the expected invite to the scariest amusement park on earth. R.L. Stine manages to twist the plot in a totally unforeseen way and to inject some laugh-out-loud moments, while continuing his tradition of terror-filled tales. Fans of the series will also be happy to catch up with the characters from the previous episodes as they all strive to survive the fear-provoking events in HorrorLand: "Where Nightmares Come to Life!"

Reviewed by Michael ~ 6th Grade

Lexile 390

Dear Dumb Diary, Let's Pretend this Never Happened by Jim Benton

I read Lets Pretend this Never Happened from the Dear Dumb Diary Series. The genre of the book is Non-Fiction. This book was about a girl named Jamie, pretty much the class clown. While on the other hand there was a girl named Angeline, the most gorgeous popular girl in the school. Angeline was always better than Jamie and Jamie got jealous. One day Angeline turns "Not so gorgeous if your on her left side" and Jamie gets some revenge on her part. Angeline is always a step ahead of Jamie and her BFF Isabella and they were getting tired of it. Suddenly Angeline suddenly does something nice to Jamie and Isabella. This could possibly change their friendship all together. I recommend this book to anyone who likes humor and action. Once you start reading you cant stop, and as soon as you know it you are finished with the book!

Reviewed by Emily ~ 6th Grade

Lexile 1120

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

The title of this book is Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. The genre is non-fiction because it is a true story. The issue of this book is that Mitch's old professor has ALS. This caused them to meet every Tuesday to learn the meaning of life. Somethings he talks about are the world, feeling sorry for yourself, regrets, death, family, money, and marriage. After these conversations, Mitch changes the way he lives his life. I learned that you have to live life to the fullest while you can, always tell people your feelings, and let them know that you forgive them. I learned a lot from Morrie's lessons. On page 82, Morrie tells Mitch “Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” I liked this book because, yes my mom encouraged me to read it, but I learned that there is more to life than I thought and it was a challenge for me because it is higher than my reading level. I would recommend this book to people who want to learn more about the meaning of life and to people who want to know how it feels to have ALS. I would also recommend this book to people who can relate to how it feels to have a special bond with someone.

Reviewed by Aaron ~ 6th Grade

Lexile 830

My Big Fat Zombie Gold Fish The Seaquel: The Seaquel by Mo O'Hara

There was one kid named Tom who had a pet goldfish named Frankie with a evil brother scientist named Mark. Tom rescued his pet goldfish from his big brother Mark's toxic scientist experiment by zapping him back to life with a battery and Frankie somehow became a BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH with dangerous hypnotic powers. And now Tom and his family is going on for a annual family trip to the seaside. Until they heard a evil El on El bay. Will they ever get out of El bay before they all become a El snack? What I think about this book is that its funny and has lots of action.

Reviewed by Benicio ~ 6th Grade