Road Trip Ready: 6th Graders Review Books For Spring Break

Hatchet Review by U.M.

Hatchet is a realistic fiction, adventure novel. This book is about a 13-year-old boy named Brian whose plane crashes down into the deep evergreen wilderness of the Canadian forests and lands.

The plot is that he is lost and needs to get back to his family. Will he make it out alive? Is he strong enough?

The solution includes how he overcomes his fears and problems. He learns to manage his stress and his needs such as a food source, water, and shelter.

Brian sharpens his skills to survive and withstand against natural disasters and dangerous wild animals like wild bears and wild pigs.

He learns to hunt. He improves his physical body, like his stamina, his endurance, and more.

Whilst stuck in the wilderness, the dreadful feeling and memory of his parents divorce rips him apart on the inside. But he learns to cope and always be optimistic.

The story ends with Brian discovering an emergency transmitter from the crashed plane. Will Brian go home at last?

I personally think that the book is a 4 out of 5 star masterpiece. First of all, everything just clicks together. The words blend into a delicious mix to make and finish an awesome piece that sends the message of never giving up and not wallowing in your misery. Each satisfying sequence of words just simply begs for you to turn the pages. Strings of words unravel as you dive deep into this creative piece of a story.

I would recommend this book to those eager readers that just love long progressive novels and realistic fiction books!

Each strand of words is an irresistable whisper, a tug, that just pulls you forward!

Leon's Story - Review by L.R

Leon's Story is an interesting page turner, and is a good book even if you don't enjoy reading as much. Leon's Story is a great memoir for ages 8-13. The book is about 100 pages long and does not have many words on each page. This book, set in the 1940-50's, is about a black child struggling with racism. Soon his dad dies in an accident. I suggest that you read the book to understand how some some people used to live their life suffering, not being able to do basic tasks like going to the grocery store or even drinking water from a fountain without being hurt or yelled at.

Spy School Project X: Review by I.K.

Spy School Project X, by Stuart Gibbs, is an action adventure book for 8-10 year olds about a 12-year- old CIA student named Ben Ripley, who gets framed by his arch nemesis, Murray Hill. Ben Ripley then has to hunt for Murray with his friends, Erica Hale, Zoey Zibbell, and Mike Brezinski. This book is 4 ½ stars. It is very entertaining and fun to read with great word choice. I would definitely recommend this book! If you enjoy this book you should also read the other books in this series along with City Spies and Codename Zero.

Scythe: Review by F.S.

I would recommend Scythe, a dystopian science fiction novel, by Neal Shusterman for ages 11+. It is very philosophical and has deep thoughts about immortality, a death free world and a morally complete society. Scythe is a world where everything is accomplished. Everyone can be instantly healed. In this world, there are people called Scythes that permanantly eradicate people. This is called “gleaning” and is used to control the population size.

Its protagonists or main characters are Farday, Rowan, Citra, and Scythe. Citra and Rowan are chosen to be apprentices of Scythes but they do not want to be ones.

This book has a lot of drama and is a page turner. There is a moment where Rowan and Citra are told that they have to glean each other. This was one of the moments that was very engaging and made me want to read more. Both of these characters met at an opera show, brought together by Scythe Farday. Both characters have very interesting personalities that kept me reading all throughout.

Other books I would recommend are "Wings Of Fire" and other books by Neal Shusterman like "Glean".

Survival: Review By K.K

Survival by Paul Dowsell is for ages 8 - 12. This is my first adventure book and this is a great book for my first time. This includes real stories of people surviving in the wild without basic needs, trying to get fresh water, food and more. This chapter book is about shark attacks, volcanoes, cold oceans and airships plus more exciting adventures. The word choices are a little challenging. I would rate this book a four-star. People who like adventure should read this book and it's interesting for those new to adventure, too.

Gregor The Overlander Book 1 - Review by R.A

Gregor The Overlander, overall, is an amazing series to read on vacation. The author, Suzanne Collins, was on the New York Times Bestseller list twice. She is also the author of Hunger Games, another series.

Gregor The Overlander is about a 11-year-old boy who goes to different realms in each book. This book is for the 8-12 age group. I think it's very engaging because there is suspense every couple pages and it always keeps you on your toes. There are also other books in the series which are good but not as good as the first one.

In the book, there are a lot of characters. The main characters are Gregor: The protagonist, Margaret (aka Boots) the protagonist’s sister, Luza the proud, intelligent, and battle-trained leader with silver-blond hair, violet eyes, and pale skin, Ripred, the massive, battle-scarred gray rat in The Underland Chronicles who serves as a cynical, highly skilled assistant.

How does the story start? When Boots falls into a realm from the laundry room, Gregor follows her. They fall for hours and hours, or that's what they think. However, they're actually falling for a of couple minutes. While falling, Gregor hears a thump and then the patter of Boots' sandals. He lands next, and sees a faint light to his left. Then, he hears Boots happily squeaking, "Bug! Beeg bug!” Gregor runs toward Boots. While running, his foot catcges on something and he falls. He looks up and sees a huge cockroach.

This is one of many suspenseful moments and cliffhangers. This is why I think Gregor the Overlander is an amazing book to read on vacation.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Review by M. A

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is a great book for self-improvement. The book is for adults, but 11-year-olds or anyone over 11 can read it. It’s very informative as it teaches you to awaken your consciousness, and to become interdependent.

I rate this book 4 stars. Not only does it make you more aware, but it makes you think wiser. Building habits is not easy, but this author encourages us to keep on trying. Habits don't only affect us, but can influence others. Habits that I focused on in the book are habit one: be proactive, habit 4: think win-win, and habit 6: synergize.

The only problem is that it gets boring after a while. If you enjoyed the book, you should check “The 8th Habit”or for little ones, “The 7 Habits of Happy Kids”.

The City of Ember: Review by J.J.

The City Of Ember, by Jeanne Duprau, is a mystery book for ages 9-14. I read it in 4 days for 20 mins a day. I never liked books but this book is a page turner and a book I would definitely pick up.

This book is about a boy named Doon Harrow and a girl named Lina Mayfleet. They live in a city called Ember. In this city, Ember, there are no sources of natural light, no sun, no nothing. The only thing they had for lights were light bulbs. While the city suffers from blackouts and food shortages, Lina finds her sister, Poopy, chewing on a old piece of paper. It was practicly destroyed. Lina recognizes it as "instructions to escape." Lina does not understand it. As they investigate, they discover that Mayor Cole is keeping the city's supplies like food and lights all in a secret room for himself. When the (protagonists) try telling the gaurds, they don't do anything and Lina, Doon, and Poppy are called criminals. They have nothing to do but hide. Lina and Doon realize they must leave Ember now!

Following the instructions Lina, Doon, and Poppy find a hidden room in the pipe works containing steel boats and paddles. Emerging from a cave, they're outside for the first time; they realize they were in a underground city. They find a journal explaining that Ember was built to save people from a global disaster. The book ends when they throw down the instructions to Mrs. Murdo.Do you think the rest of the city can make it up?

Evil Spy School : Review by Y.A.

Evil Spy School, by Stuart Gibbs, is for ages 10 - 12. It’s an action and mystery novel with alot of suspense. It’s a good novel for people that don’t like to read like me. I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars. It didn’t get a 5 out of 5 stars because the pacing for the first 50 pages was slow. Nothing happened, neither action nor suspense. After that, it became a page turner. I found the characters very memorable because of how important the characters were in the story. They were realistic beacuse they spoke like actual kids. As a slow reader, it took me a few weeks to reach half the book. However, I could’t stop reading because of the suspense.

Hugo: Review by S.A

Hugo Cabret is full of sketches and pictures. Every page is a page turner because each one talks about something else. Even the photos are different.