Set in the Pacific Ocean during a modern day, Piscine Patel a very religious teenager from India, is the son of a Zookeeper. His father is very unsure about the political actions in the Indian country, decides to move to Canada and start a whole new life. On the way the boat sinks, and Piscine (Pi) is stranded on a lifeboat, with a hyena, orangutan, a zebra with a broken leg and a 450 pound Bengal tiger. The tiger ends up eating the rest of the animals, and in the struggle for dominance Pi has to feed himself and the tiger long enough to finally hit land.
In the novel, Pi tells two different stories to detectives searching for the real answer. He tells one with animals, and one with people. He allows you to pick the story you want, and that will be the one you believe. In my opinion I believe the story with people — it is much more realistic even though it is very upsetting. I would recommend the book to young adult readers and older because it is a mildly difficult read.
Reviewed by: Dillon C. @ Catalina H.S.
Edited by: kb
Photo Credit: Google Images
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This novel is the second in a series called Being Nikki. It’s a story about two teenage girls who both get a different life, literally. Em Watts had an accident at a megastore where Nikki Howard is the main model face for Stark Enterprises. Em hates the company, but it has the lowest prices ever. She never knew that on that day something was going to happen to her in a split-second that would change everything. The story comes out that Nikki is dead and now Em is living on her body. Em physically dies and gets her brain transplanted to the sensational model of Stark Enterprises — Nikki Howard. Now Em has to get used to living her new life with the modeling, traveling and working for Stark Enterprises.
Reviewed by: Anonymous @ Catalina H.S.
Edited by: kb
Picture credit: Google Images
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“The Universe was redirecting my path, Zeeta,… Sometimes it has to resort to painful things to put you on the right path.”
Zeeta’s mother teaches English; the catch is that she teaches English in a new country every year. Zeeta would like nothing more than to be settled in a suburb in “normal” America, and Layla, her mother, cautions her with “I should be suspicious of what I want.” Consequently, Zeeta has learned from an early age how to communicate in a variety languages, fit into a variety of cultures, and make new friends in new surroundings easier than your typical teenager. A new job has landed Zeeta and her free spirited mother in Ecuadorwhere Zeeta meets a new American friend, Wendell, who is searching for his birth parents in the small villages of the Ecuadorian Andes. Wendell’s inexperience as a traveler balances Zeeta’s relative ease with transition and brings the two closer in a quest for all things wished for. Resau brings the market Plaza de Ponchos to life with her characterizations of locals like Gaby and the blind beggar Don Celestino. One can smell the bread in Mamita Luz’s oven or the heady perfumed flowers in the tropical mountains. Not surprisingly, Wendell and Zeeta come to discover that all that one wishes for isn’t necessarily all that one really wants or needs. This book just came out in October and would make a fabulous read over the holidays. Cynthia Cruz, Howenstine High Magnet School.
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This is a non-stop ride with thrills around every bend and as a reader, I did not want to get off. Hari, a brown- skinned Burrow’s boy who eats rats to survive, has vowed to help his captured father, Tarl, escape from Deep Salt. Pearl, a blond, blue-eyed privileged beauty, has run away rather than face an arranged marriage to a ruthless man. They couldn’t be more different from each other, but both end up on a path to help save the world from the substance found in Deep Salt. They rediscover their abilities to communicate and control the mind of man and animal from Tealeaf, Pearl’s former maid. The two escape and begin their quest with little hope and loads of hatred towards each other, but through a series of events the two become allies and eventually lovers. The substance found in Deep Salt reminded me of pure and lethal uranium, and the descriptions of the animals in this book were ghastly. I very much enjoyed this fantasy of worlds where privilege and want collide. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games then you’ll enjoy the Salt trilogy. Cynthia Cruz, Howenstine.
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