Brutal Youth -- Review by Arinze Mgbemena

"Brutal Youth" is a story of a group of kids Peter Davidek, Noah Stein, and Lorelei Paskal being introduced to their first year of high school. It also talks about their horrible experience with bullying in their freshmen year. For Peter it brings us to how he saw bullying on his first day of school and how he immediately tried to avoid it at all cost. In Lorelei's case she tries as hard as she can to fit in with the popular upperclassmen in the school. So she won't have to be treated as the others getting bullied she joins a group of girls called the "Miss St.Mikes". The group of freshmen decide it'd be best for them to gang up to make up ways to keep them all out of the way of the bullies. They try to befriend everybody the best way they can. But while trying too accomplish that task in some situations they make bad decisions that cost them.

This book truly didn't remind me allot of my own freshmen year. From the bullying standpoint of the book I can not remember myself getting bullied like that by upperclassman. Although I can remember other freshmen getting bullied in some of the ways the book talks about. This book did teach me that I should be thankful of my freshmen year high school. Because it could've been as bad as these freshmen in the book. It also taught me that as a freshmen you start to procrastinate on how to fit in, in high school. It seems as if that's what most freshmen think worry about the most. This book would probably be a very good book for most freshmen kids in high school. I myself would recommend it to anyone.

Conversion -- Review by Arinze Mgbemena

 

     The book "Conversion" by Katherine Howe, is story about a girl named Colleen going through her senior year of high school. She is trying to focus on school and stay stable through the stress of her life at that moment. One day in class, a girl named Clara began having vigorous twitches and tics which was very awkward. Later on, Clara’s friends, and then other girls, started having horrible and strange diseases and events happening to them which soon concerns people in the town. The media commences to cover stories on the girls problems. Colleen tries not to let the girls' problems affect her while she is being stressed out from her last year of high school. Until one of her own friends gets sick. Colleen starts reading "The Crucible" for extra credit, given to her by a substitute teacher. Colleen begins to see similarities between the historical Salem and the events happening on the same area she lives on. This makes her go deeper into the subject and wonder if the girls are faking all of what's happened or if the girls are in an actual dangerous situation.

       "Conversion" was an interesting book mostly because of all the mystery put in it. I enjoyed how the author at the beginning of the story talked about the stresses of high school work. Then she moves on to the mysteries of the Salem witch trials and how it is affecting the high school student life. It was also intriguing how she brought us back to the Salem ages and modern day throughout the whole book. It let you know the differences between those times and how they were reacting to the same type of event. I really enjoyed this book and i would recommended it to anyone one of my friends. 

Secrets of the Cancer-Slaying Superman -- Reviewed by Arinze Mgbemena

 Benjamin Rubenstein was sixteen years old trying to make the varsity tennis team at his high school. He was in the middle of his teenage years and was enjoying his life. One day,  Benjamin started feeling a horrible pain in his left hip. He told his brother about the pain, but his brother told him to give it a few days to see if it would go away. Benjamin decided to fight through it to be able to play tennis, but the pain became unbearable, so he reported it to his parents.  A few days later, Benjamin and his parents went to the hospital to see what was wrong with him. They found out that Benjamin had Ewing's Sarcoma a horrible bone cancer in his left hip.

Throughout the story, Benjamin reflects about his experiences with radiation and chemotherapy and being around children and young adults that he called the "sick kids". He tells us about his emotions of going through cancer the first time. He also describes how he saw people with cancer acting like it was normal to have it. He also remembers how positive they were about it even though they were close to death. Not only did Benjamin go through cancer twice, he also lost his left hip because of the disease. 

 Furthermore, he reminisces about his second encounter with cancer when he had leukemia at the University of Minnesota. He developed this disease as a complication from his treatment from all the radiation he was exposed to. He also discuses his experience with his bone marrow transplant and how he felt alone and in pain all the time. He speaks about his strength mentally and how he tried to stay calm and determined through his second fight with the disease.I enjoyed this book very much because it gave me insight into the life of a young man with cancer. 

The book is interesting. It taught how to be positive about life at its hardest moments. It gave me a look at a teenager with cancer who became an adult with cancer. It was interesting to see the types of maturity through the different times of Benjamin's life when experiencing this disease. This book also did scare me a little because Ben was diagnosed as a teenager with Ewing's Sarcoma which is found in teenage boys. Which makes me more cautious about my health. It also surprised me how Benjamin went through it all. Knowing most teenage boys at that age would've been terrified and probably would've acted different from the way Benjamin did. Me personally would've been deeply scared if it was me or even if it was for a close family member I would fear strongly for them.