Trapped - a review by George Morejon

Trapped

by Michael Northrop

*** stars

Trapped is told from Scotty's point of view, one of the kids trapped. That day, it started snowing. A LOT. As the afternoon goes on, it gets worse and worse. People leave, even the teacher that's suppose to stay with them. After a hours and hours of waiting, it's just Scotty, some friends of his, 2 girls, and 2 other guys. And they realise that no one is going to come get them.

At first it doesn't seem so bad. A sleep over at school. Getting to see what's different about it. Not to mention the fact that the girls there a pretty hot. Great time, yeah?

Wrong. Things quickly go from kinda bad to much worse. People getting upset over little things, arguing, and people's plans not working correctly all push everyone's buttons in the wrong way. The way they start annoying each other so fast is just a baaad sign. And then a giant accident happens...

I thought this was a good book, and it was funny that I got it right after we had a big snow storm since that made it real easy saying "What if this was people I knew?" I took ~4 hours to get through, and while it had some slow parts, I kept wanting to read more to find out what was happening. The ending was kinda abrupt though, like the publisher cut out the last few chapters. And unrelated thing, but one thing I like is how the chapter title pages have snow falling, and it slowly build each chapter, until it's just completely overwhelmed. Cool, random detail.

Traitor -- a review by George Morejon

Traitor

by Andy McNab and Robert Rigby

**** stars

Traitor is about a 17 year old boy who wants to join the British SAS, but gets denied after having a perfect application because his missing grandfather, Fergus Watts, went rogue in a secret mission in Colombia. Because of this, Danny hates him and makes it his mission to find his grandfather to turn him in. With some help from Elena, he eventually is able to track down Fergus, but everything changes when Danny hears what he has to say. All of a sudden, people are wanting to kill him and they have are running around England trying to get to people who know the truth.

This book was interesting in the way Danny learned so much in so little time, while still being a stupid teenager in way over his head. It was about 4,5 hours to read, and had some useful things I won't forget soon (like 1 200 paces is about a kilometre). The ending wasn't too much of a cliff hanger, and it got me curious about reading the next books.

Runaway – a review by George Morejon

Runaway by Wendelin van Draanen

**** stars

Runaway tells the story about 12 year old orphan girl named Holly. Holly's had some problems in her life, and has been lost in the foster care system. The current family she is living with treats her terribly, locking her in a laundry room most of the time, among other things. Her English teacher, Ms Leone, doesn't know Holly's current situation, but gives her a journal because she thinks it will help.

Eventually, Holly "breaks" one too many rules in her foster parent's house. She gets severely punished, and decides to run away. She gathers some supplies and steals off one day; and just like that, she's gone. The first part, getting out of the area, is the hardest. Everyone snoops too much and she has problems, but once she can hop on a train heading west, she's clear some of her problems.

When she's travelling up and down the west coast, she runs into problems she didn't even imagine when she left: what will she use for shelter? how will she keep the cops' suspicions off of her? how does a 12 year old girl protect herself on the streets of Los Angeles?

I thought Runaway was a good book. The topic of being orphaned and what a girl in an abusive home would have to deal with was something I had never really thought of before. The fact that Holly is only 12 years old gives it a different tone though. A happy, optimistic tone that says "I can do this. Even if everything doesn't go my way, I can do this because I'm strong and I'll make it work!" Holly gets in some tough spots along the way, but she does make it work in the end. The journal format made it seem more personal, and it was a great ~6 hours I spent reading.

The Pushcart War – a review by Amory Gunter

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill

**** stars

In New York city on March 15, 1976 thats when the pushcart war started. The trucker ran over a cart belonging to a flowser peddler. All the push cart around New York city made a group called the Pea-Shooter Capaign. The group shot sharp objects out of a straw at the trucker tries. Than war between both groups started to get worse, and had to bring in the police and the mayor. The mayor was protecting the trukers, and wanted the pushcart gone. The pushcart war goes so wrong; wich the rest you have to find out but the truckers takes the war to far and end up kiddaping to hostaging peoples.

My opion about this book, I give it a 4 star because it may be an old book but it has a story line to it. This book is more like a freshman book, not teen, but I found it in the high school library.I like how the pushcar people and the truckers did not like each other. The truckers would some times try to run down the push cart with there simi truck. The push cart people would bounce back by shooting the truckers tire. The push cart people would have to defeat the truckers and the mayor in order to sustane there business. If this was true story, I think it would be cool if this really happen, but not push carts being ran over by truckers and stuff.