The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

So far in this book, Jeanette has had to learn to be tough and not to rely on anybody except for herself. At the young age of only 3, she got really badly burned and was brought to the hospital. Her dad pulled her out even though she wasn't completely healed, but she never complained once. Also, she barely has any guidance from her parents because they go to bars and leave the kids alone for hours at a time. In one incident, she fell out of the car and flew on to the ground. Rocks dug into her face as she lay on the ground by herself. Eventually, her parents came back, but she spent a good amount of time injured, by herself, on the side of a highway.

Independent Reading- Swim the Fly

One major event that just happened is when Matt finds out that Valerie likes him. It was like everything just finally fit into place and things started making sense. Almost the whole book, he's been chasing after this girl named Kelly, so he became friends with her friend Valerie. Because he's so crazy about Kelly, he doesn't even notice how much she's flirting with him; she asks him to help her decide which bikini to buy and she wants him to watch her try them on. Also, when he got hurt, she called him a lot of times to check if he was okay. Eventually, they decided to go out as friends, but then she told him that she likes him and he realized he likes her also. In the end, he made a great choice considering Kelly couldn't even remember his name!

Summer Reading- Give A Boy A Gun

Brendan and Gary's friendship definitely grew throughout the book. They were always good friends, but not even close to how close they were at the end of the book. As the story goes on, they grow closer because they constantly get teased and only have each other. When they start to plot the shooting, they feel so close because they have this connection that nobody else shares, and they're in the plan together. I would rate this book a 9.5 out of 10. I read it in two days because i couldn't put it down. The story is so exhilarating and suspenseful towards the end. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone from 5th grade up because it's violent and has minor drug use.

Summer Reading- Sprout by Dale Peck

Honestly I was a little disappointed with this book. The most important event in this book by far is Sprout's mom dying. This is the whole reason why he moved from Long Island to Kansas and why his dad started drinking a lot. Without his mom dying, there would be no story. When he moved to Kansas, he became a totally new person: he came out about his sexuality, he died his hair green and he became good friends with this one girl. Basically, he became a totally different person. I would rate this book a 6 out of 10 because the plot could have been interesting, but he went into too much detail about other things.