Devils Pass Book Review by Brett Mews

 The book Devils Pass written by Sigmund Brouwer is a fictional book that is a mix between a mystery and adventure story. The main setting is the North West Territories where the main character Jim Webb is trying to find something that his now dead grandfather sent him to do in his will. Webb doesn’t yet know what it was but he is trying to find out. He and his cousins were each given a task with everything they need and Webb’s first step was to find his grandfathers old friend.

                  Webb lives in a very small town called Norman Wells where he plays his guitar, the only thing that made him happy. He was expelled from school and ran away from home because his new stepdad tortured him in painful ways. He played his guitar on the streets to make money when he finds an older, bigger man named Brent who started to bully him. He gets into a situation with him but comes out on top. But Brent was mad and had a reputation to never give up on revenge.

                  Webb travels through the forests of the North west Territories with his guide and two German twins. He had to walk a long distance to get to this place he was sent to by his grandfather. This whole time, he is keeping a lookout for the grizzly bear. He wasn’t worried about Brent but he probably should have known his reputation. Webb faces many challenges while trying to succeed in his grandfather’s task. To Webb, his grandpa was not like anyone else and he wanted to make him happy.

                  Webb and his guitar go on a long journey to face many obstacles and some pretty creepy things along the way. He hopes to do what his grandpa wanted because of everything he had done for Webb. He perseveres to the end to achieve the goal for his special grandfather.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - Reviewed by Jamie Turner Patry

My  independent novel study book is The Hunger Games: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. It is a fiction book. 

This book is the final book in the Hunger Games series, and it’s about 17 year old Katniss Everdeen and it is set in Panem, a country in the future. After surviving the Hunger Games (a fight to the death featuring young children) twice, Katniss must realize that she is the face of the rebellion against the notorious President Coriolanus Snow, and she will do whatever it takes to kill him.

After being pulled up on a hovercraft (a high-tech airplane) from the 75 Hunger Games, Katniss is brought to district 13, which was presumed to be destroyed by the Capitol (the Capitol is the leader of all of the districts, and all of the children in the Capitol do not participate in the Hunger Games, but instead they watch in enjoyment). It is hidden underground, and they have been waiting forever to avenge what the Capitol did to them. While they were pulling up the rebels from the arena (where the Hunger Games is held), they were able to pull out Finnick Odair, the Capitol’s favorite man, Betee Latier, the genius and Katniss. They left behind Johanna Mason, the fighter, and Peeta Melark, Katniss’s lover and the kind one, as Katniss says in the book. Johanna and Peeta were brought to the Capitol and are presumed dead and It is all that Katniss can think about. 

One day, she sees Peeta on the Capitol’s T.V, and because of that, she agrees to be the Mockingjay, (the face of the rebellion) under the terms that they will rescue Peeta and Johanna. Through the book, Katniss ventures to various districts trying to start the rebellion, and every time she looks at the T.V, she sees Peeta getting worse and worse. Finally, 13 rescues the tributes in the Capitol. Katniss is overjoyed to find Peeta again, but just before she can hug him, he grabs her throat and attempts to kill her. They tell her that he has been hijacked, a form of torture and he thinks that Katniss is a demon. They try to bring him back to what he was before, but nothing is working. Katniss then goes to join the Star Squad, a army group and she is going out to kill Snow in the Capitol. This group includes Gale, her best friend, Finnick, and later on, Peeta. 

While in the Capitol, Katniss sees many friends die. Finnick, being killed by lizard/humans and her sister Prim, being blown to bits. In the end, Snow dies, Peeta gets better and Katniss and him live their lives in happiness. 

I would recommend this book because it is filled with suspense, romance and comedy. It is a fun book and you get to love all the characters, just for most of them to die.​

Neil Flambé and the Aztec Abductions Book Review by Connor

Neil Flambé and the Aztec Abductions is a fiction novel by Kevin Sylvester that takes place in Mexico, present day, starring a chef and his assistant, a business woman, a detective, and a retired chef that acts as a mentor. I highly recommend the Neil Flambé books, this one was the second in the series, the first one is the Marco Polo Murders, the third one is the Crusader’s Curse, and the fourth one is The Tokyo Treasures.

    In my novel, the conflict is between the main character, Neil Flambé, and a group of kidnappers who live in Mexico City. It takes place all over Mexico City, from dumpsters to hotels, to fancy kitchen designed for “Cooking Battles”. The main character’s names are Neil, the chef, Larry, his assistant, Isabelle, a business woman in a perfume company, Angel, who’s a retired chef, and Nakaruma, a detective. The book is fairly fast paced book, events happen one after another quickly, there are breaks which allow for the characters to predict what’s going to happen next, like one where they theorize that they take Isabelle and make a deal saying if you make it to the finals and loose, we’ll give you Isabelle back, just to make a bet on the person who is Neil’s opponent in the Finals, and earn money.

The plot’s simple, it usually goes from scenes looking for Isabelle, to dealing with the upcoming cooking battle, then they find another clue about where to find Isabelle, then they look again, then they predict what’s going to happen next, then there’s a cooking battle, then the cycle repeats. All the characters have specific character traits that contribute to the story, for example, Neil has an excellent sense of smell, that helped him trace Isabelle down to the subway when she was first kidnapped. The conflict is character vs self, and character vs character, because it’s Neil against the kidnappers, and Neil having to deal with the decision of loosing his friend, or his dreams.

I really enjoyed the book, it’s fun, and has funny moments and always keeps you guessing, as the author tries to do, we know that because the characters are telling you possibilities of what might happen fairly often. I liked it because the characters are likeable, and the plot is somewhat believable, and it’s not easy mentally, or physically for any of the characters, like having to climb up and down garbage hills in huge dumps, and having one of your best friends kidnapped, and having to loose your job for her to stay alive. The author was successful in presenting the central idea of the book to the reader, it’s about which is more important friends or dreams, or loyalty or liberty. The book was memorable for it dealing with a subject that deep and still making it kid friendly. This book is a great read that is worth your time, and it’s not too long or short either, and it makes you question which do you value more, loyalty or liberty, and if liberty, at who’s expense, especially in this book.

The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau - Reviewed by Hunter Holden

 The People of Sparks is about a boy and a girl by the name of Lina and Doon who come from a hidden city underground. The City of Ember was built  to protect people from harm going on above the ground which we learn later in the book is because of plagues and wars.h They find a village and send a note down to the underground city about where they are and how to get to it. The book tells all the problems that Lina, Doon and the People of Ember face in the new village.

This book is the sequel to the first book. In the first book they escape the City of Ember. The people of Ember had to walk for a few days to find the village.The people from Ember had high demands coming in to the village such as shelter, food and other things necessary for survival. Sparks only had around 300 people and had to take in around 417. Most of the refugees from Ember stayed in an abandoned hotel that was run down. That included Doon. Lina got to stay in a proper house because of Poppy which is her sister that is still a toddler. They stayed in the nurse’s home. A boy named Torren lives with the nurse and makes life more challenging for Lina. The town’s leaders decided to keep the refugees for 6 months and then send them off to construct their own village. Although, the people of Ember did not know how to build anything above the Earth , or build anything at all. The leaders of Sparks ( Wilmer, Ben and Mary) decide to teach them how to work. It turns out that the people of Ember are completely useless. There are many problems that occur that involve Lina and Doon.

The author makes us think about our ecological footprint and how we affect the world. How many times we can just go to the store and buy food, use and throw away without care. Also what can happen after many wars. An example in the book is when Lina is learning about all the wars and plagues that had happened. If you read the first book, it will leave you wanting to\ read the second book and so forth. I am really intrigued to see what will happen in the next book. The author does a great job at the end of the book with a little mystery and suspense making you want to find out what happens next. I would recommend this book if you like a little bit of mystery and adventure.

The Abduction by Theodore Boone - Reviewed by Jordy Auger

A mysterious abduction during the night while a girl who happened to be home alone was held helpless. The abduction of April Finnemore took place sometime between 9:30PM and 3:30AM. The next day everyone in the town of Strattenburg had heard and was very concerned for the young 13-year-old girl. Her best friend Theo has experience with the law. He searched the city for her or some clues. 

 Theo’s parents are both lawyers. April’s parents were not responsible and they both have criminal records, her parents often leave her home alone. Everyone in town knew about her weird and different family. There was a rumour going around that they found a suspect. His name was Jack Leeper, he recently broke out of a California prison and he was spotted at a local convenience store. They discovered that April was his pen pal when he was in California. They thought that that was obvious that he was responsible for the abduction. Jack pretended he knew where she was so he could try to make a deal for example he doesn’t have to stay at the California prison (because he did not like it). Theo told his uncle Ike about the situation because he has many friends who do things that are illegal so he gets inside information. 

Ike was a lawyer until he did some illegal things. Ike had a thought that maybe April’s dad who was never around because he was in a band with a bunch of old guys who are drug addicts and criminals. Nobody else in town thought it was Aprils’ dad. 

I think there was too much information on the little things and lot enough on the big things. The ending should have been more interesting for example after the kidnapper (not saying who) did not even get sent to prison and get sued or even any real punishment. I got very excited about the ending but then I turned out to be disappointed when I read it. They barely talked about the mom. They should have introduced more characters. 

This book had a very interesting subject but they could and should have made it more interesting and with more detail. Although the book was very exciting while I was reading it and I tried to predict what would happen. I would not recommend this book because it lacks a lot of detail, even though it was a good overall story.