I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

This book is about Cammie Morgan. She is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Woman. But it isn't what it appears to be. It is actually an all girls school for spies. Cammie's teachers range from polite and sweet to teachers who get plastic surgery every year in order to look very different because they are wanted all over the world. At the academy you would study martial arts in P.E., the latest chemical warfare, fluently speak in 14 different languages, learn who to kill someone in 7 different ways with your bare hands and get extra credit for breaking CIA codes.  But the story is mainly about Cammie using all of her training to keep a HUGE secret from her mom, who is the headmistress, and all of her teachers. That secret is that Cammie has a boyfriend. He thinks she is an ordinary girl who is very religious, home schooled, has a cat and is not allowed to date. She creates this whole other person. Things are working out fine, until Josh's friend, Dillon, figures out that she is a "Gallagher Girl", as the kids in the town call them. The whole neighborhood of Roseville thinks they are just a bunch of stuck up, rich kids. But some of the girls are far from rich, and don't have it easy at all. Dillon does eventually expose Cammie for what she was, but it turns out that all the teachers, including her mom, knew what was going on. So they tell Josh what the school really was after he fallowed Cammie to a CovOps final. CovOps (Covert Operations) is like a class where they learn all of the defense and tricks to being a spy. So, the final was of course a fake mission. They gave Josh some memory washing tea, so he forgot everything that had happened in those past 3 hours.

Cammie, Bex, Liz, Macey, Headmistress Morgan, Josh, Joe Solomon, Dillon and DeeDee, are all of the characters in the book. Cammie is the main character. She is smart, funny, pretty and somewhat clueless when it comes to real life. The story is about her in her sophomore year getting  glimpse of what the world was like outside of the school walls. She met this boy Josh at a fair. She was at a CovOps test and they had to spy on someone to put it simply. Anyway, she met Josh at the fair. Her dad died on a mission when she was little. Bex and Liz are her best friends. Bex is tough, very strong, pretty and she is from England. Liz is very, very, very, very, very smart. She is one of the smartest girls if not the smartest at a school for geniuses. But she tends to worry and overreact. Cammie's mom is the headmistress. She is one of the governments best spies. She is also apparently known for how pretty she is. She is nice and didn't want Cammie to be a spy. But after Cammie's father died, Cammie felt it was the only way she could connect with him. Josh is an ordinary guy who thinks he fell in the with an ordinary girl, but he was very, very wrong. Joe Solomon is one of the teachers at the academy. He is one of the academies best teachers. He is also very close with Cammie's mom because Cammie's dad and Joe were close friends. Dillon is a really bad kid. He is snooty and judges people by their cover. DeeDee is a close friend of Josh. She is sweet and very nice. She also has a HUGE crush on Josh.

I really liked this book. But I feel like the sequel that just came out will make it even better. The main reason I decided to read this book was because Walt Disney Pictures is going to make it a movie. So I decided for once I am going to read the book before I watched the movie. It was a lot better than I thought it would be, however it was a little cheesy.  

As I read the book I visualized and tried to picture what the movie would be like. I wrote a lot of post-its and wrote out a summery 5 times. 

The author, Ally Carter, lives in the midwest. She loves school and has degrees from Oklahoma State University and Cornell.

TTFN

TTFN is the sequel to the popular book TTLY. TTFN is Maddie, Angela and Zoe's junior year. With more problems to face. In this book Angela moves to California because her dad lost his job and her dad's, boss's daughter stalks her. Eventually she moves in with her Aunt Sadie back in Atlanta. Maddie is exposed to extreme amounts of peer pressure and starts to do drugs, simply because the guy giving her the drugs she is secretly in love with. Even though she hates it and he has a girlfriend. Of course she ends up getting caught and sent to jail for the night. Zoe struggles to keep Angela from knowing she is going out with, Doug. In their sophomore year, Doug, had a huge crush on Angela. Angela pretended to hate it but secretly loved having him around her to adore her. 

The characters really haven't changed since the first book. Maddie is still a tough, not so lady like trouble maker. Zoe is still sweet and innocent. But she tries harder to lose not be so innocent. Angela over-reacts more in this book than the first. She makes a HUGE deal over the tiniest things. It gets annoying after a while, but she gets better towards the end.

I also LOVED this book. It was great. I read this book in a day, too. Which is not normal for me cause I am the slowest reader on the planet. The book was of course, written in IM's which made it really easy to understand and fun to read. I would recommend this book to all my friends.

I tried something a little different this time as far as reading habits go. I tried to write note on things I noticed. But because I read the book A LOT faster than I thought I would, that strategy didn't work to well. But I did visualize. 

I couldn't find any new facts about the author except for that this book was written because she wanted to write a book that reminded her of the close relationship she had with her best friends in high school.

TTYL

TTYL is about three sophomore girls. It takes the reader through all of the girls ups and downs. Maddie, Angela, and Zoe have been best friends since the 7th grade. The book is written in their IM's, which gives a really clear picture of what they really think about each other. Yes, they all love each other like sisters, but you see them talking about each other in a kind of snotty way, and how the person they are talking to reacts to that. It also really makes their personalities stand out. You realize they are all really different, but by being so different they teach each other important life lessons based on their personal mistakes.  Zoe trusts Angela, but every time she talks to Maddie about something she needs help with Maddie finds a way to make fun of her. In the middle of the book you see Zoe caring about Maddie because the "mean girl" at their school, Jana, humiliates Maddie in front of the whole school after pretending to be her friend. But Zoe stops trusting Maddie with secrets for a little while. Most of her secrets are about a flirtatious teacher.  Even though their problems tear them apart they always find their back to being friends.

Like I said, all of the girls are different. Maddie is tough, stubborn, a little too honest and is always trying to be someone she isn't. It can get her into bad situations a lot. People realize how fake she is being. But Angela and Zoe are always going to be there for her. You start to wonder if the reason she always feels like she needs to be different is because her dad is an alcoholic and that makes her feel insecure. Meanwhile Zoe is the complete opposite. She is an A+ student and she is very innocent, but she wants to act tougher and not be known as innocent, good girl Zoe. Angela is always there for everyone. She hates when Maddie starts hanging out with Jana because she almost acts like she doesn't want her to get as close to Jana as she is to her and Zoe. She also exaggerates and overreacts a lot. 

I LOVED this book. I read it in a day because I could not put it down. It was so real. All the situations in the book have happened to people and the way that all of the characters in the book act are really the way people in that age group act. It doesn't feel like you are reading a book, It feels like you are reading the instant messages of 3 best friends in high school.

I have been using the same reading techniques I have been using the whole school year. They just give me a really clear idea of what is going on. I write post-its, visualize, and predict. 

Lauren Myracle has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College. She lives with her husband, Jack, and her sons Al and Jamie in Colorado.

The Market

The Market is about Kate Winthrop. She is a senior at Millbank High School and a complete and total nobody, until the MSSM (Millbank Social Stock Market) comes along. The MSSM is a game that the boys in her grade put together. Only the stocks are all of the girls in the grade. The person who makes the most money by graduation wins. Kate was ranked at number 71 out of 140 girls. Her and her friends came up with a plan. They decided to turn Kate into the most popular girl in school and invest a lot of money into her stock. Their plan is going fine, but her relationships with other people are not. One of her friends becomes so into the game that she tells Kate that one of her relatives died in front of everyone to have people give her sympathy, even though Kate told her friend not to do that. People she thought were her friends betrayed her. They would talk behind her back and it turns out that they invented the game. They also did almost the exact same thing her friends did. They were the popular kids and the also put a lot of money into Kate's stock then let her hang out with them, so she could become popular and her ranking would move up. Kate always knew the whole idea of her doing what she did could only end badly, but she tried it anyway. by the end of the book she learns that she was right and that your true friends will stay by your side no matter what.

Katie was a very smart girl, and she tried her hardest to never let the MSSM get to her head. She also always had a lot of trouble living up to the expectations that her mom had for her. Her mom expected her to be like her perfect older sister. Kate's sister was pretty, popular and smart, but she was also nice and not full of herself. Although Kate fit that definition almost exactly, she thought her mom liked her older sister more. When the truth is the only difference was that her older sister was popular. Kate's two best friends are Callie and Dev. Dev gets sucked into the MSSM and she doesn't even realize it. Calle was more level headed and because she was always a little wiser and had street smarts. Gretchen was the most popular girl in school. I have never read a book where the popular girl was so full of herself.  Will B. and Jack C. were best friends and the most popular guys in school. They both fell for Katie and Katie fell for both of them, only Will only liked Katie after the makeover and then he realized that she was a great person and that he would like her without the makeover. But it turns out Jack had liked her since he first really looked at her, which was before the makeover.

I liked this book. I really like books where people get major makeovers, I really don't know why. The only thing I didn't like was the ending. I felt like it was rushed, but I don't know if I think that because it really was rushed  or because I really liked the book and I didn't want it to end. 

I wrote post-it notes throughout the book, and I visualized. The post-its really help me remember what happened on that page, I write down some thoughts and predictions. I like to write a really  long post-it at the end of each chapter to summarize what happened in that chapter.

J.M. Steele is not the real name of the author. There is actually two authors. They are sisters. One lives in New Jersey and the other lives in New York. They have written The Taker and The Market.

A Day That Changed America: D-Day, by Shelley Tanaka and paintings by David Craig

This book is about the experiences of different people on D-Day. Don Jakeway and his experience as a paratrooper. A paratrooper is a person who jumps from planes into war zones. Quentin Aanenson as a fighter pilot and Bob Giguere who was one of 125,000 troops who invaded the coast, and moved inland. D-Day was when US troops invaded the beaches in Normandy, France in World War 2. It was supposed to be a surprise attack on the Germans. In one day the Allies would take out German defenses in the Normandy area, securing a base in Europe, so they could get Hitler out of France and take back Europe.

Don Jakeway, Quentin Aanenson and Bob Giguere were all very brave. I could never have done what they did. Don did not even know what a paratrooper was when he sent in his application for the Army. Paratroopers jump out of planes and are the first people to go behind enemy lines. They have to be calm in any situation. Out of every 2,500 men who signed up to be airborne, only 120 became paratroopers. He described them as hitting the ground like sacks of potatoes and that all the muscles in his body would hurt. On D-Day Don landed in a tree and he was in full view of the Germans. He pulled out his pocket knife and cut his way out. He said it felt like he was stuck in that tree for hours. 

 

D-Day was Quentin's first time in combat. He had dreamed of being a fighter pilot his whole life. "It felt like it was all over in minutes" he said. Bob however probably felt much differently about timing when it came to his experience. He was 17 years old when he joined. He walked up the beaches of Normandy through  steel rails, mines and barbed wire fences. He had to walk through all that and avoid being hit. The Germans had guns set up along 4 miles, manned by about 800 soldiers. All the guns were aiming at the Americans invading the beaches. Bob said he could feel the bleeding as he walked through the water.

I learned a lot about D-Day from this book. It wasn't hard to understand, like other books I have read about wars. I really liked how it was told by he people who were there. I knew that it was the turning point in the war but I wasn't aware of what exactly happened until now. It was very informative but didn't make me bored. 

I determined the importance when I was reading this book, which was not hard to do at all. It was a major turning point in the war. If it didn't happen the world would not be like it is today and winning the war would have been much harder. A lot of people were lost, and a lot of things were gained. I learned that when we came out of the war we became richer than we were, because factories set up to make war supplies, such as planes and guns, started to produce kitchen supplies, TV's and cars. But at the cost of losing 400,000 people out of 13 million who served in the war.

 Shelley Tanaka writes non-fiction books for children and teens. She has written books on the Titanic, Alamo, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Gettysburg. She is the author f the "I Was There" series and "The Day That Changed America" series.

Aquamarine, by Alice Hoffman

Aquamarine is the story of 2 girls who find a mermaid in the pool at the Capri Beach Club. Hailey and Claire, have to get the mermaid, Aquamarine, back to her home. There are 3 problems the girls run into. The first is that they can't just take her out of the pool with everyone watching them, the club is closing so they have to get her out fast because construction workers are coming to rip down the place and Aquamarine is rude and selfish. She also refuses to leave the club without going on a date with Raymond. A boy who worked at the club.  But the not being i salt water is killing Aquamarine, she only has a week. If she doesn't get back to the ocean soon, she will turn to green dust. Hailey and Claire have to deal with all of this, and make the most of their last summer together because Claire was moving to Florida with her grandparents. 

 

The characters are Hailey, Claire, Aquamarine and Raymond. Hailey is a very daring character. The only thing she is affraid of is the future because can't control it. She hates the fact that Claire is moving and that her parents are divorced. Claire, is very shy, and hates the water. Both her parents died in a car accident. She is also a very good problem solver. Aquamarine, is a mermaid and has 6 older sisters. She is very rude and thinks only of herself. She also refuses to leave the Capri until she could go on a date with Raymond. That causes a lot of problems for Hailey and Claire. Raymond ran the snack shack at the Capri and all the girls loved him. Raymond was very nice to the girls and was almost like their older brother in a way. He looked out for them, and was their when Hailey and Claire needed help and not because his job required him to.

 This is one of my favorite books. I have read it 4 times. The movie and the book are very different. I think the book is better than the movie. Aquamarine herself acts very different than she did in the book. I liked all of the detail in the book and the characters. It was interesting to see how they changed from the beginning of the book to the end. Claire starts to become tougher and Aquamarine learns what it is like to be a friend. 

I compared this book to the movie. I was always pointing out things that didn't happen in the movie or the way the characters acted. The first thing I picked out when I was watching the movie after reading the book for a 3rd time was that in the book Claire is moving away, while in the movie Hailey is moving. Another thing was that Aquamarine was nicer in the movie and she could go on land. In the book, Aquamarine couldn't do that. When she got on land to go to that date with Raymond she started to become very sick. The date wasn't even 30 minutes. Thats how fast she reacted to being out of the water. 

Alice Hoffman was born in New York on March 16th, 1952. She has written sixteen novels, two short fiction stories and eight books for children and teens. Her first book was "Property Of". She wrote it when she was 21. She is living in New York and Boston. Four of her books have been turned into movies. They are "Aquamarine", "Practical Magic", "Independence Day" and "River King".

Anastasia: The Girl King, by Carolyn Meyer

Anastasia was a Grand Duchess in Russia. This book is a false diary, but follows similar events as to what her life was really like. All of the events are almost set to sound like what was going on at the last years of her life. The people of Russia revolted against her father, and took them out of their home. They were all killed. Her mother, father, brother and sisters. The only one who might of escaped was Anastasia. It is believed either her, or her sister, Marie, survived. The book is what the author thinks her thoughts were during the last 4 years of her life. From the years 1914-1918.  

The characters are Anastasia, her sisters ( Marie, Tatiana and Olga.), her brother Alexei, and her mother and father. Anastasia is a bright young girl. She couldn't stand when her older sisters bossed her around. All of Anastasia's sisters were a little bossy. Her brother was very sick and had been for his whole life. He had hemophilia. Hemophilia is when, if he was injured he would not be able to stop bleeding. Anastasia's family kept Alexei's illness a secret. They didn't want people to be alarmed due to the fact he was the tsarevitch. which mean he was Russia's next tsar. Anastasia's parents were like most Royals in those years. They were very polite, attended all of the important parties and threw their own. They made sure the girls and Alexei were just as polite and well spoken as them. They also prepared them for what was supposed to be their future.

I liked this book. I couldn't put it down! I don't know what I liked about it exactly, but I thought it was interesting, but not boring. Fun, but not funny. I really like reading books in the form of diaries. They give the book more "personality". It gives you a really great description of the main character and the other people in their lives. I also like that since it's a diary, all of the entries have the date they were written at the top. It makes it clearer as to when certain events took place.

When I had to stop reading I summarized what had happened and wrote it down on a post-it. It helped me keep track of what was going on, because I had a skating competition coming up and so I had to practice twice as much than I normally practice. So if I couldn't read one day and forgot what was going on, I read the post-it to jog my memory.

Carolyn Meyer was an only child. She was born November 8th, 1935. I started reading this book even before I knew she wrote "Marie Dancing", one of my favorite books. She is currently living in New Mexico. Other books she have written include, "Loving Will Shakespeare", "Kristina the Girl King", which is another book in the same series that this one about Anastasia is in.