The Help

Kathryn Stockett wrote an instant best seller when she penned The Help. The Help is told from three points of view: one white woman, and two black women that work as maids in Jackson, Mississippi. Their characters are unique and have very clear personalities and voices that prove it. The Help follows the three as they unexpectedly join together in order to give a true perspective on what it is like to be a black maid in Mississippi in the 1960s. Through crazy employers, difficult mothers, lovely children, death threats and more the three women's tales hit close to home for many women during the Civil Rights Movement.

Within it's first 30 pages The Help jumped onto my top ten favorite books -- ever. Everything is real. Everything is told in truth. Everything is spectacular. The Help made me laugh out loud and will make most people cry as well. It's honesty shocked me. I had not realized how badly black women in the South were being treated within one generation of me. It is hard to describe how wonderful The Help is and everything it taught me. Please read The Help.

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a beautiful worded, deep read. I highly recommend it. Set in the Great Depression, two men (one with a disability) set out for another ranch job on what appears to be a long line of them. I can't go much farther because it would diminish the story line.

As for my review: the sentence structure and word usage should be studied by authors. (Maybe it is.) Look out for symbolism and foreshadowing while reading this. Do read this. I had to read it for school and it's one of the ones I'm grateful for.

-jojo

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies by William Golding was the first book I was required to read within high school. It was a great way to start because I thought all the books we were going to read would be that good (ha.) Lord of the Flies is about a bunch of boys who randomly end up on an island. There are no adults and no one seems to want to talk about what happened previously in their lives. The older boys instantly begin to strive for power. As soon as that begins though, mayhem begins as well. Power struggles, weird coincidences, and actions that no normal person would believe children would do.

Definitely read Lord of the Flies. Golding describes things wonderful and I still shiver whenever I think of certain scenes. The symbolism is incredible and it will make you question human nature. I believe that the last page would make the entire book worthy of reading even if you hated all the rest. Which you might. It's a love-hate book. As I've said I loved it overall, but there were definitely pages or chapters where I would think "no way kids would do this!" or "Golding, I don't care what the ground sounds like, I would really like to know what's happening to so and so"

Contrary to what you might've heard, there is no cannibalism.

-jojo

The Princess Diaries series

Meg Cabot definitely keeps the reader captivated with her main character, Mia. In the first book Mia finds out she's a Princess and everything spirals down from there.

Mia is very real in most ways -- her thoughts, writing style, conversations, love interests, and friends, and yet she's frustratingly naive. Still, so far I've loved every book except the 3rd and 2nd to last in the series. I can't explain why because it would give away everything.

I think 8th graders and up could read these series. I say this because even though it's all very sweet and the writing isn't complex, Mia thinks a lot about boys.

-Jojo

Old Man and the Sea

Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway was about an old man who goes fishes. Seeing as it's a classic, I'm thinking most of you have heard of it.

I loved the first 30 pages and the last 10. 40 out of 127 pages isn't too bad. It's a bit boring, choppy and hard to read. Hemingway does not develop his character, and the plot is thin. I wouldn't have read it if I didn't have to.

-Jo

Message (not a book)

Hi guys! so sorry for not posting anything, I switched schools this year and it's been a big change so i've been focussing :) Hopefully reviews to come: Lord of the Flies, Night, Brave New World, Old Man and the Sea, Princess Diaries, Julie and Julia, and Antigone. (Yes, most of those have been school reads)

-Jo

Three Songs for Courage

Three Songs for Courage by Maxine Trottier is not my favorite book. I got three chapters in and it was inappropriate and shallow. As of now I have only abandoned two books. So I'm serious about this book being bad. Don't read it. That is my advice.