Once by Morris Gleitzman

The book that I read is Once by Morris Gleitzman. The story is about a Jewish orphan named Felix, who seeks the find his parents during the Holocaust. He makes up great adventures on his way about how his mother and father travel around the world to try and saved all the books created by Jewish authors. Little does he know what really is going on. On his way to finding his parents he meets a little girl named Zelda, and shortly after they travel together to find her parents too, even though Felix knows something about Zelda’s parents and doesn’t want to tell because it’ll break her heart. After traveling with Zelda, they get caught by Nazi soldiers and are forced to march with them but a brave man named Barney comes and rescues them. After they are rescued from being killed Barney takes them to his house, where there are five more little kids. Three girls and two boys, one of the girls is Ruth and the other is Chaya. The boy’s names are Jacob and Moshe, the third girl, a toddler, is named is Janek. As the time spent with Barney and the others Felix, encounters many situations such as telling stories to a Nazi soldier who gets his teeth fixed by Barney.

What I liked about the book the most is the creativity.  The author made Felix’s stories in a way that I can actually picture being one of the little kids and how hard it was to stay quiet so that Nazi soldiers wouldn’t find you. The bad part about this book was that when the author had you on suspense he didn’t really capitalize on it more in the next chapter. He transitions into a whole different story, that Felix was telling. I also liked that each chapter started with once as if Felix was telling stories throughout the quest to find his parents. This story reminds me of the little girl in the red coat in Schindlers list because throughout the whole story Felix would come by Nazi soldiers and they would just let him wonder on. As if he was invisible.

Overall, the book was really good and it made you keep reading, to see what would happen to Felix (for example, is he going to survive or is he going get caught and brought to a camp where he will die?). I recommend this book to people who like non-fiction books and who are interested in the Holocaust and how some of the Jewish families or people survived without being caught. The age group for this book would be from 12-15 years old because around that age group you start to learn about the Holocaust. I would rate this book 3 stars, because someone the events in the story aren’t that realistic and can’t compare to the Holocaust as much.

Crank- by katy tufo

Crank

By: Ellen Hopkins

The book I read was “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins. This book was about a girl, named Kristina, whose parents are divorced, and goes to spend the summer with her dad. While she’s there she meets a boy, named Adam, who gets her into the drug called Crank. She starts dating this boy and gets really hooked on it. She even did it with her dad, because he is really into drugs as well. When she goes home she continues doing the drug, and leaves her old friends behind. As she continues to do crank, she gets into a lot of trouble and realizes how bad the drug is. Towards the end she tries to quit, but finds out something huge. Main characters are: Her father, her mother, her step-father, her sister, the three boys she was involved with Adam, Brandon, and Chase.

                What I liked about this book was how it was written in poem form. The pages were shorter and it made it a lot easier to read. Also, I liked how it gave good detail, so that the reader fully understood the situation. What I didn’t like was how the book ended; it was really unexpected, and surprising.  My favorite part of the book was when she met Chase, because he was nicer than the other two boys she had dated. I can connect this book to “Go Ask Alice” because that is also a book about a girl who gets addicted to drugs and has bad experiences.

                If recommend this book to anyone who likes a sad book, with a little romance in it. I think this book would be best for teenagers around 15-18 because it really describes what it’s like to be hooked on drugs, it explains all the bad things that happen from being on them. Also, it shows a little bit of teenage love, which people like to read about. I would rate this book 4 out of 4 stars because it was really interesting to read about what this girl went through while on this drug and her struggles as a teenager. Also, it was an easy read because of the way the book was set up and written.  I think teenagers should read this book to understand the disadvantages of doings drugs like crank.