Boy 21

Finley's life revolves around basketball.Every pre-season, he and his basketball player girlfriend Erin practice their butts off. Shooting drills, passing drills, a five mile jog around town, dribbling the basketball whichever way you can possibly dribble it, and the practice ends with weightlifting. And every season, the  high school senior couple break up, because Finley can't focus on Erin and basketball at the same time. Why is Finley so obsessed with basketball you might ask,and the answer is this. Finley's dad grew up in the same drug dealing Irish mob ruled town that he lives in now, Finley's mom died when he was a toddler, and his grandfather, or "Pop" now has stumps for legs because he tried to sneak back to Ireland from America. One day Russ  Allen comes to town and Finley's coach brings him to meet Russ. Coach says that Russ is an incredible b-ball point guard, like national high school standards, but that Russ's parents, Coaches good friends were murdered, and that event shook Russ mentally. In the car ride over Coach explains that Russ came from California and might come and play for Finley's team. Finley's is anxious because point guard is his position and the way that Coach is talking about him Finley thinks that he might lose his starting position. But it turns out that Russ is now acting like he is from outer space, and calls Finley an "Earthling". He also tells Finley he wants to be called Boy21. When the season begins, Russ obviously isn't trying so Finley gets the starting position. During the rivalry game against Pennsville, Pensville uses a special defensive formation that means that Finley will be open to shoot. Finley's team, Bellmont, plans to give Finley the ball and he will shoot, so once Pennsville realizes they need to mark Finley, Terrell, Bellmont's best shooter, wouldn't be double teamed. But Finley can't sink a shot. At halftime, Coach takes Finley out and puts Russ in. Right before they go on the court, Russ asks Finley if he can use his extraterrestrial powers to win the game. Finley says yes, and Russ shows what he can really do, sinking half court shots and making perect passes. After that Russ gets the starting position. Soon after, Erin is hit by a car and recieves many severe injuries.Will Erins injurie change the way that Finley feels about the game, and will it change anything else as well? Read the book to find out.

I rate this book five stars.Definately. It kept me wanting to read it and had the perfect amount of sadness and drama. The author Matthew Quick did an outstanding job on this book, and I definatley think there should be a sequel.This is a must read teen book.

-Alex

Review Books On Our Blog!

If you're awesome and want to review books for Teen Bookshelf, listen up!  You can email us at  teenbookshelf2@gmail.comwith your book review, and if we like it, we'll post it!  Include a title, a photo of the book cover, your review (duh!), a book rating from one star to five stars, and a made-up name (A book character you like, or maybe your first initial).  We'll give credit to you with your made-up name.
   Thank you, anonymous commenter, for suggesting that our readers might like to review books too.  This is gonna be really cool!  And Annabeth came up with the details so that this plan would actually work, which rocks.  I'm just the one telling everybody about it.  So start emailing us, dudes!  :D  And Teen Bookshelf bloggers, we'd better start checking our blog email!

                                                            ~Rosalind

Movie!

OK so who has seen the Hunger Games movie? I'm sorry that this is like, my 4th post about The Hunger Games, but... well, I'm sorry. So I saw it last night and it was awesome! Um if you don't want to hear anything at all about anything than don't look but so at Rue's death it was SO SAD! I was crying. :(. And it was SO scary in the endish part when the first dog jumped out!!!!! Wasn't it????? Soooo anyways are you on Team Peeta or Team Gale? 

 

 

 But...

     

Haha I like this...

Even More Awesomeness

OK, so you MUST be sick of me posting about The Hunger Games, but this is SO COOL. It's 'Find your Hunger Games Name'. And no, it's not a survey and whichever character you are most like, you are. It's much cooler than that. You have got to see it:

http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/2010/03/05/find-your-hunger-games-name/

I am Ravmet K. Sprintpine.
My mom is Veyless W. Leapfern.

So here's another thing. 'What District are you from?'Coolio.

http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/2010/07/12/pop-quiz-find-your-hunger-games-district/


I'm from District 11. Yay Rue!
My mom is supposed to go live in a box. I got that the first time, but decided I needed to have some District to live in, even if I was gonna be a stuck up brat from District 1. Well, maybe...

And... here's the last thing for now, it's kind of boring, but as they always say, "keep the worst for last!"

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/03/21/the_hunger_games_names_explained.html

Annabeth

p.s.
I did my brother's name for him and he is Danpetra T. Clompspinach. HAHA! Also, he lives in a box, I think. Hehehehehehe.

Yes!

Yes! We have 500 page views! Yessssss!

-Annabeth

Gimme A Call Review

So I was reading Seventeen magazine, and I saw an interview with the author of this book.  I thought it looked really cool, so I bought it for my Kindle, and you know the rest. Here is a summary of this interesting time travel-ish book.
   Gimme A Call, by Sarah Mylnowski, takes place in two different times, which are three and a half years apart.  It all starts when Devorah (Devi) Banks, who is a senior in high school, goes to the mall to return a gift she got for her boyfriend, Bryan, who just broke up with her. He was a great boyfriend, maybe too great, since she spent all of her time with him. Devi even lost all of her nice friends.
  Anyway, while Devi is at the mall crying and returning the present, her cell phone slips out of her hand and lands in the fountain.  She goes in to retrieve it, hoping with all her might that it still works, and finds out it's completely broken. Except for one little thing.  Devi can now call herself in the past, as a freshman, before she even met Bryan.
    After convincing freshman Devi (later nicknamed Frosh to avoid confusion) that she's not a crazy stalker, senior Devi (Nicknamed Ivy) tells Frosh all about everything that's gone wrong in her life, and in the world in the past three and a half years.
    So Frosh is working her butt off trying to get into a good college and win the lottery, Ivy keeps calling her to convince Frosh not to go out with Bryan, and to tell her every single thing to do in her life.  Frosh is skeptical of Ivy's plan's, but she thinks that it's best to listen to her future self.  What will happen in the end?  Will every aspect of Devi's life change, or will everything go back to normal? (Or none of the above?) Read this cool book to find out!
    I love all of the things that happen in this book and I think it's a really interesting plot idea, but sometimes I think Ivy is getting really selfish and bossy, and it makes me really annoyed at her character.
But all in all, this fun read is still worth a five-star rating.  Check it out!

                                                        :) Rosalind
 

The Hunger Games Awesomeness

OK so this is a whole bunch of Hunger Games awesomeness. I absolutely cannot wait until the movie comes out on March 23rd!

 

This is the trailer. If you haven't read the book and you want too, then you might not 

want to watch it, but otherwise, go ahead. It's good.

Personally, I think this is kind of cool. It's a Hunger Games Nail Polish collection! If I got one of them it would probably be Fire in Flight, the orangey-red one.

 

These are posters. I have the one on the left in my room, and I'm pretty sure Luna has the one on the right in hers.

This is the cast of children in the Games. It doesn't include characters such as Prim or Gale in this one, but that's just too bad. They name the people that actually have important roles, but otherwise it's just 'Tribute Boy' or 'Tribute Girl'.

Lamb Stew From the Capitol

 

Prim's Basil Wrapped Goat Cheese

Groosling (fancier than they eat in the arena, of course)

These are a couple of foods from the book. There are a lot of recipes and pictures everywhere on the Internet.

Is there any other Hunger Games awesomeness that I didn't know about? Please tell me! 

-Annabeth

1 day ago

1 day ago

Amazon Kindle Keyboard Review

      Yo people! I am here to blog not about a book, but a way to read books (Or rather, e-books). Drumroll please... the Amazon Kindle Keyboard, also known as the Kindle 3. There are lots of different versions of the Amazon Kindle, including the iPad-like Kindle Fire ($199), the Kindle Touch ($99), and the basic Kindle ($79), but this is the one I have.  It cost me $140 because I bought the version with no ads that pop up on the home screen. I'm really satisfied with it so far, and I've had it about four months.  A little while after I got it, I got a red leather case with a light attached. I think it's really cool because when my Kindle is hooked up to its case, the light, which is powered by my Kindle's rechargeable battery, turns on.  It's a really good design.


Pros and Cool Features of the Kindle Keyboard:  Lighter than a paperback book, web browser, at least a month-long battery life, great e-ink display (It doesn't hurt my eyes after a while like a computer screen does), classics are free, simple and easy e-book buying (They're delivered wirelessly), you can get great word and puzzle games from the Kindle Store, you can write notes and highlights in the e-book you're reading, you can change the font size, e-books are cheaper than print books, you can get free samples of e-books, and you can borrow e-books for free from your library's website.


Cons: There aren't many, but sometimes it's nice to be able to glance at the cover of the book you're reading, and feel its solid weight in your hands.  I also really like looking at my bookshelf full of real books and picking one out.  I'm definitely not going to give that up completely.


     Like I said, I don't want my Kindle to ever replace real books, but I do love keeping all my e-books in one place, and I read most of my books on it now.  I, personally, didn't get a touch-screen Kindle because I like the nice button-controlled feel.  So, if you're looking in to getting an e-reader, I'd say the Kindle Keyboard is a good option!  But if you don't want to spend all that moolah, you can get the free kindle app for  PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android phone. Happy e-reading everyone! :)


                                        -Rosalind

Joey Pigza Loses Control

This book is a sequel to Joey Pigza Swallows a Key, which some people might have read. Joey is a hyper active kid who now wheres a patch to give him his medication.In this book, Joey goes to stay with his dad for the summer and he brings along his dog Pablo. carter, Joeys dad, and his mom divorced when Joey was young. His mom had told him that his dad was like himself except even more wired. When Joey stays at his dads house, he plays on his dads baseball team as a superb pitcher. One evening, his dad decides to take joey off his meds. He throws all of the patches into the toilet and tells Joey to grow up and be a man.Joey is worried that his old hyperactive self will come back to haunt him. As the days progress without medicine, will Joey become his old self? And does he really want to live with his still drinking dad? You can find all the answers in the book! I rate this book 5 stars because it kept me wanting to read it.

-Alex

Yay!

 Yay! We have over 100 pageviews!

-Annabeth

SERIOUS DILEMMA

Ok, I have a serious dilemma. I'M ONLY READING ONE BOOK! Well, actually 2, but they're both at school and I SERIOUSLY need another book to read at home. FAST! Now, I could reread all the Harry Potter books, but I've read all of those more than 7 times each... What do you guys think I should read? Comment below! PLEASE!

-Annabeth

In A Heartbeat Review

Hi everybody!  This is my first book review for Teen Bookshelf, and I think it's gonna be really fun.  

So I just finished reading this book for the second time (I tend to re-read really good books).  It's called In a Heartbeat, and it's by Loretta Ellsworth.
 This story is told from the perspectives of two different girls, in alternating chapters.  I think both girls are about fourteen.
   The first girl is named Eagan, and she died ice skating, the sport that her life was dedicated to.  She had a bad relationship with her mom during her life.  Eagan's chapters are mostly told from her memories of living while she is stuck in a mysterious gray world with a girl who she names Miki.
  The other narrator is named Amelia, and she has a bad heart.  She is too weak to walk because of this, and she's home schooled, partly because all of the medication she takes makes her face swell up like a balloon.
   In a flashback to Eagan's life, it tells how, during her driver's test, she hurriedly checks off the box to sign herself up as an organ donor when she dies.
  So Amelia is dying of a bad heart, and then Eagan dies during a triple lutz at a skating competition, and her heart is donated to Amelia.
  Amelia nervously goes to the hospital for her heart transplant.  When she finally has a new heart, she starts feeling really different.  She feels like skating and eating purple lollipops, Eagan's former favorite candy.
  With the help of a new friend who slowly develops into something more, Amelia goes to find the family of her heart donor.  Eagan, trapped between life and death, is trying to tell her something.  In the end, a secret about Eagan's family is revealed, and Amelia learns to live with the guilt that someone had to die to save her life.
  In a Heartbeat is a unique, interesting book that has some really sad parts.  I think that that's maybe why I like it.
 Anyway, it will definitely get you thinking about things.  I rate it five out of five stars for being so original and unique.  This book is definitely worth reading (It's even available on the Kindle!)
                                       Happy reading!
                                               -Rosalind

Brian's Winter

This book is a follow up to Hatchet, which some people have probably read. The story is where a boy has to survive in the winter up in northern Canada after his plane crashed into a lake. Brian ( the boy) has to deal with things like food shortage and sinking into the snow. Also there are the problems about how cold it is up north, and what he will where for winter clothes. I think that this book is very good for people who like survival books. I rate it 4 1/2 stars because it was really good but I thought that it was a little bit short.

-Alex

Hummingbird

Here's a new book that you might not have heard of. I finished it today. It's called Hummingbird. It was pretty good, but not phenomenal. Hummingbird takes place in a town in Georgia called Jubilee. It's about a girl named March Anne Tanner, and she lives on a watermelon farm with her grandma, her dad, and her brother. Her mom died when she was little, so her Grandma(who she calls Grenna) is like her mother. Unfortunately, Grenna is old, so there is a bunch of stuff about her 'going wonky in the head'. Also, there's a really cool word that they mention. It's hemidemisemiquaver. I'm pretty sure it's like a 64th note or something. Pretty cool, eh? I bet a bunch of people have heard of it and it's not that interesting... well, too bad. Anyways, yeah, it's pretty good, but it's kinda slowish in some places. I recommend it to someone who likes realistic fiction and doesn't have a really good book that they are about to read.

I rate this book... 3 1/2 stars. I don't know if that's allowed or anything...

-Annabeth

The Hunger Games Book 1

OK. So the first book ever reviewed on this blog is The Hunger Games book 1. If you haven't read it, you absolutely positively have to read it. Quick, before the movie comes out! No, really, you HAVE to read it, it is my favorite book ever. Personally I think it is the best book of the series, but I won't tell about those books. I think some other people might. Anyways, the main character is Katniss Everdeen. She is a really good character. So she lives in the future United States, in District 12, which is in Panem. There is an annual event held where two teenagers, one from each of the 12 districts, all between the ages of 12 and 18, are chosen and have to fight to the death in an arena. There's a whole bunch of awesomeness, and it's not that gruesome, either. But anyone who hasn't read it yet really does have to read it before the movie comes out because if you watch the movie then you won't get to imagine what everything looks like, and that's one of my favorite parts. Also, the trailer looks really different from how I imagine EVERYTHING. Well, maybe not the Reaping, but... whatever.

Out of 5 stars, I rate this book 5 stars.

If you want to understand what I have been babbling about, I repeat, please read the book. It's enjoyable to both young adults and adults! Yay!

-Annabeth

Welcome to Our Blog

Hi! This is the writers of Teen Bookshelf! This is a blog with a bunch of book reviews. If you want us to read and review a book, comment below the most recent post! We hope you enjoy!