Book+Club--Period+Four

Please read the summaries and positive reader reviews (from Goodreads.com) for the following six books. Afterward, you will receive a ballot. Please HIGHLIGHT your number one choice. Write the number "1" in the box. Put a number "2" in the box that corresponds to your second choice...and so on. Please be aware...you may not choose a book you have already read! NO FUN!

 __The Westing Game__ by Ellen Raskin

**Summary:**  ~ One fateful day, sixteen people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. To their surprise, the will turns out to be a contest, challenging the heirs to find out who among them is Westing's murderer. Forging ahead, through blizzards, burglaries, and bombings, the game is on. Only two people hold all the clues. One of them is a Westing heir. The other is you!

~The Westing Game is about 16 heirs competeing for Sam's Westing's inheritance. This book is a clever mystery full of excitement, danger. and suspicion. There are 8 teams, each team has a set of clues and together they must understand them. Together you must find out who Mrs. Westing is and who killed Sam Westing. You too may strike it rich, who dares to play...The Westing Game. We really loved this book it keeps you on your toes and every little thing matters. If you like a suspenseful, exciting book that you can't put down this book is for you. Remember: it's not what you have it's what you don't have that counts.
 * Positive Reader Review: **

__The Thief Lord__ by Cornelia Funke   ~Prosper and Bo are orphans on the run from their cruel aunt and uncle. The brothers decide to hide out in Venice, where they meet a mysterious character who calls himself the "Thief Lord." Brilliant and charismatic, the Thief Lord leads a ring of street children who dabble in petty crimes. Prosper and Bo relish being part of this colorful new family. But the Thief Lord has secrets of his own. And soon the boys are thrust into circumstances that will lead them, and readers, to a fantastic, spellbinding conclusion
 * Summary**:

~Terrific story about a couple of orphan boys (how come all the good kids' books have orphans in them?) who run away from their aunt and end up in Venice on the streets. They end up living in an old dilapidated theater with other orphans, the leader of whom is known as The Thief Lord. While the two boys try to evade a pesky detective, the Thief Lord tries to make a name for himself. The boys run through the streets of Venice and find mysteries along the way. This is a good book for boys who like action and adventure. Girls would like it, too.
 * Positive Reader Review:**

__Walk Two Moons__ by Sharon Creech **Summary**:  ~Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle's mother has disappeared. While tracing her steps on a car trip from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents, Salamanca tells a story to pass the time about a friend named Phoebe Winterbottom whose mother vanished and who received secret messages after her disappearance. One of them read, "Don't judge a man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins." Despite her father's warning that she is "fishing in the air," Salamanca hopes to bring her home. By drawing strength from her Native American ancestry, she is able to face the truth about her mother.

~I really enjoy this book a lot and loved how it ended. We had to read this book for our literature circle and it was hard to not read beyond the chapters we assigned. It is great book and goes back and forth between the past and present. The adventure that she went through was very understandable for a young girl who had to face the reality of losing her mom. It's wonderful book and I would use this book for literature circle with middle school kids.
 * Positive Reader Review:**

__Ella Enchanted__ by Gail Carson Levine 

 ~At birth, Ella is inadvertently cursed by an imprudent fairy named Lucinda, who bestows on her the "gift" of obedience. Anything anyone tells her to do, Ella must obey. Another girl might have been cowed by this affliction, but not feisty Ella: "Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally." When her beloved mother dies, leaving her in the care of a mostly absent and avaricious father, and later, a loathsome stepmother and two treacherous stepsisters, Ella's life and well-being seem in grave peril. But her intelligence and saucy nature keep her in good stead as she sets out on a quest for freedom and self-discovery, trying to track down Lucinda to undo the curse, fending off ogres, befriending elves, and falling in love with a prince along the way. Yes, there is a pumpkin coach, a glass slipper, and a happily ever after, but this is the most remarkable, delightful, and profound version of Cinderella you've ever read.
 * Summary:** [[image:439100.jpg width="220" height="350" align="right"]]

~This was my absolute favorite book when I was a kid. I still have my first copy of it; the poor thing is so tattered and yellowed. It's a story about a girl placed under a spell by a fairy at birth and the journey she goes on to rid herself of the curse. Fairies, trolls, evil step mothers, magic-you name it, this book has it. I **refuse** to see the Disney movie version. The book (although a fairy tale) was rather dark (death, curses, evil people, ect), and I'm sure Disney completely butchered that.
 * Positive Reader Review:**

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 180%;">__The Giver__ by Lois Lowry <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> ~ In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy.
 * Summary:**

~T his book is a classic. It explores the frightening aspects of a world of conformity, without crime, devoid of any extremes such as anger, sadness, and pain or joy, love or pain. the concept is a great one and it is written in a very raw manner from the perceptive of a young character that is given the job of the apprentice of the sole keeper (the giver) of all that has been taken from the world. This young man slowly comes to realize the joys life has to offer, and that you have to take the bad with the good. Like I mentioned, this is a raw book, and is a bit depressing, but the depth of the lesson it teaches are amazing.
 * Positive Reader Review:**

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 180%;">__The Twenty-One Balloons__ by William Pène du Bois

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Summary:** ~Professor William Waterman Sherman intends to fly across the Pacific Ocean. But through a twist of fate, he lands on Krakatoa, and discovers a world of unimaginable wealth, eccentric inhabitants, and incredible balloon inventions.

~ This book was extremely vivid! I loved the way the book tickles your imagination and opens the idea that anything is possible. The characters are hilarious, the setting exquisite, and the theme, Adventure is unpredictable, is shown through the book. The illustrations, too, are very depictive. They allow me to "see" what I read, but I'd rather let my mind imagine it rather than have my view be formatted. Still, the details and and images (the ones my mind creates) are enough for me to rate this book with five stars!!!
 * Positive Reader Review:**