Teens Books - Page 6

Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, Book 1)

Richelle Mead

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Story adds depth as it goes along 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Rose and Lissa are like most teenage girls. They like boys, like to shop at the mall, and feel misunderstood. The only difference is that they are vampires. Lissa is a Moroi princess, a member of the vampire royalty, while Rose is a dhampir guardian who has sworn to protect Lissa even to death. Two years ago, they ran away from St. Vladimir's Academy, a private school for the Moroi and Dhampir races, for reasons that only Rose fully knows.

Now, the school's guardians have caught up with them and want to bring them back to the academy against their will. The halls of St. Vladimir's are filled with the same things they have always been: snotty Moroi, secrets, clan loyalties, and a deathly fear of the Striogoi: vampires who have become immortal and seek to destroy all of the royal family.

As a punishment for running away, Rose has to train every second that she is not in class. Her mentor is Dimitri, a stoic, handsome guardian whom she finds to be ever increasingly attractive. While Rose is training to become deadly to the Strigoi, Lissa is discovering how to be a royal without losing who she is inside. And why does someone keep planting dead animals in Lissa's path? Is someone out to get Lissa, and if they are, can Rose truly protect her friend?

This book was better than I expected. At first, I felt Rose was just an angst-ridden teenager just complaining about everything. But after awhile, the characters began to take on more depth. Rose and Lissa have a deep bond that goes beyond friendship. The scandals that takes place in the halls of St. Vlad's will keep vampire book lovers thoroughly entertained. There is some sexual content. Not too heavy, but vampires are sexual by nature, so this was expected. There are also levels of vampire sins so it was interesting to read about what this society found to be unspeakable. By the end of the book, you will be rooting for Rose.

Editorial Review:

St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger. . . .

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

The Daring Book for Girls

Andrea J. Buchanan, Miriam Peskowitz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 144 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great for June Beaver 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Too boring. Promotes the 1950s stereotypes of girls' interests and does little to broaden their horizon or foster a want to escape those stereotypes. The only redeeming parts were the "occult" and "Satanic" sections. Don't know why others would be so critical of them, when the Bible is no less scary or gruesome...much more so in the macabre and graphic details, in fact. Just look at Christ nailed to the cross oozing with blood. Those who deny this charge have not read both Old and New Testaments.

Regardless, people still read the Bible to their children...Ever wonder why the children grow up to be paranoid, God-terrified adults?

Editorial Review:

The Daring Book for Girls is the manual for everything that girls need to know—and that doesn't mean sewing buttonholes! Whether it's female heroes in history, secret note-passing skills, science projects, friendship bracelets, double dutch, cats cradle, the perfect cartwheel or the eternal mystery of what boys are thinking, this book has it all. But it's not just a guide to giggling at sleepovers—although that's included, of course! Whether readers consider themselves tomboys, girly-girls, or a little bit of both, this book is every girl's invitation to adventure.

Barron's SAT 2400: Aiming for the Perfect Score (Barron's Sat 2400)

Linda Carnevale M.A., Roselyn Teukolsky M.S.

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Overall - great book 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I just received this book yesterday, and after reading through it, found some of the stuff to be very helpful. There are some insights this book share that others don't. This book is for those who strive for a perfect 2400 on the SAT. If you want to familiarize yourself with the SAT first, then you should read Barron's How to Prepare for the SAT. That book has a lot more information about taking the SAT, but it will only tell you how to guess on the hard questions. Unlike this book, which tells you how to actually handle and solve them.

I took off one star because I thought this book would have more pages (it has 373). Math is a full 171 pages, compared to only 180 pages for the reading and writing pages combined. I would like to give this book 3.5 stars, but by the rules of rounding, that's 4 stars :D

Editorial Review:

Even the brightest and most hard-working students aren’t expected to score a perfect 2400 on their SAT college entrance tests, but students who approach perfection with scores of 2100 or higher are virtually guaranteed acceptance at the country’s most prestigious colleges. The new edition of this popular guide for high-achieving college-bound students bypasses the standard test preparation drills and offers novel advice and innovative strategies for tackling the SAT’s hardest questions. The book presents Critical Reading strategies for both long and short passages, concentrated help for writing a near-perfect SAT essay, and extra coaching in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, statistics, and math word problems. Students will also find difficult practice questions with explained answers in all SAT test areas, upper-level vocabulary lists, and useful math formulas.

The Broom of the System

David Foster Wallace

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Disappointing 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

As a raving fanatic of DFW, I was surprisingly and to all contrary expectations let down quite thoroughly by his first novel. People say it's a mini Infinite Jest, but that's really not true at all. I mean there are budding and teasing similarities, but they are, in my opinion, very different novels concerned with different issues. First, The Broom of the System is mostly in dialogue without the sharp wit and rolling-on-the-floor-funny humor and the trademark myriad lengthy footnotes you see in his later works. Second, it is a hell of a lot less pretentious; i.e. I didn't have to consult the OED, not even once, which is unthinkable in his later works, fiction or essays. In this sense, the book is much easier to read, but then for a seasoned DFW fan/reader, it felt lightweight, paltry, and very unsatisfying indeed. In other words, I felt cheated.

Indulge me with a little rant. The quintessential DFW experience is a menagerie of pretentiousness, sophistication, and killer humor blended together with the right amount of direction or plot. And here I say pretentiousness in its most possible sense. People tend to say, "Oh that's pretentious!" in the spirit of angry and dismissive criticism, but if you look at it more carefully, what's wrong with being pretentious? You know a lot of stuff, and you show off what you know. And what's wrong with that? Does it make you feel stupid? Ignorant? Inadequate? Well then, big guy, maybe you should sit, look up those words, learn them, and delve in further. Be a little more patient when reading books. It's literature, not popular fiction. It offers you an opportunity to be more educated, more knowledgeable, and perhaps - God forbid - more pretentious. Anyway, DFW's pretentiousness is by no means a malicious or harmful kind where he's trying to put you down or show he's a hundred times smarter than you. On the contrary, it seems to be informed by a desire to just play around with words (e.g. Hey, this word sounds cool, why not use it?).

But I digress. The point is that The Broom of the System didn't offer the full range and depth of DFW experience. It wasn't pretentious (which can be a good thing for some readers), it wasn't that sophisticated (no footnotes? Come on. And any cool plot? Like a film that makes people watch until they die and is being hunted by a Canadian wheelchair terrorist group to give the big terrorizing finger to the US?), and it wasn't that funny (I can recall only three, at most four, instances when I laughed out loud). The plot, too, was pretty bland and wasn't exciting. It also kept going off on tremendous tangents that weren't 1) funny or 2)relevant to the main story.

So all in all, it was such a let down that it almost hurt when the book ended as it did. Read his essays and his magnum opus, but this one isn't that worth it.

Editorial Review:

Published when Wallace was just twenty-four years old, The Broom of the System stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio. Lenore’s great-grandmother has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau, and boss, Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous, and her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psycho- babble, Auden, and the King James Bible. Ingenious and entertaining, this debut from one of the most innovative writers of his generation brilliantly explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.

Graceling

Kristin Cashore

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 71 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

If you had the power to kill with your bare hands, what would you do with it?

Graceling takes readers inside the world of Katsa, a warrior-girl in her late teens with one blue eye and one green eye. This gives her haunting beauty, but also marks her as a Graceling. Gracelings are beings with special talents—swimming, storytelling, dancing. Katsa's Grace is considered more useful: her ability to fight (and kill, if she wanted to) is unequaled in the seven kingdoms. Forced to act as a henchman for a manipulative king, Katsa channels her guilt by forming a secret council of like-minded citizens who carry out secret missions to promote justice over cruelty and abuses of power.

Combining elements of fantasy and romance, Cashore skillfully portrays the confusion, discovery, and angst that smart, strong-willed girls experience as they creep toward adulthood. Katsa wrestles with questions of freedom, truth, and knowing when to rely on a friend for help. This is no small task for an angry girl who had eschewed friendships (with the exception of one cousin that she trusts) for her more ready skills of self-reliance, hunting, and fighting. Katsa also comes to know the real power of her Grace and the nature of Graces in general: they are not always what they appear to be.

Graceling is the first book in a series, and Kristin Cashore’s first work of fiction. It sets up a vivid world with engaging characters that readers will certainly look forward to following beyond the last chapter of this book. (Ages 14 and up) --Heidi Broadhead

The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

Michael Scott

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 71 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

He holds the secret that can end the world.

The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on September 28, 1330. Nearly 700 years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life.

The records show that he died in 1418.

But his tomb is empty.

The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects—the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. That's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it.

Sometimes legends are true.

And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Official Study Guide for All SAT Subject Tests (Real Sats)

The College Board

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The only source of previously-administered practice tests for all 20 SAT Subject Tests

Every year nearly 600,000 high school students take one or more SAT Subject Tests. Many selective colleges recommend or require them for admission or placement. The Official Study Guide for All SAT Subject Tests is the only source of official questions and answers for all 20 SAT Subject Test exams, and it is the only comprehensive guide developed by the test maker. This all-new edition
includes the following exclusive features:
• never-before-published practice tests for all 20 exams
• test-taking tips and strategies from the test-maker
• two audio CDs to practice for the foreign language SAT
Subject Tests with Listening (Spanish, German, French,
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean)
• practice tests for the SAT Subject Tests in Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, Modern Hebrew, Italian, and Latin

Includes 2 Audio CDs for language tests!

The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2)

Rick Riordan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 106 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson finds his seventh-grade school year unnervingly quiet. His biggest problem is dealing with his new friend, Tyson-a six-foot-three, mentally challenged homeless kid who follows Percy everywhere, making it hard for Percy to have any "normal" friends.

But things don't stay quiet for long. Percy soon discovers there is trouble at Camp Half-Blood: the magical borders which protect Half-Blood Hill have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and the only safe haven for demigods is on the verge of being overrun by mythological monsters. To save the camp, Percy needs the help of his best friend, Grover, who has been taken prisoner by the Cyclops Polyphemus on an island somewhere in the Sea of Monsters, the dangerous waters Greek heroes have sailed for millennia-only today, the Sea of Monsters goes by a new name.the Bermuda Triangle.

Now Percy and his friends-Grover, Annabeth, and Tyson-must retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclopes by the end of the summer or Camp Half-Blood will be destroyed. But first, Percy will learn a stunning new secret about his family-one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon's son is an honor or simply a cruel joke.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Stephen Chbosky

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1268 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

What is most notable about this funny, touching, memorable first novel from Stephen Chbosky is the resounding accuracy with which the author captures the voice of a boy teetering on the brink of adulthood. Charlie is a freshman. And while's he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower--shy and introspective, and intelligent beyond his years, if not very savvy in the social arts. We learn about Charlie through the letters he writes to someone of undisclosed name, age, and gender, a stylistic technique that adds to the heart-wrenching earnestness saturating this teen's story. Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids face in high school--how to make friends, the intensity of a crush, family tensions, a first relationship, exploring sexuality, experimenting with drugs--but he must also deal with his best friend's recent suicide. Charlie's letters take on the intimate feel of a journal as he shares his day-to-day thoughts and feelings:

I walk around the school hallways and look at the people. I look at the teachers and wonder why they're here. If they like their jobs. Or us. And I wonder how smart they were when they were fifteen. Not in a mean way. In a curious way. It's like looking at all the students and wondering who's had their heart broken that day, and how they are able to cope with having three quizzes and a book report due on top of that. Or wondering who did the heart breaking. And wondering why.

With the help of a teacher who recognizes his wisdom and intuition, and his two friends, seniors Samantha and Patrick, Charlie mostly manages to avoid the depression he feels creeping up like kudzu. When it all becomes too much, after a shocking realization about his beloved late Aunt Helen, Charlie retreats from reality for awhile. But he makes it back in due time, ready to face his sophomore year and all that it may bring. Charlie, sincerely searching for that feeling of "being infinite," is a kindred spirit to the generation that's been slapped with the label X. --Brangien Davis

Cracking the AP U.S. History Exam, 2008 Edition (College Test Prep)

Princeton Review

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

easy to use and effective 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This book is great for those of us who are too busy or can't concentrate on our textbooks. This book helped me a lot in my APUSH class because it's much easier to read and much shorter than the textbook. The questions for each section should tell you what you understand or do not understand in that section. You can use it as an indicator on what part of your textbook you need to read more carefully to get that A on your tests and 5 on the AP test.

Editorial Review:

Scoring high on the AP U.S. History Exam is very different from earning straight A’s in school. We don’t try to teach you everything there is to know about American history—only the strategies and information you’ll need to get your highest score. In Cracking the AP U.S. History Exam, we’ll teach you how to

·Use our preparation strategies and test-taking techniques to raise your score
·Focus on the topics most likely to appear on the test
·Test your knowledge with review questions for each U.S. history topic covered

This book includes 2 full-length practice AP U.S. History tests. All of our practice questions are just like those you’ll see on the actual exam, and we explain how to answer every question.

Cracking the AP U.S. History Exam has been fully updated for the 2008 test.