Run for Cover

By: Andrea :) If you have read enough books, you will probably start to see patterns with scenarios that only seem to happen to main characters of fictional novels and never in real life. Here are a few that I’ve noticed:  The generation-old secret discovered in an ancient home  You’ve definitely seen this one in a mystery book with a gang of kids as the main characters. They probably found the first clue by accident, on a boring summer’s afternoon or a cozy, snowy winter’s morning. Whether it’s a mysterious map, wrinkled letter, antique object, it was hidden in a secret trapdoor or a messy basement. There’s spiderwebs everywhere, dust covers the shelves, and the house features creaky old wooden floors. This secret has been hidden for generations, and it’s a mystery unsolved — until the main characters find it of course. The kids go and decode the message and follow the clues, to ultimately discover a big secret about the house.  There’s nothing wrong with this cliché, an...

  By Ankita  If you ask someone to think of a cute animal, chances are that it won't be a fish. Read about creatures that need saving, and you'll see pandas, lions, even dolphins. Most animal cruelty laws exclude fish. Why is it that humans don't like fish? The book Eye of the Shoal , by Helen Scales is an amazing book for finding out everything about fish, including their history, food, toxicity and intelligence, as well as many myths that star fish. If you're not interested in a long-winded, technical book about fish, the book is full of interesting facts and stories that are sure to keep even the most disinterested reader entertained. The illustrations don't hurt either- interspersed between every chapter are beautifully done drawings of fish. Each of the sections in this book deal with a different topic- color, toxins, uses, intelligence, to name a few, but the author approaches each one the same way, providing snapshots of just a few of the many fish of the wor...

By Rose Benjamin "You need a good hook," every English teacher says when they assign an essay or piece of writing. This "hook," of course, is referring to the very beginning of the piece, the sentence or paragraph or page that makes the reader become interested in the writing. The hook is the reason you keep reading, is it not? For me, usually not. To me it seems that hooks are either boring or confusing. I have only ever seen two types of beginnings in books. One type gives the context you need for the story. This one, I think, is more common. You must know the type: "It had all started when..." or "Years ago..." or, in one famous case, " Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." This last one might need some explanation. It has been years since I first tried (or rather, was forced to try) to read Harry Potter, but I still remember sitting on the big leat...

Nemesis Games - James S.A. Corey Contains minor spoilers for The Expanse series By - Karl Vu   Nemesis Games  is book 5 in The Expanse series. After the crew of the Rocinante  (our main characters throughout the series) return to the Sol system after the events of book 4, the ship has to be docked for maintenance and repairs. The repairs are expected to take a long time, so each member of the crew except for the captain, James Holden, takes a temporary leave to revisit their past and tie up loose ends. Amos Burton, the ship's mechanic, heads to Earth to pay respects to a loved one that passed away and make sure nothing bad happened to them while he was away. Alex Kamal, the ship's pilot, heads to Mars to talk with his ex-wife and try to make things end on a good note. Naomi Nagata, the ship's engineer, goes to Ceres station after she receives a message from her ex-lover that her son is in trouble. Holden stays behind with the Rocinante to investigate colony ships disappe...