Swirling Tides

Premise: Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever. The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy? Review:      To Kill a Kingdom is a dark ocean-themed fantasy that has a unique spin,...

Premise : For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks. Then American meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plan's she's made for herself - and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined. Review:      This book takes place in the future, in the country of Illea, which is the remnant of what used to be the USA before World War III. (Yes, another world war happened.) The Selection is like a l...

Should Students Have Homework?            Homework. Students spend time completing it, teachers spend time grading it. It’s a word that sends a shudder down the spines of students, a word that many students dread hearing. However, I strongly believe that there should be homework in middle school, for several reasons.       First of all, studies have shown that homework improves student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood of attending college. According to research by the Institute for the Study of Labor, if you take the case of high school boys, increased homework led to better GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for them. In fact, the ones who attended college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school. According to time.com, a meta-analysis by Duke university psychology professor Harris Cooper found evidence of a positive correlation between homework...

Premise:  When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy? This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like t...

Premise: It's 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders. Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn't know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. When Papa decides it's too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous, and after losing her mother as a baby, Nisha can't imagine losing her homeland, too. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together. Told through Nisha's letters to her mother, The Night Diary is a heartfelt story of one girl's search for home, for her own identity...and for a hopeful future. Bittersweet and Impactful Year 1...

Premise: A hitched ride home in a snow storm turns sinister when one of the passengers is plotting for the ride to end in disaster. When Mira flies home to spend Christmas with her mother in Pittsburgh, a record-breaking blizzard results in a cancelled layover. Desperate to get to her grief-ridden mother in the wake of a family death, Mira hitches a ride with a group of friendly college kids who were on her initial flight. As the drive progresses and weather conditions become more treacherous, Mira realizes that the four other passengers she's stuck in the car with don't actually know one another. Soon, they're not just dealing with heavy snowfall and ice-slick roads, but the fact that somebody will stop at nothing to ensure their trip ends in a deadly disaster. Page-turning and Twisty With Christmas approaching, Mira wants to make it home to her mother for the holidays. On the airplane ride, she meets Harper, the person in the seat next to her. When they reach the airpor...

  Premise: A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire has chosen a virtual stranger—and a possible murderer—to inherit his vast fortune, one thing's for sure: Sam Westing may be dead ... but that won't stop him from playing one last game!  Cryptic and Enigmatic Samuel W. Westing, an industrial tycoon, is dead. The puzzle-loving chess-expert that he is, he leaves behind one final game in his will. And the prize is his entire $200 Million fortune plus his company and estate. The eccentric millionaire includes sixteen people in his will, all of them strangers, but only the one who solves the mystery will inherit the money. In his will, Sam Westing declares that he would be killed, one of the potential heirs is the murderer, and whoever finds out who’s the murderer wins the Westing Game.  The Westing Game is a brilliant logic puzzle; it h...