By: Rishaan Chowdhury
Bridge to Terabithia
Bridge to Terabithia is the story of a boy named Jess Aarons who lives in rural America. He practices running all summer to beat the other boys in the playground races during the school year. But then on the first day of school a new girl named Leslie races and beats everyone else including Jess. The two become friends and they designate and area of the woods as their “kingdom”. One day Leslie goes into Terabithia without him and a horrible tragedy occurs, Jess has to navigate through the confusion of unfamiliar emotions and unsure thoughts.
This book is reasonably good, the general plot is great, and the text is well written, it immerses the reader into the story. The book’s fault is that it is not very well connected, some parts seem random and disconnected to the previous, this makes it not a smooth read. Bridge to Terabithia really builds on imagination and the whole story propels through imagination. The deepness of it is an acquired taste, the bigger parts of the story come from inferences and feelings rather than obvious action. The characters seem to be designed to have many complex feelings and personality traits although those complexities are not very well shown. All in all Bridge to Terabithia is a two or three on a scale of one to five (Five being amazing), the plot is great but the other parts are not so good, unfortunately unsuitable for the well-designed plot.
City Spies
City Spies is the story of a girl named Sara who gets criminally charged after hacking into the New York City foster care database to exploit her stepparents as frauds. But then during her trial her lawyers change, and the new lawyer turns out to be a Mi6 agent. Travelling to the UK she joins a group of five exceptional kids from all over the world that work for the Mi6. Together they secretly join a scientific competition in order to protect the founder of the company from the mastermind criminal organization Umbra. City Spies is an action-packed, global story that is a smooth light read. The elements are very obvious and not much inference is required. The sections flow nicely together and events happening at the same time are very well portrayed, a simple yet fun read. City Spies is a five out of five (Five being amazing) book and highly recommended.
We’re Not from Here
We’re Not from Here is about a boy named Lan who lives on Mars. Earth has been destroyed by a massive war and the remains of civilization reside on Mars. But Mars is only temporary, the life support systems is slowly deteriorating and people are getting angrier. But then the Governing Council creates an agreement with the Planet Choom, Lan’s family will be test to see if the Zhuri (Choom’s residence) wants the remains of the human race to move in.
We’re Not from Here combines the tensions of modern politics with the terrifying feeling of entering a new place. It shows how one family, one tiny group of people can make a massive difference. Additionally, it shows how someone that doesn’t look like you can still be intelligent, warm, and kind on the inside, really building on the saying “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”.
The text is very well written, smooth and the plot is creative. The element of suspense and fear are well portrayed, and the reader is transformed. The fault of this book is the ending, it is sharp and too quick. The book is very fast paced but ending goes overboard and ends quite unrealistically and abruptly. All in all, We’re Not from Here is a 4/5.