Hello! My name is Michelle Tovar and the two books I read over the summer were Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead and The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. I read more books and re-read some of my favorites but these were the two I enjoyed. Out of those two, Spirit Bound was my favorite and the one I liked the most. It's about a girl named Rose who's mentor/boyfriend, Dimitri, is almost dead and she's trying to find a way to save him. The people that love and care about her are trying to convince her that she needs to let him go and move on with her life. This other guy named Adrian is in love with her but she won't even pay attention to him. She misses out on a great guy and Adrian stays friends with her because he wants to be close to her. Rose is obsessed in finding a way to save Dimitri. At the end she works so hard, did a lot of research, and risked her life and others lives for nothing. Yes, she does save him and everything falls apart which is something she didn't expect because she thought everything would go back to normal. She expected him to be thankful and love her even more but what happens is the exact opposite. I would recommend this book mostly to girls because there's a love story involved but there is some adventure in it.

Hi! My name is Dominique Gray. This summer I read Pretty Little Liars and Flawless which are the first two books of the Pretty Little Liars series. Both books are written by Sara Shepard. This series is about five best friends who are connected mostly by secrets they share. When Alison, one of the five friends, unexpectedly goes missing, the four lose touch and are no longer friends. A year after their friend went missing, the girls start receiving mysterious and scary text messages, threatening to tell secrets only Alison knew and secrets that no one knew. All the texts are signed "-A." The books go to tell the frightening experiences the girls begin to have and their adventures to figure out who "A" actually is. These books kept me reading and wanting to know more! I definitely recommend them for teenage girls.

Hi my name is Joshua Orr and the two books I read are Black Boy and Jurassic Park. Black Boy is by Richard Wright and Jurassic Park is by Michael Crichton. I enjoyed both books equally. Jurassic Park is about an island full of dinosaurs that have been created by bioengineers. They want to open the island to visitors but a chaos theory was stated by Malcolm because says that the island was doomed. Soon enough the dinosaurs started escaping starting with the t-rex. This is a very suspenseful and mysterious and I would recommend this book to all people.

Hi my name is Stephen Rossi and the two books I read over the summer were Taken and Twisted. Taken is written by Edward Bloor and Twisted is written by Laurie Halse Anderson. I enjoyed both of these books and they were also an easy read. Taken takes place in 2035 and is about kidnappers and how the number of kidnappers in the United States was increasing. It is about about girl named Charity Meyers and how she lives in a very protected place away from kidnappers but somehow they manage to kidnap her. Her parents have to pay the kidnappers to let her go. In the story she makes good decisions which will help her. The book is exciting and suspenseful and I recommend the book to anyone.

Hi! My name is Angelina Guzzo, this summer I read two books. L.A. Candy and Sweet Little Lies, both of these books were written by Lauren Conrad. These books are part of a sequel, and I really enjoyed them. The first book, L.A. Candy, is about two girls who move to L.A. for some excitement in their lives. While living in L.A. they are asked to be on a reality T.V. show, and they accept the offer. They didn't know it but their lives were about to change tremendously. This book was great and I definitely recommend it mostly to girls.

Welcome!

Greetings!  Welcome to our class blog.  As you already know, I am Mr. Palumbo, your English Teacher and the moderator of this blog.  I hope you are as excited to try this forum out as I am.

Over this Summer, I got the chance to read three books: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a sprawling novel about seven generations of one family and their history in a small mountain town in Colombia; Paradise Lost by John Milton, an Epic Poem written in England in the mid 17th Century (1600s) dealing with the battle between Satan and his angels against God and his angels, and how Satan tries to get revenge against God by corrupting God's new creations, Adam and Eve; On the Ropes, by Tom Schreck, a book about a Social Worker/Boxer who becomes a private detective while trying to find out who murdered one of his clients.  Tom Schreck is an old friend of mine from my college days in Albany.

While I normally read many more books over the course of the summer, this summer I spent a great deal of time watching classic Westerns, reading magazines, short stories, and many different kinds of blogs.

Now, I'd like to know what you read this summer; you do remember you were supposed to read at least two books this summer, right?  Part of developing a community of readers is the ability to describe and recommend books to our peers so that they may enjoy a book that you have liked.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Who are you? Introduce yourself (be sure to give your full name).

2. List the titles and the authors of the books you read for summer reading.

3. Please provide a brief recommendation for one of the books.

I hope that you all find at least one new book to read based on your classmates' recommendations.

This assignment is due by 9PM on Sunday, September 12th.

Good luck in 10th grade!