BOOK REVIEW:

Title : Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Author : Rick Riordan
Reviewed by : Hastha Narayan
Favorite bit : Percy takes the master bolt back to Zeus on Mount Olympus, who rewards the young hero by not killing him.
Reading level : Just Right
Favorite Characters : Percy Jackson, , Annabeth Chase & Grover Underwood
About the story : The Lightning Thief is an American fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology, about a boy named Percy Jackson who thinks he is a kid with special needs and learning disability. Percy is seen as a troublemaker and has to switch schools several times until he realizes he’s the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea. He sets off with his friend Grover ( a satyr ) to Camp Half-blood where he finds out, that Zeus’ master bolt has been stolen and he’s the top suspect. At the camp he and Grover meet Annabeth Chase (daughter of the Greek goddess Athena). To get rid of the accusation on Percy, the trio go on a dangerous quest filled with mythological monsters to find the true thief and return the Lightning bolt to Zeus in order to avoid a war between the gods.

BOOK REVIEW:

Title : A Series of Unfortunate Events

Author : Lemony Snicket

Reviewed by : Hastha Narayan

Favorite bit : In each book you find a library , of sorts , which turns out to be the key to solving the terrible situations the Baudelaire orphans find themselves in and unlock the family secrets.

Reading level : Just Right

Favorite Character : Violet
About the story : With the absence of happy endings, the series follows the tragic tale of three orphans - Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire - who are investigating their parents' mysterious death. The siblings end up with an evil guardian named Count Olaf who attempts to get his hands on the Baudelaire's fortune. Following Olaf's failed attempt (in the bad beginning) and his plot being exposed, the Baudelaire children are placed in the custody of a series of guardians. Unfortunately Olaf will stop at nothing to get the Baudelaire inheritance. In each book, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire use their own talents and ingenuity to outsmart Olaf at every turn as he moves from guardian to guardian with his many dastardly plans and disguises. Known as a melancholic narrator Lemony Snicket explicates the Baudelaire's adventures to the readers.

BOOK REVIEW
Title                            : The Vine of Desire
Author                        : Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 
Reviewed By              : Hastha Narayan
Favourite Character   : Sudha
Favourite Lines          : Can the left hand ever hate the right ?
About the Story          : A novel that explores the emotional ties between two cousins Anju and Sudha (who are more like life long friends). Far from Calcutta, their hometown, and after years of living separate lives due to forced arranged marriages, Anju and Sudha rekindle their friendship in America. It gives Anju the strength to pick up the pieces of her life after a miscarriage, and Sudha the confidence to make a life for herself and her 1 Year old daughter, Dayita-without her husband. The bond which the two women shared right since childhood is completely shaken when they must confront the dangerously deep passionate feelings Anju’s husband Sunil has for Sudha. Fate plants the seeds of hatred.They begin to question the central assumptions of their lives and try to make sense of the freedoms of America and of the ties that bind them to India, their families and one another. The unlikely relationships with men and women winds through family, secrets, friendship, love, betrayal, and grief which makes each character in the story put themselves first. But in spite of everything that happened, the love that the two women shared, could not be turned into hatred. As Pishi rightly said, ''Can the left hand ever hate the right?''.

BOOK REVIEW
Title : Girl on the Train 
Author : Paula Hawkins
Reviewed By : Hastha Narayan
Favourite Character : Rachel 
Favourite Lines : Life is not a paragraph and death is no parenthesis.
Reading Level : Just Right
About the Story : The psychological thriller novel is a first-person narrative told from the point of view of three women: Rachel, Anna, and Megan. Rachel a 32 year old woman catches the same commuter train every morning. Rachel is prone to alcohol, blackouts & irrationality from the end of her marriage to Tom, who left her for another woman, Anna Watson. The train stopped at the same signal each day overlooking a row of houses and back gardens. As days pass by she starts to feel like she knows the people in one of the houses. She names them Jason and Jess and wished that her life was as perfect as their's. Until one day she sees something in their garden that startles her. It's only a minute when the train moves on. She reads in the paper that “Jess” – who is really called Megan – has vanished. Everything has changed and Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she has only watched from the train window. Considerable suspense combined with empathy keeps building up & She is much more than the Girl on the Train.

BOOK REVIEW
Title : Paper Towns
Author : John Green
Favourite Character : Quentin Jacobsen
Reviewed by : Hastha Narayan
Reading Level : Just Right

About the story : Primarily for an audience of young adults John Green's Paper towns features Quentin Jacobsen (Q) , a high school senior preparing to graduate and his neighbour Margo Roth. For years Q and Margo had never spoken to each other until Margo shows up at Q's window at 12 am, with eleven-part plan of vengeance on a group of people she feels have hurt her during her time at high school. The fiction is a roller-coaster ride followed by Margo's disappearance & Q's search for Margo with his friends Ben, Radar and Lacey through the paper town of their suburb near Orlando, Florida. Together they try to unravel and decipher the clues that Margo has left behind. An unusual love story reflecting the reality of life as a teen takes you to a whole new level and ends with Q realising that he doesn't really know the real Margo.

BOOK REVIEW
Title : The Fault in Our Stars
Author : John Green
Reviewed By : Hastha Narayan
Favourite Characters : Hazel Grace & Augustus Waters
Reading Level : Just Right

About the Story : The Fault in our stars opens up to the story of a 16 year old teenage girl named Hazel grace with thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. At her mother's behest Hazel is forced to attend a Cancer Support Group where she meets Augustus Waters , a 17 year old teenage boy whose osteosarcoma caused him to lose his right leg. Hazel and Augustus are completely drawn to each other and immediately become close friends. They help their friend Issac suffering from eye cancer. After reading the book An Imperial Affliction about a cancer-stricken girl named Anna the two who were curios to know more about the book set off to Amsterdam to meet the author, Peter Van Houten. Charmed in the company of each other Hazel and Augustus change their attitude towards life. The novel which is poetic also contains love and humour that makes you laugh and cry throughout . however there is not a ghost of a chance of a fairy-tale ending.

BOOK REVIEW
Title : Little Women
Author : Louisa May Alcott
Reviewed By : Hastha Narayan
Favourite Bit : Bonding between the four sisters
Favourite Characters : The March Sisters
Reading Level : Just Right
 About the Story : The novel is a wonderful piece of literature that details the passage from childhood to womanhood of the four March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy who are part of a very poor but loving family. With their father being away fighting the civil war the four girls lived with their mother Marmee in Concord Massachusetts. Marmee always encouraged her daughters to become the best possible version of themselves. Throughout the book Alcott portrays sisterhood, family, love and friendship. As they go through loss and triumphs the March sisters truly learn to become 'Little Women' .