The book I read was The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson. This book is 240 pages long. A surprising fact about the author (well, if you aren’t in PA 6th grade) is that he survived the Holocaust. Another interesting fact is that he died of lymphoma. This book is about Leon’s experiences in the Holocaust. My favorite part about this book is that Leon has so many tense moments of pure luck, and it makes me want to see if he lived even though I knew he had. 

“Not even the scariest of fairy tales could have prepared me for the monsters I would confront while just a boy of ten … or for the hero, disguised as a monster himself, who would save my life.”-Leon Leyson

Leon is a small boy in a family of 7, the youngest. He enjoys playing with his brothers and never tires of new activities. His two brothers, Tsalig and David are his two role models and care for him throughout his life. His friends in Narewka, Poland are also caring, even though they do not share the same religion. Some of them were rude to him during one week, the week before Easter, but he never thought anything of it. His dad was employed at a glass-making factory which made it big and moved to Kraków. His dad was one of the lucky few to move with the company, and he promised to gather enough money to allow them all to move to Kraków. His mother struggled to care for everybody because she was a single person taking care of 5 needy children, but she managed. When his dad finally gathered enough money to allow them to move, they packed up their belongings and said goodbye to all of their relatives. In Kraków, they lived relatively well, being able to buy enough food to live and being employed really helped. But then, in one night, everything changed. Germany invaded Poland and took control of the government. They still lived relatively peacefully, if not in fear, but the Germans were still neutral in their behavior toward the Jews. Immediately, they changed. They abused Jews and forced them into ghettos and camps. Then, when all hope seemed lost, they find the man who saved their life, Oskar Schindler. Will they be able to make it out unscathed? Or will they all lose someone they love? To find out, read The Boy on the Wooden Box, a memoir by Leon Leyson.

The book I read was Legend by Marie Lu. This book is 305 pages long. She also published Warcross and Prodigy, the sequel to Legend. My favorite part about this book was that there was always action on every page.

Daniel Altan Wing, also known as Day, is the Republic’s greatest criminal, but is he really? Day is in desperate need of cash to cure his little brother of the plague, but how does he do that? He storms into the new hospital and tries to steal some medicine, but fails and only gets some resisters, before getting caught. When June’s brother, Metias tries to stop him, the now-weakened Day takes a lousy shot and hits him in the shoulder. Later, when June arrives they see that Metias was stabbed in the heart. Infuriated, June vows to find her brother’s killer and murder them as well. When she goes undercover, it doesn’t go so well. While Day was still recuperating, Tess gets him into one of the rebel’s households, and they leave soon after. Then, Day goes to bet on Skiz fights, cheap fights that can get you a buck or two if you know how. When Tess accidentally gets thrown into the ring, June takes notice and helps her out by beating up Kaede. After the mob has become angry and thrown June to the ground, Day helps her out and gives her a place to stay. Soon after, June starts to betray her own feelings and kisses Day. (when they were drunk. CALM DOWN, PEOPLE!) After that, she follows Day out to his house and betrays his trust by capturing him and his family. Once he gets captured, June soon finds out that Day did not fail his Trial, but actually got a perfect score. When they find out the truth, June creates a plan to get Day out of jail, but it involves sacrificing one person. She talks to Kaede, who is a Patriot, and they form a plan. Will all go accordingly and have 1 or 0 casualties? Or will the entire rebellion come crumbling down? To find out, read Legend by Marie Lu!

The book I read was The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine. This book is 279 pages long. Another book by this author is The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had. If you like this book, you’ll probably like The Honest Truth, a great book in my opinion since I’ve read it. I love how one fateful encounter changed everybody’s world and taught Marlee how to do things she never could have dreamed of before she met Liz.

Do you have a friend who’s “colored”? Well, you can thank the people who worked long and hard to finally win and let us go to school with other races and actually be friends. Anyway, 12 year old Marlee is a shy little girl that can be pushed around without saying anything back. (I do not recommend this, EVER!) That all changes when a new, tanned girl comes into her life. They quickly become friends, kind of, and they start working on a project together. Liz convinces her to talk during the presentation for a magic square book. They practice her speech, but on the day that the speech was dated for, Liz mysteriously disappears. Marlee then learns that Liz was caught “passing” as white. Marlee is determined to get back her friend and tries to keep in touch with her as much as possible. They finally agree to go the rock crusher every time Liz’s little brother, George or something, has baseball practice. One day, Red and JT follow Marlee to the rock crusher and while they’re going back, Marlee stumbles on a box of dynamite with 12 sticks. Red steals them, and Marlee goes home. Luckily, Marlee isn’t caught, but when they see each other at the zoo and Red leaving his keys on the bench, they hatch a plan. Marlee quickly steals one of the 2 keys and opens the trunk to steal the dynamite; but when Red walks in, she stumbles and falls into the trunk and locks herself inside. Will Marlee successfully escape and save the day? Or will her luck finally run out? To find out, read The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine.