The Vanishing Season, by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Maggie had to leave her home in Chicago because of her mother that lost her job. They moved to a very old house that was built in 1800s in Door County. Leaving her home, her friends and her city wasn't really easy for her, but she had no other choice. In Door County, she sees Pauline who is a very rich and pretty girl who lives in a large big white house across from Maggie's new house. Maggie thought that Pauline would be one of those mean rich girls, but she found out that she was wrong after they became friends. Through Pauline, Maggie meets a guy named Liam. Everyone in the Door County thinks he is a weird guy, but he isn't really what others said when Maggie got to know him more. From the moment Maggie saw him, she felt something inside her, but always tried to ignore it until Pauline had to move because of missing girls in Door County. Maggie's feelings for Liam got deeper and deeper while Pauline was gone, and Liam got the same feeling for Maggie. However, things changed between them when Pauline came back when the murderer of the missing girls was arrested.

The Vanishing Season, by Jodi Lynn Anderson, made me feel sad at the end and even while I was reading it, something inside me kept telling me that I should stop, but a stronger feeling made me continue and finish this book. What was said as a summary on the cover of this book was way different from the actual story. First, I thought this book would be a story about a mystery of some missing girls, but when I actually read the book, I found out this is only a story of a girl named Maggie and her friendships with other people in Door County. I believe that this book would be good for teens, but I should say that it isn't that much interesting or exciting. I don't recommend this book that much because I think the ending wasn't really strong. The reason is, everything happened so fast and suddenly at the end and it could've had a stronger ending, but it didn't.

Reviewed by Orkideh, Grade 12
Downtown Central Library

American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang

Jin and his family are Chinese immigrants and he moves to his first school in 5th grade. Since he felt that he would never make any friends since he was the only Asian in the class,he met Wei-Chen,a Chinese immigrant who moved to America after Jin. While Wei-Chen is down on Earth with Jin,the monkey king watches him from the high skies because he gave Wei-Chen a mission to do with his best friend. Also,a white American boy named Danny is struggling in the schools he goes and moves. His Chinese cousin Chin-Kee visits him every year and he follows him wherever he goes. Even to school. He feels that whenever he follows him to school,he gets humiliated. Although,he tries to kick him out of his house but Chin-Kee says he has to stay in America for a year.

I really enjoyed American Born Chinese, by  Gene Luen Yang. It made me feel like that there was laughter inside my body. What I liked about it was the stereotypes in the book made it into something funny and positive rather than people having to implicate that it's negative and racist. What I didn't like was nothing really. It is a very funny comic book that teens could read. I think that anyone could read this comic book. Even children. I liked the fact that there wasn't much bad words in it because I think that's what makes the book suitable for everyone to read. If this book was in a library's book shelf,then I think that the book should be placed in the children's area. I would give this a 4 or 5-star rating if I needed to. I also think that if you are Chinese or any other kind of Asian descent and you read this book,I really hope you try to not make the stereotypes sound really bad. Because really. I bet the author wrote these stereotypes down so people could learn more about the Asian culture and so people could have a laugh. I hope you guys would enjoy this book if you check this out!

Reviewed by Hannah Rachel, Grade 8
Downtown Central Library