From Me to You, by Karuho Shiina

A shy and gentle young teenage girl named Sawako Kuronuma is misunderstood by her classmates for her scary appearance. For this reason she is unpopular and tends to have a hard time making friends due to everyone being too afraid to even talk to her. Although she truly wants to make friends and tries her best to make herself more likable, everyone avoids her. Everything changes once she gains the interest of and befriends, Shota Kazehaya, the most popular boy in school. 

In my opinion, I think the main character of this book, Sawako, is much more relatable than protagonists of other girls manga.

Shy and introverted people can probably easily relate to Sawako. And although I don’t really read much of the romance genre, I really enjoyed this book. I believe it’s because of the easily likable characters and the actual, gradual romance development between Kazehaya and Sawako throughout the  From Me to You, by Karuho Shiina, series.

Reviewed by Anonymous, Grade 8

Grandview Library 

Half Bad, by Sally Green

Nathan is a half coded witch. A half black and white one. He is the only second weapon to his father's death, Marcus,the most dangerous Black Witch ever known. Therefore, the Council of White Witches has been controlling Nathan's life as long as he could remember. His life has been almost ruined because of the Council. The only reason he could ever think of why all these things had been happening to him was because of his father, but he can never hate him, he can never do what the Council wants from him. The Council sees Marcus a really big threat to White Witches and its goal is to murder him with Nathan, his half coded son. What would Nathan's life be? Will he ever be able to see his father? Will he ever do what the Council forces him to?I really did not enjoy  Half Bad, by Sally Green, at all. To be honest, this book is not a book of exciting events nor it is a book about witches, I mean it is about witches, but not what we expect. All Nathan's story is about how he is been suffering right from his birth until his current life. There is no joy or excitement in his life. He is been isolated from any other white witches except his family. Later when he gets older, he becomes a prisoner of the Council and the story goes on and on. I do not really recommend this book if I want to be honest, however, that is my personal opinion.

 Reviewed by Orkideh, Grade 12

Downtown Central Library

I Was Here, by Gayle Forman

girl named Meg Luisa Garcia committed suicide by drinking some bleach and when her best friend and her boyfriend Cody hears the news,they feel very bad of themselves. So they are eager to figure out why would she kill herself. While they find some clues such as the deleted emails in Meg's computer or the depression she had in the past,they meet a rock star named Ben McCallister who was involved into Meg's miserable life. He helps them by explaining the history he had with Meg.

I liked I Was Here, by Gayle Forman. I liked the ending even though it felt really sad that it made my tummy feel like that it had butterflies. I felt crying a little bit while reading the epilogue since it took place at a funeral. I also liked the idea that this story was similar to the story "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher. I didn't really like the idea that this book had to involve bathing and that it had so much bad words. For a teen such as a fourteen-year-old having to read this book with vulgar language isn't really that bad. This is a really good book but then can also be obscene at the same time. Go check out this book! I know you'll like it.(if you like reading these intense stories)

Reviewed by Hannah Rachel, Grade 8
Downtown Central Library