Book Club Holiday Party and Best Books of the Year

We had so much fun at our book club holiday party yesterday.  We were all stuffed!  Instead of asking students to do the usual book reviews of what they read in the last month, I compiled a list of the best books students read this year.  List and pictures follow.

Book Club's Best Books

The Eleventh Plague - Jeff Hirsch
Lockdown - Escape from Furnace - Alexander Gordon Smith

Ranger's Apprentice Series - John Flanagan
Mockingbird:  (Mok'ing burd) - Katheryn Erskine

Dark Powers Series - Kelley Armstrong

Pendragon Series - D.J. Machale

The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan

Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Birthmarked - Caragh M. O'Brien

Matched - Allyson Braithwaite Condie

Maximum Ride Series - Alex Horowitz

Fablehaven - Brandon Mull

Rare Beasts (Edgar and Ellen Series) - Charles Ogden

Son of the Mob - Gordan Korman

The Ransom of Mercy Carter - Caroline Cooney

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series - Jeff Kinney

The Underneath - Kathi Appelt

The Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer

Unbroken - Laura Hildenbrand

Mockingjay (Hunger Games Trilogy) - Suzanne Collins

Everything I Was - Corinne Demas
The Boy Who Couldn't Die - William Sleator
Born at Midnight - C.C. Hunter
Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Lost in the River of Grass - Ginny Rorby
Girl, Stolen - April Henry
The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod - Heather Brewer
Moving Day (Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls Series) - Meg Cabot
The Crushes (Heartbreakers Series) - Pamela Wells

Hex Hall - Rachel Hawkins

Hey 13! - Gary Soto

The Giver - Lois Lowry

Hatchet - Gary Paulsen

Uglies - Scott Westerfeld

Deliverance - Anne Schraff

7th Grade Book Club

7th Grade Book Club

8th Grade Book Club



8th Grade Book Club



What is the best book you read this year?

I read so many wonderful books this year, but here are my top books in no particular order:

The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials - I'm cheating and making this "one" book as The Scorch Trials is the sequel.  The Maze Runner, especially, was a little violent for me, but I was engrossed throughout both novels.  I never thought I was into creepy novels with scary creatures, but apparently, I am!  This year I have read a lot of dystopian novels, similar to Hunger Games, about future societies gone wrong, and I love them!

Birthmarked - This young adult novel is another dystopian page-turner. The setting is a society where women must give up their first-born children to be adopted and live within the walls of the city where the children enjoy a much better life than those outside the walls. It's a longer book that's on the dark side, but I loved that, once again, there is a strong female protagonist who stands up for what she believes.

The Education of Bet - Bet, an orphaned girl in the nineteenth century, disguises herself as a boy to attend an all-boys boarding school, but she doesn't consider the challenges that await her, including rooming with handsome and charming James.  Clever and sweet.

Ruined - This is a ghost story set in New Orleans where the protagonist befriends a ghost in the graveyard across the street from her aunt's house.  The ghost links her to a dark secret connected to the history of the city and the families who live there.  The drama will suck you in.

Scorpio Races - This book reads like a movie.  I could picture the scenes and even the soundtrack in my mind!  Violent, flesh-eating Water Horses come out of the ocean once a year and are captured to be ridden in the annual Scorpio Races.  Beautifully written with adventure and romance. 

The Summer I Learned to Fly - This was a heartwarming book about a boy and girl who become friends one summer.  I loved the ending.

So, what are the best books YOU read this year? Comment on this blog post to let Ridgeview readers know!

Anna Shutley - First to Finish the Dewey Decathlon!

Seventh-grader Anna Shutley is the first student to complete all 25 books in the Dewey Decathlon this year!  Anna is an avid reader who is also a member of Summer Reading Book Club here at RCS.  Anna enjoyed a pizza party with friends as a reward for reading 20 books.  Congratulations, Anna!

Nooks are Coming! What books should I load?

I'm so excited to announce that we will have 10 Nook ebook readers available for checkout next semester!  The Nooks will be available for a two-week checkout period with parental permission.  I need to know what you would like to read on the Nook, so that I can start loading books.  Comment on this post to add your suggestion here!