OPL Teen Scene

Teen Reviews By

Vatsal

“The boy at the Top of the Mountain” by John Boyne is a masterpiece of a novel which juggles the horrors of WWII with the innocence of childhood. The novel is about 7 year old Pierrot, who had just became an orphan and has to leave his home to live in Paris, with his Aunt. She is a servant in a in an upper class house. This is taken time during 1936, the uprising of Hitler and the Nazis and the start of World War 2. They are quickly taken under Nazi control and Pierrot is thrown into a world of horror and terror. This is an amazing novel and I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 13, I say that because of some of the violence in this novel might not be safe for the younger audience. My favorite component of the novel is the story and the theme. The author does a fantastic job at  showing how hatred and power can beat innocence. This was an amazing novel written by John Boyne and I give it 5 out of 5 stars. I hope to read more novels from the author in the near future.  

 

 

 

I personally dislike the novel, “The Haters” by Jesse Andrews. I gave this book a shot because i had read a book by Jesse Andrews before and it was amazing (the book was, “Me and Earl and the dying girl”). The story is about a couple of kids that love bands that are sent to a Jazz camp over the summer. They hate it and so does another girl named Ash. So they decide to run away from camp and start a band. The only problem is, they are haters. They hate everything. They hate the music others make. They even hate their own music. What i dislike about the book are the characters. They make stupid decisions and what i hate the most is the fact that they can’t appreciate what they have. They must find a way to hate on everything. They don’t look at pros and cons, they just look at the cons at everything. I thought this book would be about haters that would maybe change their ways. But I was wrong. The characters contain the same amount of hate as some politicians. I like the style the book was written in. I really like the author Jesse Andrews but this book was a disappointment for me. I do not recommend this book to any of my friends or family members. I’m usually optimistic when it come to giving reviews to book but i really did not enjoy this book. So therefore I give this book a poor 2 out of 5 stars.  

 

I think the book You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan is an amazing book for teens to read this summer. This is a novel tracing the powerful friendship of two lovesick teenagers—a gay boy, Mark, and a lesbian girl, Katie—over the course of Pride Week in San Francisco. Told in alternating chapters, You Know Me Well explores how Mark and Katie help one another overcome heartbreak, fractured friendships and the dizzying speeds of change. I would recommend this book for every teen. It is a great book for teens confused about their own sexualities. This is a two-perspective novel written with the concept of pride and LGBTQ happiness. The authors have done a great job at developing characters like Mark and Katie. They have also made the story poetic and lyrical. There are a few issues I have with the plot like the unrealistic world they were living in where everyone was accepting of the LGTBQ community, especially in high school where they are more likely to be made fun of their sexualities. There are a few problems with the plot at times and it often had me reading pages more than twice over  but other than that this is actually a really good novel. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars. I didn’t give it 5 out of 5 because of the confusing plot at times but the authors did a great job writing this book.



 

The book, “This Book Love You” is a comedy and advice book written by youtube phenom PewDiePie (Felix Kjellberg) full of amazing colourful illustrations that are sure to appeal to his millions of followers. I’m not really a fan of PewDiePie and his videos and I was a bit skeptical when picking this book because of the lack of text but i gave it a shot. The book is full of hilarious advice and quotes by PewDiePie and is full of nice and bright illustrations. The Illustrations go well with the funny quotes. However, the advice in this book should not be taken seriously. They are for laughs and are parodying popular quotes on the internet to suit PewDiePie’s sense of humor. This book made me feel better about myself and made me laugh at a few parts. After reading this book, I realized that Felix Kjellberg is a better person than I thought, he thinks positive and has a great sense of humor. In my opinion, the greatest aspects of this book has to be the nice, creative illustrations and the witty humor. The only negative part about this book is when Felix sometimes tries to boast his ego, which is already massive. But other than that, I would recommend this book to someone who wants a quick read for a humorous book. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of PewDiePie and a fan of his humor. Personally, I would recommend this book to a friend or family because it is funny. So to conclude, this is a humorous advice book with amazing illustrations and is a great book for anyone looking for a quick and easy read. I give this book a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars. This book is well designed and is a great quick read.