Twins
Caroline Cooney
"Twins" by Caroline Cooney is a great book. It is about teen twins: Madrigal and Mary Lee. Mary Lee's parents are separating their daughters who did everything together by sending Mary Lee to a far off boarding school. Mary Lee can't imagine why and expects Madrigal to beg her not to go but Madrigal says she thinks its a good idea. Mary Lee goes to boarding school and barely ever hears from Madrigal until she comes to visit. Mary Lee is not popular and everyone thinks she's nuts when she is excited that her "twin" is coming. Madrigal becomes everyone's best friend and when she sees her twin hurt by this, they switch ski outfits and pretend to be each other but Madrigal has a ski accident and dies with everyone thinking that she was Mary Lee. Mary Lee goes back home to live Madrigal's life, thinking Madrigal had the much better life and that their parent's liked Madrigal better because they sent Mary Lee to boarding school. But Mary Lee finds out Madrigal was not the person she thought Madrigal was.

The Tulip Touch
Anne Fine
This book, "The Tulip Touch" by Anne Fine, is a very touching story of a young girl in a new place makes a friend with the wrong type of person. This is a common situation which you can see in schools all over the world. I believe that Natalie didn't know what she was getting into and I think that she was friend with Tulip because she was scared of her and because she thought she could change Tulip and make her a kind and loving person. I think Natalie felt guilty it was partly her fault. Maybe Natalie felt that if she had just been a little more supportive and stood up for her and helped her that bit more she wouldn't have gone past the limit. In conclusion this is a book you must read and it is a great book for children of all ages and is a wonderful tale of friendship and betrayal and of course guilt.

The Book of Dead Days
Marcus Sedwick
The book I read was 'The Book of Dead Days' by Marcus Sedwick. This story was about the Dead Days, the time between Christmas and New Years. The story is set "somewhere in the second half of the eighteen century" in "an old city, once magnificent..." A magician, Valerian, is a desperate man. He needs to find the key to his survival after 15 years of searching, before midnight on New Year's Eve. The key is a book that Valerian hopes will give him the information he needs to hold back the demonic forces that are pursuing him as a result of a deal that was made based on a greedy love and at a cost too great for him to face now. Valerian uses his servant boy, known throughout the book only as "Boy", and Willow, an orphan, to help him search for the book. Mystery and intrigue are at the every turn in this engaging story.

Inkheart
Cornelia Funke
I read Cornelia Funke's book: "Inkheart". Meggie and Mo, her father, share a mutual love of books. All begins after a visit of Dustfinger. Meggie learns that her father can "read" things out of books. When she was three, he read aloud from a book called Inkheart and released Dustfinger and other characters into the real world. At the same time, Meggie's mother disappeared into the story. Mo also released Capricorn, a villain who takes great pleasure in murdering people. He has sent his men to capture Mo and intends to force him to read an immortal monster out of the story to get rid of his enemies. Meggie, Mo, Dustfinger, and Meggie's great-aunt Elinor are pursued, repeatedly captured, but manage to escape from Capricorn's men. If you want to know the ending of the story...read it!