The opinions expressed in the reviews are not necessarily the opinion of the Library. The appropriateness of the materials

reviewed is not for the Public Library to determine and the students are encouraged to review whatever they’d like—

therefore, we encourage parents to be involved in and be aware of their children’s book, movie, television, gaming, internet

and music choices. All non-original images are property of their various copyright owners.

In this issue

Divergent · Melanie Martinez · The Peanuts Movie · Dancing with the Stars · Paper Towns · Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer · Rules · Run 3

Wattpad.com · Shake It Off · The Hunger Pains · The Lazarus Effect · Hocus Pocus · Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban · One

Tree Hill · The Blackthorn Key · Wild Magic (Immortals Quartet #1) · Goosebumps Movie · The Six · The Tale of Emily Windsnap ·

Flipped · Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #1) · The Undertakers - Rise of the Corpse · 45 Pounds (More or

less) · The False Prince · Peeled · I Am Number Four · Dreadlocks · Kung Fury · Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children · Supernat-

ural · Life As We Knew It · Legend · How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous · Super Mario Maker · Water · Weeping

Under the Same Moon · Civil War

www.briarcliffmanorlibrary.org, Vol. 11, Issue 1, Jan. 2016

Meet the Critics on Page 9

The critics

Me, Myself and I

Bath and Body Works

Triple

Legolas

Book Dolphin

Jinx

Hannah Epstein

KK Panda

Mama Newt

Sunshine

Hugs4theworld

The rating system

Excellent Horrible Good Okay Bad

Middle School

Critics

Dancing with the

Stars

TV Show on ABC

Critic: Me Myself & I

Dancing with the stars is a live ballroom dancing

competition on ABC. It’s not as boring as it

sounds; in fact, it’s almost as dramatic as reality TV

shows. Random celebrities get paired with pro-

fessional dancers, and the couples go through dif-

ferent stages of the competition. One couple gets

eliminated every week, based on the three judges’

scores, and YOUR votes. Watch how different

couples do, because, remember, celebrities don’t

need any prior dance experience and they could

be any age. If you want to watch it, the next sea-

son starts in the spring, and it airs every Monday

night on ABC. Rating:

Paper Towns

By John Green

Critic: Hugs4the world

This book is about Q who has

lived his whole life in the

shade. Until the amazing

Margo Ross Speilburg comes

through his window and

takes him on a crazy revenge

adventure. Suddenly, Margo is missing. She left

clues for Q to find. Will Q find Margo??? This

book is amazing and keeps you on the edge of

your seat. I definitely recommend!!! Rating:

Theodore Boone:

Kid Lawyer

By John Grisham

Critic: Hannah Epstein

This book is the best. It is the

first of a series. This book is

about a man who people think

killed his wife. Theo knows the

witness. The witness is scared

to come forward and confront the judge. Why?

You may ask….and did this guy commit the crime?

Find out by reading this book! Rating:

Divergent

By Veronic Roth

Critic: Book Dolphin

Divergent is a dystopian book

about a girl named Tris. It has

a good plot, but the ending

ruins everything. *SPOILER

ALERT* There is a war and

Tris’s whole family died.

Warning: Divergent is SUPER

violent. Read this book only if

you are completely ok with

horrible endings. (I am not.)

Rating:

Melanie Martinez

Singer

Critic: Mama Newt

If you’re into the same

semi-creepy sort of strange

and most importantly

amazing music as I am,

Melanie Martinez is for you (and me). She has

written some of my favorite songs, featuring: Mad

Hatter, Milk and Cookies, Alphabet Boy, Dear Por-

cupine, Dollhouse, and more. Those are just my

all-time favorite songs by her. Warning: Most of

her songs contain curses (but then again, what

songs these days don’t?) and the creepy song

genre isn’t for everyone. D.O.L.L.H.O.U.S.E. I see

things that nobody else sees… Rating:

The Peanuts Movie

Movie Rated: G

Critic: Book Dolphin

This movie is about Charlie

Brown, and his school

troubles. Charlie met the

Little Red Haired Girl and

immediately fell in love with

her. From school dances to

life-changing book reports

on War and Peace (which Charlie Brown reads

over one weekend), this Charlie Brown movie

actually has a happy ending! This movie captures

the true essence of the original Peanuts comics by

Charles Schultz. Rating:

Shake it Off

Song by Taylor Swift

Critic: Bath and Body

Works

This song is excellent

because all of these

people are saying stuff about her but that does

not stop her. She just shakes it off. See if you

guess what song it is. Rating:

The Hunger Pains

By The Harvard Lampoon

Critic: Triple

I love parodies and you

should too! If The Hunger

Games was a pane of glass,

The Hunger Pains would be

that same mirror, but com-

pletely shattered. (In a good

way.) This story is so hilari-

ous. I’d best not tell you everything about it.

However, to appreciate this parody the most, I

recommend you read the real Hunger Games first.

Rating:

The Lazarus Effect

Movie Rated PG-13

Critic: Sunshine

The Lazarus Effect is a painfully

predictable “scary” movie. It

relies more on suspense and

buildup than jumpscares, and

the ending is unsatisfying. But

if by any chance you feel like

watching it, I’ll tell you the plot. Five unorganized

scientists have been working on a syrum to revive

the dead. They revive a dog, but something is off.

A large company takes over the lab, but they go in

at night for one last proving experiment. One of

the women is electrocuted to death and her hus-

band, also one of the scientists, is set on reviving

her. I’m sure you can guess what happens to the

kind one, the redhead girl behind the camera, the

slacker, and the man who brought his wife back to

life. Rating:

Rules

By Cynthia Lord

Critic: Bath and Body Works

This book is good. It’s very

hard already having a

brother with autism but

dating a person who

cannot communicate is

ruining Catherine’s

relationship with Kristi...but Catherine is not going

to let Rian bully her brother and Kristi be mean to

her boyfriend. Rating:

Run 3

Flash Game

Critic: Triple

It’s no secret that many people love flash games.

Run 3 is one of the most addictive, fun flash

games of all time. You can’t stop running and

have to navigate obstacle courses. This game

keeps you hooked through acheivements and un-

lockables. Please, if you play flash games, play

this. Rating:

Wattpad.com

website

Critic: Jinx

Wattpad is an amazing website and all authors

(12+) should totally get an account. This website

has full copyright protection, so nobody can steal

your book without getting punished. Basically,

you can share your stories with everybody. The

stats show how many people have read it, and

who has followed you. Followers get updates

when your favorite stories have been updated

(because you write one chapter at a time.) The

best part? It’s completely free. Rating:

Hocus Pocus

Movie Rated PG

Critic: Hannah Epstein

This movie is a scary, thrilling,

action packed, mystery movie.

When a boy is turned into a cat

because of his sister who is

killed by three witches, a whole

mystery story unravels. When a

boy lights the black candle, three witches appear.

The boy, his sister, and his girlfriend are fighting

the three witches. The boy who turned into a cat

helps them. Will they defeat the witches? Watch

this movie to find out! Rating:

Harry Potter and the

Prisoner of Azkaban

By J. K. Rowling

Critic: Book Dolphin

This book is the 3rd of the

Harry Potter series. You

shouldn’t need any convinc-

ing to read this book be-

cause you should already

have been hooked from the first word of the first

book. Harry goes on another adventure, this one

about catching the criminal Sirius Black. Sirius

seems like the worst criminal ever, but he turns

out way different. Read the book. This book is

my favorite Harry Potter. I have read it 7 times.

You must read it. Rating:

One Tree Hill

TV Show (Netflix)

Critic: KK Panda

One Tree Hill was a

TV show from 2003 -

2012. It is currently available on Netflix. It is

about a group of friends that go through high

school to parenthood together. This show has

LOTS of DRAMA. It is about friendship, loyalty,

and trust. One Tree Hill is an amazing TV show.

Rating:

The Blackthorn Key

By Kevin Sands

Critic: Mama Newt

This book was amazing! It had

action, adventure, and

explosions. LOOOOTS of

explosions. And twists,

relatable characters, and a

taste of comedy. Not to

mention puzzles, mysteries, and—well, you get

the idea—it is awesome! Young Christopher is an

apprentice to an apothecary named Benedict

Blackthorn. But then a huge mystery falls into his

and his best friend Tom’s hands. Well, Chris-

topher’s hands, it’s closer to Toms’ waist. He’s tall.

Anyway, if you want to know who gets

murdered—oops...Well, if you want to know, read.

And if you don’t, read! Rating:

Wild Magic (The

Immortals Quartet #1)

By Tamora Pierce

Critic: Me, Myself and I

I love this book like spicy

sweet Doritos. And that is

saying a lot. (Sometimes I

think of books as food :P) My

fellow critic Jinx (who’s awesome, read her re-

views!!) introduced me to this series. I love this

book so much!! Okay, you guys probably want to

know what it’s about now...Tamora Pierce (who is

absolutely fantabulous) mixed fantasy and action

and so much more. I personally feel this book is

really good, and it has a strong female character

(go girl power! but it’s great for everyone). Daine,

the main character, had lost her family and her

horse Cloud is her only friend now. Throughout

the whole book, she slowly discovers a special

power that she has called Wild Magic, and a mage

Numair, becomes her teacher and also one of her

closest friends. Read this book and join Daine on

her dramatic adventures! Rating:

Flipped

By Wendelin Van Draanen

Critic: Sunshine

This modern fiction novel,

great for middle school and

high school students has

an...interesting storyline.

Bryce moved in across the

street from Juli in second

grade, and she has been in LOVE with him since.

But between chickens and punk siblings, things

take a turn for the...worst? Although Flipped is not

to my particular literary taste, I would highly rec-

ommend it to someone with a better one.

Rating:

Magnus Chase and the

Gods of Asgard 1: The

Sword of Summer

By Rick Riordan

Critic: Triple

It’s not normal to start off a

book when the main character

dies, but in this book when the

main character Magnus Chase

dies, he wakes up in Valhalla as an einherjar, a

warrior to fight at Ragnorok (Norse Stuff). Long

story short, Magnus escapes Valhalla with his

dwarf and elf friends to retrieve a special sword

that talks. I can’t explain how good this book is.

All I can tell you is that if you liked the Percy Jack-

son books, you will love this book. You might

even like it better than the Percy Jackson books.

Just go and read it already!! Rating:

Goosebumps Movie

Movie Rated PG

Critic: Hannah Epstein

This movie is AWESOME

because of its mystery, and I

love mystery. It is about a

bunch of monsters trying to

kill R.L. Stine. All of his books

are being destroyed. He has

to write a book to capture all of the monsters.

Only R.L. Stine’s daughter is from one of his books

and she is a monster too. Will she be sucked up

along with all the other monsters? Watch the

movie to find out! Rating:

The Six

By Mark Alpert

Critic: Jinx

Sooooooo good! Before you

judge the very boring name,

read this review. Adam is go-

ing to die. So his dad makes

machines that contain copies

of human brains. Unfortunate-

ly, making the copy kills them.

The book follows Adam’s transformation. The

part where he becomes part machine is my favor-

ite part. READ READ! Rating:

The Tale of Emily

Windsnap

By Liz Kessler

Critic: Bath and Body Works

What’s happening to me?

Why am I a mermaid?

Imagine yourself just

swimming perfectly and then

you turn into a mermaid.

How would you feel? Well that might just be how

Emily Windsnap feels. To find out get the book.

Rating:

Peeled

By Joan Bauer

Critic: Hugs4theworld

This book is a book about Hidly

Biddle - whose name pretty much

describes this whole book.

Dumb...ok maybe I’m being a

little harsh. It’s pretty predictable

and kind of easy to know what’s

going to happen next. This story is about her

town, her school newspaper The Core, and the

competing paper The Bee. There’s a haunted

house on the block which is scaring every-

one...even though nobody has actual proof of a

ghost…. Overall, this book was not my

favorite...which is pretty hard...have you seen my

critic name!?! Rating:

I am Number Four

By Pittacus Lore

Critic: KK Panda

9 Garde. 9 Cepan. They came

to earth to protect the people

from Magadorians. Number 1,

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 1 and 2 and

3 die. Number 4 is next. Read

it. Rating:

Dread Locks

By Neal Shusterman

Critic: Hannah Epstein

When a girl is found sleeping in

Parker’s bedroom, he is getting

suspicious. Tara is part Goldilocks

and part Medusa. When boys

look into her eyes slowly they turn

to stone. Parker notices something happening

when his sister starts to turn to stone after her

brother Parker puts his foot down. He goes to

Tara. Tara then suddenly says that Parker can be

just like her. After a while Parker agrees. Now

there are two Medusas going around town.

Parker is annoyed with this power. What will

happen? Will Parker stand up to Tara or will Tara

control him forever? Read this book. Rating:

The Undertakers: Rise

of the Corpses

By Ty Drago

Critic: Hannah Epstein

This book is an action packed

mystery book. There are

corpses and seers. The seers

are humans who can see

corpses, which are dead

people. A bunch of kids are trying to fight them.

Two died. The boy who is dead was taken by a

corpse. Now that he is controlled by a corpse,

everybody is trying to save him, but not trying to

hurt the boy. The leader says no to fighting the

corpse. What will happen? Will they fight back?

Read to find out. Rating:

45 Pounds (More or Less)

By K.A. Barson

Critic: Jinx

Imagine being so overweight

that you are 16 and size 17.

Almost nothing fits, and you

are afraid to exercise for fear

of people laughing. Welcome

to the life of Ann. On top of

that, she can’t stop eating.

When she’s hungry...she eats.

When she’s stuffed...she eats. This book is mostly

about her going on a full of chemicals diet plan,

and how she gets thinner...on her own. Lots of

dilemmas, cute boys, friend problems, and little

sister troubles. Please read!!! Rating:

The False Prince

By Jennifer Nielsen

Critic: Book Dolphin

Do you like fast paced books

about the royal family, espe-

cially when the whole royal

family has died and a person is

trying to replace the prince?

Sage is an orphan who is adopted by Conner, a

person who is training boys to replace Prince

Jaron. Unfortunately, the boys who won’t become

prince will be killed. Sage might look like Jaron,

but his personality is so unlike him. Will he sur-

vive? Read to find out! Rating:

Life as We Knew It

By Susan Beth Pfeffer

Critic: The Book Lover

This was a sad, somber book.

However, from beginning to

end and from cover to cover it

was very interesting. Miranda

and her family enter a crisis

when an asteroid hits the

moon and everything changes. The climate takes

a turn for the worse and there is no food, supplies,

or anything. To find out what happens, read Life

as We Knew It. Rating:

Legend

By Marie Lu

Critic: Me, Myself and I

Legend is one of those dystopi-

an books like The Hunger

Games and Divergent, but it

has differences. (OMG this

sounds like a compare and

contrast paragraph) Anyway,

Legend is an awesome book. I think it’s for

everyone. It’s suspenseful, and action packed and

also a little bit romantic. It’s about a prodigy and

the most wanted criminal in the Republic. I’ll

leave it at that. Legend is absolutely legendary.

Rating:

Civil War

By Mark Millar

Critic: Legolas

This comic is one of the only

comics I was willing to read. IT

WAS WORTH IT. This heartfelt

book shows a touching clash

of beliefs between Captain America and Iron Man.

It represents many common problems that we

have in our everyday lives. What are you waiting

for? READ. Rating:

Kung Fury

Movie Rated PG-13

Critic: Triple

Just don’t even bother.

Rating:

Miss Peregrine’s

Home for Peculiar

Children

By Ransom Riggs

Critic: Jinx

This book is about people

with magical powers. It’s

very strange. It’s also pretty

boring. Jacob, an ordinary boy, found a time loop

with peculiars, people with powers, and he goes

on an “epic” [did I mention this book was TERRI-

BLE] journey to save people. The ymbrens are

people who can time travel and they can help the

peculiars by locking them into time loops to

protect them against monsters. That’s all.

Rating:

Supernatural

TV Show on CW

Critic: Sunshine

Sam and Dean Winchester, Monster Hunters since

childhood, venture forth into adulthood, solitude,

and the real world. They pass demons, sea mon-

sters, angels, wendiogs and more. Dean, the care-

free brother, is only interested in buying more

fake IDs and impressing ladies. On the contrary,

Sam was pulled from a seemingly normal life and

wants to find his recently missing father. The two

find friends and enemies over time, their ultimate

goals changing constantly. See it now for

suspense, drama, and jumpscares! Rating:

Weeping Under the

Same Moon

By Jana Laiz

Critic: Hannah Epstein

This is an excellent book. It is

sad, but action packed. It is

about a refugee named Mei.

She goes through a bunch of

hard times. A girl named Han-

nah really wants to help Mei. Mei is scared. Will

Mei and Hannah become friends? Read to find

out! Rating:

Super Mario

Maker

Video Game

Critic: Triple

Now you can finally make your own Mario levels

(I’m a Nintendo fanboy)! This game is great be-

cause now your imagination is the limit! You can

also play levels online from other users. The fact

that you can’t search for specific levels is a bit face

palm worthy, but I think it’s worth it. Rating:

How They Croaked:

The Awful Ends of the

Awfully Famous

By Georgia Bragg

Critic: Hugs4theworld

If you do not like guts and

gory this book is not for you.

This book is about all the

deaths of 19 famous people

from King Tut to Marie Curie to Pocahantas. This

book is a very fun read and I r8 it 8 out of 8 m8.

Rating:

Water

By Tamora Pierce

Critic: Book Dolphin

Do you like books by Tamora

Pierce? Well, you will probably

like this book. I personally think

Tamora Pierce is an ok writer.

This book is about four children

who have magic powers, and get

brought together at the Winding Circle of Magic

Temple. The book wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the

best. Rating:

Hugs4theworld

Love everyone, hug everyone. When

being a human is too hard...time to be a

unicorn.

Jinx

I am Jinxed. I have the worst luck ever. Literally. Except

for finding this club, and my awesome friends. Oh, and I

LOVE peanut butter and cheesecake. And brussel sprouts.

And books. And…..well, you get the point.

9

Hannah Epstein

I love hockey.

I love the

Islanders!

Let’s Go NYI!

Legolas

If you think I’m

perfect...I am!

I love books, but I

am not a book

worm. I am a book

dolphin.

Book Dolphin

Bath and Body Works

Loves to go shopping.

Sunshine

Yes, the

name is

ironic. Mama Newt

Never. Stop. Running.

Or... Reading!! Books =

life, Maze Runner =

soul, fandoms = spirit.

Triple

I’m Triple, the video-game

playing, bad pun-making guy

who spends most of

his time well…

playing video

games and

making bad

puns. I also

like drawing smiley faces

KK Panda

I love pandas and

penguins. My

favorite kind of

book is fantasy.

I am Sam. Sam I

am. JK my name’s

not Sam. I am

Myself not Yourself

because that just doesn’t

make sense. Anyway, I am just one

of the billions of people on

this earth. Yup.

Me, Myself and I

Meet the Critics