Kasuyama

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

“Even though the subject matters are a little bit risky I think it’s an easy read in some ways, its highly readable, but the content is so deep and it resonates with kids in so many different ways. The way you would read it and respond to it might be different than the way someone else responds to it. I really like that one.”

2.  A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab

“It’s really interesting and creative about these different Londons, and it centers around this young man named Kell but they don’t even know if that’s his real name, he’s an orphan, and sort of how he travels through these different dimensional Londons and he’s one of the only people who can, it’s a special skill and they’re very rare, but it’s very exciting. I love those books.”

3.  Edinburgh Twilight by Carole Lawrence

“The city of Edinburgh in Scotland. It takes place during the Victorian times in Edinburgh and it’s centered on a detective because there is a series of murders that are happening in Edinburgh. He’s not the most interesting character, the murderer is pretty cool, the main character’s aunt is really cool and there is a street kid who’s about 12 and he plays a big role in the story. You get a feel for it, you get a feel for the time, the mystery is pretty good, they’re funny. I loved it. I think it’s an interesting read.

Viera

1. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

“The book was written in French and translated to English. It’s about a man who can’t use his arms or legs and he can’t communicate with people so he tells his story by blinking. That’s how he wrote the book, that’s why it’s not a long book but it’s a very beautiful book about life and what it’s like to live in the way he’s living but also his love of life.”

2. Feed by M. T. Anderson

“I love it mostly because it seems so smart about the future and you could imagine that this is exactly where we’re going, where people don’t have cell phones. Actually some of the future in there has already come true because you know the person will have a feed going on to their brain. So it’s like their cell phone but it’s attached to them and if they’re thinking about something like “I like those shoes” then all of the sudden it will pop in their mind “you can get those shoes for $40.99 at JCPenny”. So just like your phone with Facebook and they’re giving you ads that are just for you because you’ve said something about those things, that’s what happens in here [the book]. There’s also the thing where they get lesions, like a cut, because it’s the trendy style. I love the first line of the book and that’s why I read it in the first place. It’s science fiction but it does have a love story. This is my cup of tea even though it’s written for teenagers.”

Grady

1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

“It’s a futuristic novel where you go into this dystopian future but this one is about how our society no longer reads books. In fact they’re not even allowed to, it’s against the law to read books. It’s an interesting concept, so what happens when that is the case, and in conjunction with that since books are outlawed and there’s been such progress made in like buildings that firemen are no longer needed because the homes that they live in no longer will catch fire. So firemen are no longer needed but because since firemen is still a profession, now the firemen instead of putting out the fires, they actually go to homes where they find books and burn the books. That whole scenario plays out and it leads to like what happens to society when we lost that ability to read and how the government can easily do that to us and we. They also believed that reading books makes us unhappy because we read stories where we fantasize like “oh I would love to be that character” and it makes us unhappy because we’re not that character. In reality teaches us so much, it teaches us empathy, the human condition, all those kinds of things.”

2. Animal Farm by George Orwell

“It’s like this little fantasy about how the animals on the farm live at the beck and call and do everything that the farmer wants them to do. Then one day the animals decided to revolt, and they create a revolution and they take over the farm themselves. They create this utopia where all animals are equal but then they soon find out that the pigs start creating a hierarchy and they start changing rules. They do things to make the outside world views see them as being more powerful than what they are. Things that happen in history is matched by this story, it’s really interesting.”

3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

“This for me was quite powerful. It’s about living in Afghanistan and what it meant to be a women and having to deal with being a muslim women during that time period.”