Goal! The Dream Begins by Robert Rigby

Goal! The Dream Begins by Robert Rigby

Impression: I think this book was amusing. I really liked every single part of this book. One of the reason I really liked this book is because it can teach me a life lesson. This book taught me one lesson; never give up on my dreams no matter what. I hope when you read this book you think the same.

Recommend: I would definitely recommend this book. I recommend this book to people that like soccer, and to people that know how hard it is to accomplish a dream. This book inspires people to try to achieve their goals; anyone who reads this book will not be disappointed with it.

Favorite part: In the book Goal! The Dream Begins by Robert Rigby, my favorite part of the story is when Santiago’s grandmother, Mercedes, gives Santiago his tickets to fly to London. In the book, it said that Santiago was an illegal immigrant, because of this Mercedes gave Santiago three tickets; one train ticket to go to San Diego from Los Angeles, second ticket was a bus ticket to Mexico City so he could fly to London legally, and the third a plane ticket to London. From this point on is where Santiago’s dream begins and he will do anything to achieve it, no matter how arduous it is.

Favorite character: In the book Goal! The Dream Begins by Robert Rigby, my favorite character was the main character, Santiago Munez. In the book, I read Santiago went through a lot of difficult situations that put in danger his dream of becoming a professional soccer player, after everything that occurred to Santiago, he never gave up, he followed his heart, he knew exactly where he was supposed to be, it’s green and it has goalposts at each end. This character’s personality shows determination; this is one of the main reasons why Santiago Munez is my favorite characters and one of my idols.

Summary: Santiago, a young Mexican American, has always been a soccer freak; his father believes that Santiago should take over the successful family landscaping business, but Santiago knows what he wants to do. Santiago will fight to the end until his dream comes true, this becomes much more easier when a Scottish scout, Glen, gets Santiago a trail with Newcastle United, will he be able to make his dream come true?

Written by: Alejandro P. an 8th grader at Secaucus Middle School

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

The book "The Knife of Never Letting Go" is the first book of "Chaos Walking". It is a Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction for young adult. It is written by Patrick Ness and it has 496 pages.

Prenisstown is one of the settlements in the New World. Every man in this world can hear each other's Noise, which is the men's thoughts. It is impossible for men to have secrets in the town. Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown who will become a man in a month. He and his dog Manchee finds an area of complete silence when they were have a walk. They find out that there is a secret in the town that everyone was trying to hide from Todd. And Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.

Favorite Parts:

Todd fled with a girl named Viola Eade whom he met at the beginning of the journey. In the middle of the story Todd and Viola fled to another settlement in the New World and met Ben, one of Todd's adoptive parents. Ben, who was always trying to protect his son and has been looking for Todd ever since he fled Prentisstown. Ben told Todd he would sacrifice himself to give them more time to run and Todd was very sad about that. But Todd and Viola continued. While they were running away, Viola heard sadness in Todd's Noise.

Favorite Quotes:

She steps up close to me. "Do you think you're the only person who's lost someone?" she says in a dangerous whisper, “Do you forget that my parents are dead, too?"

........

“All I’ve got now is you," she says, her voice still angry. "And all you've got now is me. And I'm mad Ben left, too, and I'm mad my parents died and I'm mad we ever thought of coming to this planet in the first place but that's how it is and it sucks that it's just us but we can't do anything about it."

........

Her voice softens but only a little. “Ben’s gone and Manchee's gone and my mother and father are gone," she says. "And I hate all of that. I hate it .But we're almost at the end of the road. We're almost there. And if you don't give up, I don' give up."

I love this part because it is very moving and I can feel Todd and Viola grow up once they are losing someone who loves them. They stay stronger and it makes them have more courage to face the problems they meet.

Recommend: I recommend this book to anyone who likes science fiction or adventure stories. If you love a story that is about finding the truth while running for your lives, then this book will be a good choice.

Written by Yue H., grade 8 (Secaucus Middle School student)