"Curveball, The Year I Lost My Grip" by Jordan Sonnenblick

What I must say about this book so far is..
Pete. What a mess he's gotten himself into, what with dealing with his newly-found baseball injury. I think that he thinks too much about what could go wrong in his life instead of what could go right. Like with his partner in photography class, Angelika. When Peter thinks about what his possible future could be like with her, all he seems to think about is what a total "moron" he is, and how this could just completely rip his life to shreds.
 Then, with his best friend, AJ, Pete never told him about the fact that he actually can't ever play any kind of sport again. But of course, telling AJ the truth could ruin their friendship, and Pete wouldn't be able to bear it. After all, he already bawled his eyes out right in front of Angelika, just from holding a baseball.
 So overall, I;ve noticed that Peter is extremely self-concious about all of his features, both physical and personality-wise. Coming up in the book, I would predict that something happens with his grandfather, who he cares a lot for. I think that this could bring out a different quality in Peter, or he could tell the truth to everybody, which would bring out a different quality as well. Either way, I know that something strange is going on with his grandfather, mainly because of Pete freaking out over it. Now, he may not seem like the most positive person in the world, but when he does over-think the negative, he doesn't exaggerate.

"Flyte" by Angie Sage

Now that Septimus and Nicko Heap, Jenna's brothers, have found her, they are trying to get out of the grasp of any darke magyk, which might lead Simon back to Jenna, which they can't have. After all, Midsummer day is just around the corner, and that means that Jenna must go to see the dragon boat out in Marram Marches, just like all of the queens and princesses had done in the past, in order to keep the dragon boat's magyk strong, and to keep the dragon's soul company. But, this can not happen if Simon has Jenna captive, with his evil powers, and the skull of the necromancer, named DomDaniel, who was originally out to kill Jenna in the first place.

Jenna, queenling of the castle, was kidnapped for a short amount of time by her own brother, Simon Heap. Now just imagine not being able to trust your own close family member, and imagine him or her taking you away to a dark and mysterious place, where you feel like everything is watching your every move, waiting for the perfect moment to attack.

Essay on "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick

Jordan Sonnenblick's ,"Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie", tells the story of an 8th grader named Steven Alper facing the average challenges of an average boy in middle school. Life is liveable until he learns about his 5-year-old brother, Jeffrey's, cancer. Knowing that he has to cope with the fact that Jeffrey could possibly die is too much to deal with, especially with the world of middle school dragging him down, along with his own insecurities, while he hopelessly tries to graduate from 8th grade. Though, by the end of the book, we see how much Steven has grown and matured through the personal sacrifices he made over the course of the story.

Because of his cancer, Jeffrey lost his whole head of hair. Sensing Jeffrey's new-found self-conciousness because of this, Steven shaved his head, all in support for his brother. This event showed how Syeven was becoming a more caring person, especially for Jeffrey. Also, Steven matured even more because, when he went to school, he didn't care about anyone's reactions to his new head, which meant that he was losing his self-conciousness. Instead, he only cared about whether Jeffrey still felt alone and unhappy. All of this showed how Steven had greatly matured, because, in the beginning, he wouldn't ever have thought about doing anything at all for this "annoying little brother" of his.

Try to imagine having to quit something you absolutely adore. That's what Steven had to go through when he figured out that his family's money was going down the drain he wanted the best for his brother's sickness, so he thought that one way to help with that was to quit his drum lessons, which were costing a lot of money for his family. It was thrilling that his teacher was willing to keep teaching him, even without the money, Steven being the teacher's "best student". Still, when Steven gave up his passion for his family's sake, it showed a lot of growth in his attitude.

Lastly, Steven showed his maturity greatly at his school's concert. He was going to have a drum solo, and be the star of the show, but he left it all-just because Jeffrey was getting a fever. Steven knew how bad Jeffrey's illness could get, and it was then that he remembered what Samantha, a patient from Jeffrey's hospital, had told him. She said that Steven had to be there for Jeffrey, that he had to stay by his side no matter what, because her own sister never came to visit her, even when she died. So, when Steven walked away from his big concert, it showed how much he cared for his brother, and how much he matured since the beginning of the book.

In the start of the story, Steven Alper was a selfish, self-concious 8th grade boy who couldn't care less about what happened to his 5-year-old brother, Jeffrey. But, in the end of the story, Steven had turned into a caring and mature person, who would do anything to help Jeffrey conquer his disease, even when the troubling events of 8th grade brought him down.