Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz***** 408 pages

Crocodile Tears, by Anthony Horowitz, starts when Alex Rider is spending New Year’s with his friend Sabina Pleasure. He goes to a party hosted by Desmond McCain, the founder of First Aid. As they drive home, a sniper shoots their car and sends them flying into a loch. Alex knows something is seriously wrong when MI6 requests him for yet another dangerous mission. There is this genetic altering facility that experiments on plants. Alex then finds out that First Aid is setting up disasters and makes boatloads of money by getting to the scene first. His mission is to infiltrate the genetic plant and figure out what evil disaster First Aid is setting up next. Desmond McCain’s plan is to release a poison on the wheat in Africa, made by this facility. Many will die. Alex just makes it out of this hazardous facility alive only to be captured by McCain and flown to Kenya. He releases the poison, and it is activated on one field that will spread. Alex is left to die hanging over crocodiles when a spy from India saves him. He is injured, and Alex is left to stop the poison with a bomb and native guards chasing him. How will Alex save Kenya? Will he even survive himself? Is he going to stop Desmond McCain once and for all? Read and find out.

Rating Erik P.
***** Period 7

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins ***390 pages

Mockingjay, by Susanne Collins the third in the epic series of the Hunger Games, comes to a screeching halt of disappointment. Throughout the book, characters get distorted and their personalities change. It all starts when the Capital firebombs District 12. Many die because district 12 distributes coal which is very flammable. The remaining survivors travel to the elusive District 13, which was not even existent after the Capitol bombed them. Now they have built an underground community that is safe and unknown about in the Capitol. One thing is missing. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol in the breakout and is being tortured to break Katniss. In thirteen, they want to form a rebellion, with Katniss as the Mockingjay to be their figurehead. She gets cool weapons and an awesome battle suit. She performs a lot of propos to show that she is alive and well. The only bad thing is that Peeta and some of the other tributes are still in the capitol. They get them out but it was a very risky plan. Peeta is delusional and messed up because of the hijacking the capitol did to him. The Capitol is starting a war and the Mockingjay has to do something. A group of soldiers including Katniss, Gale, Boggs, Finnick, Peeta who has somewhat recovered, and some other people get sent to assassinate President Snow. Then they realize something. The Capitol’s streets are set up with traps called pods. This is the Games. You could step forward to release a spray of bullets, or a barbwire net that kills you either way. They finally reach Snow’s mansion where many Capitol kids were huddled. A hovercraft appeared and dropped care packages attached to parachutes for the kids. That’s when they get blown to bits by the bombs in the care packages. Everybody comes rushing to help, but then the next set of bombs goes off killing more people. This is Gale’s design of a weapon. He has become a coldhearted soldier. Katniss becomes calculating and heartless. Peeta becomes deranged. Will any of them make it by the time Katniss gets to Snow’s mansion? Will Katniss even make it to kill him? This is the Games and it is real for everybody. There are only two options. Kill, or die.

Rating Erik P.
*** Period 7