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This book is set in World War Two. It depicts the heart-wrenching truths of War and friendship. Having read the book twice, I know it well. It tells the story from the point of view of a young, nine-year old boy, Bruno, the son of a German solider who is very high up in the army and therefor has been granted certain powers by Hitler. Bruno lived in a lovely, gigantic house, and he had three friends and a happy life in Berlin with his mum, dad and sister...having a great life where they were. Grandmother and Grandfather would come over every Christmas to celebrate. Grandmother, Bruno, and his sister, Gretal, would put on plays, and Grandmother always said brother would make a great actor when he grew up, but Bruno always aspired to be an explorer....

Bruno is having a happy life...until, that is, his father gets a new job...as Commandant of a concentration camp, although Bruno has no idea what this is. They have to move house, and the camp in just miles from where they live in a large house that has very little to explore. He is blissfully unaware of the fact that his father is head of the most notoriously feared work camps in the world, Auschwitz (Bruno thinks it's call 'Outwith,' and has no idea what goes on in there...thinking it is just a farm).

Bruno is sadened greatly to have left his friends in Berlin, and they no longer live anywhere near his grandparents. He has to make his own fun. Bruno does this at the start by reading adventure books, but soon, he gets increasingly bored, and goes on a little investigating of his own. He has a tire swing made for him by Pavel, on of the workers in the camp. Bruno is very quizzing about it...asking questions like, "Are there animals on the farm." Bruno's mother, who is furious when she hears that Bruno has been talking to the Jew, is thankful later to Pavel when he bandages Bruno's leg after falling off his swing.

Bruno finds it even harder still to make friends when he starts being homeschooled. A tutor, Heir List, comes to the house, to teach he and his sister, about what is happening in the war. Gretal immediately become intriged by what she learns, and disgards all her childish doll, favouring to put up war commersial posters up in her room, depicting that she is being sucked in by the lies of the German race who just want a perfect, Jewless, Aryan race.

Bruno finds it more interesting around the back of the house, where he can slip through the window of the shed and out into the forest and make the long journey to the camp. He walks along the fence of the camp, in search of something of interest...and he finds it...in the form of a jewish lad around the same age as him, Shamuel. Shamuel is like no child brother has ever seen. His head has been shaven, like everyone else on the 'farm'...along with a dirty pair of stripped pyjamas. Shamuel and Bruno talk almost every day, and as they become friends, Bruno become a more giving young lad. He brings the starving young Jewish boy food almost every time they meet...whenever he can smuggle it. Bruno and Shamuel find comfort in knowing they are true friends by holding hands through the barbed wire fence...


Bruno's mother, meanwhile, discovers what actually happens in the camps...she had not realised before that the Jews are not just made to work in the camp...she learns that they never come out of the camp alive. She learns this when she smells a horrible smell off the smoke coming from the camp, and one of the guards informs her by accident what happens. She, hysterically, tells he husband she does not agree, and that she wants to go back to Berlin... but Bruno's grandmother has been killed long before this in a bombing in Berlin, so it can be said that they can't go back to live there...so where can they go...
And Bruno doesn't want to leave Shamuel, especially when Shamuels dad goes missing...

Bruno wants to help his new best friend to find his dad, so they make a plan. Shamuel smuggles a pair of stripped pyjamas out to Bruno, as well as a hat to hide his hair. Bruno puts them on, and then digs under the fence to help Shamuel try to find his dad. What he sees in the camp is far from a farm...and far from the nice place his dad told him it was. He is terrified by how the people in it looks, and how they are made to work and live in such cramped and unsanitary conditions. He eventually wants to go back home, but remembers his promise to Shamuel to help find his dad, so he stays, though he is more scared than ever. Bruno and Shamuel end up getting caught up in a crowd of Jews...who think they are heading for a shower...but their fate does not involve cleanliness...

The Jews, and Bruno, are all lead right to the gas chamber, stripped of there pyjamas, and gased...Bruno and Shamuel die holding each other hand. Bruno's father later realises what has happened when he realises Bruno is missing and goes out looking for him. All he finds are his sons cloths...lying beside a hole dug under barbed wire fencing...and the smell of burning flesh in the air...

This book illustrates the sad, horrific truth of what truely was the Holocost...and that nothing like tht will ever happen again (Hopefully) not in this day and age.

Clay Jensen was just a typical guy going through high school and trying to figure his life out. That was, until the girl that he had a crush on, Hannah Baker, killed herself by over dosing on pills a few days previously. Though saddened by the loss of Hannah, he knows that he will have to move on with his life. Things don't manage to go as he'd like though because a few days later, Clay receives an unmarked package mysteriously. A bit curious as to what could be inside, he decides that he is willing to look and see. Inside the box, there are seven cassette tapes total and each but the last is two sided (giving a total of 13 sides), all labeled and placed in the proper number order. Curious as to what could be on the tapes, he decides to go ahead and listen to them.

Clay gets a shock to hear Hannah's voice coming out of his old boom box, followed by an every greater knowledge that Hannah had certainly planned her own suicide well. As she explains, each person to receive the tapes has a whole side dedicated to them. These aren't sweet dedications either, these are each person who has played a part in Hannah's decision to take her own life. From the introduction Hannah makes it clear that the person 13th on the list is the one she holds most responsible for her death and even goes so far as to wish them burning in Hell.

Although she is dead, Hannah has set up arrangements to get the tapes passed on from one person to the next until the 13th person ends up with the box of tapes. The tapes are to travel down the list from the first person to the last, with each person rewinding the tapes after they listened to them all and delivering them to the next person on the list. To ensure that this would happen, she has given another person a set of back up tapes. If the tapes do not travel down the line then the other person is to distribute the copies to everyone, which no one on the tapes would want to happen.

At first, Clay tries to deny that he could even be on the list but Hannah quickly turns that around when she reveals that each person on the list should have previously gotten a map to go along with the tapes, which was exactly what Clay had gotten a few weeks ago before Hannah died. Terrified to know what part that Clay has played in the death of the girl he was interested in, Clay begins to listen to the tapes. His eyes are opened to many situations that happened right under his nose without his knowledge as well as the nature of some of his classmates. He starts to see each of his actions as tipping points for other people while listening to the story of how Hannah's life snowballed out of her control and the thirteen reasons why she decided to end it.

The book is told from two narrators; Hannah, as she narrates the tapes, and Clay, as he listens to the tapes. Usually there isn't a whole lot of intermingling between the narratives but it is always plain to see where Hannah is talking and where Clay is listening. This book is an amazing piece of literature and I adored it. Yes, it did make me cry because it is a really emotional book. It tells a sad tale of what drives someone over the edge and shows how deeply our actions can affect other people. I recommend that everyone should read it at least once because it will open your eyes to even the smallest things that you do and make you think about those people in your life that you directly affect each day.

Born in Sin - Kinley McGregor

The book is about a man named Sin McAllister who is born around the time of the war between Scotland and England. He is half English, and half Scottish. Not accepted in either England or Scotland. He is raised for the first 7 years of his life by his father and his fathers wife, both of which hate him. His father for Sin being a constant reminder of what he had done ... his step mother, for being a constant reminder of her husbands unfaithfulness.

At the age of 7, Sin is given to the King of England, King Stephan, as a war hostage. When King Henry comes into power, Henry lets all the hostages go as a peace offering. Though Sin's father does not want him back, in fact does not even refer to him as his son at all.

King Henry, not knowing what to do with the boy, gives him to the Earl of Ravenswood, where he is abused and neglected. At the age of 14, the Earl of Ravenswood was robbed and had sold Sin to Saracens in exchange for money for passage home. Sin was enslaved to the Saracens.

This is all before the book even starts.

The book opens up to Sin, with his desert blistered skin, about to assassinate a man of power, sent by his Saracen masters with the promise of a bed and a nice meal. Sin, as he's about to assassinate the rich man, realizes that, live or die, this is his only way to freedom. He puts the blade against King Henry's throat, and demands his freedom. Henry grants him his freedom, in exchange for his own life, as well as Sins undying loyalty to the day he dies.

12 years later, King Henry is in need to stop the scotts from raiding his bordering villages. And needs to send Sin to Scotland. To do this, Henry demands Sin marry a Scotswoman. Sin, having refused to ever step foot in Scotland ever again, nor marry, refuses. King Henry asks him "As a friend, I ask you to marry the Scotswoman" Sin eventually caves saying "If you can find a priest to sanction it, then I will marry the Scotswoman." knowing full well that Henry will not find one as Sin had been very publicly denounced from every church in England, being known as the devils left hand.

Henry though, much to Sin's dismay, had found one. Sin is to go to Scotland to find the raider .... but on the way winds up falling in love with his wife. His problem, is the raider is his wife's brother. He now has a choice .... betray his best friend, the man who had given him back his life .... or his wife who had given him back his heart.

Kinley McGregor, having lived with 4 brothers her whole life, knows how a woman should handle men ... this book is witty, charming, and very well written. It shows that it doesn't matter your past ... no matter what you've done ... no matter who you are .... there is always some one out there that is willing to risk their life for you ...

Divergent by Veronica Roth
Divergent is a very weird science fiction book. It is very well written though. The story takes place after a war, which it am assuming is world war three. It also takes place in Chicago. Divergent is about a faction filled society. The faction system was created to keep the peace. There are five factions. The five factions are: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite. There is a test you are supposed to take to determine your faction, but there is also choosing day. The test is a test of fear, and everyone is told to trust the test. Choosing day is where you choose your faction, no matter what the results of the test were. There are three books in the trilogy. The books are: divergent, insurgent, and allegiant.

There are two main characters in my opinion and they are Tris or Beatrice Prior and Four or Tobias Eaton. Beatrice, Tris' given name, took the test with her brother, Caleb. Beatrice got what is called a divergent test result, meaning she fit more than one category or faction in the test. There is one other divergent character that I know of so far, because I have only read divergent. I just finished it the other day. I will not tell you the name of the other divergent, because it would spoil the first half of the story. Janine Matthews is trying to kill all the divergent people because she believes they are a threat to society. Janine Matthews is the president of all of the factions. She is kind of like the president of the United States, but in Chicago. She is very evil. She pretends to be nice though, so she will not hurt her reputation. She is always looking for a way to get rid of the divergence in everyone's systems. She even asks for Tris' help to hunt down divergent people, but that was before she knew that Tris was divergent.

On choosing day, Tris chooses Dauntless, even though her test results say Abnegation. Tori, the person who administered the test to Tris, manually changes it. It does not say why, but it is later revealed that Tori had a brother who was divergent, and I think she Is trying to help Tris to get back at the leaders for killing her brother, just because he was divergent. At the end of Tris' test, Tori tells Tris the results of her test. She then tells Tris not to tell anyone, or risk being killed. She tells Tris to tell everyone that she was sick and got sent home early.

I will not spoil the ending for you, or even tell you any more, because I think you should all read this book, if not the whole trilogy. I know I said earlier that Divergent is a weird book, it is a good kind of weird. I will tell you, I know the series does not have a happy ending, as I was told by some of my friends who spoil stuff. I can tell you that this particular book in the series has a good ending. It is not very happy, nor do the two divergents live happily ever after together, but the ending is still really good.