The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Nicholas Cage, Teresa Palmer, and Jay Baruchel

The Gist
In fourth grade, Dave Stutler’s class took a field trip to NYC.  He wasn’t really that interested in anything but passing a note to Becky Barnes.  And then, when she answers the note and tries to pass it back to him, it flies away.  Into a magic shop.  Where a creepy guy gives him a dragon ring, a different creepy guy is released from inside of a jar, the two creepy dudes have a huge fight, the shop catches on fire, and both creepy guys get sucked into a vase.  When Dave tries to show his class this, the shop is perfect, and he is told he imagined it all, and his hallucinations were caused by a chemical imbalance.  And life goes on.

10 years later, Dave is 20 years old and in college.  And the two creepy dudes are released from the vase.  Creepy number one, Balthazar Blake, tells Dave he is a magician and needs to fight the forces of evil.  Creepy number two, Maxim Horvath, is gathering lots of evil to take over the world.  Mix that with his college studies,  overall life, and the return of Becky Barnes, and it’s a recipe for trouble.


What We Think

Reviewed by Living Destiny

Run Time: 109 Minutes

Rating: PG

Yeah that was a really long gist.  Sorry.  But I think it’s all necessary.  Or maybe it only looks long because I’m reading it on a small screen…darn laptop with your tiny-ness…  Well anyway, last month I had a little party, and the four of us all went to see this movie.  And the only reason we saw this movie was because it was my party and I got to choose.  And they didn’t know what we were seeing, so they couldn’t really prevent it.  And I can admit I went into it expecting a goofy movie that was just sort of eh.  What I got was a pleasant surprise.  And I do so love pleasant surprises!

This movie was actually pretty good.  I’ve never read the book (although I plan to at some point), so I can look at it from a purely entertaining standpoint.  And I really enjoyed the movie.  This might, of course, be because I am slowly coming to love Jay Baruchel.  Maybe I just love awkward people, but I think he’s a really talented actor who can do something most people in Hollywood have a hard time doing: playing an awkward character.  Also, I’ve always thought Nicholas Cage is a skilled actor, despite the fact that he’s been in some very weird movies (like Knowing and G-Force).  So the acting was good.  The script was also good.  It was way funnier than I had imagined it, and I found myself laughing way more than I had in some other movies that I’d expected to be funnier (like The Bounty Hunter, for instance).  It encompassed a lot of emotions too, which I enjoyed.  It would swing from sweet to intense to exciting all within five minutes.  But it was all connected, so nothing was confusing or awkwardly out of place.  The special effects were amazing, but given that this movie is about magic, that’s expected and necessary at the same time.  What made the special effects even better was the fact that they didn’t carry the whole movie, because this movie actually has a plot.  The ending was great, and really the movie was a success.  It started out as just a joke, but I’m glad I went to see it!

Real Teen Rating~ B+ : Worth Watching!

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Christina Perri- Jar Of Hearts

Real Teen Award
-Best Single of 2010

Reviewed by The North Star

Song Time: 4 Minutes and 6 Seconds

Jar of Hearts
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There is something that you should know about my sister.  That is that she must own the top 10 songs on iTunes at all times.  When this song started to raise up the bar she bought it without even thinking whether or not it was a good song.  When I went to put some songs on my iPod I saw this in the purchased section and decided to give it a try.  From the second the song started I fell in love. If you watch So You Think You Can Dance you also might recognize this song as the dance that Billy performed with Kathryn in the beginning of the latest season. I have never heard a song by Christina Perri before but she can really sing!  She has a very unique voice that was kind of a refresher from today’s music which all sounds the same.

The song is about a girl who used to go out with this boy who the whole time was just using her.  Then one day he shows back up at her place asking her to take him back and she tells him that he can’t just go around breaking girls hearts and collecting them in a jar for his own purposes.  I love the message/ lyrics of this song.  Most songs are about people in love, people watching the one they love with someone else or someone breaking a person’s heart.  You almost never hear a song about a boy who has broken a girl’s heart come back and try to win her back.  I really appreciate the originality songwriters!  As for the lyrics they literally could be a poem if you printed them out and read them.  Fun Fact: My favorite line would have to be You’re gonna catch a cold, From the ice inside your soul. I’m not sure why but I just really like that line. (:

I really hope that Christina Perri comes out with a CD soon because based on this song I would listen to the whole thing over and over and over and over until my iPod lost its battery.  I seriously put this one song on repeat and listen to it for hours and hours on end and I never ever get tired of it! Every time I listen to it I find something new that I like about it and almost hear it a different way.  This is one of my favorite songs ever and definitely makes my top 10!  This is a must buy for everyone and if you don’t believe me just check it out on YouTube first!

Real Teen Rating~ A+: Look it up RIGHT NOWWWW!!!!

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Cabel's Story - Lisa McMann

The Gist

This is Wake, from Cabel’s perspective.

What We Think

Reviewed by Dream Catcher

Number of Pages: 13

I don’t own an eBook, but this little story was included in my copy of Wake, so I read it. It wasn’t very long, for one (probably fourteen, fifteen pages)but it was interesting to hear things from someone other than Janie. This wasn’t like some secret-revealing minibook. But it was a chance to see inside the mysterious mind of Cabel. It was refreshing and very different from Wake despite the same plot and characters.

Real Teen Rating~ B : Read it but there’s no rush.


Reviewed by Living Destiny

First of all, is an eBook like a Nook or a Kindle?  How many different versions of this portable not-a-book book thing can we possibly make?  Well whatever it is, I don’t own one.  But, like Dream, Cabel’s Story was in the back of my copy of Wake.  So I read it.  Duh.  I loved that McMann gave the reader a point of view other than Janie.  I always liked Cabel more than Janie anyway, so I really enjoyed reading some of the inner workings of Cabel.  So to speak.  I also liked how it wasn’t just day by day, it had flashbacks to events that Janie talked about too.  Reading the same events from different perspectives is always really appealing to me.  So yea, if you’ve read Wake, this is worth looking into.

P.S. that picture is amazing. a-ma-zing.

Real Teen Rating~ B+ : Wait for vacation.

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The Ghost and the Goth - Stacey Kade

Real Teen Award

-Guilty Pleasure Book of 2010

The Gist:

The Ghost And The Goth
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Alona Dare was the most popular girl at Groundsboro High School.  A dazzlingly gorgeous senior who is homecoming queen and varsity cheerleader co-captain, she was high school perfection.  Until she got hit by a bus.  Now she’s dead, and stuck haunting school, finding out along the way that she may have been popular, but no one actually liked her.  And just to prove that could get worse, she can’t be seen by anyone.  Except for the goth-boy loser Will Killian.

Will Killian isn’t exactly thrilled with the set-up either.  He has enough trouble with all the other ghosts at the school following him around and making him look like a certifiable nut case.  Getting saddled with bossy Alona Dare doesn’t make his life any easier, and she’s worse dead than she was alive.  But now they’re stuck together, and they’ve got to figure out how to solve their problems and get along before one – or both – of them disappears for good. 


What We Think

Reviewed by Living Destiny

Number of Pages: 281

A long time ago, in a kingdom far away, there was a girl who couldn’t find a book to read.  So, she found the corniest-looking book in all the land, and decided to read that to get her by.  That kingdom the friendly neighborhood Barnes and Noble, that girl was yours truly, and that book was, of course, The Ghost and The Goth.  I figured I’d buy it because it looked completely ridiculous, and I was in the mood for a serious fluff book.  And, strangely, it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be.  Not to say it was phenomenal or anything.  It wasn’t.  But it definitely wasn’t horrible.  I actually liked it, in a weird way.

You can’t really blame me for thinking this was going to be the mother of all lame books.  I mean, just look at the title.  The Ghost and The Goth.  At first glance, this looks like a soap opera script with a fancy hard cover.  And the concept: the most popular girl at school dies, and is suddenly a ghost who gets stuck with the loser goth boy she never noticed before.  That has the potential to be awful.  Really, truly awful.  But somehow, Stacey Kade manages to pull it off.  So she gets points for that.

I ended up liking both of the main characters.  I especially liked how Alona was actually a character I could relate to.  What I mean is that she wasn’t the perfect little popular girl you’d think she would be.  She had just as many problems as anyone else, but she was more adept at hiding them away from the world.  I connected with her more because of that.   Also, she had this sarcastic, sometimes rude, way of speaking that made me laugh.  Will was a great character too.  He was the oddball (seeing that he could communicate with the dead), but you had to root for him when you saw what he was up against.  He seemed like the sort of person I’d be friends with if he was real.

The plot was not as bad as I’d feared.  It seemed like it should have been shallow at first glance, but when I read it, I found there were a few little twists that I didn’t expect.  Of course some aspects of the story were incredibly predictable, but it was expected with a story this corny.  The writing was also pretty good.  There were some parts that were phrased awkwardly, but it didn’t bother me that much.  It’s a sign of good writing when you feel like you’re a part of the story, and I felt sucked into the lives of Will and Alona, so I’d say the writing was good.

The only part that really bothered me was the very end of the book.  It was the cheesiest thing I’ve read in a good two months.  Especially the last line (I have a real love of last lines-in fact I think we all do).  So I was really annoyed.  But at the same, I’m excited for the second book in this trilogy (called Queen of the Dead) to come out next summer.  So I guess it can’t have been that bad, can it?  Maybe a little cheesy is good for us sometimes!

Real Teen Rating~ B- : Check it out from the library. 


Reviewed by Dream Catcher

The deal was that Living Destiny would have to read Forgive My Fins and I would have to read The Ghost and the Goth. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be reading this book – like Living Destiny I thought the book was going to be really terrible - but I wasn’t dreading it. I’m the type of person who loves to read a good bad book every once in a while. And by bad I mean funny and ridiculous. Not bad writing. Because who likes to read that? But anyways, I read it. And, surprisingly, I really enjoyed it. Honestly and truly enjoyed it. Firstly, characters. When I heard that one of the main characters – Alona Dare – was mean and superficial I thought that one character would make the book unbearable. But there’s this marvelous thing called character development…not used much nowadays…rare but wonderful. And this mind-blowing concept known as character development made the book so much better. Because it made the Alona Dare into someone who you could almost feel sorry for; someone who you could consider a friend instead of an enemy. Will Killian, on the other hand, was someone I liked from the beginning. He was misunderstood and a little weird, but a great character. He just seemed very real. And that whole he-sees-ghosts-but-people-just-think-he’s-crazy was really awesome. I love that kind of thing. Crazy. Now, the plot was semi-original. The someone-dies-and-one-gifted-person-can-see-them-as-a-ghost thing is completely overdone, but there was something redeemable about it.  Certain parts of it were really original – something I’ve never read before.  One really good thing about this book was that I was eager to continue reading it. I didn’t want to put it down. Which is one of the best things I can say about a book. I think this was a good book. It certainly wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read, but I liked it. I wouldn’t rave about it, or recommend it to people, but I wouldn’t advise anyone against it. Good, but not amazing.

Real Teen Rating~ B : Read it but there's no rush.

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Big Bang Theory - CBS

Real Teen Award

- Best TV Actor in 2010- Jim Parsons

- Best On screen Couple in 2010- Shamy (Sheldon+ Amy)

The Gist

Big Bang Theory
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This show is a shout-out to all the nerdy people out there. The comic book lovers, the fantastically smart, the hopelessly desperate and highly uneducated people in the area of getting girls are represented in this hilarious sitcom on CBS. The five characters are all highly different and the same at the same time (if that even makes sense). Sheldon Cooper, who is the “beautiful minded genius guy” is a theoretical physicist, he has no idea of the outside world because he sticks to a strict schedule and has problems with OCD and realting to other people. Leonard Hofstadter is an experimental physicist. His family has forced him to diligently stick to academics and he also has no idea of the outside world. He is ignorant on the subject of trying to get a girl fails miserably at all his relationships. Howard Wolowitz is an enigneer at the college that Sheldon and Leonard work at. He is extremely desperate and tries way to hard to get girls and really turns them off by his attempts. He lives with his mother and is Jewish.Then there is Rajesh Koothrappali, he is an astrophysicist. He came from New Dehli, India to study science in America. As it turns out he has a case of pathological shyness towards women resulting in muteness except when under the influence of alcohol. The four of them all share the love of science and the love of comic books. That is their only way into the actual world and only way of consorting with people who aren’t as smart as them. Then finally there is Penny. She moved across the hallway from Sheldon and Leonard. Leonard falls in love with her and tries to get her as a girlfriend. She becomes friends with them and Sheldon finally feels at ease with her, he no longer thinks of her just as an improvement of the “two hundred pound transvestite with a skin condition,”. The show follows them in their quest of getting girls and the endlessly surprising Sheldon Cooper who always has something to say. It is on every Thursday from eight to eight thirty.


What We Think

Reviewed By ShoreWhisperer

Number of Seasons: 3 (and 18 episodes)

This show is right next to Drop Dead Diva for my favorite television show. I love watching this show. Sheldon always does something that is endlessly funny and I find myself watching the episode multiple times and still thinking everything is funny. I usually quote the show daily becuase the episodes focus around everday things that might actually happen and make them funny and unique. The characters are so hopeless that you have to laugh at them, also compared to Penny they seem extra smart and extra dumb at the same time. Their lack of knowledge in pop culture would be justified by Sheldon as that he only needs to know things that are important. Penny on the other hand looks endlessly dumb and she changes extensively over the seasons. This show is my one thing that makes me feel better. I watch it all the time. I just recently bought the latest season on DVD so I have all the seasons on disc. I can watch them whenever. It’s definately worth it. I recommend this show to everyone. I think it’s hilarious because my family has forever been in love with the Lord of the Rings and I have had to sit through role playing games and the movies and stuff that these characters do. I love seing this condition to the extreme and in a way you can say at least I am not like them! Watch this show right now, you will benefit from it, I promise.

Real Teen Rating~ A+ : MOST DEFINITELY SHOULD WATCH!!!!!

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Easy A - Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, and Amanda Bynes

Real Teen Award
-Best Actress/Character 2010: Emma Stone

The Gist

Easy A
Buy it here and support our blog

In high school rumors travel faster than the speed of light.  Once people find out a juicy secret they make sure that everyone knows who it is about and how to make their life miserable and label them for life.  No one knows this more than Olive.  It started out with a little lie to her best friend about what she did over the weekend.  Soon the rumor spread and she was labeled “skank” by everyone in the school.  After some other events occur she lands in butt in detention and meets the boy who will change her label forever. Brandon.  He recently told everyone in the school that he is gay and they aren’t taking it very well.  He is teased, is thrown in the dumpster and everything that you could imagined has happened to him.  When he finds himself in detention with Olive they quickly bond and form a friendship.  One day he comes to her and asks her to be his girlfriend and she is confused but he quickly tells her it is just for show so that people don’t make fun of him anymore. She reluctantly agrees to fake “do it” with him at the latest party.  After, everyone accepts Brandon as “straight”  they give a new label to Olive. Tramp.   As more people ask her for “help” her world starts to spiral downwards and she begins to lose everything.  Now she has to figure out a way to reverse everything that she said she did which is going to be a lot harder than she thinks especially since she now has a red “A” sewn onto all of her clothes.

What We Think

Reviewed by The North Star

Run Time: 92 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

I saw this movie last night and was excited going into the movie because I had seen the commercials and it looked really funny.  Someone who also got to see an advanced screening also told me that it was really funny and that I would love it.  In my head this movie had very high expectations because I heard such great things about it.  Well I am happy to say that it exceeded my expectations!  The entire time I was laughing my butt off so much that at times I was crying I was laughing so hard.  I have never seen an Emma Stone movie before but after that movie I am very eager to see another one of her movies.  She was really really good at her role and made the movie just that much better.  I also surprisingly liked Aly Michalka, maybe it was because she could act more her age and a little more herself than in past movies but I thought she did a really good job about playing Olive’s best friend.  If you have read some of our other posts you will know that I HATE unnecessary love stories or things that completely consume a movie that isn’t about love.  This movie perfectly portrayed a love story.  The whole thing wasn’t about her love story but it was kind of a side story that was executed extremely well.  The parents for once in this movie were TOGETHER!!!!!  They were actually the second best part of the movie.  Every time they were on-screen I was laughing uncontrollably and they were really cool.

I really liked how the way this movie was shot too.  I don’t know how to explain it but they would at points swerve through the crowd and it was really cool they way they did it.  In short if you are a teen and looking for a good movie this one definitely gets an A.

Real Teen Rating~ A: You MUST watch this movie!!


Reviewed by Dream Catcher

I expected this movie to be amazing but at the same time I imagined it to be a let down. If that makes any sense. Not that it matters; the movie was great! Seriously funny. It was one of the funniest movies I’ve watched in a long time. I was laughing pretty much the whole time. And not that whimpy little oh-yeah-that-was-pretty-funny chuckle. No, this was couldn’t-stop-if-I-tried laughter. Really. Funny. Anyways, the plot of the movie was a pretty…different. I really liked how they put in a BUNCH of literary referances. So, the plot (while a little inappropriate) was interesting and different. The characters were also really great and really well done. Olive was quirky and super smart and made for a funny, loveable main character. Also, Emma Stone played the perfect Olive. Her part was so believable and really funny. For instance, she got this singing card for her birthday that played that song by Natasha Bedingfield, Pocketful of Sunshine, whenever she opened it. So she kept opening and closing the card all weekend, even though she claimed to hate the song. I do that whenever I get one of those singing cards…so I thought it was really funny…Moving on, I thought Olive’s parents were great characters. They were really funny and completely crazy.  I looked forward to the scenes with them. Their acting was great and their characters were insane. But the craziest character of all was Marianne. Played by Amanda Bynes, Marianne was the god-obessed, rule-the-school character who played a huge part in ruining Olive’s reputation. Now Amanda Bynes isn’t my favorite actress, but she played her part well. It was creepy how good she was. Another really cool part about the story was that it was all basically told as a live video blog. It was really something I’ve never seen in a movie before. Oh. Love story. Right. The great thing about it was they didn’t overdo it. They showed enough romance but not too much. The perfect balance. Finally, I have to mention the camera work. Like the North Star, I thought the camera angles were really awesome during some points of the movie. Whenever Olive would notice a rumor going around the camera would swoop around following the rumor as it travelled. Overall, I thought this was a fatastic movie I would definitely see again and would certainly recommend. For all people who love a quirky, hilarious movie! Go see it right now!

Real Teen Rating~ A : You MUST watch this movie!

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Plain White T’s- Big Bad World

Reviewed by ShoreWhisperer

Song Time: 33 Minutes and 57 Seconds

Big Bad World
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This is a pop rock band that originated in Chicago basements. This band is presently made up of five guys: Tom Higgenson who sings lead vocals and plays the acoustic guitar, Dave Tirio who plays rythym guitar and backing vocals, Tim G. Lopez who plays lead guitar and vocals, Mike Retondo who plays bass and backing vocals and De’Mar Hamilton who plays drums and percussion.They are a well known band that were put in the spotlight when they came out with their hit song Hey There Delilah, Our Time Now and then later 1,2,3,4.  They have been featured on shows like 90210 and iCarly and most recently Parenthood. They have a new CD coming out in October called The Wonders of the Young.


Big Bad World-8/10 – This is a very good dance song. It’s upbeat and sends a good message. I love this song and I always end up tapping my foot or shaking my hips while I listen to this song. What I love about this song imparticular is that it sends a reall good message, it has the type of music that is popular today but then instead of lyrics that talk about the horrible things that go on today they just tell you that life is hard and that you need to live it up. There is nothing rude or discriminating in it and no vulgar language. It’s really good music.


Natural Disaster-9/10- This is another really good dance song, it’s got a good beat and really cool guitar playing. This song has interesting lyrics it shows what all the guys at clubs must feel, but it’s so much better than the other songs that have stuff like that in it. They aren’t gross or perverted, it’s a very clean song for this subject and it makes me want to sing along, i really like this song alot.


Serious Mistake-10/10- I love this song so much. The music is good and unique and the lyrics are funny and creative. The contrast between the verses and the chrouses makes the song sound really cool. It forces you to think are they trying to be funny or serious? As always there instrumentation is really awesome and they have a different sound then other bands today.


Rainy Day-6/10- This is just an…uh… ok i guess i will listen to this song song. I mostly switch this song when it comes on. The guitar playing is good and the singing is good but the lyrics are mediocre but it just isn’t different from anything that you would hear on the radio at an office or something like that. That’s what you need to have me like it, I want to hear something that I haven’t heard before.


1,2,3,4-10/10- North showed me this song while we were showing eachother really cute songs. I can’t say how many times that I have played this song on my MP3 player. The lyrics is what makes this so cute, they are just adorable and I feel like that I would hear it in some indi chick flick. The music is really cool it’s a cross between acoustic and a kind of Beatle-ly sound of music (if you even know what I mean ;) ). You really need to listen to this song!


That Girl-10/10- WARNING!!! This song is highly addictive. It gets stuck in your head very easily and it never goes away. This song isn’t famous but it should be. It has really funny and sincere lyrics, also not to mention the chorus which involves doo doo doo’s,  bop bop bop’s, oh oh oh’s, and la la la’s. It’s just amazing, you have to listen to it to understand what I mean so just listen to it RIGHT NOW!


Sunlight-9/10- This song has a really nice tune and really good singing. I love listening to this because the chords are really pretty and it’s all pretty mush acoustic which makes the song so much nicer. That’s all that really needs to be said. Except that the lyrics are really nice too.


I Really Want You-8/10- This song is very comical and its got hilarious lyrics. I love listening to this song. It makes me want to sing and dance to it. It’s got a kind of honkey-tonk sound to the background to it which makes it funny (there is also harmonicas! I love that!). I love this song. It’s pretty accurate to in it’s lyrics, this guy sees a girl and then “falls in love”, what he is feeling is lust not love and he has these dreams but what is his chance of actually getting her? Then he will see this other girl and “fall in love” again and only in the span of a week. It really puts you in a sense and the goofy music really reflects on the lyrics. This song is extremly unique.


Meet me in California-7/10- This song is ok. I like it but it’s not my favorite. I think that it could be better acoustically. The other instruments seem a little forced and put in there because they needed to be. I think that the lyrics have meaning and are deep and that is taken away by the beat and electric guitar. I think that it sounds good, don’t get me wrong. I love the a cappella part in the middle it makes the song so much better. If this song was acappella or acoustic it would be a nine or a ten.


Someday-9/10- I like the lyrics. It’s like this plea to the world, it reflects on the world in a way. I love this song again it would totally be better acoustically but that’s besides the point. The singing is good and really nice. I think that this is a decent song but it’s the lyrics that push it over the edge and makes it great. Listen to the lyrics really well in this song, they have an amazing message.


Real Teen Rating~A: Worth Buying!

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Forgive My Fins - Tera Lynn Childs

The Gist

Forgive My Fins
Buy it here and support our blog

 Lily Sanderson never thought that going to the surface would cause such trouble. But when she realized that her dead mother had been a surface-dweller Lily feels as though she has to try out life on land, for both her and her mother’s sake. After being on land for three years (living with her Aunt Lauren) three things have happened. One: she fell in love with the swimmer/news anchor/most-popular-guy-at-school, Brody. Two: gets a new best friend, who she trusts with everything…except her mermaid secret. And three: makes an enemy of her next door neighbor, Quince. With her eighteenth birthday looming over her head, Lily knows that she needs to choose someone to bond with soon, or risk losing the throne to her underwater kingdom Thalassinia. Bond: the first time a mermaid kisses someone they form a magical bond. Thalassinia: a magical underwater mermaid kingdom ruled by King Whelk, a.k.a. Lily’s father. In order to keep her position as princess of Thalassinia she must bond before her eighteenth birthday. And she already has some one picked out. Brody Bennett. And the only thing keeping her from her perfect mermate? Quince Fletcher. Instead of Brody kissing her and forming the bond – like he was supposed to – Quince does. Little does he know that because of the kiss he has to go with her to Thalassinia to perform a separation ritual. Separation ritual: cutting the bond between two mermates. The separation is irreversible. Lily doesn’t know why Quince kissed her or why he doesn’t want to go through with the separation, but the one thing she’s certain of is that they have to separate as soon as possible. So she can forget all about Quince and bond with the person she actually wants to bond with – Brody.


What We Think

Reviewed by Dream Catcher

Number of Pages: 293

This was quite the interesting book. Let me tell you this first: I only read this book in the first place because I thought it would be so bad it would be hilarious. In a way, it was. Some things were so corny I was laughing hysterically (earning many stares from various family members and friends). But, actually, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I thought it’d be a pathetic excuse of writing, but I kind of liked it. First things first: I have to complain about something for the North Star’s sake. The name BRODY. She hates this name beyond belief – one of the reasons why she refuses to read this book – and I’m not crazy about it either. But after reading about it for 293 pages you get used to it.  Now that that’s out there I can move on. To plot. There was some plot but not much. But for this book that was okay. It’s a romance. And for a romance (I find that the majority of romances are mostly fluff) it had enough of a plot for me. To make up for the small-ish plot, the whole idea of bonding mermaids was certainly original. I mean, who’s ever heard of something like that before? It’s unique. And I respect that. Points for that. The characters were both good and bad. Lily was a little dim and very obsessive (of Brody) but other than that she wasn’t that bad. Brody was awkward and…I dunno…annoying? He was the character I liked the least out of all of them. He’s not the sharpest tack if you know what I mean. He’s all brawn no brain. So it was annoying that Lily was so infatuated with him. But I suppose that was exactly what Tera Lynn Childs was going for. Good job there. Quince was awkward at times but also a really great character the other times. He certainly made the story interesting.  Lily’s best friend Shannen was an interesting character. She seemed sensible and smart, but I was never really sure with her. Overall, the characters were pretty good.  I liked the style of writing in this book. There was detail but there wasn’t too much. So that was good for me. DIALOGUE: one of the most important parts of a book. Most of the time the dialogue wasn’t half bad. But other times it was stiff. Something no living breathing person would say. Most of the awkward, stiff dialogue bits came out of Quince’s mouth. It was Tera Lynn Child’s attempt to make Quince the sweet, adorable boy everyone wants to date. But it just ended up making things the opposite of realistic. But the occasional flawed dialogue didn’t ruin the entire book for me. I really didn’t mind it all that much. I mean dialogue is hard to get exactly right. And mostly her’s was pretty good. So I’ll cut her some slack. All in all I didn’t think the book was all that bad. To tell you the truth I actually enjoyed reading it. It wasn’t some great literary genius but it wasn’t bad. I wouldn’t recommend it to people but if someone told me they were thinking about reading it I wouldn’t try to talk them out of it (I’d probably tell them to go ahead and read it, actually). So does that make it anehh book? Maybe…but I’m thinking of more of a just-above-ehh book. Mostly it gets such a high grade for entertainment value.

Real Teen Rating~ B- : Check it out from the library.


Reviewed by Living Destiny

So Dream Catcher and I made this deal where we traded silly, cheesy books.  I gave her The Ghost and The Goth to read, and she gave me Forgive My Fins.  It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t wonderful either.  In fact, it was surprisingly like The Ghost and The Goth.  Not in plot or anything, but just in how good it was.

So the characters themselves were not very good.  In fact, I really only liked Quince.  Lily was not horrible, but she was pretty shallow sometimes, and that’s really irritating.  Brody is a gross name, and he was super shallow all the time.  Quince was tough and bad boy-ish, but he was sweet too.  He was my favorite character, of them all.

The idea for the story wasn’t too bad.  I liked the idea of ‘mermates’, although it would really worry me to have to find one.  Imagine if you picked wrong!  Or if you fell into a situation like Lily’s.  I also liked the thought that there’s another world underneath the water.  The idea of mermaids is really interesting to think about.  It was written in a weird way though.  It really bothered me that Lily made all these water references instead of regular references.  It’s just bizarre and it doesn’t flow well in sentences.  Some of the descriptions are a little too long and over done.  Like at one point she’s describing eating food, and it takes up half a page.  To eat one bite.  Serious overkill.  I found the dialogue to be, for the most part, ok, but some of the conversations were a little awkward.  But overall, it was much better than I thought it was going to be.  Just like The Ghost and The Goth.

Real Teen Rating~ B- : Check it out from the library.

Reviewed by ShoreWhisperer
So I finished this book an hour ago and loved the ending. I had been talking about the book all day, on a positive note I loved the concept of this book. The alternate mer-world is really fascinating. On the other hand I didn't like the other stuff. I strongly disliked Lily. Half the time I was yelling at the book. There were too many flaws in her character. First off, she is WAY to oblivious to everything. I am oblivious to things like her but there is a point where even I can notice things as obvious as Quince Fletcher. She was also really shallow and I know that was her character but it was unbearable to me. Her constant crying and whiny tone throughout the book and not to mention her violent outbursts peeved me to no end. Let's just say if Lily was real, we WOULD NOT be friends. Then there was Brody. Brody is maybe the most awkward love interest ever. He is never in the book, and the times that he is it's just weird. He came off as awkward rather than the Mr. Perfect Prince Charming kind of guy. I didn't like him (which was probably the intention) but I would have been content with that if he was more present in the book. My favorite character was Quince, that is probably because i am a teenage girl but who wouldn't love the sensitive biker guy? Sadly, Quince is not realistic at all but he had the most logic out of all the characters. He thought things through, and didn't come off as a love sick teenager, he sounded like a guy who genuinly loved this girl. His sweetness got to a point sometimes that was unbelievable. The descriptions of the mer-world were fantastic. The way that I pictured Thalassinia was just amazing, all the colors, I wanted to live there! The author painted beautiful pictures that made you love the sea, even if you are a land-lover. The only complaint I would have is that some of the descriptions were weird and almost quirky. At one point she says "The smell of Quince" that was extremly cheesy and almost swoon-like. At another time she described Brody's arm hair and that kind of just really creeped me out. That was another thing, this author REALLY liked hair. I don't know what it was but whether it was Lily or Quince or Peri, we always got a description of hair and multiple times too. I just thought that was odd. The whole concept of a mer-mate was original and I enjoyed the concept, I love fantasy stuff like that and this is the epitome of fantasy romance novels. So, I enjoyed the book overall, it made me very emotional because I "strongly disliked" Lily but I found myself laughing and feeling upset like any good book makes you feel.
Real Teen Rating~ C+: Well I guess it was good.

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Killers - Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, and Tom Selleck

The Gist

Killers
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Jen Kornfeldt (Katherine Heigl), recently dumped, decides to go on vacation to France with her parents as planned. There she meets Spencer Aimes, superspy killer and man of her dreams. After asking  Jen out on a date, Spencer realizes he wants out of killing people for a living. The next day, when his boss tries to contact him, Spencer tells him that he’s quitting. Three years later Jen and Spencer are happily married with normal jobs and a perfect life.  The day before Jen is scheduled to go on a business trip, Spencer gets a message from his old boss.  His boss tells him that Spencer’s old job wasn’t something you could quit. Once an agent always an agent. And if Spencer didn’t come back to his old job, then he’d become the enemy. And people would be sent to kill him. But Spencer doesn’t want to believe him, so instead he ignores him. The next day, Jen goes off to her business trip, but halfway there, she realizes that spending time with her husband on his birthday was more important than going to work. So she turns back around. Meanwhile, back at the house, Spencer’s “best friend” tries to kill him. Because there’s a twenty million dollar bounty on his head. When Jen gets home she’s shocked to find her husband being attacked by (and attacking) his best friend. There, she learns the truth about the man she married and has to tag along as he tries to figure out why everyone is trying to kill him. Surviving all of the killers isn’t the hard part. Jen has to find a way to forgive her husband for his disloyalty and get past all of their deferences along the way.


What We Think

Reviewed by Dream Catcher

Run Time: 96 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

You know what I think? This movie stunk. Completely. To begin, writing the gist was kind of hard because I could hardly come up with even a scrap of plot to work with! And you know what? I realized that while Katherine Heigl seems to be in a lot of movies, none of those movies are at all memorable. They’re all just kind of there, with her performance being good, but nothing special. This movie was no exception.The only reason I watched it at all was because there was nothing else on onDemand that either I hadn’t already seen, or was PG-13 or under. I thought (at the time) that it might be an okay movie. You know, not those knock-your-socks-off kind, but the hey-that-wasn’t-too-bad! kind. But anyways, I was utterly disappointed. Like I said before, one of the more obvious flaws of this movie was it’s lack of plot. There really was nothing. They killed a bunch of people, they almost got killed by a bunch of people, there were lots of guns and even more ammo and of course the stupid I-don’t-even-know-you-anymore fighting between the marvelous main married couple. Then all of the sudden the movie was over and I was watching the credits roll. What!? So that alone earns it at least a C-. But no. Then the characters had to go and be annoyingly predictable. They transformed from this loving, perfect couple to two people who couldn’t stand each other. Then they began switching back and forth randomly. Sometimes they were lovey-dovey. Next moment they were arguing. I could have handled it once or twice but after the fourth stupid argument I was bored and really sick of it. I mean come on! You’re married! You must have gotten married for a reason, right? SO STOP FIGHTING! I kept thinking that. But no matter how angrily my mind screamed it, the characters on the screen continued to bicker. Finally, the ending was just all-around bad. It wasn’t memorable. The movie ended and I thought, Oh. It’s over. Okay. Bad thing to have in your mind at the end of a movie. That is destined to make a not-so-nice review…viola! Overall, the acting wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t any work of genius either. It was a movie that wasn’t worth seeing a first time, so if you see it on onDemand, or Netflix or movie rental store just ignore it. I think it was a movie that should just be ignored.

Real Teen Rating~ D- : I wouldn’t bother at all

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David Archuleta- David Archuleta

Reviewed by Living Destiny
Song Time: 44 Minutes and 28 Seconds

David Archuleta
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Season 7 of American Idol gave us two incredibly talented ‘David’s’ to add to the music industry.  One was then-25-year-old winner David Cook.  The other was then-17-year-old runner-up David Archuleta.  Six months later, his self-titled cd David Archuleta came out.  He’s now almost 20 years old, and has a fan base that easily rivals Justin Bieber’s.  I’ll say right now that while I am a fan of his, I’m not one of his crazy obsessed fans (*cough* *North* *cough*).  Just so we’re all clear.


Crush – 8.5/10 - This was Archuleta’s first single, and it was huge.  I remember hearing it on the radio every single day, but it was one of those songs that never seemed to get old.  And it still hasn’t.  The accompaniment is really ear-pleasing, and the lyrics tell a good story.  A solid hit for Archuleta!


Touch My Hand – 8.5/10 – One of those songs that has weird lyrics, but you still can’t help liking.  It’s all about him finding someone in a crowd at a concert.  The more I think about the lyrics, the more I think the whole thing is one strange paradox, but I still like the lyrics.  It’s a song that’s fun to sing along to, and it has clapping in it, which is pretty cool.


Barriers -10/10 – This song should, in theory, be a depressing song.  The lyrics are all about how his relationship has to end because it just isn’t working out and there are ‘too many barriers’.  Sounds like it should be sad, right?  Well, somehow, it isn’t.  It’s almost uplifting to listen to, which doesn’t make any sense, but it’s true.  It feels positive, not sorrowful.  Like a happy break-up song.  Another one of those catchy songs that gets stuck in my head for days and annoys those unfortunate souls who sit near me in class.


My Hands -10/10 - Very upbeat song!  The lyrics are without a doubt the best part of this one.  I don’t really have a definite meaning to the lyrics; I just can’t pin them down.  It’s sort of like I can’t describe what they’re saying, but I understand the deeper meaning of them in my soul.  It’s pretty fantastic, and something about this song catches me.


A Little Too Not Over You – 8.5/10 - One of the more stereotypical ‘pop’ songs (in my mind anyway), but he pulls it off.  The title is pretty self-explanatory; it’s about a boy not quite being over a girl.  The middle is the only super interesting departure from the norm of this song.  Not a lot more to say, this song is really a listen-and-find-out song.


You Can – 9.5/10 – This song is soft and slow.  It has mainly an acoustic guitar for accompaniment.  The lyrics are super sweet.  He is saying that she is the one that can save him and make him fall in love.  A great song, but the lyrics are definitely the best part, and if you hear the song make sure you listen to what he is saying!


Running – 9/10 – First off, I intensely dislike how it starts with the word ‘mafia’.  Is that some weird fad or something?  It’s annoying.  With that out of the way, this is another fun song.  Great lyrics on this one; it’s about a boy running to his girl because without her he’s ‘got nothing’.  The lyrics in the first chorus are the most attention-grabbing ones, but the rest are still interesting.  Very catchy song with an amazing ending.


Desperate – 11/10 - This song is one that everyone can relate to.  The lyrics talk about someone who is ‘desperate’, and who wants ‘a reason to keep believing’.  We’ve all been to that place before, and this song says what most of us just don’t want to vocalize.  It’s a pretty intense song, which fits with the message it’s giving.  There’s one part near the end where it gets suddenly quiet, and it’s very awesome.  The ending has this one long note, and then echoes with piano, which is a really powerful way to end a song.  This is my favorite on the whole cd!


To Be With You -8/10 – Slow song with mostly piano accompaniment.  Throughout the song there is a small harmony (sung by a female voice).  The lyrics in this song are cute, and talk about how he wishes he could be with the girl who was meant for him (but he hasn’t met her yet).  This song almost sounds sad, but it has a lot of hope in it.


Don’t Let Go - 8/10 – Strangely upbeat for a song with melancholy lyrics.  The whole song is about a girl who has a broken heart, and how he is telling her to ‘don’t let go’.  My favorite part is the bridge (but my favorite part of a song usually is the bridge).  The song gets calmer at the end, and just kind of fades out, which is nice.


Your Eyes Don’t Lie – 11/10 - Whistling.  Yes, you read that right.  Whistling.  That’s what this song starts out with.  So strange, but its originality gets it bonus points.  The feel of this song is different from all the other songs on the album.  The lyrics are cute, but also sort of funny, in a weird way.  The title really says it all, and it’s all very true.  Eyes don’t lie.  True fact right there.  Another favorite!


Angels – 8/10 - This song is a cover! *gasp* Yes, the song Angels was originally sung by Robbie Williams (so my research leads me to believe – gotta love Google!)  Archuleta sang this song on American Idol, and he ended up putting it on his cd.  Which was a smart move.  He sings this song incredibly well, and it’s all around a good song.  Whenever I listen to it, the chorus gets stuck in my head for ages!



So…I got this music on my iPod because I borrowed North’s cd.  Well, being the supreme Archuleta fan that she is, she bought the deluxe version of the cd, which happens to have three more songs on it.  So here we go!



Waiting For Yesterday – 11/10 - Mellow song, although it gets slightly more intense in the chorus.  I absolutely love the lyrics in this song.  They’re him telling a girl that even though her last boyfriend left her broken, she can trust him to be good to her.  The middle of this song is really incredible, especially when it goes straight from the more pushy chorus into the softer bridge.  I listen to this song whenever I’m in a bad mood, and it always seems to cheer me up.  Another one of my favorites right here!


Falling – 8.5/10 - Without a doubt the slowest and calmest song on the whole cd.  Not that it’s a bad song at all.  This is one of those songs where the lyrics almost don’t matter.  I mean, I hear them, and I sing them, but their meaning escapes me every time I listen, because I focus on the song as a whole.  Which is strange for me.  The song had a really nice mood to it, and it all blends together really well.  If anyone out there has a nighttime, sleepy, beddy-bye playlist (and don’t be afraid to admit it; I will freely state that I totally do), this should definitely go on it.


Let Me Go – 8.5/10 – More of a techno-y feel than the rest of his songs.  It’s sort of funky too.  It starts out with a really strong drum beat that catches your attention, and the rest of the song holds you.  The lyrics are sort of weird, but it seems like he’s singing about a girl who is playing him.  Or maybe I’m totally interpreting them wrong, but I like the playing-him thing better.  Catchy song with a very cool middle/end!


David Archuleta skyrocketed to popularity after American Idol, and this cd proves it wasn’t just because he’s a cutie.  For a debut album, it’s impressive.  I’m generally not a fan of self-titled albums, but I do love this cd.  There isn’t a song on here that I don’t like.  And the deluxe edition?  Very worth it, especially for Waiting For Yesterday.  Way to prove your worth David Archuleta!

Real Teen Rating ~ A: Worth Buying!

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