To Save A Life

To Save A Life, The extremely touching story about the pressures in real life and high school. Meet Jake Taylor, the typical popular high school jock. The star player on the basketball team. The guy with the prettiest girlfriend in the school, and the one that never misses an invite to a party.

Yes, Jake had what seemed to be the perfect life. He always had his friend by his side. This friend, Roger saved his life. One day in middle school Roger ducked in front of a car to block Jake from being hit. This left Roger with a permanent limp. Roger was always made fun of , but Jake was always thankful.

When Jake got invited to a big party he left Roger in the dust.

When Jake and Roger got into highschool, Roger was completely ignored and made fun of. One day when he couldn't take any more abuse, he took his own life. In front of everyone, at the highschool. Jake took this personally. Roger saved his life, and Jake couldn't even be a good enough friend to give Roger a reason to keep his. Jake wanted to change his life. He was not sure how to do so. He started at church and at the local youth group. Trying to make his peers get along and see eachother equally. Jake learned from his friend Roger how important life is. He really wants to change and potentially save lives. Even if it makes him lose a college scholarship, his beautiful girlfriend, or his future child. How much will he give up to save a life?

1. Why do you think that Jake and Roger stopped communicating?

2. What would you give up to help a friend in need?

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

John Tyree is 23 and is a Special Forces Army Sergeant. He is returning home to Wilmington, North Carolina for a two week leave. John is on the beach when he comes across a young lady, Savannah Curtis. She has dropped her bag into the ocean and John dives in and gets it for her. For John, it is practically love at first sight. Savannah is a college student and during her summer is helping build houses with Habitat for Humanity in North Carolina. That night, Savannah takes John to a bonfire where he meets Tim Wheddon. He is an older man, his son is close with Savannah. His son is very young and has a mental problem. Soon enough, John and Savannah become really good friends and after that, they fall in love. It only takes two weeks for them to fall in love with eachother. Unfortunately, John's leave is up and Savannah has to return to UNC, her college. Before John leaves, Savannah suggests that John's father might be autistic. They get into a fight but make up before leaving eachother. As John is gone, Savannah and him right to eachother as much as they can. Savannah promises her love to John while he is away. Unfortunately September 11, 2001 happens. John feels that it is his duty to reenlist in the army and fight for his country. Savannah is upset because she feels like she can no longer wait for John. She sends him a note while he is away. She ends things with him and says she has met someone. John does not know what to do, he is so upset and burns all of her letters. John gets shot while fighting and has to return home. His father falls ill and sadly dies. John really has nobody anymore. He decides to go and see Savannah. She is married to Tim Wheddon, he has cancer and really needed Savannah to help take care of his son. Tim is dying and tells John that she still loves him and she has never looked at Tim the way shes looked at John. You'll have to read the rest to find out what else happens.

1. If your loved one was going away to the army, would you end the relationship or hope for the best?
2. Do you think it was shallow of Savannah to break up with John, even after she promised her devotion and love to him?
3. If you were John, would you have reenlisted in the army. Remember he made a promise to marry Savannah, so would you leave and be with your loved one or fight for your country?

The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks

The notebook by Nicholas Sparks is an outstanding love story. The story begins in a nursing home, where an elderly man reads to a women with Alzheimer's every morning. The man reading these stories is Noah Callohan. He is telling these stories in hope to trigger the women's memory of their love and life together, Allie Hamilton. The novel is then told in flashbacks starting in 1946. This part of the novel focuses on Noah buying a real fixer- upper of a dream house. This home is a symbol of where Noah and Allie's love blossomed. Noah came from a family of very little money and never had a prestigious job. He was able to get the money to buy this home from serving in the Vietnam War. The story now flashes back even further to the summer that Allie and Noah first met. It was the summer of 1935 and these two teenagers became inseparable, they were truly in love. Unfortunately, when the summer ended so did their relationship. It was hard for them to keep in touch when Allie moved back home and her family was not fond of Noah's class. The story now goes forward to 1946 and Allie is engaged to an extremely successful man. While planning her wedding she sees an article in a newspaper of Noah standing next to the house they spent time in as teenagers. Allie decides that she has to to go and see Noah. During her visit she realizes how madly in love they still are. The rest of the story focuses on Allies struggle whether to follow her heart or follow the path her family has made for her.
Questions:
1) If you were Noah would you spend most of your day trying to trigger Allie's memory or just go on living your life?
2) If you were Allie would you listen to your family and marry a man they approve of or would you end the engagement and be with Noah?

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

This book is about a girl name Pattyn von Stratten who is raised in a devout mormon family. Her father is abusive and, at one time, had more than one wife. She has several brothers and sisters and because she is the oldest she usually ends up taking care of them while her mother is in bed all day. When she starts acting out by hanging out with guys and starting to do bad in school her dad sends her out to her aunts house. While she is there she meets Ethan. She falls in love with him and when it is time to go he drives her back. When she gets home she realizes that she is pregnant with Ethan's child. She tells him and tells her family about what happened and runs away. When Ethan picks her up she tells him to drive and they decide to go to California. Because the police are following them Ethan starts to speed up and looses control around a curve and they get in an accident. Both Ethan and Pattyn's baby die, her father disowns her, and she is faced with the decision to move on or shoot everyone who ever caused her pain. When she goes back home she tells her father that if he would just say that he loved her that she would spare him but he will not say it.

If you were Pattyn and you knew that your father was abusing your mother and yourself, would you tell someone or keep it to yourself like Pattyn's father tells her too?
What would you do after you found out that your father disowned you and both the love of your life and your child died? Would you do the same thing as Pattyn?

! Ranger's Apprentice : The Ruins of Gorlan !

The Ruins of Gorlan is the first book in John Flanagan's series of the Ranger's Apprentice. The novel follows a group of orphans and the paths they have taken during the middle ages. The protagonist, Will, always had his heart set on being a brave warrior, as he believed his father to be, but to his surprise and initial discontent, is chosen to be the apprentice of the ranger Halt. Not much is known about the rangers, but it is speculated that they practice dark magic because of their always elusive behavior.
Will's training as a ranger begins with tedious tasks such as housework, but eventually escalates to stealth and weapons training. Will's training was first put to the test when he and his hunting party were confronted by two large boar. He shot an arrow at the larger of the two, effectively distracted it and saving his friend, Horace, whom at the time he was feuding with.
The climax of the novel is when Lord Morgarath, an evil man bent on conquering the kingdom, attempts to advance with his dreaded Kalkaras, massive beasts immune to most weapons. Will plays a vital role in killing one of the beasts by shooting an arrow through its eye. Later, at a celebration the Baron announces that Will would be allowed to become a warrior's apprentice as he had originally wanted to do. But because of all he had learned under Halt, he declines and decides to stay a ranger. Halt then tells the story about how Will's father bravely saved Halt in a battle, sacrificing his life.

1. If you had the chance to do something that had always been your dream, but in return you had to give up something you loved now, would you do it?
2. Will found out that his father was not actually a traditional warrior, but he was still proud. Would you be proud if you found out your father was not some one who you thought he was?

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Identical by Ellen Hopkins describes the lives of identical twin sisters named Kaeleigh and Raeanne. Kaeleigh is the misplaced focus of her father's inappropriate affections starting from when she is a child, intended for her politician mother whose presence on the campaign trail means absence at home. Raeanne sees this is as her father ignoring and mistreating her, and that he loves Kaeleigh more than her. She tries to get his attention in other ways, like sex, drugs, anorexia, bulimia, and self-mutilization. Although Kaeleigh has the entire focus of her father, she is not perfect. She binge eats, has intense problems coming close to people, and like Raeanne, cuts. She is very similar to her mother, unlike Raeanne, who is definitely the more aggressive of the two. The two could not be more opposite inside. Kaeleigh has a best friend named Ian who is in love with her and really wants to be with her. Raeanne is in a relationship with a high school drop out named Mick, who she smokes and has sex with frequently.
At the climax of the novel, Raeanne is at Ty's house, a boy she met at a party she went to with her boyfriend, Mick. Raeanne and Ty smoke some meth, and start to have sex. In this scene, Ian busts in the door and screams, "Kaeleigh, what the hell are you doing?"
Kaeleigh/Raeanne replies that she isnt Kaeleigh shes Raeanne in a dream-like state.
The next chapter is Kaeleigh waking up in a hospital room with Ian there. She asks what happened. Ian explains. Kaeleigh slightly remembers. Ian then tells her Raeanne died in a car accident when they where both very little. Kaeleigh then enters the psychiatric ward of the hospital to discover she has a multiple personality disorder, and the whole book was just her, then entire time. With the help of doctors, she has the strength to bring her father's abuse to light, and to seek help in suppressing the Raeanne side of her personality. She does really well for a long time.
The last chapter is Raeanne speaking, giving a heads up: shes not gone, and she will take over when she needs to.

Discussion Questions:
1. Do you believe Raeanne's way of trying to get her father's attention was acceptable or okay?

2. Do you believe Kaeleigh will ever be able to get over the abuse from her father or her multiple personality disorder in order to develop a relationship with Ian?

A Child Called "It"

A Child Called "It" is an inspirational story of a little boy who suffered through severe chid abuse. Dave Pelzer lives in a nightmare every second of his life and there is no way out of it. His achoholic mother beat him and played unthinkable "games" with him that almost killed him. David slept on a army cot in the basement of their house and ate from the scraps of the garbage can. The outside world had no idea, and he could do nothing about that. His mother threatened his life if he opened his mouth to the public. David's mother made him do extreme things such as put his hand on a burning stove, drink ammonia, eat unedible foods and re-eat them if his body refused to hold it down. She even stabbed him. He was beaten almost everyday. His family did nothing to stop this even though they were well aware of what went on behind the walls of their home. His father tried to help but the mother refused to let this happen. His own brother did not seem to care to watch everything happen because their mother made him think that David was simply an "it". He did not matter.

1) At one point in the story, David almost lost his will to live. If you went through what he did, would you give up on life?

2) Child abuse is a common and serious problem even today. What do you think should be done to the adults abusing these children like David's mother abused him? Should they be sentenced to death?

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

Kira-Kira is a novel told in the point-of-view of it's narrator, a young Japanese-American girl, Katie. At first, Katie and her family (her mother, father, and older sister, Lynn) live in a small town in Iowa and own a small Asian store. Upon the store going out of business, Katie and her family abruptly move to Georgia where they begin to struggle even deeper with fiances and discrimination because of their race. Soon, Lynn developes severe anemia. And Katie, who shares a close bond with her sister, begins to spend almost all of her time with her. Katie's family move into a small house (to accommodate their now-larger family, with the addition of Sammy, Katie and Lynn's baby brother). This makes Lynn feel a lot better, despite her illness. After an incident involving Sammy getting caught in a bear trap on the property on Mr. Lyndon (the owner of the hatchery that Katie's parents work at), things turn worse for Lynn and she now becomes fatally ill. Katie stuggles to keep her sister happy and healthy, and deal with family and issues in society.

1.) What are the possible the reasons for the discrimination against Japanese-Americans?

2.) Do you think its capable for a young girl like Katie to be able to handle the responsibilites that she faces within the novel?

Rebound

In Ray’s high school, the Polish kids to go out for wrestling and the black kids to play basketball. Ray has tried out for the basketball team but gets cut all the time. Pruze, Ray's friend, wants Ray to play in a summer league to practice for the upcoming tryouts. During the summer Ray meets some good players such as Robert. Ray’s mom expresses concern that he’s hanging out with black people from the basketball team. Ray’s best friend, Walter, doesn't like Ray’s teammates either. But Ray wants to play varsity basketball his final year in high school. This time Ray has a chance. The new coach seems to pick guys who can get the job done instead of picking favorites. Ray makes the team! However, Rudy a star black player was cut. People thought that Ray took Rudy's spot. After the cuts, Rudy and friends make fun of Ray during the games which Walter answers with racial chants. Throughout the book Robert and Ray have trouble with each other due to the fact they are equally good ball players but they are of different races. Also Robert is mad that Ray took Rudy's spot on the basketball team. Throughout the struggle Coach Thomas tries to maintain peace between the two races, punishing whoever steps out of line. Racial tension fills the school school between the Poles and the blacks, and Ray is even accused of being prejudice when his former coach tells him,"'You think because you play some basketball with a few African American students you aren't prejudice'"(245). In the end, Ray is forced to choose between his black friends on the basketball team and his ethnic friends in his neighborhood.

1. The book is filled with racial tension and focuses on the fact that it is prevalent in high school. In your opinion, do kids at Mentor High School actually racist and have prejudice views, or do they mostly joke around with the matter?

2. In the story a huge racial tension builds up. Ray must choose between the people he has more in common with but are racially different and the people who share his race but have different characteristics. Who would you side with and Why?

Breaking Dawn

Breaking Down is divided into three individual books. Part one is about Bella’s wedding and marriage to Edward. They spend their honeymoon on an island near the coast of Brazil. Shortly after, Bella becomes aware of her pregnancy. She contacts Carlisle who confirms her suspicions; the couple makes plans to return soon after. Part two is written from Jacob Black’s perspective, it documents the pregnancy of Bella right through to the birth of her child. The werewolves in the novel are unsure of the child and fear of the danger it poses prompts them to make plans to kill Bella to prevent its birth. Naturally, Jacob is strongly opposed to this and revolts. He cuts all ties to the pack and forms his own, with Leah Clearwater and Seth. Four weeks after conception, Bella has the child. In the process she loses a great deal of blood and suffers multiple broken bones. To save her life Edward is forced to embrace and turn her into a vampire. Immediately after the birth, Jacob imprints the newborn baby girl, Renesmee. The final part of Breaking Dawn reverts back to Bella’s view point, continuing her story as an excited Vampire who enjoys all the abilities it brings. Irina, another Vampire mistakenly identifies the baby; she believes Renesmee is an immortal child, one that has been changed to a Vampire. An act the Volturi outlawed previously. Irina informs the Volturi of the act, they then decide to destroy the Cullens and baby Renesmee based on Irina’s story. To prove their innocence and save the life of their baby daughter, the Cullens gather vampires to stand up as witnesses and help prove to the Volturi the child isn’t an immortal child. The plan works, and the Volturi realize they have been lied to by Irina and immediately sentence her to death for the mistake. Soon after, the arrival of Jasper and Alice, who too had a human-vampire child return. They prove the child presents no threat with Nahuel, their 150 year old crossbreed son. The Volturi see the truth in these words and promptly leave, safe in the knowledge that vampire-human crossbreeds can co-exist without bringing any undue attention on the vampire’s existence. Bella, Edward and their new daughter, Renesmee, return to their home.

1. Why do you think Jacob decides to leave his pack?

2. Do you think Jacob will ever forgive Bella for becoming immortal?

The Great Gatsby-By: F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, addresses the events of a summer in the Jazz Age for people in different social classes, who are forced to deal with a clash in life styles and values. The protagonist of the story, Jay Gatsby, tries to achieve high social status but has to deal with the values that come along with it.

Gatsby lives on the poorer of the two islands, but he still tries to be a part of the wealthy society by throwing parties every night. Many of the guests that come to his parties do not understand the reasons for the parties, Gatsby's wealth, or anything about his past. For this reason, Gatsby does not have many close friends accept Nick Carraway, his neighbor. Nick knows his former love and Gatsby befriends him, because he wants nothing more than to see her. While his former love lives across the water, to him she seems unreachable, because they have both changed in the years and haven't spoken. Therefore, Gatsby is living with the false idea that he can have wealth and a former love.

Questions
1. Does Gatsby only throw the parties in hopes of seeing his former love?

2. Will Gatsby ever come to the realization that some dreams are unreachable or will he achieve his dreams, of living with his former love and being accepted fully by society?

3. Is Gatsby only using Nick to get closer to his former love?

Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl is the story of a twelve year old genius named Artemis who makes a brilliant discovery when he finds out fairies exist. Artemis then comes up with a plan to capture a fairy and hold the secret of their existence for ransom so he can replenish his families dwindling fortune. Artemis with the help of his very masculine and large butler named Butler, he proceeds to capture the only girl fairy in the LEPrecon unit. WHich is there equivalent to the FBI. The Faires send in legions of troops to try and recapture their comrade while Artemis uses the captured fairies technology to beat them back. In the end Artemis gets their gold but at a high moral price when his butler almost dies.

1. If you were Artemis would you capture the fairy just so you could be a Billionaire again?

2. Do you think this was right of him?

Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin Jacobson, just weeks from graduation, has been in love with his next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, throughout his entire life. Everyone knows Margo as an adventurous, unconventional and admired person among all of those who surround her. Quentin, on the other hand, is a good kid, ditched years earlier by his childhood best friend Margo for a cooler crowd. The two reunite when Margo shows up at his window in the middle of the night, and he agrees to follow her on an adventure of brilliant pranks and crazy endeavors. At one point, they end up at the top of a building, looking down on the city, and Margo says, "From here, you can't see the rust or the cracked paint or whatever, but you can tell what the place really is. You see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town. I mean, look at it, Q: look at all the cul-de-sacs, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm" (57). As the night finally comes to an end, Quentin can't help but wonder if maybe he could be part of the glorious world of Margo Roth Spiegelman.

However, the next morning, he finds that Margo has disappeared. While this is not the first time she has run away, he becomes uncertain she will return, and he and his friends are soon wrapped up in the clues Margo has left for him. He spends his last few weeks of highschool searching for the paper towns he thinks she may have run to. The chase takes Quentin through a series of new experiences during which he learns that Margo is not who he thinks she is, ultimately leading to the revelation that the true mystery is not only to uncover her whereabouts, but to find the real Margo behind the paper girl.

1. One definition of a paper town addressed in the book is a town marked on a map used as a copyright trap. If another cartographer was to produce a map with the town marked, it would be obvious that the map was plagiarized because the town actually does not exist. Why do you think Margo would want to run to a nonexistent town?

2. Margo believes that there must be strings in people, and when the last one breaks, they fall apart. The thought is very real to both her and Quentin, because they know that when people get hurt, they can feel the strings break inside them. However, Quentin says, "The strings make pain seem more fatal than it is, I think. We're not as frail as the strings would make us believe" (302). He decides that maybe people are vessels. Although they crack and it is then inevitable that they will die, there is so much time before the vessel actually breaks, and in that time the cracks actually reveal the people for who they are and allow them to see into one another. Which metaphor do you agree with?

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

This novel by Anne Brashares is one centered on a group of friends, who, for the first time ahave to go their separate ways for the summer. Bee, who is going to soccer camp right around the border of Mexico, but still in California, falls hard for one of the coaches. The coach's name is Eric, and little does Bee know that he likes her too, it's just a matter of controlling himself around her because he knows that nothing can go on between them until Bee is 18. Lena, a girl known for her beauty goes off to Greece with her sister Effie for the summer. Little does Lena know that her grandmother has a surprise for her, it's a boy! Lena's grandmother provides Lena with a very cute english speaking boy named Kostos, who has a very big crush on Lena. In the beginning all Lena wants to do is capture the beauty of Greece with her paintings. Later on, and maybe too late, Lena discovers she truly likes Kostos. Carmen, a girl who's father left her and her mother when she was still in her young childhood goes to South Carolina to visit her dad. Little does she know that her dad is getting married. Unforunately Carmen does not know this until she arrives at the house. Carmen is outraged and feels like an alien being there with her dad's new family. Tibby, the moody salesclerk at her local Wallman's gets stuck at home, but she has a new adventure of her own and gets to meet some new people. One of these new people is named Bailey, who is a 12 year old girl and is just as sarcastic and moody and snippy as Tibby is. They develop a beautiful friendship and bond over Tibby's movie documentary where they learn about other people. Unfortunately Bailey's cancer takes over and takes her life. All the while, the girls pass around these magic pants that somehow fit all of them perfectly and give the girls a little extra of boost when they where them. These pants, and their letters help keep the girls close during their summer apart.
1.How would you cope with being away from your friends for the first time all summer?
2.How would you react if you were Tibby when Bailey died?
3.If you were Lena and you wanted to make this relationship with Kostos workout, how would you handle this long term relationship when you were separated from him by an entire ocean?

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

All Quiet on the Western Front is a very famous World War I novel told through the eyes of one who, as Americans, we relate to very little: a German Soldier. This soldier, Paul Baumer, signed up along with his classmates to fight in this Great War for their country and the excitement of war. However, the excitement and pride wore off very quickly. Early on in the story one of their classmates die because of battle wounds. Beyond vast casualties and death, the unfortunate young men also face food shortage, disease, pesky rats, poison gas, and shrapnel as they go days at a time stuck in a trench surrounded by gunfire, explosions, and a landscape that resembles the surface of a baron planet. Many of the soldiers also experience insanity as they attempt to survive their day-to-day duties. The men, of course, lose most of their fighting spirit thanks to these conditions and struggle to find justification for fighting against the allied soldiers. At one point, Paul and some of his close friends sneak off their base and spend the night with a few French girls (enemy women). Paul displays his own lack of nationalism when he pledges to send a letter of apology to the family of a French man he killed. As the purpose of the story was to make known the horrors men experience in war and the cruelty of it overall, Remarque tells us in the last paragraph of the book how Paul eventually died in battle with a calmness on his face, as if he was relieved that he had finally died.

1. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul stresses how close he is to his classmate friends that he fights with alongside in the terrible war conditions. He goes as far as to say that they are closer that lovers. Why do you think that is?

2. Remarque wrote this book to unveil the horror that is war and protest against it. Do you think war can ever be eliminated from human interaction?

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

The book Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson is a fictional story about six children; Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Angel, and Gasman. Instead of being normal teenagers, they have avian genes mixed in with their human ones. They have wings, can fly, and each have their own special abilities. Despite the fact that they are not blood related, they consider themselves a family and gave themselves the nickname "the flock" with Max as their leader. At the beginning of the story, the flock was escaping from a laboratory called the School. The "whitecoats" of the School, their nickname for the scientists, created them there. They were tortured and locked up in cages. The scientists would also run painful, cruel, and dangerous experiments on them almost daily.



One of the scientists was named Jeb, and he was kind and sympathetic towards the flock. After gaining their trust, he stole them and escaped with them to a deserted cabin in the mountains. They learned how to fight and defend themselves, and were free to be themselves. However, their happiness was short-lived. The School sent out Erasers, which were humans who could morph into wolf-like creatures. Their main purpose was to bring the flock back or destroy them trying. Before they knew it, they were being chased by the Erasers and Jeb disappeared. The youngest member of the flock, Angel, got captured and brought back to the School. Throughout the rest of the book, the children battle evil and try to rescue their younger "sister" Angel, try to find out about their biological parents, and discover why they were created in the first place.

Questions:

1. During a fight with one of the Erasers, Max gets shot in her wing. A young girl named Ella and her mother take her in and give her aid. If you were Ella or her mother, would you risk helping despite the fact that she might be dangerous?

2. When Angel was captured, the flock knew that she was brought back to the School. If you were a member of the flock, would you try to save her even if it meant returning to the place you fought so hard to get away from?

Midnighters 2: Touching Darkness

The midnighters are five teenagers living in Bixby, Oklahoma who have the privelage, and sometimes punishment, of getting to live an extra hour each day, that happens at the strike of midnight. With this extra hour comes special powers, such as mind reading and flying. But the midnight hour is not all fun and games. Evil creatures, known as Darklings, can only survive in the secret hour. To these teenagers, the Darklings can be deadly.

In the second installment in this trilogy, the reasons for an entire generation of midinghters going missing comes to light. Something that suprises the teens even more, is some of the missing midnighters are not even dead and they know secrets too horrible to share.

Throughout the novel, one of the characters, Rex, goes missing and there is reason to believe he will be used by the darklings in a fate worse than death. His best friend, Melissa, would do anything to save him, even going as far as to break the trust of one of their other friends. By breaking this trust, she puts other people's lives in danger.


1.) If you could have special powers, but they also came with the dangers of monsters constantly trying to kill you, would you still want the powers. Explain.

2.) Melissa was only trying to save Rex's life when she broke the trust of her other friend. Would you be willing to put someone's life at risk if it was to save someone close to you? Explain.

In a heavily guarded mansion in a Virginia suburb, a thief by the name of Luther Whitney starts to burglarize the place. But he is trapped in the vault, with a one-way mirror being the only thing separating him from witnessing the murder of a woman. Not only is it any woman, but it is Christine Sullivan, wife of the famous Walter Sullivan. She and the president went to her house, but she ends up trying to kill him. The Secret Service barely saves the president’s life by shooting her. They clean the place up but don’t realize Luther was there the whole time. They clean the place up, but Luther finds on epiece of evidene that they forgot. When the local police find the body, they are baffled at the circumstances surrounding this mysterious case. The reso f the book involves a dangerous game that Luther plays with the Secret Service, trying to reveal the president for who he really is.

The Secret Service acted quickly in doing their jobs and killing Christine Sullivan to protect the president, even while compromising their own ethics. How do people justify doing their jobs while maintaining their ethics?

If you were in the Secret Service agents position would you do your job and kill the woman, or would your morals take precedence?

Absolute Power by David Baldachi

In a heavily guarded mansion in a Virginia suburb, a thief by the name of Luther Whitney starts to burglarize the place. But he is trapped in the vault, with a one-way mirror being the only thing seperating him from witnessing the murder of a woman. Not only is it any woman, but it is Christine Sullivan, wife of the famous Walter Sullivan. She and the president went to her house, but she ends up trying to kill him. The Secret Service barely saves the president's life by shooting her. They clean the place up but don't realize Luther was their the whole time. They clean the place up well, but Luther finds one piece of evidence that they forgot. When the lo0cal police find the body, they are baffled at the circumstances surrouding this mysterious case. The rest of the book involves a dangerous game that Luther plays with the Secret Service, trying to reveal the president for who he really is.

The Secret Service acted quickly in doing their jobs and killing Christine Sullivan to protect the president, even while compromising their own ethics. How do people justify doing their jobs while maintaing their ethics?
Were you involved in a case like this, would you do your job and kill the woman or stand by and watch the president die?

The Cage Daniella Volpe

The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender

This is the true story of Ruth Minsky Sender, a holocaust survivor. At the beginning of the story Ruth, her mother and her 6 other siblings are betrayed by their long time family friend who were German and they were sent to a ghetto. After a year in the ghetto their mother gets taken away and most like was sent to a death camp. Ruth is then left to take care of her two brothers after already losing her brother Laibele. She develops malnutrition and calcium deficiency when the ghetto is cleared and their family is separated when they are sent to concentration camps. Ruth makes friends in the camp but her health is questioned when she can not use her glasses so is unsafe using the machinery in the factory. Ruth and the camp were then transferred to another camp where Ruth's health conditions worsened. She probably should have been sent to a death camp by this point but instead was taken into town so she could see a professional doctor to take care of her worsening legs. The camp did this because she wrote poetry that she would read to the other girls in the camp and it kept the girls working and pushing forward. After she was treated the camp got sent to yet another camp where they only spent about three to four months. Then one day, when the camp leaders took all of the girls out to the forest where they were going to all be executed. Except, all of the leaders ran away abandoning the camp for hours until allied forces found them and told them the camp had been liberated. Ruth had survived when her luck did not look good.
Ruth never found her brothers that were sent to camps. To this day she still has nightmares about the horrors of the concentration camps. She says she will never forget anyone that she met or knew from the holocaust, especially the ones that she lost.

Questions:
1. After WWII would the world ever allow a country to commit something like the holocaust ever again??
2. What would everyday life be like in a concentration camp??