Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo***

Close to Shore is about the shark attacks of 1916. They happened near New Jersey, and in a creek eleven miles inland. This happened when knowledge about sharks was almost nothing, and most statements were not tested. A few people died from the sharks, but it still provoked fear in everyone. I don't like non-fiction books, so I really wouldn't know who would like this book. If you want to read this book, you can.

Outcasts United by Warren St. John*****

Outcasts United is a non-fiction book about a group of refugees who all love to play soccer. They all can't really play until a coach takes the refugees and creates the Fugees, the refugee's soccer team. I think that this book is very touching, and sets a very good image for kids to follow. Many times the coach or her team had an obstacle in their way, but they always surpassed it. I think that this book is a very good inspiration, and everyone should be allowed to read it.

Julius Caesar: The Boy Who Conquered an Empire****

Julius Caesar: The Boy Who Conquered an Empire is a non-fiction book about the influential emperor during Roman times. He took over most of Europe and turned the Rome into and empire. This man is Julius Caesar.

This book intrigues me because I like Roman and Greek related history. It is one of the most interesting times in history if you ask me. I really like the gods in their religions. I really think that anyone with a taste for good history would like this book.

Dawn by Elie Wiesel*

Dawn is another non fiction book. It is all about terrorism during the Holocaust. The jews have something called the Resistance. They fight for their freedom from Britain in Palestine. Elisha has to kill a captured english-man.

This book is pretty boring. It is short, and I finished it in about forty-five minutes. I think that this book is a bit too deep. It expresses to much feeling and feels like you were being sucked into these problems. And in this book, that's not good. I really don't recommend this book.

Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers*****

Bad Boy is one of those books that you have to read yourself to get a grasp of. It was all about Walter Dean Myers growing up in Harlem, New York. It was comical, had a sense of feeling, not just a bland, "and then this happened" kind of story. I really liked how this is a true story about racism, and moments in his life that led to Walter Dean Myers becoming an author. It's always something to keep in mind that this is true. I really thought a lot of these moments were well written, and were very detail. I was laughing at some parts, but crying at others. I highly recommend this book.

Night by Elie Wiesel*****

Night... This book was something else. It scared me, and it was all true. It was about a teenage boy going through concentration camps, he watched people die along the way to other camps. This book was really good, but it was a bit too gruesome. He saw children burned, he saw friends killed, he had almost nothing left in his life. He was beat and forced to watch hangings; if this is what the holocaust was, I wouldn't want to be there.

This book had an impact on me, it's one thing to read about a horrible event in a textbook, but it's another to actually read a true story of one of the survivors. It changed my whole viewpoint on life; enjoy every single thing you have. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

Saving Gracie by Carol Bradley*****

Saving Gracie is an amazing book about puppy mills. The way the dogs are treated, the way the dogs are bred, the way they live. This book was really heartbreaking, how all the dogs had diseases, how they all were flea ridden, how the were covered in their own waste(poop and pee). I really felt the feeling the dogs felt, they avoided all human contact. They didn't even try to be friendly. I think that this is a very pressing matter. It is a real problem, and it should be treated like a real problem. So many dogs are put down because of over breeding. We've always adopted dogs from a shelter, and one of ours is Captain, I've included a picture of him. He was pulled from a high kill shelter.

This book is meant to open eyes and show the world the problems that we ignore. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Hiroshima by John Hersey***

I don't blog about nonfiction often because I dislike how there's no room for any imagination. I think Hiroshima was very void on detail about the blast of the A-bomb, or even most of the after-effects. The author describes events in a way that I have already heard/ or learned about in classroom discussions of the atomic bomb. The book revolves around certain people, making it not as informative, but it gives a more personalized view on the after-effects. Now I don't read a lot of nonfiction, so I'm being a little rough in my review. I'm used to fantasy and more imaginative type stories. I think this book was decent, but again I dislike nonfiction. Compared to some other nonfiction books, however, this book was great. It was a short book for a nonfiction book, but it will keep you reading for a while.

Running With the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn***

How good are you at running? In Running With the Kenyans Adharanand Finn moves to Kenya to train to compete in a race. He trains almost every day, learning that running barefoot is actually better for you. As he travels through Kenya, running cross-country and other fun events, he learns more and more about technique and style. When it's time to compete in the marathon (he's running the half marathon), Finn is completely relaxed, and he makes his way across the finish line first for his group. He is also studying how Kenyans run so well and so fast.

This book was hard to read, probably because it is non-fiction. I liked when he was describing why some countries just don't have any motivation to run, even though that's what we were made to do. Literally. We have the Achilles Tendon, and that makes us super runners. We also think that we should land on our heels right? Wrong. We should land on our forefeet. I loved how much information this book included. Kenyans can run so fast because of mindset. Kenyans think they can always win, and they usually do. I hope you can learn something from this book.

Alive by Piers Paul Read*****

Alive is the true, scary story of sixteen rugby players from Uruguay who lived to tell the tale of their time trapped in the Andes Mountains after their plane crashed. In order to survive, they had do very extreme things. What would you do to stay alive? Well, they ate the flesh of the dead people, doctored themselves in pretty scary ways, and trekked over 50 miles to find civilization.

This book is a very interesting one. It was actually recommended to me by my father who read it when he was in seventh grade. I never really realized how far we are from death, but so close at the same time. I was pretty depressed after reading Alive, but I definitely recommend it.