Kayla's Book Nook

Everyday I tell my students, “Books are better!!” This has become my mantra and my motto. Students are reading less and less every year and I become more and more obsessed with getting them into reading. But, I am a big movie lover and there are some amazing books that should be made into good movies that honor the books and their authors. There are so many books out there that are already made into movies, but there are a lot of books that I would love to see on the big screen sometime. Here is my list of the top ten books I think should be made into movies. 1. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver This is such a wonderful book about a girl coming of age, and dealing with the exact thing she tried to avoid throughout her whole life. This novel brings forth so many issues in such an elegant manner. Barbara Kingsolver is a lovely writer that pulls you deeply into the story and makes you fall in love with the characters. 2. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCaffterty There...

Genre: Fiction Publication Date: September 1, 2009 Synopsis: Valerie Leftman and her boyfriend, Nick keep a hate list of all the people that they hate in high school. Valerie starts the hate list after being bullied and bothered by the popular kids for years. She meets Nick and he's also bullied by kids even though he's a newer student. Valerie and Nick add a name to the hate list after someone has been mean to them, bothered them, bullied them, etc. Nick decides to act upon the list, and brings a gun into school one day and picks off people from the list one-by-one. Valerie puts her life in danger to save one of the almost victims. She spends the summer recovering and getting ready to face her school for her senior year. Valerie must overcome this terrible event in her life, and atone for her part in the shooting. Review: I picked this book out and another like it for my controversial book project for my graduate class. As a teacher I think about bullying, shooting...

Last night my husband, myself, and our two kids sat down to watch the new Spider-man movie, Spider-man: Homecoming. Now, just to recap there are already original Spider-man movies and then reboots of those Spider-man movies, and now we have a reboot of those movies. Spider-man movies: Spider-man (2002) Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst star as Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. This movie starts as an origin story, where Peter gets bitten by a radioactive spider and becomes Spider-man. He fights his best friends's dad, Norman Obsorne, or the Green Goblin. Spider-man 2 (2004) Maguire and Dunst still star in this sequel and this time fights a fellow scientist, Otto Octavius, Doc Oct. Spider-man 3 (2007) Maguire and Dunst are the leading actors in this movie. Eddie Brock is turned into Venom (played by Topher Grace). Harry Osborne takes over the Goblin legacy. Harry is played by James Franco. The Amazing Spider-man (2012) Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker this time, a...

Genre: Suspense/Thriller Publication Date: 2017 Synopsis: The novel follows four middle-aged friends on their annual girls weekend trip. This year instead of hitting a spa or casino they decide to do an invigorating hiking and white water rafting trip in the wilderness of Maine. The main character, Wini, really needs a vacation with her friends after the death of her brother and the end of her fifteen-year marriage. Wini is not really the outdoorsy type, but decides to venture out with her friends anyways. The four friends go on the trip with their young and delicious guide. After a rafting accident leaves them in peril, the friends must work together to survive and find their way out of the wild Maine countryside. Review: I adore reading thriller suspense books that have a survival subplot. This was a very interesting and page turning read. Is it a book that I will read over and over again like my other favorite novels? Probably not. Although, if you like high action, good s...

Synopsis: Samantha Kingston happens to be part of the popular crowd at her school. One day she wakes up and goes through her life like any other normal day. On this day though, she dies in a terrible car crash at the end of the night when leaving a party that goes wrong. Yet, the next morning she wakes up and everything is set back to that day again. Samantha realizes that even the smallest changes to that day have big impacts on herself, her family, her friends, and other people in her school. This goes on for a a couple of days, before Sam realizes that she must change something or be doomed to die and not repeat that same day over again. Thoughts: I didn't really love this novel, but I really liked the theme and message that Lauren Oliver way trying to convey to readers. I've read a lot of novels where the main characters are "mean girls" and they learn something that changes their lives, etc. This novel tries to reach young adults and show them that their d...

Next year the highly anticipated release of Super Troopers 2 will finally be here. For those of you who don't know, Super Troopers, is a movie about five Vermont state police troopers who play constant pranks. They must out-cop the local police station in order to keep their state trooper headquarters. The movie is hilarious, ridiculous, comical, and entertaining. The state cops spend most of their time pranking each other, pranking citizens they've arrested, and fooling around while on the job. For instance, they bet they can use "meow" 10 times in a conversation with a citizen that has been pulled over. They also chug maple syrup in a race to see who can finish first. Finally, Mack wears a bulletproof cup and allows the other officers to shoot him in the groin area. Although, in order to keep from losing their headquarters due to budget cuts, they have to buckle down and do some real cop work. This movie gained a big cult following in the 2000's following ...

Synopsis: It, the movie, concentrates on the small town of Derry, in Maine. The recent adaptation that is currently in the theaters is a remake of the original film released in 1990. Both movies are based off the novel, It,  by Stephen King. This is a two part horror movie with the second installment to be released on September 6th, 2019. The movie tells the tale of a group of young kids that are terrorized by an evil being known as "It." The "It" being often materializes to them as a creepy clown, Pennywise, that wants them to come into the sewers to be with him often saying, "You'll float too." Pennywise  forces the kids to also face their own personal fears and demons which weakens their courage and strength as a group, hoping to take them apart one by one. The movie starts with the disappearance and of Billy's younger brother, George. Billy becomes obsessed with George's disappearance maintaining that he's missing and not dead. Oth...

Genre: Realistic Fiction Publication Date: 2013 Synopsis: The Circle  follows the life of Mae Holland and her life after she joins the biggest internet company in the country, The Circle. The Circle has a sprawling campus filled with business offices, eating areas, recreation areas, relaxation areas, party venues, and even dorms for people to use. The Circle's big draw and success is making a person's online presence all in one place. Now people have one username, one account for all services, and everything is tied to that one account. It has brought order and ease to using the internet. Mae soon becomes entrenched in her work and in the various activities provided and encouraged by the company. The company values social media posts as much as a person's actual work performance. This leaves less and less time for the outside real world in Mae's life. The Circle begins to branch out and push through boundaries that make the reader question the morality of the com...

Genre: Fiction/Fantasy Publication Dates: 2015, 2016, 2017 Author: Victoria Aveyard Synopsis: In this novel, the world is divided into two types of people. People with red blood and people with silver blood. The Silvers have supernatural powers that come from their silver blood. Silvers can be super strong, bend and reflect light, manipulate fire, control people's minds, have super speed, etc. Red blooded people are completely normal, and are the working class citizens. Blood creates a divide based on jobs, money, status, knowledge, and power. The main character is Mare Barrow, a 17 year old girl from a very poor red family. She finds herself working in the palace for the King and Queen silvers. During a surprising event, Mare discovers that although she is a red she has the power to manipulate lightning and electricity. This is supposed to be impossible, so the King decides to hide this power, and claim that she is a long lost princess and betroths her to his se...

Genre: Mystery/Suspense Publication Date: 2016 Synoposis: Zoe is a young girl that is striving for perfection. She is a prodigy musician that strives for excellence. She and her mother, Maria, have spent the last three years striving to be the perfect mother and daughter and creating the perfect life. They have also spent this time hiding a terrible tragedy that left Zoe damaged, Maria without a husband, and a blemish on their otherwise perfect lives. This novel explores what happens when Zoe's past comes back to haunt her future. Then, tragedy strikes again, and Zoe and her family must uncover the truth about a death and move on from these dark events. Review: This book was a very interesting and quick read that contained a lot of suspense and mystery due to the different perspectives. The characters are a little hard to dig into, due to Zoe being pretty boring while trying to be perfect and mundane for so long. One of the more interesting characters is killed off in the be...

Genre: Mystery/Suspense Publication Date: 2015 Synopsis: One day a mother, Rachel Jenner, and her son, Ben are walking in the park. Rachel lets her son walk ahead to the swings on the path, and when she gets to the path her son is gone. Rachel spends the book obsessing over her missing son, trying to piece together enough clues with the police to find him. Review: This book has a lot of good suspense and mystery elements throughout it. It's a very realistic case of a missing boy. Rachel is a believable and well written character that depicts the average mother. She of course blames herself for letting Ben run ahead, and spends half of the book blaming herself, and the other half of the book trying to find anything to help the police find her son. The other main character is the police officer assigned to the case. He takes this case very personally as well, and tries to work to find Ben. I thought this was a good book. It was difficult to read at times due to my personal co...