1st Basketball Game of the New Year!

Come one, come all to the first game of the new year! Great Brook vs. South Meadow, rivalry time! Boys play at 3:00pm and girls play at 4:15. The game is at South Meadow School. Come and join the fans!

Book Reviews: Torment

Torment by Lauren Kate: Many things have happened since Luce was last seen in Fallen. After a battle between Daniel (Luce's fallen angel boyfriend) and Cam (the demon who says he must have Luce for himself), Luce is whisked away from Sword & Cross in Georgia, all the way to Shoreline, a school that houses Nephilim kids in California. There she meets Shelby, her abrasive roommate, and Miles, a boy with barely any angel blood in him. They both become friends with Luce and agree to help her uncover her past lives, the lives Daniel refuses to say anything about. Soon she is manipulating Announcers, the shadows she has feared all her life. Now she knows they are harmless messengers, but the info they carry can be far from safe. As she starts to know more about her previous selves, she gets closer to Miles and more distant from Daniel. She can't go home. She can't even leave the school grounds. She can't let anyone back home know what's happening or why. And as Daniel gives her more and more boundaries and rules, Luce is deeming it necessary to push the boundaries and break the rules to try to find some freedom and, more importantly, try to find herself, the person that has been lost in time, died a thousand deaths, and loved only one person. Filled with anger and a burning passion from page one, Torment will leave the reader aching for more of the story. Pick up the newest library copy today!

My opinion: I loved the book! I think what Luce learns really sets the stage for the next book, Passion (not yet released). The drama that went down made me really connect with some characters and made me really dislike others. All in all, the book was fantastic!

Student of Week: the week of Mon. December 13th

One student who stood above the rest this week for behavior was:

JOEL BARWOOD, 8th grade in Mrs. Moran's advisory. Thank you Joel for making your teachers' lives easier by behaving well.

YOU can be next week's Student of the Week! All you have to do is behave SUPER WELL in your classes.

Book Reviews:The Hunger Games

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Katniss Everdeen is a girl who lives in District 12, in the nation of Panem, a country built on the ruins of what was once North America. Every year, one female and one male are chosen as tributes to the Hunger Games. When Katniss's little sister is chosen as a tribute, Katniss volunteers to go in her place. With her fellow District 12 tribute, Peeta, Katniss is determined to get out of the arena alive. But with only one victor allowed, they must kill their way to the top before they can come up with a solution to save both of them without meeting death along the way. The first installment in a thrilling trilogy, The Hunger Games will leave you starving for more. Pick up one of the many copies in our Great Brook library.

Book Reviews: Fallen

Fallen by Lauren Kate: When Luce starts at Sword & Cross, she is convinced it's just as bad a jail sentence. But when she meets Daniel Grigori and sees his immediate and open dislike of her, it makes it worse. Cam's obvious affection smooths her somewhat rumpled feathers, but her inexplicable attraction to Daniel is growing. But Daniel's actions just aren't adding up, and neither are Cam's. Should she go after the mysterious boy she has an obvious connection with, or should she go with the sweet and kind boy who has clearly fallen for her? Both are hiding a secret, and she's determined to uncover it. Trapped between two boys and one burning secret, Luce is conflicted. With danger and thrills following Luce in every page, school for juvenile delinquents has never gotten so out of hand. If you are interested in this book, talk to Mrs. Gnade about picking up a copy in the library!

My opinion of the book: It was great! There was lots of drama to keep me interested, and lots of romantic moments as well. Four stars!

Book Review: The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner, a captivating novel by James Dashner, is an ensnaring story full of creepy, crawly, suspenseful, mysterious moments that will leave readers sprinting head-on into the unknown, desperate to keep up. Thomas, who knows nothing about himself but his name, wakes to find himself in a Box* in a place called the Glade. The Glade is inhabited only by male teenagers who tell him that every thirty days a new boy shows up in the Box. The next day, though, a girl comes to the Glade and delivers a perplexing message. The Gladers have always figured that if they could solve the maze surrounding their camp, then they could find their way home, but the girl's message baffles them. Thomas feels somehow as if he knows the answers to the Gladers' questions, but to tell them he first has to unlock the secrets from his own mind.

The book is bit confusing at the start because the Gladers use a type of slang that you may get tripped up on but the context the words are used in will help you figure it out fairly quickly. Once you get used to it the slang makes you feel like you belong in their crowd, in the book. I think that that is an amazing quality for a book to have because it is so rare and it is VERY difficult for an author to accomplish. By the end of the book I was using the slang in my head!

You can find this book in the school library if it's not already checked out and you can also find it's sequel, The Scorch Trials.

*The Box is an elevator coming from below the Glade

(picture thanks to http://t2.gstatic.com/images)

Last Basketball Game of the Year!

Want to catch a GBS basketball game before the holidays? We have just the game for you. On December 22nd Great Brook vs. Hillsboro. Boys are playing at 4:00pm and girls are playing at 5:15pm. Come if you can to cheer 'em on!

(Picture from allposters.com)

Student of the Week!

One fabulously behaved student this week was:

JOSEPH RICCO in 6th grade, Mrs. Blanchette's class. Thank you Joseph for setting a good example for your peers!

YOU can be next week's Student of the Week! All you have to do is behave SUPER WELL in your class/advisory.

Basketball

Are you busy December 16^th? Well clear your schedule because the GBS Bobcats are playing! Milford B Team is coming to town. Girls play at 3:30pm. Boys play at 4:45pm. Both games are at GBS in the gym. Refreshments will be sold during the first game. Hope to see you there!

( picture by http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/SSPOD/SuperStock_1574R-01863A.jpg)

Girls Basketball

What are you doing December 9th? I know what you could be doing, come on down to Great Brook Middle School and watch the GBS Bobcat's girl's basketball team. They are playing JRMS at 3:30pm. Hope to see you there! Good luck ladies!
(picture is Hanover YMCA's basketball court)

Monadnock Mountaineers

Hey have you heard of the Monadnock

Mountaineers ?! If you haven't you have missed out on a lot. Abby P. Participates in cheerleading. This activity happens outside of school. They cheer for football in the summer and then in the beginning of school they compete in competitions. Abby explained to me that she got interested in cheerleading from Lauren K. and Adriana C. They told her to try it and then she did and this was her second year. They practiced on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, starting in the summer and going until they stop competing. " Cheerleading doesn't go on weekends unless we are going to football games or Competing," Abby explains to me. I asked her if any of her cheering interfered with schoolwork. She told me that it does because she doesn't get home till eight. Therefor she did not have time to finish her homework.

Unfortunately there competing ended on the 21st, They were at regionals. The Monadnok team was 6th they were really close to 5th though. I was lucky enough to go to that competition that was at the Verison Wireless Arena and I thought they did a Phenomenal job! Alot better than 6th place(: Lastly abby said " cheerleading is fun, but alot of work, you should try it!"

Book Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go

The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness, can quickly become the favorite of anyone who loves action, adventure, science fiction and a hint of mystery. Todd Hewitt, and his faithfully annoying dog Manchee, live in the New World. Here there is a 'Noise germ' that makes all thoughts men think heard by the rest of the men surrounding them, as if the man is speaking with a thousand voices and his mouth closed.

Todd has been raised being told that the Spackle, the native species on this planet, were killed during the Spackle war, that the women were killed by the Noise germ and that Prentisstown is the only settlement on the planet. Here boys become men on their thirteenth birthday (thirteen years of thirteen months). But,when there is only one month until Todd 'becomes a man', Ben and Cillian -his adopted parents after his actual parents were killed in the war- tell him he has to leave town. Todd has nowhere to go, as Prentisstown is the only settlement in the world, and is confused out of his mind. Where will he go? What is happening to Prentisstown? What is happening to Ben and Cillian? How will he survive in the wild?

This book should be read by every middle and high school student, and any adult. With 479 pages, this is a rather thick book, but personally it is well worth every second of the time it will take you to read it. Patrick Ness has a special skill for making his readers feel attached to the -pardon the term- 'good guys', and feel dislike and even hatred the 'bad guys'. He keeps just the right amount of suspense to keep you curious and reading.

I, personally, never read the inside flap of a book before starting the book because it feels like a spoiler. However, I advise all who plan on reading The Knife of Never Letting Go to read it. It will save you a lot of time trying to figure out what's going on and will make the book interesting from cover to cover.

This book is in the G.B.S. library. Talk to Mrs. Gnade!

*This is the first in a trilogy! The other two are The Ask and The Answer (2nd) and Monsters of Men (3rd). Both of these books are in the library, too.

Book image from Daemon's Books

Boys Basketball

"One player can enhance a team, but one player cannot be a team." says Mr. Baldwin coach of the GBS Boys Basketball. Congrats to: Jared Booth, Griffin Baggley, Liam Baldwin, John Byam, Josh Cass, Stephan Frosch, Antoine Halsey, Camron Hoffman, Mitchell Hoffman, Dakota Nute, Joseph Ricco, and Michael Whittney for making the team! Their next game is on December 7th at home vs. JRMS at 4:45pm. Hope to see you there! "We will work hard and hopefully achieve our full potential." Mr. Baldwin wishes because none of the players were on the "A" Team last year. Go Bobcats!